The Killer (2023) - Movie Review

A new David Fincher film coming out is always cause for celebration. A new David Fincher film coming out after he scored another career highlight with Mank, more so. A new David Fincher film coming out with reuniting with writer Andrew Kevin Walker, the scribe behind his breakthrough work Se7en (and script doctor on his other crowning work Fight Club), even more so than that. Sure, I can’t say I was expecting this to entirely reach those same heights, but as someone who holds both creatives in such high esteem, I was definitely curious to see what a new team-up between them would look like. And in a lot of ways, it’s business as usual for the both of them, and in just as many, there’s something different going on here.

Transfusion (2023) - Movie Review

With how many films I get through every year, marketing material and trailers in particular don’t really have an effect on me nowadays. Most of the time, trailers just serve as snapshots for stuff I know I’ll be looking at at some point anyway, so they don’t serve the same interest for me that they would most general audiences. But then there are situations like the marketing around this film, and the subsequent response that the film proper has gotten, and I feel the need to address the discrepancy.

See, the trailer for this film presents it as some kind of crime thriller with shootouts, the kind of thing you’d expect Neeson to have helmed a few years back. But instead, the actual film is more of a slow-burn drama about family, masculinity, and how far men will go to preserve one or the other.

Biosphere (2023) - Movie Review

Last time we checked in on indie titan Mark Duplass, it was with the softly soul-crushing Paddleton, and his latest production works under a similar premise. Like Paddleton, this is also the story of two best friends dealing with a particularly bleak personal scenario and finding a way to bond during the experience. Only this time, it’s not just the impending death of a single person; it’s the aftermath of the apocalypse. Duplass’ Billy and Sterling K. Brown’s Ray are the last two human beings alive, kept safe and in relative comfort in the titular Biosphere that Ray designed and built.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (2022) - Movie Review

Time for another preview screening, this time courtesy of StudioCanal… and man, after how much he crushed it last year, I leapt at the chance to check out the next Nicolas Cage flick. When you’ve spent so many years (decades, even) being such a singular talent that you’re just as animated as any one of the roles you’ve taken up, then yeah, why not star in a movie where you’re performing as yourself? Sure, there’s films like The Weather Man, Joe, and the previously-reviewed Pig, which showed certain facets of his real-life persona, but this is as direct as it gets. And the end result, while consciously made up of a lot of familiar parts, is quite mesmerising in that way that only Cage-starring films can manage.

Jackass Forever (2022) - Movie Review

As was likely the case for a lot of suburban Millennials growing up in the 2000s, Jackass ruled my world. We had the first film on VHS back in the day, and I got into it right around the time I discovered Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and I was dangerously hooked. I went and saw the second and third films when they came to cinemas, and I devoured the DVD box sets of the original show, Wildboyz, and Viva La Bam. It’s difficult to really put into words just how much fun it has been watching these guys keep finding new ways to hurt themselves and each other over the past two decades, but it is one of the most joyfully meaningless media franchises I have ever encountered (and I mean by design, not as a criticism of such things).

Which makes the prospect of writing a review for the newest theatrical release a bit daunting, since I usually spend my time on here diving into thematic ideas and how it relates to the world when it was released. I know I have a habit of chronic navel-gazing in my writings, but just how much writing material is there to be found in a film that is inherently plotless and not big on ideas beyond “Watch this guy and wince”?

The Power Of The Dog (2021) - Movie Review

The chances of me being able to get into a Western are about as the same as the average person liking Bender’s cooking: Unless there’s something wild and possibly psychedelic is mixed in there, it’s probably not gonna happen. But this is another one of those films that I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about over the last month, and while I’m still going in with a mild disinterest in the genre as a whole, I’m at least willing to give it a chance on its own terms, rather than making it adhere to my own. It coming from a filmmaker as beloved as Jane Campion definitely helps with that, but just bear in mind that I’m not exactly the target audience for such stories. Or, at least, that’s what I thought going into this.

Cry Macho (2021) - Movie Review

Before we actually get into the film in question, I need to get into the circumstances by which I saw this film in the first place. Partly as a means of full disclosure, but mainly because this is something of a first for this blog.

So, I got an email from one of NBCUniversal’s publicists, who offered me an in-season pass to this film for a review. That itself isn’t the unique part; this is actually fairly standard for most of the assignments I get from FilmInk. Except this isn’t through FilmInk. For whatever reason, the publicist contacted me directly to arrange this. As much as I want to crack jokes about how desperate they must be for official write-ups if they’re reaching out to this middle-of-nowhere blog for a review, or that they obviously didn’t see my last review for an Eastwood movie if they were expecting a glowing endorsement… man, getting recognised like this after all these years makes me quite happy, and I’d like to extend my thanks to Universal for reaching out. Although bear in mind that I’m not going to let that colour my opinion of the film itself.

Had I not been contacted and essentially given a free ticket to see this, I likely would have skipped over this feature entirely. I’m basically done with Clint Eastwood at this point. I don’t know how much more I can take of the guy trying to take down bogeymen only he can see (like he did at the Republican National Convention in 2012). I don’t want to see more from Mr. “My god is bigger than your statistics”. But hey, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I went and saw the movie… and was thankful that it was nothing like the material I’ve come to associate with the filmmaker in recent years.

The Outpost (2020) - Movie Review

This one is a bit of professional curiosity on my part, as I was initially going to gloss over this one-of-millions war thriller… until I noticed that this might have some of the highest praise of any Millennium Films production I've come across. Yes, the studio that I have come to associate with some of the blandest right-wing-soapbox action guff of the last several years seems to have finally stumbled onto a winner. And having seen it for myself, I can certainly agree that this is a production worth being proud of.

The Lighthouse (2020) - Movie Review

I didn’t know what to expect from the sophomore release of Robert Eggers, who gave us the quite fantastic The Witch a few years ago. I don’t even think it’s possible to expect anything from this, either from the viewpoint of someone trying to pick something to watch or as someone in the cinema seat with their ticket in hand. It legit got to a point, around the point of this film’s final reel, that I found myself giving in to the weirdness. I stopped trying to rationalise what I was seeing and just let it all wash over me… and then I made the trip back home. Time for another deep dive as I try and put down on paper why this film is so fucking brilliant.

Playing With Fire (2019) - Movie Review

Over the last few weeks, I’ve covered some films that have gotten a pretty heavy reaction out of yours truly. Such is the nature of the year-end round-up, as catching up with I missed earlier in the year has brought to some truly fantastic films and some real shockers. Part of me is wondering if my verging-on-burnout mindset over this month is artificially heightening my initial reception, like I’ve been giving certain features either too much or too little credit. Well, thankfully we have this film, which is quite bad but it’s not the excruciating variety that I’ve been subjecting myself to of late. Oh, rest assured, it still sucks, but it’s the most inoffensive suckage I’ve reviewed in a while.

The Legacy Of A Whitetail Deer Hunter (2018) - Movie Review

You know that it’s been a weird year when Danny McBride, an actor and writer better known for his comedic works, is currently riding high on a horror movie. This kind of step into different genres doesn’t have to be a bad thing (worked a miracle for Jordan Peele), but if McBride wants to keep up with his standard trade, it’s an easy ask that he be attached to works worth their salt. And this kind of is, in a roundabout way, as despite this being billed as a comedy, laughter isn’t exactly the first reaction this gives. It’s a little too low-key and a little too preoccupied with moodier pursuits for that.