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SXSW ’22: Mind-Blowing ‘EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE’ Is the Multiverse of Madness We Deserve

Everything Everywhere All At Once truly is the multiverse of madness that we deserve. Hilarious, utterly singular, and weirdly profound, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner (aka “The Daniels”) have cooked up something wholly original with their martial-arts multiversal science-fiction story about a Chinese family that owns a laundry mat. A genius-level explosion of creativity that blends Wuxia sci-fi with the vast endlessness that is literally the spectrum of onscreen possibility, there’s is a film that borders on the insane and is never anything less than wowing. To say I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time would be to overlook that fact that everyone around me did as well. Read More

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Loose Slasher Sequel ‘HALLOWEEN KILLS’ Defines Overkill

David Gordon Green’s 2018 rendition of Halloween, a sequel/reboot that revitalized Michael Myers for the arthouse horror generation, did almost everything right. His reimagining of the franchise, in a sequel that stemmed directly from John Carpenter’s 1978 original while actively dismissing the string of disappointing sequels and Rob Zombie’s grizzled remakes from the canon, leaned into the portions of the story that made Myers such a lasting horror icon. There was actual character development present here, an understanding of what made this character so deeply unsettling, plenty of tension-filled kills, and a good lick of irreverent humor to be found in the proceedings. If Halloween is The Shape perfected, Halloween Kills is what happens when complacency sets in almost immediately and the franchise begins to flatline well before its expiration date. Read More

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‘KNIVES OUT’ Boasts Killer Ensemble Cast, Mediocre Mystery 

Rian Johnson’s star-studded Knives Out is an Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit complete with a colorful cast of characters, a maybe-murder most foul, and an undercooked mystery that astute audience members will certainly figure out well before the intended reveal. As a fun, star-powered slice of old school murder mystery, Knives Out is a welcome bite of throwback entertainment, a high profile anti-blockbuster of sorts: free of CGI, action set pieces, and superheroics of any sort. In that capacity, the good-old-fashion Hollywood whodunnit is a welcome bit of counter-programming to the overly dramatic winter-season awards fare or the sensory-overwhelming, block-busting eye candy that dominates the box office, it’s just a shame that the whole enterprise feels so surface-level and ultimately easy to solve. Read More

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‘SCREAM QUEENS’ “Chainsaw” Review

2015 has been a pretty horrorshow year for horror television. Between the high-profile, high-production-value extended Slasher Flick of MTV’s Scream: The Series and Fox’s frankly hilarious horror/comedy Scream Queens, 2015 stands to be remembered as a gold standard year for the format, helping us all to move on from the mostly underwhelming snorefest that was True Detective Season 2 and the uncertainty in our hearts towards Fear The Walking Dead. Read More