The deconstruction of the western (see: DEAD MAN) is a strangely lasting sub-genre that seems to pop up every year or so - the western not as a straight picture to illustrate the past, but rather as a set of iconography used to comment on how things used to be pictured. Whimsically mannered and carefully composed, with a cutting sense of humor, SLOW WEST is like a Coen Bros. (or even at times Wes Anderson) take on that type of…

It's fine, but you could probably substitute any video game character for Sonic and it would follow the same template. A couple of the "he moves so fast everything freezes" moments were fun, especially the Rube Goldberg chain reaction he creates out of a barroom brawl, but those were far and few between and the rest of the film avoided exploring any of the "speed" related concepts that made the video game so lasting. What couldn't be substituted with anyone…

Watching this through today's lens, you encounter a lot of cringe: the white savior complex running at full steam as Marty becomes responsible for giving Goldie Wilson the idea to run for mayor, or when he invents the concept of rock & roll for Chuck Berry. How about having the entire crux of the plot hinge around a blatant sexual assault? Or the early enemies being cartoon-level caricatures of Libyan terrorists? Or where the ultimate concept of "success" is simply an…

GOODNIGHT MOMMY, the first film by Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala, was a spectacle of empty style. Pairing a Nordic palette with modern, clean-line architecture, the result was a Haneke-esque aesthetic which was ultimately in service of an empty-headed Shyamalan-like plot twist only confirming the movie as pure surface. THE LODGE, their follow up, in some ways isn't too different. Soon-to-be stepmom with a traumatic past Grace (Riley Keough, phenomenal in a very tricky, delicate role) is stuck in a winter…