Category: 2018

Movie Review – Suspiria (2018)

Suspiria (2018)
Written by David Kajganich
Directed by Luca Guadagino

suspiria 2018

In 1977, Suzie, a young American woman arrives into the heart of political strife igniting Berlin. She has come to join the prestigious Markos Dance Academy, hoping to work under the tutelage of Madame Blanc. Suzie slowly becomes aware of interpersonal conflicts that happened between the matrons of the academy and former student, Patricia. Patricia fled the school and sought out the help of psychologist Dr. Josef Klemperer. She tells him that the women of the school have eyes and ears that can see her no matter where she goes and that she is a marked woman. Klemperer becomes further convinced when he reads the girl’s diary detailing her discoveries of a cabal working beneath the surface of the Markos school. All the while, revolutionary groups sow chaos throughout Berlin, dredging up guilt from the war and forcing a confrontation.

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Movie Review – The Vanishing of Sidney Hall

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The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2018)
Written by Shawn Christensen & James Dolan
Directed by Shawn Christensen

vanishing sidney hall

The film opens with the title character, Sidney Hall clacking away at a short story for his high school English class. We cut to him reading said story, interspersed with images of a faceless cheerleader. The story ends up being a piece of self-indulgent misogyny, all about boiling a depersonalized crush into a figure of adolescent masturbation. This is our…protagonist. Sidney Hall. In a flurry of scenes that follow we find Hall becoming a famous published author and finally into a homeless recluse, announcing that this film will be about the search for who this man is and why he is doing what he does. I can’t emphasize how horrible this movie is.

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TV Review – Channel Zero: The Dream Door

Channel Zero: The Dream Door (2018)
Written by Nick Antosca, Alexandra Pechman, Lenore Zion, Lisa Long, Mallory Westfall, Isabella Gutierrez, Justin Boyd, and Angel Varak-Iglar
Directed by E.L. Katz

dream door channel zero

Jillian has just married her childhood sweetheart Tom, and they have moved into his family home with plans to renovate it. One day they discover a door in the basement that wasn’t there before and appears to be impossible to open. Using saws, sledgehammers, and even a shotgun they find the baby blue door won’t open. Finally, Jillian realizes she can open it without a key, it only responds to her touch. Hidden on the other side of the door is something from Jillian’s past, dredged up by her anxieties over her new marriage and questions of her husband’s faithfulness. A new neighbor is there to comfort her. Her psychiatrist is skeptical of her claims and tries to help her. However, this evil thing is awake, and it is leaving the basement.

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TV Review – The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Written by Mike Flanagan, Meredith Averill, Jeff Howard, Charise Castro Smith, Rebecca Klingel
Directed by Mike Flanagan

haunting of hill house

Hugh and Olivia Crain bought Hill House in the summer of 1992 with grand plans to renovate & flip the house as the final stepping stone on their way to building a dream home of their own. The Crains brought their five children to live with them and over the course of the next few months, their lives descended into a nightmare. Twenty-six years later the Crain children are dysfunctional and distant, each attempting to make his or her way through life with little hope. Steve is a famous horror author who lives in denial while Shirley runs a funeral home and always seems on the verge of exploding in anger. The rest don’t fare any better. An event occurs one night that forces them all back together, forces beyond their control as moving them towards a moment of confrontation with their family’s past and their horrors. It is time to come home.

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Movie Review – The Sisters Brothers

The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Written by Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain
Directed by Jacques Audiard

sisters brothers

Eli and Charlie Sisters are hitmen that work for the wealthy Commodore. Their most recent assignment is to catch up with Hermann Warm, a prospector headed west in search of gold. Eli isn’t sure why they are going after this seemingly innocuous man, but Charlie assures him that this is in their best interest. Detective John Morris has been hired as an advance man to tail Warm and leave word of his progress at stops along the way for the Brothers to pick up. As the Sisters brothers make their way across the rugged landscape, they encounter natural obstacles and growing interpersonal strife. Eli believes they can leave this life one day while Charlie seems resigned to be a killer forever.

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Movie Review – Teen Titans Go! to the Movies

Teen Titans Go! to the Movies (2018)
Written by Michael Jelenic & Aaron Horvath
Directed by Aaron Horvath & Peter Rida Michail

teen titans go to the movies

The Teen Titans can’t get any respect from the superhero community. While Batman is on his fiftieth movie while everyone else, including the Challengers of the Unknown, are getting their own films. Robin realizes the team needs their archenemy which they quickly find in the form of Deathstroke. They seemingly foil Deathstroke who remains in the shadows with plans to get his revenge. Meanwhile, the Titans embark on series of hilarious vignettes (traveling through time and preventing heroes’ origins, participating in a motivational music video, and more). A rift grows between Robin and his teammates as his movie aspirations begin to push his comrades away.

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Movie Review – Hold the Dark

Hold the Dark (2018)
Written by Macon Blair
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

hold the dark

Russell Core is a retired naturalist who specialized in wolves. He even wrote a book about them. It’s his book that gets the attention of Alaskan Medora Slone, a woman whose son has been taken by the wolves in her rural community. Her husband, Vernon, is serving in Iraq utterly unaware of what has happened to his son. Medora insists she wants something to show she took revenge for their child. Vernon is injured though and shipped back home. Russell discovers that he’s been lied to and there is more the child’s disappearance than just the wolves. A strange bond exists between Medora and Russell that seems connected to the desolate haunting landscape.

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Movie Review – I Think We’re Alone Now

I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
Written by Mike Makowsky
Directed by Reed Morano

i think were alone now

When everyone died, Del was finally relieved. He no longer had to live his life as a recluse shuffling between his home and the public library where he worked. This town on the Hudson River was now his, and he spent his days scavenging one block after another, burying the dead and collecting supplies to live out the remainder of his life. Into this seeming apocalyptic tranquility burst Grace, a young woman brings noise and chaos into Del’s ordered existence. She claims to be the last of her family, wandering the highways and living without rules because there’s no one there to enforce them any longer. Tension builds and builds between these two as Del is unwilling to compromise his life and patterns for this interloper. However, Grace holds a very dark secret that will compel Del to face a crisis of conscience.

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TV Review -Maniac

Maniac (2018)
Written by Patrick Somerville, Caroline Williams, Nick Cuse, Mauricio Katz, Amelia Gray, Danielle Henderson, and Cary Joji Fukunaga
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

maniac

Two people: Owen and Annie find themselves as part of a clinical drug trial for a new medication that is touted to eliminate the need for therapy. With a series of three pills, a patient will bring up their trauma, confront their guilt, and process it. There’s no need for any human interaction with the whole process taking place inside the patient’s mind. Owen believes he is a paranoid-schizophrenic, seeing a phantom version of his narcissistic older brother that tells him he’s part of some grand cosmic truth. Annie is unable to move past the death of her younger sister, killed in a way that Annie holds herself responsible for. As they travel into dreamscapes and live the lives of others, something happens that causes Owen and Annie’s created realities to merge. Meanwhile, the inventors of this drug and the supercomputer that makes it possible are dealing with a malfunction that could have significant ramifications.

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TV Review – Barry Season 1

Barry Season 1 (2018)
Written by Alec Berg, Bill Hader, Duffy Boudreau, Sarah Solemani, Ben Smith, Emily Heller, and Liz Sarnoff
Directed by Bill Hader, Maggie Carey, Hiro Murai, and Alec Berg

barry tv series

Barry Berkman lives a lonely, sad life. He spends his time alone and only goes out when his handler, Fuches gives him a call. Barry is a former marine who has become an assassin for hire, traveling around the country and killing members of organized crime cartels. Barry’s latest venture has him holed up in Los Angeles to perform a hit for the Chechen mob. During his off time, the hitman wanders into an acting class and falls in love. Suddenly, Barry is working to be an actor, hiding this fact from Fuches and trying to balance his assassin work with his stage practice. A romance develops between Barry and a fellow student who creates even more trouble for the conflicted.

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