CHALLENGERS
2024 | Dir. Luca Guadagnino | 132 Minutes
5 out of 5
An exquisitely turbulent sports drama presenting tennis as a catch-all analogy for the complicated ebbs and flows of human relationships. Friendship, love, jealousy, resentment, and everything in-between both on and off the court is delivered through auteur Luca Guadagnino's brilliant artistic sensibility and elevated further by a heart-pounding score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O'Connor play their respective parts perfectly, all sharing exceptional on-screen chemistry.
ABIGAIL
2024 | Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett | 109 Minutes
4 out of 5
Very fun and incredibly bloody, this kidnapping-gone-horrifically-wrong horror comedy is lifted beyond its deliciously simple premise by its superb ensemble cast. The script is clever, sporting some amusing twists and turns, though its emotional core is somewhat undercooked and ultimately slightly off-putting when it comes back around at the very end of the picture.
SASQUATCH SUNSET
2024 | Dir. David and Nathan Zellner | 88 Minutes
5 out of 5
Daring, disgusting, ridiculous, and surprisingly touching, it's a weird little gem of a picture loaded with scatalogical humor, excellent cinematography, creature effects that range from awe-inspiring to laughably bad, and an abundance of genuine emotion. If anything, the feature is quite an achievement in visual storytelling. It's certainly not for everyone, but those with a healthy appreciation for the absurd and in the mood for something radically different will find much to love about this one.
CIVIL WAR
2024 | Dir. Alex Garland | 109 Minutes
4 out of 5
A super grim and suffocatingly intense episodic journey into war-torn dystopian America through the eyes and lenses of reckless photojournalists. Well-shot, well-paced, and well-cast, and lacking almost exclusively in the story department, the picture isn't even all that interested in firmly establishing the circumstances behind its fictional titular civil war, and whatever social commentary present is surface-level at best. It is first and foremost a character-driven feature with impressive performances from Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.
MONKEY MAN
2024 | Dir. Dev Patel | 113 Minutes
4 out of 5
Gritty, violent, and ultra-stylish, Dev Patel's directorial debut is an ambitious revenge actioner that has quite a lot to say about religion, political corruption, and the plight of the impoverished. Unfortunately, hyperkinetic camerawork and erratic editing hold back the feature significantly, making most of the action sequences more difficult to follow than wholly engaging. However, it is clearly a labor of love from its fully committed director and star, well worth watching for fans of Patel and action cinema junkies.
