Psalms and Sleaze Line the End of Ti West’s Trilogy in ‘MAXXXINE’

July 2, 2024 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Debicki, Giancarlo Esposito, Halsey, Lily Collins, MaXXXine, Mia Goth, Michelle Monaghan, Moses Sumney, Pearl, Reviews, Ti West, X 1 Comment

Celebrity and faith are at impassable odds in the capstone to Ti West’s surprise trilogy, MaXXXine. What started with ’70s shlock in X, then traveled back in time to WWI-era West Texas with the outstanding technicolor prequel Pearl, now arrives in 1980s Hollywood in MaXXXine. The titular character, consistently played with wild-eyed abandon and gnawing verve by Mia Goth across the three films, grapples with the events of her blood-soaked past, sheds her present porn star celebrity, and charges into a bright future as a legitimate actress. Read More

INFINITY POOL is a Hedonistic Descent into Vacation Goblin Mode

January 26, 2023 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alexander Skarsård, Brandon Cronenberg, Cleopatra Coleman, Horror, Infinity Pool, Jalil Lespert, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews 2 Comments

“Is this a dream?” Em (Cleopatra Coleman) asks. Back at their luxurious vacation resort in the far-flung fictional developing country La Tolqa, she can’t get over the most recent heinous encounter with local law enforcement involving her and her second-rate author husband James Foster (Alexander Skarsård). They have just killed a man, having struck him with their vehicle after a day of beach gayety. As is standard practice here, his punishment is as steep a price as they come. James is sentenced to die. However it isn’t actually James who is made to pay the ultimate price. He is wealthy and therefore inoculated from consequence. A clone will do just fine. Or as they are referred to in Brandon Cronenberg’s warped vacation thrillerInfinity Pool, a “double”. Read More

Mia Goth Has the ‘X’-Factor in Devilish Prequel ‘PEARL’

September 14, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Alistair Sewell, David Corenswet, Mia Goth, Pearl, Tandi Wright, Ti West 4 Comments

X Marks The Spot

Ladies and gentlemen, Mia Goth! In Ti West’s remarkably entertaining prequel to X (his other 2022 slasher), Goth plays a woman desperate to be a star but doomed never to be one. The irony is that Pearl should be the movie that propels Goth herself to proper stardom. She’s simply sensational. Featuring as the titular character, Goth steps back into the shoes of a sex-starved, corn-fed, farm-raised vixen with a predilection for murder by pitchfork. This time, West explores her youth, focusing on how her environs and lovelorn family dynamic transform her into the villain we later meet in X. Read More

Victorian Love Lives Matter in Pampered, Prissy, Punctuated ’EMMA.’

February 27, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Amber Anderson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Autumn de Wilde, Callum Turner, Emma, Jane Austen, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

Thank Black Phillip that Anya Taylor-Joy accepted the devil’s bargain to live deliciously, otherwise we would have been spared the scrumptious spreads of Emma’s delectable buffet of baked goods and mouthwatering treats. From the nimble macaron to the towering croquembouche, just gazing at the saccharine foodstuffs of Autumn de Wilde’s Jane Austen adaptation is enough to give the viewer a diabetic flair-up. Read More

Robert Pattinson Becomes An Astronaut Dad Aboard Spacey Psychosexual ‘HIGH LIFE’

April 10, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Claire Denis, Geoff Cox, High Life, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert Pattinson Leave a comment

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, United States prisoners became the victim of scientific research the country over. A new golden age of scientific progress demanded countless scores of human lab rats to test medications, creams, deodorants, etc. on and who better to experiment with than a captive population with rock bottom demands for their participation. The new film from French filmmaker Claire Denis is a response to the age of the Stanford Prison Experiment as High Life blasts a vessel loaded with death row criminals into the stratosphere to see what happens. But even that minimalist description can’t set the stage for what is in store with this hairy meditation on humanity and scientific progress. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE SURVIVALIST’

May 18, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Martin McCann, Mia Goth, Olwen Fourere, Stephen Fingleton Leave a comment

Survival’s a bitch. Especially without food. The Survivalist‘s is a world of starvation. Between puffs on a harmonica and longing gazes at a photograph of a mysterious woman, our nameless protagonist, a wild-eyed, wilder-haired feral cat of a farmer, struggles to make do in a land where human populations have flamed out, spiraling after the crash of oil production, leaving in their wake a scourge of scavengers desperate for food and willing to go any lengths to get it. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘A CURE FOR WELLNESS’

February 7, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged A Cure for Wellness, Dane DeHaan, Gore Verbisnki, Horror, Jason Isaacs, Justin Haythe, Mia Goth, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

Part screeching psychological thriller, part squealing body horror (and part total insanity), Gore Verbisnki‘s A Cure for Wellness pairs David Cronenberg to Shutter Island, adding a dash of Looney Toons to cherry-top this fantastical madcap chamber piece. Weighing in at a whooping 146 minutes, the big budget horror-thriller penned by Justin Haythe shifts a deliberately-paced creeper into a balls-to-the-walls sadistic sleeper hit, cranking its bat-shit absurdity high enough to break off the dial and cackling like a madman as it does so.    Read More