SUNDANCE 2020: Rebecca Hall Is Next Level Good in the Scariest Ghost Story in Years: ‘THE NIGHT HOUSE’

January 26, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Ben Collins, David Bruckner, Evan Jonigkeit, Horror, Luke Piotrowski, Rebecca Hall, Reviews, Sundance 2020 2 Comments

On darkness, Nietszche offered, “He who fights monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back into thee.” The Night House, an expertly-crafted, terrifying ghost story with a towering lead performance from Rebecca Hall, takes this sentiment to heart. Hall is Beth, a widow hoping to understand her husband Owen’s (Evan Jonigkeit) shocking suicide, diving into the dark recesses of his cell phone and discovering more than she bargained for. Glimpsing the abyss beyond, Beth confronts a terrifying, mutually exclusive truth: either ghosts exist or there truly is nothing waiting for us beyond this mortal coil. Read More

SUNDANCE 2020: Giggly Horror-Comedy ‘SCARE ME’ Finds New Ways to Tell Old Stories

January 25, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Aya Cash, Chris Redd, Josh Ruben, Rebecca Drysdale, Reviews, Scare Me, Sundance 2020 Leave a comment

A startlingly original and stripped-down madcap horror-comedy about the terrors of the creative process, Scare Me manages to find a fresh entry point to a well-trodden subgenere by asking, simply: what do we want from horror? What is the draw of scaring ourselves – be it with Joe Hill novels, Ari Aster movies, or Ryan Murphy TV shows – and how is any good horror story crafted? These are the ideas that interest Scare Me, a horror-comedy in the tradition of oral storytelling. The film, which leans more towards comedy than horror, follows two writers and new acquaintances in Fred and Fanny, both eloping from society to far-flung snowy cabins to hack out the next horror story sure to terrify the world. Read More

SUNDANCE 2020: ‘COME AWAY’ Scrambles Its Fantasy Fiction, Fails to Appeal to Both Adults and Kids

January 24, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Angelina Jolie, Brenda Chapman, Come Away, David Oyelowo, Jordan A. Nash, Keira Chansa, Marissa Kate Goodhill, Reece Yates, Reviews Leave a comment

Escapism is at its best when it allows audiences to step away from the troubles of their lives. To make away to a magical land where fairy dust extends the power of flight, kids stay kids forever and crocodiles do away with malevolent hook-handed nemeses. Come Away is no such escapism. Scrambling up the mythology of Sir James Matthew Barrie and Lewis Carroll, the film geared predominantly towards children attempts to tell a magical realism-inspired, wait for it, meditation on grief and losing a child…intended for children. Read More

SUNDANCE 2020: Well-Intentioned Slam Poetry Misfire ‘SUMMERTIME’ Has Zero Commercial Appeal

January 24, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Carlos López Estrada, Reviews, Summertime, Sundance 2020 Leave a comment

With Blindspotting, new director Carlos López Estrada emerged onto the scene with a distinct and fiery voice, delivering a knockout primal scream of a film that laced the power of spoken word into a poignant and brilliantly-acted Oakland gentrification satire. In his sophomore feature Summertime, Estrada has bungled almost everything that worked so well in his first outing, delivering an amateurish variety show that leans much too heavily on disparate young voices within Los Angeles slam poetry community coalescing into a Crash-like ensemble of random interconnectivity. Read More

‘THE GENTLEMEN’ Review

January 24, 2020 by Pedro Schwarzenegger Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Guy Ritchie, Matthew McConaughey, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The Gentlemen Leave a comment

THE PLOT: Bear with me while I untangle the plot into a more manageable narrative. A California kid (McConaughey) with a penchant for dealing weed and a nasty temper rises through the UK underworld to become the greatest dope peddler the British Isles have ever given immigration status to. But when he goes to sell his, rather substantial, operation to a diffident American billionaire (Strong) other parties want in. Namely a brigade of bloodthirsty Chinese nationals who won’t take no for an answer. Read More

‘UNDERWATER’ is Peak Incoherent January Hollywood Flotsam

January 9, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adam Cozad, Brian Duffield, John Gallagher Jr. Jessica Henwick, Kristen Stewart, Out in Theaters, Reviews, T.J. Miller, Underwater, Vincent Cassel, William Eubank Leave a comment

The first month of every year may start with resolutions about self-improvement, working out more, sleeping more, eating better and the like, and yet the new offerings at the movie cineplexes are more reliably junky than any other time of year. Underwater is peak January movie; a bungled poof of a plot, shoddy direction, feckless characters, unimpressive production work. It’s movie empty carbs, devoid of any nutritional value or artistic takeaway. The kind of movie you can throw in the pile with the other countless shameless impressions of Alien (alongside 2017’s super lame Life) that fundamentally misunderstands what makes that movie oh-so-great. Read More

FYC Capsule Review: ‘JUST MERCY’

December 17, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brie Larson, Destin Daniel Cretton, Jamie Foxx, Just Mercy, Michael B. Jordan, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tim Blake Nelson Leave a comment

A punched-up Lifetime movie with a laudable cast, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy is a courtroom procedural where the message burns brighter than the filmmaking. A predictable affair with limited emotional stopping power, and one that plays by a very familiar rulebook, the third film from the Short Term 12 filmmaker follows a young civil rights defense lawyer played decently by Michael B. Jordan (who may have been a bit miscast here) who comes to the defense of convicted felons on Alabama’s death row. Just Mercy struggles to connect by virtue of its uninspired path-following nature, the movie cruising along on autopilot without ever really justifying what makes this particular story work as a feature film. This kind of filmmaking flourished in the 90s but just feels out of place and rearview mirror-y in 2019. Strong performances from Jamie Foxx and Tim Blake Nelson make the film almost worthwhile, though starlet Brie Larson has little more than a nothing role. All and all, Just Mercy is just meh. (C) Read More

FYC Capsule Review: ‘BOMBSHELL’

December 10, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bombshell, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

Like Adam McKay before him, Jay Roach has shifted from the world of comedy to that of the didactic and politically-tinted American drama and with the effective and affecting Bombshell, his transformation is complete. The film follows a number of women working at Fox News under Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) as details emerge about the newsman’s sexual misconduct. With Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie all on the marquee, the acting is the center showpiece here, with Theron in particular embodying controversial conservative reporter Megan Kelly to an almost-frightening degree. The makeup and prosthetic work cannot be underplayed. The film can be challenging to watch as it puts Ailes’ disgusting behavior into hyper-focus and details the emotional fallout inflicted upon his victims, who have to weigh professional aspirations against their emotional well-being. Roach manages to synthesize a message in a bottle film with all the window dressings of a flashy drama and everyone, particularly Fox News devotees, should be forced to take a hard look at what goes on behind these particular curtains. (B)

FYC Capsule Review: ‘RICHARD JEWELL’

December 8, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Clint Eastwood, Out in Theaters, Paul Walter Hauser, Reviews, Richard Jewell, Sam Rockwell Leave a comment

Clint Eastwood can’t hide his absolute disdain for the media in cogent but flat biopic Richard Jewell, which tells the story of a low-rent security guard who stumbles across a bomb. Under the scrutiny of the FBI and media (45’s biggest domestic adversaries), Richard Jewell’s heroic act is twisted to look like the act of a deranged false flagger. The film boasts a few solid performances, especially from the always reliable Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in the title role, but features a super problematic depiction of Trump-approved #FakeNews media sources, who are absolutely unscrupulous in their fact reporting and give precisely zero fucks as to the collateral damage of false reporting. Were this all in service of a sturdy biopic, it might be easier to overlook the full-breasted dog-whistling but Richard Jewell remains too hostage to predicability to rise above the troubling political undercurrents raging through Eastwood’s latest. (C) Read More

FYC Capsule Review: ‘PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE’

December 7, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adèle Haenel, Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

Céline Sciamma’s simmering Portrait of a Lady on Fire burns with a quiet feminine passion. In 1770, two young women confront love and lust in each other’s arms, as a professional relationship lapses into forbidden romance. Sciamma’s film is delicate but shot with undeniable fury, the evocative and stately cinematography particularly burning off the celluloid. Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant bring a low-broiling chemistry to their taboo union that’s impossible to deny, the handsomely-shot period piece rich in emotional texture, digging into its singular and provocative romance with great nuance and care. No moment is spared, no furtive glance wasted, nor are the emotional stakes heightened to flashy levels in Héloïse and Marianne’s sumptuous unfurling of affection. Try to watch and not feel a bit on fire yourself. (B)