Lifeless ‘GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE’ Lacks Spirit 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
1w ago
There are times as a film critic that I wonder why I allocate my spare time to the watching and writing about movies. This is one such occasion. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a profoundly bad film, one that seems to be actively sucking the very lifeblood out of the movie industry with its lazy indifference, indifferent storytelling, and filmmaking incompetence. In a way, it’s actually more interesting as a cultural microcosm of the horrors of modern franchise filmmaking writ large. It exists in a world of franchise as mandated IP flexing. Strictly a means to an end. Ostensibly the opposite of ..read more
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SXSW ‘24: Crafty ‘SEW TORN’ A Choice Midnighter 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2w ago
Sew Torn, Freddy Macdonald’s crafty seamstress thriller told in three vignettes, calls to mind the Choose Your Own Adventure books popularized before the internet exploded. Invariably, readers would determine which path their protagonist should take, with most roads leading to a less-than-fortunate ending. In Sew Torn, a pivotal decision takes shape when Barbara Duggen (Eve Connolly) stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong: a suitcase of money and two barely living motorcyclists crashed on an otherwise idyllic stretch of Swiss motorway. Before her are three options: commit the perfect crime, call ..read more
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Quirky ‘PROBLEMISTA’ Aspires to Make America Artistic Again
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2w ago
El Salvador native Julio Torres, a former SNL writer described as a comic surrealist, injects every single quirky ounce of his personality into Problemista. The experimental indie film financed by A24 explores the dual struggle of an aspiring toymaker and his labyrinthine journey to navigate the American immigration system. Working from a script that he wrote, Torres directs, produces, and stars, making this a singular effort that’s bursting with Torres’ at times crude, often surrealistic, and always a little off-kilter sensibilities. For those operating on his wavelength, Problemista wil ..read more
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Towering ‘DUNE: PART TWO’ An Artful Masterclass in World Expansion 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
1M ago
Denis Villeneuve is nothing short of a living maestro. No other working director can so skillfully transmogrify a heralded text into a jaw-dropping exercise in both art and commerce, making for a sci-fi epic that’s as artistically entrancing as it is nonstop thrilling. A masterclass in world expansion, Dune: Part Two picks up where the last chapter, released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in the doldrums of the lingering pandemic in 2021, left off while continuing to complicate the world of Arrakis, its mythology, its peoples, and what’s at stake for the entirety of Frank Herbe ..read more
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‘DRIVE AWAY DOLLS’ A Perplexing Lesbian Road Trip Caper From One Half of the Coen Bros 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
1M ago
A pair of odd couple lesbians head to Tallahassee in Ethan Coen’s (of the Coen brothers) bizarre comedy caper, Drive Away Dolls. Each looking for a fresh start, Jaime (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) form an unlikely pair. One is a fast-talkin’, easy-lovin’ free spirit. The other is an over-thinking, uptight introvert. But their friendship persists through their differences and after a breakup and professional stall-out the duo journey south in a “drive away” car, a service that allows renters to transports vehicles across state lines. One case of mistaken identity and a d ..read more
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Sundance ‘24: ‘DÌDI’ Comes Of Age in Observant, Rude Dramedy 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2M ago
In his cringe-tastic treatise on middle school awkwardness Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham captured the universal horror of growing up through the specificity of Elsie Fisher’s Kayla. Her oily identity crisis effortlessly evoked our own transitory 13-year-old state, subjecting us to the lost-but-not-forgotten dread of first crushes, online interactions, and seething parental conflict. With Dìdi, Oscar-nominated director Sean Wang does much the same, with more of a skater-punk male juvenile delinquent edge. While the similarities are easy to identify, Dìdi stands on its own as a singular vision of com ..read more
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Sundance ‘24: Love and Faith Collide ‘BETWEEN THE TEMPLES’ In Quirky Jewish Rom-Com
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2M ago
After the sudden passing of his author wife, a Jewish cantor (Jason Schwartzman) finds himself deep in the throes of a crisis of faith that has his questioning everything from his career to his own worth. When he crosses paths with his childhood music teacher (Carol Kane), herself at a turning point in life, his misery and her meshuggah send the pair into orbit around one another. Together they decide she’ll have her long-awaited Bat Mitzvah, despite the fact that she’s in her 70s. Between Two Temples, written and directed by Nathan Silver, explores this unexpected relationship at the intersec ..read more
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Sundance ‘24: ‘A DIFFERENT MAN’ A Darkly Comic Psychological Thriller About Abandoned Identity 
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2M ago
An aspiring actor with an extreme facial deformity undergoes an experimental procedure and ends up missing out on the role of a lifetime. Things only get worse when the life he always dreamed up ends up in the hands of a rival actor, himself facially deformed. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg combines body horror with a Shakespearean-level of ironic romantic tragedy to tell a nightmarish story about one man’s journey to reshape – and ultimately undo – himself.  Cognito ergo sum. Renee Descartes most widely recognized – and widely misinterpreted- philosophical treatise states, I think there ..read more
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Sundance ’24: ‘LOVE LIES BLEEDING’ Is a Blood-Stained Queer Love Affair on Steroids
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2M ago
Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding melds a greasy crime drama with a gritty love story, presenting a saga steeped in steroid-fueled rage, white trash aesthetics, and memorably bad haircuts. Glass leans into B-movie intrigue with an elite level of execution, creating a visually provocative and impressively-performed world of high crimes and low sleaze and populating it with scumbags and weirdos. A followup to her excellent religious-horror debut Saint Maud, Love Lies Bleeding furthers Glass’ exploration of those on the fringes of society. In this case, it’s late-80s Nevada, a dried-up rural wastela ..read more
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Sundance ’24: ‘A REAL PAIN’ Interrogates The Overlap Between Individual and Family Trauma
Silver Screen Riot
by Matt Oakes
2M ago
Kieran Culkin shines in Jesse Eisenberg’s tender sophomore feature A Real Pain. A poignant meditation on loss, grief, and family history that’s part autobiographical and entirely heartfelt, Eisenberg has seemingly found his groove as a creator interested in melding melancholic human stories with relationship-driven good humor. “Anything that I’ve written that’s good is very personal,” Eisenberg shared at the premiere and with A Real Pain, he’s excavated situations and characters from his own life and translated them into a good-natured and provocative little drama with wide-reaching appeal.&nb ..read more
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