Whilst there’s nothing remotely original about The 355, that certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fun to be had with this slice of pure escapism fluff that manages to mask its simplicities with a willing cast and a scrappy, can-do attitude. Outside of directing, Simon Kinberg has a rather enviable resume. He served as…
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In 1996, when horror was a bad word and the slasher subsect had been relegated to bargain bins and a straight-to-VHS lifespan, genre maestro Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes) and a (then) relatively unknown Kevin Williamson dared to defy the conventions by creating a film that played into the…
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At a time when sequels are delighting in a certain sense of nostalgia – looking no further than the latest iterations of Spider-Man, The Matrix, Ghostbusters, and the forthcoming Scream as immediate examples – you have to at least hand it to director Matthew Vaughn for opting out of such a proven trend for The…
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Whatever creepiness, kookiness and all together ookiness that has been evoked by previous incarnations of The Addams Family is sadly nowhere to be seen in this safe-playing sequel, one that manages to bury any of the morbid humour and likeability we’d expect from the usually reliable pens of Dan Hernandez (Pokemon: Detective Pikachu), Benji Samit…
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When we are first introduced to Red Rocket‘s lead subject – washed-up porn star Mikey (Simon Rex) – writer/director Sean Baker frames him in such a manner that alludes to him being one of those scrappy anti-heroes whose undeniable charm is enough for us to forgive his indiscretions. And indeed, Mikey is that (in a…
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There’s a lot of DNA shared between Jason Reitman‘s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the 1984 original that his father, Ivan Reitman, helmed to fruition. But it’s not just a familial bond that links the respective films, with several portions of the film’s plot and its character line-up clearly based off what came those near-four decades prior. …
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As much as The Worst Person in the World adheres to many of the standard ingredients of the “romantic comedy”, to refer to Joachim Trier‘s as one would be doing it a massive disservice. Detailed over 12 chapters (and both a prologue and epilogue), the film gives us a look into a certain period of…
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Few movies from 1999 can boast as much as The Matrix. A groundbreaking effort, both in terms of its special effects and its allegoric mentality, The Wachowski‘s post-apocalyptic, philosophical action film pushed the boundaries of modern cinema, exceeding audience expectation in the process. Maintaining a cultural relevance in the decades since essentially allows such a…
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Previous Halo games have always served as a single-player experience for me. While I did attempt to get into it in the previous title Halo: Guardians, There were way too many other MMO games at that time that had my attention. After a bit of a dry spell this year, I jumped into Halo Infinite…
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For better or worse, Illumination will always be known as the studio that gave an extended life to Minions. Originally something of a throwaway gag to provide easy laughs within the Despicable Me films, they took on a force of their own and seemed to pull focus from any other studio property. One such charmer…
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Even for a filmmaker of Steven Spielberg‘s stature, it’s safe to say that taking on a property such as West Side Story would still be a daunting task. The 1961 cinematic adaptation of the 1957 Broadway production was awarded 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, and has remained something of a cultural criterion in the decades…
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Though presented in the guise of a character drama, The Novice is very much a psychological thriller detailing the compulsive, obsessive need one can hone in their attempt to perfect their field of interest. For the central figure in Lauren Hadaway‘s dark effort, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to the role, both physically…
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Whilst I completely understand wanting to re-visit a fruitful series such as Resident Evil, one that pulled in significant coin despite being critically slaughtered, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hardly makes such a trip worthwhile. For starters, Milla Jovovich, patron saint of these entirely disposable films, hasn’t been brought back. Yes, it being a…
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Despite the fact that it’s a narrative known to the many that witnessed its theatre run since 2015, when the synopsis was revealed for the filmic adaptation of Steven Levenson‘s Dear Evan Hansen there was considerable shock and near-instant backlash. The notion of an emotionally disturbed teenager’s ultimate suicide being used as a plotting hook…
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New Zealand-born director Martin Campbell is no slouch when it comes to the action genre. Sure, there was the stumble that was the thorn in Ryan Reynolds’ side, Green Lantern, and Beyond Borders, despite suitable work from both Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen, was a boring misstep, but having reinvigorated the Bond films at times…
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If there’s one thing director Paul Verhoeven loves to do, it’s poke the bear. As he has so gleefully outraged audiences and critics across his career, his latest exploitive project – the “based on a true story” nunsploitation drama(?) Benedetta – could easily be dismissed as blasphemous, but there’s also an alarming sincerity to his…
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Kenny Rogers so famously told us “You gotta know when to fold ’em”, and in The Card Counter writer/director Paul Schrader seems unsure as to which hand he wants to confidently play. It’s not that this film is poorly made, nor is his commitment to the representation of desolation anything other than pure, but it’s…
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Despite reading Frank Herbert‘s 1965 novel many moons ago and viewing David Lynch’s bizarre 1984 adaptation during my youth, Dune was still a title that felt foreign to me when entering the theatre to bare witness to Denis Villeneuve‘s much-discussed imagining. Sure, I can clearly see the inspiration this operatic story had on the science-fiction…
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Though it’s undeniable what a powerhouse actor and director Clint Eastwood is – he won the Best Director and Best Picture Academy Award twice, for those keeping score – Cry Macho is proof that he’s losing his touch. His fourth film in three years – following 15:17 To Paris, The Mule, and Richard Jewell –…
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I think it’s a fair assumption to state that not many people expected Tom McGrath‘s 2017 effort The Boss Baby to clear the half a billion dollars it did at the global box office. It was a bizarre comedy that entirely banked on its central premise – a baby that spoke like an entitled adult…
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Look, I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but it’s precisely what one will do with Best Sellers, a cliched dramedy that nudges every narrative beat you expect, only mildly saved by the odd-couple pairing of Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza; his cantankerousness at odds with her more manic downtrodden-ness….
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Billed as a docu-narrative, indicating that both fact and fiction will be blended throughout, I’m An Electric Lampshade is a bizarre take on the age-old “It’s never too late to follow your dreams” tale, focusing on the unlikeliest of pop star wannabes. Doug McCorkle is the most basic of nondescript American men. 60-years-old, with the…
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A gorgeously rendered, lovingly crafted, maybe slightly messy, giallo tribute drenched in 1960’s London culture, Last Night In Soho is the type of film one wishes to dissect and divulge in intimate detail. But that would entirely undo any service to writer/director Edgar Wright, who has implored audiences the globe over to keep their mouths…
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When we are first introduced to Red Rocket‘s lead subject – washed-up porn star Mikey (Simon Rex) – writer/director Sean Baker frames him in such a manner that alludes to him being one of those scrappy anti-heroes whose undeniable charm is enough for us to forgive his indiscretions. And indeed, Mikey is that (in a…
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Although it leans into the tropes of what we come to expect from the institution that is a James Bond film, and in some ways this 25th entrant is possibly the most self-aware of the pack, No Time To Die keeps largely in tune with the mentality of the wave of Daniel Craig-led films; the…
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As much as The Worst Person in the World adheres to many of the standard ingredients of the “romantic comedy”, to refer to Joachim Trier‘s as one would be doing it a massive disservice. Detailed over 12 chapters (and both a prologue and epilogue), the film gives us a look into a certain period of…
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On the surface you’d be forgiven for assuming The Beta Test is just another film industry picture, spending its minutes somehow justifying its existence as it hones in on the obnoxious and obnoxiously wealthy Hollywood players who wrongfully assume they’re untouchable in their town. The film has that air about it, but this satirical-cum-unnerving thriller…
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After introducing itself as a film that promises there’ll be no sugarcoating its subject matter – the first thing we hear are the audible moans and verbal berating from a pornographic film, and the first thing we see is the extremely graphic imagery of a young girl’s privates in the shower – Ninja Thyberg‘s confronting…
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Similar to how Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Jennifer Kent, and Ari Aster all secured their place in the annals of genre cinema with their debut offerings, Julia Docournau‘s bold cannibalistic horror effort Raw cemented the French filmmaker as a name to pay consistent attention to. And just as those aforementioned auteurs all swung big with…
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Kenny Rogers so famously told us “You gotta know when to fold ’em”, and in The Card Counter writer/director Paul Schrader seems unsure as to which hand he wants to confidently play. It’s not that this film is poorly made, nor is his commitment to the representation of desolation anything other than pure, but it’s…
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