Movie reviews of Alex Brannan

The selling point becomes gross-out comedy, but the truth is it’s not all that funny. Review

The two performances at the center of this, from relative unknowns Aura and Ventura, are both very good. And the original songs made for the film all do their job in enhancing the period-specific sonic landscapes on display. Review

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape adequately curates the experience of this satire and aesthetic. Beyond bringing attention to the underseen artist, though, the film does little to justify its own place. Review

As the film approaches its conclusion, it provides evocative final shots, but it does not do enough to resolve for the audience what this journey meant for Fatso. Review

Armed with a jaunty score and well-shot nature footage, Timpson’s two-hander character study comes packaged with a quality texture. Review

As beautiful as the thing is, Steppenwolf struggles mightily to contend with its nihilistic tendencies, tendencies which definitely do not require such extremity in order to satisfy the finer points of its existential preoccupations. Review

This being an 85-minute shit post (literally) about how bad the song Ebony and Ivory is makes it a greater triumph than, say, Oscar winner Bohemian Rhapsody, even if the central joke of it eventually falls flat. Review

At almost every turn, 7A struggles to replicate the dread of its predecessor. Review

For what it’s worth, the film’s washed out gray aesthetic works well for this more dramatic final tone. And the three young actors — who are asked to carry the film from start to finish — provide fairly strong, emotional performances. Review

Me and My Victim wants to be about the messiness of modern relationships. Instead, it is a messy film, where the potentially potent questions are actively suppressed by the filmmaker. Review

The imbalances make the watching experience of House of Sayuri a strange one, but the film certainly has its strong suits. Review

Thälker should be praised for their striking performance, which is the highlight and the centerpiece of the picture. Review

In any case, The Soul Eater is not nearly as bad as The Deep House or Leatherface, but it also doesn’t impress as a mostly run-of-the-mill crime film. Review

These are minor visual treats in what is otherwise a tedious experience of senseless action-comedy spectacle. The film has the energy but not the substance. Review

The long and short of it is that Cuckoo nails the setup and bombs the punchline. Review

The Beast Within never sets out to take a light approach to these tropes. Still, the conflation of something disturbingly true to life and something outlandishly fantastical results in a muddy exploration that never goes further than skin deep. Review

From My Cold Dead Hands is adding fleetingly little to the conversation. Review

My issue with the film is not visual. It is with the story. Everything in the script is just slightly overwritten. Review

In certain theatrical moments, it feels like silent cinema, yet it is also strikingly contemporary in its concerns and approach to genre. As some of the best films are, it is difficult to categorize. This elusiveness plays to the film’s strengths. Review

T’s morbidly fascinating, so long as you can sit through a first act where two guys call each other “dude” and bicker at each other. Review

Kill is a film of excess, but it is also a film which calls into question the gratuitousness of its own violence while simultaneously relishing in the extremity. In doing this, it manages to come off as refreshingly new while doing things that are quite familiar. Review

The film relies heavily on its mysterious plot to carry the load. It’s simply too much weight for that mystery to hold. Review

I was initially rapt by the presentation of In a Violent Nature. The simple re-alignment of POV, in which the audience is often positioned one step behind the killer, staring at the back of his head as he clomps slowly through the woods, is effective. As a genre exercise, though, I think the film misses the mark. Review

Furiosa doesn’t require a direct comparison to its predecessor. It stands on its own feet so sturdily that one doesn’t need to have seen Mad Max: Fury Road to settle into the wacky savagery that is the Wasteland. Review