Expect Double the Will Smith, Half the Fun in ‘GEMINI MAN’ Dud

October 9, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ang Lee, Benedict Wong, Billy Ray, Clive Owen, Darren Lemke, David Benioff, Gemini Man, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Will Smith Leave a comment

All Will Smith’s Henry Brogan wants is to retire in Ang Lee’s muddled faux-cerebral actioner Gemini Man but perhaps it’s the once-celebrated director who should be submitting his resignation instead. The two-time Oscar winner is nearly unrecognizable in his new role as a beta-James Cameron techno-chaser, confusing higher frame rates, CGI Frankenstein creations, and 4k projection for the inklings of a passable story. But even if you remove the muddled slop-fest that is Gemini Man’s narrative out of the equation, you’re left with jumbled CGI-heavy action scenes and distinctly unsophisticated moral imperatives. Read More

Roommates are Awful, Especially in Eggers’ Brilliant ‘THE LIGHTHOUSE’

October 8, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged A24, Horror, Robert Eggers, Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse, Willem Dafoe 2 Comments

In the rundown of worst roommate habits, persistent flatulence has to rank pretty highly. But I can’t imagine even the gnarliest gas could possibly compete with the sour stench of stale pee stewing in a bedpan in a tight communal space. Which brings us to The Lighthouse, a film wherein, from the first moments, odors assert themselves. The celluloid reeks of old piss, beefy farts, caked-up spunk, “rotten foreskin”, man musk, and drinkable kerosene. This is a movie that would tear down the house in Smell-O-Vision. Fortunately, we do not have to endure its reek. Read More

Takashi Miike’s ‘FIRST LOVE’ Is a Rambunctious Yakuza Rom-Com, and That’s Awesome

October 3, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged First Love, Gangster, Masa Nakamura, Masataka Kubota, Out in Theaters, Rebecca Eri Rabone, Reviews, Sakurako Konishi, Takashi Miike Leave a comment

For a man 59-years of age with well over 100 feature films under his belt, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike shows no signs of slowing down. The prolific auteur has dabbled in everything from sweeping historical epics (13 Assassins) to slow-burn horror showstoppers (Audition) to schlocky gangster yarns (Ichi the Killer) to gory Samurai adventure flicks (Blade of the Immortal) to child-centric ninja fare (Ninja Kids!!!) with literal countless smaller projects filling in the gaps between those more high-profile pictures that end up playing in theaters internationally. With the director often making upwards of five, six, or seven films a year, it’s nothing short of incredible that he’s able to craft something as wildly enjoyable, energetic, and giddy as his most recent film, First Love, and yet here we are. Read More

With Phoenix’s Bleak ‘JOKER’, a Good Punchline Can Re-Write History

October 2, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Arthur Fleck, Batman, Frances Conroy, Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, Robert De Niro, Todd Phillips, Zazie Beetz 2 Comments

Trash is piling up in Gotham City. Plunged into a recess of political gridlock, societal malaise, and civil unrest, the city is steeped in refuge. Waste management services are on strike. Black bags of Gotham’s waste line the streets. Arthur Fleck counts himself amongst the discarded. He’s trash personified; tossed out alongside his creepy cackle. According to Arthur, he hasn’t had a happy day in his life. A simmering hotpot of childhood trauma, deep-set depression, daddy issues, hallucination-prone psychosis, sexual repression, and rage-onset tendencies, Arthur just ain’t a happy camper. And yet, he’s told to smile, to grin and bear it, to play nice. Read More

Scuzzy ‘HARPOON’ a Stripped-Down Malevolent Dark Comedy At Sea

October 1, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brett Gelman, Christopher Gray, Emily Tyra, Harpoon, Horror, Munro Chambers, Rob Grant Leave a comment

Aristotle posits that there are three types of friendships, those based in utility, pleasure or virtue, but Harpoon’s narrator (Stranger Thing’s Brett Gelman) would like to add a fourth: the friendship of history. These are friends by virtue of having been friends. Turns out that these friendships aren’t always the most healthy. Especially when you’re out to sea and uncover a love triangle of infidelity and have a harpoon (or speargun rather) at your immediate disposal. Read More

Zellweger Stages a Full-Throated Comeback In ‘JUDY’, A Sturdy Biopic That Doesn’t Quite Find Next Gear

September 23, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andy Nyman, Biopic, Darci Shaw, Finn Wittrock, Jessie Buckley, Judy, Out in Theaters, Peter Quilter, Renée Zellweger, Reviews, Rupert Goold, Tom Edge Leave a comment

Fame is toxic. Particularly for the young. Ask River Phoenix. Or Lindsay Lohan. Brittany Spears. Macaulay Culkin. We’ve seen the tragedy of adolescent fame, one as old as the concept of fame itself, play out across history time and again. In Judy, the prepubescent bargain for fame opens the film. Flanked by a yellow brick road, a young Judy Garland (played by Darci Shaw) trades her songbird voice and every ounce of independence for the opportunity to be more than “just a mother” or another “office girl”. For the chance to be seen, admired, beloved by a nation. Unknowingly selling her soul to the devil of entertainment and damning herself to a challenging life of self-commodification, Judy is the OG tragedy girl struck down by fame’s cantankerous venom. Read More

‘HUSTLERS’ Would Be a Guilty Pleasure, If It Weren’t Also Pretty Damn Great

September 12, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Constance Wu, Hustlers, J Lo, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Pressler, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lorene Scafaria, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The Hustlers at Scores, Todd Banhazi, Wai Ching Ho Leave a comment

This whole country’s a strip club. Or so says Jennifer Lopez’s hard-stripping, drug-dosing, cash-stealing Ramona. A stripper with a heart of mink fur, Ramona posits, “Someone’s got the money and the rest of us dance for it.” Her solution to this American ordeal is a brand of laissez-faire free market exchange: dress to kill, ensnare rich dudes, add drugs, run up their credit cards. Ramona and her merry band of clothing-optional pilferers trade in hitting the pole to hitting credit limits. And their gambit works. Skipping the whole lap dance flesh transaction and getting straight to the knock-out bling-bling money-please of it all, Ramona runs a crew of ambitious and unscrupulous ladies who take from the rich and give to themselves. Read More

‘IT: CHAPTER TWO’: The Miniseries: The Movie

September 5, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andy Muschietti, Bill Hader, Gary Dauberman, Horror, Isaiah Mustafa, It, It: Chapter Two, James McAvoy, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, Jessica Chastain Leave a comment

It: Chapter Two, the highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s mega breakout hit It, is that impossibly rare horror sequel that is quite simply too big to fail. And you can damn well bet that the suits at Warner Bros are doing a high-kneed happy dance considering that, taken as a stand-alone film, It: Chapter Two is a bit of a slop-fest. Its unwieldy size and lack of editorial prowess makes for a patience-testing but scare-pocked horror odyssey better suited to the long-form narrative afforded by the small screen. In feature film form, It is more bloat than float. Read More

David Oyelowo of ‘DON’T LET GO’ Talks Which Phone Call He Would Place to the Past

August 28, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged David Oyelowo, Don't Let Go, Interviews, Talking With... 1 Comment

Sometimes a good performance comes in a, well, not so great package. Such is the story of Don’t Let Go, a hacky police procedural with loose sci-fi trappings. Leave it to David Oyelowo of Selma and Rise of the Planet of the Apes acclaim to leave a positive stain on an otherwise floundering film, his dedicated performance the only interesting thing of note. I spoke with the Nigerian-British-American actor about his career, which phone call he would place to the past to prevent some future tragedy, finding the emotionality of time travel, his favorite time travel movies, a long-awaited directorial debut and what’s next for the rising star. Read More

Writer-Director Paul Downs Colaizzo Talks the Long Road of ‘BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON’

August 27, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Amazon, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Interviews, Paul Downs Colaizzo, SIFF, SIFF 2019, Talking With... Leave a comment

Coming from the world of theater, Paul Downs Colaizzo makes his directorial debut with Brittany Runs a Marathon, a somewhat-inspired-by-a-true-story about an NYC party-girl reclaiming her life by strapping on sneaks and going jogging. Starring a very game Jillian Bell, Brittany Runs a Marathon is a fitness and lifestyle glow-up for the “Yass queen” generation that is both humorous and human, an aspect that Colaizzo found essential in his telling of the story. The writer-director discussed his motivation for directing for the first time, how he hopes to inspire audiences to become the best versions of themselves, the challenges of “learning the technical stuff” and Jillian Bell’s intense physical transformation. Read More