Still Here [2023] – TUBI Review (2/5)

STILL HERE [2023] on TUBI is a new Black Cinema Thriller. The official plot and the actual movie have very little in common. It’s a movie full of tropes and stereotypes. The cast is fine, but the plot is definitely not. Read our full Still Here movie review here!

STILL HERE (2023) is a new TUBI movie in the “Black Cinema Thriller” niche. Unfortunately, the actual thriller part of this movie isn’t apparent for a long time. Also, the plot of this movie is so far removed from the actual story that it’s simply false advertising.

With a runtime of 1 hour and 48 minutes, you’ll be waiting quite some time to get beyond more than a classic drama. We’re yet again getting a movie full of tropes and stereotypes. It’s getting really boring fast.

Continue reading our Still Here movie review below. Find it on TUBI from November 9, 2023.

Forced and predictable

The official plot suits the title very well. It’s about a man who accidentally kills his wife and then she returns as a ghost to get revenge. Also, she makes him question his sanity and wonder if she’s even dead.

So, yeah, the title of “Still Here” is perfect for the above plot.

Unfortunately, this TUBI original is more about a cheating husband, who wants to get rid of his wife and continue with a new woman. He’s a writer (of course he is) and constantly writes down his thoughts in a little notebook. Much like a diary, but with a lot more flair.

It feels forced and weird and he is not likable. At all.

To be fair, I don’t think he’s supposed to be, but then why are women so crazy about him? I mean, the man meets one of the women while sitting in a bar reading his own book. How far up your own butt can you get?!

Far, apparently. Very far!

A guilty pleasure – just not mine

I am definitely not the right person for this movie. Sure, I found the official – and obviously wildly inaccurate – plot intriguing. It’s just that when we’re a good 45 minutes into the movie, we’re still just watching flashbacks of this writer telling his friend about the mess he’s in.

And there are many flashbacks. I mean non-stop.

We’re in September of one year, then we’re in January of another. Then March. Back to September and moving on to another month. Really, this is how you want to make it thrilling? By telling a very simple story like a time period puzzle?

Well, to each their own, and I’m sure there’s an audience that will love this as a guilty pleasure. It’s just not for me.

Watch Still Here on TUBI now!

Still Here is directed by Chris Stokes, who has made quite a career out of making these Tubi Originals in the “Black Cinema Thriller” niche. We previously reviewed his Netflix movies We Belong Together and Running Out of Time. They both land on the same rating as this one, but I keep hoping it’ll get better.

So far, I am just really not impressed with the stories in his movies. Quite the opposite. The characters always sound like something straight out of an episode of MTV’s “Catfish”. I feel like Kamie Crawford on Catfish waving red flags whenever someone is a writer or a lawyer but acts nothing like either.

In the case of this 2023 movie, the “writer” is never seen with a laptop or computer of any kind. Only his little red diary notebook, which he apparently uses to write his best-selling novels and break every record.

There’s also a lot of strange name-dropping like stating that his book has done better than Michelle Obama’s book. It’s just so over-the-top that it feels like the story of a Catfish. The cast features Charles Malik Whitfield, V. Bozeman, and Tanee McCall. They do what they can, but the story is very thin. The production, however, is gorgeous.

Still Here (2023) premieres on TUBI on November 9, 2023.

Details

Director: Chris Stokes
Stars: Charles Malik Whitfield, Veronika Bozeman, Tanee McCall, LaRita Shelby, Harvey B. Jackson, Blue Kimble