Fantastic Fest 2022: 'The Elderly' Movie Review

The Elderly, from Spanish co-directors Raul Cerezo and Fernando Gonzalez Gomez, taps into a number of primal, deep-seated fears. Ideas of our bodies aging and betraying us touch on body horror; there’s the dread of losing our autonomy, in both a physical and mental capacity. It has something to say about how society values, or more accurately, doesn’t value the aged, attends to the looming specter of Spain’s fascist past, which may not be as far in the rearview as many believe, and even copes with the threat of climate catastrophe.

'Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon' (2022) Movie Review

At a glance, the story of Ana Lily Amirpour’s Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is relatively straightforward. When Mona Lisa Lee (Jean Jong-seo, Burning) escapes a mental institution, she finds herself alone and struggling to survive on the streets of New Orleans. From those simple beginnings, however, things become much more complicated, dreamy, and strange. In part, at least, because Mona Lisa has unusual abilities, she can control other people and make them do things. 

'Dead For A Dollar' (2022) Movie Review

In the opening scene of Walter Hill’s new western, Dead for a Dollar, bounty hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) visits outlaw Joe Cribbens (Willem Dafoe) as he’s about to get out of jail, where Borlund put him. This sets the stage for a tale of hard, violent men on an inevitable collision course. And at no subsequent point does the film live up to the potential of this first moment. 

Fantastic Fest 2022: 'A Wounded Fawn' Movie Review

From the jump, A Wounded Fawn, the latest from director Travis Stevens (Girl on the Third Floor, Jakob’s Wife), flaunts its Italian influences, from the grainy, shot-on-16mm look, striking color palates, woman-in-peril motif, use of masks, prog-rock score, an owl creature lifted from Stage Fright, even the main car. Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within), balancing charm and menace, plays a serial killer who lures a potential victim, played by Sarah Lind (True Justice), to a remote cabin. Nothing good will come from that. For her anyway, it's a damn fine time for viewers.

Fantastic Fest 2022: 'All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms' Movie Review

A title like All Jacked Up and Full of Worms evokes certain images and anarchic feelings. But I’m here to say that Alex Phillips’ movie by that very accurate name involves all that the moniker promises and so, so much more. Sex, drugs, cannibal Juggalos, an erotic love hotel, sex dolls, disemboweling, and, of course, hallucinatory worms. Among much other lunacy. What else can one hope for from a single 72-minute motion picture?

Fantastic Fest 2022: 'The Antares Paradox' Movie Review

Is there intelligent alien life out there? It’s a question that’s dogged humanity since we first looked up at the stars. And it’s also the central question in the life of Alexandra Baeza (Andrea Trepat), the protagonist and central character of Luis Tinoco’s sci-fi thriller The Antares Paradox. But the film also digs into the personal costs of the protagonist’s singular fixation as she struggles to make an impossible choice between fulfilling her lifelong dream and confronting a brutal familial loss.

'Facing Monsters' (2021) Movie Review

I’m not a surfer. It’s one of many, many things I’ve always wanted to try but have never actually got around to. (It doesn’t help I’m from a not-particularly-surfy place.) But on film, the sport shows as beautiful and serene; a perfect love letter to the majesty of nature. It’s also often harrowing and reminds us of the true power of that natural force. Bentley Dean’s new documentary, Facing Monsters, captures all this splendor, all this peril, as well as one man’s connection to the waves that runs as deep as any ocean.

'Section 8' (2022) Movie Review

There’s a lot going on in Section 8, a lot. Director Christen Sesma (Paydirt) and writer Chad Law (Daylight’s End, Close Range) and Josh Ridgway (Howlers) crafts a hodgepodge of DTV staple plotlines, splicing together revenge drama, sprawling conspiracy thriller, tactical action, and more genre fundamentals. To be honest, there’s probably not a ton of appeal beyond extant fans of this type of film, but for those of us already on the hook, this shit is like supercharged catnip. It's chaotic and herky-jerky at times, but delivers balls-out fistfights and shootouts, and takes enough wild swings that it’s ultimately pretty damn fun.

'Speak No Evil' Movie Review

Don’t talk to strangers. It’s a lesson we learn as kids and it’s one horror movies take great pains to teach us again and again and again. You think you’re going to make new friends, but no, only bad things will happen. Case in point, Danish writer/director Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil, a suspenseful tale of palpable discomfort and eroding social niceties that winds up vicious, nasty, and really, really mean.

'The Retaliators' (2021) Movie Review

You have to love a good rock and roll vanity project. Usually in these situations, a single band or musician is the driving force, but in the case of The Retaliators, it’s financed by a record-label-turned-film-producers and serving largely as a vehicle for their roster of recording artists. The movie is, as one might expect, kind of a mess, but also kind of fun sometimes. But despite all the chaos and pitfalls and head-scratching moments, this is still pretty damn fun to watch and builds to an unhinged, gore-soaked climax that’s worth the wait.

D23: So Many Trailers From The Weekend

D23, which his essentially Disney’s version of Comic-Con or similar pop culture brouhahas. It was a massive unveiling of news, trailers, casting, release dates, and all the related accouterments. As usual, it was a lot; some of it interesting, some of it less so. But we did get our first glimpses at a bunch of stuff that will dominate the bulk of the conversation for the next few years. 

'Glorious' (2022) Movie Review

If you’ve spent any time on the road, you probably know highway rest stops can get weird. Sometimes very weird. What director Rebekah McKendry’s (All the Creatures Were Stirring) new movie Glorious supposes is, what if, instead of a weird rando on the other side of that roadside glory hole, it was something much darker, more sinister, and exponentially more powerful?

NBFF 2022: 'Sirens' Movie Review

I’m a sucker for documentaries about punk, metal, or really any other musical genre popping up in places you don’t normally expect. Death Metal Angola, Los Ultimos Frikis, A Band Called Death, among others come to mind. Fitting nicely into this specific niche is Rita Baghdadi’s documentary Sirens, which chronicles Lebanon’s first all-female heavy metal band, Slave to Sirens. 

'The Killer' (2022) Movie Review

A frenetic action movie about a tired-of-life assassin that begins with a hatchet fight? From the director and star of The Swordsman? Uh, that’s a big old hell yes from around these parts. And that’s precisely what we get from Choi Jae-hoon’s The Killer. Not to be confused with John Woo’s 1989 classic of the same name, this is nevertheless also a kickass time. (This latest Killer is an adaption of Bang Ji-ho’s novel, The Kid Deserves to Die, and it’s easy to understand why the title was changed for multiple reasons.)

Fantasia 2022: 'Confession' Movie Review

Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-seob, A Company Man) is arrested for killing his mistress, but released on bail as his trial is in progress. Fleeing the prying eyes of the media, he retreats to an isolated, snow-bound cabin to meet with a Yang Shin-ae (Yunjin Kim, Lost), a new lawyer, one who has never lost a case. Over the course of a night in director Yoon Jong-seok’s Confession, Yoo spins his tale, lies pile up, perspectives shift, and true intentions come to light. 

Fantasia 2022: 'Dark Glasses' Movie Review

With Dark Glasses, his first film since 2012’s Dracula 3D, horror legend Dario Argento wants to remind you that, even at 81, he can still make a Dario Argento movie. Most, or at least many of his cinematic trademarks are present and accounted for. We’ve got striking colors, an unseen killer terrorizing young women, and a Goblin-esque score that could be lifted from one of the director’s late-70s/early-80s works, among other touches. While it doesn’t reach the highs of his more iconic films, it’s quick and efficient, fits solidly in his wheelhouse, and certainly rates higher than much of his recent output.

'Paid In Blood' (2021) Movie Review

Just a heads up right out of the gate, Paid in Blood has been marketed as a fast-paced action film, which it is decidedly not. Despite a few quick flurries, there’s really only one straight-up action scene. More than that, director Yoon Young-bin’s film, also known as Tomb of the River, aims to be more of a taut, sprawling underworld epic. It eternally lingers right on the verge, on the precipice of violence, but even punctuated by quite a few stabbings, they’re honestly pretty low-key as far as stabbings go.

'The Gray Man' (2022) Movie Review

Do you like empty posturing and stylistics, faux clever banter, saccharine emotional manipulation, dubious (meaning nonexistent) character motivation, wannabe cool needle drops, and a series of exhausting set pieces? How about muddy visuals, hollow action, and an overreliance on camera tricks due to a lack of ability to shoot a fight scene? Just for kicks, why not throw in a stacked cast of actors you like but wish were all in a better movie? And all for a bloated price tag of $200 million? If that sounds like fun, it’s not, but it all adds to Netflix’s latest vapid action offering, The Gray Man, from Marvel alums the Russo Brothers. 

Fantasia 2022: 'Special Delivery' Movie Review

As a concept, writer/director Park Dae-min’s Special Delivery plays like a riff on stories like Drive or The Transporter. A solitary, hot-shot driver, against their personal rules, gets personally and emotionally involved in a job, which upends their life. Though a familiar set up, full of high-speed chase scenes, an escalating mean streak, and a fantastic performance from Parasite star Park So-damn, the film offers up a throttle-cranking action blast.

Fantasia 2022: 'The Roundup' Movie Review

Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, just wrecking dudes, is a true thing of beauty. That single fact is more than enough reason to watch a movie; I’ve watched movies for far, far less. If that wasn’t enough to get The Roundup to pop on my radar (it certainly was), the fact that director Lee Sang-yong’s film is a follow up to 2017’s The Outlaws, which prominently features Ma running amok through the Seoul underworld. And while this new chapter may not quite live up to its predecessor, it’s still a more than worthy successor. 

Fantasia 2022: 10 Most Anticipated Movies

The past few years, Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival has become one of my favorite cinematic showcases on the calendar. Probably because it caters to all manner of genre weirdness from around the globe. We’re talking horror, action, sci-fi, and more. It also features a combination of things that will get released and an assortment of those you’ll probably never hear from again. It’s movie nerd smorgasbord. 

'The Summoned' (2022) Movie Review

Take four people with intricately overlapping personal histories, drop them in a remote location, and stir. It’s a classic horror cocktail, simple, straightforward, and effective when done right. The Summoned, the directorial debut from Mark Meir, hews close to this recipe, but mixes in enough other ingredients, along with solid character work, to come up with a drink that tastes familiar but still hits the spot. 

'Thor: Love And Thunder' (2022) Movie Review

Do you have one of those friends who tells a joke, and when you don’t laugh, they proceed to poke you in the ribs, like, “Huh, right, get it? Get it?” If you know this person, or have seen countless iterations of them on TV and in movies, that’s the general sensation of watching Thor: Love and Thunder, the latest in Marvel’s candy-colored, Norse-mythology-inspired arm of their cinematic universe. The entire film, and by extension director Taika Waititi, feels like it’s just going to stare at you awkwardly until you force a weak chuckle then it will bask in the glory of its own wit.

'The Princess' (2022) Movie Review

It’s entirely understandable if you don’t automatically assume a movie about a teenage member of a royal family titled The Princess, released by a Disney property, features a lot of head-stabbing. However, in the case of the latest from director Kiet Le-Van (Furie), a movie coincidentally named The Princess newly available on Mouse-House-subsidiary Hulu, if you make this assumption, you’d be quite mistaken. There is, in fact, a fair amount of head-stabbing, eye-gouging, and general death and violence. What we get on screen can best be described as Rapunzel by way of The Raid. Or to be more accurate, a kind of reverse Raid. (The protagonist must battle her way out of a tall building.) And it’s damn fun.

'The Witch 2: The Other One' (2022) Movie Review

Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch: Part 1—Subversion is a deliberately paced, gradual build toward a brutal, bloody action/horror/sci-fi hybrid. It takes its time to lay the groundwork and establish the emotional stakes to that violence, toying with audience expectations along the way. The second chapter in this proposed trilogy, The Witch 2: The Other One, is a jumbled, tedious misfire that fails to accomplish much of any note.

'Dinner In America' (2020) Movie Review

 

“Fuck the rest of them, fuck ‘em all but us.” So goes the refrain in a song written by Simon (Kyle Gallner, Veronica Mars) and Patty (Emily Skeggs, The Miseducation of Cameron Post). It also forms the general conceit and overall attitude of Adam Rehmeier’s middle-finger-flying, punk-rock-fuck-you of a love story, Dinner in America. Think Repo Man by way of Bonnie and Clyde and that begins to paint the picture.

'Shark Bait' (2022) Movie Review

A group of college friends on a drunken spring break excursion “borrow” a pair of jet skis for a fun, alcohol-fueled jaunt into unfamiliar waters where no one knows they’re going. What can go possibly go wrong? The answer in Shark Bait, the latest from director James Nunn (One Shot), is everything. They have an accident, their transportation breaks down, and, of course, sharks.

'Decision To Leave' Trailer: Park Chan-Wook's Latest Brings The Mood And Mystery

UPDATE: We've now added a full trailer for Decision to Leave as well as two additional clips. Find them down below.

ORIGINAL POST: In this house we celebrate Park Chan-wook. The South Korean director has helmed a ton of masterpieces and films that rank among our all-time favorites. (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Stoker, to name a few.) So, of course, we’re excited anytime he has a new movie coming out. His next, Decision to Leave,  premieres at Cannes this month and there’s a brief, esoteric trailer to get us pumped up.

'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' (2022) Movie Review

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness now has the distinction of being my least favorite chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a plodding eyesore overflowing with shallow expository dialogue in lieu of narrative development. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) continues to be the least interesting Avenger, and even another strong performance from Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch can’t save the day. And the one moment I really enjoy, admittedly for petty personal reasons, I can’t talk about because it’s a major spoiler.

The Bone Bat Comedy Of Horrors Film Festival Returns For 2022, Weird And Wild As Ever

Well, it’s that time of year again in Seattle. Spring is in full swing, the weather’s getting better, so what other decision is there than to spend a (potentially) gorgeous day inside in a dark-ass movie theater watching horror movies? If that sounds like a damn fine time, the Bone Bat Comedy of Horrors film festival is back for their first in-person gathering since, you know, the world came to a screeching halt…for some reason that escapes me at the moment. (Just kidding, it was a global plague.)

'The Northman' (2022) Movie Review

I may not be as entirely in love with The Northman as many, though I do think it’s quite good. I am, however, definitely in love with the fact that after The Witch and The Lighthouse, which has budgets of approximately $5 and $11 million respectively, someone gave Robert Eggers a shit-ton of money (reportedly in the neighborhood of $90 million) to direct a bonkers-ass, borderline-hallucinatory Viking epic. And damn does he ever go for broke. It’s strange and esoteric and features both a White-Walker-looking Valkyrie with braces and Bjork playing a creepy no-eyed witch to provide a bit of context. 

'The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent' (2022) Movie Review

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has one hell of a hook, that’s for sure. Academy Award-winner Nicolas Cage plays a version of himself, hired by a rich super fan to appear at his birthday party. It turns out the fan is also an international drug dealer, and the CIA enlists Cage’s help to take him down. With a concept as undeniably intriguing as this, the question arises: Can they pull it off? Is it a great idea with nothing to back it up? Does it run out of steam when the initial novelty wears off? These problems have derailed many fantastic concepts, but It’s nice to report this mostly hits the mark and is a damn entertaining time.

SIFF 2022: 'Skate Dreams' Movie Review

Skateboarding has almost always been a boy’s club. I grew up skating in the ‘80s and almost never saw a female skateboarder outside of a vanishingly rare photo in skate magazines. By the ‘90s when I was in high school a lot of teams had a token female skater and my hometown had a clique of three or four women who would show up semi-regularly at skate spots. (Parks in every town weren’t a thing yet.) Of my core crew of four, there was one woman, but for the most part, she was the only one everywhere we went. But in recent years, women’s skateboarding has exploded in popularity and become the fastest growing demographic in the sport. Jessica Edwards’ documentary, Skate Dreams, tracks that ascent in the in the days leading up to skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport.

SIFF 2022: 'Warm Blood' Capsule Review

Gritty, grainy, and based on the diary of a teen runaway, Rick Charnoski’s debut, Warm Blood, paints an immersive, impressionistic portrait. A scuffed-up, messy glimpse at places people often look away from, the film tracks Red (Haley Isaacson) as she returns to a seedy Modesto, California in the late-1980s searching for her father. 

'Crimes Of The Future' Trailer: David Cronenberg Gets Back To His Body Horror Roots

Add the name Cronenberg to any movie and you have our undivided attention. Especially when it’s familial patriarch David Cronenberg. And especially especially when the film in question turns out to be a sci-fi-twinged body-horror romp. Such is the case with this first teaser trailer for his latest outing, Crimes of the Future. Check it out below, it has all the uncomfortable squeamishness one could hope for.

'Bull' (2021) Movie Review

Neil Maskell (Kill List) may not look like a typical cinematic badass, he just looks like a normal dude you’d pass on the street and not give a second thought. But holy hell, people in movies need to stop messing with him because he will straight up wreck them and be terrifying as hell in the process. Case in point, Paul Andrew Williams’ revenge thriller Bull. 

'The Contractor' (2022) Movie Review

The Contractor is fine, just fine. Director Tarik Saleh and writer J.P. Davis deliver precisely the airport-dad-novel-come-to-life story it promises. Chris Pine turns in strong central performance that grounds the slick Bourne-light premise and execution. And the film has aims to say something about how America treats its military veterans that, while clunky and heavy-handed, is admirable and earnest. It’s fine, just fine, which is both the best and worst one can say about the film. This fact also makes it imminently forgettable.

The 2022 Oscar Winners

So, the Oscars were last night. That happened. As usual, I like some of the choices, hate others, and haven’t seen most of the movie if I’m being honest. I’m sure they’re lovely and as good as people say, but year by year, decreasing exponentially, I find I have less and less interest in the Academy Awards. I’m not trying to sound cool, but there are thousands of other movies I’d rather watch. That’s all. 

'Gold' (2022) Movie Review

To call writer/director (and actor) Anthony Hayes’ Gold minimal is a bit of a stretch. Minimal is an overstatement. There are seven acting credits. Of those seven, two are the same person playing different roles. Three appear on screen for one scene each. Of those three, one is a baby and another is a woman with no lines. The bulk of the movie is Zac Efron alone in a post-apocalyptic desert gradually losing his mind, and all things considered, Hayes squeezes a great deal out of this arrangement. 

'Offseason' (2022) Movie Review

Going on vacation is bad. Horror movies have taught us that when you go on a trip designed for leisure, terrible things happen—monsters, murder, torture, you name it, it will befall you on vacation. Something even worse, however, may be going to an idyllic small town vacation community during the down part of the year. Do that and, well, you’re absolutely boned. Such is the core conceit of Mickey Keating’s new film Offseason. 

'The Exorcism Of God' (2022) Movie Review

Exorcism movies get overplayed for sure, but there’s a good reason for that: When they hit, they tap into a primal, inherent fear, playing on themes of control, faith, and religion that shake people deep, deep down, even non-believers. Director Alejandro Hidalgo’s The Exorcism of God doesn’t entirely land in this regard, but despite leaning on familiar tropes, it has unique flourishes and goes crazy enough that it winds up being pretty awesome and a damn entertaining watch.

'Asking For It' (2022) Movie Review

Some films approach social issues with nuance and insight, offering carefully crafted critiques that address difficult problems through close examination and intimate conversation. Writer/director Eamon O’Rourke’s debut feature, Asking For It, is not one of these movies. No, this movie is as sharp as a sledgehammer, smashing through walls and breaking in doors with a scream and a Molotov cocktail. A toxic-masculinity-skewering saga of feminist retribution, at times this approach is incredibly effective, carried much of the way by a fantastic cast, while in others it’s clunky and ham-fisted.

'The Batman' (2022) Movie Review

If Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies were a tad too upbeat, festive, short, and well-lit for you, don’t worry The Batman is here to rectify all that. Directed by Matt Reeves (Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes), the latest tale of Gotham’s Caped Crusader is a lot of movie—in terms of runtime, in terms of storylines, in terms of plot, and brooding, and fistfights, and set pieces, and… Some of which works well, some of which never comes together in a satisfying way.

'Gasoline Alley' (2022) Movie Review

Gasoline Alley is, if we’re being honest, not great. It has script issues, up and down acting in a number of roles, and a handful of other problems. But at its center there’s Devon Sawa as a grizzled ex-con tattoo artist accused of a crime he didn’t commit chain smoking, driving muscle cars, and tough-guy-quipping his way through the seedy underbelly back rooms of Hollywood. If nothing else, that makes it compelling enough to be watchable. 

'Studio 666' (2022) Movie Review

Studio 666 was probably a movie that was a total blast to make. Starring Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Foo Fighters, and based on an idea from frontman Dave Grohl, this goofy horror-comedy definitely falls into the category of musical vanity project. While it does have a few charms, and plenty of gore and splatter, this is one primarily for Foo fans. Though, to be fair, it is much more watchable and entertaining than most similar attempts by rockers trying to become filmmakers.

'The Burning Sea' (2021) Movie Review

With 2015’s The Wave and it’s 2018 sequel The Quake, Norway turned in two of the best disaster movies of the last decade, if not longer. It’s a feat made even more impressive that they both cost around $6 million and pulled off spectacle on a scale Hollywood hasn’t achieved recently with exponentially more money. Much of the creative team, including Quake director John Andreas Anderson, and writer Harald Rosenlow-Eeg, who penned the previous two films, are back with a new cinematic catastrophe, The Burning Sea.

'Seobok' (2021) Movie Review

Movies love to look to the near future in order to delve into the topic of human cloning and the various moral and ethical ramifications of playing god and creating life in a lab. As often happens, these stories also turn into meditations on what it means to truly be human, a whole other can of metaphorical worms. And into this framework comes writer/director Lee Yong-ju’s Seobok.

'Cosmic Dawn' (2022) Movie Review

When cults and horror and sci-fi collide, that’s a sweet spot. Cinematically speaking anyway, it’s probably not so great in real life. Such is the situation for writer/director Jefferson Moneo’s new film, Cosmic Dawn. 

'Men' Trailer: Alex Garland's Latest Gets A Cryptic First Look And Torments Jessie Buckley

Alex Garland is one of those filmmakers who’s become a must-watch around these parts. His dreamy, weird, heady sci-fi stories are like freaking catnip. So, of course we’re excited for his latest, Men, and even though we don’t know much about it, this first teaser trailer offers a quick glimpse of just what we were looking for.

The 2022 Oscar Nominees Are Here

Hey, the Oscar nominations are here. Aren’t you stoked? Yeah, me neither. A lot of friends get really excited, but increasingly these have become less and less significant to me personally, and this year goes way beyond even my usual indifference. Sure, I’ll watch the telecast, but it’s mostly for the bombast and spectacle rather than any actual investment.