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2 - FILM NEWS
“Revenge” Review: Director Coralie Fargeat Announces Herself as the Real Deal With Her Blood-Soaked First Feature
“This is as much a “movie movie” as something like Evil Dead II, and I don’t make that comparison lightly. By the time star Matilda Lutz assumes her final form in this film, she is as iconic in her way as Ash was with his chainsaw hand,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“I think this is a brave film precisely because it’s not about someone doing every single thing right. It’s not about someone who perfectly handles something. It’s messy. It’s frustrating. And, yeah, when it’s very good, it’s great. And important. And insightful,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Director Jesse Peretz seems to be growing as a filmmaker, and he’s got such a solid foundation in the form of the script by Tamara Jenkins and Jim Taylor that it gives him plenty of room to work,” writes Drew McWeeny.
Director Panos Cosmatos and his co-writer Aaron Stewart-Ahn absolutely know what movie they’re making, and they are after something that draws together all of the various things that have influenced them in a way that is personal and authentic, and not just about what looks cool,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood remains one of the definitive works of art in any medium about the way childhood imagination works,” writes Drew McWeeny, who said the emotional film “broke” him.
“This irresponsible trash is an inauspicious debut for director Christian Gudegast, who will have to try harder if he ever hopes to have anything to actually say,” writes Drew McWeeny.
Jaume Collet-Serra’s latest action-packed mystery movie is an exercise in wheel-spinning, and by February, it will have dissolved completely, like a snowflake on a tongue,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“The things that Ayer gets right in Bright are the tangible details of what it feels like to use magic in the world of the film, and there are some moments that are effective. But overall, it was impossible for me to fully give myself over as a viewer because I had a hard time understanding what the stakes and the rules were,” writes Drew McWeeny.
The feature debut from the Palestinian filmmaker looks at three different Arab women living in Tel Aviv and trying to juggle their jobs, romance and faith.
Edward Douglas calls the latest installment “a wasted opportunity to end on a high note rather than merely petering away.”
“Christian Bale is one of those actors who can easily tip into self-parody in the wrong role, but when he’s in sync with a filmmaker and the material is there, he can still surprise. He digs deep here, and watching the way he plays the gradual thaw for the protagonist of this Western is powerful,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Mark Wahlberg is completely miscast here, and the weird, vague threat of a romantic subplot involving Gail Harris (Michelle Williams) strikes me as both false and gross considering the circumstances,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“It’s ironic that two actual Disney Channel stars — Zac Efron and Zendaya — provide the one moment that transcends the sort of shiny, made-for-TV quality that suffuses the rest of the film,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“There’s an ugly heart to Downsizing and an ugly eye shooting it, and the result is dispiriting. For the first time, I feel like the knock against Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor as being condescending and misanthrophic, descriptors that have dogged them from the start, is starting to become immutable truth,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Much like I would say RoboCop is one of the great comic book movies despite not being based on a real comic book, this might be the best video game movie so far despite not being based on an actual video game,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“What is clear above all is that Star Wars is in good hands, and that the series retains the ability to both give us what we crave, and surprise us with choices,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Phantom Thread is going to be with me long after the conversations about this year’s awards have faded, and for many viewers, this is going to be a film worth an obsession as focused as the one shared by its main characters,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Thank god we have a populist storyteller as morally focused as he is gifted to use his platform to tell stories that matter at the exact moment they matter most,” Drew McWeeny writes of director Steven Spielberg.
“There is a legitimate anger on display in Craig Gillespie’s film, and you get the feeling it was made as dark comedy because the alternative would be almost too grim to bear,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Bohemian Rhapsody) stays in a biopic groove here, and it’s his approach to the material that makes Darkest Hour interesting. He knows that it’s not just which story you’re telling, but how you tell it,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“It’s beautiful to see a movie where the heroes — Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer — are the people who would be pushed to the edge of the frame in any other movie like this,” writes Drew McWeeny.
“The Franco brothers’ natural ease with one another allows them to try some big, risky things as performers, and it pays off in an intimacy that shorthands the years of friendship between Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau,” writes Drew McWeeny.
The film, which examines racism in the South and stars Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan and Mary J. Blige, is now available to watch on Netflix.
“In its best moments, Justice League is genuinely fun, with a comic book attitude that can be elusive to even the most talented filmmakers working from similar source material. At its worst, it’s simply incoherent,” writes Drew McWeeny.
A thrilling accomplishment by an artist who is only getting better, the film raises major questions about whether “moral courage” in art is really courage at all, or if it’s all just one big human centipede of self-satisfaction,” writes Drew McWeeny.