“God’s Country” is set in a small town in Montana. The movie is based on “Winter Light” by author James Lee Burke. Burke, who’s a New York Times bestselling author. Burke has written over forty novels. He also has two short story collections and “Winter Light” is from one of those collections. I hope more filmmakers dig into them and find more movies to make.
“See How They Run” immediately piqued my interest. A 50’s whodunit murder mystery in the old classic style of Agatha Christie? What could go wrong outside of a character you love getting bumped off?
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Directed by: Mike Barker
Written by: Jessica Knoll
Starring: Mila Kunis, Connie Britton, Jennifer Beals, Finn Wittrock
Rated: R
Run Time: 1h 55m
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” is a wonderfully stylized movie that is like Agatha Christie on Tik-Tok using an Instagram filter. In other words, it is a classic ‘murder house mystery’ but done with the hip and up-to-date attitudes of today’s Generation Z age group. It combines some sharp social commentary and a mistaken who-dun-it mystery. Basically it a fascinating melding of “Get Out” meets “Knives Out”. But with much more alcohol, drugs and glow sticks…
Without pretentious and overstated characters who annoy as well as inadvertently diverge your attention off the storyline, “Gone in the Night” has a few plot twists that would have helped it become something to watch. That’s if there’s nothing else on, of course.
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“Vengeance” is a cleverly designed and intriguing look at certain divisions in the country. But it is completely wrapped up in a ‘fish-out-of-water’ tale in which an elite guy from New York City spends a considerable amount of time with a West Texas family. At first his reaction is disbelief, amazement, and some ridicule. But after a while, he begins to see the ‘Blue State’ principles that he has learned might be softened by the ‘Red State’ values that he finds can also ring true. Read more
“Nope” is a movie that will take some common science-fiction and horror concepts and stands them on their head. It peels back the layers of complexity into simple and familiar scenes. There are questions that are suggested, and the movie plans to answer only a few of them. The rest of them are puzzles to be worked out and studied, like some jigsaw pieces that have been painted Black. Read more
“Where the Crawdads Sing” is based off a very popular novel read in many local book clubs. In fact, one of the early promoters of the book was Reese Witherspoon, who is now one of this movie’s producers. The story seems perfect for a friendly book-club environment, with the strong yet troubled young female character.
“Apples” is a foreign-language movie (Greek) that is from a first-time Writer and Director. Many times this can mean you could be in for a treat, a very personal take about a very deep subject. Yet many other times, it could mean that you can watch a meandering effort that offers up a promising premise, but then it sputters out like a wet wick. When you hope for the former, but you actually get the latter — well, it can drive you Bananas!
