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Missing Review - Hindi Movie Missing Review

What a great cast! Manoj Bajpayee and Tabu! Missing Review - Hindi Movie Missing Review do not want to remember their earlier films together which were nothing but disastrous: Gaath and Dil Pe Mat le Yaar (both released in the year 2000). Unfortunately, this time too the duo simply fails to deliver.

How they ham! Sushant Dubey (Manoj Bajpayee) tries really hard to be sleazy to the receptionist at the hotel, staring at her cleavage. He just does such a terrible job of it, and looks uncomfortable saying things like, 'My wife and daughter will leave in the morning, do you think I will need a single room?'

Aparna Dubey (Tabu) is made to carry a blanket stuffed with pillows that does not remotely look like a child. Effort from the production team is zilch. Movies of the seventies and eighties made more effort when they showed bodies going over a cliff than shown here. It's obvious that there is no child.

You don't even wish to groan about very obvious inaccuracies: the child is three years old, and Tabu is carrying baby diapers for her, and you are alarmed at the pills! Most pediatricians prescribe syrups to babies and toddlers and not pills!

There is Missing Review - Hindi Movie Missing Review where you are forced to watch a love-making scene between the Dubeys and you know they are unhappy doing what they are made to do. Thankfully their roll in the bed is fuzzed out of focus.

The child is missing by the morning. We discover many things about Sushant and Tabu and how they met. What you don't understand are Tabu's motives for anything she does and Sushant's either. If your met someone, and they carried a chopper in a baby's diaper bag, you would put as much distance between you as it was possible, no? Maybe that is the mystery.

Alas, it is for Inspector Buddhu (Annu Kapoor who was last seen hamming it in Baaa Baa Black Sheep) and his Tweedledee and Tweedledum cop duo assistants who have to solve the mystery of the missing kid. Their supposed Shenanigans are so tedious, you are too exhausted to ask the writer director how he managed to sell such tiresomeness to the production house?

Perhaps Tabu's face has undergone some reengineering (the stars are in the business of looking good, so we're not complaining!) and that is why she looks odd initially, but then everything she says is either shrill or vapid, you begin to look out for scenes with Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Of course, not one police officer bothers to check or even confiscate Manoj Bajpayee's cell phone to corroborate the stories he's telling. The background music tries really hard to create some sort of ambience but ends up being super annoying. Even worse is Annu Kapoor speaking Hindi in a Bihari accent and even speaking French (so grating to the ears!) to prove that he is indeed Mauritian.

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Beast of Burden

Much of director Jesper Ganslandt?s Beast of Burden takes place in the confines of a rickety, single-engine plane, with the pilot, Sean (Daniel Radcliffe), the only character seen on screen. The film is quite clearly inspired by Steven Knight?s Locke, not only in its use of a claustrophobic space to intensify the personal breakdown of its protagonist, but also in the way it dishes out nuggets of narrative information through an array of conversations via cellphone and radio. But Beast of Burden doesn?t stick to its guns, and perhaps as a means of standing apart from Knight?s 2013 thriller, it begins around its midway point to make room for a series of flashbacks that attempt to flesh out Sean?s emotional turmoil and past indiscretions that could just as easily have been communicated from within the plane.

As Sean flies across the Mexican border on what he deems to be his final delivery for a drug cartel, he stressfully bounces from one call to the next, forced to juggle the competing demands of a pushy D.E.A. agent, Bloom (Pablo Schreiber), two cartel contacts, Octavio (David Joseph Martinez) and Mallory (Robert Wisdom), and his wife, Jen (Grace Gummer). The growing concerns of his suspicious wife as well as his attempts to play both sides of the drug war?he?s working with the D.E.A. but is still planning to deliver the cartel?s goods for cash to pay for Jen?s escalating medical bills?should all make for compelling drama. But Beast of Burden leans far too heavily on wooden dialogue that mechanically delivers expository information about key plot points and Sean and Jen?s now-contentious relationship.

The film?s flashbacks, which are either too clipped or excessively scored, are even less organic, effectively stepping on the actors? toes. The flimsiness of Adam Hoelzel?s screenplay is only further heightened by the film?s unsightly monochromatic look, which amplifies the cheapness of the ever-present green-screen work. Where Locke was able to visualize a compelling interior world for Tom Hardy?s protagonist while hinting at an emotionally rich exterior world without him ever leaving the driver?s seat, Beast of Burden fails to do so for Sean even when freeing him from the restrictive point of view of the script? Beast of Burden Review (2018) . The uninspired writing and directing leaves Radcliffe virtually on his own to breathe life and a sense of urgency into a character with less shades of complexity than his farting corpse in Swiss Army Man.

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The Austin Chronicle

There can be a heavy toll for those that fall squarely in Generation X. There is so much to answer for, but at least those baby boomers behind us screwed things up quite well, that the things? https://www.thanostv.org/movie/juliet-naked-2018 that they hoist onto this particular generation? They’re pretty minor, although no less problematic. To wit, the idea of authenticity. It is the reigning sustenance that defines my generation. And I fucking hate it. You know the drill, or perhaps you’ve been bored by it: Everything was better when only a handful of people liked all these cool things and you are not allowed to like these cool things because we say so. You’re a poseur and a fake.

These preoccupations have been the predominate wheelhouse of author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), and this adaptation of his 2009 novel provides another post-mortem, with scalpel-like clarity, of a particular kind of fandom, whose gender (surprise!) is mostly straight white male.

The story, though, is really about Annie (Byrne), who has put up with boyfriend Duncan (O’Dowd) and his obsession over Nineties indie rock dude Tucker Crowe (Hawke), who disappeared after making a seminal album, Juliet. When Duncan receives a copy of a demo version of the album, the plot starts boiling, as Annie begins an email relationship with the elusive Tucker, after posting a blistering review of the demo on Duncan’s fanboy website, and Duncan enters into an affair with a colleague at the college he works at, where he teaches about television (The Wire as Greek tragedy is good for a few jokes). Annie and Tucker become fast friends, both needing an outlet to share their innermost thoughts and longings for various lives unlived, Annie regretting not having children and resigning herself to an existence of a tepid relationship, and Tucker, living in a garage of his ex-girlfriend, raising his son, as increasingly, more of his scions from various mothers enter his life. These small worlds collide when Tucker goes to England for the birth of his grandchild, meets Annie, and subsequently, his biggest fan, Duncan.

The film has a lot to say, but it thankfully does it in a manner that is natural, gentle, and if you will, authentic. That album is Duncan’s holy grail, and I get it, what Hornby is skewering here, that notion of having something that is yours, that no one else can touch. He obviously knows this milieu, as does Nurse Jackie director Jesse Peretz, who built his reputation directing videos that defined the Nineties indie scene for bands like the Lemonheads and the Foo Fighters. Everyone has obsessions, be they of the pop culture variety or of the path-not-taken variety. To hearken back to this belabored thesis, it is okay to like whatever you like, and it is something I’ve embraced, and a welcome respite from a particular type of fandom and way of life that really is just some stupid club in which you find yourself the only member. But you’re not. This is planet Earth, baby, and we’re all here together, like it or not.

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The Guilty Review

It's not often that the sound designer is a film's most crucial contributor, but 30-year-old Swede Gustav Möller's debut feature owes a sizeable debt to Oskar Skriver, who viscerally creates the off-screen reality that intrudes upon what Danish cop Asger (Cedergren) hopes will be his last night on phone duty. He is awaiting a hearing that will clear his return to the beat and perhaps believes that a little headset heroism will bolster his case. But by refusing to follow protocol, the macho maverick complicates an already delicate predicament involving a desperate woman who has taken the risk of calling the police while being abducted by her ex-husband, who has a record of violence.

The concept of an emergency services operator taking the law into their own hands isn't new. But Möller and co-scenarist Emil Nygaard Albertsen steer this tense, real-time thriller away from the preposterous implausibilities that Brad Anderson heaped upon Halle Berry in 2013’s The Call. Nevertheless, in imparting watch the guilty 2018 on the old chestnut about a cop landing knee-deep in a doozy of a case just as he is about to retire, Möller strains credibility on a couple of occasions, as Asger stays on after the end of his shift and holes up in a side office without any of his supervisors suspecting he's going rogue.

As details leak about the reasons for his suspension and his troubled home life, Asger demonstrates considerable resourcefulness in trying to keep the situation under control. At times, you can almost hear him think, Jasper Spanning's camera closing in on his racked expression as Asger tries to end the crisis without more bloodshed. But it's Möller's use of ambient sound and disarming silence that enables him to ratchet up the suspense until events take a decisive and unexpected turn.

Echoes of Dog Day Afternoon and Locke reverberate around this claustrophobic thriller, which is tautly plotted, precisely paced and grippingly played by Jakob Cedergren and his unseen co-stars.

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How It Ends Movie Review

Netflix has made great strides in recent years to increase their output of original movies, even attempting to break into the blockbuster realm with 2017's Bright. The streaming service made headlines earlier this year with their high-profile acquisition of The Cloverfield Paradox. However, Netflix's original movies tend to be hit or miss in terms of critical and audience reception, with both Bright and The Cloverfield Paradox proving to be divisive. To be sure, Netflix has earned critical praise for films like Mudbound and Set It Up, but some have criticized the streamer of aiming for quantity over quality with its originals. As a result, many of Netflix's originals fly under the radar, and the latest release may do just that. How It Ends tries to balance drama and thrills with a sci-fi premise, but ultimately fails to deliver in this bland but beautiful apocalypse film.

How It Ends follows Will (Theo James), a lawyer visiting his girlfriend Sam's (Kat Graham) parents - Tom (Forest Whitaker) and Paula (Nicole Ari Parker) - in Chicago in order to get their blessing to marry their daughter. However, the dinner doesn't go well because of the friction between Tom and Will. But when Sam calls Will the next morning to discuss it, something goes wrong and their call is disconnected. Will is unable to fly home from Chicago to Seattle due to widespread power outages and he can't get in touch with Sam as communications seem to be down as well. So, Will returns to Tom and Paula, and sets out with Tom to make their way to Seattle to find Sam.

Along the way, Will and Tom learn a bit more about what's going on, that there's been some kind of seismic event off the west coast of the United States, as they see how the mass power outages and lack of cell service have affected communities along their route. As Will and Tom progress toward Seattle, their journey becomes more perilous, encountering environmental and human dangers. The pair meet up with a number of other refugees along the way, including the young mechanic Ricki (Grace Dove). But ultimately Will and Tom need to overcome their own issues and form a united front if they're going to get to Seattle and save Sam before the world completely descends into chaos.

Written by Brooks McLaren, How It Ends was developed from his 2010 Black List script that garnered attention from the Sierra/Affinity production company in 2011. However, the project didn't gain momentum until director David M. Rosenthal came aboard in 2015, and the film's worldwide distribution rights were acquired by Netflix in early 2017. Based on the premise of How It Ends, it's easy to see how McLaren's script gained attention since it puts a new twist on a classic story: a young man must prove his worth to his girlfriend's father in order to gain the man's blessing. However, in How It Ends, that dynamic is set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic nightmare scenario and the uncertainty that the woman they both love is still alive.

How It Ends had the potential to be entirely about this dynamic, forcing Tom and Will to confront the source of their conflict and how it may be exacerbated by the societal expectations placed on them to protect and provide for Sam in the ways they see fit. Undoubtedly, the apocalyptic setting of How It Ends allows the film to strip the characters down to their core, and it could have provided for some compelling drama if the movie had taken the opportunity to really dive deep into what makes Will and Tom tick. Instead, the trajectory of their characters' relationship is rote, following a familiar narrative - albeit, in an unfamiliar setting - leading to a predictable end without challenging or probing any deeper into how men in this particular dynamic interact with each other. For their parts, Whitaker and James offer compelling enough performances, though they don't quite elevate the characters enough to make up for their one-note nature.

It would make sense if the character ruminations were sacrificed for the sake of sci-fi action-adventure, since that can often be the case in such films, but How It Ends doesn't offer much in the way of apocalyptic action. It's clear How It Ends aims to be a quiet character drama that just so happens to be set in a apocalypse, with tiny tidbits of information about what's going on sprinkled through the movie more as set dressing than actual world-building. How It Ends only uses its apocalyptic setting to enhance the human drama of the film outside of Will and Tom's dynamic, but that human drama essentially boils down to "look at what wild things humans will do to survive" without interrogating why - neither on the individual level nor on a larger scale. As Watch How It Ends 2018 , the interpersonal drama is trite, while the action only helps the story limp forward toward its conclusion.

Where How It Ends does excel, though, is in the beautiful imagery of its apocalyptic setting. Cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg takes advantage of the various types of beauty that can be found in the western United States, creating truly striking visuals that offer rich depth to the film. Further, the environmental dangers Will and Tom face throughout their journey also offer a chance for unique settings in which the drama and action take place. The cinematography isn't enough to sustain the film on its own, but it does provide for more interesting visuals that help to elevate certain scenes in How It Ends.

Ultimately, How It Ends tries to do too much. It tries to be a compelling character drama about two men who must overcome their differences to save the woman they love. It tries to be an apocalyptic mystery, as the characters attempt to unravel what really happened. It tries to take a look at what becomes of humanity when the structures of society breaks down. Since it tries to be all these kinds of films, How It Ends doesn't do justice to any of its themes, failing to balance the drama and action with the movie's interesting science fiction premise. It's neither another foray into blockbuster fare for Netflix, nor an Oscar campaign-worthy drama. Instead, it falls somewhere in between, which may doom How It Ends to being another Netflix original that flies under the radar or is quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, that may be for the best.

How It Ends is now available to stream on Netflix.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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Winona (Talks) Forever, With Keanu, in ?Destination Wedding?

Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves are the unwanted guests of a California wine-country wedding in Victor Levin?s amiable-aimless rom-com, a premise the writer-director commits to with near?perversity. In Destination Wedding, nary a human being outside the forever-bantering co-stars utters a single word in the hour-and-a-half running time. Ryder and Reeves spend the entire movie preoccupied only with one another, despite their characters? intimate associations with the betrothed couple: Ryder?s Lindsay, an idealistic prosecutor, is six years bitterly removed from an engagement to the groom; said groom is the estranged half brother of Reeves?s Frank, a cynical marketing something-or-other at J.D. Power and Associates. An emblematic scene about fifteen minutes in, set during the Friday-night rehearsal dinner, finds Lindsay and Frank, strangers until an earlier acrimonious meet-cute at the airport, seated at their own table, alienated from the chummy guests in their midst. In such moments, as the pair aloofly analyzes but refuses to engage with the people cavorting around them, Destination Wedding almost suggests a special-features commentary track come to life, with Ryder and Reeves as onlookers voicing their beat-by-beat breakdowns of a rom-com in which they are not participating. (What?s more Gen X than that?)

Levin comes to Destination Wedding having directed one other feature, 5 to 7 (2014), about an aspiring Manhattan-living fiction writer (played by the late Anton Yelchin) who strikes up a passionate affair with a French diplomat?s wife (B�r�nice Marlohe). Some of that movie?s literary pretensions ? including a slew of quizzical celebrity cameos, like one by the New Yorker?s David Remnick, who tells Yelchin?s mid-twenties scribe that his work carries ?the tease of greatness? ? are lightly replicated in Destination Wedding. Levin occasionally breaks the two-person repartee to present sarcastic onscreen text; at the outset, he follows up the title card with a surprising ?or? and then a needlessly convoluted addendum: ?A Narcissist Can?t Die Because Then the Entire World Would End.? But this is by and large a breezy affair. Levin? https://www.thanostv.org/movie/destination-wedding-2018 seems to be collaborating with his cinematographer, Giorgio Scali, to drum up fresh ways with which to compose his leads during their multiple-minute takes of alternatively combative and flirtatious conversation. In one setup, Ryder?s and Reeves?s faces are pressed into the center of the frame by the barrels of a winery; in another, their bodies, now pajama-attired, are allowed to roam more freely on a hotel bed. Levin at times seems rather too taken with the verbosity of his own dialogue, but here and there, his quips and situations match perfectly with his actors? sensibilities. Reeves?s unstinting dryness makes deadpan magic out of the pre-clumsy-coitus line, ?I haven?t felt pleasure since about 2006,? while Ryder?s sardonic eye-rolls and raised eyebrows lend a goofy liveliness to a tableau of Lindsay and Frank receiving foot massages. Even so, this mild diversion is probably a movie best watched with a couple of glasses of red or not at all.

Destination WeddingWritten and directed by Victor LevinOpens August 31, Village East Cinema and AMC Empire 25Available on demand September 7

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Possum Review

Possumhas all of the ingredients that you hope for from a debut horror picture. It tells a disturbing story about a man returning to his childhood home and caught in a tug of war with an alluring spider puppet. Possumthrows its audience into a twisted puzzle and relishes the ensuing confusion. It?s a phenomenal debut film as writer-director for Matthew Holness (best known for acting in frekaing Garth Marenghi?s Darkplace), who balances a complex tightrope between tones.

Even though Possumpresents a highly stylized story with plenty of disturbing and confounding visuals, this is really an internal tale about repression, living with past grief, and the power of guilt when it festers and isn?t confronted. It also eloquently explores deeper material like whether it?s possible to truly overcome past compulsions or if they?re always with us and just lying dormant. Possummay examine such heady issues, but it never shows its hand in such regard. It presents all of this as a painful, psychological homecoming that shatters reality and distorts the truth in a way that?s extremely rare for the horror genre.

At its surface level, Possumis extremely simple. Philip (Sean Harris) returns home and shacks up with his creepy stepfather, Maurice (Alun Armstrong). Something clearly weighs on Philip as he aimlessly wanders through the countryside with a heavy bag that contains an upsetting spider puppet. As Philip tries to find peace of mind during his return home, the disappearance of a child rocks the community. And in this crisis, Philip?s unusual behavior raises a few red flags.

What follows is a haunted lullaby that?s largely filtered through Philip?s perspective where both he and the audience are never truly sure what?s real. The result feels like Cronenberg?s internal Spidermeets The Babadook,with a touch of Magicthrown in for good measure. There?s even a delightfully eerie nursery rhyme that accompanies the morbid puppet. Possumis a slow burn, but once it ignites, goddamn.

Harris? work as Philip is nothing short of incredible. All of his body language with the bag that contains ?possum? is hypnotizing. Much of this film rests on Harris? solo performance, but he makes the bag and the puppet inside it practically feel like his co-star. Philip?s stepfather, Maurice, grimly jokes that the spider puppet has a "mind of its own," but it feels like more of a character than Philip at times. It?s as if the puppet?s having a conversation with him through the entire film, but the audience doesn?t get to be privy to any of it.

Furthermore, Possumreally makes the audience fight to see Philip?s spider puppet and when it?s finally revealed it does not disappoint. The thing is pure nightmare fuel and the sort of thing that Sid from Toy Storywould make if he grew up and stopped taking his meds. Philip treats it with such reverence the first time it?s fully revealed that he simultaneously shifts between awe and fear with the object. If Philip?s puppet looked silly, none of this would work. So it?s satisfying to see the proper attention to detail put in to assure that this thing is as possible. It almost feels like the puppet?s face is modeled after Philip. He also keeps the puppet?s face obscured as often as possible, like this is a part of himself that he doesn?t want to confront and keep hidden.

Philip attempts to deal with his broken past and come to terms with his lost childhood and his longing for normalcy in his life. The film really accentuates his feelings of loneliness with how he?s often framed in wide exterior shots where he?s diminished and isolated by the camera. https://www.thanostv.org/movie/possum-2018 attempts to negotiate his complicated relationship with the puppet where he appears to hate it, but becomes even more distraught without it. This turns into a rather powerful commentary on the nature of pain and how Philip is addicted to the unhealthy relationships he?s set up around himself. Harris? entire performance is wonderful, but the pain that he brings forward toward the end of the film is just unreal. It?s like his body is rejecting his soul.

Very real crimes do take place within Possum,but the film instead examines the denial and grief around them, and presents a layered metaphor for the evil that lies within all of us. At the end of the day, are we a man or are we a spider? Is the evil streak that?s exhibited in this film over, or is it just hiding in remission and waiting for a safe moment to come back out? Just like you can?t run away from your guilt or your conscience forever, Philip cannot run away from his spider puppet.

Possum?s ending comes across as a genuine surprise and it makes the story much more about past trauma and culpability. It may reframe the story in a significant way, but it still doesn't fundamentally change anything. Possumis the very best kind of psychological thriller that just continues to drill deeper into the same rich territory. Possumdoes require patience, but part of its charm is in not knowing when it will strike. Is it alive or is it dead? In either case, it?s still unforgettable.

Possumpremiered at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and will be released in theaters in the UK and via VOD on Oct. 26.

Daniel Kurland is a published writer, comedian, and critic. Read more of his work here. Daniel knows that the owls are not what they seem, that Psycho II is better than the original, and he?s always game to discuss Space Dandy. His perma-neurotic thought process can be followed at @DanielKurlansky.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Phoenix Forgotten Review

Justin Barber?s Phoenix Forgotten is the latest found-footage flick to hit theaters just a decade too late. Phoenix Forgotten?s material is ripe for the big screen, tackling a mysterious string of lights sighted in Arizona that have said to be linked to UFOs, yet Barber?s film focuses less on the mystery and more on the flat characters and tired filmmaking style that has mostly disappeared over the past few years. Why bother?

Phoenix Forgotten serves as a faux documentary that?s about another faux documentary. The film opens at a six year old girl?s birthday party, filmed by her older brother. It gets abruptly interrupted as a series of mysterious bright lights zoom over their home and the city of Phoenix, Arizona.

This girl?s brother goes off with some friends to investigate the lights and never ends up coming home. The film follows the now-grown girl as she searches for answers to the disappearance of her brother and his two friends and the lights that surfaced without any explanation.

What she finds isn?t all that shocking and about what you?d expect when purchasing a ticket to a found-footage film with no directing/writing credibility and a reportedly small budget, despite Ridley Scott?s name attached as a producer.

Phoenix Forgotten [Blu-Ray] (2017) Forgotten had the potential to right the wrong written by so many found-footage films that often show too little and take way too long to reveal absolutely nothing. It?s no surprise that most of these films are shot on a shoe-string budget and made by no-name creatives, but that doesn?t mean that they can?t pack a few surprises.

There are a few found-footage films that I adore for their creativity and ability to feel authentic and scary. Most other films struggle to balance the need for such an approach and the execution that shouldn?t feel lazy or rushed, but needed in order to better the story.

Phoenix Forgotten is not one of those films that benefits from the found-footage angle.

It surprisingly tries to establish its characters and story early on, swapping back-and-forth between archived footage and present day, but it does this in a meandering way that makes for boring cinema.

Eventually, the ?final footage? is found and ?Phoenix Forgotten? Review ? Variety plays out exactly like every other single film in the genre. Our characters scream and shout as they run frantically around in the darkness, hearing eerie noises and seeing strange things.

Of course we, as an audience, do not see these things, but the characters do and in an attempt to create atmosphere, director Justin Barber creates a flat and lifeless piece of video that just doesn?t work.

The final five minutes reveal a little more than the previous hour and fifteen minutes, but not enough to warrant the money wasted on a ticket. That is because found-footage films corner themselves and fail to earn that slow-brewed build-up, not to mention 90% of them struggle with the big end reveal.

Phoenix Forgotten?s ending barely registers as a reveal and can more accurately be described as a jumbled mess of static and bright lights, which provide absolutely no closure to the story or the characters.

What makes matters worse is that the end credits crawl includes obvious information that has already been explained countless times throughout the film. It?s almost insulting as a movie-goer to have to be re-explained what the film was about, despite just wasting an hour and a half of a perfectly good day on a film that doesn?t even belong on the big screen.

I?m not sure what producer Ridley Scott or Fox saw in this film. Sure, the budget is small enough, but why bother with a wide-spread release? Why not opt for VOD or straight-to-DVD if you?re going to put absolutely no effort into the production of the film?

I?ve seen worse found-footage films than Phoenix Forgotten, but I?ve also seen Phoenix Forgotten BD ? Movieman's Guide to the Movies about five or ten years ago. Why Phoenix Forgotten was even made in this day and age is a question that I?ll chalk up to studio profits and nothing else, because what is seen is a worse re-hash of films like The Blair Witch, only twenty years too late.

Forget it and save your money for that trip to Phoenix you?ve always wanted to take.

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Shadows on the Wall

After his wife (Annis) dies in 2015, veteran thief Brian (Caine) decides he has little to lose, so begins to plan an epic burglary. Egged on by young Basil (Cox), Brian contacts his fellow retiree friends Terry and Kenny (Broadbent and Courtenay), as well as the roughhousing Danny (Winstone) and the up-for-anything Carl (Whitehouse). Their target is a vault in London's Hatton Garden jewellery district, and over the long Easter weekend they make off with some £200 million in an elaborately planned break-in. But along the way, major cracks appear in the gang's camaraderie.

The movie presents these rifts objectively, showing both sides of petty arguments in which it's clear that everyone is wrong. https://www.thanostv.org/movie/king-of-thieves-2018 might feel with any of these gently likeable old guys, leaving us to think that, since they aren't capable of working together like grown-ups, they deserve to be caught. So we're almost left rooting for the police detectives as they are seen to piece the clues together. But this certainly can't be where the filmmakers want the audience to be, since they never bother to create characters out of the cops.

The venerable actors are able to invest much more into their roles than is written on the page. Caine and Broadbent bring strong subtext to Brian and Terry, adding some hefty weight to their escalating feud. Courtenay, Whitehouse and Gambon (as Kenny's hapless fishmonger cohort) are enjoyably goofy, sometimes tipping over the top in their befuddlement. Winstone adds some nice edginess as the blustering Danny, while Cox brings some youthfulness but remains enigmatic as the group's mystery man.

As a director, Marsh has a solid grip on the material, orchestrating the action in a series of slickly assembled montage sequences that coolly connect the present-day action with the gang's groovy decades-earlier heyday. So it's that much more frustrating that the script never finds a proper voice, presenting the gang's infighting and betrayals almost clinically. This gives the film plenty of documentary interest, but leaves it oddly unmoving.

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Scares For The Whole Family ? Variety

It?s winter and a boy is unintentionally home alone, but what follows is more in the realm of mortal peril than wacky hijinks in ?Knuckleball.? This admirably lean thriller, in which a 12-year-old dumped at grandpa?s during his parents? vacation ends up fighting for life, doesn?t necessarily hold up to close scrutiny in terms of credibility. Yet while you?re watching, helmer Michael Peterson effectively earns suspension of disbelief with stark atmospherics, solid performances and a persuasive escalation of panic. The Canadian feature is opening on three U.S. screens simultaneous with its digital-formats release.

Henry (Luca Villacis) is by all appearances a typical kid, glued to his video games, not especially happy about being dropped off at a barely remembered relative?s isolated farmhouse while mom (Kathleen Munroe) and dad (Chenier Hundal) head south. It?s even less welcome because grandfather Jacob (Michael Ironside) is a taciturn sort not on good terms with his daughter. But the young family doesn?t seem to have another option ? it?s strongly suggested the parents? ?alone time? trip is a last-ditch effort to save their discordant marriage.

So Henry is deposited in the widower?s rural home on a cheerless frozen landscape, where Jacob immediately puts him to work with unfamiliar chores, and entertainment options are zilch. (To circumvent the usual modern-thriller problem of omnipresent telecommunications, Henry soon realizes he forgot his charger, so his electronic devices are quickly rendered useless.)

Grandpa is an intimidating type, and while in his gruff way he tries to be friendly with his grandson, he? https://www.thanostv.org/movie/knuckleball-2018 by contrast alarmingly brutal toward Dixon (Munro Chambers), a youthful neighbor of ambiguous standing whom Jacob says is ?almost like family,? yet treats more like a combination servant and out-of-favor pet. For his part, Dixon seems nice enough, trying to insinuate himself with the visiting boy. But appearances can deceive.

Overnight, things take an unexpected turn that leaves Henry by himself, without a working phone, many miles from the nearest town in the dead of a blizzardy Alberta winter. He turns to Dixon for help ? a move that around the film?s halfway point shifts its mood from queasy pathos to escalating terror.

There?s a lot to retroactively pick apart in Peterson and Kevin Cooke?s screenplay. The relationship between Jacob and Dixon, which would explain a great deal, remains murky. The secret of what?s inside grandpa?s ominously locked barn turns out to be rather more than this story?s already laden agenda really needs. Henry?s resourcefulness under extreme duress strains belief even within the conventions of the thriller genre. And it?s never convincing that his yuppified parents would leave him with a grandparent with whom his own mother has had a highly problematic past.

Yet none of that much matters from the start of a game-changing 10-minute scene at Dixon?s house, during which Henry becomes acutely aware of the danger he?s in through the series of attacks, dodges and detours that fill the remaining runtime. These sequences are precisely handled by Peterson, which is particularly impressive given that nearly all his prior work was comedic. An excellent score by Michelle Osis and David Arcus further ratchets up the tension.

Chambers (?Turbo Kid,? which also featured Ironside) is vividly unhinged, Villacis convincing despite his character?s implausible aspects (Henry is as hardwired for survival as a Navy SEAL), while Ironside lends sufficient gravity of presence to a figure insufficiently sketched in the writing.

There?s a clean, crisp feel to Jon Thomas? widescreen photography and Rob Grant?s editing that amplifies the cold menace of the setting. Myron Hyrak?s production design manages for the interiors what nature provides for the exteriors.

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THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW Terrifies and Surprises

I haven't yet seen director/writer/editor/composer Andy Mitton's previous two features, We Go On and Yellowbrickroad, but having watched his new film The Witch in the Window (formerly known as The Vermont House) at Fantasia 2018, I'm going to have to rectify that as soon as possible.

The story follows New York City denizen and middle-aged dad Simon (Alex Draper) as he picks up his son Finn (Charlie Tacker) from his estranged wife Beverly (Arija Bareikis). The goal is to fix up a house in the middle of nowhere, Vermont, get Finn away from the Internet and city life, and to bond with some quality father-son time.

Problem, is the fixer-upper in the countryside already has a resident of the permanent kind, Lydia. The issue with most haunted house stories is that they never tread new ground, exhausting the same plot points and tropes again and again.

I'm thrilled to say that The Witch in the Window (coming to Shudder soon) has no such downside, and the premise of sprucing up an old house with a ghost in it will be where comparisons with this feature and Old Dark House stories end.

The best part of watching films is the hunt for the elusive gem that surprises and surpasses expectations, and The Witch in the Window is it. When you think you know where the film is going, you won't. The interactions between the aggressive ghost Lydia and Simon and Finn are quite different from what we're used to seeing; they're scared, but they confront her head-on at times, even going right up to her when she's asleep in her favorite chair.

Even better? There's one particular scene that gave me actual goosebumps --- and the other filmmakers I attended the screening with felt the same way. We rhapsodized on the effectiveness of that scene and its ability to absolutely surprise us. I'd love to be able to reveal the trick that Mitton used within his excellent trick, but it'd be evil of me to spoil such a beautiful, chilling scene.

In fact, to say much more at all about the plot of the film does it a disservice. I'll say that this is a heady nightmare of real-world horrors and the poignancy of knowing that you really cannot protect the ones you love, no matter how much you try. The Witch in the Window is gloriously written, acted, and directed; it's a horror film set in mostly one location, but it's also a discovery into what you can really do on an independent film with a likely tiny budget and crew.

Don't go into the film expecting the big budget ballast of Hereditary, but an indie completely different that doesn't show the supernatural so much as makes you feel it. At Click Here , the The Witch in the Window is a study on the loss of those you love and hold most dear. Check this one out as soon as you can if you love quiet horror that burns slow until you don't know you're almost out of wick. Highly recommended.

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Toronto Film Festival ? Variety

A first-generation Norwegian teen clashes with the traditional values and expectations of her Pakistani �migr� parents in the compelling coming-of-age drama ?What Will People Say,? from director-writer Iram Haq. Like her feature debut ?I Am Yours,? Haq?s sophomore work smartly probes the problems of a character caught between cultures, while the nuanced screenplay once again draws on her own harrowing life experience. Audiences and critics alike should say good things about ?People.? The kinetically shot film brims with authenticity and immediacy and benefits from a deeply sympathetic turn from sublime discovery Maria Mozhdah as the lead. Niche arthouse play looks likely in many territories.

The story unfolds in three acts. When we first meet her, pretty 16-year-old Nisha (Mozhdah) is living a double life. Outside the home, she appears to be a normal, well-adjusted, Western values-oriented high-school girl who hangs out with friends, shoots hoops, dances at clubs and flirts with boys; she?s even unafraid to sample a little alcohol and weed. Meanwhile, at home, she pays lip service to the role of dutiful Pakistani daughter, greeting friends and relatives in Urdu and passing around home-cooked delicacies. Her sour, nagging mother (Ekavali Khanna) constantly worries about how the rest of the community regards their family and her perhaps too-assimilated daughter, but since bright, destined-to-be-a-doctor Nisha is the apple of her father (Adil Hussain), Mirza?s, eye, she can get away with a lot. Thus, she finds time to slip out and join her friends, but always slips back to bed before dad performs his nightly check on his sleeping children.

One night, Nisha takes a big chance by allowing her handsome boyfriend Daniel (Isak Lie Harr) to follow her back to her room. By Norwegian standards, she?s doing nothing wrong, just a little cuddling and kissing, but when her father discovers them, he goes ballistic and beats the two youngsters. Norwegian social services takes Nisha into protective custody while her parents continue to trumpet their belief that she has lost her virginity and destroyed their honor. The local Pakistani community circles around, unanimous in their criticism. They advise Nisha?s father that he must make an example of her with a punishment so strong that none of their offspring would dare to make the same mistake.

Nisha misses the warmth of her family and is all too eager to make up with them. When her mother calls and says that they want her to come home to discuss matters, she believes it?s true. But when her father and brother (Ali Arfan) come to pick her up, they have another destination in mind ? her aunt?s home, some 200 miles outside Islamabad.

The second act takes place in Pakistan, where Nisha has been brought and left against her will. Her aunt (Sheeba Chaddha) is harsh with her, making her work around the house and in the kitchen. She tolerates no rebellion, locking Nisha in a closet when she tries to contact friends through an internet caf�. Her uncle (Lalit Parimoo) burns her Norwegian passport and warns her that if she attempts such communication again, her father will marry her to a peasant and she will have to spend the rest of her life milking buffalos. Eventually, though traumatized, Nisha settles down and finds some pleasure in exploring her parents? culture ? but scandal seems to find her despite her best intentions.

The second act further proves that ?People? is no run-of-the-mill coming-of-age story. While out one night with her cousin, Amir (Rohit Saraf), Nisha endures an encounter with the police so shocking it?s hard to believe that Haq could bear to put it on film. She stages the scene so powerfully that it takes the audience? watch what will people say 2017 . Afterward, poor wronged Nisha once again receives the blame for actions that were no fault of her own, and that lead to even stronger attempts by her family to control her.

Although one may argue that the character of Nisha?s father transforms too easily from doting dad to tyrant, Haq definitely makes him a complex and conflicted character. The director clearly conveys the love that exists between father and daughter,but which cannot end happily because of the wide gulf between their cultures.

Impressively lensed in Norway, Sweden, Germany and India (Rajasthan stands in for Nisha?s father?s ancestral home), ?People? represents a big step up from Haq?s more modestly scaled debut, but it?s a move she handles with assurance and aplomb. She develops the father-daughter relationship visually as well as verbally, showing the action from both their perspectives. The film is also attuned to the small glances and movements of the supporting characters, which carry more weight than words.

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Reeling Reviews BlacKkKlansman

Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) was a rookie cop, and first African-American, on the Colorado Springs PD. It was a turbulent time in the 1970s and Ron goes undercover, first with a local black activist group. Soon, he spots an ad seeking members to a new chapter of the KKK and calls the number. Then, in an incredible truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story, with his fellow officer, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), he infiltrates white supremacists as the first ?BlacKkKlansman.?

Robin: I remember this story from a ways back and my reaction was, ?How the heck did a black cop infiltrate the KKK and pull it off?? Spike Lee, with his team of scribes, adapts Ron Stallworth?s 2014 memoir, Black Klansman, and fills in the blanks for me. It is an amazing story and Lee and company do it solid. Of https://www.thanostv.org/movie/blackkklansman-2018 , Spike wears his ?I?m black and proud? heart on his sleeve through the whole of ?BlacKkKlansman,? At one point, when civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael (Corey Hawkins) gives an impassioned talk to members of a black student union, Lee?s camera does not pan the audience for reaction. Instead, he uses a montage of gorgeously composed and lighted head shots of beautiful black men and women. Lee?s message hits you over the head, frequently, but that is his right (and I am glad he exercises it). As to the amazing investigation by Stallworth and Zimmerman on the clan, Lee melds the extremely serious subject ? hate ? and the? WTF!? over the seeming ease of the rookie undercover cop to penetrate, with his white, Jewish stand-in, the KKK. The dark humor of the undercover team about their incredible luck is the perfect foil to inner machinations of the hate espoused by the Ku Klux Klan. The cast is well-led by John David Washington and Adam Driver as the good guys. The bad guys are given shrift, though not sympathetically, by Topher Grace as Imperial Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke, and Ryan Eggold and Jasper Paakkonen as clan henchmen, Walter and Felix. They are two-dimension representatives of racist venom and hatred and we love to hate them. The good guys? triumph over the KKK back in the 1970s Is tempered by the filmmaker with his cautionary epilogue. But, ?BlacKkKlansman? is a hopeful tome that, if we could defeat racist hatred back then, we can do it again. Now, though, it is a bigger job and involves us all. I give it a B.

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Teen Titans Go! To The Movies Review

Now that we’re 40-plus movies in the modern superhero craze, consider the melancholy fate of those vigilantes who have not yet had their big-screen moment. After all, even the Inhumans played on IMAX. But that’s the terrible situation Robin (Menville) and his fellow Teen Titans find themselves in — and superstar director Jade Wilson (Kristen Bell) tells them they’ll need an arch nemesis before they can become film stars. Enter bad guy Slade (Will Arnett). As the Titans put silver-screen stardom ahead of, well, everything, the fate of the entire world is briefly imperilled — and worse, their movie careers.

This is a smart-alec spin on superhero tropes that’s based on a barmy 2013 cartoon series, which was itself spun off a slightly more serious 2003 show. But you don’t need to have seen any previous incarnations to get it: Teen Titans is a superhero film vastly more interested in making you laugh than bombarding any large urban areas with giant whatevers or furthering some epic story arc. And in the mission to make you cry with laughter, it is easily on a par with LEGO Batman or Deadpool.

The background to the 2D, chibi action is brimming with nerdy jokes (a poster for ‘BvS’ features Batgirl and Supergirl hugging) and deep cuts of DC lore (‘Challengers Of The Unknown’, anyone? watch teen titans go! to the movies 2018 at all?). There’s an inspired Aquaman gag that entirely justifies the ticket price on its own, and a final line for the ages. Even the casting is beautifully meta: Nicolas Cage finally plays Superman, while his real-life son Kal-El voices a young Bruce Wayne.

Occasionally the action drags as characters experience a bit of distracting personal growth or sulk following a set-back, though even those bits generally turn into a poppy song (oh yeah, this is also a musical) that distracts from Robin’s tendency to be an egomaniac. But that’s a minor quibble. This gorgeously silly tale ruthlessly skewers all those other vainglorious superhero movies while showering affection on the whole dumb lot of them. It’s an absolute joy.

Smart and stupid in equal measure, this is a palate cleanser after the doom and gloom of Justice League. The Titans could make you fall back in love with the entire DC Universe.

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SXSW 2018 Review: HEREDITARY Paints A Savage Portrayal Of Family Lineage

The horror genre is cathartic. It allows the audience to safely witness terror while visually conveying a story that resonates on a primitive level. Fear, grief, and guilt are universal experiences that make up our innate human nature. While these feelings are inescapable, horror films offer an art form that serves as a coping mechanism - a way to face issues that will always be a part of life while also validating they exist. Ari Aster?s directorial debut,Hereditary, forces viewers to confront these emotions in a straight-up frightening style. It?s evident that Aster possesses an intrinsic craftsmanship and ability to deliver a strikingly effective array of horror film techniques. His brutal directorial debut ravages the things we fear losing control over the most - our family, our minds, and our bodies.

Hereditarybegins on the morning of a funeral as Annie Graham (Toni Collette), an artist who creates miniature models, is preparing to bury her estranged mother. Her good-intentioned husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne); teenage son, Peter (Alex Wolff); and aloof daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro) quietly listen while Annie divulges the secretive and cryptic nature of her mother. Additional information on her family?s unfortunate lineage is disclosed slowly and meticulously. We learn more about her past when she is awkwardly pressured in group therapy to disclose the reasons for her attendance - eventually finding solace in one particular attendee, played by Ann Dowd. These scenes exhibit the first signs of comedic relief that end up being necessary mercies Aster thankfully bestows upon viewers. Without these small bursts of dark humor, the film is ruthless in its assault on the senses.

Attempting to deal with loss, the family turns inward with their eccentric coping devices. Annie utilizes miniature art as a means to process tragedy while Charlie draws and constructs figurines out of salvaged materials from the woods. A vital turning point in the film takes place when Charlie accompanies her older brother to a party. Suffering from a life-threatening nut allergy, she experiences a reaction that catapults the family into disarray, thus setting the stage for the rest of the film. The accurate portrayal of anaphylaxis provides a unique form of foreshadowing from a health condition that isn?t usually addressed on screen in its true severity. Throughout the film, struggles to gain control over one?s body and mind are prevalent by referencing schizophrenia, sleep-walking, unwanted pregnancy, and possession. Therefore, utilizing a food allergy reaction as the catalyst to initiate a downward spiral and loss of control is an astute plot-point choice. Continuous obscurity between free will and destined design due to their genetic make-up ensues, bringing up the question: how much of their experience is mental illness and how much is supernatural?

I don?t want to give too much of the plot away because yes, there are paranormal elements; but this is not a generic ghost story, nor is it your standard family drama. There is a lot to unpack withHereditary, almost to a fault, as it slowly unfolds the Graham family?s secrets. It?s an ambitious film debut containing several layers and potential interpretations mostly due to its convoluted delivery. The film really shines with the technical methods Aster utilizes in order to convey the family?s descent into subsequent peril. The use of miniatures is a metaphor that further supports the commanding nature of outside forces at work. Continuous camera shots zoom into the small house - an exact replica of the family?s home - and cut quickly from the dollhouse to reality. The camera work is a character in and of itself. The shots are ominous, and grow gradually invasive. The lens evokes a sense that a malevolent presence is seeping into their lives and as the film progresses, the shots become increasingly erratic. The gore is fairly scarce but when present, will scar your retinas. Nightmare sequences and violence are depicted organically through use of special effects make-up. The film has limited CGI which further supports the craftsmanship placed into the execution.

Sound design is also a marvel. Composer Colin Stetson, best known for his collaborations with Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, primarily utilizes clarinets, bass and alto saxophone, along with the french horn and trumpet. The menacing melodies produce an impressive sense of dread and psychological distress. There are also simplicities that exist. Charlie has a signature verbal click that serves as an indication of her presence - the film?s own form of a death rattle - that is reminiscent of the croaking noise utilized in The Grudge. Additionally, there are moments where sound is absent altogether. This technique is extremely effective in conveying catatonic shock produced by trauma and the painful nature of emotional suppression. Aster uses silence to manipulate, tease, and assault the audience. He forces you to sit in the pain of the characters, stay in that moment with them, and really immerse yourself into the psychological impact of the film. This is all for the sake of emotional gravity and saturated tension, as opposed to just littering the film with cheap jump scares.

ThanosTV is a family drama at its core. Use of paranormal horror is secondary, but provides a layer necessary to emphasize the cold-blooded nature of its themes and character-driven plot. At times, the narrative is predictable, and the third act culminates in a fashion that is not entirely cohesive. However, the combination of incredibly raw acting, technical devices, and special effects kept me vividly engaged throughout. The atmospheric terror justifies the film?s place alongside other A24 gems such as The Witchand The Blackcoat?s Daughter.A domestic tragedy that evolves into supernatural horror, Hereditaryis a gruesome portrayal of not being able to choose the family you are born into and struggling with the subsequent lack of control over what your heritage has in store. Its artistic savagery mirrors life?s unavoidable cruelties. Like trauma, this film will most likely follow you and take on different meanings over time. Consider yourself encouraged to check it out, but also sufficiently warned.