Review: MidSommar

by Chris Feil

Ari Aster’s sunbleached hellscape MidSommar opens with a horrific tragedy, a shocking act that has nevertheless long been grimly foretold for Dani, a depressed collegiate played by Florence Pugh. What unfolds for her in the rest of the film feels as projected by the warning signs around her and as cataclysmic. No, not the ominous surroundings of her European countryside getaway. She’s in a relationship doomed to collapse.

Though Dani’s imminent breakup with Christian (Jack Reynor) gets stalled by this horrible event, she suddenly finds herself slipping into his vacation plans with his begrudging friends. Promised a once-in-a-lifetime folk traditions in the isolated home village of one of his bros, the group descends upon the Hårga of Hälsingland looking to get a little stoned and enjoy some cultural tourism. Once there, Dani’s already established isolation in the group (and her relationship) intensifies from her grief and the increasingly strange rituals in which they participate. Lines are crossed early, but for reasons that feel insignificant in the end, they still stick around.

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Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 2.3 – “The End of the World”

Previously: Episode 1 (Nathaniel) Episode 2 (Spencer)

by Lynn Lee

As someone who loved the first season of Big Little Lies, I have to admit I haven’t been enjoying the show’s sophomore outing as much, in large part because the tone has been so much more subdued, almost dirge-like.  It feels like the fire’s gone out of many of the key characters: Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz), of course, but even more so, Reese Witherspoon’s Madeline.  (Not Renata, bless her – yet even her manic aggressiveness seems driven by a desperation that wasn’t there before.)  This isn’t a choice I quarrel with, exactly: it feels like a necessary reckoning as the inexorable aftermath of a violent death, and the cast is beautifully illustrating the strain the “Monterey Five”’s silence is exercising on each of their lives and relationships. 

That said, the moments of humor – mostly courtesy of Laura Dern as Renata, of course – came as an especially welcome break, and figure heavily in this week’s MVPs...

Top Ten MVPs of Big Little Lies, Episode 2.3: “The End of the World”

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Review: Men in Black International

by Tony Ruggio

Jettisoning all subtext of the original and heart of the third and formerly final movie, Men in Black International is definitely a step-down from the highs of this intermittent, long-running franchise. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson don’t enjoy nearly the same chemistry that sparked in Thor Ragnarok, their personalities clashing in a way that can best be described as awkward, and not the good kind with bumbling and sexual tension in tow. It’s all so rushed and Thompson’s arc leaves something to be desired.

And yet, I couldn’t help smiling through half of it...

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Review: The Dead Don't Die

by Chris Feil

A few years back, Jim Jarmusch brought fresh life to the oft-revisited vampire genre with the sexy Only Lovers Left Alive. This summer, he attempts to do the same with the tropes of the zombie film in The Dead Don’t Die, drolly taking on our mindnumbed obsessions in the modern dissociative era. Should he take on another monster genre soon - who better to find the poetic ennui of a werewolf, truth be told - then he should hope it results in something more akin to his look at bloodsuckers than that of his flesheaters. The Dead Don’t Die is a smug stinker.

The film is set in Centerville, “A very nice place to live!”, a town small enough to house a single diner for restaurant options and with its gas station pulling double duty as its comic shop. News reports that the Earth has spun off its axis due to polar fracking is met by the townspeople with the mildest sense of alarm, at least as much as they can muster for a world outside that they just cain’t understand. But that small town malaise is devoured once the local cemetery starts sprouting the reanimated dead.

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Review Catch-Up: Superheroes, spies, gangsters, and street rats

by Nathaniel R

As ever we've fallen behind. Here are four pictures currently in theaters that didn't get a proper review or a podcast discussion on the site. File under better late than never because we didn't mean to ignore them. Would love to hear your thoughts, too... 

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