Movie Review: Prospect (2018)

Genre: Science Fiction Drama  

Directors: Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell  

Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jay Duplass, Pedro Pascal  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: Space miner Damon (Jay Duplass) and his daughter Cee (Sophie Thatcher) land on a distant dust-filled planet to rendevouz with mercenaries. Damon is an expert at extracting a dangerous mineral from the planet's surface, but before he and Cee can get to their destination, they tangle with space adventurer Ezra (Pedro Pascal) and his silent partner. Violence ensues, forcing Cee to flee and reexamine who she can trust.

What Works Well: In this independent and low-budget drama, the writing and directing team of Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell imagine a future regressing to clunky technology, makeshift spare parts, and questionable medical interventions. The cinematography (filmed in the forests of Washington State) makes impressive use of a dense tree setting, and Sophie Thatcher is adequately monotonal as the young woman tapping reservoirs of inner strength to deal with adversity. 

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a grim, jargon-heavy, and character-light exercise in small world building. The key protagonists exist only at the sketch level, and the villains are free of any context. Most of the third act takes place in darkness, the action scenes are muddled, and the plot is devoid of new ideas beyond the most basic survival, human nature, and trust themes. 

Key Quote:

Ezra (to Cee): Listen... I know well the lure of vengeance. I, myself, have... frequently indulged and I have not often found regret.



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Movie Review: The Voyeurs (2021)

Genre: Erotic Suspense  

Director: Michael Mohan  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Justice Smith, Ben Hardy  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: In Montreal, optometrist Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and her partner Thomas (Justice Smith) move into their first apartment together. They soon notice that they can see clear into the unit of their across-the-courtyard neighbours Seb and Julia (Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Seb is a fashion photographer, Julia is a former model, and their active sex life is at first a thrill for Pippa and Thomas. But then they notice Seb regularly cheating on Julia, and Pippa suddenly faces a dilemma when a chance encounter with Julia results in a budding friendship.

What Works Well: Writer and director Michael Mohan uses Rear Window and Body Double as starting points to craft a clever and sexy suspense drama. The thrill and guilt of voyeurism, the limits of what the eye can see, and the eroding definition of privacy underpin the adventure of Pippa and Thomas, as their relationship is consumed by their neighbours' dramas. Pippa dives deeper, Thomas pulls back, and then curiosity takes a dark turn, setting the stage for a series of intensifying jolts. Sydney Sweeney places Pippa at the intersection of noisiness, arousal, and conflict, and that's all before she confronts the reality of what she's seeing.

What Does Not Work As Well: While still carrying Machiavellian impact, the final twist is potentially one curve too many. 

Key Quote:

Thomas: Of all the eye clinics in the world...

Pippa: ...she walks into mine.

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Movie Review: The Life List (2025)

Genre: Romantic Dramedy  

Director: Adam Brooks  

Starring: Sofia Carson, Connie Britton, Kyle Allen  

Running Time: 125 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, thirtysomething Alex (Sofia Carson) is drifting through life. When her mother Elizabeth (Connie Britton) succumbs to cancer, her will stipulates that Alex can only claim her inheritance once she has fulfilled a "life list" of wishes that Alex scribbled down when she was 13. With help from lawyer Brad (Kyle Allen), Alex embarks on a journey which includes re-discovering her passion for teaching, reconciling with her father, searching for true love, and reading Moby Dick.

What Works Well: This breezy adventure in pushing life's reset button benefits from a likeable Sofia Carson performance, an original premise (especially for the genre), and enough hidden surprises in Alex's life to maintain interest. Multiple romantic opportunities, a steady stream of sharp humour, reawakened career ambitions, parental secrets, and sibling dynamics provide an impressively wide canvass, with a special mother-daughter bond providing a sturdy foundation for a new start.

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time could have benefitted from a trim, and there is no denying the material's edge-free fluffiness. A few key characters are summarily discarded once they serve their purpose.

Key Quote:

Elizabeth: Life is beautiful, and messy, and complicated, and sometimes it doesn't look the way you think it's supposed to look.



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Movie Review: The Wasp (2024)

Genre: Suspense  

Director: Guillem Morales  

Starring: Naomie Harris, Natalie Dormer  

Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: In London, Heather (Naomie) is living a comfortable middle-class life but is frustrated with her inability to get pregnant and her increasingly inattentive husband Simon, who may be having an affair. She approaches her former school friend Carla (Natalie Dormer) and offers her a lot of money to murder Simon. The pregnant, penniless, and tough-as-nails Carla is raising three kids, and accepts the money-for-murder arrangement. But what starts out as a plan to kill a husband turns into a much more complex plot.

What Works Well: Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, this play adaptation drips with Hitchcockian intent. The cat and mouse game between Heather and Carla is filled with secrets, revelations, mounting psychological suspense, and unexpected twists, with stated intentions obscuring hidden motives. Flashbacks to the women's days as young students gradually fill in the blanks of their characters and relationship, revealing a complex power dynamic, incidents of bullying, and layers of victimhood driving present interactions.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot leans on some flakiness and coincidences, and only works when certain decisions are made at exactly the right time. In retrospect, it's difficult to believe Carla's inability to recollect her school-era behaviour.

Key Quote:

Carla (to Heather): Are you sure you want him actually dead?



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Movie Review: The Apprentice (2024)

Genre: Biography  

Director: Ali Abbasi  

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: In a decaying New York City of the 1970s, Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is a budding real estate developer still under the shadow of his father Fred (Martin Donovan). Donald dreams of building a glitzy hotel to help revitalize the city, and finds a mentor in cut-throat lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who demonstrates the ruthlessness required for high-stakes dealmaking. Donald's confidence grows with every deal and he romantically pursues Czechoslovakian model Ivana (Maria Bakalova), but his ego starts to damage his relationships. 

What Works Well: This hard-hitting, behind-the-scenes look at the making of a mogul focuses on the spiky partnership between Trump and Cohn, with both Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong in excellent form. Writer Gabriel Sherman traces a rich arc from mentor/apprentice to domination/destruction, as Cohn imparts lessons from the big book of brutal business but also inadvertently unleashes latent narcissism. The fraught bond between Donald and his difficult father Fred is the other point of influence, and director Ali Abbasi deftly reveals a son determined to surpass his father's achievements and seeking elusive acknowledgement. The fast pacing gallops through a glitz and glamour world fueled by amphetamines, ambition, and a power-couple marriage, and still finds time to probe Donald's attitudes towards flailing brother Fred Jr. and the ravages of AIDS.

What Does Not Work As Well: Trump's challenge with the threat of bankruptcy is only briefly hinted at, and beyond dirty tricks, his penchant for structuring audacious deals is short-changed.

Key Quote:

Roy Cohn (to Trump): You create your own reality. Truth is a malleable thing.

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Movie Review: Sing Sing (2023)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Greg Kwedar  

Starring: Colman Domingo  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: At the Sing Sing high security correctional facility in New York State, a group of male prisoners participate in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. The thoughtful John "Divine G " Whitfield (Colman Domingo) is the group's spiritual leader, while Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin (playing himself) is the snarling and angry newcomer. The inmates decide to put on a time travel comedy as their next project, with both Divine G and Divine Eye also preparing for their upcoming parole hearings. 

What Works Well: Based on actual events, this noble drama features mostly amateur performances by RTA alumni, and is filled with good intentions demonstrating the power of art to rehabilitate and offer a version of freedom through creativity. Both Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin deliver raw performances filled with pain, regret, and internal battles between despair and hope.

What Does Not Work As Well: The talky and static material is better suited to a small theatre production. The few rudimentary sets are at the high school gymnasium level, and too many characters compete for the same emotional space, stranding most definitions at the introductory stage. The missing dramatic elements are conspicuous by their absence: the crimes committed and victim impacts receive barely a mention, while life in a high security facility is portrayed as remarkably comfortable and lacking in hardship. The omissions result in maximum sympathy for minimum effort.

Key Quote:

Divine Eye (to Divine G): You don't get to tell me what I need in prison.



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Movie Review: Immaculate (2024)

Genre: Horror  

Director: Michael Mohan  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Alvaro Morte  

Running Time: 89 minutes  

Synopsis: In a prologue, a nun attempts to escape a convent in Italy, but is thwarted. In the main story, Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) relocates from Detroit to Italy and joins a convent managed by Father Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte), where dying elderly nuns are cared for in their final days. Although some of the other nuns are unwelcoming, Cecilia befriends Sister Gwen and integrates within the strict environment. After experiencing disturbing dreams and some frightening nighttime experiences, Cecilia feels sick, and receives shocking news.

What Works Well: The forgotten-by-time setting of an isolated and candlelit convent (built on catacombs) creates an effective setting for a story of domination, experimentation, and evil hiding behind charity. The strong undercurrent of men using religion to control women's bodies features impactful jump scares, and Sydney Sweeney rides a range of emotions from the excitement of a newcomer to outright survival horror, her performance building to a phenomenal climax. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Plenty of time is consumed by Cecilia wandering the hallways in the dark, responding to things that go bump in the night. Other characters deserved more time to explain their motivations, methods, or predicaments.

Key Quote:

Sister Cecilia: Wait, so you don't even believe in God?

Sister Gwen: Of course I do. Life is so cruel. Only a man can be responsible.

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Movie Review: Absolution (2024)

Genre: Drama Thriller  

Director: Hans Petter Moland  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: In Boston, Thug (Liam Neeson) is an aging underworld enforcer working for gang boss Charlie Connor (Ron Perlman). A former boxer, Thug is suffering memory lapses and is diagnosed with incurable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He tries to repair a long-broken relationship with his daughter Daisy, creates a bond with his grandson Dre, and starts a new romance. Thug does not get along with Charlie's son Kyle (Daniel Diemer), and his disillusionment worsens when he learns about the cargo being transported by gangs between New York and Boston.

What Works Well: In this soaked character study, Liam Neeson delivers a grizzled, lived-in performance as a low-level goon exceeding his best-by date. Director Hans Petter Moland creates an end-of-the-road mood of despair filled with too many regrets and not enough time, but Thug will nonetheless attempt to make up for past errors, many of them passed on from previous generations. The dream sequences with Thug's father are a nice touch, and the few action scenes are welcome exclamation points within a book-of-life's last chapter.

What Does Not Work As Well: The emotional tone is only ever sombre or downbeat, and the pacing is excessively ponderous. Thug is surrounded by plenty of secondary characters (daughter, grandson, boss, boss' son, new lover, other gangsters and their victims), all of them genuine but none of them progressing beyond basic definitions.

Key Quote:

Dre: Mom said you were in prison. What for?

Thug: Not walking away.

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Movie Review: Heretic (2024)

Genre: Suspense Horror  

Directors: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods  

Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East  

Running Time: 111 minutes  

Synopsis: Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) are young Mormons door-knocking to spread the faith. Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) invites them into his isolated spooky home with a promise of meeting his wife and enjoying blueberry pie. The seemingly jovial and obviously knowledgeable Reed engages Paxton and Barnes in cerebral sparring about religion, but when neither Mrs. Reed nor the pie materialize, the two young ladies realize they may be in a lot of trouble.

What Works Well: The first half drips with psychological suspense building behind smiley discourse, propelled by Hugh Grant enjoying a career highlight as the slightly smarmy but whip-smart debater ready to turn the intellectual tables on hawkers of religious dogma. The old isolated home in the middle of nowhere with a storm raging outside is an effective setting, and both Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes (confident and street wise) and Chloe East as Sister Paxton (unsure and more fragile) excel on a journey that starts with converting others and ends with pure self preservation. The focus on defining the "one true religion" is handled with wicked aplomb.

What Does Not Work As Well: Although the ending is impressive, most of the third act meanders away from the sharp-edged exchange of uncomfortable ideas and towards less interesting horror tropes.

Key Quote:

Mr. Reed: I promise you, the last thing I wanted to do was find the one true religion - but unfortunately, I did.

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Movie Review: Killer Heat (2024)

Genre: Neo-Noir Mystery  

Director: Philippe Lacôte  

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: On the Greek island of Crete, private detective Nick Bali (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is hired by Penelope Vardakis (Shailene Woodley) to probe the death of her brother-in-law Leo (Richard Madden), who supposedly fell to his death while rock climbing. The wealthy Vardakis family controls the island, and Penelope is married to Leo's twin brother Elias (also Madden), the CEO of the family's business empire. Nick's sleuthing uncovers a web of jealousy linked to a long-ago relationship between Penelope and Leo, and teams up with local police detective Mensah to uncover the truth.

What Works Well: The Crete filming locations are attractive, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings the requisite ruffled curiosity to the role of a private investigator running from his own jealousy demons. The narration is marginally overdone, but mostly effective.

What Does Not Work As Well: The commitment to noir fundamentals is admirable, but locating this mystery under bright Mediterranean skies defeats any attempt at a dark aesthetic. The plot machinations are undone by a focus on too few characters (Nick, Penelope, and Elias) limiting the potential pool of conspirators. Shailene Woodley struggles to convey a femme fatale's complexity, and once revealed, the evil intentions and follow-up actions hardly make any sense.

Key Quote:

Nick (narrating): Sometimes you use a carrot. Sometimes you use a stick. Sometimes you just lie your ass off.



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