SUNDANCE 2020: Rebecca Hall Is Next Level Good in the Scariest Ghost Story in Years: ‘THE NIGHT HOUSE’
Sundance 2020 review of horror movie 'The Night House' directed by David Bruckner and starring Rebecca Hall.
SUNDANCE ’20 REVIEW
SXSW ’17 REVIEW
SXSW ’17 Review: ‘SMALL TOWN CRIME’
The great John Hawkes was relegated to character actor status for far too long. That wiry, weaselly-looking fella who’s cropped in all those movies and tv shows you love who you can never put a name to? It’s probably John Hawkes. In 2010, Hawkes received some long overdo attention with an Academy Award nominee for...
SXSW ’17 REVIEW
SXSW ’17 Review: ‘THE DISASTER ARTIST’
There in perhaps no film in existence that better exemplifies “cult” status than Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. A titanic miff on every level imaginable, Wiseau’s self-produced “romantic drama” is often called the worst movie ever made. And rightfully so. Anyone who’s had the privilege of witnessing this filmic trainwreck is treated to a level of...
SXSW ’17 REVIEW
SXSW ’17 Review: ‘BABY DRIVER’
It’s been a hot minute since Edgar Wright has graced us with his genius. The man responsible for such perfect fare as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Wright has long been a pioneer of the Trojan horse comedy, trafficking highbrow laughs in with genre trappings. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Wright is known...
SXSW ’16 REVIEW
SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DEMOLITION’
Led by soaring performances from Gyllenhaal and Watts and an emotionally exploratory script from Bryan Sipe, 'Demolition' is an oddball destructo-drama that measures the invoice of grief against the constructs…
SXSW ’16 REVIEW
SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DON’T BREATHE’
Let me be clear, you probably can’t handle Don’t Breathe. Hitchcockian in concept and French New Wave in execution, the batshit bonkers new horror film from Fede Alvarez is a sanguine-stained guillotine of heinous intensity. The Uruguayan director has issued French extremity an American passport, inviting a true-to-form, heart-stopping gang bang of insane tension to...
SUNDANCE ’16 REVIEW
Sundance ’16 Review: ‘MANCHESTER BY THE SEA’
After debuting on Saturday night, Manchester by the Sea quickly became the buzziest film at Sundance. When Amazon made an unprecedented $10 million dollar deal to sweep up distributing rights, the echo chamber only got louder. On the one hand, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan must welcome the fat paycheck with open arms. And yet, such a...
SUNDANCE ’16 REVIEW
Sundance ’16 Review: ‘SWISS ARMY MAN’
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan‘s (A.K.A. The Daniels) flatulence-fueled, sea-stranded mind trip is a totally bonkers, emotionally decadent spirit quest to the weirdest corners of reality. A man and a corpse test the boundaries of friendship and filmmaking in this boundlessly creative, wildly original tramp sure to shock any lucky enough to cross its odd...
FESTIVAL REVIEW
TIFF ’15 Review: ‘MAGALLANES’
Primary Peruvian exports include non-monetary gold powder, cooper ores, concentrates, cathodes and non-crude oil. You can now add to the list supremely compelling cinema as Magallanes, the product of first-time Peruvian director Salvador del Solar, is a true festival stunner. Soaked in a gleeful amount of real world suspense and intensified by rich dramatic character...
SXSW ’15 REVIEW
SXSW Review: THE LOOK OF SILENCE
In psychology class, you learn about the concept of diffusion of responsibility, a sociopathic event that explains that when more people are present or complicit in an unfavorable event, the less personally responsible that group will feel for its outcome. The public murder of Kitty Genovese – in which a woman was stabbed to death...