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Film Reviews
Film Review – Black Box
Black Box (2020) is an ingenious sci-fi thriller that makes a lot out of a little. I don’t mean that as a backhanded compliment, but to illustrate that good storytelling doesn’t need to rely on big budgets or extravagant production value. In fact, many blockbusters…
READ MOREFilm Review – On the Rocks
The premise of On the Rocks (2020) contains all the ingredients of classic screwball comedy. A woman develops a nagging feeling that her husband is having an affair. Egged on by her Lothario father, she begins to track her husband’s whereabouts in anticipation of catching…
READ MOREFilm Review – 12 Hour Shift
12 Hour Shift is challenging to put into one genre; it flows between a dark comedy, horror/slasher, and workplace drama (is that a genre?). Written and directed by Brea Grant, it follows Mandy (Angela Bettis) as she settles into her long shift as a nurse in…
READ MOREFilm Review – Possessor
Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor (2020) plays like a nightmare. There is a story here, and from a distance it contains elements that look familiar. But with Cronenberg’s writing and direction, it’s constructed with a dark and twisted vision. It’s a sci-fi/horror film that aims not to…
READ MOREFilm Review – Ava
Ava (2020) is the cinematic equivalent of painting by the numbers. It follows the outline of the thriller genre so strictly that you have to wonder if this is some kind of deconstruction or parody. Almost every trope you can think of makes an appearance.…
READ MOREFilm Review – Alone
As we continue to live our lives in varying degrees of isolation, it is only natural that films filmed prior to March 2020 may have the upper hand in preying on our enhanced fear and hyper-self-awareness. After the debacle of Unhinged, director John Hyams brings us…
READ MOREFilm Review – The Devil All the Time
The title The Devil All the Time (2020) is an apt description for the story it tells. This is a brutal tale of despicable characters doing despicable acts to one another. Those that populate it are either the perpetrators of cruelty or the victims of…
READ MOREFilm Review – Antebellum
Antebellum (2020) hinges everything on a plot twist so thinly veiled that anyone paying attention can decipher it right away. I’m sure if you think about it hard enough, you’d be able to figure it out without even watching the movie. I don’t know if…
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