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A Family Plagued by Ambition Suffers Silently In Brooding Drama ’THE NEST’

It wasn’t until about halfway through The Nest that I started to question what the latest film from Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) was really about. Best described as an uncomfortable familial drama, Durkin’s feature is set in the high-stakes world of status chasing. Perched in the periphery of a patriarch’s quest for large sums of money from his Trans-Contential business dealings, The Nest’s emotional center is a family suffering the ambitions of a father and his vacuous pursuit of wealth and status.  Read More

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X-Men Franchise Dies A Final Death With Disposable Super-Teen Flick ‘THE NEW MUTANTS’

Fox’s often venerated (and occasionally lampooned) X-Men quasi-continuity goes out with a whimper with the young-adult-led nonstarter that is The New Mutants. The 20-year old franchise has seen watermarks high and low, witness to its share of failed entires (The Last Stand, Origins: Wolverine and Apocalypse to name a few offenders) balanced out by a handful of genre-defining classics (X2, First Class, Logan). At the end of the era comes not a new low so much as a defeated shrug, as there has never been an entry that felt more identity-drained and inert than Josh Boone’s final death knell. But that’s not necessarily the sole fault of the writer-director.  Read More

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Blockbusting Bore ‘TENET’ Revels In Nolan’s Worst Instincts

Christopher Nolan’s fascination with time as a storytelling variable is well-documented throughout his filmography. In his breakout indie hit Memento, the story of John G and his murdered wife ran backwards with consecutive scenes taking place before what we have just watched; with Inception, dreams within dreams meant that different levels of the film’s universe occurred at different speeds creating a kind of temporal layer cake; and most recently, Dunkirk saw a major military event unfold over land, sea, and air in a matter of a week, a day and an hour, respectively, the various timelines intersecting and blending into one another. And the less said about Interstellar, wherein Nolan got all mushy over time and love, the better. This obsession with time as a resource and narrative centerpiece has finally gotten the best of Nolan in Tenet, an overblown blockbuster absolutely suffocated by tricks, bloated by exposition and wholly lacking in a human touch.  Read More

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Suburban Sci-Fi ‘VIVARIUM’’s Solitary Metaphor Is Stretched Way Too Thin

“I don’t like the way things are. It’s horrible.” Little did Vivarium screenwriter Garret Shanley know how piercing this sentiment might be when his film about a couple forced into seclusion was released. No one could have predicted that in the midst of the film’s rollout, the world over would be forced into mandated seclusion. Schools shuttered. Concerts, political rallies, and festivals pinched off. Everyone shut into their whatever square footage their budget affords. At least Jesse Eisenberg’s Tom and Imogen Poots’ Gemma have access to toilet paper. Read More

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10 Great Apocalyptic Movies on Prime Video to Make You Forget COVID-19 (For a Lil Bit)

We’re in week two of the national lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and, assuming you’re like me, you’ve probably been scrolling endlessly through streaming services to find that next batch of must-watch flicks. Last week, we shared the 10 Perfect Isolation Movies to Stream on Netflix During Your Quarantine and it’s time for a little more #StreamAndQuarantine. This week, we’re shifting over to Amazon Prime and running through the list of coronavirus-appropriate movies that’ll make the catastrophe we’re in seem mild by comparison. The ten films serve as a reminder that things could always be even worse. Read More

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10 Perfect Isolation Movies to Stream on Netflix During Your Quarantine 

As of writing this, the city that I live in (Seattle) is almost entirely shut down. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, this trend of citywide closures is spreading even faster than the virus. From restaurants and bars to fitness clubs and movie theaters, amenities that we’ve long taken for granted have shuttered their doors. For now. So whether you’re working from home or in self-isolation or recovering from the coronavirus known as COVID-19, here’s a selection of movies about isolation, apocalypse, and quarantine that’s sure to apply to, well, just about everyone right now. Read More

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Inflammatory and Ultraviolent ‘THE HUNT’ Triggers Both Sides of the Aisle 

Originally scheduled for release in September of last year, Craig Zobel’s satirical modern spin on “The Most Dangerous Game” factored political divisions into the equation to decidedly contentious results. The Hunt became so controversial that its release was pulled indefinitely when the President (in a totally characteristic ego trip of a move) slammed the film, calling it “a tremendous disservice to our country” and threatening that “we’re going to be very tough with them.” Soon after, the death threats came flying.  Read More

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Surprise! Intimate Abortion Procedural ‘NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS’ a Very Somber Ride

The not-so-chipper premise of Eliza Hittman’s Sundance premiere Never Rarely Sometimes Always involves a teenage Pennsylvania girl and her cousin commuting to the Big Apple in order to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Viewers used to the seriocomic approach to the abortion flick (Obvious Child and Juno are probably the best examples of modern mainstream movies on the subject) may find Never Rarely Sometimes Always a startlingly somber and even oppressive affair, the film from Hittman shying away from any flirtation with taking the matter any less than extremely seriously at any given intersection. Not that most people associate abortions with a good laugh but, man, this movie is just about as unrelentingly unpleasant and heavy as they come.  Read More

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Sad Affleck: The Movie, ‘THE WAY BACK’, a Dour Character Study Dressed Up as a Sports Drama

My man Ben Affleck just can’t catch a break. His career has been a series of precipitous rises and steep plunges. From a breakout Oscar win with Good Will Hunting to the critical depths of Gigli in his whole Bennifer period, onto his comeback directorial streak (which ended in a Best Picture win for Argo) which then led into a second slump following his turn as Batman in the largely maligned DCEU. Ben’s trajectory is like the stock market during a pandemic. It just can’t decide whether to float or flounder. Read More

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Trauma (and Push-Pins) Are Buried Deep in Cringy ‘SWALLOW’ 

An experience that’s both lurid and cathartic, Swallow is not the movie you think it’s going to be and yet its unpredictable journey is one that’s well worth taking. Focused on sedate young housewife Hunter’s relationship with her family, old and new, and her newfound habit for swallowing non-food objects (a psychological disorder called ‘pica’ that gives people an appetite for normally ”inedible” things like cat hair or pins and needles), Swallow is a delicately-told, well-acted, and often-cringe-inducing tale of identity and reclamation at death-defying costs.  Read More