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Visually stunning, often chilling, and occasionally clunky, fashion designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals is a stronger sophomore effort than most. It’s a Texas Gothic crime thriller sutured to a potboiler melodrama about the existential despair of L.A. socialites in a David Lynchian fashion — though with less surrealism and more coherence. Make of that what you will. … Continue reading
On the surface, it’s easy to dismiss Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a cynical cash-grab squeezed from a lucrative franchise. It comes as a pleasant surprise that Fantastic Beasts not only proves there’s still new ground to trod in J.K. Rowling’s magical world — for now, at least. Written by Rowling and directed by … Continue reading
The timing of Arrival is rather fitting, seeing that it is a brainy, ambitious, and hopeful science fiction drama about breaking a seemingly unbreachable language barrier, hitting theaters just a scant few days after one of the most rancorous and divisive elections in the history of the United States. Will it heal a divided nation? … Continue reading
While it’s not the quantum step forward in terms of storytelling some have assumed it to be, Doctor Strange is still a much-needed variation Marvel’s movie formula, one that opens up the MCU to in terms of style and possibility. It’s also trippy as hell just plain fun — something that many of 2016’s superhero … Continue reading
Mel Gibson has returned to the director’s chair after a ten-year absence, and his war film Hacksaw Ridge proves to be a worthy effort. It’s a blunt-force but highly effective treatise on the horrors of war as well as those who rise above the brutality to maintain as much humanity as one can on a battlefield. … Continue reading
Writer, director, and actor Nate Parker’s ambitious telling of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave revolt is timely movie; it’s also a missed opportunity, a tepid tale hamstrung by Parker’s limited experience and the constraints of biopic filmmaking. The title itself is an audacious bit of trolling, seeing that it is shared by D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent epic that … Continue reading
At last, a movie that answers the burning question: “What would a large-budget, big screen Lifetime channel potboiler play like?” Sadly, that answer is “deadly dull and obscenely morose.” The Girl on the Train was a no-brainer in terms of adapting it for the screen from Paula Hawkins’ bestselling novel; in execution, it’s flat and lifeless. Lacking in … Continue reading
The first found-footage horror flick, The Blair Witch Project (1999) never really lived up to its potential as a film or a franchise. The concept and the mythology behind it were solid, but like its ill-fated cast the movie ran around in circles before coming to an abrupt and unfortunate end. It had barely scratched the surface of its … Continue reading
It’s tempting to describe Morgan as a poor man’s Ex Machina or a more competent Transcendence, but to do so would be reductive and a little unfair. Sure, it’s a pulpy B-grade sci-fi thriller, but it’s a sleek, smart, and well-made pulpy B-grade sci-fi thriller that catches you off-guard a few times. A Black List script written … Continue reading
LAIKA Studios continues its streak of smart, idiosyncratic, and quirky animated features with the stunning Kubo and the Two Strings. The maker of Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls not only continues to up its game which each successive film, it makes a quantum leap forward with Kubo, accenting its unique story with some CGI flourishes while staying true … Continue reading
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