The Brothers Quay return with their first feature in 20 years, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. The haunting stop-motion offering, based on the book of the same name by Polish writer Bruno Schulz, adapts the surreal, fantastic journey of a young man, who, having recently lost his father, travels by train to a mysterious sanatorium.
Music video and TV veteran R.T. Thorne directs his feature debut, 40 Acres. In the apocalyptic wake of a fungal pandemic, new civil war, and sweeping famine, a family, led by no-nonsense former soldier Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler), must protect their fortified farm from threats within and without. Including potential cannibal invasion.
Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe has delved into Alien, the shower scene in Psycho, David Lynch, and more. In Chain Reactions, he focuses on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this time via extended interviews with Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama. Each shares their interpretations and experiences with the iconic film, honing in on legacy and influence.
Fight or Flight, the feature debut from veteran second unit director James Madigan, falls into a category of action comedies populated by recent titles like Bullet Train, Love Hurts, Day Shift, Killer’s Game, and others, that juxtapose brutal violence with quips, winking jokes, and silliness of all stripes. Think the carnage of John Wick with goofy, almost campy comedy beats. It's messy, it’s all over the place, it’s a tonal mishmash, and there’s a chainsaw on an airplane for literally no reason other than it’s awesome (and it is), but it’s also a good amount of fun.
Tony Jaa. Muay Thai. Revenge. Bone-breaking action. Any one of those terms is likely enough to entice most of us to watch a movie. If we’re being honest, we’ve all watched movies for less. Combine all those elements, however, and you’re onto something. Which is exactly what Striking Rescue does. The latest from director Cheng Si-Yu (the woefully underseen Tai Chi Master, which you should also seek out if you haven’t), is 100% the movie it looks like, and though you’ve seen this many times before and won’t find any surprises lurking around the corner, it’s 100% the movie it looks like in the best possible way.
Have you seen Seiji Tanaka’s Demon City, or a close approximation of it before? Yes, many times. Among other comparable titles, it’s almost beat-for-beat Hard to Kill. Does it have much in the way of nuance, depth, or character development? No. It’s extremely sparse on those fronts. What it does have, however, are plenty of bonkers, bloody fight scenes and awesome action choreography.
If you used to be in the military but are now trying to adjust to civilian life—you know, a normal, hum drum job, taking care of family members, the usual—you are going to wind up in a bit of a Die Hard situation when you least expect it. That’s the expectation movies have set up for us, and that is precisely what Martin Campbell’s new action thriller Cleaner delivers. It scratches a familiar itch but doesn’t stand out in any way.
