With everyone expecting Black Panther to continue its domination of the global box office for a second week, releases are light today. But there’s plenty of good stuff arriving.
Annihilation: Alex Garland’s new SF thriller is really, really good right up until he loses control of it. Which might be a metaphor for itself, but probably isn’t.
Every Day: Michael Sucsy’s body-hopping YA romance takes an even more fraught concept than Annihilation and plays it out almost perfectly, thanks to a straightforward approach and a terrific leading performance from Angourie Rice. Go see this.
Game Night: something something which Rad and pretty much everyone else is saying came out a lot better than it could have. (The directors are the guys behind the Vacation reboot, so I can see that.)
Loveless: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s latest is grim look at contemporary Russia is more specifically domestic than Leviathan, but just as potent in its misery and pessimism. And as the child of an ugly divorce myself, it hit hard.
Mom and Dad: Speaking of Russian masters, you know that guy who said every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way? He never imagined a world where Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair hunt their own kin, as Brian Taylor does here. Kevin kinda liked it.
Porcupine Lake: Ingrid Veninger’s latest is another subtle study of people seeking connection; this one stars Charlotte Salisbury and Lucinda Armstrong Hall as young women drawn together in cottage country. Susan liked it.
Quest: Jonathan Olshefski’s documentary follows the Raineys of North Philadelphia over a decade in their lives as America shifts and convulses around them. Kevin loved it.
Tom of Finland: Not a documentary but a speculative drama about the life of Valio Laaksonen, the artist whose hyper-masculine work would define a certain subset of gay culture. Glenn is mixed on it.
Oh, and tickets are still available for this Sunday morning’s Reel Talk sneak preview screening — I can’t tell you what the movie is, of course, but I will say it has an excellent cast and one of the simplest, most affecting scenes I’ve seen two actors share in a very long time. Come join me at the Lightbox, why not?