Norman Gidney

Darkly comic, disturbing, and fun, Piercing is a vulgar little thriller that is one you watch without the one you love.

This classically styled thriller plays on universal themes of alienation to deliver a punchy diversion with macabre tints and a love of the genre.

I did not like MidSommar as much as I appreciated its audacity and the skill that clearly went into making it. This was a stunning work of art that embraced excess with only mostly positive results.

Clemency is a staggering achievement in its portrayal of a story that we often ignore out of simple spite or ignorance that humanizes all angles with compassion.

In the end, Raise Hell is the true celebration of the Texas spirit or rather, America on steroids as one commentator words it.

Before You Know It comes off as pharmaceutical-grade Hallmark Channel, which means that Utt and Tullock take the same familiar elements and end up finding some absolutely hilarious scenes that remind us why we love the movies, to begin with, just not consistently.

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is a wicked read of religion and a showcase of comic talent.

Samantha Buck, Marie Schlingmann bring a light touch and a wonderful comedic tone to a story of one hell of a woman. This is a lighthearted comedy about resourceful females far ahead of their time.

Ms. Purple was an honest love note to the flawed amalgamation of dreams and nightmares that Angelenos call home. It is also another promising piece from Chon that has us on notice.

The Hole In the Ground surprised me, took me on a fun ride, and returned me, almost unshaken. This was a brilliantly satisfying monster movie.

I think what sets Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It apart from other end-of-life docs is that this one is just so honest, so forthcoming, and so remarkably detailed. Mariem Pérez Riera has perfectly captured an American icon at the moment we need her the most.

The surprise is the remarkable script from screenwriter (Zack Weiner) and the sharp-eyed direction from Daniel Robbins who work to take an idea we have seen a million times before and turn out something new and fiercely entertaining.

While informative, I never leaned forward and engaged with the events documented.

House of Cardin is a solid, encyclopedic documentary of one of the greatest designers of our time. He deserves to be celebrated, no question there. But this doc wants to inform rather than reveal, to celebrate rather than investigate. C’est la vie.

What is most frustrating about 15 Years is just how much it gets right while so narrowly missing the mark.

Alexandre O. Philippe is a fine filmmaker and documentarian. Memory – The Origins of Alien, however, is a bit of a class on story structure and theory.

Call Jane is dripping with amazing actors giving solid performances, but only Banks is given a chance at Oscar bait. Weaver’s Virginia is a sagacious activist with long hair, always reminding the group to keep the goal in mind, but we are cheated of heavier moments with her. What is here is wonderful, but it could have used a few moments of gravity.

It is quite a frothy mix of childish innocence and magical realism. It’s just nothing of major consequence.

As a bitter commentary on family, truth, trust, and above all, the religion, The Lodge is a serviceable mood piece that ends up leaving you feeling cold, and not in a good way.

While the first act is slow but promising, the second and third acts don’t move any faster.

Holding the entire movie together, Hall delivers an exceptional performance as a woman grieving, sliding in and out of reality. But her talents are eventually no match for a runtime that stretches things a bit and story beats that we have seen before.

The real torpedo that sank this ship was that the source material wasn’t all that good, to begin with.

Holbrook is talented. There is no question about that. The guy wrote, directed, produced and cut Beloved Beast together. It’s just a shame that this strange yarn couldn’t be reduced to the essentials and given real power. Had we been offered less movie with more meaning, the impact would have been far greater.

In the end, what’s left is yet another bad Amityville movie that fails to entertain or scare. Still, the house does look scary. Maybe if they try one more time…