Film Reviews, Interviews and Articles
What is a John Wick movie? A confluence of neon-lit backdrops, thumping EDM kill music, a stony Keanu Reeves hacking through monosyllabic dialogue, and more minutes of gun-fu action choreography than most other movies have just plain minutes, John Wick has become a genre unto itself. A John Wick movie is just that: a John Wick movie. And this John Wick movie, John Wick: Chapter 4, is the most John Wick of them all. Read More
In the world of boxing movies, the overlap between predictable and enjoyable is pretty much the whole piece of the pie. The protagonist is going to take some punches, get their licks in, face unsurmountable odds, blood a lot, and then ultimately triumph. Pepper in some sweaty training montages and sizzling pump-up jams and you have the makings of a perfectly serviceable sports drama. However, the best movies within the subgenre build in stakes that don’t depend entirely on the hero winning the big match (see Rocky, Creed). Despite being entertaining to varying degrees, their sequels often fail to do the same. Read More
With the aptly titled Cocaine Bear, there is indeed a bear who is on cocaine. If that’s all you’re looking for from a movie like Cocaine Bear – a bear on cocaine who attacks humans – I guess this ought to satisfy those bare minimum requirements. If however you’re looking for things like three-dimensional characters, well-written bits, or even basic movie logic, you’ll find Elizabeth Banks’ film pretty, well, barren. Read More
Ever since Endgame, the Marvel machine has seen its meticulously-plotted designs start to come apart at the seams. The latest to grind its wheels forward in this shared universe is Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and let me tell you: it’s not good folks. It is very, very not good. Throughout 31 (!!!) films and a handful of other Disney+ tie-in shows and special presentation one-offs, the MCU has delivered its fair share of highs and lows but never before has it unleashed such an objectively terrible content clunker. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is Marvel’s worst yet, seriously putting into question this critic’s commitment to keeping up with this increasingly disjointed and time-consuming franchise. Read More
In M. Night Shyamalan’s latest science-fiction thriller Knock at the Cabin, the apocalypse is here. Or so says Leonard (Dave Bautista), and his companions Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Redmond (Rupert Grint). They claim that in the next two days, a number of plagues will be unleashed upon the Earth. Floods, fires, and mass technological breakdowns will decimate all human life and cover the world in eternal darkness. It’s all very Old Testament; fire and brimstone and mass judgement from on high. Not unlike – what one character astutely points out – the scrawled prophecies of doomsday preachers on any city street corner in America. Read More
“Is this a dream?” Em (Cleopatra Coleman) asks. Back at their luxurious vacation resort in the far-flung fictional developing country La Tolqa, she can’t get over the most recent heinous encounter with local law enforcement involving her and her second-rate author husband James Foster (Alexander Skarsård). They have just killed a man, having struck him with their vehicle after a day of beach gayety. As is standard practice here, his punishment is as steep a price as they come. James is sentenced to die. However it isn’t actually James who is made to pay the ultimate price. He is wealthy and therefore inoculated from consequence. A clone will do just fine. Or as they are referred to in Brandon Cronenberg’s warped vacation thrillerInfinity Pool, a “double”. Read More
Dom (David Jonsson, Industry) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) both just got out of serious relationships. Outside their mutual friend’s avant garde art show, a provocative display of close-up photographs of extremely wet mouths, Dom is weeping in a toilet stall. Yas overhears his anguish and later saddles up to chat him up about art, relationships, and life. They vibe and embark on an unexpected day of big city adventures and new flames. Read More
All good mysteries are constructed like mazes. There’s sudden left turns, dead ends, and only one real way out. The astute viewer ought to be able to follow the clues and connect the dots, usually to at least a few inevitable red herrings before arriving at the real whodunnit. With 2018’s Searching and sequel Missing, the young combo of Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick, and Aneesh Chaganty have perfected a pretty neat new way to create movie mazes. Read More
Megan, stylized as M3gan, stands for Model 3 Generative Android. She’s artificial intelligence in a four-foot silicon body. Blonde wig, gobs of eyeliner, and haute couture doll clothes complete the look. Following the death of both her parents, Cady (Violet McGraw) is sent to live with her aunt Gemma (the always reliable Allison Williams). Though she’s a brilliant robotics engineer at one of the world’s foremost toy company, Gemma isn’t quite parenting material. In a bid to create the next-gen of must-have toys, she creates Megan. It just so happens that Megan, in addition to drawing, singing, dancing, and boggling the mind of anyone who sees her, can also provide the kind of emotional support that Gemma’s ailing niece needs but she’s not able to give. The little girl and her doll bond like no little girl and girl have bonded before. But it’s not all fun and games when the sentient toy begins to challenge her programming, going rogue and “improving” Cady’s life by all means necessary. Those means, more often than not, involve murder. Read More
It’s been another game-changing year for movies. And not necessarily in the best ways. With pandemic aftermath continuing to shape the industry and the release of both major blockbusters and independent films, the wall between the big and small screen has continued to evaporate. As the global box office continued to struggle to recover, the biggest releases are overwhelming taking the biggest piece of the pie. The box office for films in the US and Canada is expected to finish the year at just $7.35 billion, a 35% drop off compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, due in part to a lack of films released though in theater performance remained a major issue. While adult-oriented fare like dramas struggled to not flop, the top 10 films of 2022 accounted for more than half of the industry’s total box office, compared to 30-40% in previous years.