Director Zhang Yimou is best known for his sweeping historical epics, like Hero and House of Flying Daggers, but it turns out he also has a bit of espionage in his DNA. His latest film, Cliff Walkers, does take place in a certain bygone era, though a much more recent one. And instead of swords and lush period costumes, he delivers his first taut, chilly spy thriller, one full of suspense, betrayal, treachery, and the usual slick execution and eye for detail one expects from him.
Meek and mild-mannered, Dani (Mario Casas), the lead of Spanish director David Victori’s existential thriller, Cross the Line (No Mataras), is the kind of character who doesn’t act. The world, those around him, and surrounding circumstances simply push him forward. He cares for his elderly father, but when the old man passes away, his sister, Laura (Elisabeth Larena), books him an around-the-world trip, something he always dreamed of. The eve of his departure, a chance encounter with a wild tattoo artist, Mila (Milena Smit), leads to a violent encounter with deadly consequences and deep wounds.
Despite the common misconception, a crap-ton of new movies came out in 2020. A global pandemic can’t stop Hollywood, just delay things over and over again. And in that spirit, the 93rd Academy Awards were given out last year and here is a list of the winners.
Don’t you hate it when you inadvertently wake up an ancient vampire and unleash his wrath upon your small Irish town? The characters in Chris Baugh’s Boys From County Hell certainly do.
There’s that messy moment at the end of a long-term relationship, after you break up but before you tell people. You kiss, cry, fight, fuck, fight more. That’s the moment We Broke Up, a new romantic comedy from writer/director Jeff Rosenberg and co-writer Laura Jacqmin, focuses on. The result is a charming, if slight entry into the rom-com fray.
Marvel had big plans for 2020, as usual, but COVID-19 derailed most of those. While fans made due with their episodic Disney+ output, now that theaters are starting to open back up, prepare for the damn to burst. (The fourth quarter of 2021 is an insane glut of every big movie the pandemic delayed; it’s a bit overwhelming.) Though the release has been reshuffled a few times, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrives in September, and there’s this new trailer and poster to prove it.
A magnet car, a jet being taken out by a truck, beefy dudes brawling, talk of family, a long-dead character brought back to life, a flying Pontiac Fiero? All of this taken together can only mean one thing: there’s a new F9 trailer and it’s even more bonkers than you thought.
Jakob’s Wife has it all. Barbara Crampton. Larry Fessenden. Priests. Vampires. Rats. Splatter. The line, “I’m going to tongue fuck a hole in your neck until I puke blood.” Concrete Blonde. You know, all the best horror things. A bloody, energetic genre throwback, the latest from Travis Stevens (The Girl on the Third Floor) mixes in humor amongst the body bags and the result is a damn fine time.
The various culture clashes between city dwellers and rural folks has been responsible for more horror movie trauma than just about any set up. Such is the basis for Devereaux Milburn’s Honeydew, and while there are a few bits of intrigue and interest, there’s not much to recommend. It quickly becomes tedious, winds up overlong, and squanders the most appealing elements.
After beginning his career as a bit-part actor, Taylor Sheridan made his name penning a string of bleak, neo-frontier, pseudo-westerns set in the modern age. Movie like Hell or High Water and Sicario. Jumping to the director’s chair, his output remains tonally and thematically similar thanks to the likes of Wind River. Judging by this trailer, his latest, an adaptation of Michael Kortya’s novel Those Who Wish Me Dead, trods familiar territory. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and this looks like a movie we will be very, very into.
