Is there any more prosperous genre these days than horror? The scary, the dark, the depraved, the disturbing - both commercially and artistically, the fright flick is thriving. "Backrooms" is the latest phenomenon, after the barely 2-week-old "Obsession", but this one feels even more like an inflection point on many fronts - possible proof that something going viral can translate into a hit movie after all, that web series might be the next pool for Hollywood to drain its ideas…
I'm all for some defiant smudged-up punk-rock meta reconstitution of pop mythology, a Frankenstein of "Frankenstein" IP if you will, but if more than anything you're making the viewer alternately cringe from second-hand embarrassment at your awkward hipster showboating, and frequently check his watch from boredom with your shiftless plot momentum and deceptively mundane narrative choices (miserable outlaw couple trying desperately to live in the moment, dies tragically - what a storytelling scoop!), then I've got a pitchfork and an…
Yeah they lost it. There's effort here so I don't want to be too hostile, and in complete isolation maybe a handful of special effects shots are kinda cool. In contrast to the last time Tim Burton made a "Beetlejuice" movie, here we have a dour tone full of grief and resentment and regret (fun!), shrill performances (I know you're trying, Catherine O'Hara, but it ain't working, and get Justin Theroux the hell out of here), a muddy visual palette,…
Pragmatic!
Is the best way to describe this scrappy, intense, black-comedy thriller from the rising master of scrappy, intense, black-comedy thrillers Jeremy Saulnier. Like his debut "Murder Party", this is a chamber piece, confining a young punk band to mostly one room of a neo-Nazi club they made the mistake of playing at, where they become sitting ducks after witnessing a murder. And close quarters suit Saulnier's modus operandi impeccably, as he once again tackles a succinct premise with an…
