There are only nine movies opening this week — a relative dearth! — but look at me, on top of everything.
Deepwater Horizon: Lone Survivor collaborators Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg reunite to show us how another bloody, pointless waste of American life and treasure was in fact a triumph somehow. I liked the first half, anyway.
Demon: Marcin Wrona’s psychological thriller (or is it a full-on horror movie?) arrives in theatres a year after its TIFF bow, hasn’t gotten any better with time.
Imperium: As a young FBI agent and the hard-case who drives him into an undercover operation, Daniel Radcliffe and Toni Collette are very, very good in a very, very familiar movie.
The Lovers and the Despot: The tale of Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok — South Korean cinema royalty abducted to North Korea to make movies for deranged admirer Kim Jong-Il — is rendered surprisingly flat in this British documentary.
Masterminds: Jared Hess’ heist comedy has been in limbo for a year and a half, but there’s a timeless quality to its idiosyncratic weirdness, so that’s nice. Plus, now it stars three of the four lady Ghostbusters!
Milton’s Secret: This Canadian drama is based on a children’s book by spiritualist Eckhart Tolle, which could be interesting. Or terrible. I dunno, it was a last-minute addition to the distributor’s schedule.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Another distracted live-action disappointment from Tim Burton. Guys, just let him play in the animation studio, it clearly makes him so much happier.
Operation Avalanche: Matt Johnson’s new film is almost exactly the same as Matt Johnson’s old film, except for the location and the film stock. And if you haven’t seen The Dirties, you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more.
Sand Storm: Rad loved this Israeli drama at TIFF, which is good because we had a review available when the Lightbox slotted it in at the last possible second. I’m intrigued.
That’s that, movie-wise. But if you’re a comedy nerd you might want to check out a couple of In Conversation events I’m doing this afternoon (Friday) at Second City. At 2:30 pm I’ll be sitting down with Another Period‘s Natasha Leggero, and at 4:15 pm I’ll be chatting with Anthony Jeselnik. Fun fact: Both of them appeared in the first episode of Garfunkel & Oates!
Come on down! It’ll be awesome! I promise not to talk about movies too much.