The Devil's Bath (2024)

Direction: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
Country: Austria / Germany

The Devil’s Bath, a period psycho-horror film set in upper Austria in 1750, is a gripping exploration of marital terror, depression, and religious fanaticism. Directed by the filmmaking duo of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the film quietly and steadily builds depth, drawing inspiration from Kathy Stuart’s research: Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation (2023), as well as criminal trial records for Agnes Catherina Schickin (Germany, 1704) and Eva Lizlfellnerin (Austria, 1761-62). Co-produced by Ulrich Seidl (Rimini, 2022; Paradise Trilogy), the film stars Anja Plaschg in the leading role, an experimental musician that also composed the music score.

The story follows Agnes (Plaschg), from her wedding day to her demise. The narrative is subtle and gradual, with the directors prioritizing the human drama above horror-film gimmickry. They’ve crafted a harrowing, austere story that, once you know the tragic twist, morphs into a somber study of depressed, suicidal women in the 18th-century Central Europe.

The low-key, handsomely photographed production drips with atmosphere, and we know there are competent hands behind the camera and just enough mystery to keep the audience guessing. Plaschg’s performance perfectly fits the demands of a film that resonates through its dark ambiance and creepy conclusion.

A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)

Direction: Michael Sarnoski
Country: USA

A Quiet Place: Day One, the third installment in the A Quiet Place film series, is a patchy and uninspired apocalyptic horror film that functions as both a prequel and a spin-off. Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig, 2021), the film fails to surpass the intrigue of the two previous films directed by John Krasinski.

This early chapter follows the journey of two survivors in a silenced New York: Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a courageous, terminally ill woman craving pizza, and Eric (Joseph Quinn), a terrified British law student who never takes off his tie. Amidst the chaos, the real hero turns out to be Samira’s intelligent and surprisingly quiet cat.

Overall, the film offers too little and nothing new, with Sarnoski overly confident that style can substitute for substance. For the most part, the film is just a tired tread through the usual elements. It is well-produced, acceptably performed, and features decent special effects packing in some impressive dystopian imagery. However, we’ve seen it all before. There’s no reason to stay invested in something so uninventive. A Quiet Place: Day One is nothing but a dull apocalyptic routine that doesn’t pay off.

Twisters (2024)

Direction: Lee Isaac Chung
Country: USA 

Twisters, a belated standalone relative to Jan de Bont's Twister (1996), fails to captivate. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Munyurangabo, 2007; Minari, 2020) from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, 2015), based on a story by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, 2013; Top Gun Maverick, 2022), the movie sorely lacks a sense of reality and fails to evoke deep emotion during the dramatic, life-threatening situations depicted.

The story pairs Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a former storm chaser haunted by a deadly tornado incident from her college years, with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a boastful social media celebrity who thrives on posting his tornado-defying adventures. What could have been a thrilling, eyeball-popping natural disaster flick, instead devolves into a cheesy romance between uninteresting characters. Viewers won't find anything new here to sink their teeth into, not even those who are big fans of the genre.

After giving us the soulful Minari, one of the standout dramas of 2020, Chung shifts from distinctive to banal with a blockbuster marred by emotionless narrative and repetitive action. The occasional powerful images are incapable of balancing the whirlwind of tediousness felt from start to finish. It’s true that Chung replaced Kosinski in the director’s chair at short notice, but that shouldn’t excuse such a debilitated outcome. Both Edgar-Jones and Powell delivered unremarkable performances.

We Grown Now (2024)

Direction: Minhal Baig
Country: USA 

Minhal Baig (Hala, 2019) wrote, directed and co-produced her third feature, We Grown Now, a poignant coming-of-age drama about two inseparable best friends who discover the joys and hardships of living in Cabrini-Green, a public housing complex in Chicago. 

The year is 1992, and Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) are sometimes short on food. The former lives with his single mother (Jurnee Smollett), his grandmother (S. Epatha Merkerson) - whose roots are in Tupelo, Mississippi - and a sister, while the latter lives with his widowed father and an older sister. The escalating violence in the neighborhood allows the police to enter their houses in the middle of the night without a warrant, searching for drugs and gang members. Things between Malik and Eric momentarily change when the former’s mother considers applying for a new job and moving to another city.

The meaning of home and social change are deeply embedded in this story, with the director blending tenderness and cruelty in a disillusioned atmosphere softened by true friendship and routine. Placed under the sign of adolescence with heartfelt intentions, the film also reconnects with the theme of holding onto one's origins, capturing the urgency of moving toward better conditions and the yearning for what is left behind.

Baig shoots each scene with ardent attention, projecting a strange mix of innocence and awareness. Her assured direction ensures realism, bolstered by the young actors, who hold the stage with truthfulness.

Longlegs (2024)

Direction: Oz Perkins
Country: USA

Written and directed by Oz Perkins, the elder son of late actor Anthony Perkins, famous for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Longlegs is a dry horror thriller tinged with occult malignancy that, despite its enticing premise, doesn’t hold up in the end. The film stars Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, who also produced.

The plot centers on the sleepless, cold, and often absent-minded FBI agent Lee Harkin (Monroe), the only person who seems capable of solving a series of massacres involving entire families as she’s gifted with psychic abilities. The perpetrator, known as Longlegs (Cage), is a satan worshiper who likes to leave coded messages based on complex algorithms next to the victims. What is more intriguing about him is that there are never any signs of forced entry into the houses. 

Longlegs rings hollow, quickly melting as its banal plot is unveiled. It is a sluggish exercise in horror that stands on its feet in its first half, just to nose-diving into the abyss in the second. The gloomy side of things is there, but thrills don’t abound, and it’s all too predictable toward a bland ending deliberately left open for a possible sequel. While Monroe stands out for her credible introspective temperament, Cage, looking like a cross between a decrepit heavy-metal legend and the Joker, delivers very few moments of creepiness. 

Films like Seven (1995) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) may come to mind, but Longlegs is miles away from them in many crucial aspects, including originality. It’s all surface psychodramatics, sporadically watchable yet mostly inert. Hence, quickly forgettable.

MaXXXine (2024)

Direction: Ti West
Country: USA 

Writer-director Ti West likes his films infused with blood and anger. Due to his successful past collaborations with actress Mia Goth in X (2022) and Pearl (2022), everyone was curious about the third installment in his X film series, MaXXXine, but the film fails to deliver, soon plummeting into ridiculousness and a mutilated sense of justice. 

Encouraged by her father from a young age, Maxine Minx (Goth) seeks fame in the movies, growing up with his advice in mind: “I will not accept a life I do not deserve”. At 33, after starring in porn films, Maxine finally has a chance to work in a real Hollywood film, The Puritan II, directed by the ruthless British director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). However, due to a dark past, she’s followed by a shady private detective (Kevin Bacon) and a couple of LAPD agents. The events take place in 1985, when The Night Stalker, the satanic serial killer who murdered at least 14 people, is still at large on the dark streets of LA. 

Buckling under the weight of trying to subvert expectations, MaXXXine ends up being a muddled, trashy piece of madness whose narrative jolts rather than compels. It is a gory B-movie with no style or rhythm, plagued by a lamentable script populated by obnoxious characters and terrible dialogue. This silly satire tries to sell a murderous psycho with a conscience for justice, but anyone jonesing for clever plots should look elsewhere as the last part of West’s trilogy is a significant letdown. Skip it.

Thelma (2024)

Direction: Josh Margolin
Country: USA 

Thelma is the first feature film by Josh Margolin, who drew inspiration from the real-life experience of his own grandmother, now 103. Gorgeous to watch, the film alternates belly laughs, dramatic considerations, and startling occurrences, following the improbable adventures of the title character - compellingly portrayed by June Squibb. 

Thelma is a 93-year-old fascinated by computers who falls victim to a phone scam, losing $10k. Realizing that most of her friends are gone, Thelma turns to Ben (Richard Roundtree in his final role), who lives in a nursing home, and to her geeky but over-controlled grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger). The narrative unpacks with a refreshing, feel-good vibe, spreading an infectious charm that outweighs some of the predictability around the edges.

Thelma is smoothly crafted entertainment, never grounded in pain despite the sad reality that getting old sucks. A funny ride made with precision and verve, this senior-focused comedy uses veteran actors to bring out the joys of a rowdy journey evoking the old times. Margolin is often successful in eliminating the too-sweet taste of sentimentality, favoring laughter instead. He summons Squibb and Roundtree to do the job, and they deliver with graceful charisma. 

Tune out the hype for countless other comedies as this one is delivered with poise and understatement, most refreshing qualities in a genre that often bombards viewers with forcible and imbecilic situations.

The Bikeriders (2024)

Direction: Jeff Nichols
Country: USA 

Jeff Nichols (Mud, 2012; Take Shelter, 2011; Loving, 2016), who has retained his exceptional talent both as a director and storyteller, gathers a formidable cast for his new film, The Bikeriders, a crime drama inspired by the 1967 photo book of the same name by Danny Lyon. The latter accompanied a group of bikers, The Vandals from Chicago, from the mid-sixties to the early seventies. 

Playing central roles, we have Jodie Comers, who absolutely marvels here, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy. They are competently supported by Michael Shannon (in his sixth collaboration with Nichols), Mike Faist as the photographer and interviewer, and Damon Herriman. The well-imagined plot follows the members of a motorcycle club that gradually turns into a violent gang of thugs, signaling a significant change in times. 

The Bikeriders desperately wants to say something about a lost America, a golden era that is gone forever. It leads to a lacerating conclusion but refuses to abandon the ray of hope that keeps things moving forward. Shot with a retro look and posing like an old classic, the film draws inspiration from works such as Easy Rider (1969) and The Wild One (1953). 

With a sparkling bright first part contrasting with a darker second, the film never feels manipulative, following a narrative path that is thoroughly engaging. Depicted with a certain nostalgia, this is a furiously lucid slice of American cinema, intelligently constructed and handsomely executed. Don’t hesitate to hit the road with these nervy fellas.

Babes (2024)

Direction: Pamela Adlon
Country: USA

Actress turned director Pamela Adlon makes her directorial feature debut with Babes, a quintessential New York comedy centered on motherhood and female friendship. While not a revolutionary tale, the film draws its strengths from fine performances, side steps, juicy details, and broken of taboos.

The story follows Eden (Ilana Glazer), who unexpectedly becomes pregnant after a one-night-stand, and her long-time best friend, Dawn (Michelle Buteau), who is married and has just had her second child. Tensions between the nearly inseparable pair escalate to a frantic boil, exacerbated by the emotional fluctuations and frustrations of being a mom. 

Though the catalogue of family troubles and various conflicts is familiar, the film is humanely observed and profuse on witty banter. The dialogue is fast and pungent, and the pacing is suave, all delivered with a good heart. Even the most clichéd moments can feel emotionally true in this lighthearted film, which, despite its faults, tries to march to a different drum than the most of Hollywood comedies.

Babes might not be as funny as some have claimed, but focuses on how these two friends rely on each other and grow through life's blessings and adversities. It’s an entertaining film aimed at adults.

Sisi & I (2024)

Direction: Frauke Finsterwalder
Country: Germany / Austria / Switzerland 

The fourth feature by German director Frauke Finsterwalder, Sisi & I, is a work of fiction inspired by historical reality. Co-written by Finsterwalder and Swiss author Christian Kracht, the film centers on the relationship between Empress Elizabeth of Austria, a.k.a. Sisi, and her last lady-in-waiting, the Hungarian Countess Irma Sztáray. 

Late in the 19th century, Irma (Sandra Huller) travels to the Greek island of Corfu to serve the reclusive, sometimes jubilant, sometimes moody, but often manipulative Empress (Susanne Wolff), overwhelmed by the demands of her duties. Desperate to avoid returning to court, Sisi’s constant fight against boredom is eased with cocaine elixirs, the occasional visits of her free-spirited friend, the Archduke Ludwig Viktor (Georg Friedrich), and her special bond with Irma. Yet, intense depression soon interferes with her leisure life.

Not as dynamic and provocative as Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (2022), which explores similar territory, Sisi & I strikes a balance between the classic and the modern, especially through the sets and the anachronistic soundtrack - the charm of Portishead’s trip-hop gem “Glory Box” inundating the opening scene is undeniable. 

In her unflashy version, Finsterwalder chooses a common route, staging the story in her own terms and bringing some curious details into the fold. She makes a gracious, if occasionally tedious, effort to portray two frustrated women, modern for their time, who find refuge in a singular friendship. Despite its unevenness and tonal fluctuations, the film unpacks a feminist manifesto on power, sexuality, independence, allegiance, and sometimes cruelty. The sharp cinematography by Thomas W. Kiennast and the costume design by Tanja Hausner are assets, but the well-groomed film itself is a minor vehicle to deliver Huller's sober but firm performance. 

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Direction: Rose Glass
Country: USA

Directed by Rose Glass, the director of the critically acclaimed Saint Maude (2019), Love Lies Bleeding is a muscular and psychologically probing feminist thriller with a 1980s look and neo-noir moods inspired by films like The Wrestler (2008), Bound (1996), and Crash (1996). Working from a script she co-wrote with Weronika Tofilska, Glass manages to achieve a fulfilling narrative arc anchored by surprisingly complex performances and a surreal tinge that works both for and against the film.

This is the type of cynical crime entanglement where everyone is implicated in some sort of scheme. It is centered on the ardent lesbian romance between a lonely gym manager, Lou (Kristen Stewart), and a promising bodybuilder, Jackie (Katy O'Brian). Love conquers all, but the atmosphere in town is heavy, potentiated by vindictive characters with destructive emotions and actions that often lead to violence and death. 

The film’s primal instincts are nihilistic and brooding, but it’s not short of ideas. The finely honed script plays like a greasy bucket-load of uninhibited dirtiness through its rougher patches, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Stewart and O’Brien have a palpable chemistry, while Ed Harris is phenomenal as Lou’s creepy father, an arms dealer with influential connections to the local police.

Glass’ sophomore picture is not as masterfully visceral as Saint Maude, but the rising filmmaker reveals herself as a gifted portrayer of emotional intimacies and wrenching acts of violence.

Problemista (2024)

Direction: Julio Torres
Country: USA

Problemista is the directorial feature debut by Salvadoran-American Julio Torres, who embraces fantasy to tell the story of Alejandro, an aspiring toy maker from El Salvador who struggles to keep working and living in New York. Torres himself portrays the main character.

After losing his job as an archivist for FreezeCorp - a company specialized in freezing terminally ill humans to be awakened at some point in the future - Alejandro desperately finds a new sponsor for his work Visa and easy gigs on Craigslist to stay afloat. The solution is Elizabeth (a red-haired Tilda Swinton in top form), a neurotic, washed-up art critic whose painter husband (the rapper RZA) has been frozen.

The film flows stonily, with an offbeat vibe that often seduces, yet the wittiness is not a constant, working intermittently. The film is stronger on the dramatic side, with its best moments tapping into a sadness and disappointment with the world that most people will relate to. Swinton’s unbeatable delirium is a perfect foil for Torres’ apathetic confidence in a well-acted surrealist comedy whose main strength is the mood. 

Problemista is only partially satisfying and easy to overlook, but hope is its last word - even if it means achieving things forcibly - and some aspects addressed are so true that they stay with you. It surely could have been better, but this is still a positive debut for Torres, who hired Isabella Rossellini as the film’s narrator.

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (2024)

Direction: Radu Jude
Country: Romania 

After the polemic and somewhat superfluous Loony Porn (2021), the incredibly talented Romanian writer-director Radu Jude continues to claim a spot at the peak of contemporary cinema with Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, another love-it-or-hate-it endeavor that places an independent young woman under relentless observation in a radically changing Bucharest. 

Ilinca Manolache plays Angela Raducanu, an exhausted and underpaid production assistant working for an Austrian company that exploits workers and has a reputation for destroying Romanian forests for profit. Overworking to the point of risking falling asleep at the wheel, she navigates the chaotic Bucharest traffic - often filled with macho drivers - to interview handicapped people for a devious TV show. With no time for herself, she finds solace in posting provocative TikTok videos where she impersonates a man with moronic behavior and lousy ideas. Two key moments of the film include a frank conversation with her boss, Doris Goethe (Christian Petzold’s muse Nina Hoss), and an encounter with the wishy-washy German filmmaker Uwe Boll (himself).

Using footage, the film creates a link with Angela Merge Mai Departe, a 1981 feminist Romanian feature directed by Lucian Bratu, centered on a female taxi driver under the communist dictatorship. This raffish and pertinent divertissement brings a lot of truths to light, touching on themes such as neoliberal capitalism, sexism, corruption, exploitation, resignation, and impunity in a tortured urban society that simply has no time to enjoy life.

Jude evokes the social realism of Jim Jarmusch and Jean-Luc Godard - creative in form, tenacious in the storytelling - and infuses a caustic humor that, cutting sharper than a knife, is often quite delicious. More jarring than sweet, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World is an eye opener for our hectic times. A must-watch.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Direction: Jane Schoenbrun
Country: USA

Like in her previous feature, We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021), director Jane Schoenbrun blurs the line between reality and fantasy in I Saw the TV Glow, a depressing psychedelic trip filled with mind-inducing eeriness and ambiguity. 

The narrative follows Owen (Justice Smith), a 7th-grade teenager living in the suburbs, who becomes addicted to an obscure TV show called The Pink Opaque. His life gets less empty when he bumps into Maddy Wilson (Brigette Lundy-Paine), another obsessed fan who admits the show feels more real than real life. Suddenly, they realize they have become players in a dangerous game. Everything changes when Maddy leaves without a trace, only to return eight years later with a confused memory and a different notion of time. 

I Saw the TV Glow is aesthetically curious, but its disjointed ideas don’t coalesce into a satisfying whole. Schoenbrun can't avoid force-feeding us metaphors during this infinite fever dream, opting for vague contrivances rather than providing real substance. The underlying tension is constantly present but never packs a wallop. The vision is too narrow for that, transforming this experimental gimmick into a lumbering, misguided mess.

The film, co-produced by Emma Stone, aims for the bizarre but ends up more mind-numbing and emotionally deserted than clever. Paranoia and melancholy swallow aimless phosphorescent kids… is that all you’ve got to offer, Ms. Schoenbrun?

Am I OK? (2024)

Direction: Tig Notaro, Stephanie Allyne
Country: USA

Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allyne teamed up to direct Am I OK?, a comedy-drama centered on the anxieties and vulnerabilities of coming out later in life and the intricate paths of friendship. Written by Laura Pomerantz, the film stars Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno, who are not only convincing in their roles but often funny.

Lucy (Johnson) and Jane (Mizuno) are longtime best friends. Lucy works in a spa and just realized she might be gay after a a negligible, unsuccessful, and vapid number of relationships with men. Jane, promoted by her boss and ready to move to London, tries to help her friend navigate her complex affairs with an excessively self-assured temperament that is not always helpful. In the desperation of finding the path to love, things only get more confused and complicated.

Radiating warmth and humor, the film’s main strength lies in two beautifully observed complementary performances, hitting the mark in its attempt to generate sympathy for the characters’ struggles. If the ending had been better imagined and less predictable, viewers would have an even stronger incentive to watch it. 

The Beast (2024)

Direction: Bertrand Bonello
Country: France 

Bertrand Bonnello’s intelligent time-spanning love story, The Beast, is his best film to date and my favorite of 2024 so far. Blending sci-fi, romance, drama, and dystopian thriller elements with enigmatic tones, the film, based on Henry James’ short novel The Beast in the Jungle, results in an original and purely cinematic work. 

The non-linear narrative centers on the doomed love between Gabrielle Monnier (Léa Seydoux) and Louis Lewanski (George MacKay) across three different eras. In 1910, she’s a married pianist frequenting the refined Parisian artistic circles, and he’s an attentive, if cold, British admirer. in 2014, she’s a model living alone in L.A., while he’s an unstable 30-year-old American virgin tortured by rejection and frustration. The future, in 2044, is marked by absolute AI control and the availability of DNA cleanings to erase sorrows of past romances, though at the cost of possible loss of feelings. Each fragment is imbued with a tightly coiled sense of tension and repeated patterns: odd therapy sessions, consultations with clairvoyants, persistent anxieties, premonitions, and fears. An unbearable sense of loneliness also pervades. 

Structured with deliberate bewilderment, the film is a gallantly romantic and dangerously obsessive journey into past lives. It can fascinate us as much as get us lost. Cast and crew make the dramatic events believable, with Seydoux and MacKay delivering extraordinary performances, contributing heavily to 145 minutes of poignant, almost delirious complexity. 

With shades of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, the director of Nocturama (2016) and Coma (2022) gives us something special in a ferociously pleasurable film that deserves respect for its ambition. The Beast is what it wants to be: a slice of thought-provoking, nightmarish science fiction that rewards the viewer emotionally and visually.

Green Border (2024)

Direction: Agnieszka Holland
Country: Poland / other

With shades of her mentor Andrzej Wajda in her filmmaking style, Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa, 1990; In Darkness, 2011), an important figure of the Polish New Wave movement, turns her gaze to immigration in a mesmerizing odyssey comprised of four parts. The narrative involves a Syrian family and an Afghan woman trying to cross the forest that separates Belarus from Poland, a border guard consumed by guilt, and a group of activists who welcome a psychologist turned staunch supporter of their humanitarian cause. 

By filming in black and white with vision and nerve, Holland accentuates the realism of a painful crisis that exposes the worst side of human nature. Green Border is a tense affair, as dark and swampy as the forest landscapes and governments involved in its narrative, providing viewers with a disturbing scenario of racial prejudice and shocking indifference. Noble-minded in its revelatory disclosures, this tough-to-take look at the plight of migrants seeking asylum in the European Union overflows with passion, artistry, and rage in a segmented, formal structure that coheres.

The ensemble cast is solid, hitting the right emotional notes and building credibility with scenes that are Holland’s earnest attempts to bring to the world a harrowing chapter of her country’s history. The contemporary topic adds to the film’s urgent appeal in a social and political rant that, refusing to let hope go, confirms Holland as an incisive and influential filmmaker. Green Border was distinguished in seven categories in Venice, including the Special Jury Prize and Best Film in a Foreign Language.

The Vourdalak (2024)

Direction: Adrien Beau
Country: France

With The Vourdalak, newcomer filmmaker Adrien Beau draws inspiration from Alexei Tolstoy’s short story, creating an exhilarating celebration of the gothic style. Despite the low budget, the director lets his imagination soar, crafting a human-seized puppet to represent the vourdalak, a sort of proto-vampire that spares not even his own family. He also gives voice to it.

The story follows the inquisitive Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), a noble emissary of the King of France, who loses his way in the woods after being attacked and robbed by bandits. He finds refuge with a strange, cursed family. 

The director and cast waltz through this sinister tale with bizarre, ritualistic steps. The minimalist decor, complemented  by effective cinematography, creates an atmosphere reminiscent of another time, moving between eerie medieval mysticism, patriarchal dominance, and ridicule. However, the film's theatrical staging leaves uncertain whether it aims to be a campy homage to cult vampire black comedies or a nightmarish horror odyssey. 

Retractable fangs fail to deliver a significant bite, resulting in an outrageously fascinating failure that could have been a laugh riot. Enthusiasts of mysterious old tales and legends can go for it, but they’ll have to adapt to and accept this peculiar aesthetic, which can sometimes be coarser than expected.

The Idea of You (2024)

Direction: Michael Showalter
Country: USA 

The contemporary romantic comedy The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, is a terrible adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel. It’s a corny, somewhat pathetic crowd pleaser that, besides being painfully predictable, fails to rise above a pedestrian formula that is beneath Hathaway’s charm.

Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, 2017; Spoiler Alert, 2022) and written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Showalter, the film follows Soléne (Hathaway), a 40-year-old art gallery director and single mother, who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old boy-band singer Hayes Campbell (Galitzine). While the story’s premise is plausible, it’s executed in a boring manner, laden with gooey pop music that is hard to endure. 

Content with the pink tonalities of its finale, the film is a bland addition to the already low-stakes tradition of rom-coms. It is hampered by flaccid attempts at humor and songs with no resonance whatsoever. Although there are some interesting ideas about age-related concerns, the writing is flat and filled with trite, flirtatious dialogue.

Determined to charm audiences, Showalter is ineptly uninspired. The film stumbles when it sacrifices specificity for generic sentiment, making it ultimately a waste of time.

Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga (2024)

Direction: George Miller
Country: Australia

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise and a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), exploring the early life of Imperator Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the title character with passionate commitment, bringing to life a new heroic figure in Gorge Miller’s post-apocalyptic universe. Kidnapped by wild motorcyclists, Furiosa falls into the hands of warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) before left at mercy of another tyrant, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). As she grows up, revenge becomes her sole focus. 

Miller does not reinvent the wheel here, and the film is not entirely satisfying. However, a few sequences may leave you holding your breath. Despite CGI imagery increasing artificiality - some scenes resemble Dantesque animated sequences - the action surpasses the basic plot. This cult-film venture oozes blood, motor oil, and biter tears in an incessant chaos set against desert backdrops. I'm just worried it's not good enough considering its potential.

Bouncing around to sometimes memorable effect, the film only soars intermittently, amassing tension ahead of a climax that might feel underwhelming. It’s consistently caustic and dynamic, although never outright challenging.