George C. Scott in an understated role as a classical composer bedeviled by spooks in Seattle? It’s true! I reviewed The Changeling upon its release for my high school newspaper, wherein I declared it “really scary.” More than 40 years later, I am revising my opinion. Sometimes “scary” doesn’t age well. But then, neither do I. Ivory tickler John Russell (GCS) is a recent widower, having lost wife and daughter in a wintery road accident. He takes a teaching job at a small college in Washington state to hopefully get his head together and start composing again. Instead, the massive mansion gene ..read more

“That’s one of the most stressful movies I’ve ever seen!” This quote comes from Mrs. Sharky, who perhaps unwisely left the selection of this evening’s entertainment to me. She says that Alone is like death by a thousand cuts and accurately represents the kind of micro-aggression that women traveling by themselves encounter far too often. Sometimes it’s just assholes, sometimes it’s Ted Bundy. Jessica (Jules Willcox) decides to pack up her troubles in a U-Haul and head for greener pastures after her husband commits suicide—a similar premise to Alex Garland’s recent film Men. Instead of rest an ..read more

I’ve been a fan of Edgar Wright from his earliest work on Spaced, the hilarious BBC sit-com from the tail-end of the previous century. This foundational series teamed director Wright with writer/actor Simon Pegg, a partnership that flourished with ace collaborations like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Pegg is certainly the more visible of the two, appearing in high-profile film franchises based on TV shows from the 1960s, Star Trek and Mission Impossible. In Last Night In Soho, Wright’s musically minded, bloody Valentine to swinging London, he affirms his true love (and underst ..read more

Ask anyone. The dating scene can be murder, especially if the relationship consumes you. In director Mimi Cave’s black-comic thriller Fresh, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a smart, witty, modern girl just looking for a meaningful nibble in her stagnant dating pool when she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), a super-attractive doctor at her local produce market. After a quick roll in the sack, Noa is whisked off for a magical weekend trip with the too-good-to-be-true Steve, despite warnings from her lesbian BFF Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs) that there are some definite red flags in this picture. Next thing ..read more

It appears I’m on a Carpenter Kick. While The Thing (1982) remains one of my absolute favorite horrors, Big Trouble In Little China finds John Carpenter at the top of his game. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a film that can match it for sheer volume of fun, fights, and full-tilt frenetic action. It’s the ideal midnight movie. We must remember that Kurt Russell has been a leading man in Hollywood since The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Big Trouble is essentially a live-action comic book, and Russell plays hero Jack Burton as a bumbling John Wayne caricature who’s routinely saved by his buddy Wa ..read more

British filmmaker Gareth Edwards is nominated for two academy awards this year for The Creator, a provocative and timely sci-fi tale about Artificial Intelligence. In addition to directing a well-received installment of the Star Wars saga (Rogue One, 2016), Edwards made an auspicious debut with Monsters, a bit of speculative fiction that imagines a not-too-distant future where humanity has lost a chunk of Central America to alien life forms brought to Earth from a deep-space NASA probe six years previous. Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) is a freelance photojournalist trying to get photos of th ..read more

Trauma makes for compelling drama. It goes without saying that our gradual recognition of the significant wounds we acquire and inflict, while going about the business of our lives, is fertile turf for purveyors of contemporary horror cinema. The Invitation, director Karyn Kusama’s dinner-from-hell, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, by seemingly offering its cast the chance to not only overcome grief and guilt, but to live in a serene present. Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) reluctantly agree to attend a dinner party in Laurel Canyon thrown by Will’s ex ..read more

The Lake is a movie about many things. Oddly enough, a lake isn’t one of them. Rather, Thai filmmaker Lee Thongkham has gifted us with a magnificently exotic specimen that defies easy categorization. It also has to be one of the dampest movies ever! There is pouring rain in like 75 percent of the shots! In a humble Thai village, bordered by a river and a lake, humble Thai fishermen and toad wranglers gather in the gloomy darkness (with rain dumping buckets) to hunt their respective quarries. While pursuing tasty amphibians one group of men discover an enormous egg and wisely decide to run off ..read more

If you’ve ever remarked aloud words to the effect of “this job is killing me,” then perhaps you can understand the kind of hell that protagonist Gilderoy (Toby Jones) faces in Berberian Sound Studio, a meticulously unnerving film by Peter Strickland. Gilderoy is a sound editor for movies, recognized internationally as a true artisan in a mostly vulgar industry. He takes an assignment in Italy that turns out to be a lurid horror movie about the Inquisition, and he finds himself at odds with everyone around him, including the raging director (Cosimo Fusco), the playboy producer (Antonio Mancino ..read more

Pity poor Peter (Woody Norman), an eight-year-old kid who just wants a decent night’s sleep, a life without bullies, and a normal mom and dad. In Cobweb, we learn that Peter’s school days are spent hiding from evil classmate Brian (Luke Busey, a third-generation movie psycho), while his home life is watched over by his stern parents Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr), an odd, secretive couple who aren’t afraid to dish out severe punishments for being too curious. The problem is, Peter is being kept awake at night by intermittent tapping in the walls and his freaky parents dismiss hi ..read more