People often underestimate Sydney Sweeney as an actress as she’s someone that can not only act her heart out, but she can also carry a film. “Immaculate” from Michael Mohan excels in every way possible, including Sweeney’s performance. She doesn’t just play a damsel in distress, but also depicts someone that is doing everything she can to fight her way out of extraordinary circumstances. Bound to be compared to “Rosemary’s Baby,” I likened “Immaculate” more to Ti West’s “House of the Devil” where a young girl is thrust in to a situation we, as the audience, are never quite sure what is unfolding, even when we’re explained what the sinister forces have in store for our protagonist.
Tag Archives: Drama
You’ll Never Find Me (2024)
Now Streaming on Shudder.
Equal parts silly and ambitious, “Youll Never Find Me” gets by in its first hour because the audience will definitely want to know what they’ve invested all their time in. Directors Indianna Bell, and Josiah Allen keep us in the dark about what this situation is boiling in to, and by the time we’ve decided that we really don’t want to see anymore, it’s too late. By then if we shut off the movie, it’ll all have been for nothing, so you pretty much have to stay to see what ultimately culminates from such a long drawn out horror film.
Born to Fly (aka Chang kong zhi wang ) (2023)
On Blu-ray and Digital March 26th from Well Go USA
A young pilot joins an elite group of test pilots working on China’s newest technology in an attempt to make it better and always be flying.
Carrie (2013): Collector’s Edition [4K UHD/Blu-Ray]
Now Available from Scream Factory.
Was Kimberly Peirce’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie” entirely necessary? Not really. But while Brian DePalma did set the bar high with his adaptation of the novel in 1976, Kimberly Peirce’s modern interpretation of the titular novel holds up surprisingly well. It’s not by any means what I’d call a masterpiece, but in a world where we have the 2002 TV remake, Peirce’s version is not without its charms. It doesn’t garner exactly the big emotional punch of DePalma’s but there’s a very charming and interesting sincerity to this interpretation.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Now in Wider Release Exclusively in Theaters.
Rose Glass’s crime thriller is a rotten and often grotesque neo-noir that kept me glued to the screen from beginning to end. Like more neo-noir’s, Glass’s film centers on morally gray protagonists doing battle with amoral characters, all of whom are couped up in such a small town. Corruption and violence is never too far away and “Loves Lies Bleeding” centers on Lou and Jackie, both of whom are desperate to escape their confines. More and more their lives feel like prisons, with their whole source of misery pointed toward domestic dysfunction.
Ǝvolution (2023) [CineQuest 2024]
At only a minute in length, Romina Schwedler’s short experimental film is more of a montage of events and significant occurrences that side steps any kind of story. Centered mostly on an eye witnessing these events, Schwedler bases the entire screenplay on this singular shot, which is what carries the movie to its finish line.
Imaginary (2024)
Take a bit of “Insidious,” a dash of “Annabelle Comes Home” with a heaping spoonful of “Pinocchio’s Revenge” and you get what is another dull genre installment from Blumhouse Pictures. Once the beaming genre studio, Blumhouse seems to be contractually obligated to release at least two horror movies a year, no matter what, and “Imaginary” feels like more of an obligation than anything. It’s a convoluted, and often dull movie that seems to really want to be a cerebral tale about PTSD and mental illness.
But mid-way you can sense the producers intervene when the narrative suddenly veers off in to a more commercial dark pseudo-Gaiman horror fantasy involving magical beings, and a weird dimension for imaginary creatures.