It begs the question of what it would actually take to win the attention and approval of the device-centered youths of today. Would it be what’s in the film, as in a set of parents instituting a cold turkey removal of wi-fi, a migration to analog country isolation, and the nudging increase of go-out-and-get-dirty experiences? Sure, that stuff tends to work in fictional movies, but what about stepping out of the movie itself to the theatrical and streaming marketplaces.
Read MoreA master of all things moody and mysterious, Dafoe is the chief reason to approach this narrative based on Panos Karnezis’s 2007 novel. The enigmatic star, singing and dancing at a few points, is granted all latitude to explore the framed space, and the camera is entranced to follow him. However, back to its ugly soap opera traits, outside of actively worshipping Dafoe completists, absorbing the undesirable heights of Jiménez’s bleak film is hard to recommend.
Read MoreIn Tony, directed by incisive rising filmmaker Matt Johnson of Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie and BlackBerry, we’re not watching the complicated rise of the next J. D. Salinger. We’re witnessing the prickly makings of, quite simply, an asshole. With each new early scene, Tony stacks lies that inflate his resume, ego, and foothold on any actual success, with no signs of slowing down in a parade of one bad choice after another.
Read MoreWhen a creative person gets the fullest chance to tell a piece of their autobiographic story through their chosen medium, that’s a special result worth celebrating. Lauren Caster is wonderfully granted that very freedom as she writes, directs, and stars in the gracious independent film Rhythm Is a Dancer.
Read MoreNo son or daughter wants the “Alvin!” treatment from any incarnation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Olmo isn’t just the title of the new film from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke that played at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and as a Panorama selection at the 75th Berlinale. It’s the word you hear hollered most often, much to the dismay of the character who bears the name, played by Night Swim newcomer Aivan Uttapa.
Read MoreIn many ways, there is no amount of “What the fuck is wrong with you?” questions, bellowed from both sides of this dichotomy, that will ever get to the bottom of the dirty depth being scooped in I Want Your Sex, and that’s a complete plus to the film’s appeal. Splicing comedy to sexual awakening in this day and age is a tall task, and scrambling brains with the jeopardy of fantasy fulfillment is even bolder.
Read MoreThanks to their committed and brave performances of showing life’s difficulties parallel to the carefree and united fun, the question isn’t “will-they” or “won’t-they” like other rom-coms. It’s should they because of the prudence being paced so smoothly and realistically next to the pleasures. Built that way, any fulfillment found in it all becomes much more rewarding.
Read MoreThe sleepaway setting has long been a comedy and horror staple, from Meatballs, Friday the 13th, and The Parent Trap to Heavyweights and full-on satires like Wet Hot American Summer, and the delightful and crass new comedy The Floaters follows that in the same vein. It doesn’t matter the specialty or type of camp, assembling a hodgepodge group of characters is a foolproof and fast way of multiplying the classic coming-of-age arc we know and love.
Read MoreMost scientists in the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) or METI (messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence) fields bank on theories that any real evidence we, as a planet, will get will come from signals more than flying saucers and little green men arriving on Earth. Similar to Contact, Clara, and Ad Astra that came before it, The Outer Threat follows that more plausible and intelligent path and still develops solid suspense.
Read MoreCompare your kinks and compare your calamity to theirs as the cross-examinations skirt the existential as well as the suggestive. This all feels like a brisk game and a bold test, and there is unmistakable brilliance to take away from such an experience, and witnessing the savvy theatrical chops, led by Olivia Wilde, it took to pull this kind of vampy subterfuge.
Read MoreLucky Strike makes two cardinal mistakes in its first two scenes, which, in turn, dilute the rest of the movie. It’s a shame, too, because The Last Castle and The Contender director Rod Lurie, filming in the thick woods of Bulgaria, utilized striking wintery location shooting to put his actors through their paces and make us feel every cold snap of this movie’s little piece of the famed Battle of the Bulge during December of 1944.
Read MoreAs aforementioned, the premise of Rose of Nevada, bobbing our two strapping young men to the mercy of the seas of time, carries the “potential” of a story. Unfortunately, potential can only reach so far without actual progress. Try as George McKay can to unravel with his wide eyes to find an exit for Nick from this spiral, the oddness and downright tediousness of the plot never reach a true mindfuck level.
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