Shin Kamen Rider (2023) - Movie Review

Where Shin Ultraman looked at superheroes as an ideal, tapping into the loftiness tied to a lot of DC superheroes and even some of the cosmic areas of Marvel’s continuity, Shin Kamen Rider is a more street-level affair. It’s just as indebted to the styles of its predecessors, from the high-flying low-angle shots to the often-jarring scene transitions mid-fight scene, but with a much darker tone. Well, that and a much bloodier presentation; the first major fight scene involves a lot of goons being punched and expelling clouds of gore, and the fights to follow are just as visceral.

Everything In Between (2022) - Movie Review

Well, we struck gold with an Aussie production last time, so let’s go for another one. A suicidal teenager (Jordan Dulieu’s Jay) meets terminally-ill 20-something Liz (Freyja Benjamin) and they teach each other about life and love and all that good stuff. Sure, it all sounds a bit sicklit-y, but hey, Babyteeth turned out great, and I seem to be on a good roll for films lately, so maybe this’ll turn out alright.

I don’t even know why I’m even pretending to give this the benefit of the doubt. In the minutes since leaving the cinema, I’ve already taken to calling this Nothing Nowhere Never, because that’s what it made me feel while watching it.

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) - Movie Review

At the tail-end of 2016, I reviewed a film called Swiss Army Man. It remains one of the most surreal features I’ve ever covered on this blog, and I loved the absolute hell out of it… although, by its own admission, it’s most certainly not going to work for all audiences. It’s a cult film made by decidedly cult filmmakers, and considering it found its way mainly into the more arthouse cinemas in my area, Daniels (the writing/directing team of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) seemed destined to stay on the fringe. Then their latest collaboration was released, to the most mainstream cinema local to me, and is seemingly adored by everyone. And what makes that fact even more astounding is that this film that has caught on like wildfire? It’s not even that much of a change-up from what these guys usually get up to.

Palm Springs (2020) - Movie Review

Oh dear, it’s another time loop movie. And I’ve already used up basically every remotely useful way I can introduce these movies; I can’t even go full meta and acknowledge this constant stream of time loop movies itself feels like I’m stuck in a time loop, because I’ve already done that too. These past six years since Edge Of Tomorrow has seen a lot of filmmakers try their hand at this, with both good and bad results, but quite frankly, I’m just tired of it all. It’s been done. The chances of something coming along that can add a fresh spin to the idea is growing thinner by the day. It's part of the reason why I wasn't exactly looking forward to this, regardless of how it turns out... and yet it's also the reason why this is such a blast of fresh air.