SXSW ‘22: ‘LINOLEUM’, A Life from Orbit

March 13, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Colin West, Jim Gaffigan, Katelyn Nacon, Linoleum, Movie Reviews, Rhea Seehorn, Roger Hendricks Simon, SXSW 2022, Tony Shalhoub Leave a comment

Jim Gaffigan stars as astronomer and public television personality Cameron Edwin in Colin West’s science fiction-tinged festival dramedy Linoleum. A bodega-version Bill Nye, Cameron leads the failing daily children’s show ‘Above & Beyond’ which after years of existing in obscurity has been picked up by a major network. The rub? Cameron will be replaced as the show’s host by his straight-laced doppelgänger Kent Armstrong (also played by Gaffigan), a more successful, better looking version of himself whose arrival signals a series of enigmatic occurrences. Not everything is as it seems. Read More

SXSW ’22: Self-Help Influencer ‘SISSY’ Canceled in Satirical Psycho-Thriller

March 13, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Aisha Dee, Emily de Margheriti, Hannah Barlow, Kane Senes, Sissy, SXSW 2022 Leave a comment

Bullied as a child, Sissy (Aisha Dee) thought she left behind her childhood name. She‘s Cecilia now and she’s a self-help influencer. Popular on social media under the handle “Sincerely Cecilia”, the trendy twenty-something shares glossy selfie videos about mindfulness and self-love, topics she actually knows nearly nothing about. Deep down, she’s a traumatized child; projecting security, suppressing scars. Her 200k followers see Sincerely Cecilia™ but they don’t see Cecilia sincerely. They don’t know the true Sissy who lurks beneath. Read More

SXSW ’22: Mind-Blowing ‘EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE’ Is the Multiverse of Madness We Deserve

March 12, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheiner, Everything Everywhere All At Once, James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, SXSW, SXSW 2022 3 Comments

Everything Everywhere All At Once truly is the multiverse of madness that we deserve. Hilarious, utterly singular, and weirdly profound, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner (aka “The Daniels”) have cooked up something wholly original with their martial-arts multiversal science-fiction story about a Chinese family that owns a laundry mat. A genius-level explosion of creativity that blends Wuxia sci-fi with the vast endlessness that is literally the spectrum of onscreen possibility, there’s is a film that borders on the insane and is never anything less than wowing. To say I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time would be to overlook that fact that everyone around me did as well. Read More

Soulless Video Game Adaptation ‘UNCHARTED’ A Cash Grab With Zero Charm

February 17, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Antonio Banderas, Mark Wahlberg, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ruben Fleischer, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Tom Holland, Uncharted 1 Comment

A black hole of charm, Sony’s Uncharted is the opposite of inspired. Everything about this lazy, expensive, haphazard adaptation of the popular Playstation exclusive reeks of assembly-line blockbuster manufacturing. For a wannabe franchise-launching starting block, one that clocks in with an aggressive $120 million dollar budget, Uncharted feels little more than a hack pastiche of adventure movie tropes, airlifted in from better treasure hunter films and spackled with a coat of snide Mark Wahlberg one-liners. It’s painful by virtue of just how adamantly risk-averse and paint-by-numbers just about everything on screen ends up being. Read More

Handsome, Dull ‘DEATH ON THE NILE’ Paddles Towards Predictability

February 10, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Agatha Christie, Annette Bening, Armie Hammer, Death on the Nile, Emma Mackey, Gal Gadot, Kenneth Branagh, Letita Wright, Michael Green, Reviews, Russel Brand, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Bateman 1 Comment

Death on the Nile begins with the origin story of Hercule Poirot’s (Kenneth Branagh) ridiculous mustache. His face was half-blown off in WWI you see, this facial deformity informing his older self’s reclusive and fussy nature. The overly coiffed, quadruple-pronged mustache was a cover up all along. A way to throw people off the scent of his great trauma and deep-seated pain. The detective, it seems, is indeed human after all. Surmising why the world-famous detective became who he is proves the best material in this sequel to 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, a murder mystery that is otherwise haunted by an almost total lack of mystery. Read More

‘MOONFALL’ A Crash Course on Big Dumb Havoc Wreaking

February 3, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Charlie Plummer, Chris Sandiford, Halle Berry, John Bradley, Kelly Reilly, Michael Pena, Moonfall, Out in Theaters, Patrick Wilson, Review, Reviews, Roland Emmerich Leave a comment

The master of disaster is back to ruin the world again with Moonfall, a shamelessly bonkers sci-fi disaster movie where the moon is suddenly on a collision course with earth. A select few suspect aliens are involved. Following a string of disappointments, director Roland Emmerich’s latest is a bit of a return to form, or at least whatever form best suits Emmerich. Moonfall is an uncompromisingly ridiculous disaster epic where the scale is as massive as the plot-holes and the human element is consistently overshadowed by destruction special effects. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s dumb, and by the time the whole thing takes shape, it’s almost too much fun to deny its simple pleasures. Almost. Read More

‘JACKASS FOREVER’: A Confederacy of Dunces

February 2, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chris Pontius, Dave England, Ehren McGhehey, Eric André, Jackass Forever, Jasper Dolphin, Jeff Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville, Machine Gun Kelly, Preston Lacy, Reviews, Sean McInerney, Steve-O, Wee-Man Leave a comment

It’s a remarkable feat that all these years later, MTV’s original confederacy of dunces still can withstand this level of pain. Jackass Forever, as directed by longtime ringmaster Jeff Tremaine, forgoes any suggestion of maturity and sticks with the simple premise of dick-punching, bone-shattering, concussion-friendly gags that these cackling hyena’s den of pranksters have long delivered for the juvenile, puerile, infantile amongst us. It’s just as recklessly funny as it’s always been. Read More

Sundance ’22: Finnish Horror ‘HATCHING’ Gives Birth to Fowl Play

January 24, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Hanna Bergholm, Hatching, Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

An ooey, gooey suburban creature feature about motherhood and maintaining the illusion of perfection, Hatching expertly blends the weirder side of horror with a deeper message. Motherhood – at any age – requires great sacrifice. It’s often nasty, inglorious business. Hatching is not elevated horror. Nor is it shlock. Instead, this Finnish import about a newly hatched bird-human hybrid pulls from E.T. and Troma films, utilizing great practical effects to pluck at ideas of puberty and motherhood. Read More

SUNDANCE ’22: Carla Juri Shines in Understated Romance ‘BLOOD’

January 24, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged blood, Bradley Rust Gray, Carla Juri, Reviews, Sundance, Sundance 2022, Takashi Ueno Leave a comment

Following the death of her husband, photographer Chloe (Carla Juri) moves to Japan to try to start anew in blood. She’s welcome by their jovial old friend and traveling musician Toshi (Takashi Ueno) as well as the beguiling mysteries that every new city holds. As Chloe wanders the city streets and inviting countryside with her camera, she makes new acquaintances, including a man whose wife is battling cancer, a kind-hearted kindred spirit florist, and a dance choreographer. But none quite see her as fully as Toshi does. As a yearning and perhaps forbidden attraction takes root, the widowed Chloe must contend with allowing herself to feel romantically for someone again. Read More

SUNDANCE ’22: Love and Lust Challenges High School Girls in Thoughtful ‘GIRL PICTURE’

January 24, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Aamu Milonoff, Alli Haapasalo, Eleonoora Kauhanen, Girl Picture, Linnea Leino, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

Mimmi (Aamu Milonoff) and Rönkkö (Eleonoora Kauhanen) are Finnish High School students and ride-or-die best friends. In Alli Haapasalo’s Girl Picture, the inseparable duo attend school before working together at the mall where they hawk smoothies with names like “It Takes Two to Mango” or “Just Breathe”. On the clock, they dish about romantic trysts and the upcoming Friday’s party, sometimes to the chagrin of their customers. When Emma (Linnea Leino), their classmate and an obsessive figure skater who dreams of becoming the future European Champion, falls into Mimmi’s orbit, the pair flirt with first love. Meanwhile Rönkkö struggles through a series of unsatisfying romantic entanglements with a revolving door of expectant young men. Read More