[8] David O. Russell directs a top-notch cast in this story of a Massachusetts boxer who tries to get out from under the influence of his crack-addicted brother and domineering mother. If those character descriptions sound like Oscar-bait, indeed they are — Christian Bale and Melissa Leo both took home supporting performer Oscars for their portrayals. Mark Wahlberg is commendable as the main character, and …
[8] Martin Scorsese unleashes this epic tale of 1860s New York City street battles, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as a young man with a vendetta against the near legendary Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis). See, DiCaprio’s character saw Day-Lewis’s character kill his father in the big opening battle scene, and then DiCaprio’s character goes away for a while. Once he’s of age, he comes back …
[8] Cate Blanchett headlines as the title character in this Todd Haynes (Safe, Far from Heaven) adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel. She’s perfect in the role, functioning as the beguiling older woman who catches the curious fancy of a younger woman, played by Rooney Mara. Their cautious, burgeoning relationship is the focus of the film, one under distressing scrutiny from boyfriend and husband characters …
[8] A 14-year-old goes home with a guy in his 30s. What follows is a nightmarish power struggle. Hard Candy is an intense character-driven thriller that succeeds primarily for the incredible performances of Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Ellen Page (Juno). The screenplay dives into murky moral waters, asking us to empathize with a young girl who inflicts torture and a grown man who may or …
[8] Frank Darabont dives back into the Stephen King well and comes out with a winner. The Mist is about a disparate group of people who end up trapped together in the local grocery store when a strange, scary mist suddenly engulfs the town. Anyone who travels out into the mist is killed by mysterious, unseen creatures. In addition to the apocalyptic angle, you can …
[8] Neil Marshall follows up his auspicious feature directorial debut, Dog Soldiers, with this all-female plunge into the claustrophobic depths of Appalachian caves. The Descent reminds me of From Dusk Til Dawn in that it’s really two completely different movies jammed together at the middle. The first half is harrowing enough just watching the women climb, crawl and wiggle their way deeper and deeper into …
[8] This monster movie from the creators of Lost and Felicity combines low-budget ingenuity with high-budget production values for a thrilling movie going experience. The whole film is hand-held ‘found footage’ documenting a group of friends’ attempted escape from Manhattan after the city is attacked by a raging leviathan. The monster’s design is fresh and original, and the young cast do very good jobs running …
[8] A group of college kids go to a cabin in the woods, but that’s as far as we get into the story before director Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon turn the trope on its head. In a Scream-like fashion, The Cabin in the Woods subverts the familiar and offers a good time for horror fans. Pandering? Maybe. Entertaining? I say ‘hell, yeah.’ The …
[8] A pregnant woman waiting for the ambulance to pick her up from home must suddenly fight for her life when a scissor-wielding mad-woman invades her house with the aim of cutting her unborn baby from the womb. The concept of this French flick is unsettling enough, but what got me the most was the sheer volume of bodily fluids that ooze, drip and splash …
[8] I was beginning to wonder if torture could ever be depicted in a movie without the movie becoming “torture porn”, without any other cinematic merit. This French horror flick answers my question. In Martyrs, torture isn’t just a dirty gimmick. It’s the thematic subject of the movie, where the reasons for torture are more disturbing than the act itself. The narrative structure is unconventional, …
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