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Mel Valentin
Mel Valentin

1.5K Followers

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Published in Cinapse

·Pinned

CANDYMAN Offers Mixed Rewards for Horror Enthusiasts and Casual Fans Alike

This “Spiritual Sequel” is a worthy successor to the original — Candyman, the spiritual sequel to the Bernard Rose-directed, Tony Todd-starring 1992 cult horror film of the same name, has taken a long, circuitous route to multiplexes. After spending the better part of two decades in on-again, off-again development, Jordan Peele (Us, Get Out) and his Monkeypaw Productions practically sprinted into…

Candyman

5 min read

CANDYMAN Offers Mixed Rewards for Horror Enthusiasts and Casual Fans Alike
CANDYMAN Offers Mixed Rewards for Horror Enthusiasts and Casual Fans Alike
Candyman

5 min read


Published in Cinapse

·5 days ago

In KNOCK AT THE CABIN, M. Night Shyamalan Delivers a Master Class in Suspense

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 out in both regards with After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan made something of a comeback with The Visit (a not-quite return to form), Split (an ending worthy of his reputation), and Glass (a definite…

M Night Shyamalan

4 min read

In KNOCK AT THE CABIN, M. Night Shyamalan Delivers a Master Class in Suspense
In KNOCK AT THE CABIN, M. Night Shyamalan Delivers a Master Class in Suspense
M Night Shyamalan

4 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Jan 20

ALICE, DARLING, No Adventures in Wonderland

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. …

Anna Kendrick

3 min read

ALICE, DARLING, No Adventures in Wonderland
ALICE, DARLING, No Adventures in Wonderland
Anna Kendrick

3 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Jan 13

SKINAMARINK Delivers Unforgettable Experiential Horror

Kyle Edward Ball’s debut horror entry meets, surpasses expectations — In the pre-Internet Before Times, network television, local radio stations, and analog (paper) newspapers offered the primary means of secondary, one-way communication. Only landlines, fixed and static by nature, offered two-way communication beyond face-to-face contact, leaving large gaps of time and space where family, friends, and acquaintances simply disappeared from…

Skinamarink

3 min read

SKINAMARINK Delivers Unforgettable Experiential Horror
SKINAMARINK Delivers Unforgettable Experiential Horror
Skinamarink

3 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Jan 6

M3GAN Wraps Familiar Tropes in Moving, Sometimes Poignant Family Drama

Creepy killer robots can add a new name to the horror genre rolls — In writer-director Alex Garland’s 2014 science fiction-horror film, Ex Machina, a tech-bro billionaire entrepreneur/inventor, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), with delusions of grandeur, attempts to create the “perfect woman,” a self-aware, sentient simulacrum in a robotic body. As always with this particular thematically-driven sub-genre (e.g., “tampering with God’s work or biological/evolutionary…

M 3 Gan

4 min read

M3GAN Wraps Familiar Tropes in Moving, Sometimes Poignant Family Drama
M3GAN Wraps Familiar Tropes in Moving, Sometimes Poignant Family Drama
M 3 Gan

4 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Dec 27, 2022

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH Delivers High Style, Verve, and Vibes to Spare

Long-delayed Shrek-verse spinoff delights, amuses, thrills — The staggeringly mediocre Shrek franchise may be thankfully, mercifully dead and buried, moldering in the deep, dank basement of DreamWorks Animation Studios, but if we’ve learned anything over the last several decades, it’s that nothing, least of all a onetime profitable, studio-owned franchise, stays dead and buried for long, let…

Puss In Boots

4 min read

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH Delivers High Style, Verve, and Vibes to Spare
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH Delivers High Style, Verve, and Vibes to Spare
Puss In Boots

4 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Dec 9, 2022

EMANCIPATION, Will Smith Delivers a Powerful, Moving Performance in Civil War Drama

Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith team-up for thrilling, stirring effort — Over the course of one night in March, Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness, Ali, Men in Black) hit the highest highs of his profession as an actor, winning a much-coveted Academy Award for King Richard, an authorized biopic of Richard Williams, the unconventional, unorthodox father if generational tennis stars…

Will Smith

4 min read

EMANCIPATION, Will Smith Delivers a Powerful, Moving Performance in Civil War Drama
EMANCIPATION, Will Smith Delivers a Powerful, Moving Performance in Civil War Drama
Will Smith

4 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Dec 4, 2022

WOMEN TALKING: Sarah Polley Delivers One of This Year’s Best

Sarah Polley’s adaptation of a well-regarded novel burns with passionate intensity — “What follows is an act of female imagination.” — Title card, Women Talking (2022) Still in her mid-twenties, Sarah Polley shifted from appearing in front of the camera as a performer to writing, producing, and directing, beginning with a well-received character study, Away From Her, in 2006, a devastating adult…

Women Talking

5 min read

WOMEN TALKING: Sarah Polley Delivers One of This Year’s Best
WOMEN TALKING: Sarah Polley Delivers One of This Year’s Best
Women Talking

5 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Nov 27, 2022

THE FABELMANS or Portrait of a Filmmaker as a Young Man

Spielberg delivers one of his most personal, poignant films — In The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s (West Side Story, Bridge of Spies, Lincoln) semi-autobiographical portrait of a filmmaker as a young man, Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), Spielberg’s semi-fictional analogue, ventures into the cavernous dark of of a New Jersey movie theater to watch Cecil B. DeMille’s Oscar winner, The Greatest…

Steven Spielberg

5 min read

THE FABELMANS or Portrait of a Filmmaker as a Young Man
THE FABELMANS or Portrait of a Filmmaker as a Young Man
Steven Spielberg

5 min read


Published in Cinapse

·Nov 18, 2022

THE MENU Delivers Epicurean Delights and Horrors in Equal Measure

The Menu skewers everything from our entitled elites to haute cuisine — Moments into The Menu, a scabrous social, political, and cultural satire directed by Mark Mylod (Succession, Shameless, Game of Thrones) from a Black List script credited to Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, a super-select clientele comprised of various members of our privileged, entitled elites, take a tour led by Elsa…

The Menu

4 min read

THE MENU Delivers Epicurean Delights and Horrors in Equal Measure
THE MENU Delivers Epicurean Delights and Horrors in Equal Measure
The Menu

4 min read

Mel Valentin

Mel Valentin

1.5K Followers

Writer/editor for hire. Member: SFFCC, OFCS.

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