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IR Film Review: MOONFALL [Lionsgate]
Sometimes movies are just made for fun but it is understanding the tonality and the idea of who makes it without attaching any sort of expectation. "Moonfall" is a bad movie but in a wonderful elative way because it is so bonkers in so many respects (yet both derivative and original).
IR Film Review: THE 355 [Universal]
The texture of a female led action film should not be considered an unbalanced affair and "The 355" proves that. From the first time this journalist heard a couple years ago around Cannes that Jessica Chastain was trying to bring kick ass women from all over the globe for a spy thriller, it was an instant sell.
IR Film Review: THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [A24/Apple TV+]
The essence of Shakespeare reflects in seeing an essence of truth beneath the structure but also finding something in brevity. With "The Tragedy Of Macbeth", the players are fantastic, the production stylized but the approach is finite simply because of its essence.
IR Film Review: THE MATRIX - RESURRECTIONS [Warner Bros]
The trigger point of "The Matrix" has always been what is reality and what are we? There was also a dexterity of approach that mirrored both with an intensity and with a coldness. There are some ideas in "The Matrix: Resurrections" that are quite undeniable but it doesn'‘t push it to the nth degree.
IR Film Review: SPIDER MAN - NO WAY HOME [Sony]
The texture of "Spiderman" reflects in who a certain generation needs him to be. The aspect of "No Way Home" indicates an existential crisis which the whole last film with Mysterio was built to set up into its final moments. "No Way Home" isn't a clean movie by any means and it could work just as well as a large scale series because of the literal way it works.
IR Film Review: NIGHTMARE ALLEY [Searchlight]
Guillermo De Toro has always worked in the macabre but normally always works within the context of folklore. With "Nightmare Alley", his context is a little different. Granted this is a remake in most ways of the Tyrone Powers film from the 40s but it does take on some resonance today. It is more a character piece on the corruption of power from a perspective that is both Darwinian but also Machiavellian in way.
IR Film Review: MOTHER/ANDROID [Hulu]
The aspect of survival in a crushing world where hope takes on an idea of simply existing can be a bleak place. "Mother/Android" (which is not the most compelling title but also the film is difficult to compartmentalize) is a family drama film but taken from a science fiction context.
IR Film Review: HOUSE OF GUCCI [MGM]
"House Of Gucci" feels like a TV movie made with big name stars. If Scott was to do excess, the game could have been stepped up. Every actor in a way seems to be making a different movie but with each having moments of brilliance but never quite taking on that essence.
IR Film Review: RESIDENT EVIL - WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY [Screen Gems]
This entry "Welcome To Raccoon City" reintroduces characters we do know in a different way more in tune with the haunted house motif before later bringing in recognizable elements of the original franchise. The movie is a different beast but still regaled at times by bad characterization.