Mark Jenkin’s latest feature-length film takes a deep dive into psychological fragmentation — At its core, folk horror as a genre involves the conflict between paganism, Christianity, and (super) natural forces. It also involves folklore that either existed before the advent of Christianity or stubbornly developed alongside the monotheistic faith, functioning both as counterpoint and contrast, though Christianity, like most world religions, has…

Proof positive that Laika’s underappreciated third film deserves a second or third look — In Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi’s underappreciated feature-length debut as director and Oregon-based stop-motion animation studio LAIKA’s third, The Boxtrolls, the title characters, blue-hued, yellow-eyed, and pointy-eared, make their home in the labyrinthine tunnels and sewers under the hilltop town of Cheesebridge and the fictional country of Norvenia sometime in…

The latest Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham joint disappoints on every level. — A misfire by any other name is still a misfire, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, the latest brainchild from writer-director Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), is nothing if not a misfire. It all starts with a lazily written, unimaginative, pastiche-ridden script Ritchie co-wrote…

Elizabeth Banks directs, Jimmy Warden writes, everyone runs for their lives. — In the mid-1980s, a Ronald Reagan was beginning his second term in the White House, the so-called “War on Drugs,” a favorite of reactionaries in both parties, was on the rise, leading to massive increases in funding for law enforcement, harsh and unjust sentences for low-level, drug-related crimes, and mass…

Steven Spielberg directs a portrait of a filmmaker as a young man — Unarguably one of the greatest living filmmakers in or out of the English language, Steven Spielberg’s success, both critically and commercially, remain without equal. Even as his directorial career has moved further away from the early career blockbusters (e.g., Jaws, Close Encounters of the Lost Ark, E.T.) for more traditional…

Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum return for the threequel — Whoever said, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” was obviously onto something. Sometimes too a trilogy is best when it’s a duology. The eight-years-in-the-making third — and most likely last — entry in the Steven Soderbergh-produced, Channing Tatum-starring Magic Mike series, Magic Mike’s Last Chance, more than proves…

Christopher Smith’s latest delivers an overabundance of intriguing ideas, but few scares — In Consecration, writer-director Christopher Smith’s (Black Death, Triangle, Severance) first film in three years since The Banishing, the millennia-old conflict between Christianity and the Devil, between the Church and paganism, finds expression in the form of a thirty-something ophthalmologist, Grace Fario (Jena Malone). Grace’s younger brother Michael (Steffan Cennydd), a…

Shyamalan’s adaptation of Paul G. Tremblay’s novel takes liberties and then some. — After cratering with back-to-back commercial and critical failures (The Happening and The Last Airbender) and missing the mark with After Earth immediately thereafter, M. Night Shyamalan started a welcome comeback with The Visit (a modestly budgeted found footage horror entry), Split (a gnarly thriller elevated by an applause-worthy twist worthy)…

Anna Kendrick stars in Mary Nighy’s feature debut. — A specter haunts the title character of actor-turned-director Mary Nighy’s feature debut, Alice, Darling. He seemingly haunts Alice’s (Anna Kendrick) every waking moment and every fitful dream, a voice floating in her mind, judging her, criticizing her imperfections, and molding her in his own toxic image. …