“Alex de la Iglesia’s ‘The Day of the Beast’ and ‘Perdita Durango’ Helped Define a Director with Mid-’90s Madness”

I would say “never change, Álex de la Iglesia,” but honestly, it’s been over 20 years and he definitely has not. It’s a good thing! Continue reading →

“Chloë Grace Moretz Soars in Twisty, High-Flying ‘Shadow in the Cloud'”

A shadow in the cloud overshadowed by the shadow of one really awful guy. Continue reading →

“Bacurau Is The Best John Carpenter Movie Carpenter Didn’t Actually Make”

If John Carpenter ever sees this movie, he will have to watch it through the tears in his eyes. Continue reading →

Review: Mohawk, 2018, dir. Ted Geoghegan

I’m not against genre movies being “elevated,” but if you’re going to elevate your genre movie, you need to have a good reason. Otherwise, just make an honest genre movie, and make it well, like Ted Geoghegan does in his latest movie, Mohawk, and in his previous movie, We Are Still Here, which I adore.  You can … Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Step Up Revolution, 2012, dir. Scott Speer

Step Up Revolution isn’t the sort of film that demands a great preamble; long before you set foot in the theater, you’ll have already developed an idea of what the movie is about through marketing and, frankly, through family resemblance. So with that said, I highly recommend checking out my full review of the latest … Continue reading →

Review: John Carter, 2012, dir. Andrew Stanton

Watching Andrew Stanton’s adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ seminal science fiction pulp novel, A Princess of Mars— here blandly labeled John Carter— is equivalent to a genre-fueled out of body experience. You’ve seen this film before. You’ve seen it in Star Wars (both the original trilogy and the prequel films), you’ve seen it in Avatar, … Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review & Interview: Silent House, 2012, dir. Chris Kentis & Laura Lau

Earlier this week, I saw Open Road’s latest release, the one-take home invasion horror film Silent House. My review for the movie now up on GoSeeTalk– along with a nice piece of bonus content in the form of an interview I did on Wednesday with director/writer duo Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (Open Water).  The movie … Continue reading →

Review: Cowboys & Aliens, 2011, dir. Jon Favreau

It’s amazing that in a single year we saw the release of four alien invasion films, and of that quartet only one turned out to be any good. How do three different directors miss the mark making variations on the same type of movie? Being kind, Super 8 only falls off the rails in its last … Continue reading →

Review: Bellflower, 2011, dir. Evan Glodell

Flamethrowers, precarious romance, badass muscle cars, and directionless, angry young men make for a potentially cataclysmic cocktail. So goes the narrative of Evan Glodell’s Bellflower, a tale of love and apocalypse and slackerdom and possibly the most aesthetically unique film of the year. Glodell, who not only directed the film but also wrote the script … Continue reading →

Review: Hanna, 2011, dir. Joe Wright

Hanna makes a sound argument that action movies need not be artless, though maybe when the person at the helm is Joe Wright the final outcome can only inevitably attain a level of artfulness worth observing. Wright is responsible for 2007’s Atonement, a strikingly beautiful film that remains mostly empty despite its impressive craftsmanship; where … Continue reading →

All Hail the Giant Buddah Head: Prometheus Reactions

Take a second and think about this: Ridley Scott has only made two science fiction movies in his career. Two. Not only that, but they’re two of the most influential contemporary sci-fi pictures– so his batting record in the field is pretty impressive, to say the least. Scott’s so celebrated for his work in the … Continue reading →

Review: The Last Circus, 2011, dir. Álex de la Iglesia

Coulrophobics, rejoice: Álex de la Iglesia has made your Citizen Kane. The Last Circus marks the scary clown film to end all scary clown films, a high-volume nightmare factory for those who suffer from a crippling fear of tumblers, jesters, jokers, and harlequins with painted faces and outrageous costumes. In theory, it’s also a bit … Continue reading →

Review: Attack the Block, 2011, dir. Joe Cornish

You’ve seen movies like Attack the Block before– movies where an enemy-of-all emerges and threatens to destroy, devour, or dominate all life until being defeated by a thoroughly ordinary hero or group of heroes– yet Joe Cornish’ directorial debut stands out as one of the year’s most thoroughly original and memorable releases regardless. Largely, this … Continue reading →

Review: Meek’s Cutoff, 2011, dir. Kelly Reichardt

Meek’s Cutoff feels something like an oddity in the western genre, and I mean that in the best way possible. There’s no denying the western influences clearly embedded in its cinematic DNA; Kelly Reichardt’s fourth feature very much draws from that celluloid tradition, but she’s not telling a story about cowboys and Indians or marshals … Continue reading →

Review: Hobo With a Shotgun, 2011, dir. Jason Eisner

During the last act of the felicitously named Hobo With a Shotgun, Rutger Hauer’s eponymous vagrant delivers a speech to a hospital nursery filled with babies that may set your meta-sense tingling. There’s a feeling that Hauer’s almost talking about himself and his own life decisions which have led him to star in a brisk, … Continue reading →

Review: Super 8, 2011, dir. J.J. Abrams

J.J. Abrams is short of a single meticulously crafted script before he creates his masterpiece; he knows how to make an entertaining, fulfilling movie that resonates with his audiences, but each of his cinematic endeavors has been hamstrung by virtue of lacking a highly polished, impeccable piece of writing that elevates his work from “good” … Continue reading →

Review: Monsters, 2010, dir. Gareth Edwards

In Monsters, the debut picture of newcomer Gareth Edwards, colossal alien beasts roam the lands south of the US/Mexico border after landing on Earth six years ago. The territory they inhabit, stretching south from the border through much of northern Mexico, has been deemed the “infected zone” and is considered hostile for human beings to … Continue reading →

Review: Centurion, 2010, dir. Neil Marshal

In roughly AD 117, Rome’s 9th Legion disappeared while on the march through Britain. What happened to them has been the subject of much debate and speculation amongst scholars; some assert that they were wiped out by Celtic tribes of Britain, while others believe that they simply disbanded, and still others suggest that they died … Continue reading →