Most films?culminate in a big screen moment, whether it’s the dramatic reunion of long lost loved ones or the explosive battle royale.?90 Minutes in Heaven?is that rare film that starts at the end, and then moves forward to what comes after that. Under the artful direction of Michael Polish (Big Sur), Hayden Christensen and Kate…
If we’re honest with ourselves, we have questions about what happens next. In the next five minutes, the next five years, in the next … hereafter. Our fiction reflects this, as we read stories and watch movies about people who live forever, people who create technology to extend life, and people who come back…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two brothers commit a violent crime; one brother goes to jail and is completely tormented by life beyond bars, while the other tries to make amends (and finds love). Once released, the first/older brother urges the other/younger brother to do “one last job” to make things right,…
In August, over the course of seventy-two hours, I watched the fascinating (and creepy) thriller?Amnesiac,?followed by?the based-on-a-memoir biopic 90 Minutes From Heaven. I quickly realized that even though?the two films were wildly different, they both starred the effervescent Kate Bosworth under the direction of her husband, director Michael Polish. So, I did what any inquisitive…
M.C. Gainey has been the face of evil?for years. The journeyman actor has played Tom Friendly in?Lost and Bo Crowder in?Justified, with guest appearances in series from?Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?to?CSI and supporting roles in various movies over the last thirty-five years. This fall, he’s an integral part of?The Pardon, a film that follows the story…
I was skeptical of George Miller’s sequel to his?Road Warrior?films after so many years away. Seriously, he made?Babe?and two?Happy Feet?movies more recently than he told a Mad Max story. How could?Fury Road?be any good? But as I admitted here, I thought the film was the best I’d seen this year – and it’s still my…
One of the things I look forward to most is laying out the films to highlight in the fall. Sure, the summer film preview is a blast – it’s usually full of grand, action-packed adventures – but it’s nothing like the various thoughtful features that emerge when the kids go back to school and the…
In a creepy, surreal thriller directed by?Michael Polish (Astronaut Farmer, 90 Minutes From Heaven), a man awakens after a car accident to find himself without memories and locked in a house by a woman who demands he provide her with a child. Wes Bentley (Hunger Games,?Interstellar) plays “Man” and Kate Bosworth (Still Alice, Home Front)…
In the inaugural indie thriller by Tyler Shields, a pack of young men spend their Saturday nights chasing young women through the woods for sport. The men think that they’re dominant, that they have a right to pursue these women [can you hear the contemporary societal critique?], and that they can’t lose. Then, they stumble…
The sky might be big and blue, but that’s not looking like a plus. Hazel (Bella Thorne) has problems. She’s agoraphobic (fearing wide-open spaces?and?lots of people). Her father and mother, Dee (Kyra Sedgwick), are in a nasty divorce process. If that isn’t enough, two masked gunman just shot up the van she was in on…
