‘Expend4bles’ Is a Convoy of Clichés
The only thing that salvages Scott Waugh’s unpronounceable Expend4bles from the usual action film clichés is the franchise’s new star, Jason Statham
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The Pull of Christian Sparkes’ Mystery ‘The King Tide’
Director Christian Sparkes and actors Clayne Crawford and Alix West Lefler discuss the mystery The King Tide during its World Premiere at TIFF 2023.
FrightFest 2023: ‘Cobweb’ Tells a Story Trapped Within Itself
If we listen closely enough to the knocking on the wall, we can hear the anguished whispers of a stronger story caught in the web of Cobweb’s weaker one.
Trigger Warning: Fuminori Nakamura’s ‘The Gun’
Fuminori Nakamura’s neo-noir The Gun picks apart the mental machinery of a potential shooter and puts him back together, piece by piece, to identify the fatal components.
Erich von Stroheim Outraged Those Who Lined Up To Be Outraged with ‘Foolish Wives’
In monocle and leather boots, waving a whip, and fetishizing his character into a camp masterpiece, Erich von Stroheim never winks in Foolish Wives, but you see the glint in his eye.
Drama, Desire, and Diplomacy: The Rise of Turkish Television in India
Netflix represents an opportunity to internationalize and escape the pressures of a volatile domestic market in Turkish television. It has forced Turkish producers to tell Turkish stories in a globally compelling way.
Lars Von Trier’s ‘Europa Trilogy’ Is Spellbinding, Hypnotic Melodrama
The three Lars Von Trier films in Criterion’s Europa Trilogy aim to hypnotize viewers with formal visual styles more important than the story, so they fly in the face of most Art House fare.
‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning’ Is No James Bond
The action in Mission Impossible: Dread Reckoning, Part One merely updates director John Glen’s James Bond set pieces from a more primitive time in cinema: the 1980s.
San Francisco Silent Film Festival: Bizarre Twists, Frantic Disasters, and Dangerous Women
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival features iron-masked swashbuckling, flabbergasting twists, sexy farce, visual beauty, and strong women who stare into the camera, unnerving viewers.
Melodrama and Mystification from ‘Moment to Moment’
Made as a lush vehicle for Jean Seberg, Moment to Moment is an eye-catching, brain-teasing, and utterly bonkers melodrama that draws comparisons to Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
The ‘Master Gardener’ Is Another Paul Schrader Bad Guy with a Gun and a Past
In Master Gardener, Paul Schrader uses the curiously arch story of an ex-White Power killer hiding out as a gardener to deliver another story of a lonely avenger seeking absolution through violence.
‘Silo’ Is the Smart Sci-fi Show We’ve Been Waiting For
Combining conspiracy thriller, dystopian nightmare, and science fiction, Silo succeeds in predicting a grim future for humans but good outlooks for Apple TV+.