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‘EVIL DEAD RISE’ Splatters the Screen, Breathing Fresh Blood into Lovingly Demented Franchise

In the realm of horror, few franchises are as steeped in blood-soaked lore as Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. The latest entry, Evil Dead Rise, cleverly distills this iconic universe’s brutal charms while simultaneously stirring in a fresh batch of viscera. This isn’t just a rehashed resurrection; it’s a blood-thirsty demon rebirth, both reverential and innovative. Much like a vinyl record that keeps spinning, this franchise seemingly has an endless groove of gory goodness. Read More

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Existential Dark Comedy ‘BEAU IS AFRAID’ is Unhinged, Overlong, Hysterical 

Reeling from the death of his iconoclast mother, an emotionally stunted, mentally ill man must traverse to her funeral in Ari Aster’s oft-indescribable dark comedy, Beau is Afraid. Aster frames the journey as if he were Homer himself, making for a melodramatic and depraved comedy of errors turned familial nightmare, stuffed to the brink of bursting with pure orchestrated chaos. Shocking, subversive, and very often hilariously funny, the genre-defying A24 feature stars Joaquin Phoenix as the titular Beau, a man for whom the pressures of the world are quite overwhelming. The film plays like What About Bob as remade by the director of Hereditary, but as an Oedipal fever dream. It’s a lot thematically. It’s a lot structurally. It’s a lot from a performance-perspective. It’s just a lot of movie. And most of it is pretty brilliant. Read More

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Army Commercial ‘GUY RITCHIE’S THE COVENANT’ Fails to Explore Anything of Value

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, stylized as written, with the director’s name in the title, for reasons unknown, is the kind of movie that feels the needs to define what “covenant” means for its audience. This takes place not in the opening moments, but as a punctuation mark to the whole affair. As if the intended audiences is so unfamiliar with the dictionary that they don’t even understand the definition of a seventh-grade vocab word. And yet would still show up to see a movie called The Covenant. I’m sorry, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant.* This fact becomes even more bewildering the more we dig into what this alleged “action-thriller” is actually about and what its apparent intention is. Read More

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‘RENFIELD’ Is a Cringy Husk of a Vampire-Comedy

In a world where the utterly iconic What We Do in the Shadows exists, it’s a real affront to the entire motion picture medium that a hacky, low-brow vampire-farce like Renfield somehow passes muster and makes its way onto our screens. Reanimating the corpse of the Dracula story for this “horror-comedy” – one that’s notably short on both horror and comedy – director Chris McKay (The LEGO Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War) mashes together the lowest common denominator (demon-inator?) of both genres to make something that is almost entirely devoid of charm, joy, and a pulse. Read More

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‘AIR’ is Supremely Likable But Short of a Slam Dunk

Ben Affleck’s unlikely sports drama Air is a surprisingly involving, often very funny piece of corporate histrionics. The Amazon Studios and Warner Brothers coproduction about Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) and Nike’s risky venture to land a contract with hotshot NBA rookie Michael Jordan in a bid to invigorate their failing basketball sneaker line isn’t the kind of movie that pops on paper but under Affleck’s steady hand, it’s a verifiable upset of a feature. Read More

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‘JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4’ and Why You Don’t Get Sick of the Wick

What is a John Wick movie? A confluence of neon-lit backdrops, thumping EDM kill music, a stony Keanu Reeves hacking through monosyllabic dialogue, and more minutes of gun-fu action choreography than most other movies have just plain minutes, John Wick has become a genre unto itself. A John Wick movie is just that: a John Wick movie. And this John Wick movie, John Wick: Chapter 4, is the most John Wick of them all. Read More

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Grizzly ‘COCAINE BEAR’ Is Barely Even a Movie 

With the aptly titled Cocaine Bear, there is indeed a bear who is on cocaine. If that’s all you’re looking for from a movie like Cocaine Bear – a bear on cocaine who attacks humans – I guess this ought to satisfy those bare minimum requirements. If however you’re looking for things like three-dimensional characters, well-written bits, or even basic movie logic, you’ll find Elizabeth Banks’ film pretty, well, barren.    Read More

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INFINITY POOL is a Hedonistic Descent into Vacation Goblin Mode

“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

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Soggy ‘AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER’ A Gateway Drug for the Return of 3D

After thirteen years, countless production delays, and allegedly tectonic technological leaps forward, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally here. And it’s… fine. This long-awaited but not-that-anticipated sequel to the highest grossing movie of all time reintroduces audiences to the world of Pandora and the Na’vi people who occupy its lands and oceans. The second film in a planned total of five films, The Way of Water features some groundbreaking tech advances but for a three-plus hour movie, the plotting is notably sparse, the characters are weak, and it feels very much like a middle chapter. Read More

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A Bit Naughty, A Bit Nice, ‘VIOLENT NIGHT’ Lives Up to Its Aggressive Holiday Title 

There is perhaps no man in Hollywood who more perfectly exemplifies the idyllic dad bod than David Harbour. There’s something inimitable about his physique – not quite towering at 6’3” but still imposing; a man of considerable mass. From his turn in the mega-hit Netflix series Stranger Things to roles in Black Widow and as the titular figure in Neil Marshall’s ill-fated Hellboy reboot, Harbour leans into the physicality of his characters. It informs his intimating demeanor – or is just cheaply poked at for “fat jokes” (for shame Marvel, for shame.) Even when playing a gritty version of Oscar the Grouch on an SNL digital skit, Harbour imposes. Read More