Movie goers may instantly attribute Audrey Cummings’ Place of Bones with fellow westerns, but theatre aficionados may lean more towards low-end productions with sloppy offerings. As someone who finds themselves in the intersection of both groups, Place of Bones pulls me towards my fellow theatre nerds and that, well, sucks.
Kyle Armstrong’s sophomore feature Hands That Bind is a western that’s more introverted than expected.
Spirit Untamed is a cute movie with endearing friendships and a really sweet message.
While Let the Corpses Tan tells a thin tale about thieves on the run, it’s nothing short of complex in terms of visual storytelling. Using – quite possibly – the best edits I’ve seen in a movie this year, Belgian directors/screenwriters Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (The ABC’s of Death) offer audiences pure entertainment that works as both a western and a crime-thriller.
Netflix is a juggernaut of content, and they’re still breaking the mould. Just take Daryl Hannah’s Paradox, for instance. Who could’ve guessed the streaming service could turn your living room into a snooty arthouse theatre? That’s a flippant comment but, boy, is Paradox excruciatingly smug. How do you rate or review this movie? Is this even a movie?
As the Gods Will (DIR. Takashi Miike) Takashi Miike has two modes of filmmaking: a deadly serious style that’s evident in films like Audition, and a goofy, over-the-top style visible in films like Ichi the Killer. In As the Gods Will, it takes the viewer mere minutes to figure out which category Miike’s latest falls into (for me, it was the moment when a student gets decapitated and bleeds red marbles).
Top-notch performances from a talented cast form the back bone of director David Mackenzie’s contemporary take on the western heist genre, but Hell or High Water is more than a well-executed thriller. It is a carefully crafted film that isn’t afraid to cast a bold light on modern issues.
A few tidbits about the prolonged production of Jane Got a Gun could create scepticism for a movie goer right off the bat: the change of director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) to Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) and the frequent switches among the cast due to various conflicts (Jude Law replaced by Bradley Cooper, who was then replaced by Ewan McGregor) are a couple of examples.
