CinemaClown

While not as great as the hype around it would have you believe, DreamWorks Animation's latest offering nonetheless carries a heartfelt charm & welcome freshness about it and definitely ranks amongst the better entries in their oeuvre. With creativity in its animation, heart in its storytelling and packed with themes that resonate with the soul, The Wild Robot keeps the story & narration simple & effective and weaves the imagery with an emotional complexity that elevates it beyond an average children's fare.

Neatly directed by Chris Sanders and expertly anchored by Lupita Nyong'o whose voice imbues the titular droid with love, tenderness & motherhood, the film touches on parental care, coming-of-age journey, maternal hardships, value of community & power of kindness but what prevents it from greatness is the inconsistent pace and not letting its quieter scenes to breathe & simmer. Its 102 mins runtime is longer than it needs to be, most characters are forgettable and although there is a sweetness to it, the picture as a whole is slightly overhyped.

Possibly the strongest contender for the most disappointing film of the year so far, Joker: Folie à Deux attempts to undo all that was good about its predecessor and is so lazy & uninspiring in its approach & execution that it makes for an excruciatingly boring ride for the most part. As lifeless as it is unnecessary, this sequel never finds its footing plus the decision to take the musical route only backfires, for it doesn't go well with the story that it actually wanted to tell. Tediously paced & dancing around in circles for 138 mins, the picture simply goes nowhere while underutilising its actors, which is a shame coz Joaquin Phoenix & Lady Gaga do have a hint of chemistry together and could've conjured magic with a better script. Forgettable, frustrating & failing to measure up to the expectations, Todd Phillips' latest neither delivers as a follow-up chapter nor delights as a musical.

Chronicling the life & career of inarguably the greatest film composer alive today, Music by John Williams is crafted with heart, soul & admiration and celebrates the decades spanning legacy of the artist whose memorable compositions over the years have left an indelible mark on both film & pop culture. More a tribute than an in-depth sketch of his personal & professional life, Laurent Bouzereau's documentary provides a glance into the ideas & incidents that inspired his greatest scores, his collaboration with Steven Spielberg & endeavours outside the film industry but it isn't as informative as I expected and fails to offer any new insights.

Brought to screen through interviews, behind-the-scenes footage & film clips, the documentary observes the significant impact his orchestral scores had then n now and garnered him a whole generation of fans all over the world. Perhaps, the only thing I can complain about is that it isn't long enough, for I would've enjoyed many more hours of it. Also, for no valid reason, there is too much Chris Martin in it. Nevertheless, anyone not aware of Williams' contribution to the medium is in for a treat as they finally learn about just how many iconic themes this legendary maestro has graced us with and how vast & versatile his body of work throughout the decades has been.

From the director of Revenge comes an ambitious & audacious sophomore effort that's powered by spectacular performances from Demi Moore & Margaret Qualley and offers a brutal yet biting satire on fame, beauty, addiction & ageing through its examination of the societal perceptions of a woman's body. Definitely not for the easily distressed, The Substance is crafted with care, told with confidence and makes for a vicious takedown of absurd beauty standards that plagues the entertainment industry. The film employs a clever concept and executes it spot-on for two-thirds of the story before getting carried away a tad too much in the last act. And while it doesn't quite stick the landing for me, it remains a powerful, disturbing & harrowing ride. Also benefitting from stylish camerawork, vibrant costumes & stellar practical effects, Coralie Fargeat's latest feature is funny, fearless & fascinating throughout and effortlessly ranks amongst the most grotesque & gut-wrenching entries in the world of body horror.

Drenched in mystery, suffused with a foreboding chill and revealing an even more dreadful omen on excavation, Exhuma utilises elements of occult & folklore to create a cursed, creepy & chilling horror packed with both promise & potential but fails to make the most of its resources. What at first seems to be a straightforward supernatural horror eventually transforms into an unearthing of Korea's past as it digs into the colonial remnants that haunt the nation to this day. Steered by brilliant performances yet silently losing its intensity over the course of its 134 mins runtime, this unholy blend of blood, sickness, possession, witchcraft & devilry does feature moments that are powerful & disturbing but the longer the film goes on, the more it loses its potency. Worth a shot anyway.

A sleek & skilfully crafted cat-n-mouse game of murder that's told in six chapters going back n forth, Strange Darling piques the curiosity with its non-linear setup by fuelling our preconceived notion about its premise and then switches things around to deliver an electric jolt that's brutal, shocking & unexpected. A blood-soaked ride powered by strong performances from its leading duo and further elevated by excellent direction, clever editing, impressive camerawork, sinister score & beautiful songs, the film relies on its actors to deliver the thrilling goods and both Willa Fitzgerald & Kyle Gallner more than rise up to the occasion. A welcome surprise that keeps the intensity alive at all times, JT Mollner's tense & suspenseful tale of a serial killer whose twisted one-night stand spirals into a violent murder spree is a vicious offering that will delight fans of the genre.

A double feature presentation combining Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror & Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Grindhouse not only serves as their homage to the low-budget exploitation flicks of the 1970s but also imitates the look, feel, flavour & quality of the B-movie reels that used to play in those now-defunct theatres. Employing missing footage, stained imagery, scratched frames & upcoming attractions to capture the full-scale experience of those theatrical screenings, this 191 mins double-bill of thrillers is both a heartfelt tribute & parody of the action, horror, sexploitation, slasher & muscle car subgenres and narrates stories that sustain interest despite their over-the-top treatment. While Tarantino's segment is slightly better & more fun than Rodriguez's for me, both the films together deliver the desired goods and remain under-appreciated entries in the careers of both filmmakers. An unabashedly trashy, campy & enjoyable delight from start to finish.

An unconventional take on the zombie subgenre that merges horror, comedy, romance, fantasy, parody & camp into one silly, wicked & offbeat offering packed with zombies, guns, sex & more, Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) is a labour of love that's crafted with verve and told with unabashed energy to deliver a ludicrous delight. Passionately directed & sharply photographed, the film is as amusing as it is absurd, embraces its ridiculous premise all the way, and is greatly uplifted by excellent make-up effects & strong lead performance. It's enjoyable & entertaining if you can go with its flow & darkly humorous flavour but it also gets repetitive & too over-the-top at times, not to mention the overlong runtime that becomes a bother after a while. Still, Michele Soavi's fascinating take isn't without merits and is definitely worth a view.

As harrowing as it is heartbreaking, Kotoko concerns a single mother struggling to raise her infant child due to her deteriorating mental illness, and delivers moments of pure terror by blurring the lines between reality & imagination throughout its runtime. A hallucinatory horror drama packed with violent episodes that erupt without warning, the film navigates motherhood, loneliness, nervous breakdowns, toxic relationship, self-harm & more with a confounding narrative that neither makes sense nor carries enough weight and leaves the viewers with more questions than answers in the end. Cocco's unhinged performance in the titular role does much of the heavy lifting here but the film as a whole requires more than one viewing to properly unearth its multitudes of layers & mysteries.

Despite having an intriguing premise and all the necessary ingredients to create a bone-chilling terror, Children of the Corn turns out to be a bland, barren & boring mess with not much to offer. Set in a remote town, laced with folk-horror elements, having a foreboding score and populated with murderous children, the story was ripe for some genuine scares & unsettling thrills but fails to harvest the goods properly, thanks to its lifeless direction, paper-thin characterisation, awful performances, tedious pace & weak ending. Falling way short of its true potential while also not grasping what was up for grabs here, this supernatural slasher is a dull, mediocre & forgettable piece of work with not many redeeming qualities.

Though not as riveting as its premise will have you believe, The Rosary Murders still manages to deliver moments of tension & suspense within a monotonously executed drama and is anchored by Donald Sutherland's measured performance as a conflicted priest. A run-of-the-mill effort at best when it comes to direction, the story is undone by its long runtime, an unnecessary subplot that goes nowhere & more but the mood & build-up before the serial killings is done well and the dilemma our protagonist faces is rendered with sincerity, along with the conflicted interpretation of Church law & teachings. However, the picture as a whole needed a tightly-edited plot to keep things interesting throughout and carries the look n feel of a TV film in more ways than one.

Smart, surreal & subversive, Seconds is a bleak portrait of the life we wish for in wake of the life we are currently living & unhappy with. Piquing the curiosity from the get-go, the story only gets more captivating as it progresses and features ingenious camerawork & clever editing that also add their own layers into the mix. The psychological horror aspect kicks in without the audience realising and sticks around long after the end credits have rolled. There is so much to dissect & deconstruct here and yet ample to keep the interest alive while it is unraveling. Not a moment is hurried, the fundamentals are clearly explained, performances are solid, and the price of a new identity is both shocking & heartbreaking to watch. All in all, John Frankenheimer's sci-fi horror has effortlessly endured the test of time and is as relevant today as it was at its time of release.

From the director of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari comes another silent horror that could & should have sufficed as an hour long feature film but is allowed to trudge along for 40 more mins. A slog to sit through despite featuring a rather interesting premise, Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac (Orlac Hände) is shot with flair and the sharp cinematography is striking too but the lead actors are so extra with their wide-eyed expressions that it kills the effectiveness of nearly every scene, not coz there's much wrong with the expressionistic performances but coz it is allowed to go on for far too long too often and it gets repetitive real soon. The final twist & revelation still delivers the goods but getting there is some work in itself.

A neatly constructed & expertly choreographed ballet brimming with operatic set pieces, vivid colour palette, fluid camerawork & violent killings, Opera is another potent mix of murder, obsession & madness from Dario Argento that may not impress on the storytelling front but does leave a lasting mark with the sophisticated execution of its technical elements. Utilising clever setups & visual flourishes of his giallo outings, the film makes terrific use of its titular location, concocts nightmare scenarios from available resources, and allows the blood & screams to hit high notes whenever the occasion calls for it. However, the script required a bit more finesse & refinement when it comes to plot & characterisation to deliver the desired goods and also fails to conclude the journey on a rather satisfying note. Worth a shot anyway.

From the director of Don't Torture a Duckling & The Beyond comes another stylish exercise in excess gore, this time offering his take on zombie apocalypse. Zombie is an attempt by Lucio Fulci to take the subgenre back to its Caribbean & voodoo roots and makes for a consistently nasty & gruesome delight. Though the premise is straightforward and characters forgettable, the plot is executed well enough to keep things interesting and also impresses with its terrific make-up effects, grisly set pieces & splendid score. The B-movie aesthetics and exploitation approach may not please everyone but this Italian zombie horror retains its ability to shock & surprise the newcomers with its memorable scenes of violence & viscera after all these years.

A surprise improvement over its already impressive predecessor, the follow-up chapter to Smile brings the idea of the original into the glossy, glittery & glamorous world of pop star to deliver a nightmare fuel that's paranoia-inducing & nerve-jangling from start to finish. Steered by Parker Finn's excellent direction, making deft use of audiovisual elements and furthermore elevated by Naomi Scott's increasingly unhinged performance, Smile 2 is an eerie, amusing & often thrilling sequel that outshines the original on several fronts, packs some terrifying horror set pieces and aptly blurs the line between reality & fantasy despite a few plot inconsistencies to make for one of the scariest offerings of the year that will leave the horror enthusiasts gleefully grinning from ear to ear.

Laced with morbid humour and effortlessly sustaining its macabre wit throughout, The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales is a pitch black comedy horror that's competently crafted, intelligently narrated & brilliantly acted as it takes its time to acquaint us with the taxidermist's charm & persona and also compels us to root for him after he takes his marital woes borne out of his overbearing wife to the extreme. As demented as it is amusing, the story is further enriched by crisp photography & steady pace while it captures the longstanding effects of a toxic marriage and despite turning dark, it never loses its funny side. One of the better examples of its genre(s) and surely amongst the finest works of Mexican cinema. Highly recommended.

Counted amongst the earliest works of giallo horror, Blood & Black Lace is a shocking, shivering & shattering delight that makes splendid use of colour, lighting & music to set its mood and also features several elements that would go on to become the staples of its subgenre. Riveting from the get-go and further elevated by its exaggerated colour palette & sublime photography, Mario Bava's murder mystery combines violence & eroticism into a charged & chilling offering that still packs a punch and delivers the goods. The film may not rank amongst the finest examples of its genre but what it lacks in characterisation, it more than makes up for with its cinematic qualities, stylistic choices & visual flair. Definitely worth a shot.

Crafted in the same vein & spirit as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive is another sleazy, low-budget horror with a psychotic killer at its centre. Devoid of suspense yet brimming with a claustrophobic chill, the film is predictably straightforward and packs plenty of violence, gore, nudity & screams but it's the isolating setting, dilapidated set piece, fine lighting & a demented lead performance that provides this exploitation chiller its running legs. Hooper's direction is uneven as usual, characters remain bland, performances from most are forgettable, plus the B-movie aesthetics never allow the picture to rise above a certain quality but there is a grindhouse appeal to it that will still appease some viewers, if not all.

The third & final entry in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness is a lot lighter & goofier in tone when compared to its predecessors and begins where the previous entry signed off. With the setting changed from deadly cabin to medieval times, the story never manages to create the suspense & ominous aura that often pervaded the earlier chapters despite the comedy elements at play and instead dives headfirst into camp with heavy dilution of horror & scares. Surprisingly, the ride does become somewhat enjoyable as one settles into the premise, and the final battle is packed with some impressive choreography & special effects. A tad too different in its treatment & approach, the film is missing the franchise's manic energy and is rather overdosing on silliness to the point of nuisance.

Dario Argento's directorial debut is a stylishly crafted giallo that presents the then-new director making deft use of genre elements to deliver a consistently thrilling delight packed with mystery, murder & madness. Notable for popularising the subgenre despite not being the first of its kind, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage features several stylistic choices that would go on to become Argento's own trademarks and narrates its story with sufficient grip & flair to keep us invested & interested in the proceedings. While the characters aren't compelling enough and performances are also serviceable at best, the intelligent camerawork, steady pace, violent thrills & whodunnit aspect help create a foreboding aura that makes the ride gripping & satisfying for the most part, thus starting Argento's feature filmmaking career on an impressive note with a promise of better things to come.

A fascinating addition to the vampire lore that demystifies the mythology with its singular take, Martin is unconventional in its approach as it keeps the viewers questioning the legitimacy of its premise by neither confirming nor denying the protagonist's vampiric identity and features horror set pieces that are tense & disturbing to watch. Dark, gritty & laden with dreamlike imagery, George A. Romero's personal favourite of all his films humanises the eponymous character by showcasing his real-world struggles outside the film landscape and makes for an interesting sit despite the raw production & serviceable performances.

Taking inspiration from the turbulent episodes of his own personal life to deliver a psychological body horror that doubles as a contemplation on domestic troubles, parenthood & mental illness, David Cronenberg's The Brood appears bizarre & bewildering at first but patiently develops into a shocking & sickening nightmare that bears all his trademarks. While certainly not amongst his best-known efforts but definitely amongst his most personal outings, the story & characters are still not sufficiently fleshed out to garner our emotional investment and the mystery surrounding the brutal killings don't leave much of a scar either. The film drags for the most part before it all comes together rather hurriedly in the last act which also proves to be the picture's highlight. In short, a cold, uneven & surprisingly boring offering that will still appease most Cronenberg fans.

Serving as a prequel to Rosemary's Baby, Apartment 7A is an unnecessary outing that does create intrigue due to its connection to the 1968 horror classic but is unable to sustain it for long despite featuring a similar premise. Slow, boring & forgettable for the most part, the only element that works in its favour is the neat production design and although the cast tries to capture the nuances of the reprising characters, the performances aren't compelling enough. It is devoid of the escalating paranoia that the original captured so well, is tediously paced from start to finish, and goes full cringe in its final moments to finish as yet another dull, derivative & disappointing attempt at reviving an existing classic.

The third & final instalment in Ti West's slasher trilogy finds our sole survivor finally getting her big break until her past catches up with her. Delving into the excess scene of 1980s Hollywood and the emergence of home video releases, MaXXXine is stylishly directed, packs no shortage of violent thrills and is steered by another standout performance from its leading lady but then the plot is rather generic, plays with ideas that are only half-baked, and also culminates with a finale that's weak & uninspiring. Undeniably the weakest of the trio, the only thing that keeps it afloat is the excellent Mia Goth, otherwise even the gleeful gore effects don't leave much of an impression despite the creative spirit behind it. In short, an underwhelming conclusion.