Conceived and recorded primarily through a video chat platform, Stephanie Laing’s Family Squares attempts to connect with movie goers who have lost loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been restricted from a personal goodbye.
One of the most compelling movies of the year is the minimalist drama Mass, a bottle drama led primarily by its four outstanding leads (Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Reed Birney). The actors portray parents from two families, reeling from a tragedy involving their sons. After prior detached conversations, they decide to convene at a mutually chosen location – a church basement – while a mediator is stationed outside.
Playing like a more intellectual and more comprehensible Pain & Gain, Bart Layton’s American Animals is a clever adaptation of a true crime involving young unconventional thieves who fear their lives are aimless. They decide to be proactive by organizing a score that would later be known as one of the most audacious heists in U.S history.
By: Nick van Dinther It’s so difficult to pull off a horror film that’s truly frightening. Many movies rely on jump scares or violent deaths, but the results rarely stick with you after the fact. It’s a genre that’s incredibly divisive between both fans and critics, and fails more often than it succeeds for both. A filmmaker needs to bring something genuinely special and memorable to the table to appeal to all. Writer/director Ari Aster…
