Barbarian (2022) - Movie Review

I don’t want to write about this film.

Not because it’s bad or boring or gave me nothing to work with for a review; y’know, the usual reasons. This is a very good movie, so far from boring that it’s unbelievable, and I have a shit-ton of thoughts on it.

No, the reason I don’t want to write about it is because this is one of those special films that is at its most effective when you go into it knowing as little about it as possible. I went into this with only the initial trailer to go on, which thankfully was more interested in drumming up interest than actually showing the content directly, and what I ultimately got was one of the most buckwild experiences I’ve had with a film all year. This is Malignant levels of nutty filmmaking, and might even go further than that film did in sheer unpredictability.

I’m in a bit of a bind here. Like with any other new film I enjoyed watching, I want to get into all the things about this that I loved seeing… but doing so runs the risk of spoiling the potential experience for the very people I desperately want to convince to check this thing out. I’ve likely gotten into this before, but the literal last thing I want to do with any of these write-ups is to ruin a film for someone else, no matter how much we may disagree on the film itself. I’m not here to dictate or denigrate anyone else’s tastes; I just want to share my thoughts and maybe get someone else to see something they mightn’t have otherwise.

With that in mind, I can either plaster a big fat spoiler warning at the top of this review and carry on as normal… or I can try and put some of that Moonage Daydream inspiration to work and see if I can successfully get into what makes this film so goddamn amazing, but without directly spelling it out. I mean, one of my recent write-up subjects for FilmInk (the fantastic One Piece Film: Red) came to me with a literal list of things not to spoil in the review proper, and I reckon that review turned out good with those stipulations, so let’s see how we go. Wish me luck.

Before I Wake (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: After the death of their son, parents Jessie (Kate Bosworth) and Mark (Thomas Jane) adopt Cody (Jacob Tremblay). They soon discover that whenever Cody goes to sleep, his dreams manifest themselves in the real world. As both Jessie and Mark take comfort in what Cody’s gift can do, it soon becomes clear that not everything in his dreams is benevolent and his nightmares could prove something far more dangerous for his new parents.

90 Minutes In Heaven (2016) - Movie Review

It’s religious cinema time again! I want to point out that I am not doing this because such films are generally easy targets; sitting through God’s Not Dead 2 was anything but easy. No, I maintain that I want to see really good religious cinema come to theatres around here. One of my favourite films is Kevin Smith’s Dogma, something that affected me so deeply as to completely shape my views on theology to what they are today, and I’d give anything for someone else to be similarly affected by a recent release. The problem is, between the preachiness, toxicity and just plain banality that fills an awful lot of these kinds of releases, it doesn’t look hopeful. Not that I can guess who will be influenced by what; I’m just saying that, if there are people who sees something positive and enlightening in something like War Room, I’ll be happy for them from a very, very safe distance. So, on my quest to find a Christian film that doesn’t suck on toast, I came across this fairly recent release featuring Hayden Christensen. Well, that optimism was nice while it lasted.

Still Alice (2015) - Movie Review

In the world of cinema, there are a number of things that have become acceptable targets for ridicule by pretty much everyone: Battlefield Earth, Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Room are all great examples of this. One such thing that has its hunting season sign up all year round is anything connected with the now-dying phenomenon of Twilight, whether it’s the films themselves, the actors who starred in them or the people who are responsible for them. It may have grown tired, given how readily the world rightfully rained down on the series for years on end, but the after-effects still linger to this day. With the female lead from Twilight, Kristen Stewart, in today’s film, I find it hard to avoid talking about the connection, especially when it feels like the film itself is daring me to do so. After the jump, I’ll explain why.