2017
Devil’s Gate frustratingly flirts with greatness- however, director Clay Staub’s genre mash-up is too uneven to sustain the entirety of its running time.
In The Final Year, current events turn what might have been a good if slightly unremarkable documentary into a powerful work of nostalgia and mourning.
Extensive research has been undertaken to produce this documentary, The Politics of Hate, on the re-emergence of the far right. Unfortunately, nothing within feels revelatory if you’ve seen the news in the last two years.
With average performances, a weak script, and a lack of sentiment regarding the treatment of Native Americans, Hostiles isn’t going to make audiences want westerns to come back anytime soon.
Using acute, penetrating realism, a career-best performance from Wyle, powerful secondary performances from the actors, air-tight writing incorporating pressing themes, and an unpredictable ending, Shot overwhelmingly succeeds as both a film and a statement about our culture.
Ana Asensio’s directorial debut, Most Beautiful Island, is an intimate view of the immigrant experience not as social realist drama or romantic comedy, but as a horror story.
The Babysitter is perfectly trashy popcorn entertainment, with a distinctive, highly-stylized vision and self-satirizing bite; a lesson in embracing genre conventions rather than falling victim to them.
Prince of Nothingwood documents Salim Shaheen, a passionate Afghan director who makes dozens of low-budget films in his troubled home country, becoming idolized by many as a result.
Laying blame is a difficult one because nothing is particularly awful in American Made: even the screenplay peppers a handful of decent set pieces and sequences throughout – but there’s nobody on-hand to elevate the picture.
Paddington 2 is the rare sequel that is better than the original, filled with a good natured warmth that will delight children and parents alike.
Molly’s Game is a prime showcase for one of Hollywood’s most versatile actresses, but the film as a whole doesn’t live up to Chastain’s fiery performance.
Upon first viewing, Phantom Thread is utterly irresistible, but the dense themes and examinations of inter-character relationships means that it is the rare Anderson effort that will only be upgraded to masterpiece status once it has fully been processed after multiple viewings.
A sequel to an earlier short, Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow 2 has just as much ambition as its predecessor, with astounding animation, voice acting, and an overall worldview of existential pessimism.
Bright is a film trying too hard, with an execution that leaves something to be desired. What is good gets smothered under the excess, and while it might keep some entertained it doesn’t stick with you.
Mom and Dad maintains its absurdity, while not completely abandoning its eerie core, sensitively playing off a very personal, instinctual source of parents defending their young – until they become prey.
