Directed by James Cameron The Abyss felt a lot like an underwater version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's grand, operatic and similarly concerned with extraterrestrial life forms. Or maybe what I'm thinking of is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While it does run a bit long, the film is both riveting, amusing and frightening, all … Continue reading The Abyss (1989)
It Chapter Two (2019)
Directed by Andy Muschietti It Chapter Two is a strange, long mess of a horror movie that is nevertheless at times effective and affecting. It tells the back end of the story begun in It (2017), with the Losers Club more than a little grown up. Where they were just children in the first film, with … Continue reading It Chapter Two (2019)
First Blood (1982)
Directed by Ted Kotcheff In First Blood a PTSD-riddled Vietnam veteran responds to passive aggression with absolute havoc. He is John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), a stoic drifter whose shaggy hair threatens the local sheriff, Teasle (Brian Dennehy). The sheriff drives him across a bridge, encouraging him to keep walking, but Rambo turns around and is promptly … Continue reading First Blood (1982)
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Directed by Lynne Ramsay You Were Never Really Here is a sparse, grim fairytale of a movie about a hired gun. He is Joe (Joaquin Phoenix), and his story covers just about all the same beats as other noirs in which a hired hand finds himself in over his head. In Ramsay's film, however, the … Continue reading You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Sightseers (2012)
Directed by Ben Wheatley Sightseers is a wonderful but bleak dark comedy. It's edgy but not just for the sake of being edgy. Even if I don't yet understand what exactly the darkness of Tina and Chris (Alice Lowe, Steve Oram) represents, it's ingrained in their characters and the story as a whole. It's not … Continue reading Sightseers (2012)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Directed by Mike Nichols Martha and George (Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton) are suburban witches in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Their conservative campus residence plays like a nightmarish cottage deep in the woods, to which is drawn a young couple named Nick and Honey (George Segal, Sandy Dennis). The entire film, a very theatrical adaptation of a … Continue reading Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Morning After (1986)
Directed by Sidney Lumet There's a little bit of Sunset Boulevard to The Morning After, a film about an alcoholic actress struggling to leave the spotlight. She meets a younger man who is instantly attracted to her. In this case, though, they also have to deal with the dead man in her bed. What makes the film … Continue reading The Morning After (1986)
Booksmart (2019)
Directed by Olivia Wilde In Booksmart two best friends decide they must make up in one night for years of neglecting to have fun. They are Molly and Amy (Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever), and it's the night before graduation. While everyone else breaks free from their final class with glee, Molly is paralyzed with resentment, having … Continue reading Booksmart (2019)
Undertow (2004)
Directed by David Gordon Green Undertow effectively captures the feeling of watching a myth unfold. It's the story of two boys on the run, somewhere in a rotting but mystical version of the Deep South, through communities of runaways, individuals looking for love, a couple navigating past tragedies, running along rivers that carry promises to … Continue reading Undertow (2004)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed by Robin Hardy The Wicker Man draws more of a line between the pagan cult and Christianity than I would've presumed. The story is simple, a man wanders into an unconventional community and finds that he is a sacrifice for their greater good. He would seem to be the "ordinary" one and the community … Continue reading The Wicker Man (1973)
