Directed by Ridley Scott Alien: Covenant is like a series of greatest hits moments from Alien and Aliens and probably from any of the other hundreds of Alien spinoffs and sequels.  It's a movie that, while featuring some nice action, effects and gore, feels completely pointless.  The plot is predictable, the twist is anything but, the characters act … Continue reading Alien: Covenant (2017)

Directed by Andrea Arnold There aren't many adults in American Honey, just a loose hierarchy of children bordering on teenagers and teenagers bordering on nothing but yet full of hope regardless.  Our protagonist into this young traveling circus of magazine salesmen driving across the country is a Texan girl named Star (Sasha Lane).  She joins the … Continue reading American Honey (2016)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch There's something gripping about sad Bill Murray.  As Don Johnston in Broken Flowers, Murray mostly plays the same melancholic character as he did in Lost in Translation two years prior.  In both cases Murray feels like he's playing a version of himself.  That's because despite his own deep sadness, when he's around … Continue reading Broken Flowers (2005)

Directed by David Cronenberg The Fly is delightfully fucked up.  That should be the extent of this review. It's a film I've meant to watch for a while, and it did not disappoint.  There is humor, gore, incredible practical special effects, Jeff Goldblum and a tremendously glib (is that the right word?) protagonist who becomes … Continue reading The Fly (1986)

Directed by John Carpenter Big Trouble in Little China is a combination of Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and racism.  Or maybe it's not racist, it's hard to say.  The whole film is so incredibly over the top and ludicrous that it's hard to tell to what degree this film is a parody of itself. … Continue reading Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Directed by David Cronenberg The hero of Eastern Promises is either Anna the midwife (Naomi Watts) or Nikolai the Russian mobster driver/enforcer (Viggo Mortensen).  They both end up heroic, I'd say, but Anna's journey is one of consistency, and Nikolai shows some character growth... except you eventually learn that he's a police informant, so it feels … Continue reading Eastern Promises (2007)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch Only Lovers Left Alive follows two vampires, centuries old, as they navigate the modern world, one from a distance and once from deep within.  Adam (Tom Hiddleston) hides in a stuffy Detroit house where he can record his music in some kind of peace, though he hardly seems to find any. … Continue reading Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Directed by Bong Joon Ho You can feel the desperation on Mother's (Hye-ja Kim) face, in her eyes and consuming her whole person when it comes to clearing her son's name of murder.  Her son, Do-joon (Bin Won) is very clearly mentally challenged to some degree, but the world takes advantage of him, and his mother … Continue reading Mother (2009)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch At first glance, Ghost Dog just seems like a silly movie, one you wouldn't expect to find under Jim Jarmusch's filmography, but the movie is ultimately perfectly Jarmuch-ian.  It's a story about self-expression, taken to the extreme, and about tribes and modes of living that aren't long for this world.  The plot … Continue reading Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Directed by David Cronenberg Most movies have three acts in which the status quo changes slightly (or dramatically) so that the characters have to react accordingly.  In A History of Violence, each of those acts might as well be its own movie.  They each feel so incredibly unique both in terms of the story but also … Continue reading A History of Violence (2005)