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 ACCOUNTANT 2
There is so much to love in THE ACCOUNTANT 2, or, rather, THE ACCOUNTANT2, recognizing the mathematical nature of the eponymous character’s profession. There’s a clever plot involving human traffickers, a Federal Agent walking a fine line between the letter of the law and a consequentialist philosophy of effective law enforcement, and a brother act… Read More »
DROP
DROP is truly remarkable for being such a well-crafted thriller until suddenly it’s not. And in such a way that all the good that comes before, of which there is much, self-destructs so thoroughly that it becomes not just irksome but also insulting. And this is a shame for everyone involved. Before we get to… Read More »
SINNERS
Ryan Coogler has a great deal he wants to say in SINNERS, so much in fact that one genre would not be adequate to cover it all. Hence his treatise on the evils of racism and the oppression of religion encompasses an epic of magical realism that leaps off the screen with its boundless energy… Read More »
THE AMATEUR
Click here for the flashback interview with director James Hawes for ONE LIFE. We’ve been here before. The original iteration of THE AMATEUR hit cinemas in 1981 when the Soviet Union was menacing the peace and security of the world. In the 2025 iteration, set in the present day, has had to find another menace… 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 »
SECRET MALL APARTMENT
It was hard times in Providence, R.I., back in the early 2000s, and the city fathers decided that the best way to lift their town out of its economic doldrums was to build a shopping mall. Not just any mall, but a huge mall that catered not to the local, cash-strapped population, but rather to… Read More »
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
It was, perhaps, inevitable that there would one day be a big-screen adaptation of the wildly popular computer game, Minecraft. That being the case, we could have done far worse than A MINECRAFT MOVIE, a live-action extravaganza that will thrill the fans (and the kiddies) but leave the rest of us longing for more Jennifer… Read More »
DEATH OF A UNICORN
As Fitzgerald summed it up so well a century or so ago, the rich are difference than you and me, and Alex Scharfman’s sly black comedy, DEATH OF A UNICORN, expounds on that beautifully while also pointing up where the not nearly as rich fall short when in thrall to the 1%. There is nothing… 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 »