After 2 decades and a couple mediocre sequel chapters (part 3: fun but out of ideas) (part 4: all-around bankrupt), the "Scream" series finally punctures again with more than a flesh wound with refreshed concepts, riskier moves, smarter pop culture references, a rookie ensemble that buzzes with personality like the gangs did in the first two movies, playful whodunnit trolling, and a surer sense of itself. Yes, it's copying the outline of the original in a hundred little ways, the…
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Mass 2021
Stark, real-time group therapy session for two sets of parents of children involved in a school shooting. Reed Birney and Ann Dowd, and Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs. In a carefully arranged room in a church, for a little over an hour. It's like that Polanski four-hander "Carnage" but with huge watery anime eyes instead of snarling savagery. Written and directed by that guy from several old Joss Whedon projects, Fran Kranz!
Given the subject matter and its delicate handling,…
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Green Room 2015
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…
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10 Cloverfield Lane 2016
Oooh yeah! One of those movies that reignites my love for the medium, not that it was flagging or anything, but this actually thrilled me physically and as a (formerly) prospective writer myself. I never wanted to be avant garde or anything – my dream was to write and/or make smart but accessible entertainment like this (and preferably in genre territory), so to see it pulled off so expertly every now and then in movies like "10 Cloverfield Lane" feels…
