The Lighthouse Is Like If Phantom Thread and Fritz Lang Had A Twisted Horror Movie Baby

You know how a recurring job interview question is "Where do you see yourself in ten years?" I'm sure if you had asked Robert Pattinson that question in 2009 when he was doing the press rounds to promote The Twilight Saga: New Moon, he would have listed a hundred different answers before thinking "I'll be in a black-and-white horror film with Willem Dafoe set entirely at a lighthouse." It may not be what Pattinson would first think of as his future career prospects circa. 2009, but The Lighthouse, like much of Pattinson's post-Twilight work, is both audacious and exceptionally well-made. Put simply, this new film from The VVitch helmer Robert Eggers is like if Phantom Thread, Swiss Army Man and Fritz Lang all had a super warped child.

Thoroughbreds Expertly Uses A Grim Tone And Great Performances To Make A Memorable Film

Something I've really liked seeing in recent movies about teenagers is interesting subversions of typical movie teenager stereotypes. I have no clue if this is accurate or not, but the past few years feel like they've been populated by movies about teenagers made by adults who never get to see humanistic portraits of who they were as teenagers. This means numerous unique visions of the teenage existence have managed to come forth in recent years, many of them in the form of character-centric drama/comedy hybrids. Thoroughbreds is yet another entry in the canon of unique modern-day teenager-oriented fare, but it's a different animal tonally and in terms of what kind of themes & characters it wants to explore compared to its brethren.

The Hurricane Heist Is Nowhere Near As Much Fun As It Should Be

The trailer for The Hurricane Heist is a work of art. So cheesy it should come with a warning for the lactose intolerant, the trailer tosses out one gloriously cheesy line of dialogue after another at the viewer while being accompanied by the pulsating rhythm of The Scorpions Rock You Like A Hurricane. By the time the trailer concludes, right after it's seemingly ended, with massive on-screen text flying towards the screen talking about how much money the bank robbers have stolen, you'd be nuts to not have high hopes for what kind of lunacy the actual Hurricane Heist movie could deliver. Alas, this is one of those motion pictures that were better off as a trailer, way better in fact.

Who Would Want To Get Rid Of A Thoughtful Horror Movie Like The Babadook?

For Amelia Vanek (Essie Davis), life as a single mother isn't easy. You can tell just by looking at her tired face that she's being run ragged by the responsibilities of her life including raising her precocious son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), on her own. Samuel has some major behavior problems and his school is just about ready to give up on the boy and the fact that Samuel has become just as fascinated by a monster called the Babadook and telling everyone within earshot about how he's going to kill the Babadook as he is with performing magic tricks isn't helping anyone. Like I said, this isn't an easy life.

Split Is The Biggest Sign Yet That M. Night Shyamalan's Creative Resurgence Is Happening

For those concerned that M. Night Shyamalan's 2015 film The Visit was some kind of fluke, that he would be returning to the level of quality found in The Last Airbender and After Earth in future works, put those anxieties to rest. It turns out we may be in the midst of, at the very least, a nice uptick in the career of M. Night Shyamalan, as his newest film, Split, is a thrilling little romp that's equal parts nonsensical and thrilling. It's basically a B-movie plot superimposed onto higher quality filmmaking and acting, and if that sounds like a complaint, it really isn't at all. Actually, the film's willingness to embrace the nonsensical and absurd is very much part of its own charm.

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.

Even Scarier Than Any VVitch Is The Disruptive Audience I Saw The Movie With

SPOILERS FOR THE VVITCH FOLLOW

I had heard the horror stories about other viewers who had gone into screenings of The VVitch this weekend and were shocked to discover the film was being greeted with notable laughter by the other attendees at the showing. Despite my fervent hope that such a situation would not occur at my screening of the motion picture, yeah, my viewing of The VVitch was punctured by notable responses from audiences who decided to make their disdain for what they were seeing pretty damn blatant via the art of cackling and laughing in a disruptive manner in uber serious moments. Hell, two individuals seated directly behind me couldn't stop remarking how "this movie is soooooo boring!".

The VVitch Review

Wow, February 2016 sure has delivered some good movies, huh? Last weekend delivered the more fun than expected Deadpool, while the week prior brought out the Coen Brothers newest successful feature film Hail, Caesar! Considering February in years past has been the birthplace for classics like The LEGO Movie and The Silence Of The Lambs, perhaps it should come as no surprise to see some surprisingly solid releases emerging from this time of the year, but amidst a sea of films like Zoolander 2 and The Choice, one can appreciate that we've managed to get something as great this month as Hail, Caesar! all the more.