Category: Film Review

“Skin” has the benefit of timing, put into production during a hectic time in American history, with the country experiencing an uptick in exposure to hate groups and crimes, with near daily reminders of unrest brewing across the U.S. Writer/director Guy Nattiv doesn’t shy away from the plain danger of such an uprising, but he’s interested in drilling to the core of the neo-Nazi issue, finding the true story of Bryon Widner to dramatize, giving an impressive tale of evolution a semi-suspenseful approach. “Skin” is frightening, especially when examining how organized hate is managed and unleashed, but the picture isn’t offering an overview of a movement. It’s much more intimate, with Widner’s tale working through tight situations of survival, emerging as an understanding of awareness expanding under impossible living conditions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s very strange that it’s August, and “A Score to Settle” is the first Nicolas Cage release of 2019. This is an actor who works constantly, nearly coming out with new movies monthly in 2018, barely giving himself time to breathe before diving into the next project, though most of these creative choices were sadly of lesser quality. The streak continues with “A Score to Settle,” which arrives promising a sort of one-man-army routine for Cage, who’s skilled at portraying acts of dead-eyed vengeance, but ends up more a dramatic creation, offering the lead a chance to detail a character who’s heavy with regret, pained by horrible choices in his life. Cage gives what he can to the low-budget endeavor, but director Shawn Ku (“Beautiful Boy”) can’t shake the stiffness of the effort, which buries a few of its better ideas with crude filmmaking and lackluster casting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As spy games go, “The Operative” is pretty light on suspense. That approach seems to be the intent of writer/director Yuval Adler, who’s not interested in mounting chases and near-misses, instead aiming to extract a psychological profile in the midst of international alarm. The screenplay adapts a 2016 novel by Yiftach Reicher Atir and tries to retain a literary mood, using deliberate pacing and layered characterization to find something different in the midst of recognizable subgenre construction. Fans of John le Carre should receive a mild charge out of “The Operative,” which strives to be an intelligent understanding of espionage and the dangers emotional ties bring to the ways of government-sponsored spying. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the claustrophobic experience of 2015’s “The Hateful Eight,” writer/director Quentin Tarantino returns to the open air with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” It’s a valentine to a time and a place, taking viewers back to Los Angeles in 1969, where free love was taking shape and the old ways of the studio system were coming to an end, while on Cielo Drive, a young woman named Sharon Tate was about to be murdered by the Manson Family. It’s a cocktail of nostalgia and unrest Tarantino loves sip until his lips bleed, going hog wild with his latest endeavor, which is a picture of extraordinary detail and run time, as the helmer isn’t content to merely recreate 1969, he wants to live there once again. Tarantino’s vision remains as potent as ever in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” but his unwillingness to judiciously edit his footage also returns, creating a feature that’s undeniable fun, but also unnecessarily lengthy, playing up bad habits that’ve been plaguing him since 2012’s “Django Unchained.” Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1977, actor Richard Dreyfuss starred in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” which detailed the developing urge within an average man to experience the unknown with help from alien visitors. In 2019, Dreyfuss returns with a similar tale of an indescribable need to visit space, only this time with the aid of people-powered engineering. The stories aren’t an exact match, but it’s interesting to watch Dreyfuss revive a long dormant sense of longing and wonder for “Astronaut,” where he plays a senior citizen inching close to the possibility of spaceflight. Writer/director Shelagh McLeod has the wonders of the cosmos in her sights, but she remains on Earth with decent dramatics, striving to create a community of lived-in personalities while the tale surveys a seemingly impossible task of endurance, ultimately aiming to be a touching film, not an awe-inspiring one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Well, there was a once a movie about a killer bed, so a killer camera isn’t a complete reach. “Polaroid” offers audiences a haunting via obsolete technology, trying to cook up some scares with evil that pursues a collection of teenagers who don’t fully understand the dark power of instant photography, trying to decode this oddball threat to their lives. The director of the recent “Child’s Play” remake, Lars Klevberg isn’t exactly aiming high with the production, which is pointed at pre-teens who aren’t used to the wilds of the horror genre, presented a mild PG-13 chiller with easily telegraphed scares and nondescript characters. There’s the whole Polaroid camera premise, which is unusual, but the rest of the film is a strictly paint-by-numbers affair, likely to bore seasoned genre admirers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s not easy to sit through a Rick Alverson film. He’s an artist without interest in structure or storytelling, electing create cinematic voids that seem to exist slowly to test viewer patience, delivering inscrutable bits of dark humor and grim psychology. With “The Comedy” and “Entertainment,” Alverson has gone his own way, and there’s something admirable about his defiance, making movies that aren’t meant to be decoded, but simply endured. Such nonconformity doesn’t translate to compelling cinema, and with “The Mountain,” he’s dangerously close to self-parody, once again dragging audiences into a particular stillness that doesn’t reward attention, reviving his fascination with mental illness and pure experience in yet another glacial endeavor. It’s certainly Alverson’s most well-produced effort, and also his greatest disappointment. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Farewell” was initially included as a segment on the radio show, “This American Life.” It’s easy to see why, as the story includes a somewhat strange premise coated in the honey of idiosyncratic human behavior, offering a few mild twists and turns to keep listeners glued to their speakers, wrapped up in the details of this offering of pure culture. Turning her tale into a feature proves to be a bit more difficult for writer/director Lulu Wang, who’s tasked with taking intimate thoughts and turning them into screen dramatics, trusting actors to carry feelings previously held deep within. “The Farewell” isn’t quite the emotional ride it initially promises to be, but Wang isn’t committed to making a tearjerker, showing more interest in the ways of Chinese life and the pains of an outsider who once belonged. It’s a searching picture, not a spongy one, with Wang impressively detailing culture shock with a cast of capable performers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

29 years ago, director Steve Barron guided the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the big screen for their very first live-action feature. The film was part of the initial wave of darker comic book adaptations after the monster success of 1989’s “Batman,” with the helmer tapping into superhero mania with his own idiosyncratic take on sewer-based heroism. In 2019, Barron returns to the heaviness of caped crusaders with “Supervized,” which takes a look at problems brewing within a retirement community created specifically for humans with special powers. Youthful violence and tomfoolery has been replaced with cantankerous characters and diminished abilities, with Barron working hard to make “Supervized” into something energetic and satirical. The movie gets out of control far too easily, but the weirdness of it all is reasonably compelling, watching Barron return to the genre that secured his career, locating a different corner of comic book destruction to explore. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was a time and place for 2012’s “Iron Sky.” It was a nutty creation from director Timo Vuorensola, who mounted an elaborate fantasy with limited coin, placing focus on visual effects and a farcical plot that had Earthly forces encountering the wrath of Moon Nazis, leading to all-out war. It was cheeky, making fun of easy targets with help from its alternate timeline plot, and the helmer also enjoyed a chance to pants taboo subjects, including power plays from a space bound Third Reich. “Iron Sky” wasn’t sharp but it was amusing, a showy trifle made for cult movie appreciation. There was no need for a sequel, but nobody explained that to Vuorensola, who returns with “Iron Sky: The Coming Race,” which attempts to double down on absurdity and CGI while lacking a crucial sense of surprise. The follow-up is noisy and unfunny, still pawing at the same obvious political targets while expanding its capacity for mayhem, hoping to wow viewers instead of tickle them with relentless absurdity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Three Peaks” is a film that requires a tremendous amount of patience from the viewer. It’s a slow-burn affair, populated with only three characters working around a remote setting, dealing indirectly with potent but ill-defined issues of guardianship and family. Writer/director Jan Zabeil takes the long storytelling road, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he’s actually going somewhere with the material, locating a way to surprise the audience as domestic unrest turns into a fight for survival. “Three Peaks” doesn’t find physical peril until the final act, with Zabeil more interested in brewing tension and disappointments, leading with domestic disturbances before heading into a more extreme conflicts that take advantage of natural dangers in the middle of nowhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Aaron Harvey has a lot of competition in the marketplace for his revenge thriller, "Into the Ashes.” Tales of men folding inwards after suffering through tragedy or facing dire circumstances are popular these days, with the efforts trying to tap into the messiness of wounded masculinity and lost purpose, examining family ties and gender roles with a heaping helping of violence to secure some sense of finality. “Into the Ashes” goes by the same playbook, with Harvey arranging big screen hostility with bloody results, only to pull back some when it comes time to assess the true motivation for vengeance. This slight deviation from the norm helps to support a picture that’s not particularly packed with incident, as the helmer is more interested in the big stew of choices and mistakes, not simple fury. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We’ve been inundated with shark films in recent years, with the fish a top predator for movie studios trying to frighten audiences with something more than just another slasher offering. Rarely is there a killer alligator endeavor, giving director Alexandre Aja a chance to do something against the trend with “Crawl,” which takes viewers into the middle of a hurricane that sets the scene for a deadly battle between human and reptile. Aja’s been in this situation before, helming the delightful 2010 remake of “Piranha,” and he’s returned without a campy approach, treating the central survival tale with some degree of seriousness, while his gifts for water-based suspense and creeping terror remain intact. “Crawl” isn’t light or particularly revolutionary, but it’s short, slick, and offers plenty of satisfying scares. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

While the title “Point Blank” conjures images of Lee Marvin in cold-stare mode during the 1967 adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s “The Hunter,” the feature is actually a remake of a 2010 French thriller, which attempted to make a big screen mess with characters unprepared for action. Director Joe Lynch is certainly used to generating cinematic chaos, previously helming the misfire “Everly” and 2017’s more successful “Mayhem,” returning to the world of battered human beings with “Point Blank,” which plays to his interests in ultraviolence. However, instead of a thrill ride, Lynch is put in charge of a story with a few turns and attempts at characterization, showing visible restraint as he strives to insert as much freewheeling activity as possible in a picture that weaves somewhat erratically from frantic activity to sobering realities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For their third remake of an animated classic in 2019 (following “Dumbo” and “Aladdin”), Disney returns to 1994’s “The Lion King,” which, at the time, collected a massive box office haul for the studio, resulting in sequels, theme park attractions, T.V. shows, and even a triumphant Broadway musical. The company has never abandoned Simba and Co., but the time has come to turn traditional animation into CGI to help wow a new generation of young fans and delight their nostalgic guardians. To help the cause, Disney returns to director John Favreau, who managed to do something special with 2016’s “The Jungle Book,” but the same level of tonal and visual experimentation doesn’t return with “The Lion King.” While not a shot-for-shot remake, Favreau and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson deliver a beat-for-beat reworking that’s meant to wow with dazzling visual effects, generating an entire animal kingdom with nothing but celebrity voices and computer power. The story? It’s basically the same, with the production avoiding any major changes to avoid upsetting the faithful, taking very few risks with a valuable brand name. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Lynn Shelton adds “Sword of Trust” to her impressive filmography. Gifted a curiosity about human behavior and the strange quirks of relationships, Shelton doesn’t stray far from her interests with her latest endeavor, but she always finds a compelling way to understand how characters work. “Sword of Trust” (co-scripted with Mike O’Brien) is a bit more comedic than her previous interests, heading into pure silliness on occasion, but the turns aren’t jarring and the feature is very funny, consistently so. Shelton gathers in an impressive cast for this study of secrets and lies, also making use of her Alabama locations, delivering a feel for the surroundings as she assembles a tour of idiosyncrasies and gullibility. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When considering all the unlikely sequels that’ve made their way through production, it’s hard to imagine many were craving a follow-up to 2011’s “The Woman” (which was a sequel itself, picking up where 2009’s “Offspring” left off). The Lucky McKee picture wasn’t unsettling or thought-provoking, it was just bad, offering crude, repetitive ultraviolence as a way to keep viewers awake, with McKee unable to master tone or performance, too busy whiffing on the theme of dehumanization. “The Woman” went away eight years ago, but star Pollyanna McIntosh isn’t ready to give up the titular role, returning not only as an actress for the feature, but also claiming writing and directing duties. There’s plenty of room for improvement here, and “Darlin’” takes advantage of pronounced shortcomings. While she doesn’t have any big ideas, McIntosh has determination to expand this universe one more time, reviving all the feral female energy the series is known for, but wisely picking and choosing her gore zone visits with more care than McKee. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s hard out there for a home invasion thriller. There’s a lot of competition for the horror hound’s dollar, and the subgenre has been exhausted. “Trespassers” (previously known as “Hell Is Where the Home Is”) has something interesting brewing underneath its ultraviolence, with director Orson Oblowitz trying to inject as much visual variation as possible while working with very little money, and screenwriter Corey Deshon has a germ of an idea to help subvert expectations, which is more exciting than any offering of bodily harm. “Trespassers” doesn’t remain in the realm of promise for long enough, soon switching over to a formulaic understanding of terror from masked men. It’s certainly inspired at times, but not particularly brave. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joseph Cross has been an actor since he was a child, appearing in pictures such as “Jack Frost,” “Running with Scissors,” and “Wide Awake.” After a lengthy career in front of the camera, Cross elects to go behind one for “Summer Night,” realizing a screenplay by Jordan Jolliff. The helmer doesn’t put too much pressure on himself for his directorial debut, with “Summer Night” presenting a loose tangle of personalities searching for clarity and commitment in small town California, creating a film more about The Hang than truly pressurized confrontations between friends and lovers. We’ve seen this type of feature before, but Cross provides decent performances and a sense of nightlife to give the endeavor some atmosphere, and there’s effort to battle cliché by simply being vague with the details, trusting in the folksy rock vibe of the movie to keep it afloat. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Stuber” is a film stuck between two time periods. It deals with the modern rideshare business, where customers are usually awful human beings and drivers live for 5-star reviews, and the cast is populated with young comedians who’ve been trained to mindlessly riff, not necessarily sell a punchline. The rest of the picture plays like an action comedy movie from the 1980s, with hard violence supporting a buddy cop premise, giving the feature peaks of dangerous encounters. “Stuber” doesn’t have an idea what it ultimately wants to be, instead electing to be everything, which doesn’t inspire a snowballing viewing experience. It’s lively at times, but never sure of itself, while screenwriter Tripper Clancy always turns to formula when he’s backed into a corner, somehow under the impression viewers want to feel for these characters, not simply watch them unearth continuous trouble while crossing Los Angeles. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com