Category: Film Review

When Jodie Foster directs a movie, it should be an event. The lifelong actress certainly has the experience to create riveting, emotionally authentic cinema, and her eye for casting should be second to none, showcasing an innate awareness of performance limitations. And yet, Foster routinely churns out mediocre features that fail to reach some lofty creative goals. Her latest disappointment is “Money Monster,” which initially positions itself as a scathing indictment of provocative Wall Street business practices, but quickly transforms into a Movie of the Week, eaten alive by contrivances and a maddening refusal to take the premise seriously, exposing mental and professional illness on all sides. Foster isn't identifying financial world crimes in “Money Monster,” she's celebrating them, turning personal ruin and chilling corruption into fodder for an exceptionally tedious thriller, and one that somehow has the idea it’s doing God's work by being so stupid. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Greg McLean is best known for his work on “Wolf Creek” and its sequel, establishing him as a genre filmmaker with an appetite for violence and silent menace emerging from corporeal threats. His interests turn to the supernatural for “The Darkness,” a ghost story that’s never really about malicious spirits, showing more interest in exploring a dysfunctional family challenged by poor communication, behavioral issues, and alcoholism. There’s barely any room for frights in this dismal, uneventful chiller, but McLean isn’t going down without a fight. Packing plenty of cheap scares and loose logic in this misfire, the helmer tries to tart up “The Darkness” with expected noise, but it never comes together as imagined, failing to compete with other, better haunted house tales. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As actor Jason Bateman continues his journey into film direction, his projects grow increasingly interesting, though their execution isn’t always as inspired. In “Bad Words,” Bateman guided a vulgar comedy about a reckless spelling bee contestant that transformed into a dark domestic drama. “The Family Fang” abandons the crutch of shock value and immediately hunts down parental ills and their lasting impact on children. Written by David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”), who adapts Kevin Wilson’s celebrated novel, “The Family Fang” is loaded with potential, erecting a juicy mystery to propel the story, while characters are dealt their share of dysfunction. Bateman definitely shows improvement behind the camera, but the effort isn’t always as intriguing as the helmer believes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Although the feature was in development long before the release of 2014’s “John Wick,” “I Am Wrath” can’t help but come off as a poorly designed rip-off, exploring the same elements of the stellar Keanu Reeves picture, but lacking directorial flourish, storytelling clarity, and credible performances. John Travolta steps into the retired killer role for this round of criminal extermination, but he’s truly lost here, struggling to make sense of his character and director Chuck Russell’s complete mangling of theme. “I Am Wrath” is trashy and forgettable, and it never ceases to feel like a missed opportunity to have some B-movie fun with angry men out to stomp on urban scum.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“The Trust” is the directorial debut for Alex and Benjamin Brewer, with the siblings jumping into the industry via cliché, served up bruised and battered by dark comedy. It’s easy to spot a lack of seasoning with the helmers, who arrive with big ideas for visuals and twists, but fail to juggle the various tones they excitedly introduce. “The Trust” has initial promise and personality, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that nothing interesting is happening. Instead, the feature works through formula with dwindling enthusiasm, leaving stars Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood to come up with their own level of dramatic interest, and even they stop faking it after the first act.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Director Ben Wheatley has built a career making tough, impenetrable semi-horror pictures that explore grim psychological abysses and shocking violence. He’s dealt with domestic meltdowns (“Down Terrace”), period torment (“A Field in England), and cult nightmares (“Kill List”), but “High-Rise” pulls Wheatley into the big time, gifted known actors and a reasonable budget to create a suspense feature that details a vicious societal breakdown in a tight, suffocating space. It’s not quite the haves vs. the have nots, but “High-Rise” definitely has a few ideas on the state of the world and the ravages of unchecked capitalism. However, for every sharp stick jab of satire, Wheatley provides needless excess, clinging tight to repetitive helming habits that ultimately drown out the material’s war cry.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

As a gritty, low-wattage crime story, “Cash Only” has a few interesting deviations from the norm. It’s not every day that one encounters a tale of survival that highlights the quick-thinking actions of an apartment landlord, and the feature explores the Albanian immigrant experience in America, identifying community interaction in Detroit. “Cash Only” is effective and periodically nail-biting, but that it works so hard to remain fresh for those burned out by the same gangster business found in dozens of movies every year is its real achievement. Screenwriter/star Nickola Shreli puts some thought into the picture, which manages to capture desperation superbly, at least until the final 20 minutes.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Billy Burke hasn’t enjoyed the most eventful of film careers, often stuck in bland roles of little consequence, like his long stretch as Bella’s powerless father in the “Twilight” series. In an effort to help brighten job opportunities, Burke produces “Divine Access,” which, at times, seems to be created strictly to showcase Burke’s previously unseen range. With those limited creative goals in mind, the feature is enormously successful, delivering Burke’s best role to date in a production that’s comfortable offering a good chunk of its run time to the performer to do whatever he wants with it. “Divine Access” is most enjoyable keeping close to Burke, with the alternative being a somewhat silly story about fanaticism and jealousy that’s difficult to take seriously.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Los Angeles is home to millions of wayward soul stories, but Marie “Mimi” Haist is just special enough to inspire a documentary about her life. An eccentric and feisty 88-year-old woman, she’s the subject of “Queen Mimi,” a feature tracking her daily experience as a connected homeless woman in California, with pal Yaniv Rokah picking up a camera to capture her special point of view and surprising longevity. In today’s documentary-everything marketplace, it’s difficult to understand what inspired Rokah to bring Mimi to screens, but luckily there’s just enough biographical curiosity and star power to carry the viewing experience.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

“Sundown” is on a mission to revive the Spring Break comedy of the 1980s, hitting modern audiences with cheap thrills and thinly developed characters while the film soaks up the sun and sand. Going the R-rated route, the feature at least understands the elements that made movies like “Hardbodies” semi-tolerable, but as juvenile farces go, “Sundown” is lacking in insanity. Co-writer/director Fernando Lebrija tries to work the effort into a frenzy with broad comedy and bizarre encounters, but he’s missing a crucial sense of escalation, with the picture stopping to rest between incidents, which ruins the pace of the endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the rousing success of 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which strived to redefine a problematic superhero in a post-“Avengers” landscape, Marvel Studios sustains the introspective atmosphere for “Captain America: Civil War,” expanding on ideas of heroism and responsibility as the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands and costumed crime-fighting becomes ubiquitous in fictional realms and at the local multiplex. Returning directors Anthony and Joe Russo know exactly how to play these characters, building on the “Winter Soldier” success through community inspection while still making time for bulldozing action sequences. Captain America remains the focal point of the movie, but his place as a symbol for freedom feeds into a larger appreciation of heightened abilities and tech, and all the confusion it creates in a paranoid world. “Civil War” teases the Big Ideas while still wholly triumphant as superhero cinema. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lorene Scafaria made her directorial debut with 2012’s “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.” Taking on the apocalypse with a sense of heart and humor, the helmer made an impression with difficult material, showing encouraging timing and an interest in character details, not just lunging for the jokes at every turn. She returns to screens with “The Meddler,” bringing down her dramatic scope to survey the ways of a widow and her complicated relationship with the world around her. Honing her screenwriting skills with inspired material, Scafaria handles the delicate balance of light and dark with “The Meddler,” taking a potentially draining study of smothering and finding a rich sense of spirit and humor, approaching emotional confusion with exceptional care. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The American dysfunctional family film receives a European makeover from Norwegian director Joachim Trier, who last helmed the critically praised “Oslo, August 31st.” It’s never the expanse of plot that defines this type of viewing experience, but the depth of pain, and “Louder Than Bombs” does a commendable job juggling character misery, trying to blur connective tissue long enough for the effort to become a mystery of sorts. Thanks to Trier’s artful visual touches and determination to make the teen uprising on view here feel as skin-crawlingly authentic as possible, “Louder Than Bombs” achieves most of its dramatic goals, finding fertile ground with potentially clichéd material. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Former child actor Peter Billingsley (“A Christmas Story,” “The Dirt Bike Kid”) made his directorial debut in 2009 with the comedy “Couples Retreat.” A weak effort that showcased a permissiveness with its cast and distraction with its tropical location, “Couples Retreat” didn’t launch Billingsley’s big screen helming career with promise. Seven years later, he returns to duty with “Term Life,” dropping interest in silly business to adapt a graphic novel about dangerous men. Darkly comic and action-oriented, “Term Life” has the means to take viewers on a wild ride of chases, gunplay, and threats, but the cut presented here doesn’t make much sense of the story, struggling to build momentum as editing fails to juggle numerous supporting characters and sinister motivations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Tensions between parents and their children try the digital age on for size in “Mothers and Daughters.” Directed by Paul Duddridge, the picture takes its line-up of related combatants to video chats, with most scenes of confession and heartbreak happening on computer screens, giving the feature the uncomfortable distance it’s hunting for. It’s an interesting concept, exposing the spaces we are now capable of putting between one another, and “Mothers and Daughters” has effective scenes of frustration, watching a few fine actresses wrestle with emotions they’re rarely asked to explore onscreen anymore. It can be a pedestrian effort, but when the screenplay (written by Paige Cameron) digs in deep to locate hurt, the production sparks to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There have been two features inspired by “Palo Alto,” actor James Franco’s collection of short stories. In “Palo Alto” and “Yosemite,” filmmakers have worked to tap into Franco’s special appreciation of teenage angst, creating meditative works that care for characterization and strive to identify with the turbulent growing pains of adolescent life in California. “Memoria” is the latest pour from the Franco jug of creative writing, reuniting audiences with a somber mood of juvenile delinquency, taking a close look at the youth of today as they struggle with age-old challenges of social interaction, crushes, and troubling parental influence. “Memoria” has brevity on its side, and the picture is a nice fit with previous cinematic chapters, but, at this point, if one isn’t already feeling the Franco vibe, there’s little reason to start experiencing his brand of ennui here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Garry Marshall has never been a great director, but he’s managed to find a few peaks of charisma with efforts such as “Overboard,” “The Princess Diaries,” and “Beaches.” However, the majority of his filmography is made up of stinkers, as he’s almost magnetically attracted to bad material to best accentuate his pedestrian timing. After stumbling upon a hit movie with 2010’s abysmal “Valentine’s Day,” Marshall decided to turn the holiday theme into a franchise, following it up with 2011’s “New Year’s Eve,” and now “Mother’s Day,” which has the distinction of not only being the crummiest chapter of the series, but it’s also Marshall’s worst film, making dreck like “Raising Helen,” “The Other Sister,” and “Georgia Rule” feel like summer vacations next to this appallingly idiotic and insulting picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After several successful seasons of their Comedy Central show, “Key and Peele,” comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are ready to take their partnership to the big screen. “Keanu” is their debut feature, and while both men have enjoyed supporting parts in movies and television, this is their chance to take center stage, building on their viral video triumphs. “Keanu” is more of an extension of the “Key and Peele” show than a true starring vehicle, creating a cinematic sandbox for the pair to showcase their skills, with the men playing multiple characters, poking fun at race and disparate cultures, and embracing weirdness as a way of life. It’s not an especially inspired effort, and not all that funny, but it does provide hope that one day, with stronger screenwriting, Peele and Key might create a devastatingly hilarious film that makes full use of their considerable talents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2014, writer/director Jeremy Saulnier made quite an impression with “Blue Ruin.” A revenge thriller dripping with atmosphere and supported by exceptional performances, the feature was one of the best films of the year, bringing Saulnier into view. Continuing his interest in the feral nature of humanity and the power of screen violence, the helmer returns with “Green Room,” which manages to best “Blue Ruin” in brutality, which is no small achievement. Concentrating on claustrophobia and the price of survival, Saulnier brings raw force to “Green Room,” a chilling horror effort that demands full attention, supplying a vision for doom that’s graphic but propulsive. The picture is dizzyingly crafted, shocking from start to finish. It’s also a wonderful reminder of Saulnier’s developing talents and his ability to summon incredible tension. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In this politically volatile time, a film like “Dough” probably isn’t going to move the needle much when it comes to religious and cultural unity, but every little reminder of peace is welcome. “Dough” isn’t a strong movie, but its premise has potential and director John Goldschmidt has a good grip on the picture’s tone for the first hour, balancing comedy with the material’s interest in exploring refugee anxiety and Jewish tradition. Good performances and a strong opening isn’t enough to carry a viewing experience that’s eventually smothered by melodrama, but Goldschmidt keeps the feature amiable, even a little silly at times, before it runs out of things to do. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com