REVIEW: To Leslie [2022]

You’re trying to do what I didn’t do. Despite what she tells herself as she scrounges up enough money for that first beer at the bar before quickly pivoting to flirting for free drinks the rest of the night, Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) hit rock bottom a long time ago. Leaving home merely postponed that self-realization by allowing her to avoid the carnage left in her wake much longer than she should have. If she finds another motel to sleep in without paying rent and another man to facilitate her addiction,…

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REVIEW: Gone in the Night [2022]

I will let you know when I’ve had enough adventure. Director Eli Horowitz (of “Homecoming” fame) speaks about his projects always starting with “something simple, even superficial.” If there’s a better descriptor for using a cabin in the woods as your springboard towards genre fare, I don’t know it. That’s not to say his and co-writer Matthew Derby‘s Gone in the Night (formerly The Cow) is superficial itself or that it uses said trope in a superficial way. In many regards the cabin being a cabin is unnecessary beyond its…

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REVIEW: Montana Story [2022]

There’s nothing left now. For anybody. Estranged family members returning home after a long absence to see the death of a parent through is hardly a unique premise, but it doesn’t have to be if the psychological and emotional toll expended from the reunion remains honest and authentic. Scott McGehee and David Siegel achieve exactly that with Montana Story, a script born from the necessity of another production’s COVID-driven postponement leading them to scale back and create under the industry’s newfound restrictions that didn’t allow for sprawling casts or excessive…

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