Thriller

Reviews

Broken Star

The central character in Dave Schwep’s Broken Star is a young actress fallen from grace: a drug-addicted, manipulative monster.  Markey Marlowe (Crazy, Stupid, Love’s Analeigh Tipton) – a character and name that sounds like it’s come right out of a 1940s film noir – is placed on house arrest, with her only company being reclusive landlord Daryl (Tyler Labine of Mountain Men), whose grandmother has recently passed away.  Over time, Marlowe manipulates Daryl into attacking those…

Reviews

7 Splinters in Time

7 Splinters in Time advances from a well-timed reveal.  It’s a wordy spiel of exposition delivered by the dependable and always admirable character actor Austin Pendleton, but it’s a scene that justifies the film’s frenetic style and narrative;  turning incomprehensible details into awesome creativity.

Reviews

22 Chaser

With 22 Chaser, director Rafal Sokolowski gives Toronto a vibrancy and grit usually associated with big American cities.  This edgy vision efficiently (and stylistically) projects the aggressive nature between the film’s competitive characters, who are trying hard to earn their keep.

Reviews

Terminal

I can’t tell you much about Terminal because a.) talking about its multiple twists would allude to the degree of deception that is continuously at work in the film and b.) the movie is often so incomprehensible, you can’t make heads or tails of it.

Reviews

In Darkness

By: Leah Kuperman In Darkness stars a blind protagonist who gets caught in the violent crimes of the London underground.  Writer/director Anthony Byrne (BBC’s Peaky Blinders) offers viewers a gripping film with ample twists and turns but most interesting, however, was the way his movie portrayed the life and disability of its protagonist.

Reviews

The Hurricane Heist

In January, I declared Monolith as one of the dumbest movies I’d have ever seen;  despite it being an entertaining flick.  I secretly felt that no other movie released in 2018 could top its foolishness.  Little did I know Rob Cohen’s disaster movie The Hurricane Heist was waiting around the corner, ready to blow me away.

Reviews

Hereditary

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…

Reviews

Hotel Artemis

By: Trevor Chartrand It’s refreshing to see original scripts can still make their way to the big screen!  Between the endless tirade of superhero movies, novel adaptations, sequels, remakes, and reboots, it’s rare to see something that’s actually fresh.  Films aren’t often greenlit without a built-in fanbase – and even when they are, they rarely rise above mediocrity.  Thankfully, this isn’t the case with Drew Pearce’s Hotel Artemis.  The film isn’t going to revolutionize cinema…

Reviews

Another Soul

Another Soul will remind viewers of other movies.  It’s an echo of supernatural horror stories told before featuring demons, possessions, conflicted parents, and exorcisms.  But, Another Soul is also a shoestring effort working with limited resources that no one would truly want to slam because the cast and crew are simply “doing their best”.  This, perhaps, could’ve acted as an excuse to criticize Paul Chau’s film on a curve, but I’m afraid the Paranormal Activity franchise has…