FRIENDSHIP is a sly rapscallion of a film, part edgy suburban noir, part situation tragedy, part existential comedy, and all a gloss on loneliness and alienation as viewed through the prism of Craig (Tim Robinson), a symphony of well-meaning beige schlubness. Writer/director Andrew DeYoung suffuses this cringe-genre satire with an ironic absurdity that serves all… Read More »
NIGHT SWIM
What a stunningly dull excuse for a horror film. NIGHT SWIM, based on a short film of the same name, demonstrates that not every promising short can successfully be expanded into a feature-length opus by the original filmmakers. It’s so narratively lackadaisical that whatever premise held the promise of more-is-better is completely lost. What we… Read More »
A SIMPLE FAVOR
With A SIMPLE FAVOR, Paul Feig takes a very dark turn into neo-noir by way of a deliciously wicked social satire. There’s nary a hard-boiled detective in sight, but at the center of the film’s mystery, there is an enigmatic femme fatale to rival any from the golden age of that genre. The humor, courtesy… Read More »
MOM AND DAD
The refrain of “I’ll kill you” or “My mom (dad) is gonna kill me” are a familiar part contemporary familiar discourse in even the most loving of homes. Writer/director Brian Taylor has taken that commonplace and spun a tale that is both wickedly twisted and unnervingly satisfying. The exactly proportions of those two feelings may… Read More »
SUBURBICON
Chekov’s three sisters had their dream of a perfect life in Moscow. The increasingly desperate and frazzled denizens of SUBURBICON have Aruba, a place where the food is exotic, the golf is for couples, and the long arm of the law cannot reach them. Alas, this deliciously stylized evocation of the dark side of the… Read More »