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2/4
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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It proves to be an edgeless affair, less another helping of the strange and unusual than a product copied from the original and jam-packed with plotlines to distract from its oppressive sameness.
Posted Sep 05, 2024
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2.5/4
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Look Into My Eyes
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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Wilson takes a look at humanity in its desperate attempts at self-therapy, whether that means yearning for personal resolutions with a self-proclaimed medium or starting a psychic practice as an outlet for individual expression.
Posted Sep 04, 2024
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4/4
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Close Your Eyes
(2023)
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Brian Eggert
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With its connections to the director’s earlier work and life, Close Your Eyes is a brilliant achievement that plays like the summa of Erice’s career, which has always ruminated on cinema as the nexus where art, identity, and memory converge.
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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1.5/4
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AfrAId
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
It’s far from cutting edge and isn’t likely to cause any sleepless nights over its horror aspects, but it confronts widespread apprehensions and debates about AI with relative clarity. The main problem is that it’s not very scary or fun.
Posted Sep 01, 2024
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3/4
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Rope
(1948)
|
Brian Eggert
|
This lesser-celebrated feature by the Master of Suspense remains one of his most fascinating pictures because it aligns with his thematic interests yet deviates from his usual formal methods.
Posted Aug 31, 2024
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4/4
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Good One
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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No other release this year will capture the elusive ways that the microcosmic but loaded behaviors between people can prove shattering upon reflection, leaving one not quite shaken but thoroughly disappointed.
Posted Aug 24, 2024
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3/4
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Blink Twice
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Blink Twice remains deliriously entertaining and ultimately a disturbing look at power, gender dynamics, and how some people never learn, and even refuse to.
Posted Aug 19, 2024
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2.5/4
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Alien: Romulus
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
A profoundly frustrating film, given that it has hints of greatness but ultimately disappoints.
Posted Aug 15, 2024
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4/4
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Nocturama
(2016)
|
Brian Eggert
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Bonello does not construct a bomb-of-a-film but sets an intriguing, if often frighteningly beautiful minefield for his audience to navigate.
Posted Aug 14, 2024
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3/4
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Skincare
(2024)
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Brian Eggert
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This is a pulpy, engaging story about the drives and ambitions that bring out the worst in people. It’s all the more tragic, comical, and chilling for the desperation around its low stakes.
Posted Aug 14, 2024
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1.5/4
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Borderlands
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Borderlands isn’t strange enough to satisfy the game’s fanbase, and it’s not cohesive enough to interest a new audience. And yet, there’s a glimmer of potential in the movie, enough to leave the viewer feeling disappointed
Posted Aug 09, 2024
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3/4
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Dìdi
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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Its filmmaker understands how this 2008 era changed how children communicate and grow, seldom for the better. In that sense, Dìdi has an impressive authenticity
Posted Aug 08, 2024
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3/4
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Cuckoo
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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Cuckoo delivers an unpredictable ride that, even if where it ends up feels somewhat unexceptional, remains engrossing from start to finish.
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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3/4
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Strange Darling
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
A taut, keeps-you-on-your-toes thriller that sets the viewer’s preconceptions like a trap
Posted Aug 05, 2024
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2/4
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The Instigators
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The Instigators is not a bad or incompetent movie; it just lacks anything to distinguish it, apart from the marquee cast.
Posted Aug 04, 2024
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2.5/4
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Trap
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Although Trap peters out in a manner that so many Shyamalan movies often do, moviegoers seeking a few thrills or just wanting to see Hartnett play a juicy role will have fun
Posted Aug 02, 2024
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4/4
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House of Tolerance
(2011)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Bonello resists crystallizing his subjects by neither romanticizing nor condemning them, preferring instead to consider their time between work, the textures they inhabit, the joys and humiliations they endure, and, above all, their layers of humanity.
Posted Jul 30, 2024
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4/4
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La Chimera
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
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Rohrwacher’s film has all the trappings of great European arthouse cinema from the 1960s and 1970s.
Posted Jul 25, 2024
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3/4
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Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Deadpool & Wolverine is ridiculously fun while it lasts. I laughed harder than I have in a long time at some of the jokes, which even caused a few groans of offended sensibilities in my press screening. I consider that an admirable sign.
Posted Jul 24, 2024
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2.5/4
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Twister
(1996)
|
Brian Eggert
|
It lacks any interesting characters or drama. Like an amusement park ride, its ups and downs ultimately peter out, leaving the viewer with little more than a momentary buzz or two to remember.
Posted Jul 22, 2024
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3/4
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Starve Acre
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
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The quiet intensity of Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark sell this familiar but creepily effective tale of grief manifesting as something scary.
Posted Jul 22, 2024
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2.5/4
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Twisters
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Like the original, Twisters isn’t that great of a movie and doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. But it’s diverting enough and delivers on its promise of a spectacle.
Posted Jul 18, 2024
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2.5/4
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Mamma Mia!
(2008)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The film’s greatest pleasures derive from the star factor. Namely, Meryl Streep. Is there anything this woman can’t do?
Posted Jul 14, 2024
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2/4
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The X-Files: I Want to Believe
(2008)
|
Brian Eggert
|
I want to believe there are still quality X-Files stories to tell, even if this one wasn’t. I want to believe this, but like the protagonists in the movie, my beliefs are conflicted with doubt and reservation.
Posted Jul 14, 2024
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3.5/4
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Saint Laurent
(2014)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Rather than a hagiography, Bonello confronts his subject’s personhood without dwelling on his genius, leaving viewers with no clear sense of how one should feel about Yves Saint Laurent. That’s part of what makes the film so exceptional.
Posted Jul 13, 2024
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2/4
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Longlegs
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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Combined with a script that lacks humanity or depth, Perkins’ draconian style hangs over Longlegs like a miasma, infecting the narrative and robbing the otherwise inspired premise of life.
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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3.5/4
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Sing Sing
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
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Sing Sing, a profoundly sensitive portrait of humanity finding an outlet and purpose through art, draws out feelings of empathy where society usually reserves little.
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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2/4
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The Inheritance
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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The filmmakers have few original ideas here. Worse, they don’t explore these well-trodden ideas with much inspiration.
Posted Jul 09, 2024
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3/4
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MaXXXine
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Although it doesn’t meet the standards of X and Pearl, it remains capable of possessing its audience with a confident presentation, a committed central performance by Goth, and a million seedy details
Posted Jul 04, 2024
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2/4
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Mother, Couch
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
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The quirky, irrational situation offers much metaphoric potential. However, as the film carries on, the symbolism proves trite and self-consciously peculiar, and the whole endeavor never pays off in dramatic terms.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
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3/4
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A Quiet Place: Day One
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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Day One does just what it sets out to, neither breaking the mold nor failing to meet the series’ expectations, but offering a sturdy and admirable spinoff with impressive performances and diverting thrills.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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3.5/4
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Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
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The film questions the absurd lengths to which people will go to feel acknowledged, embraced, or loved, and it achieves this with a sublime variety of bizarre, funny, shocking, and witty stories.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
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2/4
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Daddio
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The content of Hall’s spec script proves too familiar and somewhat generic to leave much of an impression; though, her assured direction and the measured pacing denote an evident talent at work.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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3.5/4
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Janet Planet
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Lacy’s utterly convincing inquisitiveness makes watching her fascinating, and Ziegler’s unselfconscious performance never feels like the work of an actor but the behaviors of an authentic personality.
Posted Jun 25, 2024
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3/4
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Marry My Dead Body
(2022)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The film yearns for harmony between the old and new, traditionalism and progressiveness, and by extension, echoes Taiwan’s identity, with roots in Chinese heritage and modern Western influence.
Posted Jun 24, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Bikeriders
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
An almost ethnographic study of a niche group whose romantic prime was short-lived and, like so many other American institutions in this era, corrupted by the influence of power and greed, and then ruined by battles for control
Posted Jun 18, 2024
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3.5/4
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Inside Out 2
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
It’s a resonant, profoundly fulfilling piece of work that captures the relatable drama of how a flurry of emotions emerges in teendom, yet these rather impulsive feelings never go away; we just learn to manage them better, rather than them managing us.
Posted Jun 13, 2024
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3/4
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Tiger Stripes
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Commanding an excellent cast—particularly first-time screen actor Zairizal, who has a natural and vibrant screen presence—and confident execution, Nell Eu makes an impressive debut feature with Tiger Stripes
Posted Jun 10, 2024
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3.5/4
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Zombi Child
(2019)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Thoughtfully conceived and performed, the film is a mesmerizing experience that approaches Haitian culture with openness and the French treatment thereof with a critique stemming from the country’s colonial history
Posted Jun 08, 2024
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1/4
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The Watchers
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Whatever potential The Watchers may have as a creature feature, Shyamalan-brand mindbender, or horror story steeped in Irish folklore, the execution is amateurish and graceless.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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3.5/4
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Funny Games
(2007)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Don’t think of Haneke’s picture as a thriller, bound by typical thriller tropes, complete with an exciting thriller climax and gratifying conclusion. Think of it as an experiment to show you how Hollywood cinema has manipulated your expectations
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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1/4
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Captivity
(2007)
|
Brian Eggert
|
An uninspired horror flick that puts the nail in the coffin of the torture porn subgenre
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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1/4
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Mirrors
(2008)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Sutherland plays Jack Bauer without the badge, running about and barking at everyone, even his reflection. It's tiresome.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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2/4
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Rogue
(2007)
|
Brian Eggert
|
There’s considerable production value backing this beast. But it adheres to a tired when-animals-attack formula without much novelty or inspiration.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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0.5/4
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88 Minutes
(2007)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Avnet treats his audience like we’ve never seen a thriller before, when really we question if we’ve ever seen one this bad.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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1/4
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Righteous Kill
(2008)
|
Brian Eggert
|
Given the downright sloppiness of the storytelling and squashed hopes that De Niro and Pacino might electrify the screen again, Righteous Kill is hugely disappointing.
Posted Jun 05, 2024
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3.5/4
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Hit Man
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
This is a crowd-pleasing effort and star-making film—one that feels airy yet has a surprising complexity and darkness behind its many pleasures.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
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3/4
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Night Shift
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The material feels like a short story and quickly evaporates from the brain. But it’s a diverting late-night watch that kept me engaged for its brief runtime and produced a few jolts.
Posted Jun 03, 2024
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3/4
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Young Woman and the Sea
(2024)
|
Brian Eggert
|
This is a wonderfully sturdy crowd-pleaser that, sure, may play the audience like a harp, but it’s so well put together and so moving that one can hardly complain.
Posted May 30, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Dead Don't Hurt
(2023)
|
Brian Eggert
|
The Dead Don’t Hurt is meditative and mature filmmaking that at once embraces and rethinks classical Western motifs in a series of elegant, subtle alterations.
Posted May 30, 2024
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