Movie Reviews

            Harold Ramis’ 1993 comedy masterpiece Groundhog Day is one of the few films that I can think of, if not the only film I can think of, that became a genre of its own.  The romantic comedy spawned a number of films and television shows about a person being stuck in a time loop where they relive the same day over and over again.  Films like 50 First Dates, The Edge…

        Natalie Erika James’ Relic plays like the younger sibling of Ari Aster’s 2018 masterpiece Hereditary.  On paper, this is a slow-burning horror film that pits our characters against a force beyond this world.  But at its core, it is a deeply moving family drama about a tragic family event.  Relic is one of the best horror movies of 2020. When elderly Edna (Robyn Neven) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote)…

        It is safe to say that 2020 has been kind of a bummer in the cinematic world.  With Covid-19 closing down all movie theaters and delaying a lot of the hotly anticipated movies to later in the year or even next year, there hasn’t been to really look forward to.  Though we have gotten some gems throughout the year, the only movies that we have been able to view since March…

          Throughout the 2020 Chattanooga Film Festival I saw a number of good films that were unique in their styling and what they were about.  However, I had been missing that one movie that really blew me away.  The kind of movie that I would remember for the rest of 2020 and the movie I would humbly brag to friends and fellow critics that I saw it. Luckily, after nearly a…

            Attack of the Demons is like The Evil Dead by way of South Park.  An absurd, funny, violent animated horror film made out of what looks like stop-motion construction paper.  It’s an absolute blast and one of the best films I saw at the 2020 Chattanooga Film Festival. The year is 1994 and in the small town of Barrington, Colorado it is the 10th annual Halloween Festival, a night where the entire town…

          Eat Brains Love is an absurdly silly zombie movie with a lot of cool ideas.  At times it felt like the film was trying to subvert the zombie genre as a whole.  At other times, the film had ideas that felt forced and underdeveloped.  The result is an enjoyable mixed bag. Jake (Jake Cannavale) is an uninspired stoner barely making it through high school.  Amanda (Angelique Rivera) is one of the…

          The Beach House is a horror movie that puts us right in the characters shoes.  A horror movie that only reveals what is happening when the characters discover what is happening.  It’s creepy, it’s eerie, and it’s constantly suspenseful as we try to figure out what is happening before our characters do.  How good these kind of movies are depends on how good the finale is.  Was the final reveal worth…

          The Wave is like The Hangover mixed with Crank on psychedelic drugs.  A movie about trying to figure out how and why things happened and how and why things are happening.  There were about a dozen times while watching this movie where I audibly asked, “what the hell is going on?”  There’s never a dull moment here and I was hooked the entire time. Insurance lawyer Frank (Justin Long) is a working stiff living…

        Jumbo is based on a true story about a woman who falls in love with a tilt-a-whirl ride at the amusement park she works at.  Sounds like a rather absurd concept that should belong in the same category as Quentin Dupieux’s 2010 absurd horror-comedy, Rubber, which looks at a tire that kills people through telepathy.  But writer/director Zoé Wittock didn’t want to make an absurd comedy.  She was focused on making an…

          ESPN completed airing their documentary series The Last Dance, a ten-part series focusing on the 1998 Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan.  Growing up a Bulls fan in the Chicago-land area all my life and watching this dynasty as a kid, this documentary was right up my alley.  I was excited to see the behind-the-curtain conversations and happenings of the 1998 Bulls and learn things I didn’t know before. The Last…