Going in to Charlie Victor Romeo knowing that there will not be a rosey resolution or a happy ending for the people depicted means an immediate feeling of unease in the pit of your stomach. Like any person with a fear of flying that steps onto a plane fighting anxiety and constantly wiping their sweaty palms on the leg of their jeans …
Four Corners is a film that illuminates unseen sectarian violence that has been plaguing the South Africa as its frustrated and impoverished citizens grow weary of playing by a rulebook that leaves basic necessities just out of reach. Stone-faced men appoint themselves as generals of brutal organizations, using tattoos as a permanent …
Eighty minutes of close ups of the handsome and talented Tom Hardy might be a lot of people’s cup of tea. Not is he easy on the eye but he has been known to command the screen even when unrecognisable (The Dark Knight Rises). But to make a narrative out of a string of lingering shots of the England-born lad - therein lies the …
When the memory-detective protagonist of Anna informs his eponymous charge, the sixteen year-old daughter of a wealthy family who’s suddenly refused to eat, that the movie’s chief technological conceit “doesn’t work like that”, it’s telling that he never offers an…
There’s something deeply discomfiting about the idea of being watched. Not only is it invasive in the usual way, depriving you of your privacy and security, there is something more insidious there. The idea that you are being watched takes some control away from you. If you can be seen wherever you go, if you can be known whatever …
Hellion has familiar elements of the “Sundance drama”. It stars a famous actor in a promising director’s debut. We watch that famous actor take on an unfamiliar role. Children act mischievously. A shimmering glow washes over a depressed American town. While Hellion is a little too typical, it does have its positive points …
All Cheerleaders Die is the new horror comedy from directors Lucky McKee (The Woman) and Chris Sivertson (I Know Who Killed Me) that is not funny, scary or fun. It unfolds over an eternity (well, a really slow 90 minutes) and fails on almost every level. For the first forty minutes, the film is a bottom of the barrel high school film. All …
This harrowing movie from Ti West is a penetrating look at cults and their monstrous, yet enrapturing theologies. Framed as VICE documentary, The Sacrament presents unadorned footage of hipster journalists A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg and Kentucker Audley as they journey to a church commune in an undisclosed location to ostensibly film Audely reuniting with his ….
If the recent TV remake of Rosemary’s Baby didn’t quite whet appetites for fresh new takes on bringing the antichrist to term, its almost unanimous dismissal evidenced at least the demand for distinction in how storytellers approach familiar material. Enter Delivery…
Mankind plays by a different set of rules at night. For most of us, the daylight hours are defined by work, routine, and the pursuit of a paycheck. The nighttime offers something far more alluring: the chance to pursue our own, more radical ideas. In Night Moves, characters toil on an organic farm and collect towels at a health spa during …