It’s as though all involved with THE CONJURING franchise know that it’s running out of steam. Rather than just end it, though, they have devised THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, using that old movie adage of show, don’t tell, in order to give us irrefutable proof of same. This entry limps through its paces in a… Read More »
THE ROSES
The reason that THE ROSES succeeds so well as a romcom, one that dares to be more sentimental than the original, is that it heightens two things. The sense of emotional as well as physical danger that the eponymous couple suffer during their marital breakdown, and the emotional depth that Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman… Read More »
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING feels just a little too long, but that’s okay. It’s as though all involved were not quite ready to say goodbye in what may or may not be the last foray by Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. To be honest, neither are we, and by we, of course, I mean… Read More »
THE SURFER
THE SURFER is a sundrenched, blood-soaked examination of toxic masculinity and generational trauma that hearkens back to the symbolist dramas of the 60s and 70s with its surreal overtones and pointed commentary. It is also the kind of film for which Nicolas Cage was gifted to us by the universe. If for no other reason,… Read More »
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA
Falling into the subgenre of dinner parties gone disastrously wrong, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, an astringent black comedy of ethics, finds five people who have been friends since their university days being forced by one of them to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. By the end of what will… Read More »
WARFARE
With WARFARE, Alex Garland joins ranks with the post World War I poets who put the lie to Horace’s bromide, “Dulce et decorum for patria mori.” Which is to say it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country. Based on the memories of Ray Mendoza and others who took part in a 2006… Read More »
A WORKING MAN
There are rules for a Jason Statham film, at least the ones that inhabit that subgenre of action film that he has carved out for himself. A WORKING MAN follows all of them all, because a formula that (usually) works is worth respecting. They include Mr. Statham playing a decent man longing for a quiet… 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 »
NOSFERATU
David Eggers, who has a vision of such specific originality and clarity that it might well become a horror subgenre at some point, has taken on not just one iconic film in NOSFERATU, but two, both of whose imagery have become part of the cultural landscape even for those who have never seen NOSFERATU (1922)… Read More »
GLADIATOR II
GLADIATOR II has all the spectacle and pageantry (can you say cast of AI thousands?) of its predecessor, and certainly the same amount of gruesome deaths as only Ancient Rome could devise them, but it is a lesser thing story-wise. Not a bad film, but one that comes down firmly on the side of that… Read More »
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