Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman’ on Netflix, A Needless Extra Chapter In The Serial Killer’s Story

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Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman had a cup of coffee in theaters last year before migrating to VOD and eventually landing here on Netflix. And it refers to itself as a “companion piece” to Monster, the 2003 film which featured Charlize Theron in an Oscar-winning turn as Wuornos. But with its Netflix slot, what it really feels like a companion to is star Peyton List’s other appearances on the streamer, namely in Bunk’d and Cobra Kai.

AILEEN WUORNOS: AMERICAN BOOGEYWOMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: American Boogeywoman opens with the Aileen Wournos we know from Monster. It’s 2002, and she’s serving time on Florida’s death row for the murders of seven men. She’s also telling her life story to a documentary filmmaker, and with that hook we flash back to 1974, where in quick succession Aileen (Peyton List) rolls a john for his wallet at knifepoint, wanders onto a private beach, meets rich girl Jennifer (Lydia Hearst), and inserts herself into Florida society with a bang-bang marriage to her new friend’s tycoon father, a kindly, sickly old guy named Lewis Fell (Tobin Bell) who’s known around town as “Commodore.” The daughter, of course, is incensed. “I really hope we can be friends again someday, Jen,” Aileen says. And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

As the older Aileen’s voiceover makes it clear, she loves the perks, but has no intention of honoring the marriage. “Do I feel bad about what I did?” she asks. “Hell if I know.” (Ashley Atwood plays “Older Aileen.”) She sneaks off to the Last Resort bar when Lewis falls asleep, where she does blow and stabs a guy. She goes out on the Commodore’s yacht and assaults a rich knucklehead named Grady (Swen Temmel) below deck as Grady’s dad Victor (Nick Vallelonga) is asking Lewis how much he really knows about his new wife. And she writes herself checks out of Lewis’s ledger book, has Jennifer removed as her father’s beneficiary, and insults the local gentry while generally acting like the hardscrabble drifter she is.

Victor, who’s also Lewis’s accountant, quickly discovers Aileen’s checkered past. He offers her $10,000 to walk away from the marriage, but that goes badly for Victor, as well as his son Grady. The destruction is piling up behind Aileen in this rich new life of hers, but there are others on her tail, too, namely her older brother Keith (Joseph Scwartz) – he wants his cut – as well as Jen and her boyfriend, who are doing some investigating of their own. And when she can no longer lie, stab, or shoot her way out of a corner, it’s the Commodore, Lewis Fell, who has to clean up the mess his marriage to Aileen Wuornos made.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Boogeywoman writer-director Daniel Farrands also helmed Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021) and The Haunting of Sharon Tate (2019), widely derided true crime quickies that employed a similar stunt casting trick. For those films, instead of Disney Channel star List as Aileen Wuornos, it was former WB/CW dreamboat Chad Michael Murray as Ted Bundy, while Hilary Duff – Lizzie McGuire herself – played Tate.

Performance Worth Watching: There are at least a few lines in the American Boogeywoman script that must have inspired Peyton List to sign on to this thing. After all, when you’ve made your mark on squeaky clean kid’s shows like Jessie and Bunk’d, it’s gotta be at least a little tantalizing to play a killer drifter without a conscience who regularly spouts stuff like “You needle-dicked, mother-fucking, piece of shit, you’re gonna turn and go back out there and tell your daddy it’s time to go and never show your face around me again. You dig?”

Memorable Dialogue: “American Boogeywoman periodically drifts into hamfisted noir, but can’t sustain the style visually, and it definitely can’t sustain it with rote line reads like Jennifer musing “What’s that old saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…”

Sex and Skin: Nothing overt.

Our Take: “You don’t jab a rattlesnake with a stick and expect it won’t bite you back.” Ashley Atwood, who plays death row Aileen Wournos, ekes out as much as she can from the voiceover that occasionally surfaces in American Boogeywoman. And Peyton List does get a few opportunities to swear up a storm while holding knives to men’s necks. But the film’s attempt to consider Wournos as a kind of femme fatale or warrior against toxic masculinity doesn’t align with all of the other times it’s referring to its main character as a psychopath. It’s also suggested that the tale we’re watching of Aileen’s marriage to Lewis and the resulting chaos is just a death row inmate’s fantasy, but that isn’t supported enough by the writing or plotting to matter. American Boogeywoman wants to be deliciously trashy, a bristly noir full of scheming people and shocking bloodshed. But it’s mostly watery, and clunks between sequences so awkwardly that Atwood’s narration becomes the best thing it has going for it.

As for List, she does a teeth-baring, hard-breathing take on the older Wournos’ infamous cracked rictus for about half her scenes, and the rest of the time lets sunglasses or a pair of cowboy boots try to carry the character. But that isn’t entirely her fault, since there’s very little at all to work with here.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman wants to be another chapter in the Monster story, but it’s not clear who asked for this to be told, and besides that, it reads flimsier than a grocery store tabloid.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Actor and comedian Marlon Wayans says he fell in love with comedy when he was an infant

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Marlon Wayans talked about what it was like the film “Respect” with Jennifer Hudson. He also shared why he loves comedy and talked about going back on tour.

Marlon Wayans will be at the Irvine Improv Jan. 24 and 25. For tickets and information, visit MarlonWayansOfficial.com or Improv.com/irvine.

This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on Jan. 21, 2022.

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Disney+ announced TODAY that “Torn,” from director Max Lowe and producer Chris Murphy, along with Lightbox’s award-winning producers Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn, will premiere on Disney+ on February 4, 2022.

From National Geographic Documentary Films, “Torn” had its world premiere at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and won the award for Best Feature Film at BANFF. The film, called a “cinematic gift” by RogerEbert.com, captures the Lowe-Ankers’ intense personal journey through love and loss with eldest son, Max, behind the lens.

On Oct. 5, 1999, Alex was tragically lost alongside cameraman and fellow climber David Bridges in a deadly avalanche on the slopes of the Tibetan mountain Shishapangma. Miraculously surviving the avalanche was Alex’s best friend and climbing partner, renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker. After the tragedy, Anker and Alex’s widow, Jennifer, fell in love, married, and Anker stepped in to help raise Alex’s three sons.

In 2016, 17 years after their deaths, Lowe’s and Bridges’ bodies were discovered, and Lowe’s family journeyed to the remote Himalayan mountains to recover the men’s remains. In the powerful and deeply moving “Torn,” director Max Lowe examines the long-buried feelings that the discovery unearthed for him and his family members. Weaving together archival footage of Alex’s spellbinding adventures, revealing home movies and emotional interviews with Jennifer, Sam, Isaac and Conrad, Lowe challenges long-held family myths and questions his own beliefs as he creates an insightful examination of fatherhood, love, loss and resilience set against the high-stakes world of professional mountain climbing.

“I have put everything of myself into ‘Torn,’” said director Max Lowe. “A film truly unique in my career in its detailing of my own family’s heart opening exercise in vulnerability around our shared trauma, redemption and love. I couldn’t be more honored and thrilled to be able to share our story with the world on one of the biggest stages with our upcoming Disney+ launch.”

“Torn” is directed by first-time feature filmmaker Max Lowe with Murphy as producer. Producing for Lightbox is two-time Academy Award® winner Simon Chinn (“Man on Wire,” “Searching for Sugar Man”) and Academy Award nominee Jonathan Chinn (“Black Sheep,” “LA 92”); the editor is Michael Harte (“Three Identical Strangers”).

National Geographic Documentary Films previously released the Academy Award, BAFTA and seven-time Emmy® Award-winning film “Free Solo” and the Academy Award-nominated film “The Cave.” Other critically acclaimed films under the banner include E. Chai Vasarheyli and Jimmy Chin’s “The Rescue,” Liz Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau” and Ron Howard’s “Rebuilding Paradise;” Sundance Audience Award winners “Science Fair” and “Sea of Shadows;” Emmy winners “LA 92” and “Jane,” both of which were included in the top 15 documentaries considered for an Academy Award in 2017; and Dupont Award winner “Hell On Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis.”

Watch the new trailer here:

Jessica Pegula, daughter of Bills owners, into round of 16 at Australian Open on same weekend as NFL divisional playoff

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Three American women have sealed their spots in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, including 27-year-old Jessica Pegula.

Pegula’s family won’t just be watching her crucial match this weekend. Her parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, own the Buffalo Bills, who are set to face the Chiefs on Sunday night in an AFC divisional round playoff game.

After Pegula won her third-round match against Spain’s Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, she wrote “Bills you’re next” on the camera.

MORE: Full draws, TV coverage, channels & more to watch Australian Open

Pegula is also supporting the Bills all the way from Melbourne, Australia by wearing red and blue in her tournament outfit.

Coincidence I’m in Bills colors? Round 3 here in Aus 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/uBH1AJI21X — Jessie Pegula (@JLPegula) January 19, 2022

The Pegulas took ownership of the Bills in October 2014, paying a reported $1.4 billion. Terry Pegula previously bought the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres in February 2011.

MORE: Naomi Osaka loses to unseeded American in Australian Open

Their daughter is attempting to reach the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the second year in a row. She fell to Jennifer Brady in that round last year in what remains her only grand slam quarterfinal appearance.

Pegula, who is 21st in the latest WTA rankings, will face the fifth seed Maria Sakkari on Saturday. Sakkari reached the semifinals at the French Open and US Open last year. She has never made it past the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Sakkari will be a tough obstacle for Pegula to overcome. They’ve played each other twice in their career, and the Greek star came out on top both times. Just last month, the two faced each other in the Miami Masters round of 16, and Sakkari won 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (6).

MORE: Who is Amanda Anisimova?

It will also be a tough matchup for the Bills as they face the second-seeded Chiefs. The Bills lost to Kansas City in last year’s AFC championship game, so revenge is on their mind even after beating the Chiefs in a regular-season matchup in October. The Bills beat the Patriots in a historic game last weekend, becoming the only team in NFL history to go the whole game without punting the ball, kicking a field goal or having a turnover.

Pegula’s match time is still to be determined as the rest of the third-round matches finish up on Friday evening through Saturday morning, Eastern time. However, her match may take place in the middle of the night for her hometown fans since Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of Buffalo.

Why Is Landon Different in ‘After We Fell’ –– and Which Other Characters Were Recast?

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Although Tessa wants things to work with Hardin long-term, their intense relationship might just come to an end in this thought-provoking movie.

Fans are also curious to know why the actor who plays Landon was recast between the second and third film. Here’s what you should know.