Reviews

Like all twist-laced thrillers based on successful (if trashy) novels, to some there’ll be a level of expectation walking into a feature like The Housemaid. Thankfully, even if you are initiated with the turns and curveballs that author Freida McFadden laid out in her novel of the same name, screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, The…

As outlandish as it sounds, in the early 1990s in Japan a rental family service (レンタル家族), or professional stand-in service, was founded to provide clients with actors who portray friends, family members, or coworkers for social events such as weddings, or to provide platonic companionship. In a city as big as Tokyo the idea of loneliness is…

A love of music – or, more specifically, folk music – is the driving force behind the tender, heartbreaking romance at the core of The History of Sound, an ironically quiet tale of song collecting and enduring connection between two men in the early 1900s. The story is experienced predominantly through the life of Lionel…

Just as thrilling to look at as its two predecessors, but perhaps the most narratively frustrating of them all, James Cameron‘s Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to make a good case for theatrical 3D technology and IMAX screen formats, but, as with both 2009’s Avatar and 2022’s The Way of Water, if you take away…

Given the shameless pun that is its title, one needn’t worry about subtlety or nuance with a film like New Fears Eve. Whilst we are in the midst of a true appreciation for the horror genre and how deeply layered it can prove, there’s something refreshing about a gory slasher that follows a classic formula…

On New Year’s Eve, 1999, armed with a bottle of time travelling tequila, Minnie (Emily Browning) arrives at the swanky beach house of her long-time friend, Rodney (Ashley Zukerman), only to discover that her former flame Joe (Sean Keenan), has brought his new girlfriend, Jenny (Aisha Dee). When Minnie takes a shot and is suddenly…

Given how prolific James L. Brooks has been as a filmmaker across his career, one would feel safe in entering a production of his with a relative sense of ease. Across the 80s and 90s, whether it was as a writer and director (Terms of Endearment, As Good As It Gets) or producer (Big, Jerry…

Director Mike P. Nelson is no stranger to reimagining cult horror properties. After completely re-envisioning the 2003 cannibalistic thriller Wrong Turn into something far more psychological for its 2021 outing, there’s a sense of comfort in him handling Silent Night, Deadly Night – originally a 1985 slasher that proved particularly controversial for its content around…

This Christmas, Santa’s gonna slay! A reimagining of the controversial cult 1984 classic slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night, director Mike P. Nelson is preparing to scare a new generation this festive season. After witnessing his parents’ brutal murder on Christmas Eve, Billy transforms into a Killer Santa, delivering a yearly spree of calculated, chilling…

Despite the fact that 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s was quite critically mauled, its $297 million global haul spoke to the contrary.  Fans seemed to eat up what director Emma Tammi and co-writer Scott Cawthon (the creator of the video game series it’s based upon) put forth, even if they too readily admitted that the…

It’s a shame that the romantic comedy doesn’t feel as cinematically necessary as it once did, with the genre relegated to streaming services or an On Demand shelf life (for the most part), even if they are blessed with genuine star talent.  And whilst Michelle Danner‘s Under the Stars isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s a…

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…