-
“The Island” Is Like “Lord of the Flies” With Grown-Up Schmucks
The mordantly hilarious Chinese black comedy The Island is what you’d get if Lord of the Flies were reimagined as a capitalist critique about a group of adult white-collar workers who, shipwrecked on a tropical island, create a society ruled by power-hungry “bosses,” a title vied for by competing wannabe leaders Wang (Wang Xiao) and Zhang (Hewei Yu). […]
-
Superhero Spoof “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” Rides the Coattails of Lazy Meta-Jokes
The peppy but cynical animated superhero comedy Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is eager to flatter you, as so many of its lazy meta-reflexive jokes suggest. Most of the gags in this pandering spoof are about their own schematic nature — they’re jokes about how you’re smarter than the jokes. The story follows insecure […]
-
“14 Cameras”: Some Movies Are Just Bad
It’s hard to tell if the makers of the bewilderingly awful home invasion thriller 14 Cameras — which follows cartoonishly gross Internet voyeur Gerald (Neville Archambault) as he uses nanny-cams to spy on a nuclear family at a secluded California summer house — believe that web users are innately monstrous or if the Internet only underscores […]
-
Paris Is for Lovers and Also Zombies in “The Night Eats the World”
You’ll probably enjoy the French zombie film The Night Eats the World if post-apocalyptic sci-fi like 28 Days Later and The Omega Man are your moviegoing answer to comfort food. Like those earlier films, this paranoid fantasy gives filmgoers the vicarious thrill of watching a resourceful loner — in this case, American tourist Sam (Anders […]
-
Vincent Cassel’s Charisma Saves “Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti”
The decision to cast — and keep the camera pointed at — magnetic leading man Vincent Cassel is the most novel aspect of the otherwise staid French biopic Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti. It’s a Lust for Life–like period drama, following master artist Paul Gauguin as he abandons his wife and children and moves to French […]
-
The Subjects of “A Skin So Soft” Are Here to Pump Themselves Up
Canadian filmmaker Denis Côté holds up a shallow mirror to the world of bodybuilding in the underwhelming experimental documentary A Skin So Soft, a dialogue-light portrait of six professional Canadian weight lifters who perform a variety of exercise routines, including hoisting barbells and hauling tractor tires. Côté (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, Bestiaire) stresses the […]
-
The Slow-Burn Style of Techno-Thriller “Hover” Makes It Worth Seeing
Fans open to no-budget sci-fi should check out Hover, a surprisingly effective techno-thriller that predicts a future where terminally ill farmers look to Transitions — a company that performs assisted suicides for the physically infirm — to help them escape the hard financial times caused by a perfect storm of global warming, population growth, and poor […]
-
“Incident in a Ghostland” Is a Disturbing and Effective Critique of Misogynist Torture Porn
The grisly post-torture-porn horror flick Incident in a Ghostland serves as an effectively punishing critique of the relentless misogyny that has become a staple of every stupid Texas Chain Saw Massacre knockoff that pits sexually active women against emotionally disturbed serial killers. Writer-director Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) dwells on the wounds (bruises, welts, tears, and so much blood) […]
-
Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska’s Alt-Western “Damsel” Isn’t as Clever as It Thinks It Is
The tonally berserk western-comedy hybrid Damsel often suggests a Wes Anderson–directed acid western, only without Anderson’s knack for sad-sack jokes about macho pride or the acid western’s typically spiritual consideration of white guys’ destructive nature. Instead, fraternal co-writer/co-director duo David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) subject the understandably exasperated pioneer woman Penelope (Mia Wasikowska) […]