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Lady Macbeth
A short, sharp, chilling drama, dark and cold and festering. Incredible stuff. →
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Get Out
Wasn’t quite sold on some of the switches between comedy & horror, but generally this is excellent. Horrific, tense, intelligent. →
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Psycho 3
A bit of a cheap & tawdry follow up to the unexpectedly decent Psycho 2, but it’s still always enjoyable to watch Anthony Perkins. →
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Species
Brilliant & terrible in equal measure. Come for Henstridge & Giger effects; stay for Forest Whitaker’s hilariously useless empath. →
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Sphere
Run of the mill sci-fi thriller that’s 40 minutes longer than it needed to be, perhaps to accommodate all of Hoffman’s mumbling. →
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Charade
Not sure if this is a Hitchcock homage or parody, but the talents of Hepburn and Grant make this perfectly watchable regardless. →
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The Rescuers
I love Don Bluth animation generally, but this is genuinely charming & sweet with some great voice work. Just utterly lovely. →
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Psycho 2
An unexpectedly-decent sequel. Anthony Perkins is excellent as always, and there’s a solid thriller here as well. →
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The Magus
A baffling, wandering mystery that descends into Prisoner-style surrealism rather than resolve anything. It’s odd, but okay. →
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The Road to El Dorado
Light-hearted & frivolous; Kline, Branagh & Perez work so well together it’s a shame this didn’t start a series. →
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Paris, Texas
A long, slow, thoughtful character piece that drew me in gradually and had me hooked before I realised. →
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Atomic Blonde
Exhilarating and brutal action, a tricksy political plot, Theron at her toughest and McAvoy at his sleaziest. Recommended. →
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X-Men 2
14 years on and it’s still one of the best comic films there’s every been. Great action, great characters. Wouldn’t change a thing. →
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Moonlight
A film of exquisite beauty in all aspects, be that performance, script, cinematography, or sound. A perfect film. →
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Certain Women
Charming and unassuming piece that drifts lazily in and out of the lives of a handful of Montana women. Poignant & enthralling. →
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Two-Minute Warning
70s Sniper film with a long, tension-free build-up only marginally redeemed by some amazing climactic crowd panic scenes. →
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The Black Hole
A hopeless mix of tones and styles but also some fantastic visuals, some dark story twists, and a seriously surreal ending. →
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Dane DeHaan is miscast, but otherwise I liked this. →
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Last Action Hero
Sags a bit here and there & not all of the jokes land, but the film still has fun with its idea and the action holds up well. →
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Murder Party
Jeremy Saulnier’s (Blue Ruin, Green Room) no-budget debut is a fun bit of schlock. Taut, violent and funny. →