By: Jolie Featherstone Director Rian Johnson (Looper, Star Wars: Episode XIII – The Last Jedi) makes a triumphant return to his whodunnit-loving form with Knives Out. Fourteen years after his much-loved debut feature, Brick, a passionately-told film noir set in a modern-day Southern California high school, Johnson’s Knives Out charmed audiences with one of the most talked-about films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
There seems to be a new trend where every Summer, audiences receive a musically-savvy indie. Two years ago, movie goers relished in Sing Street, followed by Patti Cake$ the year after. This season, move goers will be put under a spell by Hearts Beat Loud, an effortlessly charming and heartwarming dramedy from writer/director Brett Haley (The Hero).
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…
By: Nick van Dinther Birthmarked isn’t a bad movie, but it still feels like a missed opportunity.
Filmmaking is certainly an important form of self-expression, but not all films are created equal; sometimes a film comes out that serves no purpose, makes no impact and leaves no impression. Gerard Barrett’s Glassland is a perfect example of such a film. His film completely lacks any purpose other than to be a series of images giving an illusion of motion on a screen. Glassland never rises above a TV-movie-of-the-week, and its attempts at slow and…
The girlfriend dramedy Miss You Already is a fitting follow-up for Thirteen filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke. It just so happens to arrive late in her career after Lords of Dogtown, The Nativity Story, Twilight, and Red Riding Hood.
By: Addison Wylie Nat Faxon (who you may have seen playing bit parts in Broken Lizard films and playing the title male on the unfortunately short lived TV show Ben & Kate) and Jim Rash (who you may have caught on the cult television hit Community) have Academy Awards under their belts. Their screenwriting, along with Alexander Payne penmanship, earned all three of them a prestigious Oscar for their adaptive screenwriting in The Descendants. Now,…
