Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos continue their creative collaboration with Bugonia, their third project together in as many years. This time, the two-time Academy Award winner plays Michelle Fuller, the CEO of a powerful player in the pharmaceutical space called Auxolith. She’s the kind of well-paid boss babe who gets up at 4:30 in the morning to run on a treadmill that probably costs more than most people’s cars and has table ornaments with platitudes like “let’s kick impossible’s [butt]” inscribed on them. Her routine of power striding into the office and confusing subordinates with corporate doublespeak is interrupted by the presence of cousins Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis) at her house after work. They’re there in Jennifer Aniston masks and they’re there to abduct her.

Michelle is drugged and when she wakes up, her head is shaved, she’s chained up in a basement and is accused by Teddy of being the queen of an “Andromedan” alien species. Why Teddy and Don are so convinced Michelle isn’t actually human, and the lengths to which she will go to prove that she is, are best left for viewers to discover for themselves. Bugonia is a remake of a South Korean movie called Save The Green Planet!, though they’re both so seemingly singular that it’s hard to imagine either one has ties to anything else. Even more surprising is how closely Lanthimos and his scribe Will Tracy follow the narrative beats of the bugnuts predecessor, to the extent that seeing the original may actively ruin the experience of seeing this reimagining. Still, the pair do enough to distinguish this tonally and thematically from Jang Joon-hwan’s film to justify the refresh.

Stone gave what is likely the best performance of her career a couple years ago in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and even though her work in Bugonia likely won’t score her another Oscar, it’s another perfectly-calibrated piece of acting. The CEO character in Save The Green Planet! is actively awful and spends the majority of his captivity mocking the kidnappers. He even brags about his IQ at one point, a go-to for the intellectually insecure. By comparison, Michelle is much more sympathetic, still calloused and condescending in a way she can’t seem to help — her correction of Teddy’s pronunciation of “shibboleths” is so impulsive that it’s basically a sneeze — but nonetheless someone who doesn’t deserve what she’s being put through. As her eyes dart around the musty basement when she comes to, you can practically see her desperately attempting to recall hostage negotiation techniques she was likely taught at some point.

A way that Lanthimos and Tracy most meet our moment with Bugonia is in tapping into how much of a communication breakdown we’ve sustained by siloing ourselves off from one another. Jesse Plemons does an outstanding job as Teddy, a man who’s been done dirty enough that he’s retreated to the conspiracy-ridden internet to find meaning when the real world simply doesn’t make sense. He wants to turn the tables, to act as though he’s in control of the situation with power over someone who would have power over him in any other scenario, but he’s ultimately scared and confused. He wants to be right in his theory that Michelle is from another planet but he won’t accept her just telling him what he wants to hear either. The lack of direction makes things difficult for Don too, who’s blindly accepts just about everything that comes out of Teddy’s mouth but develops moral scruples when contradictions arise.

Bugonia is powerfully acted, sharp-tongued and, for all its peculiarities, is probably Lanthimos’ most approachable work since The Favourite — if you haven’t seen any of his movies, I’d consider this as strong a starting spot as any. Still, I wish he had done more to depart from the existing text and made this tale his own, not from a stylistic sense but from a narrative one. He carries over a police character, here played by Stavros Halkias, that could’ve just as easily been converted into a different plot device that forces Teddy and Don to scramble. Teddy’s backstory is better implied than directly shown, with black-and-white flashbacks that work too hard to spell out his motivations. There’s also a scene at a hospital that makes absolutely no sense. But as a darkly funny cat-and-mouse game set against the backdrop our divided times, Bugonia has plenty in it worth buzzing about.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Predator: Badlands, starring Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is a sci-fi action film following a young Yautja Predator outcast from his clan who finds an unlikely ally on his journey to find and defeat the ultimate adversary.
Christy, starring Sydney Sweeney and Ben Foster, is a sports biopic chronicling professional boxer Christy Martin’s rise to becoming America’s most well-known and successful female pugilist in the 1990s.
Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe and Rami Malek, is a historical drama involving a World War II psychiatrist tasked with evaluating Nazi leaders before the Nuremberg trials, growing increasingly obsessed with understanding evil as he forms a disturbing bond with Hermann Göring.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

The medical dramedy Code 3 is a bit like if the Emmy-winning series The Pitt had an episode that stepped outside the titular emergency room and just focused on the paramedics who rush patients to Dr. Robby and his crew. Like that show, the film envelops us in the world of these workers as they navigate the perpetual pains of their profession, mainly associated with the build-up of emotional trauma from the horrors they’ve seen. Granted, there’s more humor here, and it’s more of the fourth wall-breaking variety than interpersonal chatter, but director Christopher Leone’s aim remains to put us in the shoes of the medical community’s most unsung heroes. Leone penned the script with Patrick Pianezza, who worked 12 years as an EMT and brings to the screenplay the kind of world-weary wisdom you can only really get from firsthand experience.

Code 3 takes place over the final 24-hour shift of 18-year veteran paramedic Randy (Rainn Wilson), who gets a surprise job offer from a medical insurance company after a seemingly disastrous interview. He’s much overdue for a career change, beyond burned out and suffering panic attacks in a job where most people don’t make it past 5 years. After he gets the call, Randy is ready to leave right away but his dispatch manager Shanice (Yvette Nicole Brown) tasks him with showing the ropes to ride along trainee Jessica (Aimee Carrero) on his final day. Along with Mike (Lil Rel Howery), the only driving partner who’s been willing to put up with Randy’s surly disposition over the years, the trio zoom across California highways responding to all manner of non-stop emergency calls and try to keep their heads on straight in the process.

During his 9-season tenure on The Office, Rainn Wilson got plenty of opportunities to talk directly to the camera and Code 3 makes quick work of handing him the reins with an opening voiceover. “So…how’s your life goin’?” he asks, as we see an ambulance blaring past numerous cars en route to a crime scene. “I am your best friend on your worst day,” he continues, although his tone doesn’t exactly convey the geniality and inspire the assurance one might hope. We soon learn that Randy doesn’t exactly have an ideal degree of proverbial bedside manner, arriving on-site praying for a potential drug overdose to instead be a disturbing the peace matter so he can let the cops deal with it. Disgruntled, he assesses the OD victim while grilling a tagalong med student and then turning to the audience to remind us of our mortality. As dark as the humor on The Office could be, it never quite got to cut-to-black existential crisis levels of nervous laughter.

As director, Christopher Leone threads a fine needle with Code 3 between dark comedy and procedural drama in his depiction of EMS workers putting everything they have into their job. It also provides insights into hierarchies within the medical community and takes well-deserved jabs at a healthcare system that’s as disheveled as the psyche of our broken-down protagonist. This combination is best typified by a slow pan around a hospital, beginning with an arrogant surgeon played by Rob Riggle, which overlays the average salaries for everyone on staff and calls attention to how comparatively undercompensated paramedics are. Centered around three characters on the chaotic front lines, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the film can also at times resemble a war movie, specifically The Hurt Locker in a notable narrative parallel.

Along with tone-controlled direction and a trenchant script, the performances in Code 3 feel of a piece with the lived-in ethos of the engrossing project. Wilson does an outstanding job dappling drips of hopefulness upon the overwhelmingly cynical canvas that is his beleaguered tech’s mindset. Before roaring into a searing monologue aimed at everyone with whom he interacts on a daily basis, Randy asserts that he builds emotional walls not to keep people out but to keep all of the bad experiences in. Howery’s role doesn’t have as much dramatic heft and is more within the actor’s wheelhouse of comic relief but it’s certainly a welcome salve for the often intense proceedings. His hypothetical conversation as a Subway customer with would-be sandwich artist Randy isn’t quite the year’s funniest scene to invoke that ubiquitous eatery but it’s an easy second.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Him, a sports horror film starring Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans, involving a young athlete as he descends into a world of terror when he’s invited to train with a legendary quarterback whose charisma curdles into something darker.
Also coming to theaters is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a romantic fantasy starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, telling the imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.
Streaming on Hulu is Swiped, a tech biopic starring Lily James and Dan Stevens, centered around the life and career of entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and former CEO of the online dating platform Bumble.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

The chilling mystery Weapons, writer-director Zach Cregger’s follow-up to 2022’s out-of-nowhere camp hit Barbarian, finds the The Whitest Kids U’ Know alum following the sketch comedy-to-horror filmmaking path paved by Jordan Peele. It’s a formally and narratively more ambitious movie than his previous effort, telling its twisty-turny tale through the eyes of six different characters, each contributing their own fragments to the master narrative. At times, the chronology overlaps and we see the same scene from a different perspective but Cregger mostly uses the technique to parse out bits of information until the entire picture is filled in. While it falls victim to the logic gaps and plot holes that have plagued multi-layered stories before it, the film is a freaky fun puzzle box to unlock and contains some of the year’s best scares to boot.

Set in the fictitious small town of Maybrook, Weapons opens with elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) arriving at her classroom with only one of her 18 students, Alex (Cary Christopher), in attendance. The ensuing police investigation reveals that the other 17 kids all woke up at 2:17 AM the previous night and ran out of the respective houses, vanishing into the dark. As days and weeks go by with no further understanding of what caused this tragically bizarre event, the parents of the missing children like Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) gradually turn on Justine and press the school principal Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong) for answers. Also feeling the pressure from desperate townspeople are police captain Ed Locke (Toby Huss) and his son-in-law officer Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), the latter of whom is looking to rekindle a flame with Justine.

Through creepy bookend voiceovers, the first of which sets up a story in which “a lot of people die in a lot of weird ways”, Weapons percolates with the unease we feel collectively when faced with the unimaginable. In the wake of tragedy, we can’t accept that there is no solution and no way to prevent its future occurrence. The fractured narrative underscores the social fissures that the disappearance creates between the people of Maybrook, who have a much more difficult time working the problem separately than if they had done so together from the start. As the storyteller, Cregger delights in patiently putting the pieces together while simultaneously including numerous terrifying moments designed to make us jump out of our seats. A night-set scene, in which Justine is asleep in her car, is a masterclass in how lighting, sound design and a petrifying performance can lend themselves to a perfect horror setpiece.

Like many horror outings, Weapons‘ spookiest scenes are set in the wee small hours of the morning, while the whole town should be asleep but its citizens are burdened by somnambulance and unshakeable nightmares. But even during the daytime moments, cinematographer Larkin Seiple is able to carry over a half-awake nerviness to the shot composition that makes everything feel that much more unpredictable. Much like DP Roger Deakins accomplished in 2013’s Prisoners — another small-town thriller centered around missing kids — Seiple drenches each frame with a visualized version of the dread and dreariness that fill our characters. If you can see this film in IMAX, it’s worth the upgrade to get a better glimpse into the shadows and darkness on the edge of town.

Given its story structure, Weapons doesn’t have quite as much time as I’d prefer to more deeply develop its characters but the talented ensemble does a great job imbuing their roles with ardor and unexpected bits of humor too. Josh Brolin and Julia Garner turn in reliably great work crashing up against one another as types they’ve played before, the former as a gruff everyman looking for justice and the latter as a troubled young woman looking for solace. Besides another actor whose presence is best left to be discovered, the movie’s secret weapon may be Austin Abrams as a drug addict who’s more credible than the rest of the community seems to think. Weapons doesn’t quite hit all the ambitious targets it’s shooting for but it shows that Cregger is anything but a one-hit wonder after Barbarian and has the chops to go the distance as a filmmaker.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Nobody 2, an action comedy starring Bob Odenkirk and Connie Nielsen, following a former lethal assassin whose violent past catches up with him once again, this time on summer vacation with his family.
Also playing only in theaters is Witchboard, a horror remake starring Madison Iseman and Aaron Dominguez, involving a cursed spirit board which awakens dark forces and drags a young couple into a deadly game of possession and deception.
Streaming on Netflix is Night Always Comes, a crime thriller starring Vanessa Kirby and Jennifer Jason Leigh, telling the story of a desperate woman who sets out on a dangerous odyssey, confronting her own dark past over the course of one propulsive night.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Even though it’s statistically more likely for one to die by a falling coconut than by a shark, that hasn’t stopped filmmakers from framing the finned fish as killing machines hungry for human flesh since Jaws first terrorized audiences 50 years ago. While the new Shudder release Dangerous Animals continues this trend by depicting them as violent, it’s decidedly more nuanced than a standard creature feature. Instead, director Sean Byrne’s latest project exists in the middle of a horror-based Venn diagram, where the shark movie, survival film and slasher subgenres somehow swim together. Set in the deceptively idyllic location of the Gold Coast in Australia, this is a creepy and creative export glowing up from the land down under.

After a brutal cold open that perfectly ripples the waters, Dangerous Animals introduces us to Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), an attachment-averse surfer whose beat-up van doubles as her domicile. An ask for jumper cables from fellow surfer Moses (Josh Heuston) leads to a one night stand, where Zephyr skedaddles in the morning before he can treat her to a pancake breakfast. On her way to the next sunrise surf spot, she borrows a fin key from nearby bloke Tucker (Jai Courtney), just before he ambushes her with a bag over the head and drags her unconscious onto his boat. Under the guise of Tucker’s Experience Cage Diving & Adventure Tours, it turns out the captain has been moonlighting as a serial killer, using his victims as bait for hungry sharks miles off the coast. Pitted against a physically imposing murderer, Zephyr’s only hope is to outsmart her captor and make it safely back to shore.

The premise is a bit ridiculous and stretches credulity more than once but Dangerous Animals works as well as it does in large part due to the two central performances from Harrison and Courtney. Zephyr may seem like a free-spirited surfer girl at first glance but Harrison shades her with survivalist grit that has us fighting tooth-and-nail along with her. She also has a movie star quality to her that lights up the screen; I was reminded of Helen Hunt in the mid-90s around Twister‘s release. On the subject of Hollywood presence, Courtney’s maniacal role recalls fellow Aussie Russell Crowe’s menacing turn in 2020’s Unhinged. He’s an actor who hasn’t had much success as a leading man in blockbuster fare like Terminator Genisys and Insurgent but he seems to be a much better fit as a ruthless antagonist.

While Nick Lepard’s script doesn’t contribute much new on the page when it comes to serial killer tales, Sean Byrne adds loads of little flourishes in his direction that remind us Dangerous Animals is a shark of a different color. The way he uses Aussie singer Stevie Wright’s “Evie” diegetically to show off his killer’s not-so-killer dance moves recalls how “Goodbye Horses” was used in The Silence Of The Lambs to get us into the antagonist’s headspace. The set design inside Tucker’s quarters is full of easy-to-miss visual clues as to how this guy developed his MO and has gone undetected for as long as he has. Even in the digital age, he still has a fondness for video tape and a shot of his chillingly well-populated VHS closet portends a grisly fate for Zephyr.

On the sonic side of things, composer Michael Yezerski lends a tense and thrilling music backdrop that always hints at more danger right below the surface. The soundtrack counters the tension nicely in some of the earlier quiet scenes, set to ethereal cuts from Fleetwood Mac and Cigarettes After Sex, where Zephyr and Moses connect. There’s even a running joke about Zephyr being gobsmacked that Creedence Clearwater Revival’s take on “Ooby Dooby” is Moses’ all-time favorite tune. For those curious: the Arctic Monkeys song that shares its name with the movie does not pop up in the soundtrack. Though the title initially reads as a touch generic, Dangerous Animals reminds us that man remains the most dangerous animal, especially when compared to seemingly sinister sharks.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is How To Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake starring Mason Thames and Gerard Butler, retelling the story of a timid Viking who defies centuries of tradition when he befriends a feared but misunderstood dragon.
Also coming to theaters is Materialists, a romantic comedy starring Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans, following a young and ambitious New York City matchmaker as she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Premiering on Apple TV+ is Echo Valley, a family thriller starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney, involving a horse trainer whose world is turned upside down when her daughter arrives at her door covered in blood that is not hers.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Concluding both the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One chapter from 2023 and possibly the whole series, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning seems to at least be the final time we’ll see Tom Cruise in the superspy Ethan Hunt role he first portrayed almost 30 years ago. Naturally, it’s a bittersweet sendoff: necessary given how much unmatched physicality the now-62-year-old Cruise puts into these productions but unfortunate that it winds down one of the very best action franchises around. While this last adventure is both the most narratively simplistic and somberly apocalyptic in the series, it’s bolstered by a terrific ever-expanding cast and two extended setpieces that are unmatched in their guileless ambition and technical coordination.

We pick up the action two months after the events of Dead Reckoning, with the world in chaos due to the proliferation of The Entity’s reality-bending influence on the digital landscape, and with Ethan Hunt in possession of the key to stopping it. The locked chamber that holds The Entity’s source code is aboard a sunken submarine buried deep in the ocean, the coordinates of which are known only by Ethan’s enemy Gabriel (Esai Morales). Bent on triggering nuclear annihilation, The Entity has every world leader, including US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), up against the wall watching control of the arsenals being seized by the evil AI. IMF team regulars Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), along with new members Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (Pom Klementieff), are all in with Ethan to put an end to The Entity’s reign.

Combined with Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning caps off a storyline that runs over 5 and a half hours and now that we’ve seen this second portion, I would’ve preferred the series not end on a two-parter. The main reason is that Gabriel and The Entity are promising villains that would’ve worked better separately in their own films, as opposed to having them split time to face off against Ethan. Dead Reckoning teases exposition with Gabriel that The Final Reckoning doesn’t properly pay off, likely because there are too many other narrative threads that need to be tended to. As for non-human villains, The Entity has a couple moments of menace but in this final chapter, the articulation of its power is mainly relegated to people in power distressingly staring at screens. There are plenty of terrifying ways to depict a rogue artificial intelligence and this Reckoning arc doesn’t fully realize that potential.

But anyone who has watched the Mission: Impossible series knows that Ethan’s truest archnemesis is gravity and as such, The Final Reckoning has what may be their most exhilarating showdown to date. The climactic biplane sequence has been the focal point of the film’s marketing but no matter how many glimpses you’ve seen of it so far, it’s an entirely different experience watching it play out at-length in an ideally IMAX theater. The Burj Khalifa setpiece in Ghost Protocol remains my favorite scene in the series but this new plane chase is a very close second. It’s a peerless showcase of stunt work and if the Academy Award For Achievement In Stunt Design was being handed out for the first time next year instead of in 2028, I would be appalled if it didn’t go to this crew.

The Final Reckoning dedicates plenty of its extended runtime looking back on the series it’s summing up and likewise inspires us to reflect on what’s given the franchise its staying power. The most obvious answer would be Tom Cruise as the lead actor but I would argue Tom Cruise the producer is equally as important to what’s made each of these entries so consistently enjoyable. Though he’s technically never been credited with directing a film, Cruise clearly has an almost innate infatuation for storytelling and his influence in that regard has been particularly felt during the Christopher McQuarrie-directed Missions over the past ten years. It’s hard to argue there’s someone who believes in the magic of the movies more than Cruise and though he’ll likely be wearing a different hat the next time we see him on-screen, I can’t wait to see what he’ll pull out of it next.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Bring Her Back, a horror film starring Sally Hawkins and Billy Barratt, centered around a brother and sister who are introduced to their new sibling by their foster mother, only to learn that she has a terrifying secret.
Also playing only in theaters is Karate Kid: Legends, a martial arts sequel starring Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, following a kung fu prodigy who embarks on a journey to enter the ultimate karate competition with the help of two seasoned veterans.
Premiering on Max is Mountainhead, a satirical dramedy starring Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman, which finds four ultra-wealthy friends in the tech industry retreating to a snowy mountain mansion amidst an ongoing financial crisis.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

If you’re exhausted by the relentless march of Marvel movies, it may help to know that you’re not alone, as some of the characters themselves share the sentiment. “Maybe I’m just bored,” a recalcitrant Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) surmises while jumping off a gigantic Kuala Lumpur tower at the opening of Thunderbolts*, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s going through the motions, both literally and figuratively, completing shady clean-up missions under the thumb of CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Still mourning the loss of her sister and the distancing of her stepfather Alexei (David Harbour), Yelena doesn’t know what she wants but she knows it isn’t this. If the ethos of The Avengers was “success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm,” then Thunderbolts* would be summed up by “if you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Yelena tells Valentina she wants out and is sent on a final mission to an off-the-map facility to destroy evidence of illegal scientific operations being run under de Fontaine’s purview. After she breaks in, Yelena’s confronted by super soldier John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who says he’s been sent there to kill her. Not a moment later, another assassin Antonia (Olga Kurylenko) engages John and then yet another assassin Ava (Hannah John-Kamen) shows up to take out Antonia. The group takes a beat to recognize the presence of a bystander named Bob (Lewis Pullman) and collectively realize they’ve been sent there to kill one another. Narrowly escaping from de Fontaine’s trap, the group of “disposable delinquents” (as Ava dubs them) solicit the help of now-congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to settle the score with their conniving employer.

It’s impressive how the Thunderbolts* incorporates so many well-worn tropes — in addition to being a “one last job” and “ragtag band of misfits” movie, the film’s climax finds city dwellers running from a scary thing in the sky — and still comes out on top. Perhaps it’s partially due to the low bar set by some of Marvel Studios’ more recent output but director Jake Schreier and his team seem to have their eye on behind-the-camera diligence in ways that have eluded recent products of the Marvel machine. The tone here is indeed more serious, delving into the darkness of the past lives that haunt the movie’s characters, but doesn’t get too mired by glumness that it can’t have a few laughs along the way. Most importantly, these are characters who start out as odds and ends left over from previous MCU chapters but over the course of the movie, we care about them individually and collectively.

Sadly, Thunderbolts* is subject to the concrete-mixer color grading that has plagued numerous entries in this franchise but the lighting and cinematography is a cut above what we typically get in green-screen affairs. Light and shadow is an important component thematically but visually, DP Andrew Droz Palermo also uses the contrast to signal an all-encompassing menace that’s challenging and creepy. Even things like blocking and editing feel a bit more back-to-basics in a good way, with scenes arranged engagingly and the repartee between these antiheroes managed deftly. Technically, most of these characters have superpowers but the combat scenes still tend to focus more on hand-to-hand as opposed to being reliant on CG effects. It’s nice to have a superhero movie that doesn’t hinge only on gargantuan action setpieces.

When Black Widow came out in 2021, Pugh’s Yelena had to play second banana to Scarlett Johansson’s titular Avenger but Marvel wisely trusts Pugh as the face of this new crew. She’s been remarkable in film after film and she brings her all to this role, balancing a world-weary malaise with hard-earned optimism and empathy. David Harbour is even more giddy here than he was in Black Widow as the goofy Red Guardian, who’s primarily just excited that Yelena is on a team again for the first time since being a part of her winless soccer squad in childhood. On the villain side of things, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ corrupt politician gets to volley Veepesque snipes like “righteousness without power is just an opinion” at her assistant. After several projects that have signaled a decline in the brand, Thunderbolts* proves that the best way to course-correct is to focus on fundamental filmmaking. You can always count on Marvel to do the right thing, after they’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Shadow Force, an action thriller starring Kerry Washington and Omar Sy, following an estranged couple with a bounty on their heads, who must go on the run with their son to avoid their former employer, a unit of shadow ops, that has been sent to kill them.
Also playing in theaters is Clown In A Cornfield, a slasher movie starring Katie Douglas and Aaron Abrams, set in a fading midwestern town in which Frendo The Clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge on the town’s teens.
Streaming on Netflix is Nonnas, a food dramedy starring Vince Vaughn and Lorraine Bracco, involving a man who risks everything to honor his recently-deceased mother by opening an Italian restaurant with actual grandmothers as the chefs.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Anchored around a single location like Phone Booth and Red Eye before it, the gripping new thriller Drop chooses a high-rise restaurant in downtown Chicago as its locale du jour. 38 stories above the hustle and bustle, single mother and therapist Violet (Meghann Fahy) grabs a drink at the bar while waiting for her photographer date Henry (Brandon Sklenar) to arrive. It’s Violet’s first night out with a potential suitor in four years, the wounds from the traumatic death of her abusive husband still lingering, while also bearing the responsibility of raising son Toby (Jacob Robinson) by herself. Thankfully, her younger sister Jen (Violett Beane) has stepped up and agreed to babysit Toby for Violet’s special night out and mom can even check in virtually with a video feed from her phone. Henry arrives, apologetic for his absence, and the two get seated but it doesn’t take long for their evening to take a turn for the terrifying.

Violet asks if she can keep her phone on their table so she can receive updates from Jen, to which Henry agrees, but her phone instead keeps pinging with messages sent anonymously from someone in their midst. The Digi-Drops — a facsimile of Apple’s AirDrop technology, so as to not clash with their “no villain clause” — start as obnoxious memes but quickly become more personal. The sender soon reveals their intent and instructions: Violet must kill Henry before the end of their date or the masked hitman in her house will murder Toby and Jen. The disguised “dropper” seems to have eyes in the sky and ears on the table, informing Violet that they’ll also make good on their threat if she tips anyone off or tries to leave the restaurant. Most of us have been on bad first dates but the one at the center of Drop is about as dire as it gets.

Just last Christmas, Netflix had a holiday hit with the nail-biter Carry-On, which also involved a high-wire act of coercion from a criminal communicating covertly with our protagonist. While the identity of the caller in that cat-and-mouse game is revealed about halfway through, Drop makes us sweat out the source of the messages, and their motives, to the very end. Along with screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, director Christopher Landon knows the fun of this tale is in us trying to figure out which of the restaurant patrons is responsible for terrorizing Violet. She’s waiting for Henry at the bar long enough to meet several potential suspects but once the Digi-Drops come flooding in, Violet’s bandwidth for sleuthing is strained between heeding the commands from her phone and keeping her date unaware of her predicament.

While Brandon Sklenar is a bit of a drip as the well-meaning but mostly bland date, Meghann Fahy is outstanding in her first big lead role on-screen after breaking out in The White Lotus two years ago. Given the baggage that Violet brings to the table, this evening out would be difficult enough for her as is but as the plot necessitates, it becomes exponentially more demanding. As a survivor of domestic abuse, she unfortunately understands all too well how to put on a brave face and conceal her anxiety under horrific circumstances. Violet knows her son and sisters’ lives are also in jeopardy if Henry decides to ditch the date, so she somehow has to be good company while also constantly monitoring her phone for updates. Fahy is brilliant in the way she balances these conflicting tasks as an actress and her work alone makes the film stand apart from similarly-plotted thrillers.

Naturally, Drop isn’t immune to the plot contrivances that keep thrill rides like this ticking along and some may argue it commits more than its fair share of narrative faux pas. It’s not a plot that necessarily holds up well under scrutiny and there’s one particular story beat that makes absolutely zero sense in hindsight. But Landon and his team certainly do everything they can to keep us on our toes at all times and do so while getting us fully immersed in this gorgeous setting. The restaurant where the majority of the film takes place is an immaculately-rendered and beautifully-lit set that encourages us to look around with our protagonist to suss out the situation. Ironically, Drop is an ideal date night movie choice for those adventurous enough to take the ride.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Sinners, a supernatural horror film starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, about twin brothers who return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Also coming to theaters is Sneaks, an animated comedy starring Anthony Mackie and Martin Lawrence, involving a sentient sneaker who unwittingly finds himself lost in New York City and has to rescue his sister with the help of other talking shoes.
Streaming on Shudder is Dead Mail, a period thriller starring Sterling Macer Jr. and John Fleck, in which an ominous help note finds its way to a 1980s post office, connecting a dead letter investigator to a kidnapped keyboard technician.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Adapted from his short film Merit x Zoe, the new dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe is the feature debut of writer/director and Bronze Star Medal recipient Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. His experiences serving overseas in the Army during the Iraq War directly impacted both projects, which center around the invisible wounds that so many veterans return home with. But even though it’s mainly about characters who have been in the military, Hausmann-Stokes weaves in universal themes like perseverance after trauma and the power of human connection into a story that’s deeply affecting whether you’ve served or not. Led by what should be a star-making turn from Sonequa Martin-Green, this is a bitingly funny and ultimately moving tribute to the brave men and women in the armed forces.

Martin-Green plays Merit, a sergeant in the middle of an 8-year tour in Afghanistan who primarily works on-base as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. By her side is the bratty and chatty Zoe (Natalie Morales), a specialist waffling between either reenlisting or going to college after her current stint. After returning home, Merit sits recalcitrant while Dr. Cole (Morgan Freeman) leads up group therapy and Zoe, who has since passed away, appears only to Merit as a gabby apparition. The manifested memory of Zoe follows Merit as she’s asked to take care of her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris), who’s struggling with early Alzheimer’s, in his Pacific Northwest cabin. While looking for potential retirement communities for her grandpa, Merit strikes up a tentative relationship with Alex (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a manager of one of the facilities.

The hook of My Dead Friend Zoe is right there in the title, a comedic conceit where Zoe can poke and prod at Merit all she wants because no one else can see her. It’s not like we’ve never seen this concept before but in the context of this movie, it helps visualize the inner monologue and mental health struggles that veterans can face after coming home. Though we don’t exactly know the circumstances of Zoe’s death until late in the film, it’s implied that Merit feels guilty and potentially responsible for her passing. Zoe typically has an impish and impudent disposition as a ghostly hanger-on but when Merit attempts to open up with others about her trauma, Zoe’s demeanor is much more dour and hostile, as if her existence is under attack. It’s an apt way to convey how some feel that opening up about their experiences will be too burdensome and choose to bury their feelings instead.

Lest one get the impression that My Dead Friend Zoe is too heavy a meal, Hausmann-Stokes and his co-writer A.J. Bermudez pepper in plenty of deadpan snipes in the interactions between Merit and Zoe. As we see during flashbacks of their time together in Iraq, these two young women may not have been immediate friends stateside but as battle buddies, their friendship is full of warmth and humor. The version of Zoe in Merit’s head seems consistent with who she was in life; when the pair visit a cemetery and Merit tries to scold Zoe for making fun of names on headstones, she shoots back with, “I can joke about the dead; these are my people!” There are also pithy exchanges as Merit begins to open up to others as well; “The Army doesn’t own PTSD,” she tells Alex on a date, wryly following up with, “We are the best at it though.”

As a first-time director, Hausmann-Stokes occasionally gets bogged down in the tropes and contrivances that can hinder both comedies and dramas but most importantly, he does a fine job navigating the movie’s tricky tonal balance. Similarly, Martin-Green does a superb job portraying a character who is obviously holding onto so much but can still find the comedy in her situation and day-to-day interactions. She’s a terrific screen presence with Morales and especially Harris, an acting heavyweight who seems to relish his time on-screen with Martin-Green. A sly slant on a serious subject, My Dead Friend Zoe is a great example of a first-time feature filmmaker translating their unique life experiences to the big screen.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Mickey 17, a sci-fi comedy starring Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie, about a financially strapped young man who signs up to become a disposable clone worker and is sent on a dangerous journey to colonize an ice planet.
Also playing in theaters is The Rule Of Jenny Pen, a psychological horror movie starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, following a former judge who is confined to a secluded rest home after a debilitating stroke and is subsequently tormented by one of the residents there.
Premiering on Netflix is Plankton: The Movie, an animated musical comedy starring Mr. Lawrence and Jill Talley, putting the spotlight on the SpongeBob SquarePants supervillain as his plans for world domination are put to a halt when his computer wife decides to take charge.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Arriving just in time for Valentine’s Day, the romcom slasher Heart Eyes succeeds most by staying true to its unique combination of subgenres. It’s genuinely romantic, consistently funny and certainly has the gory coups de grâce one would expect from a straight-ahead serial killer horror movie. There are plenty of horror comedies, there are even several slashers set on Cupid’s favorite holiday, but this film is clever enough to carve out its own niche. Co-written by Christopher Landon, who’s shaken up the horror comedy genre with Freaky and the Happy Death Day series, this outing does poke fun at romantic comedy tropes but mainly wears its heart on its sleeve. All of director Josh Ruben’s features thus far, including Scare Me and Werewolves Within, have been horror comedies and good ones at that.

Opening with a botched proposal at a winery that turns into a gruesome double murder, Heart Eyes introduces us to its titular baddie, a masked murderer the news media has dubbed the Heart Eyes Killer. Every February 14th, the HEK terrorizes couples in a different metropolitan area and this year, Seattle is on their list. There, advertising designer Ally (Olivia Holt) produces a jewelry campaign that hits a sour note with her boss Crystal (Michaela Watkins), prompting the latter to hire freelancer Jay (Mason Gooding) to play clean up. Forced to work together on the most romantic night of the year, Ally and Jay meet for dinner to exchange ideas but their personalities clash immediately. HEK spots them leaving the restaurant and mistakes them for significant others celebrating, sending Ally and Jay’s night in a deadly new direction.

Like its central characters, Heart Eyes wrestles with the notion of what old-fashioned romance can look like in a tech-saturated world where a new date is just a touchscreen swipe away. Originally wanting a career in nursing but settling for advertising, Ally has always put her career first and often snuffs out flickers of romance before they can kindle. Jay, on the other hand, is more of a softie, falling in love fast and hard before really getting to know them first as a person. Their backgrounds put them in prime position to butt heads on their first “date”, Jay trying and failing to open Ally up with questions about her life in Seattle. Of course we’re seen this trope before — two opposite personalities getting off on the wrong foot but eventually warming to one another — but the actors sell it all the same.

As we know, romance movies live or die on the strength of the chemistry between the leads and Heart Eyes certainly has an excellent duo at the heart of its story. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding both have experience in the slasher genre, the former in 2023’s Totally Killer and the latter in the past couple Scream entries. In between bouts of peril with the Heart Eyes Killer, Ally and Jay find themselves gradually falling for one another while running for their lives. Hiding in a van watching His Girl Friday at a drive-in theater, the two tenderly unpack how their respective upbringings informed their views on relationships and romance. We don’t just want these two to survive the night; we want them to thrive as an unlikely couple who got off on a rocky start.

Lest one think that Heart Eyes collapses under the weight of excessive mushiness, the movie delivers both in terms of killer wit and creative kills at the hands of the HEK. The late 90s country hit “Amazed” is utilized in an early scene that pokes fun both at the awfulness of Lonestar’s song and at how men sometimes opt for bottom shelf originality when it comes to romantic gestures. Ally’s best friend Monica, played by Gigi Zumbado, gets off quite a few zingers, as when she tells Ally “you look like a ‘before’ photo” before her meet-up with Jay. Elsewhere, two detectives, played by horror veterans Devon Sawa and Jordana Brewster, end up on the receiving end of an unexpected Fast & Furious homage. Slashers aren’t typically thought of as date night movies but Heart Eyes is a solid pick for couples looking for something to watch after a candlelit dinner this weekend.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming only to theaters is Captain America: Brave New World, a Marvel movie starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, in which the titular superhero finds himself at the center of an international incident involving the newly-elected President Of The United States.
Also playing in theaters is Paddington In Peru, a family comedy starring Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer, which finds Paddington returning to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy and a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.
Premiering on Peacock is Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, a romcom starring Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant, about a widow and single mom whose dating life is thrown through a loop when she’s pursued by a younger man but also has feelings for her son’s science teacher.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

The new Steven Soderbergh film Presence is a ghost story, albeit an unconventional one. It can’t be neatly described as a horror movie or even a thriller, genre-wise fitting in most closely to a supernatural family drama. The events of the film are shown entirely from the perspective of what we come to find is a displaced spirit that seems to reside within a house built in the early 20th century. As is the case for the past dozen or so projects that Soderbergh has directed, he also serves as editor and, especially important this time around, as cinematographer as well. Regardless of what one thinks of Soderbergh — candidly, he’s one of my favorite living filmmakers — it’s difficult to deny he’s one of the hardest-working storytellers in Hollywood.

Though Presence isn’t a scary movie, it does start out like traditional horror fare. We see a real estate agent, played by Julia Fox, arrive at a newly listed house just ahead of a family interested in snatching it off the market. Soon, Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) arrive with their two teenage children Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) and before long, they’re all moved in. As we spend more time with the family, we see fractures in the relationship between Rebecca and Chris, while Chloe has become more reclusive after the unexpected death of her best friend. Eager to become popular at their new school district, Tyler invites swim teammate Ryan (West Mulholland) over to sneak drinks from mom’s liquor cabinet and he soon takes interest in Chloe.

Presence is the second collaboration between Soderbergh and blockbuster screenwriter David Koepp, their first being the excellent covid-era thriller Kimi and their next being Black Bag, set to release this March. Since the visual storytelling is limited to the vantage point of the titular “presence”, Koepp’s script is crucial in filling us in on what’s going on with this family and how this poltergeist fits into it. Though the dialogue can seem a bit too forced or on-the-nose at times, it nevertheless gives us what we need to attach ourselves to these characters. There are also several exchanges whose resonance doesn’t fully land until after the film’s ending; “there is an excellent man inside of you, Tyler; I would love to see him soon,” Chris chides his son after the latter mistreats his sister.

Another Soderbergh staple is working with smaller casts that are mixed with both recognizable faces and actors with more limited resumes. The latter, in this case, applies to Eddy Maday and West Mulholland, who give performances that initially read as “slack-jawed jock” but are given layers as the story progresses. The standout of the better-known actors is Chris Sullivan, playing a father at his wit’s end trying to remedy his daughter’s sadness and his son’s arrogance. I wish that Lucy Liu’s character had a bit more development — there are implications that whatever her character does for work isn’t on the up-and-up but never explicitly told what it is — but she gets a scene of walloping emotion towards the end.

Compared to other releases from the distributor Neon over the next few months, Presence is much more subtle and subdued. During the pre-roll for the movie, trailers played for upcoming titles The Monkey and Hell Of A Summer, both bombastic splatterfests that fit in better with the brand of iconoclastic product Neon tends to put out. In an effort to market Soderbergh’s latest, they’ve mimicked competitor A24’s style with off-kilter violin stabs and pull quotes that pitch it as a terrifying horror film and even “one of the scariest movies you’ll see this year”. Anyone who goes into Presence with that expectation will be disappointed but if you’re up for a quietly haunting tale about regret and redemption, then you’ll want to be present for this one.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Companion, a horror film starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, that follows a weekend getaway among friends at a remote cabin, which unravels into chaos after one of the guests has a startling revelation about themselves.
Also playing in theaters is Dog Man, an animated superhero comedy starring Pete Davidson and Lil Rel Howery, following a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner who are injured together on the job but a life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together.
Streaming on Amazon Prime is You’re Cordially Invited, a romcom starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, about two weddings that are double-booked at the same venue, causing the father of one bride and the sister of the other bride to try and preserve the wedding weekend.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup