Lucrecia Martel's Newest Film Zama Has Craftsmanship To Spare

Lucrecia Martel has been a formative figure in the modern era of Argentinan cinema and her first feature film in a decade, Zama, handily continued her steady run of critically acclaimed motion pictures. For this new project of hers, Martel has decided to create a cinematic deconstruction of colonizer figures, the kind of people who are declared great explorers in the modern era for simply stumbling on an already inhabited terrain and slaughtering its inhabitants. Like stories that involve Nazi's getting beat up or stories revolving around pug puppies being happy & carefree, stories, like the one seen in Zama, about deconstructing such figures as flawed human beings is always welcome to see in cinema.

Disobedience Upends Expectations In Welcome Ways

Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) has been left out of the loop as to the goings-on of the London-based Orthodox Jewish congregation that raised her, which means she's taken completely by surprise when she receives word that her father, a rabbi, has passed away. She now returns home to say goodbye to her now deceased father, which means she must now deal with a congregation that is immensely distrustful of her given how she's not one to just kowtow to tradition. She also must face David Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola), who is now married to Esti (Rachel McAdams), a lady who harbors some personal romantic feelings for Ronit that our protagonist gladly reciprocates.

A Realistic Portrait of Two Brothers Is the Best Part of The Creative Thriller The Endless

With director Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's The Endless, I finally got to experience what it's like to be a non-Marvel geek and watch a newly introduced superhero like Black Panther show up in a movie like Captain America: Civil War. The Endless also has characters from another motion picture, specifically, the lead characters from Benson and Moorhead's 2012 film Resolution show up in towards the end of The Endless. Despite not having seen Resolution, the two characters presence here, like Black Panther in Civil War, was totally organic, I never would have guessed they were from a separate movie altogether if the interwebs didn't inform me that they originated in Resolution.

The Rider Masterfully Channels Reality To Contemplate How We Define Ourselves Against Societal Expectations

We'd all like to believe we have a firm grasp on how our identity is formed but that's simply not true. Our identity is much like a river, it ebbs and flows depending on what it runs up against. All those external factors in our lives, some big, others small, have an impact on how we define ourselves. Sometimes such outermost circumstances help us to grow in positive ways, but sometimes they're more constrictive than anything else on our personalities, particularly when it relates to a society trying to keep someone from stepping out of traditional norms. Such a specific scenario is what the lead character of the tremendously thoughtful Chloe Zhao directorial effort The Rider is grappling with.

Beirut Is Mostly An Unremarkable Thriller

Jon Hamm's career choices in the last few years has made it clear he intends to become a full-time film actor now that Mad Men has come to a close. The movies he's starred in in either the last few seasons of Mad Men or right after that show ended have primarily been box office misfires thus far, though Baby Driver, in which he played a key supporting role, proved that Hamm appearing in a box office smash was not an impossible scenario. One of his most recent forays into cinematic leading man status was this Spring's period piece thriller Beirut, which came and went in its theatrical release with little fanfare (it's now streaming on Amazon Prime).

Giddy On Up With Andrew Haigh's Emotional Rollercoaster Lean on Pete

Assistant editor turned director Andrew Haigh has quickly become well-known for working on films that carry a harrowing emotional quality to them, whether it's 45 Years or Weekend or Shanghai Knights. His newest directorial effort, Lean on Pete, carries on this tradition by telling the story of Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer), a 15-year-old kid who lives with his single father, Ray (Travis Fimmel), in a trailer home in Portland, Oregon. Charley's life is one filled with struggles as his dad, who's still emotionally recovering from Charley's mom walking out on the both of them years prior, barely makes ends meet financially, spurring Charley to make some money at the local racetrack doing odd jobs for Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi).

A Tennis Rivalry Makes For Erratically Interesting Drama In Borg vs. McEnroe

Borg vs. McEnroe is the movie version of a cake that's been taken out of the oven too early. All the ingredients are in place for something delectable, but it's managed to come out undercooked. A little more time spent in the oven, or in this case more time spent polishing up the script, and something truly special could have been created here. The version of the movie we do get is about the real-life rivalry between tennis players Bjorn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) that came to head in a pivotal 1980 Wimbledon Championship tennis match. We get to see them prepare for this major tennis court duel as well as flashbacks showing how they got to their current stages in life.

The Week Of Is A Middling Comedy That At Least Improves On Recent Adam Sandler Vehicles

As far as general comedies go, The Week Of is just kind of "eh". It's more pleasant than funny, it's plot structure of revolving around the week leading up to a wedding gives it some form of narrative focus, but it totally stumbles in trying to create a schmaltzy third act around characters who haven't qualified as all that humorous let alone worth engaging in emotionally. But since Adam Sandler is playing more of a human being here than a wacky vocally high-pitched caricature rejected from Saturday Night Live, plus the bathroom humor has been limited to just an old man constantly needing his diaper changed, it isn't all that grating and that makes it practically a masterpiece compared to most of Adam Sandler's leading man efforts and especially when compared to his other Netflix efforts.

I Feel Pretty Has A Thoughtful Moral And An Abundance of Lackluster Comedy To Impart

I Feel Pretty is your basic middle-of-the-road comedy, but I do want to give it props for conveying an important message that more films need to carry. The idea of making a whole film dedicated to the idea of reminding women that who they are should define what they think is "pretty" instead of narrowly defined conventions of American society is way a more admirable thesis to pivot your movie around than what you would find in your typical disposable Adam Sandler or Kevin James comedy. Good on I Feel Pretty for having such a considerate theme fueling its whole story, though that story itself, and especially how it's executed, is woefully paint-by-numbers in too many respects.

You Were Never Really Here Will Haunt You With Its Incredible Filmmaking (SPOILERS)

MASSIVE SPOILERS WITHIN

Come Sunday Isn't An Enlightening As It Could Have Been

Going against the norm is always a risk in typical societies and that's especially true when one is trying to buck traditional theological norms. As a practicing Christian in Texas, I can tell you first hand that religious communities can be heavily wary, at best, to the prospect of new practices that upend traditional customs. Even recognizing how daunting the process is, it can be important for us as individuals to challenge the status quo, something preacher Carlton Pearson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the main character of the new Joshua Marston directed drama Come Sunday, is very much reminded of after he causes quite the stir in declaring that Hell does not exist in one of his Sunday morning sermons.

Blockers Mixes Vulgarity And Sweetness To Remarkably Successful Results

Blockers is many things and one of those things is being the umpteenth piece of proof that movie trailers can be incredibly misleading. The trailers and marketing for Blockers never registered as outright bad to me but they did make the movie look like a run-of-the-mill comedy with nothing all that special to offer. So color me shocked and delighted that Blockers as a film isn't just better than it's trailers, it's a terrific motion picture full stop! This film, which serves as the directorial debut for Kay Cannon, is a riot when it comes to providing a steady stream of memorable laughs, but best of all it's got a touching heart as big as John Cena's muscles.

Avengers: Infinity War Goes Big, Very Big, To Highly Enjoyable Success

Note: No spoilers are detailed in this review, but a barebones outline for the first third-ish of the plot is contained within. Due to the overwhelming secrecy surrounding this film, this may be considered spoiler territory for some so caution is advised if that's the case for you.

Avengers: Infinity War is a lot to take in. I don't mean that in a hyperbolic sense, I mean, objectively, this is a whole heck of a lot of cinema to process. Numerous storylines spanning everywhere from Scotland to the deepest far reaches of Space crop up with various corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe getting explored, each with their distinct tones intact. Holding everything together as connective tissue is the constant presence of the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin), but this is still an expansive story in scope. In handling such a vast story, Avengers: Infinity War comes up short compared to other recent MCU movies (it's no Black Panther, that's for sure) but it manages to juggle all these plates in the air remarkably well. The fact that a movie with this much on its agenda manages to be far more exhilarating than exhausting does feel like a total victory.

In Laman's Terms: Why Do We Love Superheroes?

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Like many superhero obsessed adults, my love for superheroes was instilled at a young age. But unlike many superhero obsessed adults, the source of my love for superheroes came from an unexpected place. Whereas the source of one's adoration of captured crusaders may conventionally be a specific comic book or movie, mine came from a 2002 children's book entitled I Am Spider-Man. This book was my first ever, and for a long time only, exposure to both Spider-Man and superheroes in general. It was a simple tome, outlining the origin story for how Peter Parker became Spider-Man and what he does on a regular basis as a neighborhood-friendly wall-crawler. The book itself was a formative one for me, but two pages, in particular, in this book stuck out to me then and still lingers in my mind today.

Like Anchorman 2 And Zoolander 2 Before It, Super Troopers 2 Is An Unfunny Retread of A Superior Comedy

Toss Super Troopers 2 onto the tragically large pile of long-in-the-works comedy sequels that failed to bring the laughs, following in the footsteps of Anchorman 2, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Zoolander 2. An extended length of time between installments didn't help that trio of comedy sequels and it certainly hasn't helped the lackluster Super Troopers 2. The majority of the film consists of either references to its predecessor's most memorable gags or just a handful of new unfunny jokes constantly being rehashed. Oh, and lots of screaming, there's an incessant amount of shouting in this movie that ended up making me feel like an old man asking his next-door neighbors to turn their dadgum loud music down.

Rampage Is Totally Bananas And More Often Than Not, That's A Good Thing

Yes, as you've heard ad nauseum at this point, Rampage is indeed the best video game movie of all-time. That's akin to saying something is the best post-1991 Terminator sequel in that the bar of quality to clear is so low it's comical, but yes, Rampage is indeed the new champion among video game movies. Unfortunately, it doesn't achieve this distinction by proving that video game movies can be great cinema like Spider-Man did for comic book movies back in 2002, but it does manage to be far better than the rest of its brethren by simply being goofy fun and good Lord is this movie ever goofy, sometimes to an utterly bizarre degree.

6 Balloons Carries The Viewer Away With A Stark Look At Addiction

Comedic actors crossing over to the world of dramatic acting is a process that typically yields quite successful and frequently fascinating results. The likes of Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Adam Sandler have all managed in the past to show off their chops as actors without even attempting to make jokes. Typically these performances occur years into a comedic actors career, but Abbi Jacobson and Dave Franco have both have decided to buck tradition and wade into such waters early on in their careers (hell, this is only the fourth live-action film appearance from Abbi Jacobson) by headlining the drama 6 Balloons, a bold move that results in a pair of memorably bleak performances.

Glimpse of Potential In Chappaquiddick Fail To Be Fully Realized

It's borderline impressive that someone made a politically tinged piece of media like Chappaquiddick in the year of 2018 and have it say so little, even inadvertently. I'm not saying this because this new John Curran directed movie doesn't reinforce my already held political beliefs, rather, because it struck me as strange how this movie could spend so much time on a real-life event like the Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick disaster and not come away with something to say, even just in an esoteric sense instead of commentating on specific modern issues. Chappaquiddick as a film isn't bad, at it's worst moments it's just "meh", but it's lack of substantive themes do speak to the more paint-by-numbers nature of the production that ends up leaving it feeling more underwhelming than engaging.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, A Quiet Place Is Exquisitely Realized Horror Fare

There's plenty about A Quiet Place worth pondering but one of the aspects of this film that I really can't stop thinking about is how much it feels like a deviation from John Krasinski's career up to this point. Nothing in his past acting or directorial credits indicate he had any interest in the horror genre (heck, Krasinski has been open in interviews about not growing up as an ardent fan of horror movies), up to this point Krasinski has been known as Jim Halpert from The Office first and also as comedic actor who starred or appeared in light-hearted feature-length dramedies. But here is, directing, writing and acting in an intense horror film with nary a joke in sight, an audacious move worth applauding on its own.