Movie Review: Billy The Kid (1941)

Genre: Western  

Director: David Miller  

Starring: Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Gene Lockhart, Ian Hunter  
Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: Notorious gunslinger William "Billy the Kid" Bonney (Robert Taylor) is hired by evil cattle baron Hickey (Gene Lockhart), who is locked in a dispute with rival cattle owner Keating (Ian Hunter). Billy gets re-acquainted with childhood friend Jim Sherwood (Brian Donlevy), now working for Keating, and switches sides. Keating believes in law and order and tries to convince Billy to abandon his outlaw methods, but with Hickey intent on stirring up trouble, avoiding violence will not be easy.

What Works Well: The Monument Valley backdrops provide a scenic setting, the script is packed with sharp dialogue, and director David Miller keeps the action moving briskly. Billy's exposure to the potential joys of peaceful domesticity is handled with sensitivity, and enough is revealed about his background (he was still a child when he sought revenge on the men who got away with murdering his father) to explain his disillusionment with the rules. Gene Lockhart (the self-satisfied slimeball Hickey) and Ian Hunter (the empathetic mentor Keating) offer robust support at either end of the ethical spectrum.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is only loosely based on facts. The real Billy died at 21, and Robert Taylor at 30 (and looking older) cannot convey the audacity of youth. Studio-bound close-ups are awkwardly (and frequently) inserted into the exterior shots.

Key Quote:

Billy: I got a horse and the west is wide.

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Movie Review: Windfall (2022)

Genre: Crime Thriller  

Director: Charlie McDowell  

Starring: Jason Segel, Lily Collins, Jesse Plemons  

Running Time: 92 minutes  

Synopsis: A burglar (Jason Segel) rummaging through a high-end vacation home in the California desert is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the owners, a husband (Jesse Plemons) and wife (Lily Collins) couple. The husband is a wealthy technology capitalist, the wife runs his charity organizations, and now the burglar holds them hostage and tries to extract a large sum of cash.

What Works Well: The single location benefits from the rustic beauty of a dream vacation home nestled in a desert hosting orange groves. The restless music carries a dynamic edge, and all three central performances are committed to the quirkiness of the premise.

What Does Not Work As Well: An idea in search of a movie, this chamber thriller is probably more suited to the stage. Despite the short running length, the cinematic execution is flabby and gets caught in long stretches of irrelevant talkiness and silent pauses, the script bypassing dramatic momentum by only nibbling at character backgrounds. The ending is therefore devoid of substance and defaults to shock for shock's sake, decoupled from coherence.

Key Quote:

Burglar: I want $150,000.

Husband: Do you think that's enough?

Wife: Yeah, I think you're probably gonna want more than that.

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Movie Review: Sentimental Value (2025)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Joachim Trier 

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning  

Running Time: 133 minutes  

Synopsis: In Norway, veteran film director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) abandoned his family years ago and now has a fraught relationship with his two grown daughters. Nora (Renate Reinsve) is a theatre star, while Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a former child actress, has settled into domesticity. After their mother dies, Nora pointedly turns down her father's request to star in his next film, although he wrote the script for her. Gustav turns to American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) and they start to prepare for the shoot, while Nora and Agnes navigate around their father's proud stubbornness.

What Works Well: In this thoughtful exploration of awkward father/daughter reconciliation, director and co-writer Joachim Trier delves into a family dynamic beset by abandonment, death, and successive generations of grim determination. With the family house acting as a dominant presence harbouring decades of essential history, Gustav, Nora, and Agnes are unapologetic about their choices, and yet aware of the damage caused. Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas excel in creating real people grappling with essential discomfort, and Elle Fanning is the outsider tiptoeing into intensely personal space. Trier deftly drives the narrative towards a couple of exceptionally well handled plot curves, all while staying true to his characters.

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is long, and the pacing slow. The deliberate approach is essential to enrich the story, but can also create an endurance test.

Key Quote:

Gustav: Everyone's mad at dad, huh? You two turned out fine, didn't you?

Nora: How can you tell? You don't even know us.



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Movie Review: Bugonia (2025)

Genre: Science Fiction Drama Thriller  

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos  

Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons  

Running Time: 118 minutes  

Synopsis: Conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his none-too-bright cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap pharmaceutical executive Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), believing her to be an alien and part of a conspiracy to control the human race. They shave her head (because hair is a means of communication with the mother ship) and hold her captive in their basement. To regain her freedom Michelle first attempts to rationalize with her captors then tries to manipulate them, but Teddy is prepared to fight for his cause.

What Works Well: Stellar performances by Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Aidan Delbis create a tightly wound collision between sharp intelligence and damaged minds, and director Yorgos Lanthimos (adapting a South Korean film) steers this conflict towards intriguing explorations of the human psyche. In what becomes searing societal commentary, Michelle needs all her wits to try and wriggle free, but smarts alone may be insufficient to defeat deeply-held warped beliefs. Teddy and Don's occupation as beekeepers provides a parallel subtext about a well-structured community's collapse, and the backstory of Teddy's mother adds texture to his mental state.

What Does Not Work As Well: The final act is unworthy, ditching cerebral jousting for inconsistent and outlandish resolutions fortified by far-fetched coincidences. 

Key Quote:

Teddy: Welcome to the headquarters of the human resistance.

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Movie Review: Frankenstein (2025)

Genre: Monster Drama  

Director: Guillermo del Toro  

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen  

Running Time: 150 minutes  

Synopsis: It's 1857 near the Arctic Circle, and a Danish navy vessel led by Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen) rescues Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), who is escaping from the Creature (Jacob Elordi) he created. In flashbacks, the badly injured Victor recounts his story. As a child he experienced no love from his father (Charles Dance), and grew up to be an Edinburgh surgeon obsessed with defeating death. Shunned by the establishment, he finds a benefactor in Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), whose daughter Elizabeth (Mia Goth) is engaged to Victor's brother William (Felix Kammerer). Victor establishes a lab at an isolated tower, assembles body parts from fallen soldiers, and creates the Creature, but is then frustrated by its slow mental progression.

What Works Well: Director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley's source material into a spectacularly imaginative spectacle filled with human heart and longing. Gothic sets, bold cinematography, elaborate make-up, and intricate costumes create a monstrous nightmare emanating from narcissism, a yearning for love, the complications of incomplete father-son bonds, and the questionable value of life without death. Oscar Isaac throws himself into a dark role where brilliance is stranded by the inherited absence of empathy, and Jacob Elordi surrounds acute loneliness with immense physical presence.  

What Does Not Work As Well: While the story is rich in incident and details, the running time is still too long.

Key Quote:

The Creature: If you are not to award me love, then I will indulge in rage. And mine is infinite!

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Movie Review: Aftermath (2017)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Elliott Lester  

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace  

Running Time: 92 minutes  

Synopsis: Air traffic controller Jake (Scoot McNairy) is on-duty and alone in the Columbus, Ohio control tower, and his divided attention contributes to a tragic mid-air collision. The victims include the wife and pregnant daughter of construction foreman Roman (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Both men's lives are changed forever, and Jake eventually relocates away from his wife (Maggie Grace) and young son. Roman sinks into a depression, and is determined to find someone to blame for his loss.

What Works Well: Inspired by the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision, this is a heartfelt exploration of loss and grief. Jake is forced to live with the horrific consequences of one fateful shift, and Roman loses everything he ever cared for, without an apology from any source to lean on. Their subsequent trajectories pass through shock and untethering, both men seeking non-existent answers within the carnage of cruel fate. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Scoot McNairy find wounded humanity beneath standard victim definitions. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The grim emotional tone is set early, and remains entrenched throughout. Director Elliott Lester has to stretch the material over several emotionally redundant patches to fill the gap between crash and final resolution. Along the way, the accident investigation is short-changed into an insulting compensation offer delivered by sleazy airline executives.

Key Quote:

Roman: Look at this photo. I would like for someone to say that they're sorry for killing my family.

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Movie Review: Passion (2012)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Brian De Palma  

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: Advertising executive Christine (Rachel McAdams) claims credit for a marketing campaign developed by her protégé Isabelle (Noomi Rapace). Both women are sleeping with the corrupt Dirk, while Isabelle's assistant Dani has her own agenda. With career ambitions at stake, the feud between Christine and Isabelle escalates to public humiliations, blackmail threats, substance abuse, and ultimately, murder.

What Works Well: The murder sequence is effectively staged side-by-side with a ballet performance.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director and writer Brian De Palma attempts to roll back the years to the 1980's era of erotic thrillers, but this flaccid effort is almost laughably inept. Unfortunately both Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace are miscast and poorly served by an inane script targeting smoldering intrigue but only finding logic gaps and superficial glitz barely concealing budget limitations. Somehow the idea of a lesbian romance is here still treated as dangerous, but even more archaic are the repeated rounds of was-it-all-a-dream wake-up moments, and the long-lost twin trope.

Key Quote:

Christine (to Isabelle): You're shocked because I took credit for your idea. Honestly, I would expect you to do the exact same thing in my place. 

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Movie Review: Wildlife (2018)

Genre: Coming-of-Age Drama  

Director: Paul Dano  

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, Bill Camp  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: In rural Montana of 1960, Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses his golf course job, straining his marriage to Jeanette (Carey Mulligan). Their teenaged son Joe (Ed Oxenbould) observes his father slumping into a depression, forcing Jeanette to find employment as a swim instructor. Jerry then abandons the family altogether by accepting a low paying camp-based seasonal firefighting job, prompting Jeanette to welcome the attentions of auto dealership owner Miller (Bill Camp). Joe starts a part-time job at a photography studio and questions his role in this disintegrating family.

What Works Well: Paul Dano's directorial debut adapts Richard Ford's book into a thoughtful and beautifully acted drama centred on family unease, unmet expectations, and economic imperatives. The emotions are understated and organic, the script (co-written by Dano and Zoe Kazan) uncovering authentic emotions and grounded interactions, especially between an abandoned wife and her bewildered son. Diego Garcia's cinematography finds wonder in the Montana landscapes, and opts for a more static and quietly observational stance.

What Does Not Work As Well: The low-key story never threatens to expand beyond typical stresses fracturing a single small family, ultimately limiting the emotional resonance.

Key Quote:

Jeanette: I feel like I need to wake up, but I don't know what from or to.

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Movie Review: The Holcroft Covenant (1985)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: John Frankenheimer  

Starring: Michael Caine, Victoria Tennant, Anthony Andrews, Lilli Palmer, Michael Lonsdale  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: 40 years after the end of World War Two, American architect Noel Holcroft (Michael Caine) receives shocking news from Swiss lawyer Manfredi (Michael Lonsdale). Holcroft's birth father General Heinrich Clausen, a remorseful high-ranking Nazi commander, left Noel a $4.5 billion fund to administer for good causes. Noel has to find two other Nazi offspring to co-sign the covenant, but evil forces are already at work to seize the fortune and use it for a nefarious plot.

What Works Well: This adaptation of Robert Ludlum's book enjoys an intriguing initial set-up, placing a world-influencing sum of money tantalizingly within reach of an ordinary architect for the purpose of redressing Nazi horrors. The globe trotting across major cities (New York, London, Berlin, Geneva) adds breathless glitz to the sense of danger, and the cinemaphotography rides a wave of Dutch angles.

What Does Not Work As Well: A confusing muddle of chases, assassinations, kidnappings, and undefined shadowy figures erode the plot's credibility. The unsophisticated script lacks coherence, and drags in too many characters including Noel's mother (Lilli Palmer), another son of a Nazi General and his sister (Anthony Edwards and Victoria Tennant), a wheelchair-bound anti-Nazi, an MI5 operative, and countless faceless hitmen. Director John Frankenheimer leaves motivations and explanations hidden for far too long, and the decent ending cannot rescue the fragmented mess.

Key Quote:

Manfredi: The world is full of lunatics shooting each other in the streets.

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Movie Review: Raw Deal (1986)

Genre: Action  

Director: John Irvin  

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Sam Wanamaker, Ed Lauter, Robert Davi  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: Small-town Sheriff Mark Kaminski (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was previously booted out of the FBI for excessive brutality. Now goons working for mob leader Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker) kill an informant and several protection officers, including the son of FBI Agent Harry Shannon (Darren McGavin). He vows revenge and recruits Kaminski to infiltrate Patrovita's gang. Kaminski intends to prove his loyalty by disrupting the operation of rival mobster Lamanski, but a highly-placed mole will endanger the covert mission.

What Works Well: Arnold Schwarzenegger's sheer heft and presence adds a base standard of fun, although his acting is wooden and his line delivery stiff. The weapon-happy and over-the-top action scenes are frequent, loud, and sometimes knowingly wacky.

What Does Not Work As Well: This limited-budget Dino De Laurentiis production lacks style and polish, and would be utterly forgettable without Schwarzenegger. The plot is ludicrous, needlessly complex, and cluttered by too many interchangeable mobsters and tough-talking goons. Ed Lauter is a generic cop, Robert Davi is a hissing rival, and Kathryn Harrold is a token love interest with a gambling problem and an agenda. None of them leave any sort of lasting impression.

Key Quote:

Mark Kaminski (to his drunk wife): You should not drink and bake.

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