Thriller

They say all publicity is good publicity, and Olivia Wilde’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Booksmart has brought with it a cascading deluge of behind-the-scenes gossip. From conflicting reports on Shia LaBeouf’s departure from the project, Wilde’s affair…

There’s a scene towards the middle of Abi Damaris Corbin’s Breaking (originally titled 892 at its Sundance 2022 premiere) in which former Marine Lance Corporal Brian Brown-Easley (played by John Boyega), after being withheld from his disability check for…

Expanding on the thematic foundation established by his previous feature, The Killing of Two Lovers — a film in which a father of four, emasculated by his wife’s relationship with a new partner in the midst of a…

The Aviary opens on Jillian (Malin Akerman) and Blair (Lorenza Izzo) stumbling into the pre-dawn desert and looking back at a compound that “looks so small from here.” We quickly learn that they are escaping…

Rebecca Hall has been on a tear as of late, starring in one severely disturbing film after the next, while also taking time to direct a very impressive debut feature in Passing (which continues to…

Director Carey Williams has an exceptionally powerful film on his hands with Emergency, the first great film I’ve seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Based on his short film (that also premiered at Sundance)…

“People are desperate to tell you who they are.” This lesson is one of many imparted to Stan (Bradley Cooper) in the first act of Nightmare Alley — the story of a rise and fall…

Over the past few years, Jim Cummings has become one of the most promising up-and-coming filmmakers, not only on the indie scene, but in the world of filmmaking. Cummings has proven himself to be an…

I’ll be honest, I only watched this film to see the underutilized Shea Whigham in a lead role. I’ve been a big fan of him ever since his supporting turn in the glorious HBO crime…

The slang term ‘Karen’ represents the racist, entitled white women of suburbia. A creature from the lagoon of (usually) far-right misinformation. Stereotypically, you can see a ‘Karen’ donning a bob cut with blonde highlights. As…

Santiago Segura takes the driver’s seat in the fast-paced journey that is The Five Rules of Success. This is not for the faint-hearted.  X (Santiago Segura) is an ex-convict newly released back into the world.…

There has been a considerable amount of discourse surrounding M. Night Shyamalan in the days leading up to and following the release of his latest film, Old, and I want to start this review by…

Few arguments seem more daunting in 2021 than taking the stance that Nicolas Cage is a good actor. Best known in 2021 as the man who stole the Declaration of Independence, or perhaps more unfortunately…

Profile is a story delivered in a repetitive pattern by Timur Bekmambetov who is now mostly known for producing Screenlife hits like Unfriended and Searching. A film that came out at an opportune time since…

I promise I like a lot of movies — I even am a huge fan of the thriller genre! I know that recent reviews of The Virtuoso and The Woman in the Window seem to…

A horrific crime, locals thirsty for vengeance. When Federal Agent Aaron Falk returns to his remote, drought-stricken hometown in the Australian outback to go to the funeral of a friend, he’s roped into solving a…

Taylor Sheridan emerged as an exciting new screenwriting talent in the mid-2010s. A long-time TV actor who appeared on shows like Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars, Sheridan’s first screenplay for 2015’s Sicario introduced the world to…

Growing up, there was a time in my life where only one book series truly mattered: Goosebumps. And within R.L. Stine’s nearly infinite list of book titles was a particularly special set of books, the…

The “new” movie City of Lies is based on a 2002 nonfiction book called (deep breath), LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge…

Coming nine years after his debut feature film, director Nicholas Jarecki returns with Crisis. The film stars Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly, and Armie Hammer and tells three colliding stories about the world of opioids and their…

In The Winter Lake, Tom and his mother Elaine move to a small village in Ireland after a traumatic event surrounding Tom occurs. They quickly meet Ward and his daughter Holly. The pair has a…

A sub-genre of the “found footage” films, computer screen films have been less prevalent than their Blair Witch-related cousins but can, as in the case of Searching or the Unfriended movies, be surprisingly effective. If they’re…

It’s been a considerable amount of time since I finished watching Test Pattern and I am still in shock. Although I am not American, I am very familiar with the themes of this movie: the…

Vampires have had a dominant stake in the film industry from the very beginning. From Nosferatu to the Twilight saga to the Blade trilogy, they’ve consistently offered audiences a wide variety of stories to choose…

What’s Up with the Weather? There’s an old saying well-trod by old men in the county that I come from. They jump over each other to be the first one to say whenever a young…

This much-belated review could have been finished last week, considering the film came out on the 18th. But I’ll be honest, considering that Christmas was coming, I didn’t want to spend my time writing about…

The filmmaking process is a subject often explored in movies. This same weekend, we’re getting David Fincher’s Mank, and years prior have given us Adaptation, Operation Avalanche, Barton Fink, and many, many more. Black Bear…

With all that 2020 has thrown our way, I don’t blame anyone for seeking soothing, uplifting entertainment. We need every excuse to inject a little happiness in our lives! With that in mind, Dean Kapsalis’…

Right off the bat, Minor Premise has one of the better science fiction premises you’ll see. Ethan (Sathya Sridharan), a reclusive doctor hoping to continue and surpass his father’s legacy, is making an update to…

If you’re as obsessed with true crime stories as I am, you know the frightening concept of regular people suddenly turning homicidal. In some cases, we could have seen it coming. A past riddled with…