Out in Theaters: ‘MANDY’

September 10, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Andrea Riseborough, Benjamin Loeb, Horror, Johan Johansson, Nicolas Cage, Out in Theaters, Panos Cosmatos, Reviews 1 Comment

If you’ve ever asked yourself “What the fuck did I just watch?” just wait until you get a load of Mandy. The avant-garde metal midnighter from Italian director Panos Cosmatos yields a phantasmagoric descent into hell itself, where none other than Nicholas Cage (in all his unhinged glory) plays a logger named Red Miller who hunts down an LSD-fueled Christian cult and a literal biker gang from hell to avenge the love of his life (Andrea Riseborough, rocking a heavy metal Shelley Duvall look) . Turns out, hell hath no fury like a Nicolas Cage scorned. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE NUN’

September 6, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Corin Hardy, Demian Bichir, Gary Dauberman, Horror, Maxime Alexandre, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Taissa Farmiga, The Conjuring, The Nun 1 Comment

‘The Nun’ (a.k.a. ‘Bad Habit’) is a handsome twinkle of a horror movie that’s never developed into a full-bodied anything. It’s a movie that dangles on the precipice of actually being half-decent for quite some time without ever making the effort to, you know, actually be good. Its mid-century Romanian setting is certainly atmospheric, a nod to the far-flung haunts of golden-age horror; it contains some decent acting, both Taissa Farmiga and Demián Bichir are solid enough to headline, if only they were privy to some superior written material; and some of the visual flourishes and cinematography suggest a horror movie well above the average pay-grade. And yet, it’s all pretty much for nothing as The Nun never gels into something of any discernible substance. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MILE 22’

August 16, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Carlo Alban, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Lauren Cohan, Lea Carpenter, Mark Wahlberg, Out in Theaters, Peter Berg, Reviews, Ronda Rousey Leave a comment

Director Peter Berg has never felt the need to hide his right-leaning political posturing in his movies, smuggling an “America First” agenda into the rampant machismo that characterizes films like Lone Survivor and Patriot’s Day. In that capacity, it makes perfect sense why Mark Wahlberg, former underwear model and total A-list douchenozzle, has become his muse and spirit animal – the man is a walking, talking knucklehead who in the public sphere embodies the ideals of shoot first and ask questions later, often making blustery claims about love of country and God above all else, spinning himself into this or that controversy for not being able to keep his trap shut. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE MEG’

August 8, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis, Dean Georgaris, Erich Hoeber (, Jason Statham, Jon Hoeber, Jon Turteltaub, Out in Theaters, Page Kennedy, Rainn Wilson, Reviews, The Meg, Winson Chao Leave a comment

Loose lips sink ships in Jon Turteltaub‘s blubbery shark actioner, a ceaselessly talky and endlessly nonsensical ocean-set joyride that should be a hell of a lot more fun than it actually is. Those going in hoping to see an 80-foot shark gnash meddling homo-sapiens to flesh ribbons will find themselves but partially satisfied, destined to wade through the shallows of ungodly writing and forced to endure some of the worst acting in US cineplexes, courtesy of Chinese co-producers and the English-as-a-second-language talent offered up here. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SUMMER OF 84’

August 7, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anouk Whissell, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, François Simard, Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Matt Leslie, Rich Sommer, Stephen J. Smith, Summer of 84, Tiera Skovbye, Yoann-Karl Whissell 1 Comment

Cheaply capitalizing on Stranger Things-like 80s nostalgia, with a teen-driven thriller-mystery that contains almost no thrills and absolutely no mystery and features what is likely the most egregious male-fantasy-bot female character to grace the screen this decade, Summer of 84 is, sadly, a bucket of misdirected lame-sauce. Working from a DOA script from Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith, the acting is just poor, the plot is heavily borrowed (think Rear Window, The Burbs, or Fright Night – except with far less personality) and totally lacking in surprises (telegraphing the answer to its one-dimensional mystery from square one). The characters are nothing but cheap archetypes that we’ve seen frazzle their way through better, smarter versions of this exact same story and watching them onscreen is kind of like your being forced to hang out with uncool kids by your mom. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT’

July 24, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Best of 2018, Henry Cavill, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Simon Pegg, tom cruise, Ving Rhames 4 Comments

I have a confession to make. There’s this thing that happens to people who review movies on any kind of quasi-professional circuit. A kind of numbing of the enthusiasm gland by proxy of the inability to overlook a film’s shortcomings. The more movies one takes in, the more unavoidable it is to not diagnose lazy writing, poor story structure, bland acting, choppy VFX… The collection of pratfalls these XXL “turn your brain off” tentpole films tend to suffer. When you see 200 movies a year, the bar to dazzle becomes impossibly high. What works for general audiences who catch a movie every few months often feels flat and stale for the critic – just another coat of crisp digital paint lazily slathered on poorly recycled narrative – because we’ve already seen this exact story twice this year. Read More

Talking with Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher of ‘EIGHTH GRADE’

July 23, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade, Elsie Fischer, Interviews, Talking With... Leave a comment

Festival darling Eighth Grade is another critical, and now low-flying commercial, score for studio A24 as well as a massive coming out party for writer-director Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fischer. Telling the story of Kayla, a perfectly average 13-year old girl with an unvisited YouTube channel and a quiet streak at school, as she navigates coming out of her shell. Awkward, tender, and, most of all, real, Eighth Grade is a triumphant piece of storytelling that lives and dies by its earnest depiction of the traumas and triumphs of middle school. Seconds of social interchange are filmed as if a horror movie, with Burnham’s film making for a horrifyingly transportative experience, pimples and all, in bringing one back to the woebegone young teenage angst. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB’

July 18, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andrew Lees, Betty Gabriel, Chelsea Alden, Colin Woodell, Connor Del Rio, Horror, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Savira Windyani, Stephanie Nogueras, Stephen Susco, Unfriended: Dark Web Leave a comment

The internet is dark and full of terrors. From the Nazi memes of 4Chan to Live Leaks, a website where you can literally watch people get murdered, jet-black corners of the web lurk in waiting. To imagine that there lay a second layer of the internet beyond the scum and villainy readily apparent, a sector where one can purchase illegal drugs, elicit prostitution, even hire paid assassins, is an unsettling reality but a reality none the less; and this is where Unfriended: Dark Web strikes. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘DAMSEL’

July 16, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Damsel, David Zellner, Mia Wasikoska, Nathan Zellner, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert Pattinson, Zellner Bros Leave a comment

Absurdist indie western Damsel puts a feminist spin on the genre, smuggling jet black gallow’s humor into this romance-tinged quest for love lost. The Zellner have long cherished strangeness and it comes in no shortage here. Quirky and well-acted, Damsel is a call and response to the Westerns of yesteryear, a full-brunted hard-left on familiar genre tropes that is quite often darkly funny and dramatically tragic. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SKYSCRAPER’

July 11, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chin Han, Dwayne Johnson, McKenna Roberts, Neve Campbell, Noah Taylor, Out in Theaters, Pablo Schreiber, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Reviews, Roland Møller, Skyscraper 1 Comment

In Downtown Seattle, there’s a domed glass structure that looks like a 1950s Golden Age of Futurism projection of our time. A triptych of balls, the Amazon Spheres provide a delightful looking respite from the high-rise steel jungle, an indoor botanical garden/none-too-subtle genital compensation contest winner for the richest man in the world, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Construction began in 2015 and concluded earlier this year and despite this new beacon of glass and greenery, plopped squarely in the midst of the city, access is strictly restricted for public use. It’s a verdant beacon of exclusivity and class status. We must watch from outside. Often in the cold or rain. I think I might relish seeing it aflame. Read More