In the cold of winter, more and more horror films are being released for audiences. Whether it’s as a means of making the terror more chilling or to offer a different kind of disquiet when nature is resetting is up… Read More ›
mystery
Conspiracy theory doc “A 92 Year Old Hollywood Mystery Exposed” is easily answered.
Movies can be anything, especially in context and length, and simply have to just be a moving picture at a minimum of 24 frames a minute. Conspiracies can be the same thing. They can be about any subject matter and… Read More ›
With “Glass Onion,” it’s not a Rian Johnson whodunit, it’s a Rian Johnson hediditagain.
2019’s surprise of the holiday season was writer/director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, a whodunit that takes all the hallmarks of the great mystery writers and gave it his own spin. First, there’s the rich family where motive is everywhere and… Read More ›
“The Visitor” Digital Code Giveaway
Produced by Blumhouse, Paramount Pictures, and Epix and released toward the start of October, Justin P. Lange’s The Visitor seeks to unsettle through a tale of stolen identity and psychological thrills. Just before it comes available via Epix, the kind folks… Read More ›
Meta-murder mystery “See How They Run” releasing on home video is one puzzle you’ll be glad to solve.
“Well, now that you’ve seen our film you are an accomplice to murder. And so we ask you to remember that it’s very much within your interests not to tell a soul outside of this theater who dunit.” It’s with… Read More ›
Jordan Peele’s third film, sci-fi thriller “Nope,” simultaneously works as a smart survival film and as an exploration of humanity’s darker tendencies.
Jordan Peele: writer, actor, producer, director. Even before his debut directorial film, Get Out (2017), audiences had a solid sense of Peele’s creativity from any of the projects he played any part in. Now, however, with his third film in… Read More ›
Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” is so boldly unconventional, it makes this white whale of an adaptation feel somehow even more tremendous. [Film Fest 919]
Three years ago, Film Fest 919 opened the 2019 festival with Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and I was taken. It was a much more muted affair for the Frances Ha and While We’re Young filmmaker, known for his quirkier approach… Read More ›
The world of “The Witch” explodes with the discovery of “The Other One.”
Writer/director Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch: Subversion is a remarkable sci-fi thriller, taking the coming-of-age tropes we know and blending them together with supernatural-like covert forces, culminating in an adventure that feels familiar and wholly unique. Just before the film ends,… Read More ›
Director Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” maintains the magic of the absurdist mystery in this setting outing. [Film Fest 919]
Three years ago, Rian Johnson’s humble follow-up to …let’s just say, polarizing… Star Wars: The Last Jedi came out in the form of Knives Out. Unlike said film set in a galaxy far far away, the consensus on Knives Out… Read More ›
Lorcan Finnegan’s “Nocebo” plays on expectations, twisting what you think you know to present a disquieting, rage-inducing thriller.
Sometimes it only takes one film to make an impression on an audience. With his 2019 film Vivarium, writer/director Lorcan Finnegan did exactly that via a tale that takes a dark view of the life cycle, trapping a couple in… Read More ›
The game is once more afoot in “Enola Holmes 2.”
Roughly 25 months since the Millie Bobby Brown-led Enola Holmes (2020) hit Netflix, a sequel drops on the streamer taking the same cast, as well as some new additions, on a brand-new mystery tour. Much as the 2020 outing is… Read More ›
Action drama “Preman: Silent Fury” hits harder with the pathos than violence.
Murder, mayhem, sorrow, grief, pain, redemption: these are universal aspects of storytelling that transcend time and place. For stories that combine these to the point where pulpy isn’t just a way to describe the story but the viscera that remains… Read More ›
Murder mystery “See How They Run” offers gratifying escape with a dash of style.
“Oh, I like murder.” Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap Act I, Scene 1, Page 11 Murder mysteries are a staple of storytelling. Whether set upon a stage, in print, broadcast on your television, presented on the silver screen, or in your… Read More ›
“Confess, Fletch” doesn’t miss a step after the character’s 33-year absence in film.
If you’re an adult of a certain age, when you hear the name “Fletch,” you immediately think of Chevy Chase. Across two films, Fletch (1985) and Fletch Lives (1989), audiences watched the fast-lipped investigative reporter find his way into and… Read More ›
Cat-and-mouse horror thriller “Orphan: First Kill” is another rip-roaring good time with one truly bad bitch.
Spoiler Warning: This review will quickly spoil the major twist revealed at the end of Orphan (2009), but not for Orphan: First Kill (2022) because I’m not a sadist. There’s something wrong with Esther, and it has been for much… Read More ›
“Death on the Nile” and in your home, thanks to the home release.
Continuing their reimaging of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot detective stories, Oscar-winning actor/director Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) and screenwriter Michael Green (Murder on the Orient Express) re-team for Death on the Nile. This star-studded crime drama not only offers thrills, chills, and… Read More ›
“6:45” plays with time to generate horror, but actually just creates tedium and celebrates misogyny.
I love a film that plays with conventions. It can be a rom-com that positions itself as a traditional romance involving the ability to time travel but it’s really a story of fathers, sons, and family (About Time). It can… Read More ›
“The Cow” fails to deliver on an intriguing concept. [SXSW Film Festival]
There was a viral tweet going around a few days ago from E! News with some truly stunning pictures of Anne Hathaway and a caption that read “Did Anne Hathaway make a deal with the devil? She is literally aging… Read More ›
Make room on your annual October watchlist for Bill Posley’s “Bitch Ass.” [SXSW Film Festival]
There are very few movies instantly recognized as a crowd favorite, but when they’re discovered in that sweet spot of magic, one would do quite literally anything to witness said film with a packed audience. Bitch Ass, the new horror… Read More ›
Uneven in tone and narrative at times, “Schemes in Antiques” isn’t the con romp you expect, but it’s a ride worth taking.
Chinese adventure hybrid Schemes in Antiques from director Derek Kwok (Immortal Demon Slayer) may feel, to American audiences, like a mash-up between National Treasure (2004) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001). It’s at times silly, serious, delicate, and violent, all while using… Read More ›