LOCKED, the American re-make of Argentina’s 4X4, is an interesting premise beautifully acted, skillfully directed, but ultimately stymied by a script that mires itself in a repetitive second act that doesn’t so much expand as aggravate. The premise, a sad sack of a petty criminal gets trapped inside a luxury SUV tricked out as a… Read More »
BLACK BAG
BLACK BAG is a scathingly brilliant take on truth, lies, and the sanctity of marriage, and the perfect vehicle for Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. A good marriage that is, such as the one enjoyed by George Woodhouse (Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Blanchett), British spies with the highest security clearance They are the perfect… Read More »
LAST BREATH
There is something deeply satisfying in watching James Bond or Batman engage in preternatural maneuvers when bringing supervillains to heel. There is something even more deeply satisfying about watching ordinary people rising to the occasion when confronted with an overwhelming crisis, and Alex Parkinson’s LAST BREATH, based on a true story, is a perfectly executed… Read More »
THE MONKEY
I do love a prologue that perfectly sets up the film it introduces, and one of the nicest ones I’ve seen lately is to be found in Osgood Perkins’ THE MONKEY, based on a short story by Stephen King and turned into an impudent horror film that is scary as hell and twice as funny.… Read More »
WOLF MAN
WOLF MAN starts out promisingly enough establishing a theme of generational trauma and the eeriness of the wild wood while neatly exploring the hunter-becoming-the-hunted idiom. Full points to the excellent cinematography that captures the opalescent otherworldliness of the mist-shrouded Oregon wilderness, and a cast that takes the story seriously, it’s just a shame that said… Read More »
SPEAK NO EVIL
First, we must speak of trailers that give too much away, something that dampened the exquisite terror of SPEAK NO EVIL for me. Its trailer deprives those who see it of the joy in discovering the twists and turns the story uses in order to turn the film into something other than what we expect… Read More »
BLINK TWICE
With BLINK TWICE we traverse the sticky territories of toxic masculinity, cultural power structures, and the apology industry that has grown out those first two phenomena. While it’s script by E.T. Feigenbaum and director Zoë Kravitz sometimes hangs together with spit and baling wire, there is no denying the gut punch it delivers with suspense… Read More »
ALIEN: ROMULUS
ALIEN: ROMULUS may be the strongest entry into the franchise since the original. Certainly, this taut thriller provides strong characters, and an even stronger sense of dread, concentrating on the horror of the unknown that turns out to be as unstoppable as it is homicidal. The high-minded philosophical musings found in PROMETHEUS, for example, are… Read More »
THE SHAKEDOWN
Ari Kruger’s THE SHAKEDOWN is a bonkers black comedy that celebrates family values with a body count. A heady blend of sibling rivalry, slick salesmanship, and a rabbi with a gambling problem, it takes the buddy film in unpredictable directions as two estranged brothers cope with a simple plan gone very wrong after one of… Read More »
LONGLEGS
With LONGLEGS, writer/director Oz Perkins has created an original tale of horror set in the 1990s while staying true to familiar tropes. There’s an unhinged suspect, a series of family slaughters that don’t ring true to a murder/suicide scenario, and a neophyte FBI agent at the center of the case in ways she didn’t see… Read More »
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 8
- Next Page »