“20 Years Ago, Robin Williams Made The Scariest Psychological Thriller Of His Career”

One hour photo, ninety minutes of high-anxiety and cold tension. Continue reading →

“‘The Rental’ Needs Some Work”

To BnB, or not to BnB. Continue reading →

“‘Becky’ Offers up Brief but Bloody Catharsis (and Kevin James)”‘

Time to update Urban Dictionary, folks! Continue reading →

Review: The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, 2019, dir. Henry Dunham

Seven men. Six innocent. One guilty. One location. One night to sort it all out. One really long movie title. But hey, it gets the point across! Continue reading →

“How ‘Assassination Nation’ Exploits Privacy Fears”

I’ll be honest, I’m a little surprised Assassination Nation worked so well on me; all the good, exploitative genre stuff we get at the end comes a little too late, and it frankly doesn’t make a lot of sense considering how the rest of the film functions, but it’s satisfying all the same, mostly because if … Continue reading →

Review: Beast, 2018, dir. Michael Pearce

I’m wondering if Michael Pearce’s very good Beast is dropping at an inopportune cultural moment; we’re talking a lot about why kids shoot up schools, and there’s a percentage of nimrods trotting out usual excuses like “they were bullied” and “they watch too much violent media.” Beast isn’t quite about either of those, and it’s not about … Continue reading →

Review: Thoroughbreds, 2018, dir. Cory Finley

If I’m a fan of only two things in this world, it’s a) Intimate, small-scale, character-driven horror-thrillers about the inhumanity of humans, and b) Anya Taylor-Joy So there. (I’m a fan of a great deal many more things than a) and b), of course, but work with me here for once.) I talked to Taylor-Joy … Continue reading →

Review: The Beguiled, 2017, dir. Sofia Coppola

It’s possible that I’m being too combative about all of the cultural inquiry made into Sofia Coppola’s new film, The Beguiled, in my review (written, as ever, for Paste Magazine). I’m not entirely sure. What I am sure of is that the structure of the conversation surrounding the film is symptomatic of the major ills afflicting … Continue reading →

Review: Always Shine, 2016, dir. Sophia Takal

I liked Sophia Takal’s sophomore film so much that I wrote about it twice: Once for Independent Film Festival Boston, once at the beginning of this here December month. (Both times for Paste Magazine, because surprise.) If you’ve already seen the film, well, no harm in reading my thoughts. If you haven’t, see it, then think … Continue reading →

Review: Creepy, 2016, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

If you’re going to make a movie and title it Creepy, well, it better be creepy, so good job Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Your latest film justifies its name. Creepy is an unnerving little ditty, “little” being a somewhat misleading qualifier based on duration – it’s two hours long plus some change, but you barely feel it based on … Continue reading →

Review: The Accountant, 2016, dir. Gavin O’Connor

The Accountant is Pixar’s latest family heart-warmer, a comedy about an ant who keeps the books for his colony and – wait, no. Sorry. That’s wrong. The Accountant is a movie where Ben Affleck plays an accountant who is on the autism spectrum, whose clients are mostly murderers and scumbags, and who shoots people in the fucking … Continue reading →

Review: Nerve, 2016, dir. Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost

I’ll say it plainly: Strip away the hacking subplot, the dark web subplot, the pining nice guy best friend subplot, and the mom subplot from Nerve, and you’d end up with a better than pretty good movie. Add in real, visceral consequences, and you’d have an even better movie than that. Nerve is just too free of … Continue reading →

Review: Three, 2016, dir. Johnnie To

When you’re a master, you can get away with making “minor” movies because your status turns “minor” movies into “major” movies. Three isn’t the best To we’ve gotten in the last few years – that would be 2013’s stunning Drug War – but it’s still outstanding, an eighty or so minute masterclass in what a seasoned director … Continue reading →

Interview: Jeremy Saulnier, “Green Room”

Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room is an unflinching, vicious piece of work, and if you are either faint of heart or weak of stomach, I think it’s probably my job to steer you away from it. Or maybe I should steer you toward it. I’m not a mean guy or anything, but if I’m being honest, Green Room … Continue reading →

Review: The Invitation, 2016, dir. Karyn Kusama

I’m a big fan of movies that function on the principle of “the less you know, the better,” but let me tell you: They are a bitch to write about. How much is too much? Where’s the line between giving away precious details and playing too coy for your audience’s own good? The answers to these … Continue reading →

Review: “Remember”, 2016, dir. Atom Egoyan

“In Hebrew, the name Zev means “wolf,” but the protagonist of Atom Egoyan’s new film,Remember, is more like a lamb. Zev Gutman strikes no predatory impressions when we first meet him lying prone in bed, calling out his dead wife’s name in a state of bestirred delusion. He cuts a feeble figure: He does not … Continue reading →

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene, 2011, dir. Sean Durkin

I absolutely adored this mesmerizing, eerie, and breathtakingly composed film– inasmuch as something this unsettling can be adored– and it’s all thanks to some top-drawer editing and a startlingly assured debut by Elizabeth Olsen. Continue reading →

Review: Drive, 2011, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

Drive is cool; there’s no way around it. In point of fact I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest film other than in terms of its inherent, blatant coolness, or more accurately a more appropriate way. “Cool” is what Drive embodies in every single detail, minute or otherwise; … Continue reading →

Review: Troll Hunter, 2011, dir. Andre Ovredal

I’m typically not the person who finds himself in admiration of “found footage” movies; more so than most titles that fit under that umbrella, they’re more slavishly devoted to a formula that doesn’t tend to vary from entry to entry. Naturally, that footage has to get found at some point, so we have a much … Continue reading →