Week Ending 4/12/24
So much TV
TV lovers seem to be eating good this month as SUGAR began its first season run over at AppleTV+ and both RIPLEY and FALLOUT have dropped their entire first seasons on Netflix and Amazon respectively. The raves keep coming in.
So, why did I choose SUGAR to watch first (review below)? Because I was able to binge it via the press site. I no longer have an attention span that’s able to wait two months to finish a show while also watching close to forty movies and other shows concurrently. It’s too much information. So, the choice was more about beating the curve (watching the show that I can’t get spoiled on because no one else has watched it yet) than anything else.
Now I can hopefully settle into one of the other two before my social media feeds run rampant with memes, clips, and impressions that I’ve trained my brain to mostly ignore. I take a mental snapshot of posts first and discern whether the title or an actor is included before deciding to actually read it. It’s served me well so far the past few years. A big TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY spoiler snuck through a few weeks ago, but not having context made me think it was a joke … until I arrived at the episode and discovered it was true.
I’m thinking RIPLEY is next. Maybe I’ll do a rewatch of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY first as it’s been over two decades since I’ve last seen it. I enjoyed that film, but never saw any of the other adaptations or read any of the books. I’m mostly just an Andrew Scott fan.
And the same goes for FALLOUT. Never played the game. Have zero clue about what it’s about. But I love Walton Goggins and the tone seems like it should be a blast.
I barely have time to watch these (I haven’t even begun SHOGUN yet since I’m waiting to binge it upon completion). So, how could I ever find more to engage with source material too?!
What I Watched:
ARCADIAN
(limited release; streaming on Shudder TBD)
For fifteen years, Paul (Nicolas Cage) has kept his sons safe. Unlike most parents, however, that job isn’t merely protecting them eating poison or running into traffic. No, Paul has raised his boys in a post-apocalyptic world wherein survival demands barricading oneself in for the night to avoid run-ins with violent creatures that hunt from dusk til dawn. Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) are now at an age where they can help their father secure the farmhouse they now call home … and unleash a rebellious independent streak that just might risk all of their lives.
Screenwriter Michael Nilon and director Benjamin Brewer have a decent premise with ARCADIAN. Yes, it’s pretty much a less successful A QUIET PLACE rip-off that sacrifices our investment in the characters for our enjoyment of action set-pieces, but there’s still enough to grab onto so the ride doesn’t feel like a total superficial waste. After all, it’s tough to toe that line and even tougher to do it correctly with less than ninety-minutes of runway. Rather than spend time with Paul’s family, we’re meant to turn a prologue with him running to protect his twin babies beneath an underpass as all the love necessary for their present selves.
While it’s enough to earn Paul’s call to action when Thomas doesn’t come home, the way his heroics play out is less about love than duty. He must protect them even if it means risking his own life. He’ll run out into the night and fend off as many beasts as he can to find his son and bring him back alive. We believe it because Paul is a stock character whose personality is “Dad.” Cage does his best to make it more, but he’s mostly just going through the determined motions of a man whose life is expendable when compared to his kids. It leads to some badass moments, but very little emotion.
You could pretty much say that about the entire film. All the interesting bits (Joseph’s analytical brain creating traps to study the monsters teases some cool potential only to be usurped by a generic sibling squabble) serve the overall conceit—itself so by-the-numbers and direct that it almost buckles in on itself before it can even attempt to hold up any weight. Because ARCADIAN is all set-up. It’s an introduction to a world explained away by a children’s game “guessing” how the end of the world occurred, hoping we’ll stop wondering about the truth if we’re under the impression that the “truth” neither matters nor exists.
In that regard, the film works. Martell, Jenkins, and Sadie Soverall (who plays Charlotte, Thomas’s crush who lives with her parents in a community that doesn’t trust Paul) carry the drama well as teens growing up fast and needing to implement everything their parents taught them on-the-fly to survive. And the monsters are effective if also super weird (gorilla-like in movement with a sock puppet head that claps obnoxiously fast at its jaw hinge before attacking with a goo sack that dissolves and absorbs its prey???). Their volatility match by humor when they latch together into a giant wheel rolling down the road.
By the end, I found myself more excited about what’s next than what I just witnessed—the opposite of A QUIET PLACE. That one sets up a world through the eyes of a family while this sets up a family trapped inside a world. And while Nilon and Brewer think they’ve also done the former to make us care about Paul and company’s survival, I just saw that trio as ancillary to the unknown. They want us to enjoy the effects, action, and gore so much that they forgot to make the people engaged in those things more than two-dimensional stereotypes of a demanding father, good son (industrious), and bad son (romantic). An accident sparks a conflict, all hell breaks loose, the dust settles, and we go home.
- 6/10
ARGYLLE
(streaming on AppleTV+)
While ARGYLLE might be the dumbest of Matthew Vaughn's films, it still remains a lot of fun—something I cannot say for KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (I didn't even bother with THE KING'S MAN). The cast is game, the music is good, and the action toes that line between exciting and farcical to keep the audience engaged even if the motives and plot are as simple as simple can be.
Because while the premise is great (Jason Fuchs' creates a writer who writes her spy novels so well that real spies want to use her to help them solve a mystery eerily similar to her fiction), the almost two-and-a-half-hour runtime is mostly gags and redundancies attempting to trick us into thinking there's more than meets the eye. The MacGuffin isn't even nuclear codes or an apocalyptic virus. It's just a dossier of the bad guys because the good guys won't believe they exist without one. (So, just make one yourself since you already know all the information it contains?)
I really liked the first fight scene with Bryce Dallas Howard's Elly constantly blinking between Henry Cavill's Argylle dispatching villains with a calm smile and Sam Rockwell's Wilde doing so with much less grace. Howard and Rockwell’s rapport is fun (every iteration since they shift between allies and enemies multiple times) and the driving force for the entire film considering the spy stuff is so one-dimensional beyond it's not so twisty twists.
The supporting cast is great too whether large roles (Catherine O'Hara and Bryan Cranston) or small (John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson), but the special effects leave a lot to be desired. The climactic Snow Patrol battle ("Run" as sung by Leona Lewis) is laughably bad—and not because of the over-the-top dance choreography. The whole thing is shrouded in colored smoke created by awful CGI both in its visual authenticity and ability to interact with the actors. Thankfully an oil spill scene proves a tad better even if its ice-skating finale is a literal cartoon.
As for the final shot and that mid-credits sequence? Absurdly silly both in content and the intent to lazily retrofit this movie into a completely different franchise. I cannot tell if it's meant as a joke or truly a tease for more.
- 6/10
CHICKEN FOR LINDA!
[Linda veut du poulet]
(limited release)
The most precious thing Linda (Mélinée Leclerc) and her mother (Clotilde Hesme’s Paulette) have to remember her late father by is a green ring. It’s been years since his death and the young girl still tries to sneak into her mom’s room to wear it to school. On this day, however, Paulette is at the end of her rope. She orders Linda to put it away so they can leave. And when she returns home to find it missing, she assumes the girl stole it anyway. Angry that her daughter lied and misplaced the jewelry, Paulette takes her to her sister’s (Laetitia Dosch’s Astrid) as a punishment. Only upon returning does she discover Linda didn’t take it after all.
Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta CHICKEN FOR LINDA! therefore truly begins with a display of mortifying guilt. Yes, there’s a prologue of Linda’s dad dying and an expository scene introducing the neighborhood and characters we’ll soon spend a wild day with, but it’s Paulette’s apology and promise to give Linda anything she wants as redress that sparks the ensuing adventure. Because while the girl’s request of chicken and peppers (her father’s famous dish) should be simple (besides the obvious emotions conjured), Paris happens to have begun a general strike shutting down all grocery stores. So, Paulette must improvise.
What follows unfolds as one would assume before logical realism gets replacement by unbridled absurdity. There’s chicken theft. An unmonitored oven ready to burn down an apartment complex. A naked police officer. And a watermelon delivery driver (Patrick Pineau’s Jean-Michel) who might just save the day with a little romance … if he survives not having an EpiPen. Linda and her young friends soon hijack the narrative with a willingness to do anything and everything to make this dish while the adults find themselves running around, clueless about what to do. Half the time Jean-Michel’s mother is passed out and Astrid angrily binging candy.
Beyond the humor and grounded fantasy (so many people would be dead if this were “real life”), though, is a heartfelt story about two women struggling to connect in the present because of their inability to talk about the past. Because Linda loving that ring as much as Paulette has nothing to do with the ring. All this girl wants is to remember a man she was too young to remember. And while everything could be solved with a good mother/daughter chat, a wholesome criminal romp has the potential to solidify their bond too. Because their undying love for Serge should be what gives them the strength to move forward together.
It’s a wonderful message told with a bottomless wealth of entertainment and gorgeous animation. The latter consists of mostly simple line drawings filled with solid colors to differentiate characters (Linda is yellow, her friend green, the police blue, etc.). When the camera is pulled back, the people become circles of those colors with their figures centered in the middle. When the sun goes down everything switches to “night mode” with the line drawings becoming those colors so the black of their bodies can move against the black of the background. Add a couple songs making it a quasi-musical and CHICKEN FOR LINDA! proves a compact, lightning-paced and resonant lark.
- 7/10
IN FLAMES
(limited release; Pakistan’s 2024 International Oscar submission)
The film starts with a scene of a young woman (Ramesha Nawal’s Mariam) looking through the narrow crack of an opened door before it slams shut in her face. We know some sort of violence is occurring on the other side by the sounds and her expression—just not the who, what, or when of the event. We can infer it has something to do with her mother (Bakhtawar Mazhar’s Fariha) and grandfather since we cut to the latter’s funeral. Maybe she killed him. Maybe it was a scene from the past. Maybe there’s no connection beyond the reality of Pakistan’s widespread patriarchal oppression.
Writer/director Zarrar Kahn supplies that ambiguity with intent as his film IN FLAMES continues through a series of examples depicting just how insidious this malignant force of societal regulation is to the culture, upbringing, and existence of women in the country. This is done overtly (a man throwing a brick through Mariam’s car window to try and grab her in the street or a man getting her attention before starting to masturbate in front of her) and subtly (Fariha not marrying her daughter off so she can finish her medical degree or Mariam’s hunch that her great uncle has only taken an interest in them because he wants to take everything his brother left them upon his death).
It also arrives via hallucination and nightmare. Where the aforementioned examples give us the unfortunate truth of the gendered dynamic at play in Karachi, Kahn never forgets his opening and the trauma seeing such inferred abuse can inflict upon a viewer. The result is an uncertainty towards what we’re watching on-screen and whether it’s real or imagined. We see Mariam imagining white-eyed specters of men like her father in the distance before they disappear, so does that mean other figures are all in her head too? Maybe the masturbator was an illusion. Maybe the fear that comes from always being seen as someone who can be exploited and duped has turned paranoia into delusion.
Except reality doesn’t lie. Kahn jams so many instances into the narrative that we know this paranoia—if it is paranoia—is justified. Even if something isn’t real, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened before or won’t happen later. It’s a survival mechanism to keep Mariam’s head on a swivel when Uncle Nasir (Adnan Shah) talks about documents that need to be signed or when Asad (Omar Javaid) invites her on a beach date. She must constantly weigh happiness against horror. Is her blossoming love for Asad worth the risk that he might be hiding his true nature? And if tragedy strikes, leaving her alone to answer accusatory questions by men who will never listen to what she is saying anyway, is it better to flee?
That’s where IN FLAMES is most potent. The blurred line between morality and self-preservation. If you’re trapped in a system that treats you like the enemy, you must resign yourself to the fact that no one else will save you. You must save yourself even if it means exploiting the system exploiting you, committing a crime, or living with the ghosts of guilt and regret that result from refusing to become that ghost yourself. It leads to some powerful moments of psychological distress that Nawal performs to perfection as her Mariam attempts to traverse this landscape of lustful and entitled men. And it eventually gives Mazhar the spotlight to shine during the second half as her Fariha’s experience reminds her of her own power to seek justice outside the law.
What starts as a familiar tale of young love in the shadows of a domineering mother who does not approve soon reveals itself to be the nightmarish effect of how the “rule” often prevents us from pursuing the “exceptions” because we cannot afford to be wrong. Fariha isn’t domineering. She merely knows what awaits her daughter in this city. And Mariam isn’t naive to want to feel the joy of Asad’s company even if it means doing so in secret and at risk of their lives. Generational trauma is on full display as these women seek to succeed within the parameters their oppressors have set while proving the lengths they’ll go to protect themselves and, ultimately, add to that heirloom of pain.
- 8/10
LAROY, TEXAS
(limited release & VOD)
Ray (John Magaro) suspects nothing. Literally. His wife (Megan Stevenson’s Stacy-Lynn) leaves almost every night without inviting him. His brother (Matthew Del Negro’s Junior) is constantly buying new and expense things despite saying their company doesn’t have the resources to give him a raise. Everyone he loves is screwing him and he’s too much of a pushover to even consider the truth let alone do something about it. If not for a joke of a private detective (Steve Zahn’s Skip) recognizing Stacy-Lynn while staking out someone else at a seedy motel, Ray would have simply continued sleepwalking through his life.
Skip’s decision to be a Good Samaritan and provide Ray the unsolicited photos he took is the spark that gets Shane Atkinson’s LAROY, TEXAS going. And it’s truly as mind-boggling and funny a scenario as it sounds considering Ray has no clue who Skip is despite the latter believing they had a connection via school and his brother years prior. Ray wishes Skip would have just minded his own business and not told him. Not that he’s going to actually confront Stacy-Lynn about it. He’s too much of a coward for that. So, he buys a gun instead, hoping to kill himself in the motel parking lot before she exits her room.
That’s when fate intervenes in the form of a bag of cash. You see, someone has hired a hitman (Dylan Baker’s Harry) to take out a lawyer so he can steal the quarter of a million dollars in his safe. Believing that Ray is the man he hired, Tiller (Brannon Cross) gives him the payment and address instead. And since Ray is at a crossroads of identity, he takes both to force himself to see what he’s really made of. Can he kill a man? Can he stand-up and honor his promise to get the money Stacy-Lynn needs to open a salon? Can he win her back? Cue the avalanche.
While LAROY, TEXAS’s almost two-hour runtime is a lot and the pacing does tend to drag when the melodrama of a delusional man who still thinks he can put his life back together takes over, it does remain entertaining throughout. Credit Magaro and Zahn’s rapport for maintaining that interest because their odd couple pairing gets unhinged once they unintentionally fall into “good cop/bad cop” shenanigans. Stevenson and a supporting cast that includes Brad Leland and Darcy Shean shine in the over-the-top caricature nature of their performances and Baker really rounds everything out via a quietly menacing turn.
And I must admit that I enjoyed Atkinson’s decision to never fully lean into the humor when fleshing out his conclusion. The film might not get as dark as it potentially should after a very effective prologue, but the bleak nature of the finale’s “justice” does what it can to provide closure for the characters and the tone. The comedy is mostly born from the actors and small-town buffoonery of their roles rather than the scenario itself anyway, so it’s nice that the cost of doing violent business stays as high as it must. The end result won’t necessary wow anyone or alter the genre, but it’s a worthwhile ride to take on a rainy day.
- 6/10
SUGAR: Season 1
(streaming on AppleTV+, finale airs 5/17)
The first two episodes of SUGAR are fantastic. Series creator Mark Protosevich is an obvious lover of film noir and he imbues his lead character John Sugar (Colin Farrell) with that same romantic affinity. This private detective is constantly thinking about movies to either help process his current predicament, enthrall his latest audience, or crack his next clue. So, not even Sugar’s inner monologue can conceal the excitement of discovering that his next client is Hollywood royalty in producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell)—whose granddaughter (Sydney Chandler’s Olivia) has disappeared.
It’s a cool premise with the enjoyable stylistic choice of splicing in scenes from classic cinema like THE THIRD MAN, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Sugar is as nerdy as any cinephile, gushing over his proximity to a legend and constantly trying to share his love for the medium (later regaling his doctor with a description of the chest cavity scene from THE THING). It’s an obsession that complements his more general eccentricities—including a level of empathy for the less fortunate so earnest that only a man of his physical prowess can get away with it. Because while Sugar doesn’t like to hurt people, he will.
The noir beats, sweetly quiet performance from Farrell, and intrigue of the case make the show’s start utterly enthralling. The Hollywood types are pitch-perfect (Jonathan’s stature and respect from the world makes him a flawed figure at home, Dennis Boutsikaris as his son Bernie is a mediocre facsimile producing third rate titles while keeping his junkie daughter and spoiled son out of the tabloids, and said son David, played by Nate Corddry, is an entitled rich kid who never learned better yet doesn’t earn our sympathy to use it as an excuse). So, when Bernie and David actively try to sabotage Sugar via their indifference to Olivia’s plight, we wonder if they’re somehow involved.
I love Sugar’s code of morality—a stark contrast to the Siegel clan—that goes further than just non-violence. He doesn’t merely seek to do no harm; he’ll go out of his way to fix the harm others have done. He always remembers the names of those who serve him, never pretends to be above another soul, and always pays his wealth (accrued from finding missing persons for powerful, often dangerous people) forward to those in need. It leads to some genuinely heartfelt exchanges and commendable acts. It’s no surprise everyone enjoys his company whether his equal or “the help” (besides Bernie and David, of course). Sugar has an easy charm and honest demeanor. He’s a protector through and through.
And while he never wavers from this personality, the show does soon muddy that charm a bit by giving us a reason for why Sugar is the way he is. First it starts with the tease of a bigger conspiracy at play (one that forces us to question allegiances with people like Kirby Howell-Batiste’s, now credited simply as Kirby, handler Ruby) and then a full-blown table toss of a genre-bending reveal that can’t help overshadowing the simpler noir nature of the main plot. That’s not to say it doesn’t all work or that the explanations are convenient rather than relevant. Protosevich and his team know what they’re doing—it’s just a lot to process and a big shift in scope.
It’s also completely unnecessary. This “twist” adds nothing to the whole beyond a reveal for viewers to talk about at the water cooler. Because it’s not a “twist” at all. It’s crucial information about Sugar and the world in which he lives that has simply been kept from us. I’d argue the show would prove much better if Protosevich led with this detail and let us enjoy the character choices through that motivation. If I watched the season again right now, knowing what I do, I’m almost one hundred percent certain I’ll enjoy it more because I won’t be forced to reconcile a rug pull that does more to halt momentum in its faux profundity than it does to add to it.
By allowing me to engage with the smaller focus and truly cherish it as a salve to the very dark places this case goes only to then widen the aperture to the point where Olivia becomes a MacGuffin instead of the key to the puzzle, you ensure I’m kept at arm’s length. You have me feeling disappointed rather than energized—like the show bit off more than it could chew when it’s really the decision to hide context hamstringing the whole from just being allowed to be itself. I do therefore hope a second season is on the horizon, because I’d like to know where things go without any cheap narrative manipulations in a bid to trend on social media.
Regardless, I still really enjoyed SUGAR and Farrell’s work within. Step back from that structural misstep and there’s a ton to like from the production value, classic cinema angle, and impressive cast. Amy Ryan steals the show for me as Melanie, the one member of the extended Siegel family with a heart, because she effortlessly matches Farrell’s performance beat for beat to foster a wonderful rapport and trust. Boutsikaris earns a memorable scene in the penultimate episode to steal some thunder for himself and the supporting cast that includes Anna Gunn, Eric Lange (playing a heavy with welcome humor), and Jason Butler Harner never falters. It’s truly a solid season of television with the potential to get even better.
- 7/10
SWEET DREAMS
(limited release & VOD; Netherlands’ 2024 Best International Oscar submission)
“Careful what you wish for because you just might get it” is the sentiment that carries through Ena Sendijarevic’s darkly funny SWEET DREAMS. The cause and effect at play on-screen is never quite what the characters anticipate or hope for when they willingly allow themselves to be put into exploitative situations that they believe they can turn the tables on.
Siti (Hayati Azis) embraces the midnight advances of her sugar plantation’s Dutch owner (Hans Dagelet’s Jan) because having his child (Rio Kaj Den Haas’s Karel) means she’ll be untouchable in comparison to her fellow Indonesian laborers. Agathe (Renée Soutendijk) lets her husband die because removing him from the picture will provide retribution for his infidelities and, perhaps, more control over the operation. Cornelis (Florian Myjer) and Josefien (Lisa Zweerman) accept the former’s mother’s invitation to run the factory because being onsite should make it easier to sell everything off.
The dominoes therefore fall right from the first frame with Jan teaching Karel how to shoot a tiger (and abuse the employees of which he resembles a lot more than his European father). Here’s an Indonesian boy being raised like he’s white whose father (the reason everyone allows it) suddenly dies. That leaves both wife and mistress in the lurch—although Agathe has the means to attempt solidifying power because of her position while Siti doesn’t quite know how much power she holds until the will is read. And oh, how sweet it is for Cornelis to discover his father considers the illegitimate brother he didn’t know existed to be his real son.
What ensues can’t help being humorous because the ego and selfishness of the main characters demands we never get in their corner. We want them to fall on their faces and fail to achieve their goals. We want their preconceptions, prejudices, and fears to steer their actions towards self-destruction rather than salvation because they deserve it. Only Reza (Muhammad Khan) earns our empathy as a man perfectly positioned to understand the state of the world. He laughs at the Europeans. Mocks them to their faces and gets beat-up for the trouble. And all he wants is to take Siti and Karel somewhere else to be free. If only that’s what she truly wanted too instead of money and influence.
We do have pity for these tragic souls, though. Pity for what money and status did to Cornelis and Josefien—stunting their humanity at birth. Pity for Siti only wanting what’s best for her child despite her admitting in not-so-many-words that having Karel was a means to secure what was best for her. And pity for Agathe considering she’s been stuck in a horrible marriage and hoped Jan’s death might bring her calm comfort in the volatile place she now calls home despite everyone telling her she must return for Europe before things get worse. We pity them because they lost themselves to a system that ensured their demise.
This is colonialism and the horrible fingerprints left upon the conquered land and people by its hubris and totalitarian rule. How sweet it is then that the familial chaos of Jan’s death leads to financial chaos too once the scales tip via strikes and social unrest. Watching Cornelis and Josefien squirm is a delight because they know they need to sell now despite the means to be able to do so being too insidious even for them. How then will it all end? Will Reza find a way to save those worth saving? Will Siti get cajoled into helping this family to ultimately help herself? Or will all their lofty dreams turn into a fiery nightmare?
- 7/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This weekend sees BRICK LANE (2008), MAMA’S BOY (2007), SUPERHERO MOVIE (2008), THREE TO TANGO (1999), and WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? (2008) getting added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com on Sunday, Twitter on Monday).
Video above: Eli Wallach dropping an f-bomb in MAMA’S BOY.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 4/12/24 -
AAVESHAM at Regal Elmwood
ARCADIAN at Dipson Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN at Regal Elmwood & Galleria
LA CHIMERA at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Transit
CIVIL WAR at Dipson Amherst, McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD at Regal Galleria & Quaker
GEETHANJALI MALLI VACHINDI at Regal Elmwood & Transit
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS at North Park Theatre
THE LONG GAME at Regal Transit & Quaker
MAIDAAN at Regal Elmwood, Transit & Galleria
SHREK 2 - 20TH ANNIVERSARY at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
STING at Dipson Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
UNSINKABLE at Dipson Flix & Capitol
VARSHANGALKKU SHESHAM at Regal Elmwood
Streaming from 4/12/24 -
AMAR SINGH CHAMKILA – Netflix on 4/12
ARGYLLE – AppleTV+ on 4/12
Thoughts are above.
A JOURNEY – Netflix on 4/12
LOVE, DIVIDED – Netflix on 4/12
STOLEN – Netflix on 4/12
STRANGE WAY OF LIFE – Netflix on 4/12
WOODY WOODPECKER GOES TO CAMP – Netflix on 4/12
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE – MGM+ on 4/14
HANS ZIMMER: HOLLYWOOD REBEL – Netflix on 4/15
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
THE 50 (4/9)
IO CAPITANO (4/9)
“This is a familiar film built upon true tales of survivors that borders on miserablism. It hits the right emotional notes, though. And it's impossible not to root for Sarr.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
ENNIO (4/9)
GLITTER & DOOM (4/9)
KUNG FU PANDA 4 (4/9)
NORTH OF NORMAL (4/9)
“The trauma Cea endures can no longer be brushed away with the ignorance of youth. She can't afford to forgive and forget. Not when she's always left picking up the pieces alone. The result is weightier than you might expect.” – Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
ONE LIFE (4/9)
“The result isn't flashy or wholly unique beyond the content itself, but Winton's life is simply too compelling to not captivate regardless.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SLEEPING DOGS (4/9)
ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH (4/10)
BLACKOUT (4/12)
“Give Fessenden credit for really jam-packing this low-budget affair with as much political and social commentary as possible—even if a lot of it might come across as somewhat half-baked and reductive. The experience is worth those hiccups.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
DAMAGED (4/12)
FOOD, INC. 2 (4/12)
LAROY, TEXAS (4/12)
Thoughts are above.
LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL (4/12)
RIDDLE OF FIRE (4/12)
“I personally would have liked it to go even further [stylistically], but I can't deny its cult-status appeal or its brilliant use of young performers who are rarely afforded the opportunity to shine quite like this.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.