It would have been more wrong than I can enumerate not to reference 1971’s WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY in its prequel, WONKA. Hence the purple cutaway coat, the top hat, and not just the only possible Oompa-Loompa song, but also the signature wistfulness of “Pure Imagination” by Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newly. Screenwriters… Read More »
THE MARVELS
There is one thing you can say for sure about THE MARVELS. There is a whole lot of it, and most of it involves overwrought CGI effects. They are beautifully executed, but eventually become tiresome, not just for the repetitive nature of the fight sequences, but also for the sheer scale, which starts at 11… Read More »
THE CREATOR
For such a thoughtful film, THE CREATOR is curiously underwritten. Building to several emotional crescendos during its two hours and thirteen minutes of running time, the intended resonance is, alas, subsumed by the spotty nature of a narrative that proceeds gamely from one set piece to another without giving us much in the way of… Read More »
THE NUN 2
THE NUN 2 is not a complete waste of time. It is a superbly shot film, and directed with a certain understated flair by Michael Chaves, who, along with Taissa Farmiga, gets about as much as can be extracted from an anemic script. The result is decidedly underwhelming, verging on dull despite all the ickiness.… Read More »
BLUE BEETLE
When a film wears its heart on its sleeve the way BLUE BEETLE does, it’s hard to dislike it. Not impossible, but very, very hard. Still, there’s a screenplay that can’t quite decide what tack to take as it moves awkwardly through plot beats that feel less like a story and more like the generic… Read More »
JULES
JULES is a wise and gentle comedy-drama about the vicissitudes of aging and the balm of a really good listener. There’s also a UFO and its extra-terrestrial pilot thrown in for good measure. Gifted with three well-tempered performances by Ben Kingsley, Jane Curtin, and Harriet Sansom Harris, it takes a clear-eyed approach to the… Read More »
TALK TO ME
TALK TO ME is a supremely terrifying film mixing the horrors of the restless undead with the greater horror of emotionally absent parents. The directing debut of brothers Danny and Michael Philippou is a story of quiet despair that grows geometrically as it progresses for its teenage protagonists who learn too late that the spirit… Read More »
MEG 2: THE TRENCH
MEG 2: THE TRENCH is a wildly uneven effort, spending as it does most of its time as dud of an action drama and the rest as a rapturously unhinged action comedy. It is far more successful at the latter. Fortunately, star Jason Statham doesn’t let a creaky script (and that’s what we have here)… Read More »
BIOSPHERE
Click here to listen to the interview with director/co-writer Mel Eslyn. At the beginning of BIOSPHERE, the world as we know it has ended, leaving only two human beings left alive. They are Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), and they have gone from being the apex species on the planet to finding… Read More »
65
65 is that most satisfying of CGI films, the type that doesn’t wallow in what it can do visually, but rather uses the technology in furtherance of a moving film. It posits a visit to our planet 65 million years ago by humans who arrive at a momentous moment for our big blue marble. The… Read More »
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