Review: “Wicker”

Desire— the release of it, and the suppression of it— can drive people wild. Wicker— Eleanor Wilson and Alexander Huston Fischer’s romantic fantasy based on Ursula Wills’ short story “The Wicker Husband”— understands that applies not just to physical lust, but also to the need to be an object of desire, to be wanted and […]

Review: “Clayface”

The day after I watched Clayface— the DC Universe entry that recounts the origin story of the long-standing Batman villain— I happened to attend an all-night horror movie marathon that kicked off with a 35 mm screening of David Cronenberg’s classic 1986 body horror movie The Fly. I don’t think I’d watched The Fly in […]

Review: “You Can See Everything”

As the days wind down, fading as fast as the sun dropping below the swelling waves outside, the walls of reality cave in, flimsy as a house of cards. Fourteen days before Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes begins an eleven-year sentence in federal prison for defrauding investors, Nathan Fielder fully moves into the San Diego beach […]

Review: “Verity”

Midway through Verity— director Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2018 psychological thriller novel— Lowen (Dakota Johnson) says at her belated birthday dinner, “I have resting bored face.” It’s a response to Jeremy’s (Josh Hartnett) accusation that she looks like she’s either not listening to him, or is uninterested in what he’s telling her. Humorously […]