Thomas Newman is my all-time favorite film composer. I love his scores for Cinderella Man, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Road to Perdition. I don’t know a lot about music theory, but I do know that Newman’s scores…
Crime
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Living in Gotham City isn’t the best gig in the world. Living in Gotham City with Batman and Robin running around destroying half the city in the name of “justice”? That’s nearly unbearable. It’s like…
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Clean is a passion project of sorts for one Mr. Adrien Brody. He serves as the film’s star, co-writer, co-producer, and even composer. It took about a decade to get this film from his imagination, to…
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Cape Fear is a Hitchcock film without Hitchcock. Who better to make it than Martin Scorcese, the master of all things bloody and dark? It’s the kind of film that theaters were made for. Cape Fear is…
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At 83 years old, Ridley Scott is still cranking out consistently great and entertaining films. Just last month, he released The Last Duel which is the frontrunner for the most underseen and under-appreciated film of 2021. Now…
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You never really know what you’re in for when you watch Drive. You think it’s a movie about crime, then it becomes a slow-burning journey of self-discovery, then it’s a romance, then it’s back to a crime…
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Streaming DocumentariesStreaming Reviews
‘The Women and the Murderer’ Is a True Crime Documentary With a Unique Perspective
by Ingridjeby IngridjeThe Women and the Murderer starts with a series of clips of young, happy women dancing, going out. This footage is interspersed with pictures and images of murder scenes. Then, we are introduced to Anne…
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ReviewsThriller
‘The Gateway’: Shea Whigham and Bruce Dern Make This Lowly Neo-Noir Thriller Worth Your Time
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…
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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.…
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Streaming DocumentariesStreaming Reviews
‘Murder by the Coast’: When Injustice Is Served
by Ingridjeby IngridjeNetflix is home to far too many crime documentaries, especially about murder, so you might be tempted to skip this one. However, that would be a shame. After all, Murder by the Coast isn’t a…
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Retrospectives
Is Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood a Prince or Just a Thief?
by Kali Tuttleby Kali TuttleAs attractive as Kevin Costner is, his portrayal of Robin Hood should not be considered a hero. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just a two-hour-long crime movie. Much like the characters in Goodfellas or Heat, this version of…
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Streaming DramaStreaming Reviews
‘Monster’ Is Mostly Good but Falls Short of Being Profound
by Aubrey McKayby Aubrey McKayI find myself thinking about 2017’s Get Out, a lot. It being one of the best movies made in my lifetime aides to that, but I often find myself reflecting on Jordan Peele’s decision in…
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The Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Even if you have never been there, you can easily imagine what it looks like. You must have seen it on the news, a documentary, a video clip, or another movie.…
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The Silence of the Lambs scares the living daylights out of me. Anthony Hopkins is possibly the most terrifying actor to exist. I’m not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not, but…
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You’d think that after Portrait of a Lady on Fire, we wouldn’t need romances, or even narrative films, anymore. I mean, Céline Sciamma has kinda been there and conquered that. Be that as it may,…
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In case you were not aware, Goodfellas actually doesn’t have good fellas in it. I don’t mean the actors — the actors are great and are on par with every other Martin Scorsese film. What I…
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ReviewsThriller
‘The Big Ugly’ is a Surprisingly Gentle, Character-driven Thriller Starring Vinnie Jones
A mob enforcer with a troubled conscience, a crime boss who wants to go legit, and an oilman with a fatalistic code of honor. These are the three main players of Scott Wiper’s The Big…
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As they say, truth is often stranger than fiction. No better show demonstrates than the longstanding, recently revived program Unsolved Mysteries. The show covers a variety of cold cases that show just how unexplainable our…
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On the first day of October, 2017, tragedy struck in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the final night of Route 91 Harvest, an outdoor country music festival. An estimated 22,000 people were in attendance. At…
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DocumentaryReviews
‘The Painter and the Thief’ and the Relationship Between the Artist and Their Muse
by Nick Kushby Nick KushOne of my deepest fascinations in film is when artists find a way to blur the line between art and reality. As I’ve said time and time again, meta readings of films are some of…
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Clark Duke has made a sizeable living being the dependable comic relief. He was the one who traveled to the fictional eighties alongside John Cusack in Hot Tub Time Machine; he was the nerdy sidekick…
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ReviewsThriller
‘Disappearance at Clifton Hill’ Takes the Unreliable Narrator Up a Notch
by Nick Kushby Nick KushI like to think I’m a fan of most film genres, but there’s something about a taut mystery that is extra exciting. Disappearance at Clifton Hill channels a lot of what makes the genre great, trapping…
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DramaReviews
‘Charm City Kings’ is an Urgent Portrait of Baltimore With Serious Breakout Potential
by Nick Kushby Nick KushAfter my first experience at Sundance last year, I arrived this year at the festival cognizant of the hyperbolic reactions that come with the environment. (Or, at the very least, I did my best. I’m…
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Action/AdventureReviews
‘The Gentlemen’ is a Disposable, Yet Welcome Return to Guy Ritchie’s Comfort Zone
by Sean Coatesby Sean CoatesGuy Ritchie has had quite an interesting career. Making a name for himself in the late 90s and early 00s with the critical and financial success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, movie-goers were…
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Here’s the premise: a psychotic hitman goes on an ultra-violent odyssey to avenge his brother’s death. Does this sound intriguing to you? Not really? Well, that’s because I forgot to mention that this hitman is…
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As a huge fan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, I was admittedly nervous about El Camino. Jesse Pinkman’s ending in Breaking Bad was a satisfying conclusion to a beloved character. So, when I…
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I watched The Accused many years ago, at a point in my life where I was too young to really know what was going on in the film. I knew it was a movie about…
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It’s time for another Nicolas Cage VOD feature! I’m not saying I’d rather watch Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — nor am I at all bitter about it not being out in my…
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Whether you’re looking at your Twitter feed, scrolling through an article, or even aimlessly walking by the TV as pundits discuss the day’s news, it’s difficult to escape the notion of toxic masculinity. The term…
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Streaming ReviewsStreaming Thriller
Film Review – Point Blank (2019)
by Cammy Maddenby Cammy MaddenI’ve always been a fan of action-thrillers that involve corrupt cops. From Filth and Lakeview Terrace to Training Day and The Departed. The trailer for Point Blank suggests that it will follow the budding bromance…