While not as prominent in today’s news headlines as the current global pandemic, opioid addiction is ravaging lives at its own unspeakable rate. The new drama “Crisis” from director Nicholas Jarecki’s (“Arbitrage”) looks to tackle the issue head-on by using its star-studded cast to cover several interconnected storylines. Jarecki’s goal is to show how the […]
“Minari” is a near classic of the timeworn “troubles on the farm” drama, a story of a family of non-farmers facing the whims of nature and the widening fracture in a marriage as they set out to work the land and grab The American Dream. It’s “Country” or “The Southerner” or “Jean de Fleurette” but […]
Movie Review: Korean Immigrants are tested by the American dream in “Minari”
Horror veteran Caroline Williams, who’s been around since “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” back in the ’80s, gets a fine C-movie showcase in “10 Minutes to Midnight,” a tale of a “rabid” bat and the hallucinatory bloodlust consequences it has on an aging DJ’s last night on the job. Or that’s what she would have gotten […]
Movie Review: An All-Night DJ gets bitten at “10 Minutes to Midnight”
As far as “fears” go, I typically prefer mysterious and unknown peril to frights shoved in my face, explained, back-storied and underlined. But that’s now how the “Wrong Turn” movies work. For twenty years these films have gotten good looking actresses and actors lost in America and the world’s fast-disappearing wild places, menaced by whatever […]
Movie Review: “Wrong Turn” leads to terror and torture porn on the Appalachian Trail
Title – Penguin Bloom (2020) Director – Glendyn Ivin (Last Ride) Cast – Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, Rachel House, Jacki Weaver, Griffin Murray-Johnston Plot – Based on the true story of Australian family the Blooms and their relationship with a young Magpie they rescue months after their mother and wife Sam (Watts) loses the use […]
Film Review – Penguin Bloom (2020)
Off the wagon. So this is about four friends who all are high school teachers in Denmark. Over a 40th birthday dinner, one of them mentions a theory that all humans are born with a .05% alcohol deficiency in their blood. They decide to test this thesis by maintaining this level through the workweek. Now […]
Stay Drunk – Another Round (2020)
Locked Down (2021), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anne Hathaway, Warner Brothers Locked Down has some memorable moments. Yet, overall, director Doug Limans romance/comedy about a couple’s attempt at a high-risk, high-stakes jewellery heist during the Coronavirus pandemic isn’t great. Starring Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ben Kingsley; the most memorable scenes for me feature Kingsley and Ben Stiller. […]
LOCKED DOWN (2021): The Things I Liked…
Justin Timberlake serves up a healthy slice of cinematic comfort food in this tender drama about an ex-con who befriends a social outcast.
‘Palmer’ Review: Justin Timberlake Is an Ex-Con Who Befriends an Abandoned Little Boy in Sweet Drama
2020 has been a very strange year, due to a global pandemic resulting in the pushing back of big names movies, closing cinemas or forcing some movies to get released on streaming platforms for a premium price. So watching movies hasn’t been as simple or as accessible as we’ve been used to. During the year […]
Seven years ago, Cass was one of the brightest students in medical school, along with her closest friend, Nina. Then, after a rape scandal that involved Nina, they both dropped out. Fast forward to present day, Cass was a 30 years old, living with her parents, and single. During the […]
Movie Review: Promising Young Woman
The 39 Steps was arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most adventurous adaptation at the time that it was released. It’s based on the novel by John Buchan, published in 1915, which tells the story of Richard Hannay, played here by Robert Donat, who becomes embroiled in an international conspiracy on the dawn of World War II. For […]
Hitchcock: The 39 Steps (1935)
I didn’t like the book and I didn’t like the movie. I am so, so tempted to leave this review at just that one sentence but I know that would be a bit disingenuous since I am very much in the minority on this. So I’ll give you a slightly fuller picture and you will […]
“Sometimes I feel like I’ve seen everything that’s going to happen. And it’s a nightmare.” That line of dialogue from “Cherry” really sums up the new trailer’s vibe nicely. This emotionally dense and dark-looking Apple Original reunites Tom Holland with the MCU’s Avengers architects Anthony and Joe Russo. But rest assured, judging by our first […]
In May of 2015 journalist Matthew Teague wrote an essay for Esquire magazine titled “The Friend: Love is Not a Big Enough Word“. This deeply personal piece told of his late wife Nicole who had died from ovarian cancer eight months earlier. She was only 34-years-old. It told of the dignity and courage she showed […]
No faithful movie about the Holocaust is going to be an easy watch. But they have long served as powerful reminders of unbridled human evil and they have testified to the resilience and bravery of many who suffered and died as a result of the atrocities. The upcoming Serbian historical drama “Dara of Jasenovac” tells […]
First Glance: “Dara of Jasenovac”
Brothers Conor and Jake Allyn grew up Dallas, Texas and made frequent trips across the southern border into Mexico with their father. The many visits opened their eyes to a much different side of Mexico and ultimately helped inspire their new film “No Man’s Land”. This modern-day western uses a reverse migration story of sorts […]
REVIEW: “No Man’s Land” (2021)
Where do you go from here? So this is about a young couple (Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf). They go through a home birth that ends in tragedy. How do you even begin to cope with a loss like that? Now I knew a limited amount of information on this, just that it was getting a […]
In the Wake – Pieces of a Woman (2020)
I was not prepared for the extent to which Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre would embrace the uncanny. He may not be a David Lynch, but where Lynch’s nightmares are often emphatically surreal, Bergman’s use of the dreamlike is more subtle, more psychological, and probably more Freudian – though not in the overly literal way that pop-Freudians […]
The Compleat Ingmar #20: The Silence (1963)
MY CALL: Although far from great, this was a pleasantly surprising SyFy original TV movie. The acting and creature effects were more than sufficient to entertain me through this otherwise very familiar story. MORE MOVIES LIKE Dead in the Water: Well, first off, Sea Fever (2019) did it better. Looking for much better horror at […]
John’s Horror Corner: Dead in the Water (2018), a serviceable SyFy original creature feature at sea.
A fictionalized account of the night of February 25th 1964, a night where cultural icons Malcolm X (Ben-Adir), singer Sam Cooke (Odom Jr.), NFL player Jim Brown (Hodge) and […]
Film Review – One Night in Miami (2020)
