A thrilling recreation of an event that’s still fresh in the public mind, Deepwater Horizon is superbly staged action-drama that uses the tragedy of that 2010 April tragedy as a springboard to tell a story about the triumph of the human spirit and selfless courage under the most unimaginable of circumstances.
Masterminds is messy and unfocused, its satire never as pointed or as effective as it should be, while its more absurdist comedic beats are portrayed with such tongue-in-cheek certainty the laughs they generate aren’t exactly massive. But with a cast this strong there’s still plenty about this effort to applaud, and admittedly I spent much of the film’s 90 or so minutes grinning ear-to-ear, the crazed ridiculousness of it all winning me over more often than not.
I’m not sure how Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will be received by the masses, but for my part, even with a handful of strong reservations, Burton’s interpretation of Riggs’ source material kept me suitably intrigued for just about all of its rather enthralling two hours of narrative eccentricity.
Expertly chronicled in 2012 by writer Tim Crothers in an ESPN Magazine article, the true story at the heart of Disney’s Queen of Katwe is an instantly powerful one. Phiona’s story grabs the viewer by the throat, our collective desire as an audience to see this child succeed palpable on an unimaginable scale.
While far from perfect, Neel’s latest is a magnetically compelling ride into the depths of human depravity that feels like an absolute necessity, especially right now. Goat is a movie that needs to be seen, and as hard as it can be to watch here’s hoping audiences take the time do so all the same.
Fuqua, eschewing the overwrought visual theatrics that have handicapped the majority of the films he’s handled, has obviously done his homework, his staging of the various gunfights and action beats bordering on superb.
Storks worked for me, and even when things looked like they were about to spiral out of control, there was just something about it that kept me interested to see what would happen next. It’s September’s first unforeseen surprise, and even if parents might end up having to answer a few unsettling questions about babies and their origins this is still an animated comedy the entire family should undoubtedly enjoy.
Even if its feet are planted in overly familiar territory, Blair Witch is spectacularly unsettling, its final 30 minutes a crackerjack roller coaster ride of suspenseful thrills and chills that are well worth the price of admission all on their own.
At the same time, the lack of heat, the absence of energy, it ends up making Snowden come across like much less than it should be. I wanted more, and, to put it frankly, with Stone at the helm it’s not too surprising that I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get it.