Darren Aronofsky has become a stalwart of complex themes bursting at subconscious seams with metaphor and symbolism throughout his impressive career. His darkly brutal handling of vivid despondency and ardent intentions has made his voice one of the most uniquely inspiring and eclectic in contemporary film. mother! has seemingly hit a crescendo of its director’s…
It can be a tricky thing to review horror films. The red-headed stepchild of the movie business, horror is an incredibly subjective genre for fans. Despite repeatedly being let down by film after film, we return to the theater with each new offering, hoping for a gem — a new classic. Remakes are especially daunting…
There aren’t many contemporary horror features — mainstream or independent — that one can boast as being pleasantly imaginative, thought-provoking or metaphysically intriguing. Writer-director-producer Michael Williams, breaks that notion by placing his profoundly frightening fingerprints upon the tension-filled, captivating horror suspense feature, The Atoning. Thoroughly engaging, contemplative and percolating with loads of mystique, Williams brings…
Though an estranged family tackling a bank heist in order to save a sibling is a recipe for interesting discourses by way of “Dog Day Afternoon,” The Vault, unfortunately is not that kind of film. Dan Bush cut his teeth co-directing, co-writing and co-editing the extraordinarily effective thriller/horror “The Signal,” followed by the overlooked yet…
One of the most attractive and thrilling aspects of Tsugumi Ohba’s manga and Tetsuro Araki’s anime adaptation of Death Note, is that the persistent and ever-twisting mind games played against a stylish and neo-noir backdrop always seem to build on the one preceding it until it reaches unfathomable heights. Though there have been live-action adaptations…
Victorian London has been an effective setting since virtually the beginning of cinema, perhaps unsurprisingly since it was during this period that moving pictures first appeared. From the first adaptation of “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” to Basil Rathbone’s incarnation of “Sherlock Holmes,” from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lodger” to Johnny Depp’s…
The high-octane novelty act that is the boisterous buddy actioner, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, should, by the estimation of studio heads, bring the blistering high-wire shenanigans to shakeup the late August box office blues. The draw — other than the grandstanding of flashy explosions, animated gunplay and calculating car chases — is obviously the rollicking rapport…
