Movie reviews of Alex Brannan

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

Lundy-Paine deserves some form of “revelation” title, as their performance reveals so much, and in such dramatic fashion, without ever losing sight of the character’s human characteristics. Review

IF is so concerned with making you feel (anything at all, but mostly melancholy and sad) that it forgets to be fun. The few moments that are dedicated to being joyful and full of life are at such a disconnect from the maudlin attempts to pull at the heartstrings that the whole thing feels off-putting. Review

The cast is all game and give delightful performances across the board. Straddled with the most straight-laced character, Barrera has the least to do. But Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, Angus Cloud, and Kevin Durand are perfectly ham-fisted. Review

Individual scenes don’t work enough at establishing a foundation for a new period of Apes films. There is no Caeser here to ground a lengthy epic yarn on, nor a Charlton Heston figure to provide magnetic personality to this environment. Review

Crisp camera movements and a few minorly inventive blocking ideas make for diverse and dynamic sequences that keep the film lively and enjoyable to watch. Review

Guy Ritchie is entirely capable of composing quality action sequences. Some of the ones in here are entertaining on that shut-off-the-brain level. But the spectacle sours into tedium as the fascinating real-life story is consistently replaced with monotonous violence. Review

Late Night with the Devil is a bit of light horror entertainment (it’s less scary and more spooky). What it lacks in narrative, thematic, and emotional depth it makes up for in clever spectacle. Review

What makes it easy to forgive these minor issues is the film’s cast. Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor give the best performances I’ve seen this year to date. Review

After we settle on over a dozen principle characters, the plot throws them into a battle against a cruddy CGI ghost demon. A few decent jokes accompany nearly two hours of fluff. Review

Civil War looks good in a trailer. It looks politically potent on a poster, with that title plastered over a symbol of American liberty. Few of its picaresque scenes live up to this provocation in the context of the feature, though. Review

I.S.S. ultimately wants to be a nail-biting action thriller with serious thematic material about how we are-slash-are-not tied down to our societal affiliations. Unfortunately, it is neither thrilling enough to be nail-biting nor developed enough to be weighty in its themes. Review

There are clever moments, both visually and narratively, especially considering this is Johnson’s directorial debut, but Self Reliance is a few pieces shy of being a cohesive comedy. Review

What the film has is personality and a strong sense of humor, but this gets drowned out by wishy-washy meditations on good will and the human spirit, with the tone alternating awkwardly between comedy and drama. Review

The Delinquents is one of the more intriguing films of 2023. Some will balk at its runtime, understandably so, but the film arguably requires its length to get its point across. Review

The Taste of Things is impressive, and, if you afford it some patience, it may wrap you into a warm and melancholy embrace. Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel are also phenomenal. Review

Durkin’s film is narratively heart-breaking, visually stunning, and approaches a world of professional wrestling that rarely gets the big screen treatment. Review

The film is highly watchable, even if certain moments do not share the intensity of the style. Review

Lanthimos delivers his usual brand of idiosyncratic dark comedy filmmaking. Poor Things is visually sumptuous and consistently intriguing. Review