Black Bag is a mature spy thriller for adults, and I know this because I was the only person younger than 70 in the theater.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen something so slick, sexy, and stylish that’s almost exclusively made up of scenes of people passive-aggressively talking to each other. And it clocks in at a lean 90 minutes? Soderbergh’s still got it, baby.
Cuckoo is a deeply strange little movie that's grounded by a great performance by Hunter Schafer, cementing the fact that she's a cut above her peers from Euphoria High School.
The style, atmosphere, setting, and Dan Stevens’ continued commitment to only playing kooky weirdos are all quite fun, but the film starts to lose steam when it clunkily tries to explain itself. Perhaps being more disorientingly vague would have worked in its favor, because the exposition-laden third act is far more convoluted than it needs to be.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
This latest installment in the "Attentive Mother Who's Doing Her Best Sacrifices Herself So Her Man-Child Husband Can Become a Better Parent" Cinematic Universe is what you get when you order The Babadook on wish.com.
At least the giant monster puppet (built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop!) is kinda fun.
With Cruising, Friedkin takes what could have been a sensationalistic condemnation of queer culture and creates an artfully disorienting thriller that is surprisingly sympathetic and subversive (if not without its flaws). Rest assured, there's on-screen sleeze and grime a-plenty, but that feels like an attempt to create an authentic snapshot of the leather scene of late '70s/early '80s New York rather than a finger-wagging indictment of it.
I was expecting a lot worse based on its reputation, but I found this to be quite effective and think it would make a killer double feature with Knife + Heart.
