The Burnt Orange Heresy (2020) - Movie Review

Looks like the déjà vu train is still in service, only now we’ve gone from things I’d much rather not fixate on to something actually worth remembering. Specifically, we’re dealing with a slice of art-world satire wrapped up in genre thrills, much like last year’s Velvet Buzzsaw. However, while the two carry a certain similarity in tone, their respective approaches to the art world are somewhat different. Where Buzzsaw was informed by the perspective of the artist and largely stayed with it, even when focusing on other characters, The Burnt Orange Heresy is more intently trained on the role of the art critic… and why it’s really not worth taking all that seriously.

Follow Me (2020) - Movie Review

A bad movie is one thing, but a movie that makes me feel bad that it actually engaged me at all is something else. Yeah, cutting straight to the point with this one, as it’s been a while since I’ve had thoroughly bad news to report back with in a review.

Capone (2020) - Movie Review

Five years after his career-defining clusterfuck with Fant4stic, writer/director/editor Josh Trank has returned with a decidedly lower-key feature, covering the final year in the life of notorious gangster Al Capone. For a lot of the past five years, there’s been debate about what exactly caused Fant4stic to turn out as bafflingly as it did, with Trank himself attributing it to studio interference. I myself wondered if that was the case, as it was the only explanation that could come close to making sense of what happened… but the only real way to prove that was if Trank was able to come back, properly in the driver’s seat, and deliver a feature that showed he still had the talent he showcased so bracingly back with Chronicle. And far as I'm concerned, he actually managed it here.

SamSam (2020) - Movie Review

Some family films are better described as kids’ films, as they usually end up entertaining the kids but making their chaperones wish they were doing anything else. Some kids’ films are better described as family films, as they manage to give just as much entertainment value for the adults as it does for the kids (sometimes more so for the adults). This film somehow falls right down the middle of those two: It’s an animated film most definitely made for kids, one I can easily see being engaging for little’ins, but is rather inoffensive for adults. Not entertaining, just… inoffensive. And that’s not from lack of trying, just to make things more bizarre.

Love Sarah (2020) - Movie Review

Certain forms of media tend to bleed out into other forms of media. With how multidisciplinary art can become in the right hands, along with how everything ends up influencing everything else, every so often, I come across films that feel like cinematic reskins of other types of storytelling. In some cases, that can add layers to the production and the story, but in other cases (the latter being the unfortunate majority out there), it just makes me question why it just isn’t that other kind of media to begin with.

Red Shoes And The Seven Dwarfs (2020) - Movie Review

You know a film’s marketing is bad when it manages to turn off potential audiences three years before they even get a chance to see it.

The Personal History Of David Copperfield (2020) - Movie Review

Given what happened last time we checked in with premium Scottish firebrand Armando Iannucci, this follow-up feels a bit… off. One of the current kings of darker and politically-minded comedy, after taking Stalin’s Russia to task in riotous fashion, decides to make an adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel. This is easily one of the broadest things he’s ever worked on, and at first glance, this feels like he’s actively playing against his own strengths on some form of artistic dare. But even though things have definitely been toned down here, it’s also surprisingly in-line with Iannucci’s aesthetic up to this point.