'American Trash' (2024) Movie Review

You may not immediately know the name Robert LaSardo, but you know Robert LaSardo. (Though if you’re a regular reader, odds are you’re very familiar with the man and his work.) He’s the guy you call when your movie needs a heavily tattooed, badass-looking motherfucker. In his 170-plus credits, with more than 50(!) on the way according to IMDb, he’s played vampires, gangsters, and heavies of all stripes. In addition to being an Adler Studio-trained actor, he’s also a veteran. So it only makes sense his first outing as a director, American Trash, focuses on a former soldier struggling with PTSD as a result of his experiences. 

'Lake George' (2024) Movie Review

Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon are prime examples of character actors who show up and automatically make anything better. No matter the film or show, no matter the genre, no matter how major or minor the role, whenever they appear, things get a substantial boost. And because they’re so often supporting players, it’s always welcome when a movie like Lake George comes along that places them front and center. 

SIFF 2024: 'Scorched Earth' Movie Review

12 years after skipping town, career thief Trojan (Misel Maticevic) returns to Berlin, desperate and looking for work. What he finds is a world that’s moved past his old school ways, adopting new technology and the unfamiliar attitudes of those who adapt to such things, and a list of old contacts who have gone straight or otherwise left behind the life. When he finally lands a job, a four-person art heist, things spiral ever out of control. Such begins Thomas Arslan’s Scorched Earth. (Not to be confused with the DTV post-apocalyptic joint starring a certain disgraced former MMA star of the same name.) 

'The Last Stop In Yuma County' (2024) Movie Review

First-time feature writer/director Francis Galluppi’s crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County takes a simple, straightforward set up, fills it full of eccentric characters, piles on one complication after another, and ratchets up the tension and pressure until it must explode. It’s a hell of a first film, polished and sure-handed, and apparently caught the right eyes even before release, since the filmmaker has already been tapped to helm the next Evil Dead movie.

SIFF 2023: 'The Night Of The 12th' Capsule Review

As the protagonist of The Night of the 12th says, every investigator has one case that haunts them, that they never solved and can’t let go. They let you know from the jump exactly how this will play out.

SIFF 2023: 'Burning Hearts' Capsule Review

What if Romeo and Juliet but with warring small town Italian farm mob families? That’s the basic conceit of Pippo Mezzapesa’s Burning Hearts, where a forbidden romance shatters a fragile truce and stirs up a generational blood feud.

'Little Dixie' (2023) Movie Review

There are two kinds of Frank Grillo movies, Frank-Grillo-gives-a-shit and Frank-Grillo-doesn’t-give-a-shit. Essentially projects he cares about and jobs he takes for a paycheck, and it’s obvious which is which—in one he’s clearly engaged and the other, well, you can guess. Little Dixie, the latest from writer/director John Swab (Ida Red), with whom Grillo has worked several times now, fortunately falls into the latter category. Also, Frank Grillo with a chainsaw. (Which, unfortunately, is not as cool as it sounds.)

'Out Of Exile' (2023) Movie Review

If you’re ever a criminal and think to yourself, “I’m out after this one last job,” just walk away. Right there. Right then. Seriously, nothing good will come from your efforts. You won’t wind up sipping mai tais on a tropical beach, you won’t pay off your lingering medical debt, you won’t wind up in that cozy dream cabin with your happy family or whatever dream you’re after. When you chase a final score, it only ends terribly for you and everyone you care about. Movies teach us this time and time again, but if you still haven’t grasped the concept, Out of Exile is here to remind you one more time. 

'South Of Heaven' (2021) Movie Review

Sometimes it’s easy to pinpoint precisely why a movie does or doesn’t work. Other times it’s more nebulous and harder to determine exactly what went wrong. Such is the case of Aharon Keshales’ crime thriller South of Heaven. The pieces are in place for an interesting film, but it absolutely does not come together in any satisfactory way. 

'Akilla's Escape' (2020) Movie Review

One thing movies have taught us is that, once you decide to leave the criminal lifestyle behind, you’re battle is only partially over. Such is the case of the protagonist in Charles Officer’s crime drama Akilla’s Escape, a noir-inspired tale of one man contending with generational cycles of violence, his own past, and a changing world. Not always as developed or fleshed out as it could be, the film is nonetheless gorgeous to look at and narratively captivating.

'Wrath Of Man' (2021) Movie Review

Guy Ritchie’s bank robbery actioner, Wrath of Man, has a protagonist named H (Jason Statham) and supporting players named things like Bullet (Holt McCallany), Sticky John, and Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett). It aims at being biblical in its execution of one man’s revenge. It’s stocked exclusively with vile, reprehensible, mean-spirited characters. And it’s so overwrought and overblown it watches like a caricature of the shitty Heat knock off it wants to be. So, in short, while a messy, it’s also kind of fun, unintentionally so most of the time. It’s a real mixed bag.

Fantasia 2020: 'The Oak Room' Movie Review

A guy walks into a bar. Only instead of beginning a joke, he comes with a story, a debt, deep secrets about to bubble to the surface, and even deeper wounds. Such is the set up for director Cody Calahan’s The Oak Room, the latest offering from Canadian filmmaking crew, Black Fawn Films (I’ll Take Your Dead, Bed of the Dead). Their latest is a chilly, noir-inspired tale that watches like Southern Gothic in the Great White North and just held its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Fantasia 2020: 'A Witness Out Of The Blue' Movie Review

Fung Chih-Chiang’s A Witness Out of the Blue has all the earmarks of a classic Hong Kong crime saga. There’s murder, slick production values, a twisting plot, shades of moral ambiguity, standoffs, shootouts, and a parrot. Wait, what? 

'Blood On Her Name' (2019) Movie Review

Matthew Pope’s Blood on Her Name drops us right into the middle of a situation we don’t fully understand and forces us to cobble together the puzzle. We see a battered woman, a pool of blood, a wrench, a body. And for the rest of the movie, we’re left to cobble together various bits and shards. Only just when we think we have an idea, we’re handed a new corner piece that changes the image completely.

'Uncut Gems' (2019) Movie Review

In 2017, the Safdie Brothers, AKA Josh and Bennie Safdie, delivered Good Time, a frantic blast of chaotic cinematic energy. It follows Robert Pattinson through an escalating series of bad decisions and worse consequences. It’s a movie where you sit back, strap in, and exclaim, hot damn. To which their latest endeavor, Uncut Gems, says, hold my beer.

'Inherit The Viper' Trailer: Check Out Josh Hartnett's Small Town Crime Thriller

A bleak, dead end small town; generational cycles of drug use, crime, poverty, and despair; Josh Hartnett. Inherit the Viper reminds me of the town where I grew up. The debut feature for director Anthony Jerjen and writer Andrew Crabtree shows some promise in this new trailer for the upcoming release. Take a look below.

NBFF 2019: 'The Gasoline Thieves' Movie Review

From the first moments of Edgar Nito’s The Gasoline Thieves, tragedy seems inevitable. The film opens with a dark, tense scene where to rival crews attempting to siphon off gas in the Mexican desert violently clash. This creates an ominous, inescapable cloud that lingers over everything to come. That isn’t to say the film is without moments of heart or levity, but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that bad things are in store.

'The Irishman' Trailer: Check Out Martin Scorsese's Crime Opus Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, And Joe Pesci

A new Martin Scorsese movie is always a reason to celebrate, so let’s party like maniacs with the first trailer for his long-in-the-works crime opus, The Irishman.

Fantasia 2019: 'The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil' Movie Review

This is an updated version of an earlier review.

To lump all South Korean cinema together and paint the industry with a singular, this-is-what-they-do brush is to do it a disservice. It cuts across genre boundaries, topics, and subsets, with standouts in each category along the way. But goddamn, do the South Korean filmmakers do dark, thoughtful crime thrillers really well. Oldboy, I Saw the Devil, The Yellow Sea, the list goes on. The latest addition to this canon is Lee Won-tae’s The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil.

'Into The Ashes' (2019) Movie Review

Sometimes, on paper, a movie has all the ingredients necessary for success, but for one reason or another—or many—just doesn’t work. Such is the case with writer/director Aaron Harvey’s Into the Ashes. It contains most of my favorite cinematic things—Frank Grillo, violence, a grim revenge tale—but other issues bog down the film and, it brings me no pleasure to report, it simply isn’t very good.