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Benson and Moorhead’s ‘SYNCHRONIC’ A Grizzly, Drug-Induced Time Travel Mission 

Hard-drinking New Orleans EMT Steve (Anthony Mackie) is having a hard go of it. In addition to a recent brain terminal cancer diagnosis, his line of work keeps putting him face-to-face with a series of strange and horrific accidents, such as a guy run through with a ceremonial sword, a raving woman with an anachronistic snake bite, and a man found dismembered down an elevator shaft with a grin stretched across his face. A stark reminder of his impending demise, the series of grizzly deaths seem connected to a new designer drug called Synchronic, from which the new film from visionaries Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead takes its name.  Read More

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‘THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7’ A Timely, Effective But Unremarkable Courtroom Trial

Aaron Sorkin lives and dies by the legal pen. Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s within his characters’ puffed-up political proceedings or as they finesse through complex legalese is the writer-turned-director’s bread and butter. As a writer, no one can alchemize technical jargon and otherwise boring statistician noise into storytelling gold quite like Sorkin. Within the exhibits of his great successes, nothing towers higher than The Social Network, though dedicated fans of The West Wing would gladly point to that popular and long-standing series as the high watermark of his career.  Read More

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NIGHTSTREAM 2020: ‘DINNER IN AMERICA’ Is An Aggressive Outsider Love Story That’s Punk As F*ck

Before punk officially died, it traversed the Midwestern suburbs. Rebellious teenagers found solace in the head-banging misanthropy of the music, what with its promotion of anti-establishment ideals and the “fuck you mom and dad” messages raging through boomboxes nationwide. Patty (Emily Skeggs) isn’t what you would traditionally call “rebellious” but the punk lives within her. Gangly, geeky and clumsy, she moshes quietly in her room. Patty squirrels this part of herself away from her ultra-square conservative family but when convict punk-rocker Simon (Kyle Gallner) bursts into her life like the Kool-Aid Man, everything changes.  Read More

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Brilliantly Offbeat ‘KAJILLIONAIRE’ A Singular Work of Weirdo Wonder 

Everyone wants to be a kajillionaire but not Robert (Richard Jenkins), Theresa (Debra Winger) and Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Woods). They just want to skim enough off the top to make ends meet. And skim they do. From mail theft to check forgery, stealing bottles of Voss from the First Class section to hawking free massage coupons, this nuclear trio of grifters is always on the scent of their next scam. But with the clock ticking on a $1,500 debt, the criminal parents turn to a new recruit, taking an outsider under their wing to one-up their grifts, much to the chagrin of the socially awkward Old Dolio.  Read More

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‘ANTEBELLUM’ Connects the Dots Between Black Past and Present

It was all a dream. A nightmare rather. But co-writer and director Gerard Bush ran with the nightmare nonetheless, developing his vision of a slave named Eden with co-writer and director Christopher Renz into the provocative, pointed and somewhat problematic dystopian thriller that is Antebellum. Antebellum, which refers to the period right before a civil war (especially the American Civil War), is a movie with a lot on its mind.  Read More

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A Family Plagued by Ambition Suffers Silently In Brooding Drama ’THE NEST’

It wasn’t until about halfway through The Nest that I started to question what the latest film from Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) was really about. Best described as an uncomfortable familial drama, Durkin’s feature is set in the high-stakes world of status chasing. Perched in the periphery of a patriarch’s quest for large sums of money from his Trans-Contential business dealings, The Nest’s emotional center is a family suffering the ambitions of a father and his vacuous pursuit of wealth and status.  Read More

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X-Men Franchise Dies A Final Death With Disposable Super-Teen Flick ‘THE NEW MUTANTS’

Fox’s often venerated (and occasionally lampooned) X-Men quasi-continuity goes out with a whimper with the young-adult-led nonstarter that is The New Mutants. The 20-year old franchise has seen watermarks high and low, witness to its share of failed entires (The Last Stand, Origins: Wolverine and Apocalypse to name a few offenders) balanced out by a handful of genre-defining classics (X2, First Class, Logan). At the end of the era comes not a new low so much as a defeated shrug, as there has never been an entry that felt more identity-drained and inert than Josh Boone’s final death knell. But that’s not necessarily the sole fault of the writer-director.  Read More

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Blockbusting Bore ‘TENET’ Revels In Nolan’s Worst Instincts

Christopher Nolan’s fascination with time as a storytelling variable is well-documented throughout his filmography. In his breakout indie hit Memento, the story of John G and his murdered wife ran backwards with consecutive scenes taking place before what we have just watched; with Inception, dreams within dreams meant that different levels of the film’s universe occurred at different speeds creating a kind of temporal layer cake; and most recently, Dunkirk saw a major military event unfold over land, sea, and air in a matter of a week, a day and an hour, respectively, the various timelines intersecting and blending into one another. And the less said about Interstellar, wherein Nolan got all mushy over time and love, the better. This obsession with time as a resource and narrative centerpiece has finally gotten the best of Nolan in Tenet, an overblown blockbuster absolutely suffocated by tricks, bloated by exposition and wholly lacking in a human touch.  Read More

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Suburban Sci-Fi ‘VIVARIUM’’s Solitary Metaphor Is Stretched Way Too Thin

“I don’t like the way things are. It’s horrible.” Little did Vivarium screenwriter Garret Shanley know how piercing this sentiment might be when his film about a couple forced into seclusion was released. No one could have predicted that in the midst of the film’s rollout, the world over would be forced into mandated seclusion. Schools shuttered. Concerts, political rallies, and festivals pinched off. Everyone shut into their whatever square footage their budget affords. At least Jesse Eisenberg’s Tom and Imogen Poots’ Gemma have access to toilet paper. Read More

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Inflammatory and Ultraviolent ‘THE HUNT’ Triggers Both Sides of the Aisle 

Originally scheduled for release in September of last year, Craig Zobel’s satirical modern spin on “The Most Dangerous Game” factored political divisions into the equation to decidedly contentious results. The Hunt became so controversial that its release was pulled indefinitely when the President (in a totally characteristic ego trip of a move) slammed the film, calling it “a tremendous disservice to our country” and threatening that “we’re going to be very tough with them.” Soon after, the death threats came flying.  Read More