The Final Girls isn’t the first film to utilize a movie-within-a-movie scenario where the main characters discover themselves on the other side of the celluloid screen, but that doesn’t make it any less inventive. Working as both an irreverent, giggly eccentric homage to the ‘80s slasher movie craze as well as a solid little scare flick in its own right, it’s the somewhat surprising poignant maturity and warmth at the center of this lunacy that makes this anarchic hybrid memorable.
Incredibly well made, freakishly evocative and unsettling, this terrifying psychological drama left me so shaken when it was over I was close to aghast as to what it was I had just witnessed. While [Goodnight Mommy] is remarkable, I found I didn’t want to talk about it with anyone let alone write down my thoughts on paper, writer/directors Severin Fialaa and Veronika Franz doing such a grand job scaring my psyche all I really wanted to do was go home, climb into bed in a fetal position and hope I didn’t have nightmares.
Wright has reimagined Barrie’s world, given it a special imprint only he could have manufactured. None of which makes the resulting misfire good, let alone worthwhile, but it does make it fascinating, Pan (2015) the type of fearless failure only a director of consummate skill and vision par excellence could have delivered with such a resounding thud.
Giving a tour de force performance unlike just ab out any other in his career, Gere is the chief reason writer/director Oren Moverman’s (Rampart) latest Time Out of Mind is worthy of a look. A totally immersive descent into invisibility, George is the definition of a lost soul who refuses to admit he’s vanished off of society’s radar.
One cannot watch Deathgasm without thinking that writer/director Jason Lei Howden isn’t just a big time lover of old school, 1980s-style heavy metal, but also a passionate devotee of filmmakers like Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi, Stuart Gordon, Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright. Not only is his debut a deft, dare I say joyous homage to the music he undoubtedly adores, but it’s a deliciously energetic and gory romp through monster, zombie and demon tropes so rambunctious it’s as if the whole thing was engineered from the start to be a rollicking love letter to the entire genre.
Filled with stellar visuals courtesy of cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (The Walk), production designer Arthur Max (The Counselor) and a passel of exceedingly talented special effects technicians, centered around a funny, personable and altogether human performance from Damon ranking as one of his all-time best, [The Martian’s] 141 minutes breeze by in the blink of an eye, building to a confidently rousing finale that’s simply out of this world.
Zemeckis, by bringing Petit’s story to the screen in the way he has, reclaims the World Trade Center as a symbol of hope, a beacon of vision and enlightenment. The Walk (2015) is an entertainment coup for the ages, a family-friendly adventure of the human condition reminding us all a little madness now and then shouldn’t just be encouraged, but oftentimes deserves to be celebrated for its inspirational genius.
While not without its missteps, and certainly not going to satisfy the masses, for those knowing what it is they are about to see The Green Inferno is about as terrifying an experience as any that can be imagined. I’m not positive I liked it, but that doesn’t make me any less glad I took the time to give the horror effort a look, Roth’s directorial return a startlingly, efficiently brutal reminder of just how strong a genre impresario he can be when he’s of a mind to be one.
There’s just no reason to care, nothing that matters, and when that’s added to the unforgivable disservice done to the newest character, Dennis, the overall effect isn’t just disappointing, it’s downright horrifying.