Review: Aubrey Plaza in "Black Bear"

by Matt St Clair

Though her trademark had been deadpan comedy, Aubrey Plaza has shown a recent knack for giving bold dramatic performances as obsessive women. Three years ago, in Ingrid Goes West, she immersed herself into the role of Ingrid Thorburn who was not unlike a female Travis Bickle on Instagram. In Black Bear, Plaza is on a career-best level as Allison, an actress-turned-filmmaker with possibly ulterior motives as she stays with an unsuspecting couple in an isolated cabin...

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Review: Sarandon and company in "Blackbird"

by Juan Carlos Ojano

After premiering last year in the Roger Michell’s Blackbird starring Oscar winners Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet alongside Sam Neill, Mia Wasikowska, and Lindsay Duncan, has arrived on VOD. The film tells the story of a family coming together to celebrate its dying matriarch Lily (Sarandon) before she ends her life. That is not a spoiler; the entire film unfolds from that premise...

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Oldies but Linkies

• Indiewire Waiting for Chris Nolan's Tenet -  Hollywood hopes summer can be saved
• Rick's Real Reel remembering Doris Day and Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink
• Slate fun short piece on the absurd thrill (in a vacuum) of the Ben Affleck / Ana de Armas romance as witness by paparazzi

Today's roundup continues after the jump and is a mix of new and old (i.e. past couple of weeks) stuff since we haven't hit you with a link in a bit: Robert Pattinson profiled, a rift at the César awards, Dear Evan Hansen couplings, Drama League nominations, Peabody Awards, RIPs and more...

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Review: The Hunt (2020)

by Tony Ruggio

Blumhouse’s much-ballyhooed American political satire has finally seen the light of day after postponement due to a mass shooting last August, only to meet an unprecedented global pandemic this spring. With multiplexes closed nationwide, it’s one of a few major motion pictures to release early on VOD. Eschewing anything resembling subtlety or a desire to make a cogent point, The Hunt is a glib quasi-horror romp designed to prod and provoke, but dips into irrelevance by trying too hard for that sweet spot of zeitgeist...

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Review: Lords of Chaos

By guest contributor Samantha Craggs

Rory Culkin headlines the music bio "Lords of Chaos"

There's a scene in Lords of Chaos, now available on VOD, that sums up the film in a nutshell. Euronymous (Rory Culkin), the lead guitarist of the black metal band Mayhem, walks into the bedroom of his depressed lead singer, Pelle, who goes by the name Dead. The camera pans over the mostly barren bedroom and shows us a dead cat swinging from the ceiling, apparently with a hook through its face. Euronymous tells us in an arch voiceover that Dead hates cats, just in case we didn't get it the first time. Dead is lying on the bed, and Euronymous wants to rouse him. "Dead," he says, looking out the window, "Cat." Dead sits up, excited, and the two go out into the woods with a shotgun to stalk and kill.

You get the feeling this scene is supposed to be comic relief...

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