There are few movie-marketing gimmicks more enticing than the suggestion of a secret — a twist or revelation so shocking, so earth-shaking that it changes everything you thought you knew about a film, its characters, yadda yadda yadda. The audience’s curiosity is piqued, then they become co-conspirators: Once you know, …
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All Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) wants to do is get to the coastal Greek town of Malia, get some quality time with her BFFs — Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake) — and spend the next few days getting royally fucked up. This unholy trinity of 16-year-olds have just finished …
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Tótem, Mexico‘s submission for this year’s Oscars, drops a bomb on you before the opening credits have even rolled. A mother, Lucia (Iazua Larios) and her daughter, Sol (Naíma Sentíes, luminescent), are goofing around in a public restroom. The seven-year-old girl is sitting on a toilet, unable — or maybe …
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Once upon a time on the West Coast, two bands were plotting a revolution. Well, really, it was one musician concocting a grand plan to dismantle the record industry, bring back a massive revival of 1960s psychedelic rock, and achieve total world domination. His name was Anton Newcombe, and this …
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There were red flowerpot hats on each of the seats. The “Energy Domes,” as they used to call them, were Devo‘s headgear of choice during the early 1980s, back when the band went from extremely bizarre, unclassifiable group to extremely bizarre, slightly more classifiable (postpunk, New Wave, geek rock) group …
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All film noirs start with a bad decision. Love Lies Bleeding, Rose Glass’s follow-up to her cult horror movie Saint Maud and the most case-hardened Southwestern pulp this side of Jim Thompson, kicks off with a doozy. Lou (Kristen Stewart) cleans toilets and works the desk at a gym in …
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You know the Tolstoy quote about all happy families being the same, but “every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way?” The quartet at the center of Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence has refined their own particular brand of dysfunction to perfection. The mom, Rebecca (Lucy Liu), is a …
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It’s just another day on the mean streets of Judea circa 33 A.D., where people hang out on sunbaked corners talking smack, working-class stiffs scramble to get by, and Roman centurions — the LAPD of their day — stop and frisk anyone who they feel matches the description of a …
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You do not hire Jason Statham to read love poems onscreen, or to weep gently at the sight of nuzzling puppies, or to gaze thoughtfully at a particularly breathtaking sunset. You hire the Derbyshire native to kick ass and take names, with the “names” part being optional. The cinematic missing …
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A lot has changed in the 20 years since Regina George and the Plastics first stalked the halls of North Shore High. Every teenager now has a smartphone. Social media has given several generations new ways to slay, shame, and talk shit. The Internet is one massive Burn Book. And …
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