***/**** Image A- Sound A Extras A+*starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Marianne Jean-Baptistewritten by Mark Protosevichdirected by Tarsem Singh by Walter Chaw It’s a collision of travel-worn ideas, this movie–a tired serial-killer thriller married to Dreamscape–and the wear shows whenever someone mouths their ration of exposition like a toothless shut-in gumming their daily soup-soaked toast. Yet Tarsem’s The Cell is also a collection of astonishments, vision...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
***/****starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Emma Stonewritten and directed by Ari Aster by Walter Chaw The problem I have with Ari Aster movies is that Ari Aster is contemptuous of his characters. He gives them anxieties he then maximalizes into catastrophes so extreme they’re funny. (How else does a cake allergy turn into a telephone-pole beheading?) And once he creates an unbearable situation, he scoffs. It’s tempting to draw a corollary between his work and that of pos...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
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****/****starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegiwritten and directed by James Gunn by Walter Chaw I’m in the bag for Superman, I admit it. I grew up in a small town, Golden, CO, in an environment some would describe as Norman Rockwellian. Before the bullying started in earnest, before I spoke English, I would earn pennies at the corner barbershop and spend them at the 5 & 10 across the street on Silly Putty, gum, and comic books. Superman comic books, Wonder ...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
Jurassic World Rebirth**½/****starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friendwritten by David Koeppdirected by Gareth Edwards by Walter Chaw Our first film about hyper-normalization, Jurassic World Rebirth presents a world that has grown tired of dinosaurs, and it’s buoyed not only by that topicality but also by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and a steadfast refusal to give a good shit. About anything. Which is not to say the craft is poor (this was an expe...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
*½/****starring Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Jenna Davis, Jemaine Clementwritten and directed by Gerald Johnstone by Walter Chaw Gerald Johnstone’s M3GAN 2.0 feels like one of those 1980s teensploitation sci-fi adventure flicks. D.A.R.Y.L., for instance–D.A.R.Y.L. exactly, let’s face it. Given that D.A.R.Y.L. hardly set the world on fire, this does not bode well for M3GAN 2.0. To its credit, it takes a wild swing at relevance, M3GAN 2.0 does, in a way that’s at complete odds with...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
F1: The Movie***½/****starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardemscreenplay by Ehren Krugerdirected by Joseph Kosinski by Walter Chaw The first movie I saw in a theatre was Star Wars, in 1977. I had just turned four and didn’t speak a word of English. The 45rpm read-along storybook my parents subsequently bought for me helped me take my first steps towards learning the language. And the sense of exhilaration I felt watching Star Wars that first time? I’ve never equalled...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
*/****screenplay by Julia Cho & Mark Hammer & Mike Jonesdirected by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi by Walter Chaw Elio, from Coco co-director Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian (animator, Turning Red), and Domee Shi (director, Turning Red), is a derivative oddball-kid/buddy comedy space adventure of the middle-aspiring family-programmer variety Pixar now uses to pad its roster between increasingly flaccid and uninspired franchise tentpoles. How the mighty have fallen. Boasting th...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
*½/****starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fienneswritten by Alex Garlanddirected by Danny Boyle by Walter Chaw At its best, Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later is alive with the speculative cultural anthropology of the due-for-revision Reign of Fire. At its worst, it’s Ren Faire: The Movie, a guided LARP through a fantastical post-apocalypse, replete with unnecessarily elaborate lore, feasting scenes, braids for miles, and paste-thick accents. It’s almost entirely humourless so...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
**½/****starring Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Nic Cassim, Miranda Tapsellwritten by Thomas Martindirected by Lorcan Finnegan by Walter Chaw A time or two during Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer, I wondered if it wasn’t at least a spiritual cousin to Frank Perry’s The Swimmer, seeing as how both films offer an overarching metaphor of going home while examining an aimless, tortured masculinity on the existential skids. Indeed, there’s a literary quality to The Surfer that smells like the ...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
***½/**** Image A Sound A+ Extras B+ starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas screenplay by Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues, based on the screenplay by Sam Raimi directed by Fede Alvarez by Walter Chaw SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. The greatest irony of Fede Alvarez’s otherwise laudably straightforward reboot of Sam Raimi’s Spam-in-a-cabin classic The Evil Dead is that the moments where it references its primogenitor are actually the movie’s weakest. I’m thinki...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
****/**** Image A Sound A- starring Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray directed by Stanley Kubrick by Alex Jackson If The Shining has dated the most of Kubrick’s films, Barry Lyndon, which immediately preceded it, has dated the least. In 1976, Barry Lyndon was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award alongside Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Dog Day Afternoon, and Nashville...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA Dracula **/**** DVD – Image B Sound B+ BD – Image C Sound A Extras A+ starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves screenplay by James V. Hart directed by Francis Ford Coppola MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN **½/**** DVD – Image D Sound B+ BD – Image B+ Sound B starring Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter screenplay by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont directed by Kenneth Branagh by Walter Chaw The first thirty minut...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932) ***½/**** Image B- Sound C Extras A- starring Edmund Lowe, Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Henry B. Walthall directed by Marcel Varnel and William Cameron Menzies DRAGONWYCK (1946) **/**** Image A Sound A Extras B+ starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the novel by Anya Seton directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz DR. RENAULT’S SECRET (1942) */**** Image A Sound A- Extras B starring J. Carrol Naish, John...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
THE V.I.P.S (1963)½*/**** Image C+ Sound Bstarring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Elsa Martinelli, Margaret Ruthefordscreenplay by Terence Rattigandirected by Anthony Asquith THE SANDPIPER (1965)½*/**** Image B Sound B- Extras C-starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Morgan Masonscreenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilsondirected by Vincente Minnelli WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)****/**** Image A+ Sound A- Extras Bstarring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
ZERO STARS/****starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tom Hiddleston, Annalise Basso, Mark Hamillwritten by Mike Flanagan, based on the short story by Stephen Kingdirected by Mike Flanagan by 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. I r...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
DRACULA (1931) ***/**** Image C Sound C|A (with Glass score) Extras A+ starring Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye screenplay by Garrett Fort, based on the novel by Bram Stoker and on the play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston directed by Tod Browning DRÁCULA (1931) ***/**** Image C+ Sound B- starring Carlos Villarias, Lupita Taylor, Pablo Alvarez Rubio, Barry Norton screenplay by Garrett Fort, based on the novel by Bram Stoker and on the play by Hamilton Deane an...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
by Walter Chaw I’ve spent decades predicting the fall, but when the fall came, I certainly didn’t feel like doing a victory lap. When the pandemic shut down everything for a while, I realized that my worst fears had come true, and then, for the first time in as long as I could remember, my depression quieted like a rash that’s lost its savagery. Respite, because my worst fears weren’t looming anymore–they’d finally arrived. All that was left to do was find a new way through. Is th...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
****/****starring Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoeinspired by the screenplay Nosferatu by Henrik Gallen and the novel Dracula by Bram Stokerwritten for the screen and directed by Robert Eggers by Walter Chaw The hysteric female can be viewed as a ‘flipped’ version of the male paranoiac; while the male represses his fears about the nature of his sexuality, the female’s hysterics seem to circle around her inability to direct her sexuality as she pleases, or he...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
“Good-looking people turn me off. Myself included.” –Patrick Wayne Swayze RED DAWN (1984) [COLLECTOR’S EDITION] – DVD **½/**** Image B Sound C+ Extras N/A starring Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Powers Boothe screenplay by Kevin Reynolds and John Milius directed by John Milius THE OUTSIDERS (THE COMPLETE NOVEL) (1983) [TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION] – DVD ****/**** Image A+ Sound A Extras A+ starring C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett screenplay b...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
Note: all framegrabs were sourced from the 4K UHD discs SUPERMAN (1978) ****/**** Image B+ Sound A- Extras A- starring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Ned Beatty screenplay by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman and Robert Benton directed by Richard Donner SUPERMAN II (1981) ***/**** Image A+ Sound B+ Extras A- starring Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper screenplay by Mario Puzo, David Newman and Leslie Newman directed by Richard Lester SUPERMAN II ...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
My mom died this year, but I lost her decades ago. Our relationship was radioactive, and I had neither the courage nor the resolve to even begin to repair it–or to investigate whether there was anything left to repair. I lost a mentor this year, too, because I wasn't interesting enough to maintain as an apprentice. I turn 50 in 2023. It's an age that seemed absurd to me as recently as a few years ago. If I live to 54, I'll be how old my dad was when he died. My mom's death brings an end to ...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
****/**** Image A Sound A Extras A+ starring Lisa Yang, Chang Chen, Chang Kuo-Chu, Elaine Jin script and dialogue by Edward Yang, Yan Hong-Ya, Alex Yang, Lai Ming-Tang directed by Edward Yang by Walter Chaw My family fled mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, just ahead of the communist takeover. My grandfather on my mother’s side, a member of the Chinese military, asked his aide to fill out the paperwork necessary for their emigration. In his haste, the kids were given sequential birth dates (...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
THE DEAD ZONE (1983)****/**** Image C Sound Astarring Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lomscreenplay by Jeffrey Boam, based on the novel by Stephen Kingdirected by David Cronenberg by Walter Chaw Michael Kamen’s score for The Dead Zone sounds so much like Howard Shore’s work that if I didn’t know better… Maybe something about Cronenberg inspires doomed Romanticism in his collaborators. What’s sometimes lost in the focus on body-horror in his pictures is how li...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
2019 will be defined for me by two things–one is interesting, the other is not. The “not” is that my friend Sam killed himself. He used a gun. Sam and I disagreed about guns. He had been in various levels of law enforcement, retired to be a 9-1-1 operator, found himself traumatized after his service, and moved across the country to be closer to his young daughter and ex-wife. To be a dad, you know. Sam owned a lot of guns, but in the last couple of years, he began to ask me about statis...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
March 9, 2003 | Offered the opportunity to visit with David Cronenberg a second time recently, I sat down with the legendary director the morning after moderating a post-screening Q&A with him at Denver’s Landmark Mayan Theater (where a sell-out crowd of over 450 was enthusiastically in attendance for a sneak of Spider) to discuss his work from student films Stereo and Crimes of the Future all the way through to what is arguably his best–certainly his most mature–film, the oft-delayed ...| FILM FREAK CENTRAL
