Daniel Roby’s deftly directed thriller Target Number One fictionalizes the true story of a Quebecois drug addict who was imprisoned in Thailand as a result of a set-up by Canadian intelligence in the 1980s. Taking some of its procedural cues from Spotlight, Target Number One is a kinetic, uncompromising look at the impacts and importance of journalism on the overreach of power in counter-intelligence.
Things I Do For Money could be compared to 2004’s You Got Served, which is a movie I thought I wouldn’t be referencing 16 years later. Yet, here we are.
By: Jessica Goddard It’s an intriguing premise: a crude ex-convict will stop at nothing to build a motivational speaking empire. Tijuana Jackson is unrefined, unreliable, and painfully pompous; but for better or for worse, he is motivated.
Russell Crowe gives an absolutely terrifying performance in Unhinged. The film is a high-octane, single day thriller, but there are times when Derrick Borte’s movie is a straight-up horror because of Crowe. As the story’s antagonist Tom Cooper, Crowe ditches his inhibitions. He’s purposely underdeveloped to build an aura of mystery and terror. The audience is given minor clues of who Tom could be, but he still resembles a stranger; someone who could break under…
The title She Dies Tomorrow refers to a line spoken by the film’s lead character Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) to her sister Jane (Jane Adams) early on in the movie. Jane shrugs it off, but then slowly becomes obsessed by the possibility that she too could die tomorrow. She goes to a birthday party where she passes on her distressed theory to a group of four (Chris Messina, Katie Aselton, Jennifer Kim, and Tunde Adebimpe),…
Just as California Typewriter taught us about the cult culture about its title antique, The Booksellers is an equally nifty-and-thrifty doc about the history and culture behind collecting and preserving literature.
“Soapy” is usually a word with a negative connotation, but The Burnt Orange Heresy seems to challenge that. The film is a to-do list of soapy thematic tropes, such as using sex, deception, and even murder to drive its story, yet director Giuseppe Capotondi, screenwriter Scott B. Smith, and a great cast get away with it because the central drama is so interesting and the characters are so beguiling.
One of the best things to happen to 21st century genre cinema is the transgression that comes with newer understandings of social norms. After about one hundred years of cinema, the tropes of classic Hollywood became less of a necessity and more of a suggestion, allowing filmmakers to tell stories that go against the grain when it comes to the necessities of living.
I Used to Go Here is a really funny yet modest take on “faking it ’til you make it”, as well as the internal wrestle between resisting and settling for feigned fulfilment.
