Movie reviews of Alex Brannan

In the end, The LEGO Movie 2 is an upbeat yet relatively underwhelming sequel. It is fluffy and over-stuffed, and it is a machine of pop culture references and tongue-in-cheek gags. Review

A strange tonal experiment that plucks its frigid setting and its crime-comedy mashup straight out of Fargo but fails to thread the needle as effectively. Review

Ultimately, this genre exercise yields little in the way of fear, critical dissection, or mystique. Review

A glamorized Hollywood remake, a shoot-em-up thriller that makes a non-American locale seem exotic and dangerous to Americans and that dabbles in very serious subject matter without nuance. Review

The narrative is not particularly novel, but it has its charms. Review

A film that is too hand-holding, too overt in its genre deconstruction, too blunt in its story-telling. And this takes away from what could be enjoyable about the premise. Review

The film can recite familiar feelings, but it doesn’t produce much out of that. It is a film which is soured by its sweetness. Review

The conflict is ever-present and the persistence of its central figure is inspiring, but the film does not quite rise to the level of inspiration of its real-life subject. Review

There is a fun inventiveness to the staging of the escape rooms. It does not grow tiresome when the characters find themselves in the third or fourth room, as each room has an individual aesthetic. For what it is, it is a good time at the movies. Review

Brisk but not breezy. It is well-acted but its characters are not well-drawn. And, most importantly, It intends to indict without carrying out a sentence. Review

We watch Israel’s scheme go awry, and it is compelling irrespective of McCarthy’s wonderful performance. Review

It is a formulaic Civil Rights era period piece that wants to be charming as hell—it is, at times, but that mainly just makes it come across outdated and sanitized. Review

Brian Tyree Henry and Teyonah Parris fill the screen with nuance and personality. And Regina King maximizes each second of her screentime with a maternal portrayal that is, in the traditional sense of the word, awesome. Review

Sure, it is very artsy. The stillness of its protagonist. The occasionally obvious visual juxtapositions. The black-and-whiteness of it all. But Cleo’s story is heartbreaking, compassionate, intimate, and elegant. Review

It is such a black-and-white film about a man’s redemption by way of driving drugs across the country, so black-and-white that Eastwood’s rather charming performance almost isn’t enough to make it work. Review

Bleakly funny. It is somewhat tragic. It is endlessly dynamic. And, as with all Lanthimos films, it is not for everyone. Review

It is a modest budget money-maker made with a creativity-forward mindset. Review

For a lengthy film that is never bashful about taking its time, Burning is an intriguing puzzle throughout most of its runtime. Review

With immense nuance, The Tale explores the multi-faceted and intimately complicated nature of abuse. Review

Joaquin Pheonix and John C. Reilly portray assassins in a beautifully-captured American west. Review

Destroyer yields a similar slow-burn, but the implications of the tension do not amplify in the same manner as The Invitation. Review

Vox Lux has flourishes of cinematic loveliness in its on-stage lighting and camera angles, its choreography, and its costume design. The music, provided by Sia, is also quite great. But the film is burdened by a thematic weight that is hard to decipher. Review

Reitman may have the right idea in re-centering the conversation to an earlier date, but the weight of the actual story gets lost in the allegorical retelling of it. Review

Add on the weighted performances of its ensemble cast, particularly from Davis and Debicki, and you have a film that does a lot of things right (loose plot threads be damned). Review