‘THE MENU’ Deliciously Satirizes the Cult of Kitchen

November 17, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Acturo Castro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, Mark Mylod, Mark St. Cyr, Nicolas Hoult, Out in Theaters, Ralph Fiennes, Reviews, Rob Yang, Seth Reiss, The Menu, Will Tracy 1 Comment

A Taste of Honey

Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy) is not supposed to be dining out at Hawthorne. After all, a table at Hawthorne is amongst the most difficult reservations to land on the planet, held solely for the affluent, celebrities, and those with their own gravitational sphere of influence. From the moment she arrives at the esteemed remote island restaurant, Margot is out of place against the other diners. Esteemed critics, minor celebrities, finance bros – the usual suspects have gathered to taste the creations of Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). And then there’s Margot. The worst part? She doesn’t even really like the food. Read More

‘THE NORTHMAN’, A Life of Death

April 14, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Reviews, Robert Eggers, The Northman Leave a comment

Heavy Metal 895

Robert Eggers finds the language of a movie before anything else. Drawing up the screenplay for The Witch, Eggers studied journals, diaries, and anything from the early days of American settlers that he could get his hands on. Through their particularly dated parlance, he crafted a haunting vision of religious fervor gone amuck in a haunted New England wood. For his sophomore feature, The Lighthouse, Eggers looked to the vernacular of folklore, myths, and seamen, spinning spittle-infused soliloquies about mariner curses on the 1890s high seas. His salty dialogue matched perfectly with Willem Dafoe’s wide-eyed delivery. With The Northman, Eggers pairs with Icelandic poet Sjón to find the language of the 9th century Nordic people. And their language is violence. Read More

The Ghosts of Showbiz Past Haunt ‘LAST NIGHT IN SOHO’

October 25, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, Diana Rigg, Edgar Wright, Horror, Matt Smith, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Synnove Karlsen, Thomasin McKenzie Leave a comment

Dashed dreams and grubby hands reveal themselves to be the stuff of Edgar Wright’s nightmares in the stylish throwback Last Night in Soho. A ghostly haunter with one foot in the modern zeitgeist and one squarely in raging 1960’s London, Wright’s first foray into the horror grapples between serious social horrors and pure genre thrills, delivering a thoroughly entertaining slice of Giallo exploitation that warns of the temptation of nostalgia. Read More

X-Men Franchise Dies A Final Death With Disposable Super-Teen Flick ‘THE NEW MUTANTS’

September 2, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alice Braga, Anya Taylor-Joy, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Maisie Williams, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Superheroes, The New Mutants, X-Men 1 Comment

Fox’s often venerated (and occasionally lampooned) X-Men quasi-continuity goes out with a whimper with the young-adult-led nonstarter that is The New Mutants. The 20-year old franchise has seen watermarks high and low, witness to its share of failed entires (The Last Stand, Origins: Wolverine and Apocalypse to name a few offenders) balanced out by a handful of genre-defining classics (X2, First Class, Logan). At the end of the era comes not a new low so much as a defeated shrug, as there has never been an entry that felt more identity-drained and inert than Josh Boone’s final death knell. But that’s not necessarily the sole fault of the writer-director. Read More

Victorian Love Lives Matter in Pampered, Prissy, Punctuated ’EMMA.’

February 27, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Amber Anderson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Autumn de Wilde, Callum Turner, Emma, Jane Austen, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

Thank Black Phillip that Anya Taylor-Joy accepted the devil’s bargain to live deliciously, otherwise we would have been spared the scrumptious spreads of Emma’s delectable buffet of baked goods and mouthwatering treats. From the nimble macaron to the towering croquembouche, just gazing at the saccharine foodstuffs of Autumn de Wilde’s Jane Austen adaptation is enough to give the viewer a diabetic flair-up. Read More

Latest Trailer for Long-Delayed ‘X-MEN: NEW MUTANTS’ Merges Superheroes and Horror

January 6, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Josh Boone, Maisie Williams, Trailers, X-Men, X-Men: New Mutants Leave a comment

After five long years in development hell and a series of reshuffled release dates, including rumors that the finished product may be regelated to a streaming service dump or never even see the light of day, the latest look at X-Men: New Mutants promises not only an April 2, 2020 release date but an actual theatrical release. The capstone X-Men film has been the talk of a lot of controversy, with one big part of the discussion centering around extensive, narrative-altering reshoots and X-Men: New Mutants being caught out in the cold in the midst of the Disney-Fox merger. Despite all the goings-on behind the scenes, today we finally get a new look at X-Men: New Mutants and it looks, well, just as potential-ridden as ever. Read More

The ‘GLASS’ is Half Empty in Laughably Bad Conclusion to Shyamalan Trilogy

January 16, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, Bruce Willis, Glass, James McAvoy, M. Night Shyamalan, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark, Split, Unbreakable Leave a comment

The Unbreakable trilogy that started in 2000 at the peak of M. Night Shyamalan’s powers, then went subterranean during his dark ages (the brutal run of films that spanned Lady in the Water to After Earth), and stealthily re-emerged in the midst of his recent revival of sorts (the one-two punch of The Visit and Split re-ameliorating the Indian director with American audiences) has officially ended. Along with the hopes of a true Shyamalanasance (say that three times fast.) And folks, Glass concludes the promise of a 19-years-in-the-making unprecedented movie triptych in the worst way possibly imaginable. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THOROUGHBREDS’

March 8, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anton Yelchin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Cory Finley, Olivia Cooke, Out in Theaters, Paul Sparks, Reviews 1 Comment

Chilly, sardonic and cruel, Cory Finley’s killer debut Thoroughbreds is a narcissistic response to teen thrillers of the 90s. With ice water coursing through its veins, this shocking first feature from Finley serves as a hellish calling card for ripe new talent in Hollywood. A tongue-in-cheek social commentary about class relations masquerading as an unrelenting character study, this austere New England teenage noir manages the angry ennui of a Bret Easton Ellis novel and the cold-blooded disturbia of Michael Lehmann’s Heathers but moves with the sneaky cadence and unsuspecting footsteps of an entirely different beast. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SPLIT’

January 18, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Horror, James McAvoy, M. Night Shyamalan, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Split 1 Comment

In 2015, M. Night Shyamalan executed the biggest twist of all. Following a slew of critical and commercial disasters, Shyamalan produced…a hit. The Visit, a found footage old people horror-comedy, connected with critics and audiences, turning its paltry 5 million dollar budget to a whopping near-100 million international haul. More importantly, it signaled the return of one of the most unique voices in the genre: the king of the twist. And Split, a thriller about an abductor with a fractured personality, proves that he’s here to stay. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MORGAN’

August 30, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters, Uncategorized Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, Boyd Holbrook, Chris Sullivan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kate Mara, Luke Scott, Michelle Yeoh, Morgan, Out in Theaters, Paul Giamatti, Reviews, Rose Leslie, Seth W. Owen, Toby Jones 1 Comment

When you assemble the likes of Kate Mara (House of Cards), Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) you’d expect all the girl power onboard to make for some exceptionally high voltage x-chromosome electricity. I mean we’re talking Ygritte, Sue Storm, Thomasin, Daisy Domergue and Wai Lin all huddled under one hot tin roof, sermonizing, philosophizing and fisticuffing under the purview of a Ridley Scott protege. But all the estrogen in the world can’t overpower Morgan’s tepid and over-familiar “lab monster” plot nor fuel its running-on-fumes third act.
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