Category: Film Review

Co-writer/director Ido Fluk doesn’t have an original idea with “The Ticket,” but the chance to work with metaphor and biblical despair inspires him to approach the material with emphasis on its visual presentation. It’s a movie that doesn’t even open with a focused image for its first five minutes, introducing a world partially inhabited by the blind with a sensorial immersion that sets the mood for the rest of the feature. “The Ticket” isn’t wholly successful with storytelling essentials, and surprises are few and far between in the picture, but Fluk is good with his cast, getting the effort into all the uncomfortable corners of temptation its hunting for, achieving dramatic goals through living, breathing performances and an unusual appreciation for some aspects of the sightless world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Food has become a popular subject for documentarians in recent years, lavishing attention on the power of cuisine (“Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” “Spinning Plates”) and its poisonous possibilities (“Fed Up”). Food remains a powerful mystery to many, inspiring filmmakers to travel to its source, to decode what defines regional tastes, showcasing a tour of artistry and delicacy along the way. For writer/director Roger Sherman, Israel provides a particular challenge of interpretation, spotlighting a country where influence from surrounding areas and personal histories has built local flavor. To help guide this odyssey into food and culture, “In Search of Israeli Cuisine” brings in restaurateur/chef Michael Solomonov, who grew up in Israel, eternally curious about his homeland’s inhabitants and their varied interpretations of food and family. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The drive to bring “Ghost to the Shell” to the screen isn’t perplexing. What began life as a manga series graduated to a respected animated film adaptation in 1995, which launched its own universe of sequels and reimaginings. It’s juicy fantasyland material with velvety sci-fi edges, making it catnip for a director who’s skilled at bringing out rich futureworld detail to help backdrop an intimate saga of identity. Sadly, the producers landed on Rupert Sanders, a visual wizard but a storytelling snoozer, who’s already displayed his allergy to cinematic momentum in 2012’s inexplicably successful “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Sanders delivers urban sweep with “Ghost in the Shell,” and his command of design elements is appreciable. However, the feature is a leaden, bizarrely uneventful blockbuster that’s heavy with CGI and light on dramatic content, attempting to dazzle instead of engage, leaving it all cold to the touch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s strange that “All Nighter” has very limited interest in becoming a farce when it has all the ingredients to do so. Director Gavin Wiesen plays the feature carefully, almost fearful of allowing it to snowball into a series of crazy encounters in different locations, instead trying to find the truth in scenes that demand insanity. It’s not an especially effective movie, with “All Nighter” rarely making time to form its own personality as it plays up Long Night formula. Wiesen and screenwriter Seth W. Owen have the concept of clue gathering and charged interactions for their askew detective tale, but the picture desires to be funny, and it’s never that. It’s flat work crying out for more inventive leadership. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been a few attempts to detail horror insanity occurring inside a strip club. “From Dusk Till Dawn” is perhaps the most famous example of the breasts-and-blood formula, while “Zombies vs. Strippers” is the more memorably titled endeavor. “Peelers” is a latest addition to the subgenre, and there’s a clear desire to deliver a goopy, icky chiller that’s capable of delivering overwhelming gore while still remaining comedic enough to sustain a B-movie mood. Director Seve Schelez has exploitation interests, and “Peelers” has the right idea for R-rated entertainment, but what begins as something silly, populated with oddball characters, eventually becomes deadly serious, which is a strange tonal direction for a picture that features an extended scene of an exotic dancer spraying urine on her customers. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s a big, dark world out there, and screenwriter David Ebeltoft and director Rod Blackhurst are going to make viewers feel every last second of suffering and solitude. “Here Alone” has the unenviable task of coexisting in a world where “The Walking Dead” is the biggest show on television, bravely submitting yet another post-apocalyptic depiction of a world overrun with zombies and populated with anguished people making difficult, soul-flattening choices during their trials of survival. There are a few other movies the production pinches from, yet all this familiarity doesn’t translate to comfort, with “Here Alone” a slog to get through, content to reach a level of stillness which is supposed to translate into profundity, but it merely remains stillness. An action spectacle isn’t expected here, but Blackhurst’s allergic reaction to pace and dramatic discovery is often painful to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Boss Baby” presents a literary adaptation challenge not unlike ones found in “Jumanji” and “The Polar Express,” where the filmmakers are tasked with producing 90 minutes of entertainment based on 20 pages of text and illustration. Author Marla Frazee’s 2010 creation was a witty take on the early toddler years and the power of first words. The movie version of “The Boss Baby” is an elaborate fantasy involving magical formulas, alternate worlds, chases, and Elvis impersonators. Much has been change to give the feature something to do, and while screenwriter Michael McCullers gives it his best shot, one can actually feel the strain of the production as it dreams up something to do with a thin concept, throwing anything at the screen to see what sticks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s uncomfortable timing to have “Life” debut in the same year as the prequel “Alien: Covenant,” as it takes a remarkable amount of mojo from Ridley Scott’s original 1979 “Alien” creation. It doesn’t simply pinch outer space horror, but creature motivation, claustrophobic spaces, and combative characters. Helping to separate the picture from its obvious inspiration is a tone of real-world space exploration, combining a NASA procedural adventure with a grisly horror event, keeping director Daniel Espinosa (“Safe House,” “Child 44”) busy managing intricate science and engineering and the essentials in haunted house terror, crafting an initially suspenseful chiller that effectively introduces a threat from Mars, organically figuring out a way to unleash it on the crew. The rest of “Life” doesn’t share the same excitement for deadly encounters, quickly finding a groove where it can rest with repetitive scenes of survival and rumination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise has always been a bit bewildering. There's clearly a huge fan base for the brand, but numerous television shows and previous attempts to bring the series to the big screen have already been aimed at a younger audience, with children delighting in the mix of sci-fi fantasy and cartoonish action, much the dismay of parents forced to endure constant living room recreations. To help the saga reach a new level of popularity, “Power Rangers” is a reimagining of the source material, butching it up for a PG-13 audience used to a little more grit than stuntmen in primary colored suits battling rubber monsters typically provides. Trying to compete with all the superhero extravaganzas out in the marketplace today, “Power Rangers” goes big with emotional reach and visual effects, with director Dean Israelite (“Project Almanac”) fighting to make something substantial out of weekday afternoon entertainment. He doesn't quite pull off a spinning, high-kicking triumph, spending so much time establishing the heroes that they barely have time to be heroes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Wilson” has trouble with translation. The film is an adaptation of a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, best known for his work on “Ghost World.” Paying tribute to Charles Schultz and his “Peanuts” comic strip origins, Clowes created a book of one-page adventures for his misanthropic hero, keeping Wilson a contradiction of self-awareness and actual behavior, finding darkly comic wonder in his daily life. Bringing that specific tone to the big screen proves too difficult for Clowes, with cinematic construction and emotional throughlines demanding more consistency than what this picture is willing to give. While boosted by terrific leading performances from Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern, “Wilson” is fatigued quickly, working very hard to sell an atmosphere of illness that, while insistent, isn’t all that compelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Someone, somewhere gave piles of money to writer/director/star Dax Shepard to make a film version of “CHiPs,” a late 1970s television show that’s mostly known today for its ridiculous episode on the Los Angeles punk rock scene and for being the program that featured Chris Pine’s father, Robert. Not just taking a cue, but the entire approach of the Channing Tatum/Jonah Hill “21 Jump Street” adaptation, “CHiPs” aims to be violent, irreverent, and comically casual, working very hard to appear effortlessly crude. What Shepard actually achieves here is an oppressive viewing experience that’s shockingly light on action and stunts and abysmal with funny business, missing the experience of the original show to be just another riff-heavy stinker that mistakes moronic shock value for cleverness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

21 years ago, “Trainspotting” arrived in America. Depicting a heroin hell populated with Scotland’s worst, the picture became a cult hit, reaching a generation that demanded their own story of self-destruction, sold with extreme style by director Danny Boyle and soaked in sneering mockery by screenwriter John Hodge (adapting the book by Irvine Welsh). Two decades later, “Trainspotting 2” has materialized (the actual title is “T2 Trainspotting,” but, come on, there’s only one “T2,” and it’s not a Danny Boyle movie), and it wisely doesn’t try to compete with what’s come before. Building on the idea of lost years and wayward lives, “Trainspotting 2” manages to be a deeper, more meaningful chapter in this brain-scrambled saga, enjoying the rush of nostalgia and renewed danger as it deals with a crisis that’s more universal than substance abuse: aging. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alice Lowe has amassed a substantial amount of credits as a character actress, making brief appearances in “The World’s End,” “Locke,” and “Paddington.” Her most substantial screen role was found in “Sightseers,” a wonderful dark comedy from director Ben Wheatley, who showed uncharacteristic focus and made the most of Lowe’s screen presence. Taking command of her professional future, Lowe makes her directorial debut with “Prevenge,” also scripting herself a prime role in a slasher film that’s more about the anxieties of motherhood than the piling of dead bodies. Crafted with wit, terrific performances, and some unexpected trips into the gore zone, “Prevenge” is striking work from Lowe, who not only understands the constant concerns that swirl around the journey of pregnancy, but she’s good with violence as well, keeping the feature suspenseful when it isn’t refreshingly insightful. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Much pre-release hype has collected over “Raw,” which shocked some audience members to a point of physical illness during its film festival debut, offering the type of “dare to see it” publicity every movie studio dreams about. The reality is, “Raw” isn’t that extreme, and those who embrace the horror genre on a regular basis are likely going to feel underwhelmed by the grisliness of the effort, which is regulated to only a few brief scenes. Thankfully, the rest of “Raw” is interesting enough to pass, with writer/director Julia Ducournau picking apart femininity and sexual awakening with this tale of cannibalism, constructing a stylish coming-of-age chiller that’s big on bodily fluids and Italian cinema worship. The endeavor is certainly graphic, but it’s also patient with its reveals, which doesn’t always mesh with its shock value intent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Throughout his career, David Byrne has been committed to the arts. World famous for his years as the lead singer of Talking Heads, Byrne has devoted himself to the ways of creation, taking his vision to museums, theaters, and even city streets. And now Byrne has turned his attention to the color guard, an often disregarded dance tradition looking for its moment in the spotlight. “Contemporary Color” is a celebration of music and the color guard, paired with live performances for an evening of musicianship and physical challenges, watching high school heroes put their heart and souls into intense choreography, offered a rare shot at visibility for an art form that demands intense timing, flexibility, and enthusiasm, with Byrne curating the eclectic soundtrack of the evening. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To best detail the end of humanity, it’s interesting to visit a corner of the world that hasn’t found finality yet. “Bokeh” (which takes its name from a photographic event) isn’t a disaster movie, but it does venture into the great unknown within an empty world, following two lovers into the wilds of Iceland, which has become the place to be for recent film productions looking for unusual scenery to backdrop dramatic endeavors. The unthinkable and unknowable occurs in “Bokeh,” but writer/directors Geoffrey Orthwein and Andrew Sullivan don’t indulge spectacle. Instead, they make a relationship picture, and one with atypical points of stress, hoping to find the nuances of love and survival as two people spending time together are left with only each other, struggling to make sense of their new reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Marking their second collaboration, Kristin Stewart once again submits to the enigmatic ways of writer/director Olivier Assayas, following up their lauded work on “Clouds of Sils Maria” with “Personal Shopper,” which once again tempts the troublesome actress into the light of adult performances. Teasing horror highlights with his take on grief and the ghostly beyond, Assayas instead plays a familiar game of misdirection, trying to lure audiences in with spooky events, but never settling anywhere significant, electing to float around sponging up behaviors and revelations. “Personal Shopper” is also a struggle for Stewart, who puts in a professional effort to communicate inner turmoil, but often falls back on fingers-through-the-hair indication that undermines the subtle rise in uncertainty Assayas is ultimately hunting for.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before he became the affable architect of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, director James Gunn was once a filmmaker who reveled in extreme violence, always sold with a dark sense of humor. With credits such as “Super” and “Slither,” Gunn’s particular way with tone was always polarizing, and while he doesn’t helm “The Belko Experiment,” his inky fingerprints are all over this oddball slaughterhouse movie. Gunn hands control to Greg McLean, who tries to keep up with Gunn’s scripted vision for nonstop carnage, but so much suffering and whiffed jokes tends to wear down any possible appreciation of the material’s study of abominable human behavior. Gunn cherry picks from the boldest in battle royal cinema (including the 2000 Japanese cult hit, “Battle Royale”), but doesn’t sharpen the effort into a fine point, content to manufacture a massacre, but wary of assigning any deeper meaning to it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The oddly titled “Mean Dreams” is reminiscent of “Mud,” the 2013 Jeff Nichols picture that explored adolescent awakening in the great outdoors while maintaining suspense from troublesome adults. While it doesn’t share the same poetic qualities, “Mean Dreams” has a compelling way with young hearts blurring critical decision making skills, with director Nathan Morlando maintaining a consistent mood of contemplation and confrontation, filling up the effort with enough feeling and tension to satisfy. Morlando does an excellent job tapping into the thought process of a juvenile in love, sustaining that behavioral authenticity as it snowballs out of control, allowing the story to feel energetic when it’s actually formulaic, finding the helmer skilled enough to reanimate clichés. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While it resembles a typical teen picture centered on community shenanigans and troubled times, it’s a relief to report that “Deidre and Laney Rob a Train” has some defined spunk to help it navigate a plot that plays tribute to heist movies and makes time to deal with broken hearts. It’s the latest from director Sydney Freeland, who’s enjoying her most high profile gig to date, coming through with a brightly performed and thoughtfully written (by Shelby Farrell) dramedy that takes time to celebrate individuality, the value of education, and confront the universal fear of change. “Deidre and Laney Rob a Train” can be a silly film, but its heart is always in the right place, supplying meaningful themes and characterization, which are always supported by fantastic performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com