Out in Theaters: ‘I KILL GIANTS’

March 21, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anders Walter, I Kill Giants, Imogen Poots, Joe Kelly, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Rory Jackson, Zoe Saldana 1 Comment

I Kill Giants, Anders Walter’s adaptation of Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura’s popular graphic novel, is a movie left searching for purpose in a post-A Monster Calls world. Sure, the 2016 J.A. Bayona fantasy drama was a bomb domestically (with a paltry cume of less than four million) but remained a hit overseas and was celebrated by critics and audiences alike who noted the film’s deft ability to tackle large thematic material through the prism of fantastical monsters. I Kill Giants not only involves a young outsider struggling to adapt to real-world issues through metaphorical monsters but does so for precisely the same reason, aiming for a similarly moving but also unwaveringly sullen coming-of-age drama. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘ISLE OF DOGS’

March 20, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Isle of Dogs, Jeff Goldblum, Koyu Rankin, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Wes Anderson 4 Comments

Maestro of whimsy Wes Anderson returns to stop-motion animation nearly a decade after Fantastic Mr. Fox to tell a story of political corruption and grassroots rebellion starring a bunch of scruffy mutts and overzealous kiddos in the absolutely delightful Isle of Dogs. Draped in quirky Andersonisms, understated humor, and brassy real-world parallels, the auteur’s ninth film is an irreverent celebration of outsiders that’s steeped in Japanese culture and plopped within a dog-eat-dog political treatise on inclusion and the dangers of nationalism. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘TOMB RAIDER’

March 14, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alastair Siddons, Alicia Vikander, Daniel Wu, Dominic West, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Roar Uthaug, Tomb Raider, Walton Goggins Leave a comment

The history of Lara Croft is the history of female video game characters. Debuting in 1996 with the very first Tomb Raider game for PC, Playstation and the now forgotten Sega Saturn, Lara Croft, though shakily animated in early 3-D rendering, has long stood the female equivalent to the predominantly male adventurer/archeologist figure throughout the video game and cinematic world. Angelina Jolie achieved superstardom cramming into a skin-tight black wife beater and sporting a fistful of pistols as the titular character in the largely maligned 2001 Simon West adaptation, which saw a slightly less maligned, but less financially successful, sequel drop in 2006. The plug was soon pulled on Jolie’s tomb raiding days. Enjoying a celebrated franchise reboot in 2013 courtesy of publisher Square Enix, the game itself has never been better and the folks crammed into smart Hollywood suits wisely cast rising star Alicia Vikander to put a new spin on the resurrected character. 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: ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME’

March 7, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ava DuVernay, Chris Pine, Deric McCabe, Jeff Stockwell, Jennifer Lee, Levi Miller, Mindy Kaling, Oprah Winfrey, Out in Theaters, Reese Witherspoon, Reviews Leave a comment

Ava DuVernay’s well-intentioned adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s popular children’s book of the same name is a tenaciously tedious, psychedelically sloppy slog. Championing a well-meaning message of the bonds of family and acceptance of oneself, the actual movie is a mind-numbing flurry of exposition vomit, hurried character development and drag-show pizzaz. DuVernay’s tale of a brother and sister hunting their lost father (Chris Pine) throughout the galaxy is constantly on the go, relying on bright pops of color and shimmery CGI to cover up the gaping plot holes developed courtesy of its neck-break pace. Characters explain the plot ad nauseum, using in-house lingo sure to leave many skeptical eyes a’rollin’, as the story whirls from one underdeveloped thread to another at light-speed pace. At once too dark for the younger crowd and too childish for true blue teenagers, A Wrinkle in Time really only appeals to the tween ADHD crowd who likes their stories delivered fast and loose and colorful beyond belief.
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Out in Theaters: ‘DEATH WISH’

March 1, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters, Uncategorized Tagged Bruce Willis, Camila Morrone, Dean Norris, Death Wise, Death Wish, Elisabeth Shue, Vincent D'Onofrio Leave a comment

In all of the nightmare scenarios that Eli Roth has cooked up in the past, he probably couldn’t have written a more unwelcoming and hostile zeitgeist to deliver his latest film, Death Wish, into. Just two weeks after an assailant took the lives of 17 victims at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Bruce Willis-starring, gun-toting revenge fantasy – a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson film of the same name – champions vigilante justice and romanticizes gun violence in gleefully tone-deaf manner, one that only works in a deluded Trumpian analysis of America and opportunist justice. Worse still, with no style or swagger of its own to speak of, Death Wish has little flair to hang upon its misguided and decidedly uncritical core, making it one big, stinking waste of time and not much fun to boot. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘ANNIHILATION’

February 22, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Alex Garland, Annihilation, Gina Rodriguez, Jeff VanderMeer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny 2 Comments

Alex Garland, the visionary writer-director behind Ex Machina, obsesses over ideas of what it means to be human. With Ex Machina, he explored the inception of A.I. and how true artificial intelligence blurs the line between human and “other” to dizzying, disorienting and apocalyptic result. In his writing effort Never Let Me Go, Garland posed similar – if less refined – questions, posing an analogous emotional experiment with clones as the test subject, begging his audience to work out what separates “us” from “them”. “If they feel, are they not too human?” was the central thrust and this idea has continue to haunt Garland’s films. Never Let Me Go was a lesser effort but came from a place of ripe ideology and artistic thoughtfulness, traits which Garland has never lacked and has gone on to define to great effect. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘BLACK PANTHER’

February 14, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andy Serkis, Angela Basset, Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker, Kendrick Lamar, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Marvel, MCU, Michael B. Jordan, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ryan Coogler 3 Comments

Heavy hangs the crown in Black Panther, a Marvel movie whose real-life cultural and societal implications overshadow its storytelling prowess. The import and impact of Black Panther as a chapter in film history cannot be overstated. Although this isn’t Hollywood’s first attempt to turn a historically black superhero into the main event, headlining their own tentpole film – consider Wesley Snipes run as the vampire-hunter Blade, Halle Berry’s turn as Catwoman, Will Smith’s alcoholic anti-hero Hancock or even Shaquille O’Neal’s turn as Steel – this feels like a first in part because of how much effort has been poured into its making and, more importantly, how readily it embraces its fundamental blackness, from its colorful African settings to its tribally-influenced makeup, hairstyle, and costumes to its predominately black cast and crew, a verifiable assemblage of talent that’ll turn even the most skeptical of heads. Read More

Out in Theaters: ’12 STRONG’

January 18, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chris Hemsworth, Michael Pena, Michael Shannon, Navid Negahban, Nicolai Fuglsig, Out in Theaters, Peter Craig, Reviews, Taylor Sheridan, Ted Tally, Trevante Rhodes Leave a comment

12 Strong calls in the cavalry on Al-Qaeda in Nicolai Fuglsig’s “declassified true story of the horse soldiers”. Spurred by the 9/11 terror attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) leaves behind a safe, cushy military desk job to lead a team of special forces to the sandy front lines of the War on Terror. There, he must earn the trust of an Afghan warlord to take down a critical Taliban position. We’re told repeatedly that the fate of the War rests on this mission’s success and, well, we all know how that one turned out. Generic on most accounts, 12 Strong is an inoffensive American war movie relying on offensive war-mongering tactics. The semi-sturdy if mostly unremarkable acting and blasé set pieces lack the praise-worthy or memorable accents to set 12 Strong aside from the harras. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘PHANTOM THREAD’

January 16, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Lesley Manville, Out in Theaters, paul thomas anderson, Phantom Thread, Reviews, Vicky Krieps 1 Comment

Merriam Webster defines sumptuous as something that is “rich, luxurious, or magnificent” and I cannot think of a better application of the word than to describe Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest feature, Phantom Thread. A marvel of filmmaking, Phantom Thread as a piece of modern art is absolutely decadent – from the luscious cinematography to the snide and sneakily funny script, the nerve-racking sound design to the rich, textured performances. Read More