Penguin Bloom is a surprisingly – if manipulatively – uplifting film and it worked on me, schmaltz and all. Not that it’s too schmaltzy… I think it’s the right amount of honest and genuine peppered in with a little overkill. … Continue reading
Come Play is often a surprisingly effective chiller when it’s not trying too hard to fill 96 minutes of screen time. The same guy wrote and directed it so he’s got some talent at filming creepy, scary individual scenes but … Continue reading
I could have rented any number of mature, very serious films with intellectual themes and high minds… but instead I rented Psycho Goreman. Not because it looked like the cheapest of sci-fi B movies, but because it starred a couple … Continue reading
For a movie that sounds like a gimmick, The Kid Detective is surprisingly moving, somber, and dark. It slowly crept up on me and took me by surprise. So much more and so much more moving than I expected. This … Continue reading
I was genuinely pleased (and surprised) at how effective a creepy little thriller What Lies Below turned out to be. I went in blind, just the cover art and a brief description to hint at things to come. And I … Continue reading
I blind watched a newish digital rental called Bacurau, a Brazilian film of some indeterminate genre. I’d heard it talked about and it’s been given good reviews. So I gave it a shot, intrigued by the mystery, and spent more … Continue reading
American Skin is an angry, powerful film that does suffer from being as subtle as a sledgehammer. Its capital M Message is heavy-handed and direct. But the film is also powerful, very well acted, and shot with a blunt economy. … Continue reading
Skyfire is a film that will please pyromaniacs and that’s probably about it. If you come for the fire! FIRE! and those lava bombs that seem deliberately aimed and the LAVA! THE HOT LAVA! then you might get just enough … Continue reading
One Night in Miami has the ambitious idea of placing four iconic African Americans in a motel room and letting the drama flow. Set in 1964 after Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali) wins his heavyweight belt, he meets … Continue reading
Outside the Wire is a serviceable enough action/war movie that, in between firefights, wants to say something about war. Whether it accomplishes that in its overly long runtime is debatable. Set in the near future, America is running peacekeeper operations … Continue reading