I’ve had this one on the list for a long time and it was well worth the wait. Manolache is fantastic as Angela, our chauffeur through the streets of modern Bucharest. Angela strikes me as the opposite of an anti-hero (a pro-villain? That can’t be right). She’s a character we should have sympathy for but she’s too self-confident and abrasive to warrant any. That’s not to say she’s a bad hang- Manolache’s performance, and the hilarious, withering writing, builds out…

This movie is silly but a good time. A few thoughts:

1. Are we supposed to be rooting for Borden? Because that guy makes American Psycho look like an empath. HE KILLED JULIA! Then he’s outraged when Angier wants revenge? Angier is in the right! How’s that for a hot take about a 20 year old movie? 

2. Speaking of this movie being 20 years old, that CGI woof..

3. Did Thomas Edison actually send goons to burn down Tesla’s…

*Spoilers*

Saw this in the theatre as the second half of a self-created double feature (following Maxxxine). I knew very little about it going in, other than there was some amount of hype online. 

It plays out much like a generic 00s era serial killer procedural- I feel like Ashly Judd and Morgan Freeman should’ve been in this movie. It’s slow-paced and atmospheric to a fault, with several scenes easily crossing the line into just plain boring.

Then there’s the…

As a huge fan of X and an even huger fan of Pearl, I went into this one trying to temper expectations. Not tempered enough! 

It’s not a bad movie but it’s not a good one; and not close to the trilogy’s first two (I think of these three much more as standalone films, even if there is some minimal overlap in plot and character). In Maxxxine, West seems overly focused on building the world the movie exists in- 80’s…