In Review Online - Film and Music Criticism

FIDMarseille 2021 — Dispatch 2: Haruhara San’s Recorder, The Invisible Mountain, Just a Movement

Haruhara San’s Recorder The winner of FIDMarseille International Competition, as well as the recipient of its Best Actress award in that category, Haruhara San’s Recorder proves an appropriate choice for the festival’s (basically) top prize, speaking to this year’s apparent curatorial themes and adhering to a pace not dissimilar to that of jury president Lav Diaz. The fourth feature from Japanese director Kyoshi Sugita, whose work has yet to gain traction or distribution in North America, Haruhara San’s Recorder tracks…

Credit: A24/Everett Collection
Blockbuster Beat by Michael Scoular Film
The Green Knight | David Lowery
In recalibrating its source material, The Green Knight often proves compelling, but it doesn’t always convince as a fully liberated work. “I see legends,” Gawain (Dev Patel) is prompted to say as he observes the…
Credit: Alois Maille
by Matt Lynch Film Streaming Scene
The Last Mercenary | David Charhon
The Last Mercenary isn’t much as a JCVD actioner, but it’s modestly held together by the aging star’s pronounced comedic chops. Legendary action figure Jean-Claude Van Damme has done quite a relentless rehab on his…
Credit: Film Movement
by Matt Lynch Film Genre Views
Tailgate | Lodewijk Crijns
Tailgate is a thriller in name only, mostly devoid of tension and entirely schematic. One wonders what exactly the point is of such a thoroughly incurious and dully unimaginative thriller as Lodewijk Crijns’ Tailgate, a…
Credit: Pat A. Robinson
by M.G. Mailloux Kicking the Canon Music
Prince | Controversy
Prince’s body of work is, of course, one of the broadest and slipperiest in the Western pop canon. Swaths of his career still remain without much substantial critical contextualization, the iconic Minneapolis rock star’s…
Credit: Disney
Blockbuster Beat by Matt Lynch Film
Jungle Cruise | Jaume Collet-Serra
Jungle Cruise‘s attempts at throwback family adventuring are lost to a miasma of awful VFX and greenscreen compositing. For some reason, Disney’s Jungle Cruise, a $200 million family-oriented studio blockbuster based on a children’s…
Credit: Saban Films
by Steven Warner Film Genre Views
Twist | Martin Owen
Outdated from its conception and only increasing its failures with each passing minute, Twist does Dickens seriously dirty. Twist, the latest adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ classic about a young orphan named Oliver, is…
Credit: Gravitas Ventures
by Daniel Gorman Film Horizon Line
Fully Realized Humans | Joshua Leonard
Fullt Realized Humans is a half-realized film, awkwardly sliding between authenticity and sitcom superficiality. Bland but inoffensive, Joshua Leonard’s post-mumblecore rom-com Fully Realized Humans resembles nothing so much as the 2010s era of indie sitcoms…
Credit: Shout! Studios
by Steven Warner Film Genre Views
Masquerade | Shane Dax Taylor
Masquerade fails to clear even the lowest bar of a home invasion flick, delivering a late-film jolt that is far too little, too late. Like many before her, actress Bella Thorne got her start as…
Credit: Shudder
by Daniel Gorman Film Streaming Scene
The Boy Behind the Door | David Charbonier & Justin Powell
The Boy Behind the Door doesn’t do much that hasn’t been seen before, but mostly works on the strength of its careful, expert craft. A tough, tense little thriller, David Charbonier and Justin Powell’s The Boy…
Photo: TIFF
by Lawrence Garcia Film Streaming Scene
Krabi, 2562 | Anocha Suwichakornpong & Ben Rivers
If Krabi 2562 fails to convince by its end, its argument is at least worth engaging with. Following a short film collaboration for the 2018 Thai Biennale — the first of its kind — Thai…