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Make no mistake: The Dead Don’t Die is a minimalist zombie movie for the Jim Jarmusch fans who’ve ever wondered what a Jim Jarmusch zombie movie might look like. As a horror movie, it lacks the gore and over-wrought despair necessary to satisfy the Walking Dead crowd; as a comedy, it’s far too dry for … Continue reading
Classical tragedy mixed with moderate sadism and Polanski-ish surrealism, upstart filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest test of audience endurance plays like Sophie’s Choice by way of the ‘burbs. Don’t let that description be deceptive — it may not be everyone’s proverbial cup of tea. Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster) builds his bizarre revenge tale around a heart surgeon, … Continue reading
When self-styled auteur Darren Aranofsky can astound us when he is focused and operating with at least a little self-restraint. (Case in point: The simple brilliance of The Wrestler.) When allowed to run amok, you get the intense weirdness of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. And then there’s mother!. Note the stylized spelling … Continue reading
A man dies tragically and returns as a ghost draped in a white sheet with eye holes cut in it, and silently haunts his former spouse and the home they once shared. On the surface, it’s a goofy premise that most filmmakers would play for laughs, schlock, and/or sugary schmaltz of the highest order. However, … Continue reading
It’s tempting to call Green Room the punk successor to Deliverance, but that glosses over the brilliance writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s smart, ferocious, blood-soaked thriller. His previous film, Blue Ruin, was an art house family drama disguised as a B-grade revenge flick; Green Room is a B-grade exploitation thriller with art house sensibilities. It’s schlock so smartly written … Continue reading
Let’s just get this out of the way first: The One I Love is a great movie to watch, but an almost impossible one to review — not because it is impenetrable or has the kind of built-in audience that doesn’t give a dingo’s kidney about critics’ opinions (it’s neither of those, by the way), … Continue reading
Writer-director and indie darling Richard Linklater has never been one to shy away from unconventional projects; the philosophy primer Waking Life, the ambitious animated science fiction drama A Scanner Darkly, the Before trilogy, and the pseudo-true crime dramedy Bernie all bear the mark of a filmmaker playing with form. Which is why Linklater’s ambitious drama Boyhood is … Continue reading
One of the most original, suspenseful, and surprising indies in the past few years, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a mesmerizing exercise in style and character study. Granted, that last bit is enough to make many a movie-goers’ sphincters clinch with dread of ponderous, talky self-indulgence, oblique references to obscure film movements, and/or overblown visual flourishes; … Continue reading
For years now the whimsical movie stylings of Wes Anderson have regularly been dismissed as something of an acquired taste, as rambling, self-indulgent musings drenched in artifice and contrivance. Granted, there’s a lot of truth to that, but to dismiss them outright is to throw the proverbial baby out with the equally proverbial bath water. … Continue reading
The Magnolia’s Big Movie film series continues with Mike Nichols’ iconic comedy The Graduate (1967), 7:30pm and 10pm, March 4, at the theater. Details The Texas Theatre’s Tuesday Night Trash series returns with a screening of Mardi Gras Massacre (1978), 9:15pm, March 4, at the theater. Details The Alamo Drafthouse’s Wes Anderson Week runs through March 6 with screenings of movies from the … Continue reading
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