Reviews

With a more sizeable budget, one could imagine a film like Hunting Season being the perfect vehicle for an action figure like Jason Statham. It utilises a simple premise, indulges in a certain neo-Western mentality, remains remarkably asexual, and ultimately culminates in a violent shoot-out where murky good triumphs over pure evil. Except Statham isn’t…

Though a richly textured performance from George Clooney (even if he is essentially playing himself) and some warm support from Adam Sandler (though his overuse of the word “Papi” starts to grate) help bolster Jay Kelly, it’s difficult to entirely find a way into the universality writer/director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, White Noise) hopes to…

Whilst he has proved his weight in popcorn comic book efforts (The Amazing Spider-Man), indulgent actioners (Ambulance), and self-aware slashers (2022’s requel Scream and both its sequels, Scream VI and next year’s Scream 7) over his career, writer/director James Vanderbilt has also expressed a certain fascination with the morally grey areas of history (see David…

From the opening of Oh. What. Fun., director/writer Michael Showalter and his co-writer Chandler Baker very much express both the importance of mothers during the festive season and how, in the realms of cinematic ventures, they’re an under valued character.  As the film’s loving focal point, Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer, always a treat to see…

There’s something rather amusing about what constitutes an “A24” movie.  There’s an expectation placed upon the studio as of late regarding the type of film it releases into theatres, and within its own genre, the A24 comedy has rarely been as wholesome as what Eternity projects.  Between the the darker fare of Sorry, Baby and…

Director Brian Kirk manages to set quite the tone within the first minutes of his icy thriller Dead of Winter, with Emma Thompson‘s Barb navigating the snowy environment in the isolated Minnesotan wilderness she has ventured into to spread the ashes of her recently deceased husband. The emotionality conjured through Barb’s motivation offsets the terrifying…

One of the most poignant lines of Eleanor the Great is “Talk about the things that make you sad,” and it’s with such a notion that Scarlett Johansson‘s affecting dramedy takes it on as a throughline.  A film that so easily could have been about deception becomes something far greater and more profound, transforming itself…

They often say actions speak louder than words. So it’s entirely fitting that the dialogue is minimal in Sisu: Road to Revenge, Jalmari Helander‘s brutal, gloriously implausible follow-up to 2022’s surprise success Sisu. Following relatively the same structure as its predecessor, the sequel (Sisu is a Finnish word-blend of strength, resilience, willpower, and grit) once…

When we think of coming-of-age stories, so often is it pictured as a teen or young adult navigating their life towards a sense of maturity. The truth is though, such a term can really be applied to anyone who is experiencing a reset in their life – whether it’s emotional, professional or psychological – which…

“And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend…” And in that one line of lyricism, songwriter Stephen Schwartz perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet mentality of Wicked: For Good, the suitably thrillifying conclusion to last year’s cultural phenomenon, Wicked. With a large subsect of audiences somewhat uninitiated in…

Despite the fact that it’s directed by Michael Dowse (Stuber) and comes from a story credit by Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and the Furious), Trap House manages to not entirely fall into the familiar action genre tropes both creatives have expressed before. It isn’t shaking up the ground in any manner, but its blend…

Osgood Perkins, the auteur who brought us last year’s Longlegs and, most recently, the sheer lunacy of The Monkey, has delivered us straight back into evil with Keeper. After barely dating, Liz (Tatiana Maslany) agrees to join her boyfriend, Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland), at his remote cabin in the woods. It’s not really her style, but…

There’s a Pixar-like wonder to In Your Dreams that helps this particularly sweet family adventure film feel like it’s somewhat of a classic – despite the fact that it’s freshly releasing on Netflix as perfect programming for the impending holiday season. Embracing a mentality that likens it to the types of family films we saw…

Motherhood might be the most fulfilling, yet thankless role to be taken on in life. And it’s the job of being a mother that Mary Bronstein uncomfortably showcases in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, where Linda (Rose Byrne, who delivers a career best turn here) embodies how taxing – emotionally, physically, and mentally…

With his imposing size and gruff delivery, it makes sense that Alan Ritchson has become so synonymous with the character of Reacher. It’s also why it’s such an inherent joy to see him considerably let loose in Playdate, a simple action-comedy that reminds us that the actor is quite a gifted, goofy comedian. He’s the…

The Running Man is a film that feels as if it’s caught in the middle of two very distinct personalities. So much of the film’s DNA comes from its original source material, Stephen King‘s 1982 novel of the same name (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), a dystopian commentary piece set in a futuristic America,…

Though there feels like a certain familiarity within the genre beats Angela Gulner navigates with The Beldham, an allegorical horror film about postpartum and generational cycles, the more Gulner’s script reveals itself, the clearer it becomes that this is a far more personal, deep-rooted drama than it is any type of haunted house or villainous…

The Predator series has had a slew of existences since being introduced in the titular 1987 actioner, which, at the time, furthered Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stronghold as the genre go-to and served as something of a more popcorn alternative to the Alien franchise. The original film was a success of its time, and only grew in…

Serving as something of a spiritual sister to the 2000s cult classic Dude, Where’s My Car?, Ian Kimble‘s Dead Giveaway is a biting mystery of a comedy that continually elevates beyond its premise due to the winning dynamic of leads Ruby Modine (Happy Death Day) and Mikaela Hoover (Superman). Across a slick 88 minutes, in…

The “high school dramedy” is a tried and true genre that (arguably) everyone can relate to in some form or another.  Teen angst and the tumultuousness of that life period before you are officially deemed an adult is a universal experience, and, for whatever reason, the 1980s are so often reserved to explore such.  Whether…

Given how effortless a performer she is, it’s quite incredible that, prior to Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jennifer Lopez hadn’t appeared in a movie musical. Thankfully, Chicago scribe and helmer of such filmic musicals as Dreamgirls and the live-action Beauty and the Beast, Bill Condon, has corrected such a travesty with his vibrant, beautifully…

It speaks to just how truly bizarre Yorgos Lanthimos‘s filmography is if his latest, Bugonia – an English language remake of the 2003 South Korean black comedy sci-fi outing, Save the Green Planet! – is considered one of his most accessible.  Yes, there’s a certain comedic universality to the film’s premise – that of a…

A rougher slog to get to his directorial “debut” as a feature filmmaker than he would have liked, Aziz Ansari – seven years after he was accused of sexual misconduct and three years after his planned first feature, Being Mortal, was shut down over the inappropriate behaviour of its lead actor, Bill Murray – finally…

In a time when conversion therapy is once again in discussion as to whether or not such a practice will be allowed to be constitutionalized once more, a film like Spencer King‘s The Wilderness feels even more topical.  Whilst King’s film isn’t exactly detailing the same notion as conversion therapy, it’s still bringing awareness to…

Film critics making their own films can go a multitude of ways.  Given the expected penchant for critiquing what they do – or don’t – expect out of a genre film, one could assume that their idea of a film would be, at the very least, acceptably serviceable.  For Chris Stuckmann – a YouTube-based film…

Though it’s been a story told countless times before, you can’t help but still be monstrously excited at the prospect of Guillermo del Toro adapting Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein.  His name above the title just feels correct, and not just because the director has been talking about helming his version of the story for close…

Given this day and age where (mostly) everyone is traced to a social media presence and it’s not as easy to get away with saying who you aren’t, the premise of the original 1992 domestic thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, where a sweet-natured mother essentially hires a stranger off the street to watch…

With a title that can’t be misconstrued in all its obviousness, it makes sense as to why Held Hostage in My House adheres to a melodramatic, campy temperament. Despite the cheapness of proceedings, you have to hand it to writer/director Anna Elizabeth James (who seemingly has a penchant for blatantly titled thrillers, with Sinister Sorority…

A loud ticking clock accompanies the opening minutes of After the Hunt, Luca Guadagnino‘s topical #MeToo drama that presents the mundane actions of its central focus, Professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), as she goes about her day at Yale.  It feels as if perhaps the ticking is leading to something substantial – a revelation –…

It’s not too far into the 95 minutes of David Moreau‘s Other that it becomes eerily evident that everyone aside from lead Olga Kurylenko has their appearance intentionally hidden or distorted from view.  Moreau himself stated that it was a visual additive that played into the loneliness and confinement of Kurylenko’s Alice, who spends the…