Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang was one of the more impressive foreign film nominees last Oscar season. But Mustang wasn’t the film she really wanted to make. It was her 2011 screenplay that evolved into Kings, a story that focuses on one non-traditional family’s struggle during the 1991 LA riots. Landing two big stars (both former […]
You might wish you never really watched Lynne Ramsey’s latest film You Were Never Really Here. Her first film since Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), she has a thing for long titles. My first reaction to this film, which debuted unfinished at Cannes in 2017 to standing ovations, was one of annoyance. For the
I was just thinking the other day, you know what we really need, a sequel to that forgettable 2008 horror film starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler. The Strangers: Prey at Night has a new cast, director, and filmmakers. This sequel (feels more like a reboot) is about as hollow a film as you might
Liberals (if they buy a ticket) will say Eli Roth’s new film, a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish, is advocating gun violence. Conservatives will cheer at the screen as Bruce Willis character takes justice into his own hands, grinning as he splatters brains. The police and Chicago are the real losers
What the trailer makes look like a comedy is surprisingly very sad. From writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) comes another ambitiously vulgar, sarcastically brilliant script that audience’s familiar with his work will admire. His screenplays are always the highlight of the film, due to their provocative language, and I don’t just mean curse
Remember that 2008 film Hero Wanted with Cuba Gooding Jr? Yea, me either, but that hasn’t stopped stuntman and occasional director Brian Smrz from delivering yet another forgettable action flick. Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (Maudie, Boyhood) is the only element here that even provides this cheap action flick with a chance at a theatrical audience,
If you like paying additional money to see the exact same movie you have already watched, the John Wick sequel is the perfect movie for you. Reeves and his stunt director from “The Matrix Trilogy” return for Chapter 2, which picks up right where the 2014 film left off. The opening sequence is loud, violent
In the first of two potential comeback vehicles for disgraced Oscar winner Mel Gibson, Blood Father is a throwback to cheesy 90’s action flicks. “You can’t be a prick all your life and then just say never-mind,” Gibson’s character says. In the film’s opening moments, featuring our beef jerky skinned, main character in group therapy
The second semi-mainstream western of 2016 offers a bit more excitement than Natalie Portman’s Jane Got a Gun. The Duel, comes to us from Kieran Darcy-Smith who is predominately a television director. The western reunites Hunger Game co-stars Woody Harrelson and Liam Hemsworth, in a classic battle of good and evil. From the violent opening
I’m often asked what types of films I like. I usually explain that there isn’t a type, but a quest for something original, unique, different, that’s what impresses me. However, here is an example where a far reaching first time filmmaker, Ilya Naishuller (called the next Tarantino) debuts an entirely innovative and unconventional presentation, and