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‘DRIVE AWAY DOLLS’ A Perplexing Lesbian Road Trip Caper From One Half of the Coen Bros 

A pair of odd couple lesbians head to Tallahassee in Ethan Coen’s (of the Coen brothers) bizarre comedy caper, Drive Away Dolls. Each looking for a fresh start, Jaime (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) form an unlikely pair. One is a fast-talkin’, easy-lovin’ free spirit. The other is an over-thinking, uptight introvert. But their friendship persists through their differences and after a breakup and professional stall-out the duo journey south in a “drive away” car, a service that allows renters to transports vehicles across state lines. One case of mistaken identity and a drive away car mix-up later, the pair realize they are transporting a valuable case of personal effects hidden in the car’s boot. A couple of inept goons are hot on their tail as their road trip takes them to various gay bars, touristy pit stops, and run-ins with the law in what can only be described as a bizarre herky-jerky pre-Y2K slapstick attempt. It’s at once perplexing, engaging, annoying, and utterly sloppy, and really serves to highlight just how much the Coen Brothers need one another as collaborators.   Read More

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The Ten Best Performances of 2023

It has already begun: the long march towards coronating a new quartet of actors whose performances are deemed the finest of 2023. And while the Oscars, Globes, and flurry of other guild awards tend to recognize the same handful of actors over and over again, here at Silver Screen Riot, we have our own version of who offered the best performances of 2023. So now that we’ve already gotten our way through the Ten Best TV Shows of 2023, and the Ten Best Movies of 2023, it’s time to move onto the Ten Best Performances of 2023.

Though it should go without saying, by “best”, I mean entirely my favorites so no need to send over an Excel sheet proving me why my preferences are wrong. From a year teeming with standout performances, several noteworthy ones made the greatest impact, though I could probably double this list and be more happy with it. But time is finite (mine and yours) and so here they are: Read More

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Kinky ‘Sanctuary’ an Intoxicating Two-Hander That Dominates Audience

It all starts in a hotel room. Hal (Christopher Abbott) orders room service and waits. Enter Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), a whip-smart dominatrix. Qualley, who you may remember from her standout performances in Maid and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, first poses as a lawyer there to “gather information, verify it, and write up a report.” Although it’s all part of a CEO/powerbroker role play, meticulously scripted to the last detail, it’s actually not that far from the truth. This is Sanctuary, a kinky, mentalist dom-sub rom-com, and it’s the stage for Qualley and Abbott’s most intoxicating performances yet. Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘THE NICE GUYS’

Shane Black has been defining and redefining the buddy cop movie since 1987, a year that saw his script for Lethal Weapon green lit under the tutelage of director Richard Donner. It took Black almost 20 years to step behind the directorial chair himself, debuting Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and bringing along with him the rebirth of the buddy cop flick and the resurgence of Robert Downey Jr’s career. Now another decade on, Black has returned to the sub-genre that he – like some primordial catalyzing agent – helped evolve throughout the years to present The Nice Guys, 2016’s fly-in-the-face-of-tradition response to the 21st century buddy cop crisis. Read More

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THE LEFTOVERS Season 2 Episode 4 “Orange Sticker” Review

Are the leftovers looking for departure? Michael (Jovan Adepo) aggressively scrapes the “verified” sticker off his house because nothing is really verified in Miracle. Michael removes it like a formerly held belief system, but other homes still wear the label if only just to be verified of something. Miracle’s inhabitants are starting to catch up to the foreshadowing in earlier episodes. Read More

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THE LEFTOVERS Season 2 Episode 3 “Off Ramp” Review

Laurie Garvey (Amy Brenneman) tries to lead others off ramp when she’s still on the turnpike. She tries to wipe the residue off her current life through the drumming in her head. The drumming of improvised jazz layered over the opening scene is Laurie, presently in a state of ordered chaos coping with what’s leftover. In the third tableaux opening of this season, nobody has moved on. The departed never left. Read More