Director: Macon Blair Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, Robert Longstreet First of all, Melanie Lynskey kills it here, so there's that, okay? She's just the best. I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore. is the feature debut from Macon Blair, star of Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin (he also played a supporting role in Green Room). The sensibility … Continue reading Review: I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore.
Director: Denzel Washington Stars: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo Denzel Washington is something of an old fashioned Hollywood star. He shuns the limelight, manages to stay out of the gossip columns. Works doggedly for studios on safe, respectable pictures, generally maintains a level of solid integrity. That doesn't make him especially 'interesting' in some … Continue reading Review: Fences
Director: Anna Rose Holmer Stars: Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Antonio A.B. Grant Jr. Coming in at a temptingly svelte 72 minutes, Anna Rose Holmer's debut feature The Fits is one of those modest joys that appear every now and again that deserve better distribution than has been generally afforded. If you can find a screening of … Continue reading Review: The Fits
Director: John Lee Hancock Stars: Michael Keaton, John Carroll Lynch, Nick Offerman It's not unreasonable to say that McDonald's restaurants changed America, and by extension changed the world. The business model prioritising speed of service over all else drawn up by brothers Mac and Dick McDonald reshaped the food industry. It changed the way people … Continue reading Review: The Founder
Director: Barry Jenkins Stars: Ashton Sanders, Alex R Hibbert, Trevante Rhodes The Florida shoreline is an intrinsic part of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight; the steady rhythms of the breaking waves setting a pulse for the film. Jenkins pushes the sound deftly, rekindles it, has it play in dreams. The relaxed rhythm reminds the viewer of breathing. In … Continue reading Review: Moonlight
Director: Mike Mills Stars: Annette Benning, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig Forrest Gump's mother talked a load of horseshit. Life may indeed be like a box of chocolates, but people who don't know what to expect in a box of chocolates probably need to go back to school and start over. You get chocolates in a … Continue reading Review: 20th Century Women
Director: James Foley Stars: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Kim Basinger What will historians make of the Fifty Shades craze if we survive the coming apocalypse of tongue lolling, phone scrolling stupidity? Will it be seen as a signpost, like Trump, of our ongoing self-destructive pull against societal advancement? A knee jerking against the tide of … Continue reading Review: Fifty Shades Darker
Director: Chad Stahelski Stars: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Riccardo Scamarcio John Wick was a happy curio in the post-award season wastes of 2015; a self-aware twist on the trad US action B-movie bolstered by a refreshed Keanu Reeves and the visual discipline of its creators - former stunt players Derek Kolstad and Chad Stahelski - … Continue reading Review: John Wick Chapter Two
Director: Maren Ade Stars: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Thomas Loibl What does it take to make an American watch a film that's not in the English language? If that sounds like the feed line for a joke that's fitting considering the movie in question here is one of the funniest to appear in many years. I … Continue reading Review: Toni Erdmann
Director: Theodore Melfi Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe Hidden Figures is a film about specificity, about having no margin of error because you need to be dead on. You need to be right. Set predominantly in 1961, it tells the stories of three African-American women working for the NASA space program. All … Continue reading Review: Hidden Figures
Director: Chris McKay Stars: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson First thing's first and BAM! we're dropped into a LEGO short, which I can't tell you the name of because even this is spoilery. The appearance of this 5 minutes of fun is significant though. It immediately places Warner Bros Animation Group and specifically their burgeoning LEGO … Continue reading Review: The LEGO Batman Movie
Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Johnny Galecki, Alex Rose What next for the presumed-dead Ring movies? It's a question that Rings - the third installment in the American iteration of the franchise - struggles to answer, flitting from one idea to another and steadfast refusing to settle. There are four or five little movies … Continue reading Review: Rings
Director: Jeff Nichols Stars: Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Will Dalton Writing about film on a regular basis involves looking for ways to keep your work fresh, finding new approaches where possible without coming off as trite or beholden to gimmicks. Only last week I approached Hacksaw Ridge via it's somewhat misleading trailer, so it's frustrating to … Continue reading Review: Loving
