The exotically disturbing character-driven Dutch drama Meat (a.k.a. “Vlees”) is most definitely not your old-fashioned grandmother’s tenderloin steak of a sexual psychological thriller. Filmmakers Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth (who also is credited as a co-screenwriter along with consultant scriber Stan Lapinski) literally and figuratively leads the wide-eyed lamb to the slaughter in this twisted,…
A sensitive loner goes undercover to infiltrate a group of skinheads and finds he may have more in common with the white supremacists he’s investigating than his FBI colleagues. Or “Donnie Brasco” meets “The Believer.” Or “Point Break” meets “American History X.” Or “Reservoir Dogs” meets “Romper Stomper.” I couldn’t help but think of other…
As the ragged and haggard anti-hero in Jean-François Richet’s rollicking grind-house showcase Blood Father, lead character John Link is a lost wrecking ball in search of raging redemption despite whatever erratic and intrinsic demons that beleaguered his unstable psyche. Well, this description can also be applied to the relentlessly problematic performer playing this graying, leather-skinned…
The plot’s familiar but the execution is fresh in this neo-western with a real country soul. Two stubble-muzzled brothers, armed with a pair of pistols and the Law at their heels, tear through the southern tip of America’s Great Plains on a small-town bank-robbing spree. The script, which won 2012’s Black List, was originally titled…
The DC Extended Cinematic Universe continues. In what seems to be the penultimate comic book movie of the year, David Ayer (“End of Watch,” “Fury”) has the task of selling an unknown quantity to mass audiences, while also following the path of the controversial “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” I have the good fortune…
I already know I’m going to receive flack for this, so I’m just going to state it plainly: I have not read Alan Moore’s graphic novel “Batman: The Killing Joke.” I have also not seen any of Warner Bros. Pictures’ animated DC library, including any episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series.” I went into Batman:…
Whether or not space-time is an actual reality or simply an illusion, a convenient concept of the mind to get us through the day, is not relevant here. The Spierig Brothers (“Daybreakers”) mesmerizing film Predestination postulates that it is real, but that is only the starting point of a film that challenges us at every…
