Out in Theaters: ‘DAMSEL’

July 16, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Damsel, David Zellner, Mia Wasikoska, Nathan Zellner, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert Pattinson, Zellner Bros Leave a comment

Absurdist indie western Damsel puts a feminist spin on the genre, smuggling jet black gallow’s humor into this romance-tinged quest for love lost. The Zellner have long cherished strangeness and it comes in no shortage here. Quirky and well-acted, Damsel is a call and response to the Westerns of yesteryear, a full-brunted hard-left on familiar genre tropes that is quite often darkly funny and dramatically tragic. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SKYSCRAPER’

July 11, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chin Han, Dwayne Johnson, McKenna Roberts, Neve Campbell, Noah Taylor, Out in Theaters, Pablo Schreiber, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Reviews, Roland Møller, Skyscraper 1 Comment

In Downtown Seattle, there’s a domed glass structure that looks like a 1950s Golden Age of Futurism projection of our time. A triptych of balls, the Amazon Spheres provide a delightful looking respite from the high-rise steel jungle, an indoor botanical garden/none-too-subtle genital compensation contest winner for the richest man in the world, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Construction began in 2015 and concluded earlier this year and despite this new beacon of glass and greenery, plopped squarely in the midst of the city, access is strictly restricted for public use. It’s a verdant beacon of exclusivity and class status. We must watch from outside. Often in the cold or rain. I think I might relish seeing it aflame. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE FIRST PURGE’

July 3, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Gerard McMurray, Horror, James DeMonaco, Joivan Wade, Lex Scott Davis, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Rotimi Paul, The First Purge 1 Comment

There’s a moment in The First Purge where Isiah (Joivan Wade), a young African American teetering on the brink of breaking bad, wanders down an alleyway. His eyes are illuminated a ghastly blue, irises cloaked in live-stream contact lens there to capture the experimental first night of legalized murder. Any newsworthy POV footage documented for mass distribution is met with “financial compensation”, as is remaining in the kill zone. As Isiah hunts a leaky junkie by the name of Skeletor (a crazed and wildly watchable Rotimi Paul), a multitude of different colored lens peer at him, stalking his moves. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘OCEAN’S 8’

June 7, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anne Hathaway, Awkwafina, Cate Blanchett, Gary Ross, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Ocean's 8, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Rihanna, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson Leave a comment

The king is dead, long live the queen. With the apparent demise of George Clooney’s smug, square-chinned Danny Ocean, kid sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock) has taken up the family mantle of thievery, having cooked up the perfect jewel heist while locked in a state penitentiary for the past five years. There’s double-crosses, jobs within jobs, slick montages, and a brand new bag of femme fatales to get to know but Ocean’s 8 is very much an offshoot of the popular rebooted franchise brought to life in the early 2000’s. Read More

SIFF ’18 Capsule Review: ‘DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT’

June 6, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Don't Worry, Gus Van Sant, He Won't Get Far On Foot, Jack Black, Joaquin Phoenix, Reviews, Rooney Mara, SIFF 2018 Leave a comment

Recovery is a marathon not a sprint, not that the snarky wheelchair-bound protagonist of Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry would be able to stand for either. Telling the true story of celebrated, irreverent Portland cartoonist John Callahan, from his reckless drinking days to his untimely paralysis to his long tenure at AA, Van Sant’s latest is a hopeful salvation saga sprinkled with un-PC delights lead by a powerful Joaquin Phoenix performance. Lippy but uplifting, Don’t Worry crutches on a jumbled timeline that can make the narrative feel sloppy and untethered but is harnessed by a message of preservation in the face of all obstacles. Jonah Hill is raw as a flowy flaxen-haired sponsor amidst a standout supporting cast. (B) Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘HEREDITARY’

June 4, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged A24, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, Ari Aster, Best of 2018, Gabriel Byrne, Hereditary, Horror, Milly Shapiro, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Toni Collette 1 Comment

Every once in a blue moon, there comes a horror movie that’s legitimately capital-T terrifying. One that’ll cause your eyes to dart around the dark stillness of the theater at the smallest creak. One that’ll hitchhike a ride home with you to invade your dreams; an unabortable mental pregnancy. One whose delirious imagery will burn into your cranium as if doused in paint thinner and struck by a match. I am happy to report that A24’s Hereditary, dear readers, is just that kind of movie. It’ll take your damn head off. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES’

May 31, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alex Sharp, Elle Fanning, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell, Neil Gaiman, Nicole Kidman, Out in Theaters, Philippa Goslett, Reviews, Ruth Wilson Leave a comment

John Cameron Mitchell is a man of many talents, talents which erupted in 2001 when he wrote, directed and starred in to-be cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a devilishly stylish, strictly adult, anti-musical about a transgender punk-rocker from East Berlin. Mitchell has flexed his filmmaking muscles infrequently since, his most notable follow-up work being 2010’s sorrowful study of marital grief, the well-regarded Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. With his latest work, the somewhat over-named How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Mitchell exercises a different set of sinew, stretching into unfamiliar territory – new-age punk-rock sci-fi – in an effort that reaches for the stars but comes up a parsec short. Read More

SIFF ’18 Capsule Review: ‘RUIN ME’

May 25, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Horror, Marcienne Dwyer, Preston DeFrancis, Reviews, Ruin Me, SIFF 2018, Trysta Bissett Leave a comment

This concept horror from Preston DeFrancis tries to combine the shlocky guesswork of a whodunnit in with the craze of Escape Rooms to middling effect. When ex-addict Alexandra (Marcienne Dwyer) accompanies boyfriend Nathan on Slasher Sleepout, the orchestrated haunt becomes menacingly real and the pair must fight for survival. Some of the narrative twists work but the acting is standard C-list horror subpar, the practical effects disappointing, and the scares lacking entirely. The script from DeFrancis and Trysta Bissett is loaded with bromides and jump-to-conclusions dialogue as well as some hare-brained endgame mustache-twirling that comes across as more tasteless and off-putting than brutal and brilliant. (C-) Read More

SIFF ’18 Capsule Review: ‘BEAST’

May 23, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Beast, Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Michael Pearce, Reviews, SIFF 2018 Leave a comment

This moody slow-burn from writer-director Michael Pearce is a psychosexual tone-poem of quiet desperation. On a reclusive island, Jessie Buckley’s misfitted Mal falls for Pascal (Johnny Flynn) who just so happens to be the chief suspect for a string of heinous murders perpetrated against the communities’ women. Pearce’s seductive romantic thriller plays a tantalizing game of cat and mouse, teasing the audience with an eerie soundscape and an off-axis visual palette. Buckley is a find as Mal, offering a full-charged performance and a different breed of leading lady. (B) Read More

SIFF ’18 Capsule Review: ‘SORRY TO BOTHER YOU’

May 22, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Armie Hammer, Lakeith Stanfield, Reviews, SIFF 2018, Sorry to Bother You, Steven Yeun, Tessa Thompson Leave a comment

Sorry to Bother You is on its own level of strangeness. Like stranger than tentacle porn strange. Bold, experimental, and loaded with rich, cryptic and powerful themes of the African American and working-class experience, Boot Riley has crafted a sashimi raw, energetic manifesto exploding with purpose, despite flaws. Seeing Lakeith Stanfield’s lackadaisical mystique dominate a lead role is a joyous experience but the film’s attempts at comedy can sometimes be too broad, even when rooted in razor-sharp satire. Going places you will never in a million years anticipate, STBY is rich with strange soul and sickening twists and turns, smuggling “white voice” and meta-human rights in to challenge audiences in this not-to-be-ignored creationist tale that tackles new racial epitaphs and demented sociopolitical hierarchies. (B) Read More