Category: Film Review

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from Bridget Jones. 2004’s much-maligned-but-not-that-bad sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” tried to amplify the appeal of 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” overreaching where the original endeavor was effortlessly charming and warmly silly. 12 years is a long time to wait around for the next chapter in the series, and while “Bridget Jones’s Baby” isn’t the perfect sequel, it’s an entertaining one, with returning director Sharon Maguire (who sat out “Edge of Reason”) restoring some character to the slapstick comedy, working hard to make sure Bridget has a little more to do this time than bounce around the frame in a klutzy blur. Timing isn’t quite there, but laughs are plentiful. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 1999, “The Blair Witch Project” came out of nowhere, conquering the box office and almost managing to out-buzz “The Phantom Menace” that summer. It was the indie film that could, becoming a sensation that, for a moment, blurred the line between cinema and reality, convincing some that its verite-style haunting in the woods had actually occurred, and we were all watching a snuff movie. With success came a sequel, 2000’s “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” which wisely avoided rehashing the original effort, going deeply self-referential, but also amazingly stupid. The Blair Witch phenomenon immediately cooled afterwards, placed on a pop culture display shelf, but it was clear that the lucrative premise wasn’t going to stay dead. And now there’s “Blair Witch,” which is established as a sequel to the 1999 megahit, but is actually a remake, with director Adam Wingard once again entering the deep woods with curious characters, tempting the evil that resides in the dark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Osmany Rodriguez and Matt Villines (often billed as “Matt and Oz”) built their reputation creating digital shorts on “Saturday Night Live,” constructing oddball music videos and conjuring ideas that often poked fun at dark emotions. Sadly, Villines passed away last July, leaving “Brother Nature,” the pair’s feature-length directorial debut, their final collaboration. Committed to the pursuit of silliness and comedic escalation, Matt and Oz generate an agreeable sense of lunacy with the picture, which shakes up formula through funky characters and strange disasters, doing what they can to disturb expectations with this take on a family vacation nightmare. “Brother Nature” does enough to keep itself alert, and it’s consistently funny, with the helmers wisely populating the cast with “SNL” vets and charming actors to help lubricate the madcap antics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Snowden” plays to director Oliver Stone’s strengths, offering the man who gave the world “Platoon,” “Wall Street,” and “Natural Born Killers” another opportunity to cinematically vivisect American policy and people, continuing his quest to inspire a popcorn-dusted uprising. The saga of Edward Snowden is an obvious match to Stone’s eyes-wide-open worldview, and he brings his helming swagger to the feature, which carefully dramatizes a decade in the life of America’s most famous whistleblower. However, as passionate as Stone is about the material and the man, he doesn’t know what type of film he’s making, keeping “Snowden” trapped somewhere between an intricate bio-pic and the least interesting “Mission: Impossible” sequel ever. Stone has the smarts to make this picture ignite, but he fumbles the tone, which often teeters between terrifying and ridiculous. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of “Chariots of Fire” and “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,” Hugh Hudson knows his way around a period drama containing heightened historical conflict. But the filmmaker has been away from the camera for 16 years, having slipped creatively with the wooden “I Dream of Africa,” which was almost a parody of his previous work. Hudson finds his balance once again with “Finding Altamira,” which isn’t a flashy effort, and budgetary shortcomings are obvious. It’s heart and passion that drives the feature, which delves into a war between science and religion armed with exaggeration, but star Antonio Banderas manages to find spaces for humanity, delivering a satisfying take on frustration and parental protection as Hudson and his screenwriters trying to dramatize a tricky time in Spanish history. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Good Neighbor” is an intriguing mix of suspense and vulnerability, striving to be a voyeuristic mystery set in today’s omnipresent media society. It’s not a film of big ideas, but it does successfully communicate youthful impulses to destroy just for the opportunity to be part of an event, with desires amplified by YouTube-inspired dreams of video fame and traditional teen bonding. “The Good Neighbor” isn’t a successful movie overall, but parts of it are nicely executed by director Kasra Farahani, who can’t seem to connect individual triumphs in performance and anxiety. It’s provocative work at times, but also painfully obvious, making for an erratic viewing experience where the urge to tune out is periodically interrupted by engrossing turns of plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Daniela Amavia doesn’t make it easy for the audience in “A Beautiful Now.” Inspecting waves of depression and life mismanagement hitting an aging dancer all at once, the picture almost resembles a filmed play, showing most interest in its ensemble and their special ways of working out character detail while managing paragraphs of dialogue. The verbosity of the effort is occasionally aggravating, but the core emotions of “A Beautiful Now” come through with real power at times. Amavia makes her feature-length helming debut here, and she’s managed a sensitive take on gut-rot feelings and suicidal urges, trying to understand the people behind pronounced agitation instead of indulging tiresome hysterics from beginning to end. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Author: The JT LeRoy Story” is a difficult nut to crack. It’s a documentary that doesn’t document anything, instead serving as an opportunity for writer Laura Albert to clarify her intentions when she willfully committed fraud to achieve literary success, generating a persona to help project the authenticity she didn’t necessarily have. She’s a practiced liar, and director Jeff Feuerzeig never bothers to confront her destructive impulses, creating a celebration of deception and the cheap high Albert enjoyed as she played puppet master from 1995-2005. It’s difficult to understand who “Author: The JT LeRoy Story” is for, with fans of LeRoy likely to be disgusted with a front row seat to Albert’s unrepentant opportunism, while newcomers might be bewildered that Feuerzeig felt the need to devote an entire feature to a woman who clearly can’t be trusted to tell the story of her own life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Slow burn doesn’t even begin to describe the “Ixcanul” viewing experience. It’s a film of complete stasis at times, but the fact that writer/director Jayro Bustamante is able to find a mesmerizing creep to the picture is a major achievement. A full immersion into culture, poor decisions, and responsibility, “Ixcanul” is not a feature that exits the system quickly, gradually locating outstanding character detail and, surprisingly, potent social and political commentary, making it much more than an admittedly hypnotic series of thousand yard stares. Bustamante doesn’t have much here besides his evocative vision, but he makes his moments count, following a plot that’s filled with common adolescent blues and disasters, yet arrives at a completely unpredictable destination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screen Gems has a September formula, and it’s been working wonderfully for the studio. They struck gold with 2009’s “Obsessed,” finding an audience hungry for thrillers featuring unhinged characters and wild acts of survival. In 2014, “No Good Deed” did well, and 2015’s “The Perfect Guy” also successfully milked the genre. And now there’s “When the Bough Breaks,” their latest offering of exploitation, this time taking on the world of surrogacy and youthful instability. It’s a pre-heated slice of PG-13 escapism from director Jon Cassar, who did a nice job with last winter’s Keifer Sutherland western, “Forsaken.” However, most moviemaking instincts now fail the helmer, who, after a strong start, cranks up the stupidity of Jack Olsen’s screenplay, ignoring the potential for a clever, devious nail-biter, only interested in making the most obvious visual and dramatic choices with this uninspired picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Nearly 15 years ago, director D.J. Caruso graduated from television productions to his first feature-length helming gig, “The Salton Sea.” There was promise in the oddball picture, hinting at grander films to come from the moviemaker. And then Caruso decided to chase studio work with “Disturbia,” “Eagle Eye,” and “I Am Number Four.” Suddenly, seeing Caruso’s name on a production could technically be classified as a threat. “The Disappointments Room” is finally seeing the light of day after multiple delays and the bankruptcy of its releasing studio, but there’s no celebration to be had with this nonsense. Co-scripting with Wentworth Miller, Caruso goes to the murder of children to inspire horrors for “The Disappointments Room,” turning real-world anguish into B-movie exploitation, sold with stale style and unexpectedly amateurish performances. It was on the shelf for years, and it should’ve stayed there. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Rob Zombie has become the Woody Allen of horror movies. He has the one thing he likes to do and he does it, reasonably well too. However, it’s difficult these days to find an audience for features about sadistic clowns and gushing bodily fluids, forcing Zombie to dial back the scope of his latest picture, “31,” heading to micro-budget filmmaking to scratch his creative itch. Coming off the interesting “Lords of Salem,” it’s a bit of a disappointment to watch Zombie play it safe with “31,” which only seems interested in maniacal behavior when it wants to be, leaving the rest of the commendable but slightly dulled effort to padding and atmosphere, with the helmer trying to stretch his sack-of-dimes budget. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sully” has a fascinating challenge of dramatization to master, tasked with shaping a story out of 208 seconds of mid-air confusion. Especially under Clint Eastwood’s direction, there isn’t much hope for the film to command attention, with the helmer’s measured style at odds with the urgency of the potential plane disaster that’s inspired the movie. The saga of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is admittedly thin for a big screen investigation, but Eastwood manages a healthy sense of tension and reflection to power the picture, emerging with his strongest effort since 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Eastwood is traditionally careful behind the camera, but he wisely allows star Tom Hanks time and space to register every emotion in the book, delivering an outstanding performance that allows “Sully” to transcend its inherent oddity and become more than a surface investigation of media-fed heroism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the always percolating revenge genre, it takes a little imagination and a lot of ruthlessness to make an impression, separating the effort from formulaic competition. “In Order of Disappearance” manages such invention, dividing time between cold-blooded plans for murder and in-depth domestic observations. Director Hans Peter Moland and writer Kim Fupz Aakeson conjure a very specific serio-comic tone for their picture, using exploitation inspiration to discover a fresh approach to the wrath of a father looking to avenge the death of his son. “In Order of Disappearance” is dark, but exceptionally so, cooking up a tale of comeuppance that highlights sensational Norwegian locations, dimensional characters, and shocking acts of violence, keeping viewers on their toes as this wonderful movie unfolds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Other People” is a rather bland, nondescript title for an outstanding movie about family. I suppose there are few alternatives to choose from, but don’t let the name put you to sleep, this is a must-see film. Writer Chris Kelly brings out the best in his characters, using the horrific event of a cancer diagnosis to backdrop this depiction of a year in the life of a man and his assorted relationships, taking in all the dysfunction and tentative interplay, mining the journey for a rich humor and plenty of pathos. “Other People” is exceptionally balanced and downright hilarious at times, and while Kelly covers well-worn ground, he does so with distinct personality and perspective, finding freshness in universal pain. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Chad Hartigan (“This Is Martin Bonner”) successfully disrupts expectations with “Morris from America,” taking the plight of a young black teen who dreams of becoming a rap superstar to the streets of Germany, where his obsession isn’t shared by his peers. It takes special care to make the fish out of water elements work, and Hartigan shows commitment to the cause, creating a satisfying comedy with some real adolescent pathos, finding authenticity while handling a premise that threatens to break out into sitcom-ery at any moment. “Morris from America” is funny and unusual, and while it teases storytelling disaster as it unfolds, the production remains amusing and periodically genuine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“London Road” is a musical, but it certainly doesn’t share any jazz hands and happy feet. A docudrama-style overview of a serial killer’s rampage, the production aims to disturb expectations through songs, challenging the cast to come up with a way to blend singing with the communication of fear, keeping performances natural enough to remain respectful of the dire situation. It’s a strange picture from director Rufus Norris and screenwriter Alecky Blythe, who adapt their London stage hit for the screen, laboring to lose some of the stillness this kind of material inherently retains. It’s commendable work, as “London Road,” while lacking any memorable tunes, retains a surprising urgency and clear view of panic, keeping up vocal achievements while tending to fine performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 1719 novel “Robinson Crusoe,” has been a source of creative inspiration for centuries, experiencing all type of media adaptations and interpretations. Author Daniel Defoe’s tale of castaway life is ripe for exploration, but “The Wild Life” isn’t interested in retelling the same old story of survival and cultural discovery. Looking to charm family audiences, the production pushes Crusoe to the background, instead focusing on the animal kingdom for this CGI-animated take on the source material. “The Wild Life” is an appropriate title, carrying a manic energy and a cast of creatures, and while it maintains vague similarities to Defoe’s story, it mostly invests in situations of slapstick and cartoony characters, looking to compete with broad Hollywood fare, which always has luck with anthropomorphized animals. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Exploring the insidious influence of Nazism on screen, most stories understandably stick to the basics of World War II, where the Third Reich reached full power, threatening to spread their evil across the globe. However, for a few productions, it’s the time after the end of the war that’s most interesting. “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” details the fight to collect the remnants of Nazi rule while it remains in the shadows of German society during the 1950s, spotlighting one man’s battle to keep eyes wide open as monstrous individuals remain at large. “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” is a deliberate picture, never achieving a full gallop, but the subtleties of performance and history are engrossing, with co-writer/director Lars Kraume preserving the gut-rot essentials of the tale. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It takes a very long time for “Antibirth” to get going, but once it does, writer/director Danny Perez has some intriguing ideas to contribute to the realm of underground cinema. Influenced by the works of David Lynch and David Cronenberg, Perez attempts to subvert expectations when it comes to the killer pregnancy routine, going abstract with his art-school filmmaking instincts, taking the long way to suspense as he bathes the picture in filth and attitude. “Antibirth” is made for a specific audience, and those dialed into its highlights should be able to put together a satisfying viewing experience. It’s a wild movie, but only when it shows focus. The rest is white noise with sloppy characters, making the wait for something to happen a real chore. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com