CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a horror comedy. Quinn, a female teenager, and her father, a doctor, move into Kettle Springs, a small town in the American heartland, far from their old Philadelphia home. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died. The dying town once had a thriving factory with a giant sinister-looking clown as its mascot. Quinn quickly makes friends. After the annual Founders Day celebration, she sneaks out to attend a teenage party, where a horde of killer clowns emerge from the surrounding cornfield to kill everyone.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with surprising character depth, plenty of twists, darkly funny lines, and a positive father-daughter relationship. The filmmakers assemble an appealing young cast with Katie Douglas as the lead, and a terrific Aaron Abrams as her father. The story moves like a freight train. However, it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative, politically correct view of Small Town America. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD also has frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two teenage boys who resume a homosexual relationship.

(RoRo, PCPC, APAP, HoHo, B, LLL, VVV, SS, N, AA, DD, MMM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Romantic, politically correct worldview with an Anti-American, politically correct view of small-town America (the villains turn out to be “strict” adults) and a developing homosexual relationship between two male teenagers (they kiss romantically near the end of the movie), but there’s a strong and positive father-daughter relationship;

Foul Language:

At least 52 obscenities (including at least 35 “f” words), and one “I swear to G*d” profanity;

Violence:

Numerous graphic killings in extremely unique ways, with lots of blood showing and splattering, most kills cut away from the actual murderous act and leave it to the imagination, many are portrayed comically because they’re so outlandish, two people get impaled on pitchforks, two are decapitated, a girl is electro-shocked but not killed, a villain is smashed by a car, and his blood drenches the windshield, one teenage boy gets eviscerated with his intestines pulled out, a villain is stabbed in the neck by a person acting in self-defense, a father tries to kill his teenage son by hanging him;

Sex:

A clothed teenage girl jumps on her teenage neighbor to his surprise and starts passionately kissing him and making it clear she wants intimate sex, but the guy stops her by admitting he’s actually a closeted homosexual, and he and another teenage male kiss romantically, and their relationship is affirmed by other people;

Nudity:

A teenage male is shirtless while doing bodybuildng exercises;

Alcohol Use:

Lots of teenagers drink alcohol at parties;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Some teenagers are shown smoking marijuana; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Two adult authority figures are revealed to be part of a group of murderous adults, and teenage girl sneaks out of her house to attend a teenage party.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a fast-moving, comical horror movie in the vein of the SCREAM movies, in which teenagers and a new doctor in a small rural town must fight a small group of people dressing up as clowns and brutally murdering the town’s most rebellious high school students. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with some surprising character depth and a positive father-daughter relationship, but it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative portrayal of Small Town America, frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two major teenage male characters who begin to develop a homosexual relationship during the movie’s story.

Teenager Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father Dr. Glen Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) move into the small town of Kettle Springs in the American heartland, far from their old home in Philadelphia. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died from a drug overdose. Quinn hates the small town, but she’s trying to help her father and is soon to graduate high school and go away to attend college anyway.

Quinn quickly meets her neighbor, Rust, a muscular guy with extremely awkward social skills, who warns her to steer clear of their school’s most popular clique. However, through a comical misunderstanding with a harsh teacher, Quinn winds up sharing detention with Cole, a good-looking guy who’s also the son of the town’s richest man. They have an instant attraction, and Quinn finds herself hanging out with his popular crowd after all, while learning that the dying town used to have a thriving factory called Baypen that had a sinister-looking giant clown as its mascot.

The factory burned down years ago, but the clown still is a menacing presence in the town. In fact, as shown in the movie’s opening sequence, the clown has been killing teenagers for decades. When Cole throws a big overnight teenage party after the town’s Founders Day celebration, Quinn sneaks out of her home and into the party – only to find a horde of killer clowns coming out of the surrounding cornfield and her friends fighting for their lives.

With her father also battling the killer clowns in order to save her, will the teenagers survive the night? Will she find new love with Cole? Can she and her father find a new start?

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD has an amazingly positive portrayal of Quinn’s father, and the other entertaining filmmaking qualities mentioned above. Co-writer/director Eli Craig rose to cult popularity with his movie TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, which had a similar mix of outrageous mirth and murder back in 2010. Here, he assembles an appealing young cast led by Katie Douglas as teenage lead Quinn, and a terrific Aaron Abrams performance as her dad. The script has plenty of twists and darkly funny lines, and the direction moves this movie forward like a freight train.

Of course, a major problem with a slasher comedy like this is all the graphic, bloody violence. For example, people are impaled on pitchforks or lose their heads literally. That’s par for the course for this genre, and the regrettably frequent foul language is another concern.

The biggest problem with CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, however, lies in its Romantic, politically correct worldview. For example, the movie has a Romantic worldview with a strongly negative view of small town American life. The killers are adults who hate the fact that some of the town’s teenagers don’t appreciate the town where they live. Also, two of the town’s best-known teenage guys “come out” and admit they’ve been homosexual lovers in the past. At the end of the movie, they restart their relationship with a passionate romantic kiss in front of other teenagers. This scene is unnecessarily pushing the homosexual agenda on impressionable teenage viewers.

Thus, media-wise viewers will avoid CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD. The movie is to be viewed only, if at all, by adult and older teenager with extreme caution.

The Snapshot: ‘The Final Reckoning’ aims high with explosive set pieces and emotional farewells—but gets bogged down by an overly complicated narrative that may leave audiences scratching their heads.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

7 out of 10

PG, 2hrs 50mins. Action Spy Drama.

Co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett.

Now Playing at Galaxy Cinemas Sault Ste. Marie.

If you don’t feel exhausted watching Tom Cruise and his unparalleled stunts in the new Mission: Impossible 8, you’ll definitely be exhausted by it’s unnecessary three hour run time. Matter of fact, the only thing that’s even longer is the full title.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the apparent end to the now 30-year-old spy franchise that redefined what was possible in the craftsmanship of stunts and action sequences in Hollywood. 

For a grand finale, however, Cruise and returning director Christopher McQuarrie have crafted a film that is surprisingly devoid of stunts and action scenes. When the big scenes happen – boy do they deliver. The infrequency just feels a bit disappointing.

Despite excellent production and attention to detail in its convoluted, sluggish story, this latest entry (McQuarrie’s fourth in the franchise, starting with 2015’s Rogue Nation) is bogged down by long stretches of exposition and name-dropping that will confuse 99 per cent of the audience.

The main conflict, of Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his elite team trying to stop a dangerous AI from activating missiles and starting a nuclear war, far-fetched even when it began in 2023’s previous film Dead Reckoning; sort of a part one to this movie.

Read more here: Tom Cruise’s Dead Reckoning? An impressive, impossible mission

Yet the last film was far more successful in balancing scenes of dialogue and discovery with the perilous, impossible stunts that action fans are here for. Not only was Dead Reckoning easier to understand – it was also plainly more entertaining.

If you can put aside the ludicrous plot and just focus on the simpler concept of “good spies versus bad spies,” the rest of Mission Impossible 8 still offers editing, acting and production scale far greater than most blockbusters these days.

While the whole ensemble is great, Cruise is clearly the worthy star, and his submarine rescue sequence mid-way through the film really is a true show-stopper. Great music, camerawork and editing give boundless energy to this nearly 15 minute dialogue free scene when Cruise really appears to do the impossible.

The biplane chase and early prison break is also a highlight, though none of the stunts match the last film’s collapsing train escape that will likely keep it’s position at #1 for best in the series.

Having fun watching Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning really isn’t that hard: stop focusing on all the references from past movies and try to enjoy the action of the present. 

Ethan Hunt’s mission is to show composure in the face of danger. Audiences who stay relaxed and open will truly succeed in the impossible mission of processing what’s going on around them.

A final word: special credit goes to actress Hannah Waddingham, playing Rear Admiral Neely. This weekend, she marks an impressive feat: as an ensemble member in both Mission: Impossible 8 and Lilo & Stitch (also opening today), she joins a small group of performers in the cast of two movies planning to debut at #1 and #2 of the box office in the same weekend.

Thieves Like Us: Reichardt Wanders with an Inscrutable Slacker

Abstract paintings are not the only undefined objects in The Mastermind, the latest from Kelly Reichardt, who has become a master herself at creating quiet, emotionally resonant characterizations of lonely, isolated individuals struggling to overcome something. Usually, life is happening to them, but the main protagonist of this muted 1970 set tale jumps from the frying pan into the fire thanks to a foolhardy decision which throws his life into chaos. Civil unrest buzzes in the background as anti-war protests engulf the country, and it would seem a collectively frayed moral compass has also eroded the desperate family man looking for a way out of his own stagnation.

James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is an art school drop out vaguely dabbling in construction, at least as he explains it to his parents (Hope Davis, Bill Camp), a respected Judge and his wife, to whom he already owes a significant amount of money. Married to Terri (Alana Haim), who supports them financially, along with two young sons, little does anyone know James has been planning to steal four paintings by Arthur Dove from the local museum. He’s assembled a team of two men who will put silk stockings over their heads and carry the paintings right out the front door while he serves as the getaway driver. However, when the day arrives, their best laid plans go awry. It’s not long before agents come knocking at James’ door, and so he goes on the run, visiting old friends (John Magaro, Gaby Hoffman) in the countryside. They have no desire to harbor a fugitive, and soon James resorts to petty crime to make a break for the Canadian border.

In many ways, The Mastermind intrigues as a deconstructed heist flick, disarticulated as it is from the expectations of the genre. For instance, compared to Peter Yates’ escapade about the pilfering of a diamond from a museum in The Hot Rock (1972), Reichardt utilizes only the skeleton of a crime caper while instead embracing the suburban malaise of the period. But neither is this a character study of James Mooney, who seems an intelligent, privileged social loafer who has fallen between the cracks of his own life.

It’s unclear what the exact end goal seems to be, as even the planning of the heist fails to break from his matter-of-fact behavior. Where’s his joy? He seems to have none. A conversation with Gaby Hoffman towards the end of the film provides a potential clue regarding why Arthur Dove’s paintings have courted his interest, and it would appear this might have been a desperate ruse to somehow tap into a happier, earlier time in his life.

It’s a scenario ripe for broad comedic strokes, but there’s a solemnity to the interactions between James and his two children. His wife, a muted Alana Haim, arguably seems to be focused on holding everything together whilst her drifting husband borrows money from his fussy mother (a brief but entertaining Hope Davis). Strangely, all the pieces seem to be assembled, but nothing coalesces in ways which draw us into the narrative. A final, karmic explosion ends on a wry note (through the kind of moment you’d expect to see in an episode of The Twilight Zone) but the build up is a glacial display of distraction.

Arguably, this is Reichardt’s way to visualize James’ ennui, a man focused on all the wrong details of his life. We spend long moments with him as he fusses about where to hide the paintings, the shirt’s he’s assembling while on the run, and then a deliberate break from the film’s cinematographic rhythm when DP Christopher Blauvelt observes him doctoring his passport. Of course, it’s all an ironic lark as James Mooney is not a master of anything and his mind’s distracted by obtaining some kind of obscure outcome not necessarily even monetarily beneficial, suggesting this was all an elaborate, subconscious ruse to sabotage his comfortable but boring life. Compared to Reichardt’s greatest hits thus far, it’s her least compelling presentation of a solitary, melancholic character to date.

Reviewed on May 24th at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival (78th edition) – Competition. 110 Mins.

★★½/☆☆☆☆☆