So, the Oscars were last night. That happened. As usual, I like some of the choices, hate others, and haven’t seen most of the movie if I’m being honest. I’m sure they’re lovely and as good as people say, but year by year, decreasing exponentially, I find I have less and less interest in the Academy Awards. I’m not trying to sound cool, but there are thousands of other movies I’d rather watch. That’s all.
To call writer/director (and actor) Anthony Hayes’ Gold minimal is a bit of a stretch. Minimal is an overstatement. There are seven acting credits. Of those seven, two are the same person playing different roles. Three appear on screen for one scene each. Of those three, one is a baby and another is a woman with no lines. The bulk of the movie is Zac Efron alone in a post-apocalyptic desert gradually losing his mind, and all things considered, Hayes squeezes a great deal out of this arrangement.
Going on vacation is bad. Horror movies have taught us that when you go on a trip designed for leisure, terrible things happen—monsters, murder, torture, you name it, it will befall you on vacation. Something even worse, however, may be going to an idyllic small town vacation community during the down part of the year. Do that and, well, you’re absolutely boned. Such is the core conceit of Mickey Keating’s new film Offseason.
Exorcism movies get overplayed for sure, but there’s a good reason for that: When they hit, they tap into a primal, inherent fear, playing on themes of control, faith, and religion that shake people deep, deep down, even non-believers. Director Alejandro Hidalgo’s The Exorcism of God doesn’t entirely land in this regard, but despite leaning on familiar tropes, it has unique flourishes and goes crazy enough that it winds up being pretty awesome and a damn entertaining watch.
Some films approach social issues with nuance and insight, offering carefully crafted critiques that address difficult problems through close examination and intimate conversation. Writer/director Eamon O’Rourke’s debut feature, Asking For It, is not one of these movies. No, this movie is as sharp as a sledgehammer, smashing through walls and breaking in doors with a scream and a Molotov cocktail. A toxic-masculinity-skewering saga of feminist retribution, at times this approach is incredibly effective, carried much of the way by a fantastic cast, while in others it’s clunky and ham-fisted.
If Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies were a tad too upbeat, festive, short, and well-lit for you, don’t worry The Batman is here to rectify all that. Directed by Matt Reeves (Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes), the latest tale of Gotham’s Caped Crusader is a lot of movie—in terms of runtime, in terms of storylines, in terms of plot, and brooding, and fistfights, and set pieces, and… Some of which works well, some of which never comes together in a satisfying way.
