Author: BO

“The Wild Robot” is an adaptation of a beloved 2016 book from author Peter Brown, who has a few excellent literary creations to his name. It’s an adventure story with a huge heart, making it an easy fit for an animated interpretation, with the creative challenge handed to writer/director Chris Sanders, who’s done marvelous work on features such as “How to Train Your Dragon” and “The Croods.” “The Wild Robot” is a fine addition to his filmography, with the helmer offering a graceful, colorful understanding of the parental experience with the effort, blended with plenty of explorer-based action. The learning ways of a machine in the middle of alien terrain isn’t fresh storytelling territory, but Sanders preserves Brown’s tale of connection and survival, making an exciting and heartfelt offering that finds the right areas of character tenderness as it deals with a somewhat unwieldy plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Jon Watts was once a man of independent cinema, trying to make his mark with B-movies like “Clown” and 2015’s “Cop Car.” He was eventually sucked into the Marvel Studios machine, ending up as the helmer of two wonderful “Spider-Man” pictures and one decent one, getting used to working with enormous budgets, large casts, and slick visuals. After spending nearly ten years in the Marvel trenches, Watts is back on his own with “Wolfs,” only he’s not returning to the days of low-budget filmmaking, just smaller-scale storytelling. Glossiness remains with the feature, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt reteaming to play aging underworld fixers enduring a long night of mistakes after a seemingly simple job goes all kinds of wrong. Watts has star power and a tempting premise, and it’s interesting to watch him return to more intimate interactions between gruff characters. However, while entertaining, “Wolfs” only finds real creative inspiration during its first half, where the situation is fresh, hostilities are brewing, and confusion is nicely stoked. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Just last year, John Woo’s “Silent Night” attempted to pull off a revenge tale with little to no dialogue, relying on the performers to physically communicate all the feelings as a violent odyssey was explored. Now there’s “Azrael,” which goes without dialogue for 99% of the endeavor, also examining terror and determination as plans of vengeance and survival skills are tracked. It’s the newest film from director E.L. Katz, who made a strong impression with 2013’s “Cheap Thrills,” only to lose some career momentum with 2017’s greatly disappointing “Small Crimes.” He’s back in fighting form with “Azrael,” joined by screenwriter Simon Barrett (“You’re Next,” “The Guest”) for this blunt study of self-preservation, with the production putting its faith in star Samara Weaving to deliver all the panic involved in this tale of one mute woman’s mission to protect what little light remains in her bleak existence. It’s a hostile, suspenseful picture, and it pulls off its central gimmick quite well as matters intensify for a character who can’t scream. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Lee” represents a rare directorial outing for Ellen Kuras, a well-regarded cinematographer who previously worked extensively with Michel Gondry, including her lauded effort on 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Instead of remaining in the surreal, Kuras goes to real-world horrors with the picture, which examines the World War II experience for photographer Lee Miller, who went into the event with a sense of purpose and duty, coming out the other side fully battered by all that she witnessed, trying to share the depths of doom. It’s not a full bio-pic, but a chunk of Miller’s existence, with screenwriters Liz Hannah, John Collee, and Marion Hume working to adapt a book about the subject’s time, written by Antony Penrose. “Lee” isn’t a large-scale war film, but Kuras finds her way into the shocking elements of the conflict, doing a successful job detailing how such exposure managed to change Miller’s life and career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Kerry Bellessa has been here before. In 2012, the helmer pieced together “Amber Alert,” going the found-footage, no-budget route with a tale of hot pursuit and everyday horrors. The feature didn’t work, becoming one of the worst films of its release year. Strangely, Bellessa is out to try again, returning to the material with a new take on the same premise of strangers in a car suddenly caught up in a child abduction emergency. The production has ditched cinema verité this time out, going dramatic with a new “Amber Alert,” with stars Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams tasked with keeping things tense as an average day suddenly turns into race against time for their characters. Bellessa and co-writer Joshua Oram do a little better with the basics of the idea, yet, once again, it all falls apart in the end, with the tale beginning as a decently suspenseful manhunt, only to become a dreadful horror movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Empire Waist” is an offering of empowerment cinema, aiming to reach young viewers with a display of empathy that’s not particularly easy to find these days. Writer/director Claire Ayoub makes her feature-length helming debut with the picture, and she’s not out to create a sophisticated overview of high school bullying and self-esteem challenges. She’s painting with primary colors here, with hopes to sweep viewers into a story of teens with self-worth issues trying to find some level of confidence as themselves while the outside world wants them to conform to their standards. The message is wonderful, and while “Empire Waist” is a little shaky when it comes to dramatic urgency, Ayoub has her heart in the right place with the endeavor, also doing well with a spirited cast that brings some flavor and authenticity to the film, handling the material’s ideas well. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard to be precious about 1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby.” It’s a classic horror film, but certainly not an untouchable one, and Hollywood has done the work to cash in on the brand name, creating a made-for-T.V. sequel in 1976, and a miniseries with Zoe Saldana debuted in 2014. Heck, even original author Ira Levin wanted in on the action, concocting a literary follow-up in 1997’s “Son of Rosemary.” Producers try again with “Apartment 7A,” which directly connects to the original feature, acting as a prequel of sorts, though for most of the run time, it’s more of a remake. Thankfully, co-writer/director Natalie Erika James (who impressed with the slow-burn nightmare of 2020’s “Relic”) has some ideas to share with the picture, which carries its own unsettling atmosphere. It’s not as stunning as the ’68 effort, but “Apartment 7A” delivers on atmosphere and acting, capably sustaining the world of “Rosemary’s Baby.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Never Let Go” is a mystery, but it’s often trying to be a scary movie to help engage viewers with film elements they’re more comfortable with. Screenwriters Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby have a story to share about family issues and learned behavior, setting up a gothic study of survival focused on a mother struggling to protect her two young sons from an undefined evil in a potentially post-apocalyptic world. Director Alexandre Aja (“Piranha 3D,” “Crawl”) has the unfortunate task of pushing to make one kind of film while the writing is looking to develop another. The helmer gives the picture a nice boost of backwoods mood, and initial scenes of threat are capably handled, but “Never Let Go” starts to fall apart the longer it delays the inevitable, becoming a chore to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a little while since a filmmaker attempted to play with the particulars of the body horror subgenre. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat (2017’s “Revenge”) takes the challenge quite seriously with “The Substance,” which is an audacious endeavor that transforms the relationship between youth and aging as it pertains to the Female Experience and turns it into a battle of flesh-poking, fluid-draining escalation. The feature is a juicy one, handed a thorough Euro-cinema treatment by the helmer, who’s out to turn stomachs with this visceral understanding of self-loathing and fame. “The Substance” gets ugly, quite often, and it doesn’t really know when to quit, but it mostly stuns as a display of outstanding makeup effects and mysterious atmosphere. And star Demi Moore delivers complete submission to Fargeat’s vision, giving one of her all-time best performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Bernardo Britto returns to the world of time travel with “Omni Loop, going where many, many filmmakers have gone before. He’s choosing the “Groundhog Day” route, following the actions of a woman who can access a week into the past via a mysterious pill, allowing her to replay the days before her own demise. Britto has the stuff of a gripping thriller, but he refuses to pursue it, instead laboring to get emotional with the material, inspecting the heaviness of regret as the main character confronts the decisions of her past. “Omni Loop” isn’t about a ticking clock or a race to deny destiny. It’s much softer than that, with Britto really going for the heart while periodically playing with fantasy events. This patience doesn’t always create riveting cinema, but the movie endeavors to have a soul, making it more sensitive than the usual time travel feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter April Wolfe (2019’s “Black Christmas” remake) arranges a small-scale tale of pressure with “Clawfoot.” The film takes place in a single location, working with a strange situation of routine confrontation to get its juices flowing, aiming to create suspense out of a perplexing meeting between a housewife and the aggressive contractor looking to install a bathtub in her immaculate home. Wolfe relies on mystery, portioning out pieces of information meant to tempt viewers with this study of strange hostility. Director Michael Day (making his feature-length helming debut) supports the mission with a gradual tightening of the vise, pushing stars Francesca Eastwood and Milo Gibson to explore an insane battle of wills. “Clawfoot” makes it to the midway point in decent shape, summoning suspense and encouraging interest in where this tale is ultimately going. It’s the destination that’s quite disappointing, rendering the endeavor an uneven and unsatisfying viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Hounds of War” is a film that walks and talks like many other B-movies in the marketplace. It stars Frank Grillo, who’s currently making a living taking any job that comes his way, always portraying tough men in dire situations of survival and revenge. It’s directed by Isaac Florentine, who’s also made a career out of low-budget actioners, recently helming “Seized,” “Acts of Vengeance,” and “Close Range.” There’s not a lot of originality to the endeavor, which studies the drive of a pained mercenary in one-man-army mode, seeking vengeance on those in political power who’ve destroyed his last hope for a happy future. Entertainment value is the hope here, not dramatic engagement, and “Hounds of War” has just enough of a kick to get by, with Florentine working to inject as much physical conflict as possible to turn an otherwise generic thriller into something passably diverting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com