Category: Film Review

If one squints hard enough, there’s kinda, sorta a “Friday the 13th” sequel happening in “In a Violent Nature.” Writer/director Chris Nash (who contributed to 2014’s “ABCs of Death 2”) certainly isn’t pursuing a fan film with the project, which follows, quite simply, a masked killer made of unstoppable magic looking to seek revenge on a collection of young people who’ve dared to spoil the lasting memory of his mother. Sounds pretty Jason Voorhees-y, but Nash hopes to put his own stamp on slasher cinema with the picture, which isn’t a slam-bang offering of suspense, but something very stripped down and hostile…when it wants to be. “In a Violent Nature” is not for the impatient, as Nash presents a slow-burn study of a Movie Maniac’s menace, delivering a feature that takes its time with nearly everything it offers. It’s almost a test of endurance during travel sequences, with the helmer looking to subvert the subgenre and also deliver hugely with acts of barbarity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Going against the tone set by “Bring It On” and its various imitators, director D.W. Waterson looks to bring intensity back to the cheerleading movie. “Backspot” is a Canadian production examining the pressures facing young women as they deal with physical challenges, mental breaks, and the brutality of competition. It focuses on the journey of an athlete fighting to balance her need to impress and the slow erosion of her emotional health, receiving a special shot to prove herself in the big times of high school cheerleading. “Backspot” doesn’t ignore the demands of the sport and the toughness of its coaches, with Waterson attempting to put viewers into the pressure cooker environment, exploring how such intensity wears down the spirit of the main character. It’s an intimate offering of drama, with screenwriter Joanne Sarazen (“Tammy’s Always Dying”) successfully getting close to personalities and difficulties, making for an interesting sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As he slowly backs away from an acting career, Viggo Mortensen has found his way behind the camera. In 2020, there was his work on “Falling,” a tough but meaningful examination of relationships put under the weight of dementia. For “The Dead Don’t Talk,” Mortensen pursues a western, also scripting this story of a partnership between decent people as it goes through trials of trust, separation, and comfort. This isn’t an Eastwood-ian take on revenge, though aggression does play a part in the tale, with Mortensen much more interested in the development of characters as they deal with the joys and misery of life, especially during a time of national unrest. “The Dead Don’t Hurt” is atmospheric and attentive to emotional expression, lacking a brisk pace. The reward for such patience is another deeply felt picture from Mortensen, who delivers a film of grace and personality, offering a few genre kicks between long stretches of behavioral examination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The director of “Selah and the Spade,” Tayarisha Poe returns with “The Young Wife,” a tale of the future that explores concerns of today. It’s a smaller feature, working with a limited ensemble and a single location, with Poe trying to offer an artful understanding of life’s decisions as she follows the anxiety rising inside a woman about to embark on her wedding day, feeling all the pressures as she deals with various demands. The screenplay (also credited to Poe) often resembles a theater piece, staying close to these characters and their peculiar ways, while the central celebration triggers many issues to be addressed, often in intimate ways. “The Young Wife” strives to carry a memorable visual approach to best disrupt the staginess of it all, and Poe, working with a talented cast, achieves some understanding of doubt, which acts as an anchor during a day of celebration and reunion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Ezra” is the fifth directorial outing for actor Tony Goldwyn, but his first helming job in 14 years (his last was 2010’s “Conviction”). It’s been an erratic career behind-the-camera for Goldwyn, who favors character-based dramas, gifting him room to explore situations of emotional stress and confrontation, and there’s always space for actors, with one of their own calling the shots, making time to massage performances. “Ezra” checks all the boxes on a Goldwyn film, and it remains another frustrating misfire for him. It’s a study of a father going to extremes to deal with his career and his autistic son, with screenwriter Tony Spiridakis using his own parental experiences to inform the turbulent feelings in the work. The picture means well enough, but it doesn’t connect as an examination of relationships, and the writing has a very blunt take on the main character’s sense of authority when handling extremely sensitive family issues. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the world buzzes over the rapid development of AI, “Atlas” tries to turn the computer future into action cinema, eschewing scientific analysis for a more blockbuster take on the relationship between people and machines. Moving past his years as a Dwayne Johnson director, Brad Peyton (“Rampage,” “San Andreas,” and “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”) hopes to bring a little thunder to Jennifer Lopez’s career, overseeing a large-scale endeavor that employs a large amount of visual effects and a screenplay (by Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite) that’s very derivative of other sci-fi adventures. “Atlas” details the story of a woman’s battle to maintain her very human-ness around a futureworld of artificial intelligence, tasked with stopping a powerful enemy, and Payton aims to go big with the work. However, it’s the quieter moments between the characters that tend to work the best, away from the noisiness of the effort and its bizarrely optimistic portrayal of AI support. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Richard Linklater has always been a quality filmmaker. He’s made a few duds over the last 30 years (including an ill-conceived “Bad News Bears” remake), but he’s always invested in the work, trying to find his way through characters and stories, enjoying creative challenges while celebrating with his influences. Collaborating on a screenplay with actor Glen Powell, Linklater delivers one of his finest movies with “Hit Man,” going comedic and noir-ish with the project, which examines a perfectly average person getting lost in his role as an undercover cop, enjoying the break from his usual habits and personality. Powell is gifted a juicy role with the feature, allowed to show off more range than usual, and Linklater clearly delights in playing with tone and dark humor. It’s a mostly tight, exceptionally acted endeavor with enough turns of plot and personality to remain engrossing. “Hit Man” is something special from Linklater, adding a gem to his already impressive oeuvre. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We don’t see much of Jean-Claude Van Damme these days, making his appearance in “Darkness of Man” something to celebrate. And he tries to stretch with the part, portraying a haggard man of the law looking to atone for past sins through the protection of a teenage boy, caught between Russian and Korean gangsters in Los Angeles. Van Damme provides a grizzled take on a dying spirit, playing up the character’s detective noir design, and he's often the best part of a weak film. Co-writer/director James Cullen Bressack (who’s been churning out forgettable features for the last decade) makes a pass at creating a level of Hell for the main character, but the B-movie-ness of the endeavor can’t be contained. “Darkness of Man” is stuck with cliched writing and flat visuals, going through the motions, unable to find the depths of gravitas Van Damme imagines himself reaching at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Garfield” has been a fixture of pop culture for nearly five decades, with the lazy cat’s antics delighting generations of fans. He’s conquered the world of comic strips and television entertainment, but his big screen endeavors, while profitable, haven’t been creatively thrilling. “The Garfield Movie” is a fully CG-animated affair after his last two efforts, 2004’s “Garfield: The Movie” and 2006’s “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties,” strived to bring the cartoon creation into the world of live-action. The return to a pure animated realm for the character is welcome, with director Mark Dindal (“Chicken Little,” “The Emperor’s New Groove”) overseeing a brightly colored and highly slapstick experience for Garfield and his misadventures. “The Garfield Movie” wrestles with family film formula, but it’s visually appealing and backed by charming turns from most of the voice cast, who work to give the feature some personality missing from previous cinematic adventures. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Sight” is billed as the “incredible true story” of Dr. Ming Wang, with the Nashville-based man selling himself as a leader in the field of eye care. The production aims to make a hero out of Wang, with co-writer/director Andrew Hyatt (“The Blind,” “Paul, Apostle of Christ”) telling the story of the subject’s difficult upbringing in China, and his eventual struggles in America, working his way into medical dominance with a focus on helping the blind to see. The essentials of Wang’s journey are fascinating, as it certainly appears he’s lived through so much, remaining true to his integrity and quest to help others. Hyatt isn’t particularly committed to raw experiences and finely tuned dramatic escalation, going the usual faith-based cinema route with harsh melodrama and tedious speechifying. “Sight” (which was shot three years ago) has a real tale about perseverance to offer, but Hyatt’s in the hagiography business here. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

16 years ago, “The Strangers” became a summer hit, finding its place as a creepy chiller among the blockbusters, acquiring a surprisingly vocal fanbase. Industry hiccups prevented an immediate sequel, with one finally materializing in 2018’s “The Strangers: Prey at Night.” The sequel wasn’t nearly as popular as the original (despite being an arguably stronger film), but it made money, and that’s the primary motivation for horror producers. The brand name is back, with “The Strangers: Chapter 1” the first of three new stories in a one-note world, with the masked trio returning to kill more hapless victims in the slowest of ways. The first endeavor is basically a remake of the 2008 picture, with director Renny Harlin (who hasn’t been an effective helmer in decades) in charge of getting the franchise back up and running, offering no noticeable imagination, pace, and performances while doing so. If this is all “Chapter 1” can offer, it’s going to be a long year with the trilogy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” was long in the making and delivered the goods, successfully reviving the “Mad Max” series with an epic depiction of Wasteland war and survival challenges. Director George Miller couldn’t win all of his storytelling battles, but the sequel was a major filmmaking achievement, generating a glorious level of chaos while remaining intimate, to a certain degree, with character motivations. Instead of moving forward with the franchise, following Max to the next adventure, Miller (and co-writer Nick Lathouris) goes the prequel route, turning his attention to Furiosa, originally portrayed by Charlize Theron. Now played by Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne, the character takes control of “Furiosa,” which has Miller pumping the brakes on the series, electing to explore a multi-chapter study of a life corrupted and a world finding new order in the midst of mayhem. One doesn’t necessarily need this understanding of Furiosa, but the helmer brings the goods with outstanding action sequences and marvelous performances. It’s a literary-style take on the universe of “Mad Max,” watching Miller work on world-building and power plays. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After scoring a few early hits with 2004’s “Napoleon Dynamite” and 2006’s “Nacho Libre,” writer/director Jared Hess landed on some hard times, struggling to match the financial success and pop culture ubiquity of his initial efforts. It’s been eight years since his last feature, “Masterminds,” and he’s now making a comeback in the realm of animation, joining co-director Lynn Wang on “Thelma the Unicorn,” which is an adaptation of a popular Aaron Blabey (“The Bad Guys”) children’s book. The elastic ways of cartoon antics plays to Hess’s strengths, and he’s clearly under orders to oversee a “Sing”-like study of animal dreams in the world of musical performance. “Thelma the Unicorn” is familiar all around, but it presents its intended audience with a colorful study of identity and friendship, also delivering a soundtrack filled with lively tunes to carry the picture’s thin premise. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“IF” is being marketed as a lighthearted family film, and one with a giant purple monster, soft and huggable as can be, at the center of its promotional efforts. The creature is in the feature, but ways of joyousness and silliness doesn’t have as big a role in the production as anticipated. Writer/director John Krasinski certainly isn’t at fault for the selling of “IF,” but he’s definitely in charge of the picture’s very uneven tone, caught up in a strange desire to make a heartwarming study of lost childhood imagination, burying it under layers of cloying screenwriting. Krasinski’s heart seems to be in the right place, but his execution misses the mark, stuck trying to marry a movie about the exploits of colorful imaginary friends and their occasional goofball antics with a story concerning a 12-year-old girl’s anxiety over losing her father to heart surgery after already watching her mother succumb to cancer. It’s hard to understand what Krasinski is going for with this endeavor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Musician bio-pics have always been around, but when 2018’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” went on to make nearly a billion dollars at the box office, they became a priority for producers looking to serve audiences hungry to revisit the sonic highs and dramatic lows of the subjects. With the saga of Amy Winehouse, there just isn’t much in the way of happiness when dealing with a self-destructive woman who shared her vocal gifts with the world, ending up dead at 27 years of age, unable to conquer her many addictions. “Back to Black” offers parts of the Winehouse story, with the estate-approved endeavor looking to provide a much softer comprehension of mental illness and a more distinct portrait of predatory influences. Screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh (a vet of musical movies, previously scripting “Control” and “Nowhere Boy”) doesn’t have it easy with “Back to Black,” which feels too sanitized to really comprehend Winehouse’s journey. However, the hits do flow in the picture, and perhaps that’s all the fanbase wants from this underwhelming effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

J.K. Simmons has played evil characters before, but he finds a particular mean streak to explore in “You Can’t Run Forever.” The production is a family affair of sorts, with Simmons’s wife, Michelle Schumacher, co-scripting (with Carolyn Carpenter) and directing the endeavor; their daughter, Olivia, claims a supporting role; and son Joe is the composer for the project. It’s Simmons all around here, and the gang conjures a survival thriller of sorts, with the actor portraying a seemingly average man experiencing a psychotic break, electing to pursue a young girl through the woods, feeling alive as he sets out to murder innocent people. The role plays to Simmons’s strengths as an intense performer, and the writing cooks up some nasty business for him to work with. As an overall study of suspense, “You Can’t Run Forever” starts to fall apart at the midway point, when it becomes clear Schumacher isn’t interested in making a tightly edited nightmare, allowing the feature to go limp. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The experience of motherhood and friendship is examined in “Babes.” It’s not a serious study of the complexity of such a relationship, but mostly a goofy comedy co-scripted and co-starring Ilana Glazer, who works very hard (with collaborator Josh Rabinowitz) to keep the material at arm’s length from a more sincere take on the journey of pregnancy. Actress Pamela Adlon (perhaps best known as the voice of Bobby on “King of the Hill”) makes her feature-length directorial debut with the endeavor, and while she gives the movie a little jazzy pixie dust during its opening act, she soon submits to the tired approach of modern comedies, filling the effort with lengthy improvisational duels and lame ideas for silliness. “Babes” eventually succumbs to formula, and while the picture begins with some mischief and insight into the fogged mind of post-partum frustrations, it ultimately becomes a weak Judd Apatow-style viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“I Saw the T.V. Glow” offers viewers a trip into the unknown. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun goes the surreal route with the feature, asking the audience to ride along with a story that holds very little dramatic potency, as the production is largely supported by its visuals, which burn across time, swim through madness, and visit the ways of television programming found in the 1990s. Schoenbrun aims to baffle with the endeavor, trusting in the lure of dreamlike imagery and nightmare visitations as she details the journey of a young man who exists in a state of fear, finding a connection to someone also dealing with the weight of the world. They locate an outlet in fantasy entertainment, while Schoenbrun escalates the film’s mysteriousness along the way, reaching a potential point of divisiveness where ticket-buyers are either going to feast on the interpretive elements of the picture, or politely reject the helmer’s attempt to become the new David Lynch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Chris Pine has been hammering out an acting career for the last two decades, but he takes on more creative power with “Poolman,” credited as the writer and director, as well as claiming leading man duties. Perhaps it classifies as a vanity project, with Pine making himself the center of attention in this Southern California detective story, portraying a man who lives in his own world suddenly facing the corruption and violence of the real world. It could be promising as a psychological study of a shut-in lightly fried by his Los Angeles experience, but Pine wants to make a comedy, merging noir and silliness for this mild mystery. Unfortunately, while the creator has tremendous enthusiasm for the material (co-written by Ian Gotler), such brightness of spirit can’t lift a mostly comatose endeavor. “Poolman” just isn’t the good time Pine wants it to be, though support from seasoned actors do help the cause. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Madea made her cinematic debut in 2005’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” It was the beginning of something for creator Tyler Perry, who has spent the last 19 years building a media empire on the back of his most popular creation. It’s amazing that there hasn’t been many Madea parodies in circulation, but perhaps broad comedy can’t match Perry’s cartoon character. Writer/co-director Johnny Mack takes a shot at the king with “Not Another Church Movie,” which attempts to give the “Airplane!” treatment to Perry’s oeuvre, going wild and wacky with all the elements of storytelling the filmmaker has been abusing for most of his career. “Not Another Church Movie” is extremely late to the party, and it’s quite the amateurish production, with Mack determined to generate a no-budget pantsing of material that’s already self-aware. And yet, while Mack’s picture is downright horrible at times, it’s still funnier than most of Perry’s offerings. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com