"Nocturnal Animals" Review

Nocturnal Animals is the second feature film from fashion designer Tom Ford (A Single Man). It's based on a novel called "Tony & Susan" by Austin Wright, who was professor emeritus of English at the University of Cincinnati. The movie is about a troubled art gallery owner named Susan (Amy Adams). Her relationship with her husband (Armie Hammer) isn't so great, and the tension between them is exacerbated by their careers. One day, Susan receives a transcript for a novel written by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). Although Susan left him in a horrible way twenty years prior, Edward still seeks her feedback. The novel's violent, emotional story is played out on-screen with Gyllenhaal as the main character Tony, Isla Fisher as his wife Laura, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the troublemaking Ray, and Michael Shannon as the scene-stealing Detective Bobby Andes. As Susan is drawn deeper into the novel, she begins to perceive it as a symbolic tale of revenge against her.

Walking out of this film afterwards, I felt stymied to a fault. Several scenes in this film are conceived and executed with all the skill of a film school freshman. The moments that Susan inhabits also feel like an extended advertisement for Ford's fashion line. He seeks to shock the audience right out of the gate with a provocative living art display and then proceeds to drench the ensuing scenes in ego and pretension. It isn't until Susan starts reading the novel that the film gets interesting. "Nocturnal Animals" is played out for most of the running time as a manifestation of Susan's mind as she reads. This part of the film delivers a taut, suspenseful crime thriller that stands out from most of what I've seen this year despite, again, Ford's "film school" execution. A movie only needs so many scenes where the sound is removed and replaced by heavy breathing or voiceover.

This is a very bleak story of love and revenge and violence, so I welcomed Shannon's surprising performance as Detective Andes, the cop assigned to Tony's case after Ray and his buddies terrorize Tony's family on the highway. Andes is a man with nothing to lose; he's at the end of his career, dying of lung cancer, and clinching to his sanity by a thread. Shannon nails all these beats and manages to deliver a turn that's endearing, intense and unexpectedly funny - often all at once. Out of every movie I've seen this year, Shannon as Andes might be my favorite performance by an actor in a supporting role.

I've heard some criticisms about the ending of the film which is part of why I said I left "stymied." At first you think it ends in a very odd place, and you curse Ford for supposedly curtailing the emotional climax of the film. Then you sit and think about it a few different ways until it hits you, and it's amazing. Still, there are some unanswered questions regarding Susan and Edward's daughter that would be spoiled if I got into. Perhaps I need to see it again.

Overall I enjoyed Nocturnal Animals. It's saved by Michael Shannon and the story he inhabits. The rest of it is just extremely stylish and nothing more. Gyllenhaal and Adams turn in solid work, though neither operate at as high a caliber as we've seen from them before. This year alone, Adams is ten times better in Arrival. I think the film is worth seeing if you're into crime and revenge thrillers. Ford's style is unique in and of itself, and thus Nocturnal Animals stands out from many other films of its ilk. The man just needs to dial back his ego next time.

B

"The Accountant" Review

Ben Affleck returns to the screen in The Accountant, the latest of director Gavin O'Connor's compelling examinations of brotherhood.

Affleck plays Christain Wolff, a CPA who moonlights by cooking and uncooking the books for some of the world's most high-profile criminals. Christian is called in to an Illinois firm specializing in applied robotics after a whistleblower (Anna Kendrick) finds millions of dollars missing from some annual statements. As fate would have it, the robotics people are up to something shady, and they'll do just about anything to keep it secret. Christian eludes and fights back against both the federal agents and hired guns who are hot on his tail.

Oh, yeah, and one more thing: Christian has a high-functioning form of autism.

My gut reaction to The Accountant is "two thumbs up." The film is as exciting a caper as we've seen this year with some terrific action sequences and a script peppered with a refreshing dose of humor. Granted there are occasional lapses in storytelling logic; some of the subplots get a bit tangled, but overall I had a great time with this movie. Affleck's "accountant" feels like the return of the "everyman" hero. If you ask me, the current blockbuster landscape has needed a corny "everyman" flick badly.

Perhaps more engaging than the set pieces, however, the story explores some of the coping mechanisms and developmental strategies of people with developmental disorders such as autism and Asperger's syndrome. It's great to have an entertaining flick with mainstream appeal that calls attention to some of these issues. I've heard some criticisms from people who are concerned that the film may be too ableist. In truth, the film examines how Christian's character grows in response to, or in spite of, ableism. Christian's father is a hardened military man who forces his boys into specialized combat training out of fear that young Christian may be picked on for being "different." Perhaps that's an inherently "ableist" attitude, but it's part of the father's character. Also, I say "boys" because Christian has a younger brother, Braxton, and whatever the two of them do, they do together. One is never portrayed as superior to the other. The father wants his sons both to learn how to cope with the harsh stimuli of the world around them. Christian is never coddled or made to be "less than" anyone else, and we see how this pans out from early development through his mature coping years.

No doubt there are capable actors out there who have made successful careers for themselves despite living with a developmental disorder. One day hopefully we'll have someone like that in a role like this. However, even with Affleck in the part, I say that some representation is better than none at all.

And, besides, when have we ever been able to say that the coolest Hollywood "superhero" of the year is an autistic accountant?

B+

"Blair Witch" Review

It has been 17 years since The Blair Witch Project revolutionized the horror genre with its slow-burning mythos and micro-budget "found footage" cinematography. Up until this July's Comic-Con event in San Diego, director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (both of You're Next and The Guest fame) were thought to have made a new feature titled The Woods. Superlatives on the teasers billed it as "the scariest movie ever made" and "a gamechanger" for the horror genre. At the Comic-Con screening, Wingard and Barrett officially revealed that The Woods is actually Blair Witch, a continuation of the original 1999 cult classic.

After seeing the new film for myself, Blair Witch is to The Blair Witch Project as The Force Awakens is to the original Star Wars - enjoyable, but overall an all-too-familiar rehash with a bigger budget and better special effects. If Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez had studio backing 17 years ago, this is exactly the film they would've made.

The plot is essentially the exact same as before. Fans will recall Heather, Josh and Mike being lost and presumed dead following the events in the Black Hills woods near Burkittsville, Maryland in October 1994. As lore has it, their footage was recovered and released circa 1998-99. Flash forward almost 20 years. Heather's younger brother James (James Allen McCune) comes across a YouTube video which allegedly sheds light on the Blair Witch legend and the events of 1994. James is convinced that Heather is in that clip. He decides to head to Burkittsville in order to find answers. In tow are his friends Peter (Brandon Scott), Ashley (Corbin Reid), and Lisa (Callie Hernandez) - who, as fate would have it, needs a subject for her college documentary assignment. Armed with body cameras, walkie-talkies, DSLRs, and a drone, the group ventures into the cursed woods completely unprepared for what awaits them.

This new Blair Witch is a bit of a challenge to dissect. I feel as though my thoughts are split completely down the middle. On one hand, it's well performed and still feels like the living nightmare of your friends, siblings and neighbors. The film also ups the scare quotient significantly compared to its predecessor. A lot more wild and terrifying stuff happens to the group this time around thanks to Wingard's command of atmosphere. He toys with our fear of the dark in an even more convincing fashion than this year's other genre standouts Don't Breathe and Lights Out. It just upsets me so much that, on the other hand, the movie seems to betray everything that made The Blair Witch Project a classic. Where the original relished in subtle, slow-building tension, Blair Witch 2016 may as well smack you over the head with a sledgehammer. This is a "found footage" film that leans heavily on ear-shattering sound design, oddly placed musical cues, and random jump scares throughout most of its 90-minute run time. It isn't until the last 20-30 minutes when the most frightening and suspenseful material comes to light. Even then, Blair Witch leaves far less to the imagination than before, and I despise it for that. Its payoff also feels woefully familiar while positing more questions than answers. I smell a "new"-ish multi-million dollar studio franchise.

It's extremely difficult to avoid measuring this new film against the original. That often comes with the reboot/sequel territory. On its own merits, Blair Witch is as decent a "found footage" feature as we've seen in quite some time. Thank God the trend seems to finally be losing steam. It remains a generally solid chiller that should serve horror fans well during this upcoming Halloween season. However, I think this will be one of the most polarizing movies in years. Some audiences are going to adore it, others will easily loathe it. (A few folks even walked out of the screening I attended.) If you're okay with a Blair Witch movie that's well-acted, well-directed, well-paced, and terrifying, yet completely unsubtle and oftentimes tragically familiar, then this film comes recommended to you.

B-

"Don't Breathe" Review

From the creative team behind 2013's remake of Evil Dead comes the most brutal, most intense, and most original American horror film in at least a decade. In fact, writer/director Fede Alvarez's Don't Breathe will leave you just that - breathless.

The premise of Don't Breathe is something of a reverse-home invasion thriller. We open on three young burglars - Money (Daniel Zovatto), Rocky (Jane Levy) and Alex (Dylan Minnette) - casing the empty house of a wealthy family on holiday. Hungry for a bigger score, the group sets their sights on a seemingly easy target - a blind man (Stephen Lang) living in the last occupied house in a decrepit neighborhood. Word is that the blind man is sitting on a $300,000 legal settlement which is stored in cash somewhere inside the house. However, the thieves underestimate the measure of a man with everything to lose.

The film has so many refreshingly unexpected twists, and they all generally work. Just when you think you know what's coming, something else comes totally out of left field. Oftentimes when writers try to insert this many plot or character twists, they jumble things up too much and ultimately fall flat. It's a feat in and of itself that Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues pull the rug out from under us this many times, and the film never loses steam. This is a lean, mean picture with little to no extraneous detail to distract from the story at hand.

Acting performances are strong with Levy and Lang shining brightest. Levy is well on her way to becoming one of the next great "scream queens." Although his character arc ultimately hinges on a few far-fetched circumstances, Lang hands in a positively chilling tun as the Blind Man.

The cinematography is also very well done. There's a scene where Alex and Rocky find themselves trapped in total darkness; the Blind Man thus forcing them to "see what he sees." The visuals this scene is executed with are something akin to night vision, but the shot isn't glowing green. The gradient turns, essentially, black & white, which makes the facial expressions of the terrified actors somewhat horrifying themselves.

As cool as the acting and cinematography are, those aren't my favorite things about this movie. As a horror movie fan, it's easy to feel jaded. Once you've experienced the graphic atrocities of Cannibal Holocaust and the disturbing, supernatural dreamscapes of The Shining, it's all sort of downhill from there in a way. There are things that happen in Don't Breathe that made me believe in American horror movies again. Brutal, nasty, unsettling things the likes of which haven't been seen in a mainstream release in years. Words cannot express how delighted I am that this movie is getting a general release in theaters nationwide. Outside of the indie scene, horror has been dominated by sequels and reboots. The genre needs a movie like Don't Breathe now more than ever to haunt the hearts and minds of genre fans everywhere. I think we're going to be discussing, watching and remembering this one for a long, long time. 

A-

"Marauders" Review

When I saw the first trailer for Marauders, I had nearly forgotten that the project existed. Living in Cincinnati, you hear about big stars like Bruce Willis and Law & Order's Christopher Meloni coming to town to shoot a new film. I remember hearing they were around but little about what their movie was. Then a couple of months ago the trailer debuted, showing a taste of the finished product. There were several money shots of the downtown skyline - the kind that firmly established the film as a Cincinnati story. There would be no mistaking this setting for New York or Los Angeles. The rest of the trailer looked like fairly standard bank-heist-movie fare, but I was excited for a full-tilt action picture set in Cincinnati. Marauders turned out to be a day-and-date VOD release; you could find it on streaming services and cable OnDemand the same day I paid to see it in a small, locally-owned movie theater. This theater typically gets all the movies that are made in Cincinnati since it seems to be the preferred space for locals working on these projects. There's something inherently special about sitting among an audience full of folks who either acted as extras, served as a grip or worked catering for the film you're seeing on the big screen. This adds a wholly unique dimension to the moviegoing experience regardless of the quality of the finished product; thus it's inherently set apart from a lot of the other movies you'd normally go out to see.

Having said that, I wish I could've apologized to everyone else I saw Marauders with. It is so morose, so convoluted and so tragically awful that surely the talents of every single person involved - both in front of the camera and behind - would have been better served back at their day jobs.

I'll attempt to divulge a general synopsis here, but the story is so far up its own ass that I'll likely miss something - Jeffrey Hubert (Willis) is the head of a multinational bank headquartered in the Queen City. Several of his local branches are robbed by highly-trained professionals. With the local police dragging their feet, the feds are called in to investigate. Agent Jonathan Montgomery (Meloni) leads the charge with Agents Stockwell (Dave Bautista) and Wells (Entourage's Adrian Grenier) in tow. Volatile from his wife's violent murder, Montgomery throws himself headlong into the investigation, working tirelessly to find and stop the perpetrators. As events proceed, however, military and political conspiracies reveal themselves.

The film starts off promising enough with a well-executed robbery scene and some great shots of the city of Cincinnati. It only goes downhill from there. VOD "Ed Wood" Steven C. Miller (Extraction, Submerged) allows far too many blatant continuity errors to slip by his watch. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. In one scene, Montgomery has a conversation with one of the bank robbers over Skype. On at least three occasions, we see Montgomery standing there talking to either a blank screen or the desktop. In another scene (this will only really stand out to Cincinnatians) two characters say that they need to go to West Chester to meet with a witness. Cut to the guys in a car riding through Covington, Kentucky on their way to meet that witness. For those of you who aren't familiar with Cincinnati, West Chester is about 30 minutes north of Covington. In a less self-serious film, these errors might be met with laughter of the "so-bad-it's-good" variety," but Marauders woefully lacks any sense of fun whatsoever. It's so bleak that the city of Cincinnati is portrayed in a constant state of thundershowers. We actually have sunshine here in real life. This isn't Seattle.

Without tongue-in-cheek sensibilities, nearly all of the drama falls flat. The characters we're supposed to empathize with - like Montgomery and police lieutenant Mims (Johnathon Schaech), whose wife is dying of cancer - are rendered inert as a result.

Two things kept me from completely tuning out of this movie - the setting and the performances. Even though Miller recycles one too many shots of the city, it's still cool to see a Cincy-set action picture on principle alone. I also thought Meloni, Bautista, and Grenier acted well even though Meloni's pretty much been playing this role for years on television. The movie itself doesn't feel too far off from last week's Law & Order reruns. Willis is sadly a caricature of himself these days as he's starting to slip down the same paycheck-to-paycheck path of Nicolas Cage. Let's hope the rumored Die Hard recalibration and Eli Roth's Death Wish bring him back to form.

Marauders appeals only to those from the city of Cincinnati. Even then, that's a bit of a stretch. Literally no one else should bother.

D

"The Purge: Election Year" Review

With 4th of July weekend upon us, it's that time of year again to celebrate America's greatness by taking our frustration out on others! C'mon, your friends are doing it. Your neighbors are most likely doing it too. Heck, even your dentist! It's time to "purge and purify!" It's what saved America from economic ruin, and it will continue to do good for years to come!

At least that's what the New Founding Fathers would have you believe.

The Purge: Election Year is the third installment in writer/director James DeMonaco's wildly successful action-horror franchise. These films have never been incredible; always more interesting in concept than execution. But nobody could ever fault DeMonaco for not producing something wildly original, maybe even "refreshing." Come to think of it, isn't that what "purging" is all about? To cut through the dreck on the way to a higher, cleaner existence?

It may not stand out from the summer movie stable as much as it would like to, but Election Year is most assuredly the kind of "purge" this series needed. This film comes closer to realizing the enormous potential DeMonaco's high concept than either of its predecessors.

The story picks up two years after the events of The Purge: Anarchy. Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) is now the head of security for Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), an anti-Purge crusader vying for the presidency against a candidate backed by the New Founding Fathers of America. Leo and Charlie share a unique bond in blood that makes them perfect foils for what the purge represents. In Anarchy, Leo spared a man's life once he weighed the true consequences of his actions. On the other hand, Charlie witnessed her family helplessly slaughtered on "purge night" eighteen years prior. Threatened by Senator Roan's maverick personality, the New Founding Fathers orchestrate an attack on her life during the annual purge. On the run with no one to trust, Leo and Senator Roan cross paths with local deli owner Joe (Mykelti Williamson), his hired help Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), and their friend Laney (Betty Gabriel) who drives a triage van helping those injured by purgers. Together they'll face foreign tourists, neo-Nazis, and twisted teen girls in an effort to survive the most dangerous night of the year.

By its very nature, Election Year is no masterpiece. That said, it's consistently entertaining, and the biggest problems I had with it are really just nitpicky. For example it'd be great to see a Purge movie set on a larger scale at some point. This one does a decent job of opening up the world to give us a sense that there's more going on than just what's happening to our protagonists. But on a night where ALL crime is legal, surely people are doing more than just murdering each other. I found myself itching for a tense bank robbery or a Wall Street big wig committing tax fraud or something. That stuff puts butts in seats just as much as murder does. Have you seen Dog Day Afternoon? Wolf of Wall Street? Heck, just Wall Street?

Also, Election Year ends in an odd place that took me right out of the entire experience. It's odd because for a film that's meant to be a cautionary tale and a critique of our current political climate, the ending feels grossly out of time.  If you listen closely, you can also make out a setup for a potential sequel. The good thing is that if DeMonaco moves forward on The Purge 4, from what the setup is, it should be a logical progression of the story as opposed to just another money-mandated installment.

I enjoyed my time with Election Year on the whole despite the flaws that I myself projected onto it. It's a well-told story with just enough subplots and characters to keep things fresh. The best part is that all of them reach satisfying conclusions. That's rarer than you may think, especially in horror movies.

These movies have only gotten better with each installment, and should there be more purging to come, sign me up.

B-

"Money Monster" Review

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster returns to the director's chair for her fourth feature, Money Monster starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Unbroken's Jack O'Connell.

Money Monster is a timely, original thriller the likes of which Hollywood doesn't make anymore. Taut, well-acted and corny in the best way, it's precisely the kind of star-driven moviemaking the mainstream desperately needs more of these days.

The story (from an original concept by the writers of NBC's Grimm series Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf) examines the consequences of greed and misinformation in the digital age. Lee Gates (Clooney) is the host of a nightly financial news show called "Money Monster." Picture Jim Cramer on "Mad Money," and you've got a solid idea of Gates' character and the tone of the "Money Monster" show. Keeping all that charisma in check is Patty (Roberts), the show's program director. Another hectic day in the studio becomes even more dire when an assailant named Kyle (O'Connell) charges the stage with a gun pointed at Gates' head during a live broadcast. Turns out, Kyle lost his nest egg on a stock that Gates touted as a "sure thing," and now the distressed young man wants answers. Together, Gates and Patty use every resource at their disposal to get Kyle what he wants, even if that means haphazardly uncovering an $800 million corporate conspiracy.

Though the film eventually devolves from a tense chamber piece into a far-fetched climax, it's come to this reviewer's attention that the main scenario depicted in Money Monster isn't at all hard to believe. In fact, the threat of something like this is very real for grassroots reporters and commentators who can't afford Jim Cramer's security team. In that sense, Money Monster should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone reporting on the financial landscape, anyone involved in potential illicit corporate activity, and for the rest of us out looking for our next solid investment.

Acting performances are first-rate with all three leads melding perfectly with their roles. Gates is tailor-written for a star with Clooney's looks and stage presence, so it's actually quite easy to watch him here and see Lee Gates as opposed to George Clooney talking about stocks. Roberts is once again Clooney's perfect foil as the two have effortless chemistry, even in the film's most intense moments. It never feels like we're watching two of the world's biggest movie stars. O'Connell embodies the voice of "the 99 percent" as Kyle, and he pulls off the gritty New Yorker thing with some nuance. As for the direction, Foster's hand feels confident in every scene and proves she knows how to assemble a tight, engaging narrative. I'd love to see her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Captain Marvel, perhaps.

Money Monster needs to be seen by anyone working in a fast-paced market and/or anyone who appreciates the Hollywood crime thrillers of the early 1990s (i.e. The Fugitive, Clear and Present Danger, etc.). Go support this movie because we simply need more like it.

A-

"High-Rise" Review

Filmmaker Ben Wheatley's controversial and highly-anticipated thriller High-Rise is finally here for us common folk to behold. It's based on a J.G. Ballard story once believed to be "unfilmable." Though Wheatley's aspirations are certainly commendable, the film feels like something of a missed opportunity. It comes off like a bastard cousin to the oeuvre of Stanley Kubrick. In all honesty, it probably could've been a masterpiece in that guy's hands.

The concept of the story is that an architect named Mr. Royal (Jeremy Irons) has designed four high-rise apartment complexes, each complete with a public swimming pool and supermarket. Unbeknownst to the residents, however, each high-rise houses a different social experiment of Royal's own design. The film smartly explores only one. There are so many supporting characters that the narrative feels pretty bloated as it is; this would only be exacerbated if more characters in the other towers were introduced. The main protagonist in this dystopia is Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a university psychiatrist. He acquaints himself with a colorful cast of characters, including love interest Charlotte (Sienna Miller), the unstable documentarian/lothario Wilder (Luke Evans), and Wilder's wife/other possible love interest Helen (Elisabeth Moss). They are our main lens into life on the "lower floors" of the high-rise. They contend with the likes of Royal and the bourgeoisie around him on the upper floors. (In case the class warfare thing wasn't clear, these folks regularly throw parties where everyone dresses as 18th-century nobility.) As Royal's experiment reveals itself, the lives of everyone on the lower and upper floors descend into chaos.

Wheatley has a talent for setting up striking images, of which there are plenty here. The problem is that he doesn't always allow them to breathe, with edits placed just a tad too short for us to fully process what we're seeing. This translates to how the story is handled as well. With so many characters on so many different tangents, Laing is something of a letdown as a protagonist. He's supposed to be the audience's window into this world, and he's never given any relatable qualities. The most normal-headed character in the bunch turns out to be Toby (Louis Suc), Charlotte's son, but he's given precious-little screen time in order for him to be a satisfying presence for the audience in this dystopia. That said, Hiddleston gives a committed performance as Laing and continues to make a case for being my new favorite actor. It's simply through misguided filmmaking decisions that the story's complicated sociopolitical and socioeconomic themes don't resonate with as much force as they're meant to.

Perhaps the best thing about High-Rise is the production design. It exists on a retro-futuristic plane circa 1978. The architecture, cars, costumes and hairstyles all work for the time but also never feel out of place in moments where the period is meant to be less obvious. The set dressing is also impeccable, from the penthouse decked in white, to the lived-in feel of the Wilder family flat, to Laing's manic grey-scale painting day.

All in all, High-Rise leaves us with the wrong kind of uneasy feeling. The film didn't force me to think about how its themes resonate in my own world so much as it got me thinking how they might have if Kubrick had made it instead. There are some excellent pieces here, and it's truly unlike anything else out there right now, but some of Wheatley's decisions ultimately render High-Rise a missed opportunity that's hard to recommend.

C-

Sundance 2016 - "Green Room" Review

There seems to be a color pattern emerging in writer/director Jeremy Saulnier's body of work. Could the other colors of the rainbow be in each of his next films?

Saulnier follows up his magnificent, modern-day "Hatfields & McCoys" thriller Blue Ruin with Green Room, a white-knuckle siege thriller that will leave you gasping for air.

Green Room chronicles the ordeal of a punk rock band who, after witnessing a murder at a gig, are forced to sit tight in the venue's "green room." Seemingly trapped by the people responsible, the group fights to escape despite being hopelessly outmanned and outgunned.

Patrick Stewart plays Darcy, the owner of the venue and leader of the neo-Nazi group based there. He proves a formidable villain even though some of his dialogue could have been better written. It seems like most of the interactions between the bad guys rely on so much jargon that the motivations of Darcy and his disciples are never entirely clear.

Whatever character development may be lacking through dialogue, Saulnier makes up for in atmosphere. 85 percent of this movie is as tense and nerve-shredding as any of the best horror films from the past 10 years. We know these are nasty guys from the way Darcy sends them in to stalk and murder the trapped teens like a (pardon the simile) Cult of Thorn overlord commands Michael Myers. Even though some of these guys are really no more than disposable goons, Saulnier shoots them all like the horror-movie "big bads" that they are. This way, every scene has a sense of gravity and excitement that you normally don't expect for most movies like this.

Of course the tension boils over into Saulnier's trademark violence. Frequently shocking and unexpected, Saulnier's violence will make you either wince or cheer - sometimes all at once, as the most satisfying violent scenes in all of cinema do. The violence of Green Room also appears medically accurate. Wounds appear realistically based on the weapons used. There's a decent amount of blood, but this isn't Tarantino. I've always found this approach to violence to be the most cinematically visceral. I'm more traumatized by Saulnier's realistic approach than Tarantino's near-comical gore-fests or any movie released as part of the "torture porn" craze of the late 2000s. If the message of Green Room is either "violence begets violence" or "don't mess with desperate people," it lands loud and clear.

Performances are quite impressive from a star-studded cast including Stewart, Anton Yelchin (2009's Star Trek), Imogen Poots (2011's Fright Night), Alia Shawkat (TV's Arrested Development), Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), and Macon Blair (Blue Ruin). Yelchin and Poots reunite for the first time since Fright Night, and their chemistry hasn't lost a step.

Green Room should be seen and enjoyed by anyone bored with how mundane most indie dramas really are. That's always been Saulnier's approach. It certainly served as a perfect shot-in-the-arm to end Sundance with. It's as taut as any of the big Hollywood-produced thrillers of the past several years. I can't wait to watch this one over and over.

A

"Ctl+Alt+Delete" Review

Ctl+Alt+Delete is a new sci-fi thriller from writer/director James B. Cox which proves definitively that when a film has a strong story, confident direction and a team of passionate individuals working in front of and behind the camera, no budget is too small for big thrills.

The drama centers around Thule, a cyber-security conglomerate that decides to cut its losses by instituting M.A.N.A., an artificial intelligence to manage its data centers. One night, the Thule offices are overrun by a trio of hackers seeking to expose the valuable secrets stored in the data vaults. Sensing an attack, M.A.N.A. fights back and gives the villains (and the heroes, for that matter) more than they bargained for. What ensues is a high-stakes game where the good guys and bad guys join forces to fight a larger, potentially smarter threat.

You don't see that "joining of forces" too often anymore in genre film. What makes this dynamic between the characters even more fascinating is just how intimate it is. The film has a very claustrophobic feel to it which lends urgency and tension to the proceedings. Even if we aren't always aware of the far-reaching consequences of the data breach, the close-knit clash of ideals between the characters keeps things interesting.

The film doesn't take itself too seriously as Cox peppers some nicely-timed comedy throughout his script. The characters Jayhawk (Adam Shapiro) and Rafi (Josh Banday) are the lovable misfits at Thule who end up playing a huge role in the outcome of the story. Rafi is especially fun as a more likable Dennis Nedry-type character whether he's building "failsafe" security software or hitting on interns at the gym.

Lastly I'll mention how amazing the visual effects are for a film with a budget under $500,000. The makeup effects and CGI look very professional and thus chilling at all the right moments.

Ctl+Alt+Delete is a rollicking blend of comedy and tense, sci-fi drama that should play very well with the Comic-Con crowd. With such a high concept and such a low budget, Cox pulls off fresh, fun things with his first feature-length film. Keep it on your radar as the year goes on, and don't pass up a chance to see it.