Sundance ’22: ‘FRESH’ a Horrific Meat-Cute That Takes a Bites out of Modern Dating

January 21, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh, Horror, Mimi Cave, Reviews, Sebastian Stan, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

A one-of-a-kind allegorical delicacy, Fresh revels in taboo subjects to poke fun at the stomach-churning appetites of the modern dating world. A delirious mash-up of cheesy romance and body horror shlock, the debut film from Mimi Cave begins in deliciously grotesque fashion, showing flashes of both American Psycho and Martyrs as her devilish meat-cute puts a dark spin on the idea of “finding the right guy”. Overnight, chemistry and flirtation turns to imprisonment and cannibalism, giving new meaning to the phrase “eating butt.” Read More

Sundance ’22: ‘EMERGENCY’ Effectively Mixes ‘Superbad’, ‘Blindspotting’

January 20, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Carey Williams, Donald Watkins, Emergency, RJ Cyler, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

A perfect way to officially launch the Sundance 2022, Emergency reimagines the Superbad formula through the lens of Blindspotting. Striking a well-oiled balance between drama and comedy, this riff on the “best friends on the verge of graduation” goes down some pretty harrowing rabbit holes, rarely pulling its punches as it explores prescient themes of racism, brotherhood, and Black excellence. Smartly-written, director Carey Williams’ killer debut explores black friendship and fraternity as straight-laced Kunle (Donald Watkins) and party animal Sean (RJ Cyler) prepare for a wild night of partying that goes off the rails in ways they never imagined. Read More

‘SCREAM’ Takes a Stab at “Requels” with Deadly Precision

January 12, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Dylan Minnette, Horror, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Jenna Ortega, Kyle Gallner, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Melissa Barrera, Mikey Madison, Neve Campbell, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Scream, Tyler Gillett 1 Comment

Scream is back. And with a new Ghostface (or two) comes a biting deconstruction of not just the long-standing slasher franchise, or the nature of “requels” (a term coined in this very film), or the horror genre in general, but the movie industry writ large. Many films of recent years have tried to capture the imagination of audiences by commentating on their own storied legacy – most recently with both The Matrix: Resurrections and Spider-Man: No Way Home – but none have done it with quite as sharp a wit or a curvaceous a blade as the most recent Scream. Tapping into the meta repartee that franchise architect Wes Craven approached the material with from the very get go, this fifth installment of the 90s-born slasher whodunnit is as razor-sharp and bloody glorious as ever. Most importantly, it’s just a hell of a lot of fun. Read More

The Best TV Shows of 2021

December 30, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Dave, Dopesick, For All Mankind, Hacks, It's a Sin, Maid, Mare of Easttown, Midnight Mass, Physical, Squid Game, Succession, The Underground Railroad, The White Lotus, Yellowjackets Leave a comment

As the wide world of film shook and shuttered, trying to get its feet back under it while navigating the constant challenge of the pandemic, television entered a new golden age. The silver screen may have faded but the small screen burned brighter than ever. Last year, I listed my 25 favorite television series of the year and while many greats remain amongst my favorite, the amount of new amazing series in 2021 was blistering. Rather than diving in again on why something was a favorite in 2021, I mostly focused on newer shows, limited series, and series that made a triumphant return in 2021. So while I love comedies like What We Do in the Shadows (brilliant, still), Curb Your Enthusiasm (incredible, again), Ted Lasso (which proved slightly more dour in its second season, though hopeful and kind to its core), and Pen15 (creative and cringe as ever), they won’t appear on this list because I already said my piece on them last year. Read More

Top Ten Films of 2021

December 22, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Lists Tagged Bo Burnham: Inside, CODA, Dune, Pleasure, Red Rocket, Titane, Zola 1 Comment

What a year it’s been. In some capacities, post-pandemic life began to creep back to normal with the aid of vaccines. So too did the global box office. But multiple variants spooked people into skipping out of movies in theaters as a fundamental shift to the industry took shape. Day and date releases became more prevalent as the economics of a new movie market unfurled. A misleading rescue beacon, Spider-Man: No Way Home just delivered the best receipts of the entire 2020/2021 but that level of resurgent success seemed reserved exclusively for superhero content. No adult-skewing cinema has fared nearly as well. Read More

Spoiler Alert: ‘THE MATRIX: RESURRECTIONS’ Is Not Good

December 21, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Carrie-Anne Moss, Jonathan Groff, Keanu Reeve, Lana Wachowski, The Matrix: Resurrections, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II 1 Comment

The spoon may not exist but after watching this third Matrix sequel, you’d wish it didn’t either. A numbing retread of past Matrix antics fastened onto an exasperatingly dull attempt at a revival, The Matrix: Resurrections is a bizarre, lumbering attempt to breath one final breathe into a franchise that redefined science-fiction action when it was first released in 1999. If the intention of this clunker is to make you appreciate the other sequels, job very well done. I take back every bad thing I ever had to say about Reloaded and even Revolutions. The Matrix: Resurrections is the antithesis of revolutionary, too busy looking back to take a step forward without stumbling and landing flat on its face. Read More

‘SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME’ and The Multiverse of Monsters

December 15, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alfred Molina, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, J.K. Simmons, Jacob Batalon, Jamie Foxx, Jon Watts, Mauro Fiore, Michael Giacchino, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland, Willem Dafoe, Zendaya 5 Comments

Undisputedly the superhero event of the year, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a breakneck collision of past and present that explores the generational legacy of Spider-Man in unrelentingly entertaining fashion. The script from Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wastes zero time, hitting the ground running as No Way Home picks up precisely where the previous endeavor, Far From Home, left off: with Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) identity revealed to the world by Daily Bugle alt-news tyrant J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons). Desperate to undo the fallout from his being unmasked, Peter turns to Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to conjure up an amnesia spell that would make the world forget his identity. Read More

Spielberg’s ‘WEST SIDE STORY’ Remake A Handsome, Emotionally Flat Spectacle

December 9, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ansel Elgort, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Rachel Zegler, Reviews, Stephen Sondheim, Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, West Side Story 1 Comment

Handsomely made but emotionally flat, West Side Story as told by blockbusting king of the box office Steven Spielberg plays like a slick, overproduced cover album. The songs are all there but they’ve been blown out to oblivion by overproduction, chasing technical mastery but never stopping to consider the why of it all. Like when a favorite band finally hits it big and subsequently loses the very sound that made them unique and your favorite band in the first place. There are no imperfections and, in effect, no spark. One would sound silly calling it “selling out” but there’s a similarly disappointing energy that washes over the viewer expecting a vibrant new take on timeless material only to rub up against a flashy reskin of a classic, sans any discernible new perspective. Read More

‘RED ROCKET’ is Magic Mike Meets Joe Dirt A.K.A. It’s Glorious

December 9, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Bree Elrod, Out in Theaters, Red Rocket, Reviews, Sean Baker, Simon Rex, Suzanna Son 4 Comments

Washed up porn star Mikey Sabre (Simon Rex) arrives by bus back in his hometown of Texas City, Texas. He’s beat up and sans belongings, bruised from some unseen brawl but still so motormouthed you’d think he were riding high on the Colombian marching powder. But Mikey doesn’t have the kind of money to fund such a habit. In fact, he has no money to his name. Which is why he’s in Texas City, Texas. Mikey hasn’t quite come crawling back to his estranged meth-head wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) to rekindle their extinguished flame but he does need to crash on her couch for a bit while he gets his affairs in order. If she’ll let him. Read More

Preposterous Doomsday Satire ‘DON’T LOOK UP’ Explodes With Snickers, Star Power

December 8, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adam McKay, Cate Blanchett, Don’t Look Up, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Rylance, Meryl Streep, Rob Morgan, Ron Perlman, Timothée Chalamet 2 Comments

“Don’t look up,” becomes the political mantra of President Janine Orlean (Meryl Streep) as a comet nine kilometers wide barrels towards Earth. Without immediate intervention, there is a one-hundred percent chance of an extinction level event. But midterms are fast approaching and an opportunity to save the world and existence as we know it gets fed through the political machine, to the chagrin of actual scientists the world over. Taking aim at the Trump-era invention of “alternative facts”, Orlean encourages her followers to not believe their own eyes, spinning an impending apocalypse into a culture war in ways that are both all too far-fetched and tragically feasible. Read More