The CineFiles: 2019

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

UNCUT GEMS (2019)

Directed By: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Written By: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
Cinematography: Darius Khondji
Editor: Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie

Cast: Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Eric Bogosian, Idina Menzel, Julia Fox, The Weeknd, Kevin Garnett, Noa Fisher, Keith Williams Richards, John Amos, Judd Hirsch

From acclaimed filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie comes an electrifying crime thriller about Howard Ratner, a charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score. When he makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime, Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family, and encroaching adversaries on all sides, in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win.

Directed By: James Gray
Written By: James Gray & Ethan Gross
Cinematography: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Editor: John Axelrod & Lee Haugen

Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, Kimberly Elise, Loren Dean, John Ortiz, Lisagay Hamilton, Liv Tyler, Natasha Lyonne, Sean Blakemore

Astronaut Roy McBride travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

Directed By: Alexandre Aja
Written By: Michael Rasmussen & Shawn Rasmussen
Cinematography: Maxime Alexandre
Editor: Elliot Greenberg

Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfyyd Clark, Ross Anderson, Ami Metcalf, Jose Palma, George Sommer

A young woman, while attempting to save her father during a category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.

Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Written By: Scott Z. Burns
Based on the Book “Secrecy World: Inside The Panama Papers Investigation Of Illicit Money Networks and The Global Elite” By: Jake Bernstein
Cinematography: Peter Andrews
Editor: Mary Ann Bernard

Cast: Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Gary Oldman, Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, James Cromwell, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Larry Wilmore, Rosalind Chao, Matthias Schoenaerts, Nonso Anozie, Miracle Washington, Jessica Allain, Jay Paulson, Melissa Rauch, Will Forte, Chris Parnell

A widow investigates an insurance fraud, chasing leads to a pair of Panama City law partners exploiting the world's financial system. It feels like this films almost a lesson with dramatization added. Based on the Panama papers. It seems like Meryl Streep is the audience surrogate in a buerocratic international video game. Where through her experience we learn all about this situation really about fraud and international banking.

ANDRE JOSEPH OF THE CINEFILES: TOP 10 MOVIES OF THE YEAR

SHAZAM! (2019)

Directed By: Daryl F. Sandberg
Written By: Henry Gayden
Story By: Darren Lemke & Henry Gayden
Based On Characters Created By: Bill Parker & C.C. Beck
Cinematography: Maxime Alexandre
Editor: Michel Aller

Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, John Glover, Djimon Hounsou, Jack Dylan Grazer, Faithe Herman, Grace Fulton, Michelle Borth, Megan Good, Adam Brody, D.J. Cotrona, Ross Butler, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans

In Philadelphia, Billy Batson is an abandoned child who is proving a nuisance to Child Services and the authorities with his stubborn search for his lost mother. However, in his latest foster home, Billy makes a new friend, Freddy, and finds himself selected by the Wizard Shazam to be his new champion. Now endowed with the ability to instantly become an adult superhero by speaking the wizard's name, Billy gleefully explores his new powers with Freddy. However, Billy soon learns that he has a deadly enemy, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, who was previously rejected by the wizard and has accepted the power of the Seven Deadly Sins instead. Now pursued by this mad scientist for his own power as well, Billy must face up to the responsibilities of his calling while learning the power of a special magic with his true family that Sivana can never understand.

Directed By: Nisha Ganatra
Written By: Mindy Kaling
Cinematography: Matthew Clark
Editor: Eleanor Infante & David Rogers

Cast: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott, Denis O’Hare, Max Casella, John Lithgow, Paul Walter Hauser, Luke Slattery, Amy Ryan, Ike Barinholtz, Megalyn Euchikunwoke, John Early, Seth Meyers, Annaleigh Ashford, Halston Sage, Maria Dizzia

Katherine Newbury is a pioneer and legendary host on the late-night talk-show circuit. When she's accused of being a "woman who hates women," she puts affirmative action on the to-do list, and --presto!--Molly is hired as the one woman in Katherine's all-male writers' room. But Molly might be too little too late, as the formidable Katherine also faces the reality of low ratings and a network that wants to replace her. Wanting to prove she's not merely a diversity hire who's disrupting the comfort of the brotherhood, Molly is determined to help Katherine revitalize her show and career--and possibly effect even bigger change at the same time.

Written & Directed By: Paul Down Colazzio
Cinematography: Duncan Thum
Editor: Seamus Tierney

Cast: Jillian Bell, Jennifer Dundas, Patch Darragh, Alice Lee, Michaela Watkins, Mikey Day, Lil Rel Howery, Micah Stock Kate Arrington, Utkarsh Ambudkar

Hilarious, outgoing and always up for a good time, New Yorker Brittany Forgleris everybody's best friend -- except maybe her own. At 27, her hard-partying ways, chronic underemployment and toxic relationships are catching up with her, but when she stops by a new doctor's office to try to score some Adderall, she gets slapped with a prescription she never wanted: Get healthy. Too broke for a gym and too proud to ask for help, Brit is at a loss, until her seemingly together neighbor Catherine pushes her to lace up her Converse sneakers and run one sweaty block. The next day, she runs two. And soon, after finishing her first mile, she sets an almost unthinkable goal: running in the New York City Marathon.

Directed By: Shawn Levy
Story & Written By: Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant
Based On The Book By: Milan Trenc
Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro
Editor: Don Zimmerman

Cast: Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Jake Cherry, Ricky Gervais, Rami Malek, Kim Raver, Paul Rudd, Anne Meara, Steve Coogan

A newly recruited night security guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc.

KNIVES OUT (2019)

Written & Directed By: Rian Johnson
Cinematography: Steve Yedlin
Editor: Bob Duscay

Cast: Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Lakeith Stanfield, Chris Evans, Noah Segan, Christopher Plummer, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Frank Oz, Riki Lindhome, Edi Patterson, M. Emmet Walsh

When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.

Directed By: Neil Jordan
Written By: Ray Wright & Neil Jordan
Story By: Neil Jordan
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey
Editor: Nick Emerson

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Chloe Grace Moritz, Makia Monroe, Zawe Ashton, Stephen Rea, Colm Feore, Thaddeus Daniels

Frances , a sweet, naïve young woman trying to make it on her own in New York City, doesn't think twice about returning the handbag she finds on the subway to its rightful owner. That owner Greta, an eccentric French piano teacher with a love for classical music and an aching loneliness. Having recently lost her mother, Frances quickly grows closer to widowed Greta. The two become fast friends - but Greta's maternal charm begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta's life is what it seems.

Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: David Koep
Cinematography: Conrad W. Hall & Darius Khondji
Editor: James Haygood & Angus Wall

Cast: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bauchau, Ann Magnuson, Paul Schulze, Mel Rodriguez, Ian Buchanan

Recently divorced Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah have bought a new home in New York. On their tour around the mansion, they come across the panic room. A room so secure, that no one can get in. When three burglars break in, Meg makes a move to the panic room. But all her troubles don't stop there. The criminals know where she is, and what they require the most in the house is in that very room.

Written & Directed By: Gela Babluani
Cinematography By: Tariel Meliava
Editor: Noemie Moreau

Cast: George Babluani, Aurelien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Vania Vilers

Sebastian, a young man, has decided to follow instructions intended for someone else, without knowing where they will take him. Something else he does not know is that Gerard Dorez, a cop on a knife-edge, is tailing him. When he reaches his destination, Sebastian falls into a degenerate, clandestine world of mental chaos behind closed doors in which men gamble on the lives of others men.

JOKER (2019)

Directed By: Todd Phillips
Written By: Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Based On Characters Created By: Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson
Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
Editor: Jeff Groth

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Robert DeNiro, Brett Cullen, Francis Conroy, Shea Whigham, Bill Camp, Josh Pais, Marc Maron, Bryan Callen, Glenn Fleshler, Chris Redd, Brian Tyree Henry, April Grace

Joker centers around an origin of the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. Todd Phillips' exploration of Arthur Fleck, a man disregarded by society is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale. If you are looking for a comic book tale. You will be disappointed. While it doesn’t include the joker and the Wayne family as well as Gotham and arkham. It seems more tied into a psychological character study thriller. That uses all those comic book elements and storyline as a frame for it’s own ideas.

Directed & Story By: Fred Durst
Written By: Fred Durst & Dave Bekerman
Cinematography: Conrad W. Hall
Editor: Malcolm Crowe & Nik Voytas

Cast: John Travolta, Devon Sawa, Ana Golja, James Paxton, Marta Gonzalez Rodin

The story is inspired by a real-life fan who pursued Limp Bizkit's frontman Fred Durst many years ago, and the screenplay was written by Durst and Dave Bekerman. It follows Moose, who gets cheated out of meeting his favorite action hero, Hunter Dunbar. Moose then hunts down Dunbar to get the celebrity interaction he feels he deserves. Harmless at first, Moose's actions begin to take a dark turn. Against the advice of his friend Leah, Moose begins to make frequent visits to his hero's private home. As the visits continue to escalate, Dunbar finds himself in increasing danger.

Directed By: Marc Webb
Written By: James Vanderbilt & Alvin Sargent & Steve Kloves
Story By: James Vanderbilt
Based on Characters Created By: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Cinematography: John Schwartzman
Editor: Alan Edward Bell, Michael McCusker & Pietro Scalia

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Irrfan Khan, C. Thomas Howell, Campbell Scott, Embeth Daviditz, Chris Zylka, Amber Stevens, Tia Texada, Hannah Marks, Vincent Laresca

After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of a mysterious reptilian foe.

Directed By: Sam Raimi
Written By: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi & Alvin Sargent
Screen Story By: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi
Based On Characters Created By: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Cinematography: Bill Pope
Editor: Bob Murawski

Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, James Franco, J.K. Simmons, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, James Cromwell, Theresa Russell, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Elizabeth Banks, Ted Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Becky Ann Baker, Willem Dafoe, Cliff Robertson

Peter Parker has finally managed to piece together the once-broken parts of his life, maintaining a balance between his relationship with Mary-Jane and his responsibility as Spider-Man. But more challenges arise for our young hero. Peter's old friend Harry Obsourne has set out for revenge against Peter; taking up the mantle of his late father's persona as The New Goblin, and Peter must also capture Uncle Ben's real killer, Flint Marko, who has been transformed into his toughest foe yet, the Sandman. All hope seems lost when suddenly Peter's suit turns jet-black and greatly amplifies his powers. But it also begins to greatly amplify the much darker qualities of Peter's personality that he begins to lose himself to. Peter has to reach deep inside himself to free the compassionate hero he used to be if he is to ever conquer the darkness within and face not only his greatest enemies, but also...himself

MOVIES WATCHED IN NOVEMBER (2019)

HIGH FLYING BIRD (2019)

Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
Written By: Tarell Alvin McCraney
Cinematography: Peter Andrews
Editor: Mary Ann Bernard

Cast: Andre Holland, Melvin Gregg, Eddie Tavares, Zazie Beetz, Kyle Maclachlan, Zachary Quinto, Bill Duke, Sonja Sohn, Caleb McLaughlin

In the midst of a pro basketball lockout, sports agent Ray Burke finds himself caught in the face-off between the league and the players. His career is on the line, but Ray is playing for higher stakes. With only 72 hours to pull off a daring plan, he outmaneuvers all the power-players as he uncovers a loophole that could change the game forever. The outcome raises questions of who owns the game - and who ought to.

Directed By: Rashid Johnson
Written By: Suzan Lori-Parks
Based on the Novel By: Richard Wright
Cinematography: Matthew Libatique
Editor: Brad Turner

Cast: Ashton Sanders, Kiki Layne, Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, David Alan Grier, Sanaa Lathan, Lamar Johnson

A young African-American living in Chicago enters into a seductive new world of money and power after he is hired as a chauffeur for an affluent businessman.

Directed By: Roman Polanski
Written By: Yasmina Reza & Roman Polanski
Based on The Play By: Yasmina Reza
Translation By: Michael Katmis
Cinematography: Pawel Edelman
Editor: Herve De Luze

Cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz

In New York's Brooklyn Bridge park, eleven year old Zachary strikes his eleven year old classmate Ethan. The boy's parents learn of the fight and meet to deal with the incident. Although the meeting starts civilized, it quickly degenerates after an unfortunate incident, and soon, their meeting is not only about their boys' fight, but also the couple's fitness as parents.

Directed By: Barbet Schroeder
Written By: Nicholas Kazan
Based on the book By: Alan Dershowitz
Cinematography By: Luciano Tovoli
Editor: Lee Percy

Cast: Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Glenn Close, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Christine Baranski, Julie Hagerty, Fisher Stevens, Jack Gilpin, Felicity Huffman, Bill Camp, Lisa Gay Hamilton

Alan Dershowitz a brilliant professor of law is hired by wealthy socialite Claus von Bulow to attempt to overturn his two convictions for attempted murder of his extremely wealthy wife. Based on a true story the film concentrates not on the trial like other legal thrillers, but on the preparatory work that Dershowitz and his students put in as they attempt to disprove the prosecution's case and achieve the Reversal of Fortune of the title.

ANNA (2019)

Written & Directed By: Luc Besson
Cinematography By: Thierry Arbogast
Editor: Julien Rey

Cast: Sasha Luss, Cillian Murphy, Luke Evans, Helen Mirren, Lera Abova, Alexander Petrov, Anna Krippa

Anna is a young beautiful girl who managed to make a career in the fashion world. More recently, she was a simple model from Moscow, but in a very short time she was able to enter the elite. Once she entered the hotel of an influential and very dangerous person, after which a whole mountain of corpses was discovered there. The girl is being interrogated by special services, but she has absolutely nothing to tell on this fact. She looks scared, and no one suspects her. Anna goes free and begins preparing for a new business. Under the guise of a fragile beauty, is hiding the world's most dangerous assassin, who has not yet misfired.

Directed By: Eli Roth
Written By: Joe Carnahan
Based On The Novel By: Brian Garfield
Based On the original Motion Picture Screenplay By: Wendell Mayes
Cinematography: Rogier Stoffers
Editor: Mark Goldblatt & Yvonne Valdez

Cast: Bruce Willis, Elisabeth Shue, Vincent D’Onofrio, Camilla Morrone, Dean Norris, Beau Knapp, Kimberly Elise, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Len Cariou, Jack Kesy, Stephen McHattie, Jaslene Gonzalez

Dr. Paul Kersey is a surgeon who only sees the aftermath of his city's violence as it's rushed into his ER -until his wife and college-age daughter are viciously attacked in their suburban home. With the police overloaded with crimes, Paul, burning for revenge, hunts for his family's assailants to deliver justice. As the anonymous slayings of criminals grabs the media's attention, the city wonders if this deadly avenger is a guardian angel...or a grim reaper.

Directed By: Pierre Norel
Written By: Chad St. John
Cinematography By: David Lanzenberg
Editor: Frederic Thoraval

Cast: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba, Annie Ilonzeh, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Tyson Ritter, Richard Cabral

An unidentified woman is engaged in a brutal fight with a man in a car and finally dispatches him with a shot to the head. Five years earlier, the same woman, Riley North, is working as a bank teller in Los Angeles struggling to make ends meet. Her husband Chris owns a failing mechanic shop. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Carly. Chris' friend tries to talk him into robbing Diego Garcia, a powerful drug lord. Chris turns him down, but not before Garcia has already discovered his involvement and ordered his men to make an example of him. Riley and Chris take Carly out for pizza and to a carnival for her birthday since no one showed up to her party. At the carnival, Carly orders peppermint ice cream. As the family walks to the car, Diego's men gun down her husband and daughter in a drive-by shooting. She is wounded, but survives.

Written & Directed By: William Monahan
Based on the novel by: Ken Bruen
Cinematography: Chris Menges
Editor: Dody Dorn & Robb Sullivan

Cast: Colin Farell, Keira Knightley, David Thewlis, Ray Winstone, Stephen Graham, Ophelia Lovibond, Anna Friel, Ben Chaplin, Eddie Marsan, Sanjeev Bhaskar

Fresh out of prison, Mitchel wants nothing to do with crime but accepts a kip from Billy, a marginal grafter, and accompanies Billy on rent collection trips. He's also old school, wanting revenge on two youths for assaulting a mendicant he's befriended. He's got a strung-out sister to protect, and he's offered a job protecting a famous actress from paparazzi. The plot lines join when Michael finds himself attracted to the actress and Billy's Mob boss, Gant, finds ways to force Michael work for him. He also warns Michael off revenge against the assailants of his friend. What are Michael's options: is there any way to avoid Gant, protect his sister, and find a path to love?

BRIGHTBURN (2019)

Directed By: David Yarovesky
Written By: James Gunn & Brian Gunn
Cinematography: Michael Dellatorre
Editor: Andrew S. Eisen & Peter Gvozdas

Cast: Jackson A. Dunn, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Meredith Hagner, Matt Jones, Becky Wahlstrom Steve Agee, Emmie Hunter

What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? This film seems to be more about the origin of a supevillian by a kind of reverse morals of Superman. That entices the audience and could have been really strong and powerful, but instead goes more as a fantasy horror film.

Directed By: Joachim Trier
Written By: Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier
Cinematography: Jakob Ihre
Editor: Oliver Bugge Coutte

Cast: Elili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Doritt Petersen, Anders Mossling

A confused religious girl tries to deny her feelings for a female friend who's in love with her. This causes her suppressed subconsciously-controlled psychokinetic powers to reemerge with devastating results.

Directed By: Neil Burger
Written By: Leslie Dixon
Based on the Novel By: Alan Glynn
Cinematography: Jo Willems
Editor: Tracy Adams & Naomi Geraghty

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth, Ned Eisenberg, Robert John Burke, T.V. Capiro

With the help of a mysterious pill that enables the user to access one hundred percent of his brain abilities, a struggling writer becomes a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with lots of dangers.

Directed By: Richard Donner
Written By: Channing Gibson
Story By: Jonathan Lemkin, Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
Based On Characters Created By: Shane Black
Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Editor: Dallas Puett, Kevin Stitt, Eric Strand & Frank J. Urioste

Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Jet Li, Joe Pesci, Chris Rock, Rene Russo, Kim Chan, Steve Kahan, Darlene Love, Richard Riehle, Mary Ellen Trainor, Ebonie Smith

With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with deadly Chinese triads that are trying to free their former leaders out of prison and onto American soil.

MOVIES WATCHED IN OCTOBER (2019)

MOVIES WATCHED IN OCTOBER 2019

IN THE SHADOW IF THE MOON (THRILLER) 6/10

SHAFT (2019)(ACTION)(COMEDY) 7/10

HORROR NOIRE: HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR (DOCUMENTARY) 7/10

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID (FOREIGN)(SPAIN)(HORROR)(FANTASY) 8/10

*OUT OF SIGHT (THRILLER)(CRIME)(COMEDY) 8/10

LUCKY DAY (COMEDY)(THRILLER) 5/10

THE JOKER (DRAMA) (FANTASY) 7/10

THE RANGER (SLASHER)(HORROR) 6/10

EL CAMINO (DRAMA) 7/10

LITTLE MONSTERS (HORROR)(COMEDY) 7/10

TUFF TURF (TEEN)(DRAMA) 5/10

THE COLOR WHEEL (COMEDY) 7/10

JOHNNY GUITAR (WESTERN) 7/10

BLACULA (BLAXPLOITATION)(CULT) (HORROR) 7/10

SUGAR HILL (BLAXPLOITATION)(CULT)(HORROR) 7/10

CATFIGHT (COMEDY) 7/10

GREENER GRASS (CULT)(COMEDY) 5/10

THE LAUNDROMAT (DRAMA)(COMEDY) 7/10

*MY MAN GODFREY (CLASSIC)(COMEDY) 10/10

TORSO (HORROR)(THRILLER)(ITALY)(FOREIGN) 6/10

TRIPLE FRONTIER (ACTION)(ADVENTURE) 7/10

BLOW JOB (ITALY)(FOREIGN)(EROTIC)(FANTASY)(HORROR) 5/10

JOJO RABBIT (COMEDY)(DRAMA) 9/10

*FRIDAY THE 13th PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD (HORROR)6/10

*FRIDAY THE 13th PART IV: THE FINAL FRIDAY (HORROR) 7/10

*HALLOWEEN 2 (HORROR) 5/10

PARASITE (DRAMA)(FOREIGN)(SOUTH KOREA) 10/10

THE DEATH OF DICK LONG (COMEDY)(DRAMA) 4/10

TRICK OR TREAT (TEEN)(HORROR) 6/10

THE NIGHT OF THE VIRGIN (SPAIN)(HORROR)(FOREIGN)(COMEDY) 7/10

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME! (COMEDY) 7/10

THE LIGHTHOUSE (CULT)(HORROR)(THRILLER) 7/10

TELEVISION SPECIALS, TELEVISION MOVIES, STAND-UP AND SPECIALS

NIKKI GLASER: BANGIN’ 6/10

TOP BOY: SUMMERHOUSE (SERIES 3) 7/10

DAYBREAK (SEASON 1) 7/10

GHOSTS OF SUGARLAND (DOCUMENTARY) 8/10

HELLO PRIVILEGE: IT’S ME CHELSEA (DOCUMENTARY) 7/10

Thursday, October 24, 2019

THE DEAD DON'T DIE (2019)

Written & Directed By: Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography: Frederick Elmes
Editor: Affonso Goncalves

Cast: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloe Sevingy, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, RZA, Selena Gomez, Larry Fessenden, Carol Kane, Iggy Pop, Rosie Perez, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Jahi Winston, Caleb Landry Jones, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat

The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves.

Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Cinematography: Peter Deming
Editor: Patrick Lussier

Cast: Neve Campbell, Jerry O’Connell, Elise Neal, Timothy Olyphant, Jamie Kennedy, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Rebecca Gayheart, Portia DeRossi, Liev Schrieber, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jada Pinkett, Omar Epps, Duane Martin, David Warner, Luke Wilson, Heather Graham, Tori Spelling, Lewis Arquette, Joshua Jackson, Marisol Nichols

Two years after the events of Scream, Sidney Prescott and Randy are attending Windsor college. They are trying to get on with their lives...Until a new Ghostface killing spree begins. With the help of Dewey and Gale, Sidney must find out who's behind the murders. As the body count goes up, the list of suspects goes down.

Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Ehren Kruger
Based On Character Created By: Kevin Williamson
Cinematography: Peter Deming
Editor: Patrick Lussier

Cast: Neve Campbell, Patrick Dempsey, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Parker Posey, Josh Pais, Scott Foley, Emily Mortimer, Patrick Warburton, Deon Richmond, Jenny McCarthy, Carrie Fisher, Lance Henriksen, Liev Schrieber, Kelly Rutherford, Matt Kesslar, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Heather Matarazzo, Jamie Kennedy

A new film is currently in production, and a killer is on the loose. The murders draw a reporter, ex-cop, and young woman to the set of the movie inspired by their life. They soon find out that they are dealing with a trilogy, and in a trilogy...anything can happen.

Directed By: John Ottman
Written By: Scott Derrickson & Paul Harris Boardman
Based On Characters Created By: Silvio Horta
Cinematography: Brian Pearson
Editor: John Ottman & Ron Kobrin

Cast: Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Loretta Devine, Eva Mendes, Anthony Anderson, Jessica Cauffiel, Hart Bochner, Jacinda Barrett, Joseph Lawrence, Anson Mount, Michael Bacall, Marco Hofschneider

The film follows Amy Mayfield, a student at Alpine University who struggles to complete her thesis film on urban legends - only to have her crew members fall prey to fatal 'accidents.' Suspicious, Amy investigates and discovers a much more sinister hand at work. Now she must unmask the killer before she, too, becomes an urban legend.

BLISS (2019)

Written & Directed By: Joe Begos
Cinematography By: Mike Testin
Editor: Josh Ethier

Cast: Dora Madison, Tru Collins, Rhys Wakefield, Jeremy Gardner, Graham Skipper, Chris McKenna, Rachel Avery, Abraham Benrubi, George Wendt

A brilliant painter facing the worst creative block of her life turns to anything she can to complete her masterpiece, spiraling into a hallucinatory hellscape of drugs, sex, and murder in the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles.

Written & Directed By: Bobby Miller
Cinematography: Michael Fimognari
Editor: Josh Crockett

Cast: Johnny Gaelecki, Anna Friel, Angelica Huston, Oliver Platt, Kyle Gallner, Diana Bang, Kevin J O’Connor, Loretta Walsh

A heartbroken man attends a spiritual retreat to cleanse himself and fix his broken life. There he meets a fellow lost soul, and together they discover that "the cleanse" releases more than everyday toxins...a lot more.

Written, Directed, Cinematography & Production Design By: Gareth Edwards
Editor: Colin Goudie

Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Annalee Jefferies

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over North America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"...... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border

Directed By: Tobe Hopper
Written By: Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch
Cinematography: Jaron Presant
Editor: Andrew Cohen

Cast: Dan Byrd, Alexandra Adi, Denise Crosby, Bug Hall, Courtney Peldon, Rocky Marquette, Stephanie Patton, Adam Gierasch

The widow Leslie Doyle has just lost her husband and moves with her teenage son Jonathan and her young daughter Jamie to a mortuary in a small town in California that she has bought with the intention of starting a new business, practicing her knowledge as mortician. When they arrive, Leslie realizes that she was lured by the former owner, Elliot, and that the decrepit Fowler Brothers Funeral Home was completely abandoned and with problem with the septic sewer. While Leslie tries to improve and clean the place and start embalming corpses, Jonathan is informed about the legend of Bobby Fowler, the deformed son of the Fowlers. Meanwhile a weird substance attacks people, transforming them in zombies.

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2018)

Written, Edited & Directed By: Shin’ichiro Ueda
Based on a Play By: Ryoichi Wada
Cinematography: Takeshi Sone

Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Hariuma Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Hiroshi Ichihara

A low-budget film about zombies soon features the best cast money could not buy, but the problem is that the new actors are not exactly getting along with the crew. Everyone involved is soon receiving a lesson in the merits of perseverance, the preciousness of family bonds and of course the dangers of the living dead.

Directed By: Benjamin Barfoot
Written By: Danny Morgan
Cinematography: Laura Bellingham
Editor: Benjamin Barfoot & Jim Page

Cast: Danny Morgan, Michael Socha, Georgia Groome, Kelly Wenham, Dougie Poynter, Benny Bereal, Dexter Fletcher, Liz Kingsman

A man can't speak to ladies. His friend makes things happen but with 2 man-killing sisters looking for a virgin man to sacrifice to bring daddy back from the dead.

Directed By: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Written By: Kiyoshi Kurosawa & Chihiro Ikeda
Based on the Novel By: Yutaka Maekawa
Cinematography: Akikio Ashizawa
Editor: Koichi Takahashi

Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Ryoko Fujino, Masahiro Higashide, Teruyuki Kagawa

Takakura is a former detective. He receives a request from his ex-colleague, Nogami, to examine a missing family case that occurred 6 years earlier. Takakura follows Saki's memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. Meanwhile, Takakura and his wife Yasuko recently moved into a new home. Their neighbor, Nishino, has a sick wife and a young teen daughter. One day, the daughter, Mio, tells him that the man is not her father and she doesn't know him at all.

Directed By: Gerald Kargl
Written By: Gerald Kargl & Zbigkniew Rybczynski
Cinematography & Editor: Zbigkniew Rybczynski

Cast: Erwin Leder, Silvia Rabenreither, Edith Rosset, Rudolf Gotz, Claudia Schinko

A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.

VELVET BUZZSAW (2019)

Written & Directed By: Dan Gilroy
Cinematography: Robert Elswit
Editor: John Gilroy

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Zawe Ashton, Rene Russo, John Malkovich, Tom Sturridge, Toni Colette, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Digs, Billy Magnussen

A satire set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.

Written & Directed By: Nicolas Pesce
Story By: Ryu Murakami
Cinematography: Zack Galler
Editor: Sofia Subercaseaux

Cast: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Marin Ireland, Maria Dizzia, Wendell Pierce

A man kisses his wife and baby goodbye and seemingly heads away on business, with a plan to check into a hotel, call an escort service, and kill an unsuspecting prostitute.

Directed By: Gilbert Adler
Written By: A.L. Katz & Gilbert Adler
Story By: Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis
Based on the Comic Books “TALES FROM THE CRYPT: By: William M. Gaines Cinematography: Tom Priestley
Editor: Stephen Lovejoy

Cast: Dennis Miller, Angie Everhart, Erika Eleniak, Chris Sarandon, Corey Feldman, Aubrey Morris, Phil Fondacro, John Kassir, William Sadler, Robin Douglas

The old bag of bones 'Cryptkeeper' returns for his second full length feature flick about a funeral home that's a front for a whorehouse run by vampires.

Directed By: Vincente Aranda
Written By: Vincente Aranda
Based on The Novella “Carmilla” By: Sheridan Le Fanu
Story By: Matthew Lewis
Cinematography By: Ferando Arribas
Editor: Pablo G. Del Amo

Cast: Simon Andreu, Maribel Martin, Alexandra Bastedo, Rosa Rodriguez A young husband's sexual fantasies frighten his new wife and cause her to seek advice from Carmilla, a descendent of Mircalla de Karnstein. Carmilla seduces the young bride and forces her to commit gory acts of mutilation.

MOVIES WATCHED IN SEPTEMBER (2019)

"PUSHER"

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019)

Directed By: Jon Watts
Written By: Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers
Based On Characters Created By: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Cinematography: Matthew J. Lloyd
Editor: Leigh Folsom Boyd & Dan Lebental

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gylenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Jon Favreau, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalan, Tony Revolori, Martin Starr, J.B. Smoove, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Peter Billingsly, Angourie Rice

Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter's plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent.

Written & Directed By: Joss Whedon
Story By: Zak Penn & Joss Whedon
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey
Editor: Jeffrey Ford & Lisa Lassek

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johanssen, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexis Denisof, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jenny Agutter, James Eckhouse, Harry Dean Stanton, Stan Lee

Nick Fury is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., an international peace-keeping agency. The agency is a who's who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When global security is threatened by Loki and his cohorts, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to save the world from disaster which is formed by Loki and his team

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Friday, December 13, 2019

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Monday, November 4, 2019

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Friday, October 18, 2019

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Thursday, September 26, 2019