Orlando Is a Sweeping Period Piece With an Unforgettable Tilda Swinton Performance

What is it about Tilda Swinton that makes her such a compelling actor? I mean, on the most basic level, she's just a good performer, one who thoroughly commits herself to any role she takes on. But I'd also say that what makes Swinton so captivating is how she always stands out from the crowd. Many performers excel by channeling an "everyman" quality, but Swinton's de facto aura suggests there's something idiosyncratic about her. It's an aspect of her acting that's especially impressive since she can use it in so many different styles and tones. In Lynne Ramsey's We Need to Talk About Kevin, for example, Swinton uses this aspect of her acting style in a haunting manner to indicate how detached her character is from the rest of society after her son becomes a school-shooter.

Effective Symbolism and Rich Performances Abound in The Souvenir

Sometimes, slow-paced subdued arthouse fare leaves me in a state of being impressed by the movie's craftsmanship but being cold on the film on a human level. As I've said in past reviews on similar films, that's more due to my own tastes than a reflection on any of those movies being innately bad, but it's still a recurring experience I've had with this subgenre of cinema. I was super nervous Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir (my first ever Hogg film) would be a quintessential example of this phenomenon, but it turns out one of the best-reviewed movies of 2019 has been so widely acclaimed for a reason. The Souvenir, as the kids these days say, absolutely slaps.

Keanue Reeves Played A Neo-Noir Superhero In The Enjoyable Constantine

DC Comics has struggled to get quite as many of its comic book characters to spawn big-screen franchises compared to their Marvel Comics counterpart (2010s Red was the first DC Comics adaptation that wasn't based on Superman, Batman or Swamp-Thing to spawn a sequel), but they've still got a bevy of memorable standalone movies to their name. Case in point: the 2005 Francis Lawrence directorial effort Constantine based on the comic book character of the same name. Though initially, it received mixed reviews and fanboy disdain for deviating from the comics, it's since garnered cult classic status and for very good reason.

Too Many Lifeless Aspects Drag The Dead Don't Die Down

In the quiet small American town of Centerville, some strange occurrences are happening. Just when it's supposed to be night outside, the sun is shining as if it's the middle of the day. Animals are vanishing. Did I mention that polar ice caps are being so severely fracked that it's adversely affecting the Earth's axis? Yep, lots and lots of strange occurrences happening around Centerville. Police officers Ronald Peterson (Adam Driver) and Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) are perturbed by such events and they only become even more concerned once two local citizens are slaughtered in a vicious fashion. Only a zombie could do such a slaying. Oh boy. This is not going to end well.

Dance To The Gruesome & Thoughtful Rhythm of Suspiria

For his sixth narrative feature film directorial effort, Italian director Luca Guadagnino decides to go the horror remake angle by doing a new take on the seminal horror film Suspiria. Horror remakes don't have the best track record in the world but what Guadagnino has mad in his mad scientist lab is a totally off-the-wall creation that bears more in common stylistically with an Andrei Tarkovsky movie than one of those horror remakes Platinum Dunes was churning out in the mid-2000's. It's gory, it's slowly paced, it's an improvement over the original Suspiria, it's gonna alienate a lot of people who come to it expecting a routine horror film and it's also pretty darn exceptional.

We Need To Talk About How Harrowing And Excellent Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin Is

How does one go in in the face of tragedy? When our conventional world is so shattered by unexpected events, it seems impossible to just keep on going with our normal lives. Tragedy has a way of just sticking around in our lives and there's no surefire way to cope with that. Over the years, we've had a large number of movies covering the process of trying to going on with our lives in the wake of tragedy, some of them rising to the level of greatness in their level of overall quality (for instance, Manchester By The Sea is one of the most realistic portraits of this process). But hands down, one of the best films covering this specific experience is Lynne Ramsey's 2011 motion picture We Need To Talk About Kevin. 

Tony Gilroy Proves To Be A Skillful Filmmaker In His Directorial Debut Michael Clayton

Who is the titular character of Michael Clayton? Well, Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is the guy they ("they" being a big-time law firm) send in to help clean up messes. He'll walk you through options, he'll help you figure out the best way to proceed in a time of hardship, all that jazz. It's not a glamorous job, but it's one that pays the bills and gives Clayton a comfy life. The new client Clayton and the law firm he works for have taken on is that of the U-North corporation, which is in the middle of a lawsuit alleging that the company poisoned various local water supplies and hurt countless individuals.

Okja Is A Monster Of A Movie Capable Of Great Absurdity And Equally Great Emotions

Okja is not director Bong Joon-Ho's first time around the science-fiction track, but each time he comes into the genre, he tackles a new corner of science-fiction. For The Host, he was making a film in the style of classic monster movies while Snowpiercer is like any number of super-violent and allegorical high concept movies John Carpenter made in the 1980's. What kind of storytelling terrain does his newest science-fiction venture, Okja, occupy? Interestingly, it seems like its storytelling sensibilities hew closer to both ecologically aware science-fiction movies and heartwarming tales that filter the "a boy and their dog" stories through science-fiction means i.e. The Iron Giant and Big Hero 6.

Trailers For New David Ayer And Bong Joon-Ho Movies Give A Peek Into Netflix's Ambitious 2017 Movies Slate

This image of Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Okja will be my new go-to image of Jake Gyllenhaal for any occasion

Thus far, Netflix's forays into original cinematic offerings have not been greeted with the same level of audience adoration nor awards attention that their TV fare has. In 2017, it looks like they're very much trying to change that, with practically each week this week bringing some sort of new Netflix movie To boot, those new Netflix feature films are high-profile offerings starring the likes of Lily Collins (To The Bone). Jason Segel & Rooney Mara & Robert Redford (The Discovery), Melissa Leo (The Most Hated Woman In America), Henry Cavill (Sand Castle), Alexander Skarsgard (Mute) and Brad Pitt (War Machine).

By Embracing Its Unique Traits, Doctor Strange Becomes A Visually Impressive Winner

A number of these non-sequel Marvel Cinematic Universe features have big questions looming over them that somehow make new entries in one of the biggest franchises of all-time "underdogs" in certain respects. For Doctor Strange, the queries surrounding this property are particularly noteworthy. Can Benedict Cumberbatch play Doctor Strange in a way that doesn't immediately remind viewers of the countless other socially inadequate but brilliant characters he's played? Can the character of Doctor Strange be executed without coming off like Iron Man 2.0? And then there are the uncomfortable racial aspects to the character that have only been compounded by the white-washing casting of Tilda Swinton as the Tibetan character The Ancient One.

Hail, Caesar! Review

When ya get down to brass tacks, Hail, Caesar! essentially works as a Coen Brothers directed fan film dedicated to waxing poetic about the various virtues of the assorted genres that were most popular among moviegoers in that era. Does that sound like a complaint? Well, rest assured, it is most certainly not; in fact, the clear devotion the Coen Brothers have for this time period becomes most infectious, while there's also more methodical material (primarily revolving around our lead character) intercut in between their various homages to the films of the past to balance things out a bit.

Snowpiercer Review

Off The Rails And Into Brilliance

You'll have to forgive me on this one, am this review is gonna be extremely vague when it comes to exact details as to what precisely happens in Snowpiercer, the sci-fi drama from director Joon-ho Bong that's become famous for the terrible treatment Harvey Weinstein (a man in an extremely powerful position at The Weinstein Company, the studio distributing Snowpiercer) has given it. But appropriate feelings of pity towards the project aren't the only thing we should feel for the film; we should feel elation that one of the best sci-fi projects in ages has been created.