[7] Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) stars in this posh, claustrophobic horror flick that pits bourgeoise guests at an elite dining establishment against the head chef (Ralph Fiennes), whose multi-course menu is designed for a sinister purpose. The plates begin somewhat confusing but interesting, but soon escalate with exposed secrets, exhibitionist suicide, and a promise from Fiennes that everyone will, in fact, be dead by the …
[4] Star Daniel Craig exits the James Bond franchise in his fifth entry, No Time to Die. Craig’s Bond begins the film in peaceful, secluded retirement. But when an old friend and comrade (Jeffrey Wright) summons him back into service, he finds himself up against a new ultimate bad guy (Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Rami Malek) with a new evil plan involving DNA and genocide. Along the …
[8] Writer/director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri) explores the human side of hit-men in his darkly comic, occasionally horrific feature film debut. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as hired guns waiting in idyllic Bruges, Belgium, for their next assignment. Farrell’s character is reeling from accidentally killing a child in his last assignment. He hates Bruges and bickers with Gleeson’s character, who is …
[8] Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett star in this tech-noir thriller from director Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, The Hurt Locker) and writer James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar). It’s late in the year 1999 (four years into the future for when the film was released), with Fiennes playing a disgraced cop who resorts to peddling illegal recorded memories, complete with sensory input, to people looking for virtual …
[8] Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) leads an all-star ensemble in this surreal, satiric look at the breakdown of suburban existence. The Chumscrubber is an ambitious conceptual piece, not unlike American Beauty in tone and style. But where American Beauty centered on one character’s shaky morality and lost me, The Chumscrubber stems more confidently from one of my favorite thematic tropes — human beings’ desperate need …
[8] A young German man (an award-worthy David Kross) has an affair with an older woman (Kate Winslet), only to discover many years after the affair ends that she was a guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp. After she is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, the man (later played by Ralph Fiennes) still can’t get her out of his mind. …
[7] Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, Near Dark) won the Oscar for directing this suspense thriller about three soldiers who disarm bombs in Iraq. The movie also won Best Picture, maybe just because nothing better came out during the year (except the REAL best picture, District 9, but I digress). It’s far from groundbreaking and surprisingly predictable — but it’s a brisk, entertaining flick that hits …
[8] Dreamworks Animation’s maiden voyage is a stunning achievement of sight and sound. Impressionistic background paintings blend with sexy, angular character designs, all set to a brilliant soundtrack by composer Hans Zimmer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. It kills me that stories from The Bible still pass as family entertainment, but I’m glad they do — how else am I going to find a mature, animated …
[7] While it lacks the pervasive chill that runs through The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon is a well-made thriller that engages from beginning to end, thanks to a briskly-paced script adaptation by Ted Tally (who won an Oscar for his treatment of Lambs). This is a prequel to the time Lecter met Starling, and also a re-make of Michael Mann’s stylish 1986 film …
[6] The Coen Brothers are at it again, this time with a wonky tale of 1950s Hollywood studio politics mixed with political scandal. Hail, Caesar! is scattershot in its narrative. Josh Brolin’s character is marginally the main protagonist. Brolin plays a gruff studio executive who can barely keep all of his stars and starlets in line while another job offer tempts him away from the …
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