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‘WAKE UP DEAD MAN’ is A Holy Mystery a Few Beads Short of a Full Rosary

Detective Benoit Blanc is back for the third edition of Rian Johnson’s irreverently charming neo-noir Netflix mystery series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This time knives (and, of course, a murder most foul) are indeed involved, but so is an unholy whodunnit that defies the logic of the material world: a locked-closet killing and an apparent resurrection used as profane misdirection when a slaying at an isolated church leaves everyone scratching their heads and praying to god for answers. The effect is another breezy, well-laid-out puzzle box from Johnson that spins its duplicitous webs, though it falls short of greatness due to an over-reliance on confessional exposition and an underdeveloped ensemble cast. Read More

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‘ALIEN: ROMULUS’ Reenergizes Franchise By Leaning Into Its Celestial Horrors 

20th Century Studios made a clear statement by hiring Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez to helm the seventh (or ninth, if you count the dreadful Alien vs. Predator movies) installment of the Alien franchise: we’re going back to basics. Alvarez, known for his low-budget, high-gore horror films, seemed like the perfect fit. After all, his ill-fated venture outside the genre with the poorly-constructed and even more poorly-received The Girl in the Spider’s Web landed him in unofficial director’s jail for the better part of a decade. With Alvarez behind the camera, Alien: Romulus promised a return to the franchise’s nervy space-horror roots—and it largely delivers exactly that. Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE’

Long-winded and neither as smart, surprising, or sassy as it thinks, Bad Times at the El Royale is a stylish snow-globe of sixties subcultures clown-car piled into an overdrawn neo-noir. Bursting at the seams with metaphorical material and cultural commentary but featherlight on plot and deep-dive character development, this strangers-at-a-hotel mystery has a lot of guff and bluster but little actual punch. It’s not exactly bad times but the times decidedly aren’t so grand either.  Read More