The setup to Win it All, the new film from director Joe Swanberg who co-wrote the film with its star Jake Johnson, is an anticipatory slippery slope. Compulsive gambler Eddie (Johnson) is left with a shady bag of cash. We know what is about to happen. He knows it too, repeating “Oh, no” with a nervous dread.
Eddie starts on an uptick. An on-screen counter shows us as he Continue reading Win it All (2017) Movie Review
In a wooded hideaway in Virginia is a school for girls led by Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman). Three years deep into the Civil War, Confederate patrols make their way through the area frequently, but Martha and the girls also lie in fear of potential Yankee parties. They whisper stories of Union soldiers raping Southern women, painting uncivilized pictures of the unseen army.
It is understandable, then, that the inhabitants of the plantation take to wounded soldier Cpl. John McBurney (Colin Farrell) with Continue reading The Beguiled (2017) Movie Review
The Princess (Lydia Wilson) has been kidnapped. Held for ransom. For Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear), the only way to save her: have “full unsimulated sexual intercourse with a pig” on live television.
Thus is our introduction to the callous, cruel universe of Black Mirror, the anthology drama series that takes aim at
Continue reading Black Mirror: The National Anthem (2011) Television Review
Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate (Amy Poehler) Johansen need money for their daughter’s (Ryan Simpkins) college tuition. The city council-sponsored scholarship she was supposed to earn was pulled due to budget cuts. Scott and Kate fail to get raises at their respective workplaces.
Then there’s Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), the gambling and internet porn addict best friend of Scott whose wife has left him. In shambles, all Frank wants is to Continue reading The House (2017) Movie Review
Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver. He works under Kevin Spacey’s Doc, a heist mastermind who never works with the same crew twice but who considers Baby his lucky charm. A lucky charm that he has under his thumb thanks to a juvenile mistake that Baby pulled on him at a young age.
Baby is the eccentric protagonist and your archetypal “mysterious quiet type” character. After an accident left him both orphaned and ailed by tinnitus, Baby lives Continue reading Baby Driver (2017) Movie Review
Last weekend, the fifth installment in the Michael Bay Transformers franchise, The Last Knight, drastically under-performed. Coming in at $44.6 million, the film has received the lowest grossing opening weekend in the franchise.
With that knowledge, the introductory weekend to July will prove interesting at the box office. Transformers will likely see a significant drop, and three other wide releases look to take its place at number one.
Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 30 – July 2
Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut as a feature director came in the form of the genre-bending vampire romance film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The film, shot in supple black and white over a soundtrack of trance-inducing electronica and angsty punk, was a beautiful piece about maintaining relationships in an environment rife with isolation.
On paper, Amirpour’s second film The Bad Batch exists in a similar world. Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is released from “Bad Batch” prison into the desert wilderness of the Texas-Mexico border.
A dystopian world in which cannibalism is a viable form of survivable (viable to the point of being morally questionable as opposed to morally intolerable), isolation is all Arlen has. Especially after she is captured by a family of cannibals and Continue reading The Bad Batch (2017) Movie Review
2017 is about halfway over, and there have been many movies that have already made their way in and out of theaters. Some good (see below). Some not so good (Transformers: The Last Knight, most recently).
Let us ignore the bad and focus on what has made the cinema a worthwhile experience in 2017 thus far (in chronological order by release date).
The stigma on the shoulders of M. Night Shyamalan has only grown over the years. The general downward trajectory of his films has caused many detractors, and by and large those detractors Continue reading 10 Best Movies of 2017 (So Far)
Transformers: The Last Knight is, surprisingly, a movie.
The film is a direct sequel to Transformers: Age of Extinction, not that that is important. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), leader of the Autobots, is adrift in space, frosted over in route to his homeworld.
And he will remain frosted over for most of the movie.
Meanwhile, on Earth, various humans have agendas related to Transformers and Continue reading Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Movie Review
All roads have been cleared for Transformers: The Last Knight this weekend. The only new wide release film domestically, The Last Knight will open in 3,900 screens.
This doesn’t mean that other films aren’t around to put up competition, but will any of them be able to topple the box office behemoth that is Transformers?
Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: June 23 – June 25
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