Questlove’s debut film as a director is a success, defined as much by its outrage as its joy. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, drummer of the legendary…
Prime Time is all the more terrifying for its refusal to pathologize its lead in any easy way. Set on the eve of the millennium,…
The Ice Road doesn’t trust the straightforward formula of its actioner origins, needlessly complicating things to its detriment. It’s 2021 and the Liam Neeson Action…
Vicious Fun fails as both horror cinema and horror deconstruction. Wes Craven’s Scream has been justly lauded as an epochal moment in horror cinema, a…
Fathom sidesteps plenty of nature documentary pratfalls, but fails to develop a distinctive voice of its own. In the wake of Planet Earth’s zeitgeist arrival…
An Unquiet Grave fails to deliver even scares, let alone substantive plot or character. Horror is a genre that tends to thrive on economy; it…
False Positive plays like a modern riff on Rosemary’s Baby, but executes its updated vision perfunctorily and mostly dully. Even though it’s sort of unfair to stack…
Sweat swims in the grey areas of internet intimacy to thoughtful, sometimes unsettling results. For as long as we’ve held any conception of celebrity, it’s…
Superdeep is only horrific in how much deadening exposition it forces viewers to endure. The idea that the deepest hole ever drilled into the Earth,…
Fatherhood isn’t going to be remembered as a comedy classic, or much at all, but given its rocky road to release, it could have been much…
The Amusement Park is a remarkable work and profound reminder of Romero’s facility with pointed critique. Long recognized as one of the absolute masters of…
Awake is more likely to put viewers to sleep than scratch any genre film itch. In Awake, Netflix’s latest high-concept thriller, Gina Rodriguez stars as Jill,…
If you love your action flicks stuffed full of nonsense exposition and explanation, Infinite is the film for you. You know you’re in trouble when…
In a stronger film, Tragic Jungle’s metaphor and opacity would have a more elaborate, complex mythos to match. Yulene Olaizola’s elemental fifth feature, Tragic Jungle, is…
Caveat teases potential and boasts an impressive setup, but ultimately loses its thread after this initial stretch. One of the challenges of the modern horror…
Kala azar is an obvious, stultifying, and facile lecture masquerading as art cinema. Kala-azar is the Indian name for Black Fever, a potentially fatal parasitic disease,…
Ghost Lab works as a bit of weirdo fun for a while, but the film’s playful tone is obliterated halfway through and never recovers. At…
Plan B has its heart and messaging in the right place, but frequently undercuts its intent with one-step-forward-two-steps-back developments. At first glance, director Natalie Morales’s Plan…
Skull: The Mask indulges in unnecessary table-setting, but once it gets to the good stuff, it’s a throwback, labor-of-love gore fest. There’s a charmingly roughshod, handmade…
Still Processing is a work of profound emotional catharsis that suggests even greater formal heights on Romvari’s horizon. Occupying a well-deserved place on TIFF’s Short Cuts…
Death Will Come is somewhat hampered by its abbreviated runtime and odd asides, but remains a moving document of love and living in the shadow of…