Sinners
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
“Well plotted and wildly entertaining with a killer soundtrack, this is a masterful bit of popcorn entertainment that also has more serious matters on its mind… one of my favorite movies of the year so far.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a big-screen exultation — a passionate, effusive praise song about life and love, including the love of movies.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“Coogler doesn’t reinvent the vampire movie with Sinners, but in a current era of American cinema where messages are force-fed, a thoughtful social satire which gives viewers time to dissect––and never lets its loftier thematic aims get in the way of its junky thrills––is a breath of fresh air. I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun, nor felt so reinvigorated by, a major studio genre movie.” – Alistair Ryder, The Film Stage
rated r for strong bloody violence, sexual content, and language.
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.
“It’s a tour-de-force of voluptuously bloody slapstick that knows that we know how these movies work.” – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“It is carnage for connoisseurs. Nothing in the series so far can quite prepare you for the intricate sadism of these set pieces.” – Tim Robey, The Telegraph
“If Final Destination 2 instilled a lifelong fear of logging trucks in a generation of moviegoers, I guess Bloodlines aims to do the same for grand openings? Or perhaps it’s propaganda to drum up support for discontinuing the penny? Whatever the aim, it’s a blast of sick fun that allows us to deal with our fears of death in a safe, often cartoonishly over-the-top way while also making us look askance at the perils awaiting us in our everyday lives.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
rated r for strong violent / grisly accidents, and language.
Fallout: Season 1
Lucy (Ella Purnell) surfaces from the underground bunker her forebears took shelter in 200 years ago to find a hostile, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the TV adaptation of the video game series of the same name.
“By not worrying about recreating any individual plot thread from the popular video game series and instead focusing on nailing the tone, this TV adaptation excelled. Weird, violent, and darkly funny, it’s a world I can’t wait to come back to.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“It is, if you’ll pardon the pun, an absolute blast. Goggins is wonderful as both the unsullied golden boy Cooper and the wretched Ghoul, Moten brings such nuance to what could easily be a one-note role and Purnell performs Lucy’s fall from innocence brilliantly.” – Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
“Like its inspiration, Fallout is a monumental achievement of sci-fi world-building, presenting an alternately horrifying and exhilarating vision of a United States held together by little more than duct tape and Wonder Glue, unflagging optimism and ultra-violent mercilessness. At once accessible and intricate, familiar and unique, it blends brutality, romance, intrigue and wide-eyed awe—and unites man, machine and mutant—to craft a mesmerizing fantasy of the end-times, and all the wild delirium that follows it.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
rated tv-ma. contains graphic violence, disturbing images, strong language, nudity, sexual material, thematic content, drug use, and smoking.
Fight or Flight
Exiled American agent Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) is given one last chance to redeem himself – the assignment is to track down and identify a mysterious, international high-value asset known only as The Ghost on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. Complicating matters, the plane is filled with assassins from around the world who are assigned to kill them both. The pair must work together in a fight for their lives. At 37,000 feet, the stakes have never been higher.
“Crackles with manic energy, fed at every turn by exhilarating fight choreography and a thoroughly game cast. Hartnett carries the whole silly, bone-crunching enterprise masterfully.” – William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“Amusing, energetic, and just clever enough to sustain its brief runtime, it serves up a boisterous and bruising brand of B-movie bedlam.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“Ultimately, it’s extremely doubtful that any of this would work nearly as well as it does without Hartnett at the center of the storm, anchoring the bloody chaos and generating rooting interest with a performance defined by propulsive physicality, industrial-strength enthusiasm and an indefatigable willingness, even eagerness, to repeatedly make himself the butt of the joke.” – Joe Leydon, Variety
rated r for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and some drug material.
All We Imagine as Light
In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
“One of the year’s great movies, in any form, style, or language.” – Justin Chang, The New Yorker
“The beats of All We Imagine as Light are calibrated with hypnotic grace creating a rhythm that induces pure pleasure.” – Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire
“One of the pleasures of Kapadia’s filmmaking is that she’s inviting you to discover her characters on their terms, which means embracing the inner and outer rhythms of their lives.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
not rated. contains brief nudity, sexual content, and brief strong language.
The Amateur
Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.
“It is respectful and smooth filmmaking that never loses sight of its one and only goal: keeping its audience hooked.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
“The Amateur is a relaxed and pleasurable throwback to the spy pulp of the 1970s and ’80s, yet told with a (mostly) honest appraisal of the C.I.A.’s ethical failings.” – Greg Nussen, Slant
“[A] genre entry that avoids the missteps of so many spy movies — the superhero protagonist, the mission not being compelling, relying too much on action sequences and predictable betrayals. Instead, it invests in its world, its relationships, and its premise.” – Michael Ordoña, San Francisco Chronicle
rated pg-13 for some strong violence, and language.
Until Dawn
One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished seeking answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer & horrifically murdered one by one… only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Trapped in the valley, they’re forced to relive the nightmare again & again – only each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Hope dwindling, the group soon realizes they have a limited number of deaths left – and the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.
“Video games have had a lot of misses as adaptations, but this isn’t one of them.” – Rick Hong, Film Threat
“Until Dawn is a gleeful reimaging of the classic slasher film, modifying the tropes enough to turn the familiar into something fresh.” – Thom Ernst, Original Cin
“It’s a thrilling ride, and the fun the production is having with itself is contagious. There are moments of humor and necessary breaks in the tension that let us laugh and allow us to get braver alongside the characters.” – Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
rated r for strong bloody horror violence, gore, and language throughout.
Hell of a Summer
24-year-old camp counselor Jason Hochberg (Fred Hechinger) arrives at Camp Pineway thinking his biggest problem is that he feels out of touch with his teenage co-workers. What he doesn’t know is that a masked killer is lurking on the campgrounds, brutally picking counselors off one by one.
“…with its loving throwback vibes (helped greatly by Jay McCarrol’s retro score) and the cast’s natural camaraderie [Hell of a Summer] readily entertains.” – Sean Farrell, AFPL Journal
“Hell of A Summer might not have the most original premise, but Bryk and Wolfhard are fully aware of that, creating one of the most entertaining and crowd-pleasing slasher films of the 2020s.” – Nate Richard, Collider
“While there may be a few folks out there for whom Hell of a Summer gives them a chill, the majority of horror fans probably won’t find themselves too fearful. What Bryk and Wolfhard have here instead is one of the coziest horror movies in recent memory, one which instantly feels charming from the start.” – Bill Bria, /Film
rated r for horror violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.
Rust
A boy left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after he is sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
“In spite of the woe in its making, there’s enough beneath the surface of Rust to overcome its flaws.” – John Serba, Decider
“Authentically mounted and rich in genre tropes/traditions, Rust is a finely rendered contemporary staging of an ol’ Hollywood ‘oater’, bolstered by resonant performances by Baldwin and McDermott.” – Simon Foster, Screen Space
“There’s an elegant severity to the natural elements that share the frame with the movie’s characters, manifested in silhouettes against vast cloudy skies, delicate snowfalls, shafts of light in dark interiors and crisp air filled with smoke and dust.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
not rated. contains violence and language.
Ash
On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (Eiza González) awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive.
“Ash is riveting, even as it drifts away from and back into the precarious tropes of the genre, like waves against the shore.” – Kent Hill, Film Threat
“A hypnotic star child of out-there wonder and internal corruption and chaos.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“The movie’s razor-sharp visuals leave scratch marks on the back of your eyeballs, liable to burst back into your consciousness in subsequent dreams.” – Peter Debruge, Variety
rated r for bloody violence, gore, and language.
Shadow Force
An estranged couple with a bounty on their heads must go on the run with their son to avoid their former employer, a unit of shadow ops that has been sent to kill them.
“[Provides] enough violent thrills, intentional humour and playful lead chemistry for it to be worth a breezy, escapist viewing.” – Peter Gray, The AU Review
“Shadow Force is a surprisingly competent action thriller that rises above its lackluster marketing with strong performances and stylish direction.” – Cole Groth, FandomWire
“…the film achieves the kind of light entertainment that was typical of a mid-scale summer movie that has been in danger of extinction for years.” – Juanma Fernández París, El Nuevo Día
rated r for violence, and language throughout.
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen’s pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy’s reign of terror.
“True cinema is John Lithgow terrorizing Geoffrey Rush in a nursing home with his creepy hand puppet.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush deliver us a mighty duel, as well as a masterclass in character acting in James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen.” – Kent Hill, Film Threat
“The Rule Of Jenny Pen‘s willingness to constantly challenge its audience with shadows and hints rather than some kind of outright horror mythos is one of its great strengths, and Rush embodies that with intense, compelling control.” – Matthew Jackson, AV Club
rated r for violent content including sexual assault, and some language.
The Trouble with Jessica
Married couple Sarah (Shirley Henderson) and Tom (Alan Tudyk) are in terrible financial trouble. On the brink of losing everything, they’ve managed to find a buyer for their stylish London home. When their best friends Richard (Rufus Sewell) and Beth (Olivia Williams) come over for a final dinner, an uninvited old friend, Jessica (Indira Varma), tags along. After a seemingly trivial argument at dinner, Jessica disappears. She has the temerity to hang herself in the garden, totally oblivious to the adverse consequences for Sarah and Tom’s real estate sale. The only solution: Sarah and Tom must convince Richard and Beth to help take care of this little inconvenience.
“The Trouble with Jessica is like a tray of fresh out of the oven pot brownies: demented, dark and delicious. Get yourself a mouthful of this movie.” – Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat
“Literate and deadpan, this wildly funny black comedy of ethics is a monumental adrenalin rush that will make you squirm and crave a clafouti.” – Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews
“This is why the black comedy proves so successful. These are all reprehensible people in the vein that we are all reprehensible people. [They] know the difference between right and wrong, but none are above moving that line when it suits them.” – Jared Mobarak, Hey, Have You Seen…?
not rated. contains strong language throughout, sexual content, thematic material, and smoking.
The Actor
Paul Cole (André Holland) is stranded in a mysterious small town with no memory of who he is or how he got here. Without a sense of identity or purpose, he starts from scratch and begins courting a local costume designer Edna (Gemma Chan). As bits and pieces of his past slowly emerge, he attempts to find his way home, but time is slippery, appearances can’t be trusted, and it’s unclear which of his identities is real. Based on the novel Memory by Donald E. Westlake.
“A captivating portrait of a man who can’t seem to remember who he is and may not ever be able to, Duke Johnson’s live-action feature debut is an enrapturing film that speaks in this language of half-remembered dreams before descending into something closer to a nightmare.” – Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap
“Johnson and Stephen Cooney have shaped an unsettling, sorrowful journey from damage to a kind of deliverance.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
“The Actor is a film about discovering who you truly are, and it also reveals that Johnson is a captivating, promising filmmaker who hopefully won’t wait another decade to make his next film.” – Ross Bonaime, Collider
rated r for language.
William Tell
In the 14th Century, amidst the days of the Holy Roman Empire where Europe’s nations fiercely vie for supremacy and the ambitious Austrians, desiring more land, encroach upon Switzerland, a serene and pastoral nation. Amidst this backdrop, William Tell (Claes Bang), a formerly peaceful hunter, finds himself forced to take action as his family and homeland come under dire threat from the oppressive Austrian King and his ruthless warlords. Leading his fellow countrymen, Tell embarks on a courageous rebellion, seeking to defend their liberty and stand against the tyrannical forces that seek to subjugate them.
“The film is big, brutal and beautiful — over the top at times and stirring at others.” – Steve Pond, The Wrap
“A defiant throwback to a time when movie marquees boasted ‘a cast of thousands,’ immersed audiences in chaotic, close-up widescreen Technicolor battle scenes and featured chiseled, virtuous heroes doing battle with smirking, thoroughly evil villains.” – Bill Newcott, The Saturday Evening Post
“…those seeking something unusual from their trip to the movies will find William Tell is really something to behold… if you’re thinking a baddie Austrian king played by Ben Kingsley with a golden eyepatch, you’d be bang on, it’s THAT kind of action movie…” – Eddie Harrison, Film-Authority.com
rated r for strong / bloody violence and brief nudity.
Timestalker
Agnes (Alice Lowe), a hapless heroine, falls for a mysterious man, promptly meets her bloody demise, and then is reincarnated a century later. When she meets her love again, the cycle begins anew. As Agnes traverses through time, she repeats all the messy thrills and spills that come with daring to follow one’s heart. How can she ever hope to break the cycle when she’s destined to be a fool for love?
“As outlandish as Timestalker is, Lowe’s film holds its idea together well with style, wit, resourceful imagination, great lovelorn music, the sincerity behind heartbreak and deep yearning, and hilarious, sharp laughs to boot.” – Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
“As a writer, Lowe is someone who can elicit a laugh from the deadpan line reading of a single word, yet the impression that the film leaves is quite different: a confessional, self-lacerating howl into the void; an expression of confusion and disappointment; a film which refuses to explain its heroine’s literal generational trauma with self-help platitudes.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies
“Taking pleasure in subverting romcom tropes and boasting a satisfying attention to detail, Timestalker is a showcase for Lowe’s considerable talents on both sides of the camera.” – Nikki Baughan, Screen Daily
not rated. contains strong language, bloody violence, sexual material, and thematic material.
Wake Up
Gen Z activists are violently picked off by a deranged night watchman after sneaking into an environmentally destructive big-box furniture store.
“Wake Up makes its impression like a candy bar with a razor blade at its core. It’s a sweet little treat for action-horror fans that hurts so good, as long as you’re in the mood for visually traumatic, hopeless vibes.” – Matt Donato, /Film
“Wake Up is a superb, streamlined slasher with a simplicity that radiates the same universal appeal as a late-night In-N-Out burger.” – Michael Talbot-Haynes, Film Threat
“Dark and violent, leading to a refreshingly merciless final act that helps to sell the horror of the situation, as the filmmakers hope to leave viewers a little rattled by this battle between a nutso predator and his unprepared prey.” – Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com
not rated. contains strong violence, peril, and strong language.
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