Film Freak Central

3 weeks ago | filmfreakcentral.net | Bill Chambers

by Walter Chaw Australia-born Danny and Michael Philippou are on the vanguard of a new extreme cinema. We are Batman and they are Bane, raised in the outer dark of the Internet while we, Gen-X, the builders of this digital Pandora’s Box, are merely the idiots who made it possible. I don’t entirely understand how the Philippous do what they do, just as I don’t understand how modern culture has metastasized archetypes, exposition, video editing, et al.

3 weeks ago | filmfreakcentral.net | Bill Chambers

ZERO STARS/****starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tom Hiddleston, Annalise Basso, Mark Hamillwritten by Mike Flanagan, based on the short story by Stephen Kingdirected by Mike Flanaganby Walter Chaw I admit it: I have an allergy to sentimental treacle. I get that this shit is like mother’s milk to some–that fading stars and, indeed, entire cable channels have tied their strings to the “shameless tearjerker” to great if niche fame and fortune; it’s a “me” problem, and I accept that.

1 month ago | filmfreakcentral.net | Bill Chambers

***½/****directed by Reid Davenportby Angelo Muredda “I’ve done what I can, and the quality of my life is over,” 26-year-old disabled woman and assisted dying cause célèbre Elizabeth Bouvia says in archival footage of her 1983 legal fight to refuse medical care in the opening moments of Reid Davenport’s Life After.

1 month ago | filmfreakcentral.net | Bill Chambers

***/****starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connellwritten and directed by Ryan Cooglerby Walter Chaw Movies used to make me feel all kinds of ways. Usually, it was Adrian Lyne’s fault. Fatal Attraction was unapologetic. Flashdance was unashamed. 9½ Weeks? Brothers and sisters, 9½ Weeks was a sin.

2 months ago | filmfreakcentral.net | Bill Chambers

*/**** starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Reed Diamond written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach directed by Christopher Landon by Walter Chaw The distaff version of last year’s Carry-On, which was itself the umpteenth redux of Phone Booth, Christopher “Son of Michael” Landon’s Drop does the “I can see you/have you checked on the children?” mambo in a high-rise restaurant setting with young widow and single mother Violet (Meghann Fahy), who’s wading back into the dating pool...