With all that’s happening in the world right now, Loving could not be coming out at a better time. Its story needs to be shouted from the rooftops and spread to every corner of the globe, the fight Richard and Mildred Loving calmly waged against injustice an important and vital reminder of what can be accomplished when fairness and equality are threatened and good people stand up to do what is right. See it at once.
But with twists of fate even Stephen King would blanch at and think are both too contrived as well as overly cold-blooded, Shut In never becomes more than the sum of its overly familiar genre parts. It’s a waste of time and talent, the only saving grace being the movie is a so instantly forgettable the bad taste it leaves after it comes to an end thankfully dissipates from memory in the time it takes to exit the theatre.
I almost can’t wait to see this master of the mystic arts return for another adventure, and not just alongside the Avengers, Doctor Stephen Strange a mysteriously fascinating firebrand of courage and curiosity deserving of future solo outings into the unknown sooner rather than later.
Hacksaw Ridge is Mel Gibson’s (Apocalypto) return to the director’s chair for the first time in a decade, the Oscar-winner for Braveheart making his way back onto the battlefield to showcase a story of courage, combat and faith that’s unlike few other WWII stories.
The Handmaiden is a glorious achievement, one filled with a number of unparalleled delights that only get richer and more meaningful the longer I think about them. Truth becomes fiction, fiction becomes truth, the seductive grey areas in-between an orgy of carnivorous beguilements that lead both to Heaven and to Hell in equal measure, Chan-wook delivering a marvel of storytelling sleight of hand worthy of euphoric admiration.
Moonlight is a masterpiece.
None of it is enough to make me ever want to give Trolls another chance, of course, the film so obnoxiously unappetizing the thought of sitting through it again makes my skin crawl. I didn’t like it, not at all, and while I’m certain there are kids out there who will undoubtedly feel differently don’t expect me to sing a different tune on the matter anytime soon.
There’s a heck of a lot to like about writer/director Stephen Dunn’s feature-length narrative debut Closet Monster. It’s an intriguing film, one that has more to say about sexuality and gender than it initially appears, things revolving around a main character who exhibits a ton of genre stereotypes only to burst free of most of them as the story rolls along to its conclusion.
Inferno might not be terrible, but that’s not saying much. Here’s hoping all involved are done making these Dan Brown adaptations, because I seriously doubt I have the desire or the energy to try and sit through another one anytime soon.