Dalida tells the story of the Italian-Egyptian singer who made her life in France and was, and still is, hugely popular in French-speaking countries and other parts of the world. She was and still is a musical icon who became almost mythological after her suicide in 1987. For the unfamiliar, Dalida was and probably still is as big of an icon to some as Cher and Madonna are in the US.
What I love about “Kong: Skull Island” is that while it’s essentially a good old fashioned matinee monster movie at heart, it’s also a pretty clever take on the Vietnam war. “Kong: Skull Island” implements the classic trope from the classic giant monster movies taking a group of armed men and women in to the wilderness, and uses that as an allegory for the Vietnam war. Like the aforementioned war, US soldiers storm in to a wilderness they were unprepared to do battle with, except they face an unparalleled force of nature. Also very effectively setting up a cinematic universe, Jordan Vogt-Roberts aspires for a lot, and succeeds as a simple and harrowing adventure with big monsters, and menacing creatures far and wide.
It’s been a banner year for Stephen King fans everywhere, and Shout Factory sweetens the pot by giving Rob Reiner’s horror masterpiece “Misery” a collector’s edition. Based on the classic Stephen King novel, Rob Reiner who is no stranger to adapting King’s work, brings to screen a work of terror, dark comedy, and a demented commentary about the fans behind our work that also control our work. It’s a very volatile and sharp edged polemic about fandom when you get right down to it, and it’s never been more relevant than in the day and age where fandoms from all corners of the world have the loudest voices and sometimes can break the very thing they love.
A road at the center of local urban legends, young people trying to debunk its mysteries, and a few surprises along the way…
Based on a story by Johnny Pascucci and written by Shahin Chandrasoma and Matthew Currie Holmes, with the latter directing as well, Buckout Road is an interesting take on urban legend movies in how it approaches the urban legends and how the characters are not just plain victims with no background. The characters are decently developed and have relationships between them that make sense and make them care about one another. The way the film develops its story through flashbacks that have their own style depending on the era they are set in, giving the film visual interest each of their own. The story evolves in a way that keeps the interest and has some mystery to it. The ending is interesting and offers not exactly a twist but not exactly the ending one might expect from an urban legend film.
Inspired by the Butterbox Babies case, The Child Remains follows a couple as they stay in an inn with a dark past and an uncertain future.
From writer/director Michael Melski, The Child Remains is a haunting story of sorts that crosses with investigative story and a few other things. This leads to a film that is a slow burn but an interesting one. Those who are familiar with the Butterbox Babies case will see connections which are of course a bit stretched here but still make some sense. The characters built for the modern day people who stumble into this dark past are well developed. They are a basically just one couple who get haunted in one way or another and slowly work towards making sense of things for themselves with a few side moments into level of insanity or madness or something that actually makes sense in the film. These characters are very human, even frustrating like real people are at times.
A novelist has a hard time getting his muse back after a tragedy and his latest book’s failure. As he tries to write again, he finds a new muse through extreme measures.
Written by Ryan M. Andrews and Chris Cull with the former directing as well, the Art of Obsession takes something that could have been a small infatuation with a woman in danger, the need to save and turns it into an unhealthy obsession that is dangerous for all involved. The story is interesting and has interesting developments while some of them are a bit less so making the film uneven and with a few predictable plot points. The film does however do a very good job of showing a victim who won’t give up on herself, on her own salvation as an opposite to her captor who has given up on his good side almost completely for the appeal of the next hit, the next success, the next accolade. The dichotomy of these characters leads to an interesting watch as the viewer sees them evolve in each their own way, influenced by each other and each of their needs.
Following a miscarriage, a woman plays with forces she does not quite understand in her quest to have a child to love and care for.
Written and directed by Jennifer Phillips with story editor Emily Schooley, Blood Child is based on a true story, but how much of it is left here is not easily found with a quick Google search. Here the story is taken in a very supernatural way so the belief in whether or not it’s fully based on a true story will depend on the viewer’s level of belief in the supernatural. Nonetheless, the story is well written and takes the beliefs it plays with seriously while also adapting them to the screen. The characters feel like they are perhaps not developed at their best or the performances for them is what causes this lack of care for them from the viewer. The lead is interesting, but her husband comes off as unlikable, her best friend comes off bitchy, while the housekeeper comes off as a cliché complete with an accent that can only be fake (and if it is not, apologies to the actress).