Liam Neeson has been playing a variation of the same soft-yet-secretly-badass character since 2008’s Taken, and Mark Williams’ action-thriller Honest Thief is no exception. Neeson treads well-worn ground as Tom, a former marine-turned-bank robber who wants to turn himself in and start a new life with his girlfriend, Annie (Kate Walsh). His attempts to make amends don’t exactly go as planned when the FBI agents sent to take him in decide to keep the money…
I can’t comment on whether Modern Persuasion is an adequate adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion because, as someone who is shamelessly not a reader, I’m unfamiliar with the original literature. However, just as I did earlier this year with Emma, I can give the perspective of a viewer who is going into the movie cold, looking for something sweet to curl up with. Even though it starts out strong, I’m afraid Modern Persuasion just doesn’t…
Stardust has a really good idea for a movie: the rise of an insecure musician who strives for fame but, at the same time, is scared of how his lack of identity will ruin him. If the movie was about an ambiguous celebrity, director Gabriel Range (Death of a President) could’ve had a lot of room to explore the anxieties of fame. Unfortunately, he’s desperate to crowbar these dilemmas into an unqualified and unauthorized biopic…
For a movie to be inspired by or use a real-life tragedy as a primary factor in its story, the filmmakers have to justify their utilization well. Not only does Songbird fail to do this, a film using an ever-evolving case of COVID-19 as its crux, but Adam Mason’s movie proves that there shouldn’t be a film centring around this pandemic (or something like it) for a very, very long time. Educational tools (Totally Under…
Romantic comedies can get away with just about any sort of off-the-wall, clichéd nonsense as long as the film sports genuine charisma. The power of uplifting attitudes and chemistry can help viewers go along with unusual plots and characters, and also convince the audience to root for silly love stories.
By: Jolie Featherstone Brayden DeMorest-Purdy’s feature film debut, Beyond the Woods, is a mind-bending, slow-burning crime drama where lost and troubled individuals burn like smoking flames flickering against the bitter-cold, snow-capped landscape that threatens to consume them.
Written and directed by Stella Hopkins, Elyse is an uninventive and poorly-written depiction of mental illness. To watch Anthony Hopkins, Stella Hopkins’ husband and arguably one of the greatest actors of our time, perform in a film this tedious and inexpert is a truly baffling experience. Mental illness is a complex and nuanced theme, but Elyse’s exploration of a wealthy but unsatisfied white woman’s inner world is obvious and riddled with clichés.
The Prom is a musical about a group of famous performers who use their clout and flashy personalities to make a stand against the discrimination of the LGBT community. However, despite how inspiring this story is supposed to be, the movie is also supposed to be satirizing celebrities who are more concerned about their image than the cause they’re fighting for. It’s a piece of irony that’s lost on The Prom, a film that wants…
With what little time she has (73 minutes before credits), writer/director Karen Maine accomplishes a lot with her memorable filmmaking debut Yes, God, Yes, a semi-edgy dramedy set in the early 00s about a young Catholic student who has a sexual awakening before embarking on a weekend school retreat.
By: Jessica Goddard Our own Addison Wylie mentioned I probably shouldn’t watch the trailer for Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear, since it would be better to go in cold.…and boy was he right. When I tracked down the trailer after seeing the film, I was shocked by how much it gives away. So in that spirit, I’ll warn that this review contains what are, effectively, spoilers (though that’s not the perfect word).