Going in Style movie review: pabulum and circuses
Bland, tasteless entertainmentstuff intended to neither move nor offend, and succeeds as such. A sad pile of unfunny nothing that falls painfully flat.
2017 theatrical releases
City of Tiny Lights movie review: mushy modern noir
Doesn’t hit all the noir tropes so much as it wrings all the gloomy joy from them, and the mystery is underwhelming and unmysterious, but still: Riz Ahmed.
Aftermath movie review: a series of unfortunate events
Deeply uninvolving, often weirdly stilted and amateurish, and emotionally inert, which is pretty unforgivable given its subject matter of grief and despair.
Their Finest movie review: keeping calm and carrying on making movies
Delightful dry and snarky satire on wartime propaganda, sharp feminist commentary, and a brilliant cast make this snappy historical dramedy a real corker.
Carrie Pilby movie review: how to be an intellectual romantic
A fairly familiar romantic dramedy distinguishes itself because its awkward, immature nerd is a young woman, poignantly portrayed by the wonderful Bel Powley.
Smurfs: The Lost Village movie review: how do you solve a problem like Smurfette?
An adventure crammed with junky slapstick and garish animation that seems to believe it is feminist, but only doubles down on Smurfily regressive notions of gender.
Bokeh movie review: blurry, lonely lives at the end of the world
A pretty blur of an apocalypse happens to pretty, blurry people in this dull SF drama. This end of the world brought to you by the Reykjavik Tourist Board.
The Void movie review: retro monsters, alien mystery
It’s Lovecraft by way of The Thing and Alien in this satisfyingly schlocky 80s throwback, complete with practical FX. A genuinely eerie experience.
Ghost in the Shell movie review: more like ghost in the meh-chine
Trite characters, very well-worn clichés of SF cinema, and a mystery that is completely transparent. All about production design, and even that is familiar.
CHiPs movie review: they promised chip would happen, and it did
Toilet humor, cars exploding for no reason, random naked boobies, and gay panic… although, weirdly, also lots of awkward, unerotic nearly naked Dax Shepard.
