The trick in making a film where the outcome is well known is to make what leads up to that outcome as suspenseful as a surprise ending would have been. PRESSURE is a sterling example of how that is done. Based on a true story, it is a lesser-known story of D-Day in which we… Read More »
I.S.S.
I.S.S. is a thoughtful, disquieting consideration of loyalty and tribalism. Set in the near future aboard that symbol of cooperation, the International Space Station, it posits what would happen to the six scientists and military personnel aboard if war broke out down below. Gabriela Cowperthwaite has created a spare work that pushes aside the impressive… Read More »
LIVE BY NIGHT
LIVE BY NIGHT is so sumptuously photographed that it can almost make up for its shortcomings. Based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, it has weathered its translation by becoming a slight story heinously overblown. It also suffers from too many false endings. So many, in fact, that I can’t vouch… Read More »
DEVIL
There are a great many examples of no in DEVIL, the latest effort from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan, this one released without benefit of a press screening. No suspense. No scares. No originality. No fun. No reason to bestir oneself to see it. Told in the form of a fable, perhaps to account… Read More »