Category: 2018

Movie Review – Madeline’s Madeline

Madeline’s Madeline (2018)
Written by Josephine Decker, Donna di Novelli, Gail Segal, Sharon Mashihi, and Alexandra Tatarsky
Directed by Josephine Decker

madeline's madeline

Madeline is a 16-year-old girl living in New York City with her single mom and brother. Her only passion appears to be working with a physical theater troupe. The director, Evangeline notices that Madeline has an intense inner world and works to pull that out. As she discovers Madeline’s conflicts with her mother, Evangeline decides to base the troupe’s new production around the material the young girl provides them. This in-depth examination of Madeline’s issues begins to have an adverse effect while the theater director seems to ignore the worst aspects. As Madeline’s grip on reality and fantasy slips, she spirals back into behaviors that sent her to a psychiatric ward years earlier.

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TV Review – Castle Rock Season 1

Castle Rock – Season 1 (2018)
Created by Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason
Written by Sam Shaw, Dustin Thomason, Gina Welch, Scott Brown, Lila Byock, Vinnie Wilhelm, Marc Bernardin, and Mark Lafferty
Directed by Nicole Cassell

castle rock

Henry Deaver is returning to his childhood home of Castle Rock, Maine for the first time in decades. His mother, Ruth, has slipped further into dementia and Henry feels an obligation to arrange accommodations for her. He finds Alan Pangborn, the retired sheriff living with his mother rekindling a love affair they had behind Henry’s father’s back. The late Reverend Matthew Deaver died under mysterious circumstances when Henry was a child, with his adopted son vanishing into the woods for some days before emerging with apparent amnesia. Even as an adult, Henry cannot remember what happened to him during that missing time. Around the same time Henry returns, a discovery is made at Shawshank Prison; a young man kept caged for years by the former warden. The one thing the man says, no matter the question is “Henry Deaver.”

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Movie Review – Mandy

Mandy (2018)
Written by Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn
Directed by Panos Cosmatos

mandy

In 1983, lumberjack Red Miller and his lady Nancy Bloom were living a peaceful life in the Shadow Mountains. Nancy is an artist, enamored with fantasy, heavy metal, and science fiction, all of which work their way into her paintings. Their lives are forever changed when the Children of the Dawn come into their life. This cult’s leader, Jeremiah Sand, glimpses Mandy and decides he must have her, no matter the cost. What follows is a trippy, psychedelic journey into the depths of horror and revenge. Red quickly loses his humanity to do whatever it takes to get back Mandy.

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Comic Book Review – Batman: White Knight

Batman: White Knight (2018)
Written & Illustrated by Sean Murphy

batman white knight 01

After years of constant battle through the streets of Gotham City, Batman has finally come to a terminal point with The Joker. In front of television cameras, the Gotham PD, and his own sidekicks the Dark Knight attempts to kill his archenemy. It fails, and due to overdosing on a strange psychotropic chemical The Joker is unmade, returning to his civilian identity of Jack Napier. This leads to his desire to make right by fighting for the underclass in Gotham. Batman doesn’t believe this reform for a second and sets out to prove the Joker has never changed. Meanwhile, Commissioner Gordon, Nightwing, Batgirl, and others are starting to listen and find Napier has a lot of value to say about what Batman has done to their city.

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Movie Review – Eighth Grade

a24 visions

Eighth Grade (2018)
Written & Directed by Bo Burnham

eighth grade

It’s the last week of eighth grade for Kayla, and this whole middle school experience has not worked out how she imagined it would. She’s voted most quiet, has no real close friends, and gets awkwardly invited to a pool party where she’s not wanted. When Kayla is alone in her bedroom, she records videos for her YouTube channel on topics like “Being yourself” and “Putting yourself out there,” creating a super confident persona that profoundly contrasts to what she is like in real life. Kayla’s dad has given her space to explore and figure out who she is, but this young woman is having a genuine crisis of confidence on the precipice of high school. She’s afraid that the bright, happy, gregarious person she wants so badly to be is ending up just a fantasy that she can never fulfill.

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Movie Review – Tully

Tully (2018)
Written by Diablo Cody
Directed by Jason Reitman

tully

Marlo is already the mother of two young children with a third on the way. Her daughter is having confidence issues, and her son is showing signs of being on the autism spectrum. Her son’s condition, in particular, is creating anxiety in her life as the headmaster of her children’s private school is pushing for her child to seek services elsewhere. Marlo’s brother recommends hiring a night nanny, a person who will take care of your newborn’s nighttime crying fits and only wake you for feedings. Tully is the name of the night nanny who arrives, and she is a vibrant, inquisitive presence. Over time, Marlo comes to find herself revitalized and friendship between she and Tully begins.

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Book Review – The Cabin at the End of the World

The Cabin at the End of the World (2018)
Written by Paul Tremblay

cabin at the end of the world

Wen is on a summer vacation to a lake cabin in rural New Hampshire where her fathers want the family to be disconnected from the internet and their phones for a little while. She’s out collecting grasshoppers when a strange, imposingly large man shows up, introducing himself as Leonard. He seems very kind and quiet, telling her she is a great little girl and implying that he’ll be speaking with her parents very soon. Wen feels conflicted, safe at moments and then wary. Then the other emerge from the tree line, and Wen feels a strong sense of dread. Over the next two days, Wen and her dads will experience a confusing and terrifying series of events, forcing them to question the very reality of the world around them.

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Movie Review – A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place (2018)
Written by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski
Directed by John Krasinski

a quiet place

Humanity is near extinction in the wake of a violent species that has emerged on the planet. These creatures are blind but possess super sensitive hearing. The film focuses on the Abbott family who lives on a farm in a rural community. They have spent over a year living in this violent new reality and have adapted, sprinkling well-trod paths with sand to soften their footsteps and building a soundproof bunker under their barn. Their eldest child, Regan is deaf and due to a lack of resources her damaged cochlear implant has become useless making her very vulnerable. The matriarch Evelyn is pregnant and due in a few weeks so this becomes an issue of vital importance, the family prepping a soundproof box to hide the newborn in when they arrive. But as often happens in movies like these things begin to go wrong very quickly.

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Movie Review – Ready Player One

Ready Player One (2018)
Written by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline
Directed by Steven Spielberg

READY PLAYER ONE

Wade Watts is a young man living in the Columbus stacks in the year 2045. An online virtual world called The Oasis dominates everyone’s lives providing them the ability to be whomever they wish and do whatever they want to. The deceased creator of the Oasis, James Halliday posthumously announces a contest hidden throughout this artificial reality, a search for three keys. To find the keys, you must decode the riddles Halliday has left which all seem to tie back to events in his personal life, particularly regrets. Wade befriends Kira, a fellow searcher for the keys and they take on the menace of IOI, a corporate entity devoting their resources to finding the keys. The person who solves the riddles and finds the keys will end up with ownership of the Oasis and determine its future.

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Movie Review – I Kill Giants

I Kill Giants (2018)
Written by Joe Kelly
Directed by Anders Walter

i kill giants

Barbara Thorson is a withdrawn teenager living on Long Island who spends her days traversing the nearby woods and setting traps. She is convinced that giants are real and are coming to attack her town. A new girl moves to town, Sophia, who wants to be Barbara’s friend but finds her caustic and unwelcoming. As she gets to know this intense young woman she learns about the giants hiding just beneath the surface of our reality and Barbara’s secret weapon, a massive hidden weapon called Coveleski. But as Sophia gets closer to Barbara, she learns more is going on in her life.

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