Category: Film Review

The average escape room is meant to provide a fun ride for competitors, often used as a team-building exercise that requires a sense of camaraderie to help solve complex puzzles with tactile clues. Making a horror move out of the setting is relatively easy, and a few productions have already employed the tight confines and panicked sleuthing to fuel some nightmare scenarios. “Escape Room” is perhaps the highest profile offering of the bunch, putting pressure on the production to come up with something amazing to attract audiences already used to watching a perversion of gamesmanship. What “Escape Room” offers is repetition, atrocious editing, and screwy plotting, with director Adam Robitel (“Insidious: The Last Key”) not satisfied with the simplicity of frenzied people fighting to crack codes and scramble for objects. Instead, an epic is attempted, with the faint hope of a franchise-starter for a first chapter that never knows exactly what it’s doing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Rust Creek” pulls a bit of a switcheroo on its audience. It’s being marketed as a nail-biter, offered up as a chilling tale of survival in the deep woods of the American south. There are sections of the picture devoted to such irresistible thrills, but the endeavor is content to leave the nerve-shredding stuff behind for long stretches of screen time. The screenplay (credited to Julie Lipson and Stu Pollard) is more interested in character-based entanglements than straight scares, which gives “Rust Creek” a more intriguing dramatic pull, juggling the needs of genre entertainment with a deep psychological inspection of the crisis at hand. It’s not a tightly constructed endeavor, which hurts it in the long run, but the movie has a vision for something different while still tending to expectations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Meredith Danluck has some observations on the state of marriage and the depths of discovery when dealing with a loved one. She touches on grief and longing, self-absorption and confusion. “State Like Sleep” samples a bit of everything from its cinematic plate, but it never remains anywhere for very long. In fact, the feature feels very long, with “State Like Sleep” not just a title, but a description of the picture’s atmosphere, with Danluck dropping a dose of Ambien into her detective fiction, often making the viewing experience frustratingly inert while it deals with potentially fascinating details concerning cohabitational betrayal and the loneliness of love. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There was once a time when Will Ferrell made funny movies. It hasn’t happened for a few years now, with 2017 finding the actor struggling to survive “Daddy’s Home 2” and “The House,” reaching new low points in his wildly uneven career. 2018 brings “Holmes & Watson,” which reunites Ferrell with John C. Reilly, his screen partner in the hits “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers.” There’s supposed to be magic with this reunion, but someone didn’t tell writer/director Etan Cohen, who almost completely tanks the partnership with a massively disappointing endeavor that not only doesn’t contain a single laugh, it rarely tries to be humorous in the first place. “Holmes & Watson” is a grab bag of gags from the helmer who gifted the world “Get Hard,” with Cohen completely incapable of triggering even a smile with the surefire tag-team action of Ferrell and Reilly, who always seem to be aware how much of an uphill climb they face with this lousy material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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