By: Trevor Chartrand Showcasing the contrast between two farming families in Mississippi, Mudbound examines the overbearing racist climate of the southern states in the 1940s. Based on a novel of the same name and directed/co-written by Dee Rees, the film takes place both during and after the Second World War. When a white family takes ownership of a Mississippi farm, they find themselves living in the fields among the black farmhands who will work for them….
Our Souls at Night is what I would call an “easy recommendation”. It has a satisfying modesty that makes the viewer feel nice. It’s also a safe suggestion for fellow movie goers within the same social circles. However, it isn’t a “necessary recommendation” because that would require the film to carry more weight than expected while also pleasing the audience.
I would be perfectly fine if the rest of Adam Scott’s acting career were gigs in horror comedies. With Krampus and now Netflix’s Little Evil, the actor has a special comedic expertise with applying Straight Man schtick when facing fantastical odds, and countering by meeting the film’s expectations in the final stages of the ridiculous plot.
Death Note is a good movie, but it would’ve made a great miniseries. Netflix’s fast-track adaptation of Tsugumi Ôba’s popular manga series is light on characterization, with a troublesome lack of introduction by screenwriters Jeremy Slater (The Lazarus Effect), Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides (the Parlapanides’ wrote Immortals).
There’s not much that You Get Me actually “gets” other than a few unintentional, campy laughs.
Marlon Wayans, Michael Tiddes, and Rick Alvarez take a break from spoofing horror flicks (the Haunted House series) and mainstream smut (Fifty Shades of Black) to present Naked, a Netflix Original (and remake of 2000’s Sweden comedy Naken) that borrows the framework of narrative-looping to make a funny and surprisingly sweet movie that you’ll want to watch over and over again.
By: Jessica Goddard Bong Joon-ho’s Okja is not only packed with insight, imagination, and action, but mesmerizing visual effects. While this movie bounces around tonally, it’s consistently engaging and gripping. There are moments of camp and farce and exaggeration (cough cough – Jake Gyllenhaal – cough) but they are fun and mostly harmless. The premise is well-conceived, and the frequent use of subtitles under Korean dialogue is never fatiguing.
Shimmer Lake is Coen Brothers-lite, yet it aspires to be a film worthy enough to stand beside those famous quirky noirs from the Academy-Award winners. That would require Oren Uziel’s movie to be outrageous, which it isn’t. An unfortunate discovery considering the leads are terrific comedic actors.
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press is a balanced documentary about what has inspired the current state of journalism.
Life can fluctuate, and I believe that’s the point Win It All is trying to make. Then again, filmmaker Joe Swanberg may have just set out to make a straightforward character study, in which case that works too.