Crooked-House 5

CROOKED HOUSE Review

When a killer is revealed and your response is somewhere in the realm of “yeah I guess,” you've clearly made some stylistic missteps along the way.

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Maisondubonheur3 9

MAISON DU BONHEUR Review

directed by SOFIA BOHDANOWICZ            Canada            62 minutes

Towards the beginning of Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Maison du bonheur, Juliane Sellam (the focus of the documentary) explains the reasoning behind her early morning routine consisting of

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tff17_psycho_paths_1-h_2017 5

PSYCHOPATHS Review

Psychopaths, paints a kaleidoscopic tapestry of violence that marks the director’s first real foray into the abstract.

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future_38 6

FUTURE ’38 Review

There’s something fun about predicting the world of the future. We know our guesses will be massively off, but through our visions clouded by our favorite works of sci-fi, we think forward and see a world dramatically different from our own.

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shape of water 7.5

THE SHAPE OF WATER Review

The Shape of Water is  an undeniably gorgeous film, bathed in a radiant, emerald glow and fully embracing its early ’60s backdrop that allows it to take on an old-Hollywood aesthetic.

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coco_teaser-1280x600 9

COCO Review

From the unmistakable vibrant colors that adorn its fully realized characters (all played by real Spanish-speaking actors) to the soundtrack bursting with guitar-plucking, toe-tapping flavor, Pixar surprises nobody through its unwillingness to compromise and to let Coco stand out as the one-of-a-kind film that is (although it begs the question of why such a cultural touchstone would need a 21-minute lead-in by the “whitest” of Christmas specials in the grating Olaf's Frozen Adventure, but I digress).

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Driftwood 7

DRIFTWOOD Review

With Paul Taylor being a cinematographer, working on recent releases such as The Winds That Scatter and Wake Me When I Leave, it is not surprising that his first foray into directing would focus exclusively on visuals in order to convey his narrative, ridding the film from the constraints of dialogue effectively redirecting all focus onto the movements and body language of the actors in an attempt to present an unadulterated production of visual storytelling, stripped bare of the extraneous proving the power of purified imagery.

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tth1 8

TORMENTING THE HEN Review

Tension abounds in writer/director Theodore Collatos’s latest feature, Tormenting the Hen, as nearly every discussion and/or interaction is laced with potential avenues providing offense and/or judgments, even the more inconspicuous and trivial subjects up for discussion harbor the possibility of illuminating surprising truths and viewpoints. With his script, Collatos has crafted a proverbial minefield for his characters to navigate, one that is laden with opportunities to weaponize any and all words and the hazards of crafting conclusions about others with incomplete information.

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wonder2 7

WONDER Review

It’s intentions are undeniably good, and it’s so inoffensive that even the most jaded soul could crack a smile at its whimsical airs.

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thelma_a1_kayawilkins-eiliharboe_copyrightmotlysas 9

THELMA Review

There's no experience quite as enriching as watching a film that allows its surface narrative to betray a loaded and mystifying interior meaning that's both elusive and begging to be milled for interpretation.

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Murder on the Orient Express (2017)Kenneth Branagh 6

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Review

Murder on the Orient Express winds up on that mid-level ground: mixing vivid visuals with a obligated script, quick line readings with sluggish storytelling, and a crackerjack caper with an uninspired mood.

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MAYHEM_7 6.5

MAYHEM Review

Loud, violent and inexcusably brash, Joe Lynch’s latest foray into grindhouse cinema plays out like Office Space, if all the characters were coked-up ’roid heads trying desperately to end each other in the most brutal way possible.

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