Chuck Bowen

1 week ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

Horror movies are hot right now, which is a double-edged sword for devotees. There are dozens of titles available to consume every week, which means there are many pretenders to the throne, many cynical throwaways. True horror admirers are after bigger game than diversion: they want the movie that hurts because it means something. Good news: Danny and Michael Philippou are rapidly establishing themselves as practitioners of that kind of horror movie.

2 weeks ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

Jed Hart’s “Restless” has a deadly simple premise that, in the tradition of any thriller that’s worth a damn, illustrates the fragility of our social contract. Nicky (Lyndsey Marshall) is an empty nester — her son has moved out, her parents, who were her neighbors, have died — who is living in a state of pseudo-reassuring aloneness. When she’s not being overworked into oblivion as a nurse at a rest home, there’s time with the cat, televised billiards, classical music, and home-baked sweets.

3 weeks ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

Jason Buxton’s “Sharp Corner” is odd and unsettling, fraught with intimate anxieties. The setup is nearly surreal, with married couple Josh (Ben Foster) and Rachel (Cobie Smulders) having sex in their new house when the tire of a car crashes through their living room window. They or their young son, Max (William Kosovic), could’ve easily been killed. Looking outside, they see the wreckage of an auto collision smoldering in their yard.

4 weeks ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

The first 25 minutes of David Mamet’s “Henry Johnson” are gripping. They are perhaps right up there with his best work, whether we’re talking the stage or screen. This first act does the audience a disservice though, writing a check that the rest of Mamet’s film can’t cash. Your palette is primed for top shelf, yes-folks-he’s-still-got-it Mamet, and you’re left with an uneven failure that eventually borders on self parody.

1 month ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

The premise of “The Surfer” suggests that it’s going to be right up Nicolas Cage’s genre-heavy VOD alley, which, from me, is a compliment. Cage plays the surfer—it’s one of those movies where characters are assigned signifiers instead of names—who returns to a gorgeous Australian beach from his childhood with his teenage son (Finn Little) in tow. Trouble arises, but not quite how you’d expect. The surfer is on the verge of buying a house near the beach, which he says once belonged to his father.