First-time writer and director Greg Kwedar describes the six-year process of creating Transpecos like a proud, but deservingly exhausted, father. The Texas-set border thriller is as much character study as it is a certifiable nail-biter; a politically-minded meditation with a throbbing pace and tightrope tension. Kwedar’s preternatural ability to blend high drama with explosive pressure...
As dark and psychosexual a rock opera about mermaids that could be imagined, Poland’s The Lure is a melodramatic fairytale plumped with melodic house music, chilling surrealism and dripping monster fangs. Two all-singing, all-stripping sea-born sisters populate seedy dance-halls and sudsy clubs with their the croon of their siren lullabies, flirting with the idea of first...
Mickey Keating‘s Carnage Park starts in admirably economic fashion, rending down its slim cast to even slimmer form with a dead-eyed, high-pitched, Bible-thumping Pat Healy tagging human targets with his handy sniper rifle beset with all the rage and judgement of the Old Testament guy upstairs. Ashley Bell plays opposite as the desert-set horror’s shrieky...
A generally unpleasant experience from start to finish, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows' applies an early stranglehold on the audience, smashing and bashing them with strobing lights,…
This shantytown import from South Korea sees a voyeur stalked and killed by criminals before seemingly being reincarnated and forced to live out his attack over and over again under different circumstances. Structured a bit like a choose your own adventure book when you keep running into the wrong ending and starting over, Alone covers...
The Lonely Island find comedy excellence in ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’’s sardonic song parodies but the trip from one performance to the next has an unfortunate tendency to flatline…
The political arena is an ugly, soul-sucking vortex before you add a sexting scandal. Weiner, the inflammatory expose from Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, documents how fiery liberal congressman Anthony Weiner’s NYC mayoral campaign went up in flames, engulfed by public outrage following ironically weiner-centric indiscretions. The pair offer up a poignant critique of media’s...
Sion Sono’s Tag is a maelstrom of WTF; an absolutely bonkers satire of feudal sexual tensions in his home nation of Japan, characterized by an absolutely unpredictable, heady plot wormhole that snakes from killer wind to murderous schoolteachers, wedding assassins to a simple foot marathon. Accomplished with keen wit, unnerving cinematic bravado and a healthy...
An imaginative and jet black adult dystopia, Yorgos Lanthimos’ 'The Lobster' balances nervous character study in with a screwy bizarro world. Proudly unusual, the mechanics of a world where being…
Whit Stillman’s ‘Love & Friendship’ is a savvy anecdote to the stuffy Victorian costume drama. Hysterical and unpretentious, Stillman’s adaptation of Jane Austen's work would make the author proud. Additionally,…