Category: Film Review

In 2014, screenwriter Karen Maine made her debut with “Obvious Child,” creating richly defined characters and absolutely crushing an intimidating tonal challenge with a story that touched on abortion. Maine graduates to the director’s chair for “Yes, God, Yes,” and she’s not taking it easy on herself, this time taking at a look at the sexual curiosity of a teenage girl attending a Catholic school retreat. Much like “Obvious Child,” Maine has a special talent for understanding the specifics of people in deep with their own issues, managing dramatic clarity and hilarious offerings of comedy along the way. “Yes, God, Yes” is small picture (running just over 70 minutes), but Maine creates a vivid ode to the perils of adolescence, especially from a female perspective. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Marjane Satrapi found her voice in the art of graphic novels. She won acclaim and awareness with her work on 2000’s “Persepolis,” eventually bringing the book to the screen (with Vincent Paronnaud) in a 2007 animated picture, which went on to great success, even claiming an Oscar nomination. She continued in the medium for 2011’s “Chicken with Plums,” which was also based on her writings, and now she returns with “Radioactive,” which is a live-action adaptation of a 2010 graphic novel by Lauren Redniss. Instead of manufacturing a formulaic bio-pic of Marie Curie and her brilliant mind, Satrapi tries to remain respectful of the source material, making a periodically dreamlike film that mixes in bits of history while studying Curie’s behaviors, hoping to understand the singular drive of a woman who wanted to change the world and receive credit for her work, coming up against an establishment that had little tolerance for her personality, while matters of love threatened to fog scientific exploration. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hollywood once made a movie about the board game Battleship, so the idea of creating one about a snack food for children isn’t too outrageous. Directors Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft set out to make something memorable with “Animal Crackers,” turning crunchy treats into a world of magic, musical showmanship, and numerous offerings of villainy. It’s a very strange picture, but not without inspiration, presenting a noticeable amount of backstory and world-building to expand fairly straightforward source material. “Animal Crackers” is budget animation, but Bancroft and Sava make a clear attempt to do something with the work, creating an exciting, brightly colored family film, besting admittedly low expectations for cracker-based entertainment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Feel-good cinema receives a new offering in “Fisherman’s Friends.” After the recent release of “Military Wives,” here comes another U.K. tale of an unlikely musical success, presenting those in the mood for comfortable entertainment with a mild ride of fish-out-of-water comedy, family ties, and business world deviltry. And there’s plenty of music to help lift the production up. “Fisherman’s Friends” isn’t going to wow with originality, and thankfully director Chris Foggin has managed to preserve some level of charm, delivering a frightfully predictable but aimable movie that’s incredibly easy on the senses. There are a few laughs, an engaged cast, and big, clear vocal performances, which help to distract from a connect-the-dots screenplay that has no discernable interest in providing anything more than what the audience expects from a cheery good time with characters from a quaint corner of the world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Retaliation” has endured a long road to release. It was shot five years ago, surfacing at 2017 film festivals as “Romans,” and it finally makes its North American debut in 2020, arriving with an angry title and a trailer that sells the feature as some type of British crime saga, emphasizing the brutality of the picture to hook viewers in the mood for a slice of revenge cinema. Well, “Retaliation” isn’t that movie. At all. What’s actually here is a brooding, reflective study of trauma, examining one man’s response to a reunion with the priest who raped him when he was a boy. The tale’s not about punishment, it concerns the long road to some semblance of forgiveness, staying true to its religious interests and character-based drama. War isn’t welcome here, with screenwriter Geoff Thompson supplying a theatrical-style inspection of profoundly painful psychological erosion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Amulet” marks the directorial debut for Romola Garai. An actress managing to sustain a career over the last two decades, Garai has worked largely in supporting roles, honing her craft with emotionally stunted characters, and perhaps she’s best known as the poor, unfortunate soul who was selected to become the next Baby for 2004’s “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.” Making an effort to take command of her professional opportunities, Garai steps into the pilot’s seat for “Amulet,” a horror feature that has bits of the grotesque and the unknown, but mostly wants to comment on the troubling ways of toxic men and their destructive habits when riding around in full white knight mode. Garai invests in mood, and she takes her time with the picture, which doesn’t end up as anything much more than a demonstration of her abilities behind the camera, and that fails to impress. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Painted Bird” is an adaptation of a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosinsky. The book, once celebrated for its stark material concerning the Holocaust, has fallen into controversy over the years, with Kosinsky accused of inventing the autobiographical tale, filling it with horrors he never experienced. Such a troubling publishing history doesn’t throttle Vaclav Marhoul’s passion for the material, making a considerable effort to bring unthinkable physical and psychological violence to the screen. “The Painted Bird” is a vivid picture that inspects human cruelty with alarming directness, perhaps making it the most specialized viewing experience of 2020. It’s not a film for everybody, and those who choose to spend nearly three hours with numerous acts of dehumanization are offered a reasonably defined journey into survival and trauma. Marhoul can’t help himself at times, but he’s mostly on target when it comes time to attach meaning to a relentlessly suffocating feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Marketing efforts for “Easy Does It” push the image of co-star Linda Hamilton, who’s the largest face on the poster and the biggest name in the film. There’s a reason for this, of course, as nobody would see the picture without Hamilton’s participation. Sadly, the actress is only in the endeavor for roughly 10 minutes, leaving the rest of the movie to writer/director Will Addison as his furious need to prove himself with his feature-length helming debut. He blasts the screen with color and grain, and keeps his characters nervously chatting away, trying to adrenalize a DOA offering of criminal interests. “Easy Does It” tries to be obnoxious instead of incisive, mangling some kind of message on dwindling hope for the American Dream, asking audiences to stick with a noise machine that fails to become the grimy romp it so dearly wants to be. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

My experience with director David Wnendt dates back to 2013’s “Wetlands,” where he attempted to merge emotional pain with cinematic textures, trying for shock value to help pull attention toward an otherwise underwhelming film. There was an Adolf Hitler fantasy idea in 2015 (“Look Who’s Back”), and now Wnendt returns to more intimate dealings with “The Sunlit Night.” While hardly the rowdy endeavor “Wetlands” was, Wnendt’s latest shares similar ideas and interests, this time blending in misery involving the world of art, striving to follow one woman’s exposure to growth in a remote corner of the world. “The Sunlit Night” has glorious Norwegian locations to survey, and star Jenny Slate tries to get something going with a considered performance. It’s Wnendt who stands in the way of the movie, weirdly obsessed with derailing his own storytelling efforts with a feature that’s scattered and possibly unfinished, often pursuing subplots by accident. It’s a mess, but it’s lovely to look at. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Tom Hanks has spent a large portion of his acting and producing career making sure stories from World War II are told with the utmost attention to realism and honor. With projects such as “Band of Brothers” and “Saving Private Ryan,” Hanks has reinforced his dedication to the veteran experience, trying to highlight the sacrifices of service and might of bravery. With “Greyhound,” the actor returns to duty in a wartime naval adventure, also taking on screenplay responsibilities with this adaptation of a 1955 C.S. Forester novel (“The Good Shepherd”). Hanks brings along his customary concentration on the steeliness of leadership, joining director Aaron Schneider to create a riveting oceanic battle of skill and ammunition, offering viewers a taut viewing experience that doesn’t have much use for anything that isn’t directly tied to the central mission of protection and survival. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1966, on a bet, filmmaker Harold P. Warren tried to make his own horror picture armed with almost no money, spare sets, and a cast of amateurs. When “Manos: The Hands of Fate” premiere, it was greeted with laughter (an unwelcome reaction to a scary movie), soon falling into obscurity. In 1993, the classic television show “Mystery Science Theater 3000” selected “The Hands of Fate” for the full riff treatment, striking comedy gold with one of their finest episodes, soon putting the forgotten endeavor back into cult circulation. Suddenly, there was interest in Warren’s disaster, resulting in merchandise sales, a re-riffing from the heroes at Rifftrax, and a years-long restoration of the original workprint, bringing the effort back to its original theatrical presentation. And now, in the tradition of “Showgirls 2: Penny’s from Heaven,” comes “Manos Returns” — a sequel nobody asked for, reuniting viewers with Torgo, Debbie, and The Master (sort of), with co-writer/director Tonjia Atomic making something slightly silly to beat potential mockers at their own game. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Palm Springs” is co-produced by Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, better known as the comedy trio The Lonely Island. The feature is even introduced as a “Lonely Island Classics” production (a funny riff on Sony Pictures Classics). And yet, “Palm Springs” doesn’t provide the same comedic jolt as earlier efforts, such as “Hot Rod” and “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.” It’s not really a Lonely Island experience, handing creative reins to screenwriter Andy Siara and director Max Barbakow, who attempt to give Samberg a romantic comedy makeover while still retaining a bit of the wily weirdness he’s known for. “Palm Springs” has its select moments of insanity, but it tries to cut a little deeper, moving past gags to deal with pained characters going through a lot while experiencing something unreal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2014, writer/director Jennifer Kent created “The Babadook.” It was a tale of a demonic presence, and while Kent was very clear with her spooky intent, she was also painting a portrait of parenthood, which is often an experience of unrelenting horror. It was a sharp, stunning feature with a delicious claustrophobic atmosphere. The type of viewing experience is found in “Relic,” which turns its attention to the various challenges of dementia and how the personal experience of such degeneration greatly taxes all those involved. Co-writer Natalie Erika James impressively merges the real-world agony of aging with a haunted house story, coming up with a complex film that’s richly detailed and performed, reaching above and beyond a simple ghost story to tap into deep emotions involving the nightmarish decline of a once vibrant loved one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s kind of amazing that Hollywood hasn’t gotten around to remaking the 1986 adventure film, “Highlander.” Sure, they’ve tried, but nothing’s come together, leaving the original offering and its frustrating sequels to explore the angst and action of a life lived with violent encounters and never-ending tomorrows. “The Old Guard” is the best chance to huff “Highlander” fumes right now, with screenwriter Greg Rucka adapting his own 2017 graphic novel for the screen, introducing audiences to the ways of Andy and her team of eternal warriors, some who’ve lasted for centuries trying to make sense of their endless existence. “The Old Guard” is most engaging when it remains in comic book mode, presenting a heightened take on longstanding relationships and the trials of eternal life, giving director Gina Prince-Bythewood, a helmer known for her dramas (“Love & Basketball,” “Beyond the Lights”), an opportunity to explore genre bigness that’s often restrained by the demands of continuous exposition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Theo James hasn’t delivered much excitement during his career, making a wrong turn into the flaccid “Divergent” franchise, while recently stumbling through the Netflix release, “How It Ends.” James gets to show a little more dramatic grit with “Archive,” which puts the actor in the realm of robots and grief, basically on his own for much of the picture, receiving a chance to play an ethically dubious character. It’s a fine performance, perhaps his best work to date, and James is boosted considerably by writer/director Gavin Rothery, who makes an impressive feature-length filmmaking debut with “Archive,” finding ways to stretch his budget to help create an immersive study of futureworld technology and personal desperation. Rothery can’t make the mystery go the distance, but the first two acts are compelling thanks to a helmer who really has a vision he wants to see come alive on the screen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Unlike a lot of VOD actioners, “Money Plane” actually has a promising premise. It takes viewers to a casino in the sky where anything goes involving the worst people on Earth, giving them a free space to indulge their awfulness in games of skill and chance. Writers Tim Schaaf and Andrew Lawrence (who also directs) provide a solid reason to track such unrepentant ugliness, which retains a delicious camp factor, but they’re mostly interested in following heist movie formula, aiming for suspense that never emerges. There’s a circus there for the taking, but “Money Plane” plays it safe, delivering familiar beats of intimidation and brutality, trying to wow viewers with twists and turns when they might be better off with a blunt study of evildoers taking to the sky to make a fortune. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Credit should be paid to writer/director Jeffrey A. Brown. Making his feature-length helming debut, Brown attempts to deliver a refreshing of the body horror subgenre, doing so without a large cast or a major budget. He pushes for atmosphere and heavy tension, working like crazy to stretch a minor idea into a major picture. “The Beach House” has nothing but good intentions to provide a B-movie immersion for fans of this type of entertainment, and those who live for this stuff will likely devour it without hesitation. Wider appreciation for the effort is up for debate, as Brown is in no hurry with “The Beach House,” forgoing a ripping pace to build the endeavor as slowly as humanly possible. Brown asks a lot of his audience, and while the film has style and a macabre imagination, it never really moves in a fully captivating manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nasim Pedrad is a former cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” She didn’t have a breakout moment on the show, but she provided refreshing weirdness at times, interested in making deep dives into bizarre characters. She left “SNL” in 2014, kicking around T.V. offerings ever since. Now she has her own starring vehicle in “Desperados,” a Netflix comedy that’s meant to show her stuff, commanding a romantic comedy that’s addicted to raunchy antics. Pedrad deserves better, but she gives an awful script by Ellen Rapoport (“The Jamie Kennedy Experiment”) her full commitment, trying to go screwball and sweet with impressive energy. The picture is a complete waste of time, as paint-by-numbers as it gets, but Pedrad deserves credit for trying to make an unbelievably lame film work on some frenzied level. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Maintaining a steady career of memorable dramas in his native Japan, writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda elects to disrupt his routine, taking his gifts to France for “The Truth.” An adaptation of a short story, the feature explores revived tensions between an older actress and her estranged daughter during a particularly vulnerable moment in the mother’s life. The invitation is there to dial up hysterics when examining domestic disorder, especially when it involves the emotional exploration of acting. Remining true to form, the helmer doesn’t take the bait, and while the language is different, storytelling grace remains, allowing “The Truth” to reach some unusual psychological places with rich behavioral observations. It’s another creative success from Kore-eda, who tries to remain faithful to the production adventure while tending to his interests. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Outpost” is a little late to the game when considering all the productions created over the last 15 years that detailed the horrors of the Iraq War and Afghanistan conflicts. While freshness is certainly in limited supply, writer Eric Johnson and director Rod Lurie have a vivid take on the pressures of military performance, exploring the hellish atmosphere surrounding the Battle of Kamdesh, where soldiers inside a poorly located American Combat Outpost in Afghanistan were overwhelmed by a large Taliban force, commencing a chaotic fight that took a large number of American lives. There’s a certain western feel to the material, but Lurie isn’t interested in creating a stylized look at combat, trying to manufacture a you-are-there sense of the unknown as violence repeatedly erupts. Some staleness creeps into the viewing experience, and the helmer’s casting choices aren’t the strongest, but it’s hard to deny the raw power of “The Outpost” and its interest in depicting the insanity of this particular situation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com