Category: Film Review

1982’s “Poltergeist” was a rare event in horror filmmaking. Unleashed during an especially virile year for movie releases, the picture was a diamond in a particularly frustrating genre, with producer/co-writer (some say he directed as well) Steven Spielberg conjuring an epic haunted house tale, complete with ghoulish visions of death and decomposition, backed by substantial special effects wizardry. It was weird, darkly humorous, and terrifying. Although Hollywood took its time, the “Poltergeist” remake is finally here, but instead of creating a new generation of suburban fears, the reheat simply mimics the original in a stunningly lifeless manner. That the 2015 version isn’t as riveting as the 1982 feature isn’t really a problem. But the new “Poltergeist” doesn’t even best 1988’s “Poltergeist III.” That’s cause for concern. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“In the Name of My Daughter” is deceptive in the way it concocts an intimate family drama concerning power plays and psychological unraveling, only to gradually emerge as a true crime saga. It’s the latest work from writer/director Andre Techine (“Wild Reeds,” “The Girl on the Train,” and “Thieves”), who provides a taste of disorder to help backdrop what eventually becomes a case of possible murder, paying close attention to moments of betrayal and discomfort that gradually funnel into accusation. Although it’s disjointed, “In the Name of My Daughter” is gripping, with enough troubling turns of plot to help forgive its awkward conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There’s a call to arms concerning the future of the planet buried within the surprisingly leaden “Tomorrowland.” Director Brad Bird has his heart in the right place with this sci-fi adventure, hoping to stimulate minds with a story that celebrates imagination, intelligence, and effort, working to build an appropriately exciting blockbuster to ease concentration on all the homework. “Tomorrowland” is a curious creation with a bold visual design that’s erected with care. However, as pure drama, it’s inert, struggling to shift smoothly between wonder and enlightenment, offering manic performances that fail to inspire screen velocity. It’s certainly an interesting picture when it wants to be. Unfortunately, Bird doesn’t always want it to be. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Slow West” isn’t a traditional western. Sure, outlaws appear, six-guns are brandished, and the long crawl of horse-based travel is felt. Writer/director John Maclean embraces important elements of the genre, but he’s after a more intimate space of dark comedy and conflicted men. “Slow West” is a special film, eschewing a more grandstanding show of force to cherry pick strange and sincere moments, carrying an idiosyncratic vibe that Maclean’s manages well, even when he can’t fill up an already brief movie. It’s not a hard-charging effort, but something softly strange, which is quite an achievement in this day and age of cinematic sameness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After making his directorial debut with 1997’s “Gattaca,” Andrew Niccol embarked on a troubling career of interesting failures (“Lord of War”) and outright disasters (“In Time,” “The Host,” “Simone”). Each film attempted to articulate the human experience, with attention paid to the manipulation of body and soul, but, more often than not, Niccol was caught delivering speeches when suspense was needed. “Good Kill” is an unexpected return to form for the helmer, who finds a sophisticated subject in drone warfare, with its troubling moral questions and military demands. Guided by a strong performance from Ethan Hawke, “Good Kill” manages to find a balance between demonstration and debate, allowing Niccol to indulge his beloved sermonizing while providing substantive characterization. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As an actor, Paul Newman tried to lead a normal life, finding the big spotlight of fame uncomfortable when it couldn’t be used to his advantage. Building an iconic career in film and television, Newman had difficulty finding balance to his life, with soulful clarity found in a most unlikely place: car racing. “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman” is a highly informative and loving tribute to the star’s “secret” life, striving to indentify a thirst for competition and speed that drove him to seek pleasure on the race track, where his marquee name couldn’t provide an advantage when strapped in behind a wheel. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Pound of Flesh” has an encouraging premise, essentially pitting Jean-Claude Van Damme against an underground network of organ thieves. The very thought of the famous action star setting out to retrieve his kidney on the streets of Manila is enticing. Unfortunately, viewer imagination is far more compelling than anything “Pound of Flesh” has to offer. Dreary, underlit, and straining for meaning with a stilted script by Joshua James, the feature goes through the motions in terms of Van Damme and action, but director Ernie Barbarash doesn’t bother with momentum, often stopping the film entirely to tend to worthless dramatics and tedious performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Documentarian Amy L. Berg makes fiction filmmaking debut with “Every Secret Thing.” After taking on the Catholic Church in “Deliver Us From Evil,” the West Memphis Three in “West of Memphis,” and Hollywood’s history of sexual abuse in “An Open Secret,” it should come as no surprise to find Berg drawn to the themes of “Every Secret Thing,” which touches on criminal activity and psychological erosion, exploring the lives of broken people. Adapted from the 2004 novel by Laura Lippman, the picture retains powerful examinations of denial, but it seldom pieces together smoothly, often resembling four features running at the same time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After experiencing distribution rejection around Hollywood, 2007’s “Paranormal Activity” finally found a home with Paramount Pictures. Electing to experiment with a word-of-mouth publicity campaign, the studio carefully expanded the feature into theaters during the 2009 Halloween season, creating a low-budget, slow-burn blockbuster out of next to nothing, transforming director Oren Peli into the next big thing. “Area 51” is his long-awaited follow-up to “Paranormal Activity,” though its road to the big screen has been bumpy. Shot in 2009, the film is finally seeing the light of day, finally offering fans a chance to catch what Peli has been up to for the last six years. Turns out, he’s been fine-tuning a clunker, with “Area 51” a shameless rehash of the found-footage formula that gifted him a helming career. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As understated romances go, “Felix and Meira” has the advantage of religious divide. An unusual story of hesitation and self-expression, the French-Canadian production manages to preserve a sense of restraint, delivering characterization through looks instead of melodrama. While it features a few bizarre touches, “Felix and Meira” is strongly detailed by co-writer/director Maxime Giroux, who uses the limited space he’s created to examine intimacy that rarely carries over to demonstration. It’s a refreshing change of pace in a measured movie, with emotion pushing through silences as the plot seeks to understand personal need, not itemize the high and lows of human connection. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

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It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Steven Seagal take on a starring role in a feature film. There’s was a supporting turn in 2010’s “Machete,” but little of his output receives much attention these days, sticking to the DTV market to pump out actioners with nondescript titles such as “Urban Justice” and “A Dangerous Man.” He was once an excitingly intimidating screen presence in the early 1990s, but Seagal isn’t interested in making an effort anymore. “Absolution” is his latest thriller, a sequel to 2013’s “Force of Execution” and 2014’s “A Good Man,” though one could hardly tell from the general programmed feel of the picture. Returning to his comfort zone of bulky costuming and easily defeated baddies, the new Seagal production is much like the other Seagal productions, with the mumbly, iron-fisted star barely paying attention while the movie carries on around him. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been 30 years since the release of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” the last installment of the George Miller franchise to star Mel Gibson as a titular post-apocalyptic survivor. Having gone on to create some memorable cinema (“The Witches of Eastwick,” “Lorenzo’s Oil”) and a few creative question marks (“Babe: Pig in the City,” “Happy Feet Two”), it seems Miller is itching to return to the open road, craving some automobile mayhem. Fitting star Tom Hardy for the famous boots and protective gear, Miller revs up a new generation of hero for “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which pumps the core battle between man and machine up to an epic size, while losing none of the delightful idiosyncrasy the helmer has turned into a fingerprint. It’s enormous, destructive, and largely indescribable. It’s also a gleefully barnstorming actioner that’s going to be difficult to top this year. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Following in the footsteps of “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey,” “I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story” tells the tale of an icon underneath an icon. Spinney is the performer of characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street,” dividing his time between two of the most popular puppets in the history of the globally revered public television program. Spinney is also one of the few left who was there at the very beginning, spending over 40 years entertaining children with puppetry that places tremendous demand on his body. It seems appropriate that Spinney should have a moment in spotlight, with directors Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker securing the performer’s legacy with this fascinating documentary. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2012’s “Pitch Perfect” was a type of sleeper hit Hollywood doesn’t experience much anymore. Without stars to sell, the featured used music as a way to entice its audience, and once those ticket-buyers where lassoed into the theater, they were sold a smorgasbord of stereotype humor and vomit jokes. But the music remained, helping the picture score big with its primary demographic, spawning a hit single in Anna Kendrick’s “Cups.” Of course a sequel was ordered, only little thought has been put into the continuing adventures of the Barden Bellas, with director Elizabeth Banks returning to the comfort of songs and broad performances, declining to do anything original with chapter two. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Iris Apfel is an original. Sharp, funny, and in possession of a worldly knowledge of fashion and art, Iris has made a name for herself through collecting, filling an apartment and storage units with diverse clothing, accessories, and tchotchkes. It’s no wonder director Albert Maysles elected to make a documentary about her life and philosophy. In fact, Maysels, a legendary documentarian (“Gimme Shelter,” “Grey Gardens”), almost becomes a part of the feature, joining Iris as she visits her favorite places, displays her authority and instinct, and carries on with everyday business, leaving the filmmaker to create his own moments of cinematic focus. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Screenwriter/star Sonja Bennett has the right idea with “Preggoland.” Confronting the cult of mommydom and assorted issues of maturity, Bennett creates a comedy that reaches a few honest points of repulsion, dealing with real emotions surrounding the peer pressure to reproduce. There are also numerous sitcom touches to the writing that derail Bennett’s themes, with “Preggoland” caught pulling a few punches. Despite a few ill-advised detours into predictability, the feature generally remains on task, constructing a compelling, periodically amusing look at conformity and misunderstanding, finding some fresh material to mine with a plot that’s already informed a wide range of comedy projects. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Welcome to Me” is a story about mental illness, though it’s difficult to tell if writer Eliot Laurence is celebrating or sympathizing with his main character’s gradual emotional breakdown. It’s a film of details and obsessions, with star Kristen Wiig delivering customarily strong work in the lead role, finding all the little behavioral beats required to find humanity in the supposed hilarity. Wildly uneven, “Welcome to Me” comes off as a cry for help, yet the production tends to process instability as quirk, attempting to find the bright side of psychological decay. It leaves the picture uncomfortable to watch, and this is perhaps the exact response director Shira Piven is looking for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“5 Flights Up” teases dramatic arcs and directions, but it’s primarily a character piece about memory. It’s a surprisingly fussy movie, carrying a nervous energy typically reserved for more plot-driven efforts, but its momentum is valued, especially when articulated by stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. Director Richard Loncraine generates a New York City ambiance that’s fascinating, but the screenplay by Charlie Peters does most of the heavy lifting, capturing the rusty hinges of marriage and the panic of change with, at times, startling accuracy. “5 Flights Up” doesn’t always feel whole, but its perspective on aging and domestic partnership keeps the story engaging with periodic poignancy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A film career revival after a decade in politics hasn’t gone well for Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s been trying to return to his previous glory with a few satisfactory action efforts, only to have the pictures disappear quickly from theaters. “Maggie” is a necessary change of pace for the global star, who drops overt brawn to portray a broken rural father facing the most difficult decision of his life. “Maggie” isn’t a sharply paced feature, with director Henry Hobson taking his time to develop mood and remind viewers of the sacrifices contained in the story. Adjust expectations accordingly, and the movie has moments of real heartbreak, turning what appears to be a traditional zombie exploration into an intimate study of paternal devotion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The D Train” is a very strange movie, but in a positive way. It’s the debut for writer/directors Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, who use their first shot fired to create a feature that’s surprising, uncomfortable, and periodically hilarious, making sure obvious directions are refused along the way. Tonality isn’t achieved in full, finding the picture unsure what it wants the audience to feel at certain times, but “The D Train” manages to secure a strangeness that encourages unpredictability, while the cast makes a concerted effort to support Paul and Mogel and their plans to marry laughs with serious acts of personal corruption. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com