This is a disgustingly brutal and rather amazing film that never backs down or pulls any punches, going to some truly extreme places on a narrative and thematic level, resulting in an overall stunning piece of aesthetically ruthless exploitation cinema. I can still remember the first time I saw The Devil’s Rejects, and how utterly…
I’m a huge fan of Adrian Lyne’s sexy, stylish, and provocative work in general, and Unfaithful is easily one of his best films, filled with probing psychological underpinnings and juicy star turns from Richard Gere and Diane Lane, who likely delivered career topping work with her simmering and extremely erotic performance as a suburban housewife…
Unbreakable is easily my favorite film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, who has had, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating, frustrating, and fantastic careers that any filmmaker has ever had. After taking the world by storm in the late summer of 1999 with his superb ghost movie, The Sixth Sense, he unleashed his…
Bulworth remains just as funny and incisive now as it did back in 1998 when it scorched movie screens. Directed with verve by Warren Beatty and co-written with obscene ferocity by Beatty and Jeremy Pikser, the film stings with blunt truth, outlandish yet cogent satire, and an eerily prescient vibe that feels more and more…
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina deliver wonderful, sensitively attuned performances in Ira Sachs’ warmhearted drama Love is Strange. Portraying an older gay couple living in a gorgeous NYC apartment when they’re suddenly and unexpectedly forced to move out, the film takes a simple and observant look at the lives of these two dapper, eccentric, and…
Few movies have frightened me more in the theater than Fire in the Sky. I was 13 years old when my dad took me to see this incredible alien abduction film, and we went opening night because I was so excited that an alien movie was coming out on the big screen. My fascination with…
The Accountant is exactly the sort of movie that has been in short supply of late — an old school, high concept, totally slick star vehicle with a ridiculous yet extremely entertaining plot that’s just as fun as it is far-fetched. The spec script market seems to be dead, with nearly every film based on…
The Siege of Jadotville, a new Netflix original film, is one of those square-jawed military actioners that used to get released in the 60’s and 70’s, unpretentious and ass-kicking, centering on a true story, and adding appropriate dashes of Hollywood flash while never sacrificing any of the gritty integrity that the material promises. Impressively directed…
John Carney’s Sing Street is a wonderful movie for 98% of its run-time. The performances are confident, the romance is genuinely sweet, the music is catchy, and as usual, Carney’s ability to weave a music-themed plot in with distinctive character work yields some absolutely fantastic scenes. And then, inexplicably, during the last few minutes, the…
To say that I’m a fan of the visceral filmmaking aesthetic of director Paul Greengrass would be a massive understatement. I think he’s a genius, and he’s one of my absolute favorite directors. From the stunningly realized recreations of real-world tragedies as depicted in masterpieces like Bloody Sunday and United 93 to his fantastic studio-based…
Antoine Fuqua’s solid updating of The Magnificent Seven is a good time at the movies, an easily digestible modern Western that isn’t interested in anything else other than providing two hours of comfortable, great-looking entertainment. Denzel Washington is excellent, as usual, and leads a very sturdy ensemble cast, with Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, and a…
Other than the misleading title which suggests some sort of revisionist feminist twist on the old west milieu which never comes to pass, I’m not so sure what the problem was with Jane Got A Gun. This is that supposedly “bad” outlaw revenger that came and went this past winter, getting beat up by “critics”…
Regardless of what your stance is on mass data collection supervised by Uncle Sam, Oliver Stone’s engrossing political thriller Snowden raises some extremely provocative and timely questions about our right to privacy, the ever evolving war on terror, and how trustworthy our government has been and can be in the future in regards to these…
It’s too good to be true, the mere notion of what Captain Chesley Sullenberger did on that particular day in January 2009, but due in large part to pure movie magic, we’re now able to get a first-hand glimpse of the terror, confusion, heroism, and stroke of miracle that took place on the Hudson River….
Pardon my French but the black comedy Cheap Thrills was f**king disgusting. And aggressively amazing. And never not fully entertaining. But fucking disgusting all the same. This is as nasty of a movie as I can think of – only strong stomachs need apply. The idea is simple: Two down on their luck guys (the…
It’s too bad that the new Mel Gibson actioner Blood Father is getting buried by Lionsgate in terms of a full-on theatrical release, as it totally represents a return to ass-kicking form for star Mel Gibson, and would make for a tasty double bill with the late summer sleeper hit Hell or High Water….
