By: Jeff Ching When I first saw the trailer for Ticket to Paradise, opening with that scene of George Clooney and Julia Roberts as two divorcees who don’t want to sit beside each other on the plane, I wondered whether this was some kind of spin-off of Oceans 11. How interesting of an idea for these characters to get their own movie; an aftermath of what happened to their relationship after that big heist…or multiple heists….
Terrifier was an excellent example of how word-of-mouth benefited an indie. If you were within horror circles (or chatting with other Netflix subscribers about what random movies were in your queue), people couldn’t stop talking about the film’s antagonist (a sinister and silent clown named Art played by David Howard Thornton), as well as how unforgivably gnarly and violent Damien Leone’s movie was.
By: Jolie Featherstone Halloween Ends, the final instalment of the latest Halloween trilogy, reunites Laurie Strode and Michael Myers in a bloody battle that can also be interpreted as a proud celebration for scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis.
Dark Glasses is a contemporary giallo from legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. Approaching this movie as someone who is unfamiliar with Argento’s work and giallos in general, I was excited and nervous about what Dark Glasses would have in store (similar to my anticipation prior to David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future).
Devil’s Workshop is, mostly, a two-hander. An unhappy actor, Clayton (Timothy Granaderos of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why), is trying to gain insight for a role he’s aspiring for. For knowledge, he shadows experienced demonologist Eliza (Radha Mitchell of the Silent Hill film franchise) for the weekend before the pivotal callback audition. Turning the tables on Clayton to probe more about his life, Eliza is eager to perform a ritual on her guest to alleviate woes,…
Deadstream is a fantastic horror-comedy that takes a questionable aesthetic and premise, and creates lots of scares and laughs through its innovation.
As much as I liked The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, I find it incredibly difficult to endorse because its strengths lie deep beneath its surface. Frequent filmmaking collaborators Hans Canosa and Gabrielle Zevin (Conversations with Other Women, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac) have made an adaptation of Zevin’s novel of the same name that’s neither plot or character driven. Instead, just like a layered and schmaltzy book, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry has…
Triangle of Sadness pitches itself as a sophisticated comedy with “biting” satire about elitist attitudes during class wars. However, the jabs made by writer/director Ruben Östlund are nothing more than the filmmaker taking swings at low-hanging fruit for a ridiculously long runtime; intercut occasionally by tired attempts to be outrageous to offset an arthouse reputation.
