Category: Film Review

Writer/director Jim Cummings won critical raves and cult viewership with his last endeavor, 2018’s “Thunder Road,” and he’s back two years later with “The Wolf of Snow Hollow.” Continuing his interest in the wilds of mental illness, parenthood, and law enforcement, Cummings tries on a genre film for size, examining the pressures felt by a man on the edge who’s dealing with family failures, police mishaps, and the possible existence of a wolfman on the loose. The helmer brings a darkly comic edge to the effort, which introduces a wonderfully strong sense of danger with monstrous happenings, only to gradually drift away from such a compelling source of danger and grisly mystery. Cummings is after something a bit more nuanced and dramatically probing with “The Wolf of Snow Hollow,” which might disappoint horror hounds, but the reward is a feature that’s unexpected and unpredictable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been many documentary deconstructions and dramatic interpretations of the Chicago Seven, with all sorts of filmmakers digging into the madness of the judicial and political system experienced by seven (originally eight) men on trial for their part in the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots in Illinois. It seems 2020 is an ideal time to revisit elements of the trial and its idiosyncratic defendants, with the case examining abuses of power at a law enforcement and Presidential level, capturing the restlessness of a country inching toward chaos. The event is also catnip to writer/director Aaron Sorkin, with the collection of personalities and confrontations gifting him a chance to present a loquacious reexamination of the facts through fiction, generating a high-energy overview of courtroom maneuvering and injustice, also dissecting the behind-the-scenes legal chess game. “The Trial of the Chicago 7” may be a bit too familiar and user friendly at times, but if there was ever a moment to take it all in again, it would be now. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have be a great number of films that’ve chased the cinematic high 1988’s “Die Hard” provided viewers. The knockoffs have been varied in premise and tone, and it’s wild they’re still being churned out to this day. “The Doorman” is the next offering of one-person-army action in a single setting, only instead of paying tribute to the John McTiernan masterpiece, screenwriters Lior Chefetz and Joe Swanson basically remake the feature with their vision of multi-floor antagonism inside an apartment building. The similarities are alarming (let’s hope the lawyers aren’t watching), but try as they might, the writers can’t capture that singular viewing experience with this low-budget effort, which pits diminutive Ruby Rose against an army of thieves, using every John McClane trick the production can repurpose to provide some cheap thrills to viewers who, hopefully, haven’t seen “Die Hard.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to the Blumhouse” makes another attempt to turn Blumhouse Productions into a household name for horror. Partnering with Amazon Studios, Blumhouse delivers four films for streaming distribution, looking to clear out a few older titles from the company closet. The second offering of the series is “The Lie,” which is a remake of a 2015 German production, with writer/director Veena Sub transferring austere European storytelling to snowbound Canada, hoping to get a little more atmospheric mileage out of the premise. “The Lie” asks some compelling questions about the evil nature of children and the reverberating destruction caused by a parental breakup, but Sub only has ridiculous answers to offer viewers with her remake. Instead of challenging her audience, the helmer manages to trigger major eye-rolls with the writing, destroying a picture with a provocative introduction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to the Blumhouse” makes another attempt to turn Blumhouse Productions into a household name for horror. Partnering with Amazon Studios, Blumhouse delivers four films for streaming distribution, looking to clear out a few older titles from the company closet. First up is “Black Box,” a television movie that takes viewers into the depths of an unsettled mind as it attempts to understand the trauma it suffered and the memory loss that sustains. There are no particulars scares to be found in the endeavor, with co-writer/director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. looking to make a more psychological impact with the picture, which tries to get something going with a talented cast and an initially intriguing exploration of a broken brain that perhaps shouldn’t be repaired. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The story behind the making of “The Planters” is perhaps more interesting than the film itself. In 2016, friends Hannah Leder and Alexandra Kotcheff decided they wanted to make a movie, only they weren’t interested in outside interference. Gathering equipment and a few additional actors, the partners became the crew, taking on camera and sound duties while providing lead performances. It’s a sort of DIY production, a rare one that isn’t a documentary, and “The Planters” emerges with a level of creative freedom that’s only born out of complete independence. The feature isn’t quite as bold as expected, with Leder and Kotcheff clearly enamored with Wes Anderson and his cinematic world of deadpan humor and decorated frames, working extremely hard to replicate the vibe for their own offering of strange things happening to stranger people. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Sofia Coppola doesn’t strike me as a filmmaker who wants to repeat herself, but in the years since her grand success with 2003’s “Lost in Translation,” she’s struggled to find heart and soul that came so effortlessly with that picture. Recently, she’s pushed her abilities with the gothic chiller “The Beguiled,” and toyed with the unpleasant world of rich kids in “The Bling Ring,” but her latest, “On the Rocks,” seems like an attempt to get back to the aura of “Lost in Translation,” reteaming Coppola with Bill Murray for another melancholy look at relationships. It should come as no surprise to read that “On the Rocks” is the helmer’s best feature in some time, with Coppola finding a game cast and using the atmosphere of New York City to support a charming but pointed look at familial influence, marriage, and parenthood, finding new ways to examine traditional matters of the heart. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Brandon Cronenberg is the son of celebrated director David Cronenberg, and he seems intent on maintaining the family business of creating bizarre features with incredible imagery. In 2012, Cronenberg made his debut with “Antiviral,” a sinister tale of obsession and extreme fandom that put him on the map in terms of macabre visions. He’s taken his time, but Cronenberg returns with “Possessor,” which builds on the educational experience of “Antiviral,” presenting a new story of characters altering their minds and bodies, only here there’s slightly more emotionality to the viewing experience. However, the helmer hasn’t gone soft, overseeing a sexually graphic and ultraviolent descent into sci-fi madness, kept fascinating through committed performances and Cronenberg’s wonderfully perverse vision for psychological and corporeal corruption. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Spontaneous human explosion isn’t a common subject for cinematic exploration, dealing with the horrible concept of life in full being snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Of course, there are offerings such as “This is Spinal Tap” that’ve used the event to add unusual comedic potential to projects, but “Spontaneous” isn’t interested in being silly. Writer/director Brian Duffield (“Underwater,” “The Babysitter”) hunts for a more human way to deal with heavy emotions pertaining to grief and new love, using a borderline sci-fi story to bring it all to life. “Spontaneous” is a strange feature, but one that successfully maintains a difficult tonal balance as it covers troubling areas of confusion. There are busting bodies everywhere in the movie, soaking the characters in blood, but Duffield maintains control of intimacy, which is exactly what this weird tale needs. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2020 has introduced some extreme weirdness into our lives, coming through with constant surprises. I doubt few could’ve predicted the film year would involve the release of a comedic remake of “Sudden Death,” a 1995 “Die Hard” riff starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Losing the original star, the producers bring in a different tough guy, Michael Jai White, to topline another tale concerning the terrorist takeover of a sporting event, forcing one security guard to protect an arena of spectators and his children. Van Damme’s thriller involved hockey playoffs, but “Welcome to Sudden Death” is about a basketball game – a sport that doesn’t even have a sudden death tiebreaker scenario. Careful attention to detail is missing from the do-over, which isn’t too concerned with polish, instead trying to give the VOD audience and their already lowered expectations a cheap-looking ride of fights and one-liners. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When it comes to low-budget horror entertainment, having a few familiar faces around certainly helps to keep attention on the screen. For “The Call,” the production hires Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell to handle acting duties for the endeavor, with director Timothy Woodward Jr. wisely using his stars as much as possible before the feature is handed over to a younger, decidedly less seasoned cast. The bump in professionalism helps, but “The Call” isn’t worth saving, with writer Patrick Stibbs doing an adequate job setting up a disturbing story of punishment from beyond the grave, but the payoff is limited at best, recycling haunted house ideas and thinly defined psychological trauma to launch a fright film that doesn’t have much of a bite. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Rising Hawk” takes its inspiration from an 1883 historical fiction book by Ivan Franco, a Ukrainian author, which was previously explored in a 1971 production. For a new take on an old tale, director John Wynn focuses on upping the intensity of the war story, simplifying conflicts to connect with the audience, giving the material a slight “Braveheart” makeover. While other productions have attempted to deliver sword-and-arrow adventure, “The Rising Hawk” is unexpectedly successful with its offering of violent action and tensions between Carpathian Mountain villagers and an invading Mongol army. It’s basic in many respects, but the picture has an appealing handle on B-movie action and emotional content, while the performances find the vibe of the production with refreshing ease, supporting the effort with enjoyable thespian intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Seth Larney offers some gloom and doom for today’s audience with “2067,” which represents his attempt to create an epic sci-fi story about the end of the world. Missing from the endeavor is scale, with Larney losing budgetary dollars after an evocative first act, soon transitioning the tale into a time travel mystery, hoping to satisfy viewers with a brain-bleeder concerning one man’s visit to his future. The helmer isn’t exactly achieving anything original with “2067,” which starts off strong while focusing on a ruined Earth and a relationship facing an incredible challenge of separation. Larney can’t sustain what works well for the picture, which eventually becomes a video game-esque adventure that loses interesting elements of discovery as it goes on for much too long and without proper thespian support. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Despite a 13-year-long break from box office performance, director Darren Lynn Bousman has managed to keep working, remaining in the horror genre, where the budgets are usually low and the distribution deals are marginally profitable. He’s not an inspired architect of doom, riding his early success with the “Saw” franchise into forgettable efforts such as “Abattoir,” “St. Agatha,” and “The Barrens.” He returns to spooky stuff yet again with “Death of Me,” and despite the presence of three screenwriters and 20 producers, Bousman is basically remaking “The Wicker Man,” hitting similar beats of dread and community coercion. “Death of Me” has the benefit of an exotic locale in Thailand and a story that details early confusion with a found-footage-y twist, but there’s little presented here that’s original or even all that interesting, with the script running out of ideas long before the movie reaches its climax. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s probably not the best time to release a movie that depicts frontline health care workers as corrupt, depraved individuals bent on harming their patients, but “12 Hour Shift” isn’t a documentary. It’s a low-budget, darkly comedic thriller from writer/director Brea Grant, who’s in the mood to deliver something slightly twisted with the picture, offering time with dim-witted, addicted, and diseased characters dealing with a particularly active night inside an Arkansas hospital. “12 Hour Shift” isn’t sharply made, missing a roaring engine of chills and near-misses that normally accompanies such a viewing experience. Grant is trying for something more offbeat and unsteady, clearly enjoying a chance to play around with bad people and buckets of blood. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Eternal Beauty” comes from writer/director Craig Roberts. He’s best known as an actor, appearing in the television show “Red Oaks” and movies such as “Neighbors,” “Submarine,” and “Tolkien.” He’s been in the business for quite some time, starting out as a kid, and now he’s trying to make something happen behind the camera, previously helming 2015’s “Just Jim,” and now he’s presenting the claustrophobic viewing experience of “Eternal Beauty.” A look at the winding ways of a paranoid schizophrenic woman and her family ties, the picture enjoys keeping the audience immersed in self-destructive behavior, with Roberts searching for the glory of empowerment in the darkest corners of the human mind. He hires top talent to realize such immense pain and confusion, and slams a visual stamp on the project, but this is a tough film to watch on many levels. It’s a respectable attempt to visualize mental illness, but asking people to sit through 105 minutes of restless hell is a big ask from Roberts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

An artist to her core, director Julie Taymor seldom makes movies, but when she does she puts in a muscular effort to visualize the extremes of drama and music. Taymor hasn’t made a feature since 2010’s “The Tempest,” making “The Glorias” a rare event, and one she clearly doesn’t want to overwhelm with her usual gusto. It’s the bio-pic for author and feminist Gloria Steinem, with writers Taymor and Sarah Ruhl adapting the icon’s 2015 autobiography, “My Life on the Road,” trying to transform an extensive list of experiences into a single picture. It’s not an easy task for the pair, but they come up with inventive ways to connect four eras from Steinem’s life, celebrating her accomplishments and leadership while feeling the pain of her upbringing. It’s a long haul at 150 minutes, but “The Glorias” is immensely respectful of its subject, with Taymor muting her need for bombast to craft a loving portrait of a woman who changed the world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While primarily dealing with intense dramas and topical thrillers, Jessica Chastain has attempted to expand her range in recent years, taking on a few genre pictures to seek new creative challenges and beef up her box office draw. Last year, Chastain participated in “Dark Phoenix” and “It: Chapter Two,” and for 2020, she takes control of “Ava,” an actioner that also finds the actress in a co-producer role. Reminiscent of the Europa Corp heyday of slick bruisers with unlikely stars, “Ava” strives to deliver a stunt show with plenty of character layering to help give the brawling some substance. Chastain is a good fit for this style of steely aggression, and the film does well with family ties and professional paranoia, giving the titular assassin plenty to deal with while destroying enemies. However, not everything works in the endeavor, and when it hits the wrong note, the script (by Matthew Newton) threatens to ruin the whole viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The messy art of revolution and the origins of a movement are charted in “Misbehaviour,” which recounts the efforts of the Women’s Liberation Movement as they attempted to disrupt the Miss World 1970 beauty pageant. The screenplay by Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe is based on a true story from 50 years ago, but it plays into topics of equality and objectification that remain in play today, creating a fascinating look at attitudes and offenses. Director Philippa Lowthorpe (“Call the Midwife” and “The Crown”) maintains a period look and guides a number of strong performances, but the core experience of “Misbehaviour” is unrest, watching those who dream of a better, more just world setting their sights on a British television institution, and, wisely, the writing manages to understand both sides of the argument while still remaining supportive of a team of twentysomething women and their battle to bring equality to England. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Miranda July enjoys making very strange movies about universal issues concerning relationships, but she hasn’t been around in quite some time. She won cult appreciation with 2005’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” and pushed her eccentricities to the breaking point in 2011’s “The Future.” July is back with “Kajillionaire,” which is a more mainstream effort from the artist, who hasn’t shed her obsessions with idiosyncrasy, merely muting them to a certain degree with her latest offering, which examines the eternal struggle of family from the POV of a young woman who doesn’t understand her precipitous situation. “Kajillionaire” is unusual, which is the July way, but it’s certainly the most approachable offering in her limited filmography, with much to share on the camouflaged ways of familial abuse and the healing power of love. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com