Chuck Bowen

Richmond

Writing about movies, books, TV. Interviews. Bylines: @Slant_Magazine. @Guardian. @TheAtlantic. @TheAVClub. @Fandor. @Modern_Luxury. @vulture.

Articles

A Walk in the Country: Apocalypse Edition

1 week ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

For the most part, “28 Years Later” bored the hell out of me. I’ll admit that I didn’t expect a zombie movie directed by Danny Boyle to pick my pocket as franchise movies so reliably do, providing only a semblance of a plot or point. All out of the expectation that I pay again several more times to get the pleasure of a narrative well-spooled, that movies used to provide after payment for the first ticket had been remitted. Chalk it up to my naiveté.
Land of Kink and Honey

1 week ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

Just when you think that you’ve seen every kind of thriller conceivable by the human species, along comes a movie like Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia” to reinvigorate your senses. Like last year’s “Last Summer,” this movie is a reminder that many thrillers essentially feel the same. They are often moralistic and out to work you over with big and melodramatic moments.
Lost Worlds

3 weeks ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

There’s a sense of de-cluttering in “The Phoenician Scheme,” on the part of writer-director Wes Anderson and his hero, Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), a European tycoon on the run from various countries, assassins and terrorist groups. It’s 1950, and Korda is famous for destabilizing global relationships with ruthless business deals that steal from Peter to pay Paul. He’s “Mr. 5 percent,” and he’s due for a new order. The number of times that Korda is nearly murdered is a very funny running joke.
You Want It Darker

4 weeks 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.
Lost Homes

1 month 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.
Manscapes

1 month 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.
Clown Town

1 month 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.
Cruel Summer

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.
Lionsgate Limited

1 month ago | slantmagazine.com | Chuck Bowen

True to its reputation, Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct is graphic and crass and revels in stereotypes about women and men alike. Those qualities, though, don’t distinguish the film from other erotic thrillers. What separates Basic Instinct from the pack is its audacious shamelessness, which skims the knife’s edge of self-parody. Basic Instinct doesn’t hide behind sops to morality. It doesn’t even necessarily want to turn you on, but rather rile you up.
Generally Grievous

2 months ago | styleweekly.com | Chuck Bowen

David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” opens on an elegant man named Karsh (Vincent Cassel) having lunch with a woman, whom he soon asks about darkness. Can she handle things dark? The line feels like a joke pitched at the filmmaker’s admirers, who have followed him down many twisted corridors, in movies that plumb anxieties of the blending of our bodies with our technology. Fusing high concepts with unforgettable gore, he’s become a hero to eggheads and horror hounds alike.