It takes about an hour, but Nicholas McCarthy’s THE PACT, which premiered in the Park City At Midnight section at Sundance, eventually turns out to have a neat twist up its sleeve, one that switches the movie from haunted house horror to an entirely different subgenre of thriller.  And after that, a solid reel […]

  MAGAZINE DREAMS:  The hype was accurate:  Jonathan Majors gives a titanic performance in Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams.  Playing Killian, a roided-up amateur bodybuilder obsessed with achieving glory in that profession, Majors somehow manages to be both massive and delicate, prone to rage but also abjectly needy for acceptance or connection.  Majors never misjudges the […]

  PLAINCLOTHES (no distrib):  A coming-out story laced with paranoia.  It’s 1997 in upstate New York, and the cops are running undercover operations in public restrooms to lead gay men into indecent exposure charges.  For Lucas (Tom Blyth), this is a particularly difficult assignment, because his own desires are deeply in the closet, not just […]

  Click on SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s reviews from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, in alphabetical order:   2 DAYS IN NEW YORK (Magnolia) BACHELORETTE (No Distrib) BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Fox Searchlight) CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER (Sony Pictures Classics) COMPLIANCE (Magnolia) FILLY BROWN (No Distrib) THE FIRST TIME (No Distrib) FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL… (Focus) […]

  Due to our upcoming Sundance Film Festival coverage, ratings posts for the remainder of the week are likely to consist largely of charts without text.  In addition, we may not be able to respond promptly to reader Comments requests for extra ratings.  (On the other hand, Sundance reviews!)

  CAT PERSON:  It seems to be necessary to establish one’s bona fides (or lack thereof) before commenting on Susanna Fogel’s Cat Person, so I’ll note that I’ve never read Kristen Roupenian’s celebrated New Yorker short story.  I’m given to understand, however, that the entire third act of Michelle Ashford’s adaptation is an add-on, which […]

  THE FIRST TIME may be too lovable for its own good.  Jonathan Kasdan’s teen romance, which premiered in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance, couldn’t be more straightforward:  in its opening minutes, it introduces the adorable Dave (Dylan O’Brien) and Aubrey (Britt Robertson), two hyper-articulate sweethearts who meet outside a suburban LA party neither of […]

  GOD’S COUNTRY (no distrib):  A deliberative character study that’s also a thriller of sorts, anchored by one of the best performances of Thandiwe Newton’s career.  When two hunters (Joris Jarsky and Yellowstone‘s Jefferson White) park their pick-up on college professor Sandra Guidry’s (Newton) land for their convenience, they’re messing with the wrong person.  Sandra’s […]