|
B
|
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
An intriguingly weird and spooky version of the story. Also a truly terrific feat of design and animation,
Posted Dec 09, 2022
|
|
B
|
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A bigger, gaudier, twistier affair than its predecessor. (The hideous, naked greed evinced by the suspects remains the same, of course.)
Posted Nov 21, 2022
|
|
|
Holy Spider
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Notwithstanding its grim subject, Holy Spider mostly eschews true-crime orthodoxy thanks to Abbasi’s moody, jittery direction and Amir-Ebrahimi’s marvelous, finely tuned performance.
Posted Nov 08, 2022
|
|
|
Nanny
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Jusu has crafted a moody, self-assured feature debut, a creepshow tale of urban paranoia in the tradition of Roman Polanski.
Posted Nov 04, 2022
|
|
|
Memories of My Father
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Although the film does not paper over the sourer (or bloodier) aspects of Faciolince’s memoir, Memories of My Father is foremost a tribute to a man that the author plainly idolized.
Posted Nov 02, 2022
|
|
A-
|
Tár
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Nothing about this dense, mesmerizing film is simple, least of all the way it regards its diabolical protagonist.
Posted Oct 21, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Hellraiser
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
The least-bad possibility for Hellraiser aficionados: a robust extension and expansion that also functions as a partial rebuild of one of the genre’s most wicked and ill-treated franchises.
Posted Oct 05, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Smile
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A surprisingly intense, bleak experience, closer to The Ring or It Follows – in spirit, if not in the artistry of its execution – than to most recent occult-horror dreck.
Posted Sep 30, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Speak No Evil
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A Feel Bad Movie in the purest sense. Not pointlessly so, but certainly the sort of thing that only a self-selected niche audience will likely be interested in experiencing.
Posted Sep 15, 2022
|
|
B
|
True Things
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Holding the whole thing together are Wootliff and Davies’ impressively parsimonious screenplay and Wilson’s characteristically engrossing, expertly shaded performance.
Posted Sep 07, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Three Thousand Years of Longing
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Whatever its faults, Three Thousand Years of Longing is bursting with affection for legendary fiction in all its strange, extravagant glory.
Posted Aug 24, 2022
|
|
B-
|
A Love Song
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
"Sweet-tempered atmosphere rich in lonely wistfulness, against the backdrop of a pleasant, low-fi, slightly eccentric version of American West."
Posted Aug 17, 2022
|
|
B+
|
Prey
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Simplicity is what enables Prey to succeed so magnificently, both as a long-overdue, worthy successor to Predator and as a rip-roaring stand-alone period action flick.
Posted Aug 03, 2022
|
|
B+
|
Resurrection
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A fantastically tense psychological thriller first and foremost, but also a disturbing horror film about the twisted logic of abuse.
Posted Jul 28, 2022
|
|
B
|
Nope
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Peele’s highly anticipated third feature is, in part, a story about the irresistible compulsion to watch the world burn through the distancing porthole of the photographic frame.
Posted Jul 20, 2022
|
|
B
|
Flux Gourmet
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A cheeky cinematic feast that builds on a foundation of robust traditions, yet boasts its own strange, distinctive flavors.
Posted Jul 13, 2022
|
|
A-
|
Hit the Road
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
One of the year’s best and most original films: a thrilling fusion of family drama, charming comedy, and philosophical dolefulness.
Posted Jun 29, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Lux Æterna
(2019)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
How can one know where performance ends and real trauma begins? Here Lux Æterna ascends (or is it descends?) into avant-garde meta-horror territory, presented with all the over-cranked sensory intensity of Noé’s Climax (2018).
Posted Jun 21, 2022
|
|
B
|
Neptune Frost
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Uzeyman and Williams’ feature is enigmatic, and it can even be frustrating in its meandering opacity, but its radical, transformative spirit is always crystal clear.
Posted Jun 14, 2022
|
|
B+
|
X
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
West's best film to date: a gooey, ebullient orgy of the lewd and the learned, the squalid and the sumptuous.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
|
|
B+
|
Benediction
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
In his inimitable way, Davies uncovers the ecumenical pain in the particulars of Sassoon’s emotional and spiritual tribulations.
Posted Jun 02, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Montana Story
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A tender, anguished drama that leans heavily on its powerful lead performances and its evocative yet authentic sense of Big Sky desolation.
Posted May 26, 2022
|
|
B+
|
Happening
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
As the world gets darker and tougher for birthing bodies, unflinching stories about what’s at stake will only become more precious and more powerful. Happening is an exceptional example of just such a story.
Posted May 11, 2022
|
|
B
|
Reflection
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
A sobering, iron-blooded drama about a prisoner of war who survives a hellish ordeal only to return home to a spiritual purgatory, Reflection presents a story that hits hard and offers no easy answers.
Posted May 04, 2022
|
|
B
|
Father
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
At times the film's ruthlessly grim and grounded approach flirts with bleakness for the sake of bleakness. However, Fathers distinctly Eastern European viewpoint is evident in its faint scent of dark, Kafkaesque absurdity.
Posted Apr 27, 2022
|
|
B+
|
The Northman
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Around the sturdy mythic pillars of regicide-slash-fratricide and seething vengeance, Eggers and Sjón have fashioned an almost-original creation, a mud-and-gore-slicked work of historical verisimilitude spiked with fly agaric and raging testosterone.
Posted Apr 19, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Dual
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
"Its an undeniable pleasure to watch Gillan almost single-handedly keep this oddball, stubbornly alienating black comedy afloat."
Posted Apr 12, 2022
|
|
A
|
Everything Everywhere All at Once
(2022)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Daniels feature is a work that seems alive with possibility, a sensation so rare in modern genre filmmaking that its practically nausea-inducing to have it pumped into your brainstem at 24 fps.
Posted Apr 04, 2022
|
|
C
|
Barbarians
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
The film does little that hasn't been done before with greater clarity. Ultimately, Barbarians works better as a character piece than as cultural commentary.
Posted Mar 29, 2022
|
|
B
|
Servants
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Ostrochovský takes a different approach compared to most films about life under authoritarian governments, eschewing humanizing depth for crisp formal precision and a powerful mood of numbing dread.
Posted Mar 24, 2022
|
|
B
|
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Perhaps the warmest and most affirming film that Haroun has made to date, a tale of guile and endurance in a cruel, imperfect world.
Posted Mar 15, 2022
|
|
B
|
Hellbender
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Hellbender gets its talons into the viewer not despite its rough DIY edges, but because of them. It works because it's unruly: This is a primal-punk fever dream about the terrifying, implacable cycle of life and death.
Posted Feb 22, 2022
|
|
B-
|
A Banquet
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
"An ultra-slow-boil psychological horror freakout that might not pack much incident into its 97 atmospheric minutes, but still exhibits a potent sense of style."
Posted Feb 17, 2022
|
|
B
|
Catch the Fair One
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
It doesn't feel like most rescue or revenge thrillers, which are so often designed to titillate the audience with righteous violence. This film is a howl of alarm, grief, and anger.
Posted Feb 08, 2022
|
|
B-
|
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
So ingeniously constructed and meticulously executed - and ultimately so committed to its goofy, charming scenario - that's it's easy to forgive its flaws.
Posted Jan 20, 2022
|
|
B-
|
The Whaler Boy
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Director Yuryev handles this tonally complex story deftly, successfully painting Leshka as a sympathetic figure without undercutting his more miserable and volatile qualities.
Posted Jan 12, 2022
|
|
B
|
The Matrix Resurrections
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Resurrections is Wachowski's Scream 3 and her The Last Jedi and her The Souvenir: Part II, all at once. At bottom, it's a love story. A lot of people are going to hate it.
Posted Dec 21, 2021
|
|
B
|
Nightmare Alley
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Del Toro's film might not look or sound much like a classic noir, but it conveys the right sensation of smothering doom.
Posted Dec 14, 2021
|
|
B-
|
Benedetta
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Benedetta isn't really an erotic film - rather, it is *about* the erotic, and its relationship to the sacred. Weirdly enough, it might be Verhoeven's most sincere film in decades.
Posted Dec 02, 2021
|
|
|
The Woman Who Ran
(2019)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
This lean but deceptively rich feature can be seen as the apotheosis of Hong Sang-soo's interest in the act of conversation.
Posted Nov 08, 2021
|
|
B
|
Eyimofe (This is My Desire)
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
By examining all the insidious, interlocking factors that compel a would-be emigrant to remain behind, the Esiris illustrate why they want to leave in the first place.
Posted Nov 05, 2021
|
|
B-
|
Antlers
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Despite the sturdy emotional handholds that Russell's performance provides, Cooper's film primarily lives and dies by its doom-choked atmosphere.
Posted Oct 28, 2021
|
|
B
|
Dune
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Whatever else one can say about this latest cinematic iteration of the story, it feels properly monumental. This Dune is extravagant, immersive, and serious-minded, almost to a fault.
Posted Oct 19, 2021
|
|
B
|
Faya Dayi
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Beshir stitches together her film's bounty of footage - much of it fascinating, some of it perplexing, all of it visually exquisite - in a manner that privileges sensation and rhythm.
Posted Oct 11, 2021
|
|
B-
|
I'm Your Man
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Maria Schrader's sci-fi fable is more wry than funny, and generally takes a serious-minded, matter-of-fact approach to its high-concept premise.
Posted Sep 29, 2021
|
|
B+
|
Days
(2020)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
For all its languorous non-action, Days might be the most emotionally forthright film that Tsai has ever made, boasting a sorrowful humanism that cuts right to the quick.
Posted Sep 15, 2021
|
|
B-
|
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Jia's documentary works best when it's allowed to unspool according to the mellow logic of a freewheeling conversation with smart, thoughtful people.
Posted Sep 15, 2021
|
|
B-
|
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
In terms of stylish animation, clever storytelling, and gruesome fantasy violence, the film certainly delivers, although it never does much to distinguish itself from similar Netflix offerings.
Posted Sep 01, 2021
|
|
B
|
Candyman
(2021)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Nia DaCosta's sequel / re-imagining is a worthy successor to its namesake, delivering nail-biting horror fundamentals with uncommon visual flair .
Posted Aug 26, 2021
|
|
B
|
Betty Blue
(1986)
|
Andrew Wyatt
|
Betty Blue evinces a filmmaker with a profound understanding of desire: The mysteries of its creation and sustenance, as well as the irrational choices it can induce us to make.
Posted Aug 24, 2021
|
