By: Jessica Goddard Despite its inexplicable first-rate cast, Blackbird is an eye-rollingly disappointing take on the terminal illness drama from director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, My Cousin Rachel). Screenwriter Christian Torpe paints with a bland palette of stock characters to slap together a narrative infested with clichés and unnatural one-liners, leading nowhere of interest.
The Jesus Rolls, a semi-spiritual sequel to 1998’s cult classic The Big Lebowski, is a film for those who watched the original Coen Brothers comedy and became enamoured by John Turturro’s character. It’s hard not to be distracted by the sheer weirdness of Jesus Quintana, infamous sex offender and intimidating bowler. Turturro played the role curiously in a way that made audiences wonder “outside of the bowling alley, what’s life like for The Jesus?”
By: Jessica Goddard A Bad Moms Christmas, the holiday sequel to last year’s Bad Moms from the same writer/director team (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore) is generally fun, when it’s not trying to force sentimentality. It wouldn’t be accurate to say this movie takes itself seriously, but its insistence on crossing over into sappiness and raunchiness when it runs out of comedy is lazy and unfortunate.
By: Addison Wylie Tammy is the latest instalment in a series of movies featuring Melissa McCarthy acting inappropriately. It garnered her an Academy Award nomination in Bridesmaids, it repelled good taste in Identity Thief, and brought in lots of giggles in The Heat. Now, her rude persuasiveness finds its way in the backwoods. Tammy, which embraces its hickabilly fog, has McCarthy playing the title role and hitting the road with her blunt, booze gulping grandma…
By: Addison Wylie The latest indie from Jay and Mark Duplass is a film that is very much like it’s main character Jeff, played by Jason Segel. However, that’s not a compliment towards the filmmakers. But, on second thought, with his performance being able to hijack a film, Segel might take this as praise. He comfortably disappears within the character of Jeff and makes the new age stoner believable. However, Jeff’s mentality works well as…