Movie Reviews
Immaculate Movie Review: Sydney Sweeney salvages this uninventive horror flick
Immaculate stands out from other films of this sub-genre with regards to the invincibility of the devil. But there is nothing to cheer about it, as it is a byproduct of a lazily written antagonist.
Part of the reason why Sydney Sweeney’s Cecilia works is that the other characters are peripheral and operate in a mechanical manner. Alvaro Morte’s Sal Tedeschi and Dora Romano’s Mother Superior are hugely disappointing for their lack of depth.
The visceral gore scenes partly make up for the lack of certain obligatory horror elements in the film. The repulsion that such scenes evoke testifies to the sublime craft in play, even though director Mohan milks the genre beyond acceptability. The film offers great ideas to ponder, too. There are scenes where we are told women choose nunhood not out of free will but rather because of the ill treatment they suffer at the hands of men outside. Another captivating idea is the choice of weapons in the stunt sequences; Cecilia uses a crucifix and nail, believed to be from Jesus’ crucifixion, to attack those who terrify people using faith and demand unquestioning submission.
Immaculate is a film with some moments that make you want to exceedingly adore it, but also others that border on trashy. Cecilia stands against her religion’s leaders in deciding whether she wants to have a child or not, demanding noninterference of the state in a woman’s bodily autonomy over pregnancy. Such exceptional writing is marred by other poor choices, forcing us to form a love-hate relationship with the film.
Pierce by Nelicia Low is screening at New York Asian Film Festival.
On the occasion of Nelicia Low’s debut, Pierce, screening at New York Asian Film Festival, Panos Kotzathanasis talks about the film, Low’s background and its connection with the movie, the way she approached the story, the relationship of the two brothers among them and with their mother, acting cinematography and editing, in one of the best movies of the year.
Anand Tiwari’s ‘Bad Newz’ delivers what it promises by its name: bad news. A story with no plot line, no character arcs, a hasty resolution, and just plain mediocre writing makes the movie a thoroughly dissatisfying watch.
Saloni Bagga (Tripti Dimri), becomes a mother of twins by the rare occurrence of heteropaternal superfecundation. The film follows her life which led to her pregnancy by two different men at the same time and the drama that ensues from this messy situation.
The story had the potential of serving a message about women’s agency and their right over their bodies.
But the build up in the first half of the film leads to nothing as the action falls flat on every front.
Dimri, with beautiful performances in the likes of ‘Bulbbul’ and ‘Qala’, is just a stereotypical, passive heroine of mainstream cinema here, with no insightful or memorable contribution. Vicky Kaushal as the bubbly Punjabi mama’s boy Akhil Chaddha does what he can to salvage this movie, but even his swagger and occasionally humorous gimmicks clearly fail to be enough to make up for the pointless storyline. Gurbir Pannu (Ammy Virk), the other sexual encounter and potential love interest of Saloni, does absolutely nothing to be worthy of notice or comment.
The only momentary reliefs are the clear call-backs to quintessential, iconic Bollywood movies such as ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and other such blockbuster fan favourites. However, nostalgia and metanarrative jokes have become a fairly common tool, and Tiwari does nothing new. Overall, quite an unremarkable movie. The only reason you might want to sit tight till the credits would be to enjoy Vicky’s trending moves, with Tripti dancing silently in a corner as she remains true to her character.
Published 20 July 2024, 00:07 IST
Clear Cut, 2024.
Directed by Brian Skiba.
Starring Clive Standen, Tom Welling, Stephen Dorff, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Metcalfe, Lochlyn Munro, Lucy Martin, Chelsey Reist, Tom Stevens, and Mike Dopud.
SYNOPSIS:
A team of loggers discover a meth cook site in the middle of the forest and are forced to fight for their lives while being hunted by a drug cartel.
With a title such as Clear Cut, one might think director Brian Skiba is trying to be cutely vague and intentionally jumbling since his narrative distractingly jumps back and forth in time with no grace. The reality is that what the film is trying to do with its story is fairly obvious after roughly the second flashback, executed with such outright poor editing technique (Skiba also performs those duties) that one sits there in shock at the ineptitude when it cuts back to a scene with Alec Baldwin who was recently killed at the beginning.
Dead characters appearing in flashbacks is inherently fine, but watching it play out here is baffling; you could reconfigure the scenes chronologically, and this already lousy film might play better. Alec Baldwin isn’t a recurring presence after that; the movie is just pointlessly like this. At the very least, the not-so-smooth attempt at (I think?) trying to trick the audience regarding what is happening with its central plot could have been avoided. It’s hard to tell since the editing makes everything come across as more confusing than the story is. Furthermore, the fact that I have so many questions about the filmmaker’s intent mostly already proves whatever he was trying to do with structure didn’t pan out. That’s an understatement.
The story itself concerns Clive Standen’s Jack, taking on logging work en route to a job site with his superior and mentor (Alec Baldwin.) Now, if reading this brings about some interest that there might be some positive and earnest deforestation messaging at the heart of the action, let me remind readers that this is one of those super cheaply made Lionsgate VOD entities that somehow slides its way into a few theaters across America. Jack is seeking revenge on some criminals running a meth operation out here in the woods, which also brings up several questions of logistics that the film never bothers to take a stab at answering.
Unsurprisingly, the one cooking up the meth gives the zaniest performance, which basically means Lochlyn Munro is playing clichéd psychopathic redneck running around with a crossbow, murdering anyone who might throw his shady business out of whack. Bringing an inexplicably large amount of money to a deal where the one cooking up the meth lives in a camper, presumably in the middle of nowhere, the leader of the buyers conveniently leaves the money in the back of a truck for Jack to steal and run off with. Stephen Dorff also plays a Park Ranger who gets involved in the two battling sides. The less said about the women who pop up in this movie is probably for the better.
For as much as Clive Standen gives a passable performance regarding both the emotional toll recent tragic events have taken on him and the close-quarters action, it’s also undermined by the film (written by Joe Perruccio) concocting scenarios that tastelessly ramp up that drama. Regarding the direction, nothing here stands out aside from one or two moments toward the end of Clive Standen letting loose some of that bottled-up anger and sadness. There’s a chance that if you show someone the final 10 minutes of Clear Cut, they will wrongly assume you just watched a decent movie. Fortunately, what is clear-cut is that this is anything but worth checking out.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
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