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Overwhelming ‘WARFARE’ A Gonzo Descent into Garland’s Hellish Sandbox

Warfare, the immersive Iraq War survival thriller from Navy SEAL veteran and first-time filmmaker Ray Mendoza and co-writer/co-director Alex Garland, is a blisteringly intense procedural experience. On one hand, it’s an incredibly effective piece of transportive filmmaking, one that leans into both the numbing banality of war plans and its most barbaric excesses. Told through a real-time, boots-on-the-ground POV, the film drops us alongside a platoon of Navy SEALs tasked with infiltrating a seemingly innocuous position and establishing a sniper nest. That’s all the context we’re given. No grander mission, no tie-in to some greater geopolitical scaffolding. Just a squad, a target, and a whole lot of code words. Which may very well be the point: a war without meaning, with boys playing at war. Read More

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‘DEATH OF A UNICORN’ a Satirical Creature Feature that Beats the Dead Horse

When uptight compliance attorney Elliot (Paul Rudd) drags his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) on an out-of-state business trip, what was meant to be a major career opportunity takes a turn for the absurd: they hit a unicorn. In a moment of panic (or probably just impatience), Elliot bludgeons the moaning mystical creature to death and stuffs its bleeding corpse into the rental’s trunk. But not before Ridley touches its horn, forming a vague, E.T.-style bond with the mythical beast. Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘DETROIT’

On the night of July 25th, 1967 two factions coalesced on the Algiers Motel. A small contingent of African American men weathering the storm of Detroit’s 12th Street Riots, and a platoon of enraged white cops looking for the person/persons who fired a gun at their patrol from a window of the motel.

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Out in Theaters: ‘THE REVENANT’

Not since Jim Caviezel hitched himself to a cross and got struck by lightning playing JC himself has an actor suffered so mightily for his craft. Enter Leonardo DiCaprio, the heir to Mel Gibson’s “they killed my family, I will have my revenge” throne. In The Revenant, DiCaprio plays a guide for a fur-trading company who survives a savage Indian assault, is brutally mauled by a mama grizzly, finds himself  stitched up like the Necronomicon, left for dead and buried alive all before dragging his ass across a frigid tundra hot on vengeance’s trail. Read More