Category: Film Review

Last year, director Alexandre O. Philippe (“The People vs. George Lucas”) issued “Memory: The Origins of Alien,” which strived to understand the creation of the 1979 horror classic without peeling back all the layers of the filmmaking process. It was an elusive documentary and unsatisfying overall, coming across as more of a college lecture than an unmissable breakdown of production achievements and cultural imprint. Philippe is back with “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist,” and he’s still in a philosophical mood, attempting to approach an iconic picture from a few different angles, breaking the home video supplement routine. With “Memory,” Philippe had actors, widows, and historians, and he still didn’t manage to get beneath the skin of his subject. With “Leap of Faith,” he has Friedkin, a blunt director who’s always interested in a chance to talk about himself, bringing his distinct personality to the endeavor, with Philippe wisely sticking with his subject, refusing to go elsewhere to analyze the making of 1973’s “The Exorcist.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2018, writer/director Aneesh Chaganty made an industry splash with “Searching,” one of a few computer desktop-based thrillers to pop in in recent years as more and more filmmakers turn to the secrets of technology to inspire chills. “Searching” won praise from audiences and made some money at the box office, proving there was interest in the helmer’s way with tightly confined terror and paranoia. He’s moved past the CPU and cell phones, but Chaganty remains in tight spaces with “Run,” which returns him to the fury of disoriented parents and their concern for children, only here he’s masterminding more of a Hitchcockian viewing experience. The feature only deals with a handful of characters and a situation of domestic clarity, but the production gets the material going with imaginative set pieces and interesting sinister business. It runs out of gas in the final act, but “Run” is quite the ride for its first hour. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a long time since actor Stephen Dorff has delivered an alert performance. He’s been working the B-movie circuit for some time, flirting with a few softer diversions (including Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere”), but he’s mostly stuck with playing hardened guys in criminal situations. For “Embattled,” Dorff is once again tasked with portraying a nasty human being, but the screenplay by David McKenna (“American History X,” “Blow”) doesn’t permit the character to act as flypaper for cliches, putting in the effort to create dimensions for a seasoned MMA fighter struggling with ego and anger issues, gradually recognizing the emptiness of his life. The role is a perfect fit for Dorff, who gives one of his finest performances, and it’s a strong film overall, exploring forms of violence and neglect, but also taking a look at the true formation of masculinity and family. There are plenty of hard hits and trash talking, but “Embattled” goes beyond the sport’s aggression to grasp the wounded hearts in play. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sound of Metal” began life long ago with director Derek Cianfrance, who was working on an idea concerning a heavy metal drummer experiencing the life-altering event of hearing loss. The concept was eventually gifted to “The Place Beyond the Pines” co-writer Darius Marder, who makes his helming debut with the picture. It’s quite a first shot fired for Marder, who’s searching for a way to communicate one man’s immersion into the deaf community after a life lived with complete loudness and, in some cases, recklessness. There’s frustration to spare in the feature, which is carried by a powerful performance from Riz Ahmed, who’s tasked with turning anger and confusion into a screen journey that offers no easy answers. “Sound of Metal” has restlessness and definite opinions on technology, and when Marder taps into the pure behavior of personal growth, he makes a hypnotic film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Jackie Chan movies produced in China rarely make their way to American theaters anymore, but “Vanguard” is hoping to offer western audiences a little eastern amplification, delivering an impressively action-packed viewing experience starring a man known for his smashmouth entertainment. In reality, Chan takes more of a supporting part in the endeavor, which reunites him with director Stanley Tong, a frequent collaborator, playing a leadership role in a supercop tale that aims to be globetrotting and explosive. The plot is not exactly the priority here (the celebration of Chinese New Year seems to be the production’s goal), providing only some mild complication for what becomes a series of chases involving good guys and bad guys, with Chan popping into view on occasion to slap stuntmen around. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Girl” is a Canadian production about the American deep south. The details of the setting are a little off, but so is everything in film. Writer/director Chad Faust wants to create something noir-ish, with a touch of southern gothic tossed in for taste, but he mostly ends up with a muddled take on fracture family relations with intermittent violence. “Girl” doesn’t have dramatic muscle to lift the endeavor, with Faust stuck going broad to give the picture the emphasis it needs. Instead of creating menace, the effort mostly underwhelms, dealing with hammy performances and static situations, which doesn’t inspire the depiction of mental illness and physical fatigue Faust seems to be reaching for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2017, director Christopher Landon brought “Happy Death Day” to screens, reworking the plot of “Groundhog Day” to fit the needs of slasher cinema, making a hit movie that played well with young audiences. Delighted to have a financial success to his name, Landon returned to the well less than two years later for “Happy Death Day 2U,” which wasn’t a hit, grossing half of the original film’s take. Hunting for another familiar idea to transform into a ghoulish ride, Landon turns “Freaky Friday” into “Freaky,” fiddling with the body-swap concept to inspire a new round of broad comedy and bodily harm. Landon isn’t pushing himself with the endeavor, which plays at basically the same level as “Happy Death Day,” blending campiness and carnage for a more R-rated viewing experience that frequently teeters on the edge of obnoxiousness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The power of fantasy drives the story of “Dreamland,” which inspects a young man’s very real connection to his deepest desires, suddenly realizing all that’s required for a life lived with adventure and excitement. Such a sobering take on wish-fulfillment is scripted by Nicolaas Zwart, who makes his feature-length debut with the film, blending the escapism of pulp fiction with the hangover of responsibility. The material is interesting, analyzing the creation and breakdown of legends, and director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte brings style to the endeavor, manufacturing a period mood of desperation to best motivate troubled characters. “Dreamland” has atmosphere and a slightly different approach to the deconstruction of heroism, offering viewers tight introspection and games of trust as the picture moves back and forth between drama and suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director David Freyne made an impressive debut a few years ago with “The Cured.” It was a different take on zombie cinema, turning a pandemic setting into a refreshingly dramatic understanding of characters caught up in an extraordinary situation. Freyne returns with “Dating Amber,” and he loses his horror interests this time out, electing to study the frustrations and fears of two gay teenagers struggling to hide their true selves from friends and family. In a way, the two pictures have a few ideas in common, and Freyne once again showcases a gift for creating vivid personalities. There’s a seriocomic tone to the production that isn’t always smoothly communicated, but “Dating Amber” has a distinct understanding of the stakes involved in the story, with the helmer extremely protective of his lead characters as they experience all sorts of difficulties and tests of courage on their way to finding themselves in the big, scary world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Penelope Lawson is looking to play into modern comedy trends with “1 Night in San Diego.” She’s made a raunchy comedy that tries to be loose and funny with bawdy characters, sending them on an overnight run of mischief around the titular city. The playfulness of the feature is available in the early going, where Lawson has her freshest ideas and the cast gets used to the tone of the effort. “1 Night in San Diego” doesn’t sustain such energy, but it makes a positive impression overall, offering lively performances from leads Jenna Ushkowitz and Laura Ashley Samuels, and Lawson keeps the weirdness reasonably amusing, offering another night-on-the-town take on comedic chaos that scores just a bit more than it misses. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The physical brutality of “Fight Club” is handed a makeover for “Chick Fight,” which surveys the blood, sweat, and tears of an underground brawling club. A serious study of bare-knuckle liberation and cult formation is jettisoned for the new movie, which tends to play as more of a comedy, hoping to bring laughs to a chilling premise. Director Paul Leyen tries to bring some low-budget style to the endeavor, and screenwriter Joseph Downey labors to sustain character development between scenes of women beating the stuffing out of one another, yet “Chick Fight” has some wily energy to offer with a few sizable laughs. Downey can’t resist the comfort of cliché to complete the picture, but he has some fun along the way, and the cast’s enthusiasm for the material certainly helps the cause, especially when staleness sets in. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writer/director Seth Savoy makes his feature-length directorial debut with “Echo Boomers,” setting out to inspect the state of the millennial nation with this tale of bad deeds orchestrated by frustrated characters. The production tries to go topical with the plight of the wandering twentysomething, exploring how workplace denial and the weight of debt transform purity of intent into bad deeds done in the name of entitlement. There’s probably a documentary to be made about the subject, or even a dramatic undertaking with a real sensitivity to the ways things are for an entire generation. Unfortunately, Savoy chooses to make a valentine to Gen Y ingenuity with “Echo Boomers,” and he uses the hoariest of gangster cinema cliches to piece it together. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

How long ago was “Dead Reckoning” shot? Production was in full swing when Barack Obama was the U.S. President, that’s how old the picture is. And there’s a good reason for its substantial delay, as there’s little use for a half-speed thriller with a teen romance angle in the marketplace, forcing the producers to VOD-ize the title (the film was previously called “Altar Rock”) and emphasize the participation of B-movie action star Scott Adkins, who’s not in the feature for very long. Pandemic release scrambling has brought “Dead Reckoning” to audiences, and they don’t deserve such punishment, with the feeble, personality-free endeavor doing next to nothing with elements of terrorism and personal loss, finding director Andrzej Bartkowiak asleep at the wheel while the effort drags from one scene to the next. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2005, writer/director Thomas Bezucha brought “The Family Stone” to screens. Pre-release anticipation was limited, with the feature sold as yet another dysfunctional holiday gathering comedy. Once the picture made it to theaters, it revealed itself to be a deeply moving study of character and emotion, overcoming its gaudy “wrapping” to be a perennial Christmas Day watch for many fans. “Let Him Go” has the same issue, sold as a stern revenge story concerning a custody entanglement between midwestern families, only Bezucha isn’t making that movie. He’s more interested in the feelings and frustrations involved in the fight, spotlighting the relationships in play as longstanding unions are tested in full. “Let Him Go” is an examination of marriage and parenthood, and the helmer takes his time with this adaptation of a Larry Wilson novel. The reward for patience is a chance to spend time with richly defined characters, outstanding performances, and, when the moment comes, exquisite suspense. Once again, Bezucha surprises in the best possible way with one of 2020’s best films. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The plight of the working mother is taken to the extreme in “Proxima,” which highlights one woman’s quest to preserve her dream of becoming an astronaut while managing the needs of her young daughter. It’s a common tale of stress and perceived defeat handed fascinating magnification by co-writer/director Anna Winocour, who contrasts the bigness of the job with the routine of care, exploring all the anxieties and concerns that come with the position of raising a tiny human while detailing the growth of a space explorer. “Proxima” doesn’t entertain melodrama, with Winocour preferring to study the pain of dual responsibilities, maintaining compassion for both sides of the domestic arrangement with a balanced screenplay. She cares for the characters, and the heartache and admiration shows in the picture, which spotlights a trip to the stars, but remains refreshingly earthbound when it comes to human response. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

And you thought you were having a bad day. Imagine being one of the characters in “Triggered,” waking up after being gassed, realizing that a special bomb-laden vest has been strapped to your body, ready to explode at any moment, made part of a sick game. And then imagine being an actor in the picture, forced to madly improv your way through a wafer-thin script by David D. Jones (in his first produced work) while director Alastair Orr (“House on Willow Street,” “Indigenous”) forgoes the arrangement of shots, preferring to treat the camera like a kickball in an attempt to create visual energy out of next to nothing. And then imagine watching the feature, which is absurdly coarse for no reason, filled with poorly realized characters and a half-baked premise, often teasing the idea of becoming a parody of a horror film before it suddenly snaps back to being serious. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s nothing in “Jungleland” that hasn’t been seen before. It’s another tale of boxing involving distressed characters, with a central sibling relationship that brings nothing but misery to the both of them. Co-writer/director Max Winkler (“Ceremony,” “Flower”) thinks he has a version of “The Fighter” on his hands, but “Jungleland” isn’t that passionate about personality and working-class blues. It’s riddled with cliché and oddly managed, while miscasting is a consistent issue with the feature, tasking a trio of English talent to inhabit participants setting out on the warped new way to the American Dream. Winkler tries to keep “Jungleland” meaningful and gritty, but there’s little presented here that’s sincere, with the movie extremely comfortable with formula, diluting intended power. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard to believe “Napoleon Dynamite” came out 16 years ago, offering a quirky take on outcast glory, sold with suffocating idiosyncrasy, which helped the feature dominate pop culture conversations for the rest of the year. Writer/star Christina Parrish and director David Howe hope to bathe in the same murky waters of peculiarity and emphasis with “Call Me Brother,” which plays like a tribute to the inexplicably beloved Jared Hess picture, delivering a short amount of time with very odd people as they struggle with basic human behaviors. Parrish gives the material considerably more sexuality, enjoying the awkwardness of teenage lust, but she doesn’t do much else with the effort, which isn’t big on story and can’t decide if it wants to be funny or disturbing, often electing to be both at the same time, which isn’t a good idea for such a thinly conceived endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Co-writers Joe Marcantonio and Jason McColgan try to summon the spirit of early Polanksi with “Kindred,” which shares a great deal in common with “Rosemary’s Baby” and a few other paranoid offerings from the director. Marcantonio also makes his feature-length helming debut with the endeavor, aiming to give the audience a deliberately paced ride of panic and despair, hoping to reach a dark psychological space with the movie, which deals intimately with imprisonment and manipulation. “Kindred” isn’t a particularly long picture, but it could still do with another editorial pass, with Marcantonio trying a bit too hard to prove himself with dreamscape imagery and prolonged suspense, missing a chance to manufacture an impressive nail-biter with real snowballing potential. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Last year, “Brightburn” attempted to subvert the superhero cinema norm, taking the low-budget route to detail the creation of a supervillain in a real-world setting. It had the right idea, tweaking “Superman” formula, but the execution was off, resulting in a lumpy mess of comic book worship and horror interests. “Mortal” isn’t the same movie, but the Norwegian production has a similar plan to position the incredible in the middle of the mundane, turning attention to Norse mythology for a twisted take on an origin story. Andre Ovredal, director of “Trollhunter” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” offers a far more enigmatic and interesting version for superhuman distress with “Mortal,” impressively managing the strange and the electrifying with an unusual exploration of one man’s traumatic awakening to a possible god-like future. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com