The War with Grandpa
The only type of comedy worse than an unfunny one is a mean-spirited one. The War with Grandpa is so mean that I was frequently taken out of the film to feel bad for the characters.
October 2020
To Your Last Death
By: Jolie Featherstone To Your Last Death is a high-tension trip in the line of recent genre-blending thrillers where a young woman cuts a swath through an army of those who would do her harm in a journey of survival and vindication. Think Ready or Not meets the Preacher graphic novel series, To Your Last Death throws a pacifistic activist into an ultimate death match where she must resort to a kill-or-be-killed mindset to survive.
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw
Fresh for October’s spooky movie season, Thomas Robert Lee’s The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw is an eerie period-piece horror film about a witch and her daughter’s unnerving control over the fate and sanity of a nearby rural village. Effectively atmospheric and compellingly acted, The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw seems to strive to ride the coattails of Robert Egger’s magnum opus The Witch, though it evidently falls short of that mark.
A Fire in the Cold Season
Strong performances and a moving score elevate A Fire in the Cold Season, a thriller that offers few genuine thrills.
Save Yourselves!
Movie goers who are quick to nitpick cellphone tropes in horror movies should have a ball with Save Yourselves!, a sharp sci-fi comedy about aging millennials for aging millennials.
On the Rocks
A story of possible infidelity gets an anti-Hollywood spin in Sofia Coppola’s sophisticated dramedy On the Rocks.
Eternal Beauty
Eternal Beauty is ostensibly the second film to be released in recent months in which a character diagnosed with schizophrenia struggles with the broad issues of love, family, and life. Unlike Luke Eve’s heavily saccharine I Met a Girl, where a man with schizophrenia travels across Australia to find a girl who may or may not exist, Eternal Beauty’s narrative is much more complex, even confounding, and precisely what endpoint it is seeking is vague.
Possessor Uncut
Possessor Uncut is a surprisingly undercooked psychological horror from Brandon Cronenberg. It’s filled with provocative qualities, but they’ve been assembled in a way that doesn’t come together and, instead, work as standalone strengths.
Money Machine
Money is power, but it is also the root of evil. As inhabitants of a Judeo-Christian capitalist society, this is a paradox that we all often find ourselves wrestling with: the idea that money is a malevolent force that we must seek out at the same time if we wish to coexist with others. Sometimes, this paradox stops existing in the background and slaps us in the face. Money Machine is an attempt at just…