Fashioning itself as a coming-of-age dramedy, Krystal scratches out frank dialogue emoting on behalf of overly honest hearts. It banks on mixing sentiment built on pleasantries laced with profanity. All kinds of abrupt dysfunction and daffy discombobulation try to be endearing entanglements for entertainment, but the result is a really uneven piece of batty humor and grating romance
Read MoreThe dignified art form of cinema may not need a dumb and dazzling film like Rampage, but what escapist audiences do seek out and need are larger-than-life stars. There will always be an ass-kicking place for brawny men like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on the silver screen. The former WWE superstar has become the center square of any year’s blockbuster Bingo card. The fully-formed persona that is Dwayne Johnson is always a welcome treat
Read Moren concisely thematic way, the award-winning short film The Prince, written and directed by Kyra Zagorsky, is a moving artistic interpretation of one of those such moments. It indeed has a thought-provoking story to tell, and the result creates a resonating effect in short order, the chief goal of a good short film. The Prince’s key to accomplishing its depth is the twin layers it uses to portray and describe its moment.
Read MoreThe finest horror films have concepts that tap into elemental fears not just in shocking ways, but in engaging ones as well. They find entertainment value in the gripping suspense and provoked panic that tingle our inseparable fight-or-flight human instincts wired to our senses. Surprises are easy, but building lasting reverberation from those sensations is the challenge. John Krasinski’s directorial debut, A Quiet Place, chooses to strike our sense of hearing, combining a slick creature-feature with a chamber piece of deadly silence that immerses the audience in compelling thrills.
Read MoreThe end of a large war is always a turning point that trickles down from the front lines and the soldiers at arms to the home front with those that maintained their respective communities when their fighters were away. Wars benefit some community members while tragically redefining others. 1945 is a small and intense microcosm of that dichotomy demonstrated over the course of one fateful day in the aftermath of World War II. Shot in bracing black-and-white, this film exudes strong themes of guilt across several points of view.
Read MoreIn Cold War, Jon and Maggie’s misery is our delight and played for side-splitting laughs. The level of vomit in the film is as voluminous as the dark humor. This comedy is the brainchild of writer J. Wilder Konschak making his feature-length screenplay and co-directing debut with Stirling MacLaughlin. His created scenarios and pitfalls are bracingly honest for both their entertaining embarrassment and sinister believability.
Read MoreFor the YA film demographic, I would trade the dozens of run-of-the-mill repetitive and mindless roller coaster rides for more stories and movies that engage and matter like I Kill Giants. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Pete’s Dragon and A Monster Calls in recent years, we have a more adult fairy tale that is not shy about heavy themes and strong emotions and enlightens them with a level of imagination that is fragile and brutal with its beauty at the same time.
Read MoreReady Player One is the liveliest Spielberg film in a decade or more. You could spend hours pausing every frame of this film to discover and relish in the multitude of buried treasures, making the film’s rewatch and replay value tremendous. The nostalgia factor of this film should be a high-score badge of achievement and not a knock of pitiful pandering. Dream fulfillment is a worthy and ambitious target for audience inspiration. That tangible sensation equals the desired blissful excitement this film delivers.
Read MoreTheir maddening pursuit for prisoners takes the opponents into a rustic valley of Mohawk turf with a river bordering one side and the full war on the other. One by one, grizzly deaths dwindle numbers on both sides until the prophetic zinger line of “we’re the only monsters left out here” brings forth another plane of peril. The aggressive hunt turns ethereal and truly primal towards a crackling climax of mist and fire.
Read MoreRemoving the religious marrow from the bones of Paul, Apostle of Christ will not weaken the story being told by the film. At its core, the reverent desire to document an enlightened jailed man’s life story before his pending death is a respectful measure of learning and commitment anyone from any walk of life can appreciate. Moreover, when the purpose of recording is to carry on the prisoner’s mission, the sense of regard grows. Once the spiritual gravity of the “who” and the “what” is applied, the importance of this chronicle increases even further.
Read MoreJourney’s End recounts the British side of a climactic four-day span from March 18-21, 1918 in the stalemate “No Man’s Land” trenches of Aisne in northern France in the lead-up to Operation Michael. Every month, each British company is required to serve six days on the front line where casualties are gravely high. Gambling with death sentences, both trooper and officer alike pray that their six days are not the ones where an offensive is being amassed or defended.
Read MoreThough measured as a small independent film, Flower is an undoubted showcase platform for the soaring talent of Zooey Deutch. Clad in her plain tank-tops and empowering a character with all kinds of obscene confidence, not even the worst behaviors on display can take away the magnetism of her frank and jarring performance. For most of the film, she shines repulsiveness with unmatched charisma.
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