Suntan
Suntan experiments with both the human body and the human psyche, showing each in full glory and in deep stages of decay. In the first two acts, such boldness yields laughs, plot development and a firm...
View ArticleAtomica
Atomica, the new science fiction thriller from director Dagen Merrill (Finding Harmony), is the one of the first films to be theatrically distributed by television network Syfy. It is set in...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Matchstick Men
Ridley Scott has always been an inconsistent director, with his best work leaning towards the larger scale epics he’s so adept at creating. But 2003’s Matchstick Men is a curious anomaly in his...
View ArticleOeuvre: Kiarostami: Through the Olive Trees
If Abbas Kiarostami’s early films flirted with self-reflexivity in the self-conscious gestures of its non-professional actors, Close-Up marked a shift in the director’s career. Here he became...
View ArticlePower Rangers
Power Rangers, the latest adaptation of the campy television show/film/toy brand, is a solid, character-driven, crowd-pleasing blockbuster. Helmed by South African director Dean Israelite, the film...
View ArticleLife
It’s ironic that a film about an alien feels so familiar. In Ridley Scott’s Alien, from which Life clones its formula, the creature was so unlike anything before seen on film that even the actors...
View ArticleT2 Trainspotting
Midway through the long-awaited Trainspotting sequel, a trio of former junkies traipses out to the Scottish countryside to memorialize a long lost friend who died 20 years earlier in the first film....
View ArticlePrevenge
An imaginative blend of classic monster movies and British black comedy, Prevenge offers the delightful variety of film historical references characteristic of a directorial debut. Yet despite...
View ArticleWilson
In Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel, Wilson is a middle-aged misanthrope with male pattern baldness, a dog named Pepper and an indifference to other people’s boundaries. He and Pepper amble the streets,...
View ArticleBokeh
Last man on Earth movies have been done before. 28 Days Later goes the zombie horror route, while I Am Legend and similar offerings hinge on oppressive loneliness. With Bokeh, co-writer-directors...
View ArticleI, Olga Hepnarova
They say that hurt people hurt people. While undergoing extreme physical or psychological trauma, certain individuals are likely to inflict pain on others, either as a coping mechanism or as the result...
View ArticleKarl Marx City
Karl Marx City is a playful yet emotional exploration of the processes of history and memory. It is a meta-text: its own making is one of its central subjects. While deconstructing itself, the film...
View ArticleThe Zookeeper’s Wife
More than 70 years after the cessation of the world’s most high-profile atrocity, it’s crucial to apply a certain distrust to films about the Holocaust, with the understanding that, as they’re taking...
View ArticleThe Blackcoat’s Daughter
As the son of Anthony Perkins, Oz Perkins certainly has a horror/psychological thriller pedigree. His directorial debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, aims for a measured, less gaudy approach to the genre,...
View ArticleCarrie Pilby
Carrie Pilby, based on Caren Lissner’s 2003 book of the same name, would have worked better as a quirky sitcom, perhaps one of those beautifully-produced, California-set Amazon or Netflix originals....
View ArticleRevisit: Frailty
During his prolific film career, Bill Paxton often found himself attached to stories brimming with menace. Whether it was through science-fiction threats arising from aliens, predators and terminators,...
View ArticleHere Alone
So the most recent season of “The Walking Dead” was a bust, and you’ve already seen the awesome Korean zombie movie Train to Busan. What is the consumer hungry for fresh zombie lore to do? Sadly, the...
View ArticleGod Knows Where I Am
In the unforgiving New England winter of 2008, a middle-aged woman starved to death in an abandoned farmhouse. Following her early release from a mental hospital, Linda Bishop wandered onto a vacant...
View ArticleHoly Hell! In the Company of Men Turns 20
Spend any time in the online gutters of wounded masculinity – pickup artist forums, men’s rights subreddits, anything posted by sentient potato Matt Forney – and a narrative of uniqueness becomes...
View ArticleGifted
On paper, the theme of Gifted, the fourth feature by director Marc Webb (of (500) Days of Summer fame and Amazing Spider-Man infamy), is uncontroversial enough. Who would disagree that every kid—no...
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