TRIBECA22 REVIEW: Huesera [2023]

Bleed from the inside. According to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés in Women who Run with the Wolves, the “Bone Woman,” or La Huesera, “collects and preserves that which is in danger of being lost to the world.” A Mexican myth sees her scouring the mountains and riverbeds for the remains of wolves, assembling what she finds to recreate the animal as though an ivory sculpture which will eventually become reanimated and ultimately reborn as a human woman freely laughing towards the horizon. They say she provides a glimpse of the…

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REVIEW: Watcher [2022]

You’re suspiciously quiet. Despite being half said in jest as a means of disarming Julia’s (Maika Monroe) fear, Irina’s (Madalina Anea) words are no less chilling. Her response to the former’s belief that someone is following her is to admit how never learning the truth may prove better than knowing. Better to “live with the uncertainty” than “find yourself bleeding out with ‘I told you so.’ caught on your lips.” That is the unfortunate reality illustrated by writer/director Chloe Okuno‘s feature debut Watcher (adapted from Zack Ford‘s original script and…

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REVIEW: Men [2022]

It’s the tip of the blade. Harper (Jessie Buckley) arrives at the gorgeous country estate owned and rented out by a kindly yet awkward man (Rory Kinnear‘s Geoffrey) in a bid to escape the tragic turmoil surrounding her. Anyone who’s seen the trailer knows said turmoil stems from the death of her husband James (Paapa Essiedu), his face falling in front of the window that she gazed out from has permanently fixed to her brain. When someone asks whether she’s tormented by this event, she rejects the word. When they…

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REVIEW: Dashcam [2022]

He’s got a butt buffet. Annie Hardy (played by Annie Hardy, of indie rock Giant Drag fame) is sick of COVID. Who isn’t, right? While most are sick of the nonsense perpetrated by bad faith politicians and partisan, anti-vax cultists who ensured the pandemic’s longevity via multiple mutated variants and an ever-increasing contentiousness pitting “prevention” versus “restriction,” however, she is one of those bad faith, partisan, anti-vax cultists. And that’s fine if there’s a reason for her to be one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take more than five minutes to realize…

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REVIEW: Torn Hearts [2022]

You weren’t welcome to begin with, dear. Keeping things in the family isn’t always easy—just as the Gallagher Brothers. Blood doesn’t mean anything once fame and fortune enter the fray because outside interests will begin to whisper and divide until the world discovers two halves aren’t quite as good as the whole. That’s not saying Noel’s High Flying Birds or Liam’s Beady Eye are bad. They’ve both created some good music post-break-up, but neither reached the heights Oasis had. The former’s music and latter’s voice built something that could only…

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REVIEW: Firestarter [2022]

When you see her, you will understand. My initial impulse upon rewatching the original movie was to read the novel assuming something got lost in translation to make it feel so boring on-screen. Now that I’ve seen director Keith Thomas and screenwriter Scott Teems‘ latest adaptation of Stephen King‘s Firestarter, however, I’m beginning to wonder whether the source material is just dull. Because a lot has changed this go-round. The fact there’s only thirty minutes left by the time Andy (Zac Efron) and Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) make it…

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REVIEW: Firestarter [1984]

You don’t need your gun. I haven’t read Stephen King‘s Firestarter, but I must believe it has more going for it than Mark L. Lester‘s adaptation. Why make it into a film at all if not? If I were to guess, the problem occurred when the producers hired Stanley Mann to create a new script that leaned more closely to the novel after Christine director John Carpenter had already commissioned two before exiting the project. There’s a difference between making a film version of a book and filming the book—something…

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REVIEW: De uskyldige [The Innocents] [2021]

Can I just listen? You’ve seen De uskyldige [The Innocents] before. Whether the telekinetic powers, battle between good and evil, or exploitation of neurodevelopmental disorders like Autism to supply a character a sense of power that contrasts preconceived prejudices, everything Eskil Vogt puts into his script is familiar in some way. What makes it so uniquely different in tone and expectation is therefore the choice to project those tropes onto children. His decision becomes an evolutionary progression forward from Max Landis and Josh Trank‘s Chronicle in that the sort of…

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REVIEW: Shepherd [2021]

No one does nothing. The incongruities abound at the start of Russell Owen‘s Shepherd to put us in a state of unease the moment we discover Eric Black’s (Tom Hughes) wife Rachel (Gaia Weiss) has died at sea, her body lost. He and those who knew her fill her coffin with memories and keepsakes instead, a pile of objects that appear contemporary in their appearance despite them now inhabiting an old-timey wooden planked box sealed shut with rough nails from a bygone era. Did my eyes deceive me? Were Rachel’s…

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REVIEW: We’re All Going to the World’s Fair [2022]

I don’t know what to expect. While the term “creepypasta” is not used in Jane Schoenbrun‘s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, it definitely helps to know what it is in order to decipher what’s going on. The word is a catch-all for most horror related content on the internet wherein creators tell dark tales of violence, death, and the supernatural with the main goal of scaring their viewers. As many know courtesy of the so-called “Slender Man stabbing” back in 2014, these stories and characters can “come to…

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REVIEW: Virus :32 [2022]

Today is not a day to be scared of madness. An unknown virus has spread throughout Montevideo, causing a zombie-like apocalypse scenario. No one knows what it is or where it came from, but signs of aggression leading up to the all-out carnage were there for anyone looking. Iris (Paula Silva) wasn’t. Her existence of late has epitomized not paying attention as a means of survival. She’s retreated from loved ones (Franco Rilla as her husband Javi and Pilar Garcia as their daughter Tata) in order to numb her pain…

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