Review: John Krasinski’s ‘A Quiet Place Part II’
“‘A Quiet Place Part II’ depicts quietness as a strength, and the film’s release shows that the quietness of the past year can be resolved through the mutable, powerful sensibilities of cinema.”
Review: Ryan Kruger’s ‘Fried Barry’
“‘Fried Barry’ is busy and overstuffed, but it’s also an incredibly promising and deeply weird reinvention of the body invasion thriller; a strange, disorienting and ultimately rewarding experience.”
Netflix Review: Alexandre Aja’s ‘Oxygen’
“Oxygen’s relevance strikes like lightning in a year when time is measured less by Earth’s tilt and more by first wave, second wave, red phase, yellow phase; not by time passing daily, but by how much danger remains in the room.”
Review: Steven Kostanski’s ‘Psycho Goreman’
“‘Psycho Goreman’ is delightfully dark, whimsical, charming and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.”
Review: Anthony Scott Burns’ ‘Come True’
“Stone has the look of a teenager with the earned maturity of someone who’s been through some heavy shit, which lends itself well to her teenage prostitute in ‘Honey Bee’ and works just as brilliantly in ‘Come True.'”
Sundance Review: Ben Wheatley’s ‘In the Earth’
“The most surprising thing about ‘In the Earth’ may be just how much of a return it is to the pitch black humour that characterised Wheatley’s earliest films.”
Review: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s ‘Synchronic’
“Benson and Moorhead’s typically dark, cynical tone is well-suited to the material until a too-neat ending tries to retcon ‘Synchronic’ into something else in the most jarring way possible.”
London Film Festival Review: Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’
“There is so much stuff in ‘Possessor’ that you might think you’re at a venerable cinematic feast. But take away the squelching and splatter and there’s barely enough to fill an episode of ‘Black Mirror.”
Fantasia 2020 Review: Noah Hutton’s ‘Lapsis’
“‘Lapsis’ offers the intriguing and hopeful possibility that our technologically dependent future may not be so bad after all.”
Review: Egor Abramenko’s ‘Sputnik’
“‘Sputnik’ is a thoughtful, knotty sci-fi thriller that’s firmly character-driven and also boasts a horrifyingly beautiful creature.”
Tearing Down the Monument: Sean Connery’s 1970s
“In my hatred for the Bond franchise, I feel I may have done a disservice to its star. I have always had a tendency to discount Sean Connery as an exquisitely sculpted statue, capable of filling out a tuxedo very nicely but little else.”
‘Death Race 2000’: Camp Then and Now
“Perhaps the exaggerated disregard for human life in the name of national pride, entertainment and prosperity in ‘Death Race 2000’ is a timely trigger for reassessing priorities as we await a return to normalcy.”
The Disaster Area: From ‘Airport’ to ‘Airplane!’ – Part One
“It is during the 70s that the disaster film’s most pure and admirable entries were made, bookended by two significantly different stories involving air travel fiascos.”
Why Criticism: Not Quite the Apocalypse
“In Australia, our cinematic art has been trying to shake us from apathy for 50 years.”
Review: Matthew Ninaber’s ‘Transference’
“‘Transference’ feels like a 13-and-under science fiction-themed board game. The pieces are clearly labeled, the color design fits the genre premise and the directions are confusing.”
‘The Wave’: A Promising Fiction Debut from Gille Klabin
“‘The Wave’ spotlights the proverbial writing on the wall for its most flawed characters, but also makes sure to settle on the base-level humanity of others. The result is an affecting and forward-thinking film that pinpoints what it means to be self-aware.”
Review: Richard Stanley’s ‘Color Out of Space’
“‘Color Out of Space’ is one of the weirdest, most disgusting, thought-provoking and provocative releases of the year…”
Review: Alice Waddington’s ‘Paradise Hills’
“One can’t help but wonder how Waddington might reinvigorate other sci-fi tales with her fairy tale stylings.”
Cinema Viscera: Italian Zombie Horror
“This is a world where faith, governments, businesses, families and the other institutions humans have built will all crumble, just like human bodies, which will inevitably succumb to their fragility and fall victim to total destruction.”
Julia Hart Powers Up with ‘Fast Color’
“‘Fast Color’ deserves a close look…”