Category: Film Review

Director Karyn Kusama is doing a fine job rebuilding her career after enduring two critical and commercial duds with “Aeon Flux” and “Jennifer’s Body.” 2015’s “The Invitation” returned Kusama to greatness, masterminding a macabre, sneaky chiller that pulled off the slow-burn approach with confidence, and now there’s “Destroyer,” her take on the burnt-out cop subgenre, only here the emphasis isn’t on hard-boiled antics, but a full corrosion of soul. There’s action and suspense, but the material is suited to Kusama’s interests in character and mood, and Nicole Kidman strips away all glamour to play a burning husk of a woman finally facing the music after years spent dissolving in guilt. “Destroyer” is steely work from Kusama, but also wonderfully textured and mindful of cliches, playing them up or breaking them completely when the moment calls for it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Barry Jenkins broke through to the big time with 2016’s “Moonlight.” The writer/director crafted a beautiful, unusual effort and managed to ride its unexpected success all the way to Oscar gold, with the feature memorably claiming the Best Picture award, guaranteeing intense concentration on whatever the helmer was preparing for his follow-up. “If Beale Street Could Talk” continues Jenkins’s evolution as a formidable screen artist, assuming the challenge of bringing author James Baldwin to a wide audience, adapting a 1974 novel about the state of love and incarceration in Black America. Baldwin had a specific way of communication, artful and contentious, and such a tone is gently translated to film by Jenkins, who shows expected confidence with “If Beale Street Could Talk,” working to precisely convey Baldwin while maintaining his own elegiac vision for personal crisis. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Technically, Leprechaun has returned already, multiple times. 1993’s “Leprechaun” was a genre lark created to offer oddity to curious audiences, and while success was desired, I doubt anyone associated with the production expected the brand name to carry on for five sequels and one dismal reboot. And now the pint-sized Irish demon is back, just in time for…Christmas. Okay, so the timing is a little strange for “Leprechaun Returns,” but the spirit of ghoulishness is pleasantly revived in what’s actually a direct sequel to the original film. While Jennifer Aniston and Warwick Davis have decided to sit out this homecoming (not a surprise), director Steven Kostanski tries his best to revive the magic(?) of the first chapter, delivering plenty of blood and quips, though his helming powers aren’t impervious to lengthy stretches of screentime with obnoxious characters. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Taking possession of her career, Karen Gillan steps behind the camera to make her feature-length directorial debut with “The Party’s Just Beginning.” While certainly not an actress who gravitates toward chipper roles, Gillan clearly wants to flex some dramatic muscles with the endeavor (she also scripts), creating a profoundly dark descent into depression with a story that juggles time and levels of helplessness, giving the star her first major test as a performer. Gillan is quite successful with certain aspects of “The Party’s Just Beginning,” and she commits to almost impossible bleakness with the effort, but her performance carries the film, while direction keeps it on the move, presenting low-budget style and darkly comic touches to make the viewing experience survivable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We’ve been here before. In 2015, writer/director Adam McKay released “The Big Short,” which took a semi-satirical look at the Financial Crisis of 2008, using a large cast of familiar faces and his polished comedic instincts to remind paying audiences of their foolish passivity, detailing just how people with money and opportunity nearly destroyed America in their pursuit of money and opportunity. It was McKay’s middle-finger to the four winds, showing off his rebel instinct with a sizable sense of condescension and intermittent inspiration, managing to score one of his biggest box office successes that didn’t star Will Ferrell. Three years later, the helmer is back with “Vice,” a spiritual sequel to “The Big Short” that sets out to understand just how significant Vice President Dick Cheney’s influence was between 2001-2008. McKay returns to his editorial bag of tricks and honed glibness, but this time the whole things plays like the director is lip-synching to punk rock music instead of trying to ignite a revolution. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I can understand the nostalgia for mid-range comedies from the 1990s. After all, who doesn’t miss Hollywood Pictures? (*crickets*) “Second Act” attempts to be a relic from an era when all anyone wanted from their light entertainment was a sassy best friend, a weirdly choreographed group dance number, and plenty of misunderstandings. Sadly, there isn’t much room for such multiplex distractions these days, but that doesn’t stop director Peter Segal, who attempts to revive the romantic/workplace/slapstick comedy with star Jennifer Lopez, who commits to everything “Second Act” presents her, which is no small achievement. After all, this is a supremely bizarre screenplay from Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, forcing Lopez to ride a tonal roller coaster in the name of comfy sweater entertainment, finding Segal surprisingly fearless when it comes to eye-crossing plot turns for a move that’s better off remaining as simple as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Director Susanne Bier is known for her work with character, taking the time to shape personalities, trying to deepen viewing experiences with memorable people, not always plots. She’s done well for herself with “Brothers,” “After the Wedding,” and “Things We Lost in the Fire,” but Bier has always enjoyed more artful intentions with real-world characters. With “Bird Box,” the helmer heads straight to horror, in charge of a picture that demands a certain fright factor between scenes of dramatic development. It’s rough around the edges, and clearly made by someone who doesn’t have a degree from Scare U, but Bier does bring some weight to “Bird Box,” which meets strangeness with sincerity, working extra hard to connect the players in meaningful ways before unleashing macabre terror sequences. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda has often been celebrated as a master of humanist dramas, placing attention on the seemingly minor crises of everyday life, studying how turmoil identifies and reshapes character. He’s the creator of “I Wish,” “Like Father, Like Son,” and “After the Storm,” and he adds another triumph to his sterling filmography with “Shoplifters,” which delivers all the premiere personality Kore-eda is known for, while adding a slight atmosphere of reflection, with the picture also approachable as a summary of the helmer’s creative interests. “Shoplifters” untangles slowly, but Kore-eda doesn’t leave the viewer behind, gently examining questions of family and sacrifice with his observational style. There’s a lot of heartache in this endeavor, but also a vivid understanding of connection between needy souls. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2010, there was “Marwencol.” The documentary explored the unusual world of artist Mark Hogancamp, who was badly injured during a severe beating, coming out of the fog of recovery with desire to pour his anxieties into photographs covering the events in an imaginary Belgian town during World War II, where heroes and Nazis do battle and interact in more unexpected ways. “Marwencol” was terrific, and also very distinct with its subject matter, making a dramatization difficult to pull off. Director Robert Zemeckis attempts to crack the adaptation code, bringing “Welcome to Marwen” to screens with inventive visual effects and special performances that manage to do something with extraordinarily challenging material. There’s a significant amount of strangeness to explore in “Welcome to Marwen,” and while Zemeckis doesn’t get everything right, he definitely has a vision for the feature, juggling Mark’s pain with his artful escape from reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The last time director Alfonso Cuaron made a movie, it was “Gravity.” While many filmmakers have reached for the stars, Cuaron managed to create a picture that felt like it was set among them, offering high drama in space, using inventive, seamless visual effects to create a high-tech thriller that also remained intimate with character. It was quite the achievement, rewarding the helmer with unexpectedly healthy box office returns. Using such a success to tackle a personal project, Cuaron returns with “Roma,” an autobiographical effort that’s just as detailed as “Gravity,” but brings his storytelling interests back down to Earth. Mexico, to be more exact, filing through memories and utilizing his creative muscles to mastermind a recreation to his youth, crafting a valentine to the woman who helped raise him. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A few months ago, there was “Beautiful Boy,” which took a look at the pains of substance abuse and the problematic march of recovery, aiming for a softer understanding of the bitter reality that drives such domestic discord. “Ben is Back” is somewhat similar in story, only here messages of self-harm and parental concern are harsher, offering a more frenzied take on the struggle of drug use and the challenges of unconditional love. Writer/director Peter Hedges (“The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” “Dan in Real Life”) strives to keep his picture as close to the heart as possible, but only for the first half. And then, suddenly, the screenplay doesn’t believe in the cinematic value of watching characters trapped in doubt, instead aiming for a more formulaic understanding of drug culture secrets and lies. “Ben is Back” has elements that absolutely work, but Hedges doesn’t trust himself in the long run. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Throughout his career, writer/director Lars von Trier has treasured every chance to upset his audience. He’s an artful filmmaker, but one who enjoys being provocative, taking viewers to dark, strange places where human barbarity can thrive. Sometimes, this makes for unforgettable cinema. “The House That Jack Built” is not one of those golden occasions, with von Trier going insular to craft a tale about a serial killer struggling with his own vision for savagery. “The House That Jack Built” is repellant, but predictably so, taking a torturous 150 minutes to keep hitting the same beats of mutilation and commentary, while von Trier puts this thinly veiled examination of his own career into the hands of star Matt Dillon, who’s not built for the uniquely suffocating screen spaces European cinema is capable of producing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Everything’s coming up Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2018. Not only is the legal titan continuously celebrated in news cycles and pop culture offerings (“Saturday Night Live” has a lot of fun with her personality), she was already the subject of a documentary, with last summer’s “RBG” managing to become one of the highest grossing specialty cinema releases of the year. “On the Basis of Sex” endeavors to join the party during the final days of 2018, submitting a dramatic interpretation of her origin story, following Ginsburg as she steels herself against the patriarchal world, determined to engineer real change when it comes to the legal definitions of gender equality. Coming after “RBG,” it’s difficult to get excited about what “On the Basis of Sex” has to offer, though director Mimi Leder is absolutely determined to make any sort of impact with Ginsburg’s amazing passion for law. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Maria Pulera is trying to make a brain-bleeder with “Between Worlds,” attempting to blur the line of reality with a spirit-hopping story that, in some ways, looks to emulate a David Lynch film, even bringing in “Twin Peaks” composer Angelo Badalamenti to compose a theme for the endeavor. Pulera has the right idea with the casting of Nicolas Cage, who can turn anything into a mind-scrambler with the sheer force of his acting, but little else comes together in Pulera’s feature, which possesses the ambition to bend space and time, but has the production value of a late night Cinemax movie. “Between Worlds” is weird but not polished, which doesn’t encourage full immersion into the depths of this oddity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When Clint Eastwood directs, he moves fast. It’s been his modus operandi since the beginning of his career, and such efficiency can be a good thing, forcing the features to be exactly what they are, without a helmer overthinking every detail. When it goes wrong, it results in pure sloppiness, as evidenced in February’s “The 15:17 to Paris,” Eastwood’s attempt to siphon additional American glory out of the box office gas tank after scoring a major smash with “American Sniper,” and one of the worst pictures he’s ever made. “The Mule” isn’t quite as bad as “The 15:17 to Paris,” but it’s close, adding to Eastwood’s gradual disinterest in editing and screen tension, offering a frustratingly leisurely journey into one man’s quest for financial independence, looking in the wrong places for monetary salvation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Four years ago, I reviewed “Our Robocop Remake,” which explored a full recreation of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven masterpiece as interpreted by numerous filmmakers each offered a sequence to reinvent, often using whatever cinematic tools were available nearby. It was an impressive achievement, having immense fun with low-fi production accomplishments, while a few scenes pulled off exquisite parodies of Verhoeven’s excesses. Now it’s time for “Shrek” to undergo the process of reconsideration. While the feature’s assessment of “Shrek” as some type of classic is up for debate, it’s impossible to discount the passion for the material many share here. Offering an animation/live-action smorgasbord, “Shrek Retold” seeks to celebrate the wonders of the 2001 Dreamworks Animation smash, with over 200 fans unleashed on the original endeavor, coming up with their own highly peculiar take on the details of the fairy tale kingdom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

I’ll admit to finding 2007’s “Transformers” agreeable, partially due to the way director Michael Bay managed to handle something of an origin story for the Hasbro toy line’s live-action debut, giving the Robots in Disguise proper scale and mystery. It was still teeming with nonsense, a Bay specialty, but his lust for cinematic overkill was muted to a certain degree, with his helming power tested by the introduction of a potentially huge franchise for a global market. Such restraint didn’t last for long, with four “Transformers” sequels managing to break box office records and reduce the multiplex experience to a sensorial torture chamber, finding Bay encouraged to go as hostile and baffling as possible to delight a growing international audiences. Grosses dipped substantially with 2017’s “The Last Knight,” inspiring the producers to take a different approach, pushing Bay aside for “Bumblebee,” which strives to be everything the other pictures in the series weren’t, submitting a more fan-friendly, sensitive take on robots and the humans who love them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The DC Extended Universe has endured some troubles during its tenure, with 2017’s “Justice League” once considered a sure thing at the box office, only to emerge with middling grosses and a tepid reaction from fans. The idea of an Aquaman movie being the first picture out of the gate since “Justice League” initially seemed like an alarmingly bad idea, with producers electing to bring one of the most visually challenging comic book characters to the multiplex for his own adventure after he previously shared the screen with other iconic action figures. It turns out “Aquaman” is just the shot of adrenaline the DCEU needs at this point, with director James Wan pulling out all the stops as he strives to give the undersea hero an epic adventure that takes audiences up in the air and down to the depths, offering myth, muscle, and pure big screen scale. Considering the odds of a humiliating failure here, Wan has crafted quite a creative achievement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Mary Poppins Returns” sets a Hollywood record for the longest time divide between installments, with the sequel arriving 54 years after the original “Mary Poppins,” which helped cement star Julie Andrews as a screen icon, delivered Disney a monster hit, and won the studio five Academy Awards. Disney took their time to deliver a follow-up that could do walk and talk like the original picture, forced to find a way to bring Mary Poppins back to screen without the help of Andrews, who doesn’t return for the new adventure. Instead, there’s Emily Blunt, and she’s an amazing replacement, handling elegance, cheekiness, and musical numbers with impressive grace and screen magnetism. It’s the rest of “Mary Poppins Returns” that slightly underwhelms, finding the production unable to find the line between continuance and rehash as it plays a very safe game of nostalgia, only here the effort has been fluffed up considerably by Broadway influence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s a good time to be a Spider-Man fan. The character has had it rough on the big screen in the past, but 2016’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” corrected many mistakes, giving the superhero a proper screen translation he hasn’t enjoyed since director Sam Raimi was in charge of the web-slinger’s cinematic adventures. Last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” added emotional weight to the refresh, but instead of focusing solely on live-action endeavors, Sony Pictures has decided to expand the Spider-Man party to the animated realm, creating “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which should’ve been just a pit-stop in the brand name’s longstanding media journey, but instead has something interesting to offer audiences, especially those hooked on the character’s comic book adventures. “Into the Spider-Verse” is unexpected, which is a good thing, making a valiant attempt to take the icon on a trippy wave of style, pathos, and identity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com