Out in Theaters: ’TULLY’

May 3, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Charlize Theron, Diablo Cody, Elaine Tan, Jason Reitman, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ron Livingston, Tully Leave a comment

Parenting is perpetual sacrifice. Or so says Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, the directing-writing duo behind poppy cult classic Juno, with their comeback collaboration Tully. A dramatic comedy or comedic drama, depending on how you want to look at it, Tully is a soaring success no matter what box you want to put it in; a well-meaning, deeply felt, irreverently mature exploration of growing pains and adulating. Charlize Theron is a knock-one in this deliriously enjoyable feature that has no short supply of wit, bite and verve with a shot of mindfuck mixed in to boot. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR’

April 24, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Kevin Feige, Mark Ruffalo, Marvel, Scarlett Johansson 1 Comment

Over the course of 18 films and 10 years, Kevin Feige and his army of Marvel men and women have laid a pretty nifty foundation upon which the Marvel Cinematic Universe rests. What started with humble beginnings with 2008’s Iron Man has since blown up into a cultural and financial supernova with no less than 30 recognizable characters and all that comes to a head with the Russo Brother’s astonishingly ambitious though perfunctorily flawed Avengers: Infinity War. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE ENDLESS’

April 23, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Scott Moorhead, Horror, Justin Benson, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Sci-Fi, The Endless Leave a comment

Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead are a tactile duo, crafting thought-provoking, effects-driven, genre-defying features filled with big ideas on a micro-budget. Their last film, Spring, which can only be described as a “romantic body horror” and was a favorite for many who sought it out after its 2014 Toronto Film Festival debut, failed to find much of an audience among the general public but solidified the partnership, who had previously collaborated on 2012’s low-budge horror flick Resolution, as a pair for cinephile’s to keep a close eye on. Rather than pulling in the reins, the creative partners have gone even bigger with The Endless, a heady science-fiction-slash-horror—slash-cult-thriller-slash-sibling-drama that’s ambitious to a fault. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE’

April 20, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Joaquin Phoenix, Lynn Ramsey, Out in Theaters, You Were Never Really Here 1 Comment

Violence is cynical in Lynn Ramsey’s down and dirty arthouse thriller You Were Never Really Here. A rough and tumble look at a life surrounded and dictated by violence, Ramsey’s long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin stars Joaquin Phoenix as a mumbling fixer. Armed with a hammer and crippling PDST, Phoenix’s squirrelly and traumatized antihero is a hired gun; a vigilante who specializes in liberating young women from sex trafficking. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘LEAN ON PETE’

April 9, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andrew Haigh, Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Lean on Pete, Magnus Nordenhof Jønck, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Steve Buscemi, Steven Zahn, Travis Fimmel Leave a comment

Scruffy name aside, Andrew Haigh’s deeply felt and heartstring-plucking Lean on Pete is a sorrowful spirit trip through America’s discarded backcountry where a boy wants desperately for belonging. Haigh’s emotionally draining adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s 2010 novel of the same name is of the traumatic animal movie ilk. Not for the weak-spirited, the film from A24 constantly tests the resolve of its protagonist, putting him in increasingly difficult circumstances. Even the life of the titular Lean on Pete, a racehorse on his last leg, lies under constant threat as his unsympathetic owner makes passing threats of sending him off to the glue factory with all the remorse of stepping on a bug. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SWEET COUNTRY’

April 6, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ewen Leslie, Hamilton Morris, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Sam Neill, Sweet Country, Warwick Thornton Leave a comment

Racial constraints are life in Warwick Thornton’s low-boiling and powerful drama Sweet Country. It’s 1920, Western Australia. When elderly aboriginal Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) kills a belligerent white man in self-defense, he must flee the crooked arm of the law. With posses rounded up and eager lawmen hot on his trail, Thornton explores the racial tilt of criminality drawing disturbing parallels to modern-day criminal justice. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘A QUIET PLACE’

April 5, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged A Quiet Place, Best of 2018, Bryan Woods, Emily Blunt, Horror, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Scott Beck 4 Comments

Put your phones on silent bitches. A Quiet Place, a masterfully disquieting creature feature from The Office alum John Krasinski, simply will not stand for interruption. Taking pages from the books of Hitchcock, Argento, and Spielberg, Krasinski skillfully weaves together a sharply intelligent, emotionally involving and blisteringly suspenseful chamber-piece that layers a uniquely “silent” horror film in with a very personal treatise on the challenges of parenthood. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘BLOCKERS

April 4, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Blockers, Brian Kehoe, Comedy, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Ike Barinholtz, Jim Kehoe, John Cena, Kathryn Newton, Kay Cannon, Leslie Mann, Reviews Leave a comment

Cockblocking. That thing one does, inadvertent or not, to impede the sexual congress of another. Just about anyone can be a cockblocker. The douchebag who stole your date. The overweight wingman paying way too much attention to her obviously interested friend. Your overbearing, sensitive dad. Anyone who desires, for a myriad of reasons, two people’s nether regions not to mate. Cockblocking can be fueled by jealousy. A sense of machismo competitiveness. Or your mom being driven into a state of controlling mania by the thought of you losing your flower on Prom night. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘READY PLAYER ONE’

March 27, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alan Silverstri, Ben Mendelsohn, Ernest Cline, Janusz Kamiński, Lena Waithe, Mark Rylance, Olivia Cooke, Out in Theaters, Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg, Tye Sheridan, Zak Penn Leave a comment

Ernest Cline’s 2011 dystopian YA novel ‘Ready Player One’ struck a nerve with self-described fanboys, sending readers into a tizzy of nostalgia-fueled nerdgasms. Many gyrated over the book’s overindulgent references to 80s pop culture, from coin-op arcade games to deeply engrained new wave synthpop cuts to the nerdcore iconography of John Hughes films. I personally found the book dull, monotonous and underwritten; reference-laden light reading that worked more as a pop culture checklist than an actual story. Worse yet, Cline’s book functioned as an unchecked celebration of deep-dive fandom in a time where fandom has become hostile, exclusionary and often vile. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘FLOWER’

March 22, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adam Scott, Flowers, Joey Morgan, Max Winkler, Maya Eshet, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Zoey Deutch Leave a comment

Juno meets Hard Candy in Max Winkler’s acerbic dark teen comedy Flower. Fueled by a filthy mouth and a warped sense of justice, this edgy femme fatale misadventure sees a brassy pixie named Erica attempt to make right of the turmoil life has forced upon her, employing devious measures to get what she wants with a little help from her friends. Primed to push your buttons, Flower is sure to send those with any sexual or language sensitives running for the theaters doors (and is just about the last thing you’d want to watch with your teenage daughter or future mother-in-law) but as far as spitfire coming-of-age stories overloaded with prima donna bite, Winkler delivers the goods without respite. Read More