The Holdovers
By: Jeff Ching I’ll get right to it without any literary foreplay: The Holdovers is one of the best movies of the year.
Focus Features
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Just when you think disingenuous spiritual leaders have been satirized every which way, along comes Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. from filmmaking siblings Adamma and Adanne Ebo (the former wrote and directed, the latter produced). The Ebos offer an original perspective with their feature film debut and, despite the familiar material, the film stands as a really strong dark dramedy about redefining redemption.
Vengeance
By: Jeff Ching Despite the title, Vengeance is really not a revenge movie (though revenge is part of the plot), and it’s especially not an action movie. Actually, it’s much better and smarter than what you’d expect. It’s a very ambitious film that attempts many things: it’s a fish-out-of-water comedy with a dark sense of humour, a murder mystery, it’s satirical, it’s philosophical. The movie has a lot to say about the current state of America…
Land
Making her directorial feature-length debut, Land is an unusually small effort from actor Robin Wright (The Congress). Atmospherically dour with beautiful cinemtaography, Land is also in the same meditative spirit as 2007’s Into The Wild, a film written and directed by Wright’s former husband Sean Penn.
Come Play
Come Play feels like a natural throwback to traditional horror, where filmmakers build creative lore for a creature new to the genre. In this case, the monster is “Larry”: large, scaly, and looking for a companion. Larry zeroes in on Oliver (Azhy Robertson), a non-verbal outsider with Autism who struggles to make friends at school. We don’t know how long Larry has been observing Oliver for, but it must’ve been enough time for the creature…
The High Note
The High Note is an enjoyable romantic dramedy with charming performances and some great tunes.