Great Performances And A Thoughtful Script Come Together Nicely For Frost/Nixon

Except for 2013's underappreciated racecar drama Rush and an acclaimed Beatles documentary from 2015, Ron Howard has spent most of the last decade doing genre work that's ranged from solidly diverting (Solo, Angels & Demons) to outright dismal (Inferno, The Dilemma). That's a shame since I'd say Howard actually works best as a filmmaker when he's doing more grounded dramas. Not every foray into this field works for him, as seen by the messy A Beautiful Mind, but he does tend to have a better track record here since, among other factors, he's usually working with better scripts on the likes of Rush or Apollo 13 than when he's helming mechanically crafted movie adaptations of The Grinch of The Da Vinci Code.

Catch A Ride With The Thoughtful And Thrilling Cop Car

For the last two years, I've been trying to parse out exactly who director Jon Watts is. Ever since he got the gig to direct Spider-Man: Homecoming back in June 2015, I've pondered how a guy who had been flying so under my radar managed to nab one of the most coveted directing gigs in Hollywood at the time. While technically the indie horror film Clown was the first feature-length movie Jon Watts ever helmed, Cop Car was released first in a number of countries including the United States and was the motion picture that apparently caught the attention of Sony/Marvel to the point that they handed him the reins to Spidey.

Patriot's Day Is Brought To You Courtesy Of the Red, White And Blue...And Messy Screenwriting

Peter Berg's track record as a director has more loop-de-loops than a rickety o'l rollercoaster. Hancock had a solid first half that deteriorated into a forgettable second half, Battleship was a complete misfire, Lone Survivor I barely even remember apart from thinking it wasn't very good but then there was last Fall's Deepwater Horizon, a taut, well-made disaster movie that actually showed some real craftsmanship in terms of creating tension on Berg's part. Was this a sign that he was finally becoming something more as a director, that o'l Peter Berg was about to really break out and become an auteur that would leave the shackles of Battleship and Hancock behind him?

The Darkness Review

For every modern day horror movie like The VVitch, You're Next and It Follows that dares to upend conventions of the genre, you're bound to find hundreds of other horror movies like The Darkness that seemed to have fallen right off an assembly-line. Seemingly crafted for the sole purpose of being found on Netflix by horror movie junkies at 1 AM, these are the kind of films that drudge up cliche after cliche without even daring to dress up said tropes in a fancy get-up or even a modicum of craft. Honestly, The Darkness strikes me as so paint-by-numbers that I'm seriously shocked Blumhouse Productions went through all the trouble of giving it a theatrical release.