Rebel Ridge (2024)

Direction: Jeremy Saulnier
Country: USA

Rebel Ridge is a gripping crime thriller written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who, despite exploring new tones, remains true to the spirit of his filmmaking style. In his fifth directorial effort, Saulnier delivers a taut, intense film that keeps viewers hooked from start to finish, brimming with a sticky, vicious atmosphere and a relentless sense of unease. At its core, the film tells the story of a man doing what’s right in the face of injustice. 

The director has an ace up his sleeve in the form of Aaron Pierre, who, making use of an impressive restraint, gives a convincing performance as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who tries to bail his cousin out of jail in a broke, small American town where police corruption reigns. To confront the provocations of Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) and his racist crew, Richmond, who silently boasts a particular set of skills, welcomes the assistance of a young lawyer (AnnaSophia Robb) marked by a troubled past. 

Though the script may not dive deep into complex layers, Pierre’s portrayal of a decent man, disrespected and pushed to his limits, lends emotional weight and authenticity to the film. Saulnier, known for the brutality and darkness of Blue Ruin (2013) and Green Room (2015), opts for a more measured approach here. He crafts a thrilling ride filled with suspense, permanent tension, and tight action sequences. Rebel Ridge moves with confidence, combining raw intensity with a streamlined narrative that evokes a modern Rambo. It’s a well-executed crime thriller that positions Saulnier as a rising master of the genre, offering a dynamite-packed summer hit.

Strange Darling (2024)

Direction: JT Mollner
Country: USA 

JT Mollner delivers a sledgehammer blow to the audience with his sophomore feature, Strange Darling, a violent, electrifying, and psychologically twisted thriller designed to shock and unsettle. Shot in 35mm and presented in six non-linear chapters that subvert conventional thriller narratives, the film unfolds in rural Oregon in the 1970s, carving a bloody path while generating palpable suspense and a constant sense of dread. 

Darkly humorous and perversely amusing, the film provokes queasiness and anxiety, ensnaring viewers in a tangled web of questions about motivations and personality disorders. The vicious game is rendered with sharp close-ups, unexpected twists, and appropriate use of light, sound, and editing. Mollner reveals this routine inclination to extract poetic resonance from moments of pain and bloodshed—an artfully conceived exercise in disturbance, but not particularly cerebral. Still, the film succeeds by refusing to let the audience catch their breath, compelling them to accept it on its own, wild terms.

Without revealing the serial killer’s past, Strange Darling would form a compelling triptych with Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (2017) and Ti West’s MaXXXine (2024). It’s a visceral, provocative, darkly feminist thriller that occasionally laces its brutality with humor. Willa Fitzgerald (The Goldfinch, 2019) seizes her moment to shine, but it’s Kyle Gallner (Dinner in America, 2020) who truly stands out. A special mention goes to Giovanni Ribisi, the former actor and first-time cinematographer, for his impressive work behind the camera.

Oddity (2024)

Direction: Damian McCarthy
Country: Ireland

Oddity, a slow-blooming portrait of doomed love, immediately thrusts its audience into a realm of disquiet and discomfort. With a Hitchcockian mood and tone, the film itself is a cinematic oddity, playing well with symbolism and emotions but failing at cohere completely.  

Surreally mounted and beautifully shot, Oddity follows Darcy Odello (Carolyn Bracken), a blind token-objet reader woman and antique shop owner who decides to investigate her twin sister’s murder one year after it happened. Armed with a mysterious wooden figure, she stays at the country house where her sister was killed, allegedly by a former patient of her psychiatrist husband, Ted Timmis (Gwilym Lee). 

Without straining to make an obvious point, the director Damian McCarthy (Caveat, 2020) builds tension as we keep gaining interest, teasing before delivering a few well-placed chills. His proclivity for the horror genre is no fluke, but his sophomore feature is one to be savored for its atmosphere than remembered for its impact. Oddity unfortunately culminates in a bland, disappointing finale, one that is more amusing than spooky. While the film doesn't totally click on all fronts, there is enough darkness in its DNA to satisfy enthusiasts of the genre.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hit Man (2024)

Direction: Richard Linklater
Country: USA 

Flirting with film noir and sly romance, Hit Man is the latest film by Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before trilogy), who directs it with down-to-earth awareness from an insightful script he co-wrote with the leading actor, Glen Powell. The story, based on the 2001 Texas Monthly magazine article of the same name by Skip Hollandsworth, gracefully balances tension and mordant wit. 

Powell portrays Gary Johnson, a philosophy professor and tech nerd who works undercover for the New Orleans police as a fake contract killer. His task, carried out thoroughly, consists in closing deals with the ones who try to hire him and then arrest them. Everything runs smoothly until one day he breaks the protocol to help Madison Figueroa (Adria Arjona), a desperate woman trying to escape an abusive husband. Their instant chemistry leads them into a dangerous game with unpredictable outcomes.

Flowing with a comfortable pace, the narrative reminds you how bonds between people may change you unexpectedly and drastically. Linklater, showcasing his versatility and effortless cinematic approach, has taken a familiar premise and imbued it with a unique identity, a notion explored here in a darkly comic way. Despite its unequivocally amoral nature, I found myself cheering on the protagonists’ lawlessness.

Hit Man is breezily acted, consistently funny, often charming, and noir enough to provide a great time in the theater.

The Last Stop in Yuma County (2024)

Direction: Francis Galluppi
Country: USA

An exciting feature debut by Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County is a revivalist neo-noir thriller reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock and The Coen Brothers. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, 2018; The Beta Test, 2021), who channels Norman Bates from Psycho as a knife salesman stranded at a remote Arizona diner next to a gas station, waiting for a fuel track to arrive. What should be a quick rest stop, becomes a nightmare when two dangerous bank robbers - portrayed by Richard Brake and Nicholas Logan - exactly in the same predicament, terrorize everyone around them.

Galluppi crafts the film in a classic style, creating a sense of isolated, alienated Americana. His confident direction weaves the elements into a crescendo, enhanced by a viciously torrid and claustrophobic atmosphere. However, the film ends on a somewhat contrived note. Utterly engaging until that point, this suspenseful tale of greed still guarantees a satisfying pay-off, offering a slick slice of solid entertainment in a constant state of tension. 

The Last Stop in Yuma County reminds us how gripping neo-noir thrillers can be when properly crafted, and Gallupi proves to be a bold young director to watch.

Monkey Man (2024)

Direction: Dev Patel
Country: USA / Canada / India

Dev Patel, the star of Slumdog Millionaire (2008), makes his directorial debut with Monkey Man, which he co-wrote with Paul Angunawela and John Collee. He also stars as the title character, a traumatized fighter seeking revenge for his mother's death. Jordan Peele, the director of Get Out (2017) and Nope (2022), is among the production credits, and the talented tabla player Zakir Hussein, known for his collaborations with jazz musicians, is part of the cast alongside Sharlto Copley, Vipin Sharma, and Sikandar Kher.

This neo-noir action thriller inevitably draws comparisons to John Wick and The Raid, but transports its violent rampages to India, encompassing themes such as poverty, caste injustices, discrimination of the Hijra community, cult of personality, and corruption. 

Behind the camera, Patel doesn't offer much originality beyond the specific cultural context. While the stunts are choreographed with wild athleticism, the relentless violence is exhausting, and the plot remains rudimentary. Watching this bloated and overlong film can feel as enjoyable as sitting on a cactus. 

There's unquestionably an audience here, and the film isn't completely terrible. It is just rather monotonous as the flimsy story fails to support the dramatic weight envisioned by its creators.

Civil War (2024)

Direction: Alex Garland
Country: USA 

In Alex Garland’s latest film, Civil War, a tale of courage unfolds against the backdrop of a dystopian landscape ravaged by chaos. Led by renowned war photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a small group of journalists, including Reuters reporter Joel (Wagner Moura), embarks on a perilous journey across a fractured country to interview the authoritarian US President in Washington, D.C., before the city falls to rebel forces. Accompanying Lee and Joel are veteran NY Times journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), considered too old for the mission, and aspiring photojournalist Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny), who flagrantly tags along. 

The tense narrative predominantly draws from violence and human cruelty, yet it doesn't forsake humor, extracting it from unexpected situations. Little is explained about the motivations of the factions involved in the conflict, but there’s a stark warning about the consequences of extremism instead. While critical of war obsession and racism, the film emphasizes the neutrality of the journalists as they navigate the chaos with determination and addictive voyeurism.

Departing from his previous sci-fi works like Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018), Garland injects furious nihilism in his staggeringly realistic depiction of a near-future setting that, as it should, leaves audiences feeling exhausted and wrung-out. Flawless performances, including a notable appearance by Jesse Plemons as an ultranationalist militant, combined with a timely soundtrack featuring songs by Suicide and De La Soul, and a powerful score by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow, contribute to the film's impact. Civil War is a stone-cold stunner that captivates from start to finish.

Monster (2023)

Direction: Hirokazu Koreeda
Country: Japan 

Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, 2004; Shoplifters, 2018), an observant Japanese cineast with extraordinary capabilities, confirms his talent as an explorer of the intimate, capturing adolescence, friendship, and family with incisive intelligence. Fascinating in its maturity and storytelling, Monster is a fascinating and mature storytelling experience that provides an involving and exhilarating journey, shaking the audience by surprise and offering a nuanced understanding of reality.

The meticulously constructed tale, written by Yuji Sakamoto (the first not written by Koreeda since his 1995 debut feature Maborosi), revolves around characters such as an overprotective single mother (Sakura Ando) who refuses to hold back emotions, her only son (Soya Kurokawa) who starts acting strangely erratic, his lonely classmate (Hinata Hiiragi) stigmatized by an alcoholic father, and a young teacher (Eita Nagayama) accused of misconduct. The narrative also involves an ineffectual school principal (Yuko Tanaka) deeply affected by a tragic accident. 

This infinitely touching moody tale unfolds with some unfathomable secrets and torments that progressively dilute into transparency. At first very sad in the disconsolate aura that underpins it, then very strange and bemusing, and suddenly very inspiring. In truth, every dose of discomfort will seep into your skin but, if you’re an optimistic, don’t get desperate because Koreeda pulls a rabbit out of the hat with magical refinement.

The film shapes as a provocative, thoughtful, sometimes minimalist dramatic fresco, deliberately illusive in structure and narrative. Nothing is taken for granted, and, all of a sudden, darkness can turn into light when we’re given a different perspective. Koreeda’s masterful control and the compelling performances of a multigenerational ensemble cast elevate the emotions. The late master composer Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano-driven score further intensifies the experience. Monster stands as a product of compelling filmmaking.

Eileen (2023)

Direction: William Oldroyd
Country: USA

Directed by William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth, 2016), Eileen is an adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s debut novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Moshfegh herself and Luke Goebel. It’s a soggy slow burn depicted with formal pomp and impressive cinematography that, gradually, goes from intriguing to banal.

The plot follows Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), a bored and lonely young woman who lives with her alcoholic father (Shea Whigham), a troubled ex-cop, and works in a juvenile detention facility as an assistant. Her routine takes a strange turn when Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a confident psychologist and graduated from Harvard, arrives at New England, bringing some fantasy into her life but also chaos. Both women share a special interest in Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), a kid who mysteriously stabbed his father to death in his sleep. 

Eileen is better characterized than Rebecca, who appears more enigmatic, and the flatness of the story is intermittently interrupted by the former’s grace. However, as a noir psychological thriller, the film fails to raise its staging to exceptional heights, remaining more or less nailed to the ground. It’s all done mechanically, without the brilliance that would have captivated the audience. 

Sensuality, desire, and depressive insanity are predominant factors in a story that recites all the commonplaces of the genre without possessing the sophistication of its models. Despite incorporating some twists that force changes in direction, Eileen falls short of being exciting, concluding with a rushed ending that lacks surprise or shock. What remains is just the idea of something uncomfortably bland.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Direction: Takashi Yamazaki
Country: Japan

If you enjoy adventure films with a combination of intense action and dramatic flair, Godzilla Minus One might be the movie for you. Directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki, the film offers a visceral and fast-paced fantasy with striking visuals and a strong sense of conviction. Yamazaki employs blockbuster tactics to depict multiple dangerous situations with a radioactive Godzilla wreaking havoc on a postwar Japan. 

The story revolves around Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a former kamikaze pilot turned deserter and sea-mine extractor. His lack of courage brings shame to many of his fellow countrymen. However, when he encounters Noriko Oishi and her rescued orphan baby, he discovers a new purpose in life. As Godzilla heads to Tokyo, Koichi sees an opportunity to redeem himself and prove his bravery and piloting skills.

The film explores strong anti-patriotic sentiments associated with the loss of war, mixed with a sense of unity among a group of civilians led by former naval weapons engineer and strategist Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka). Despite some plot holes and sentimental moments, Yamazaki enhances the film with stylized visuals, well-composed frames, and knockout sequences that blend ferocity with desolation. The director bends the rules of the genre by providing reinforced visual effects and relying on an intense musical score. While Godzilla's new roar is a result of a simple amplification of the original, the overall experience feels fresh and new.

Fast Charlie (2023)

Direction: Phillip Noyce
Country: USA 

Directed by Phillip Noyce, known for films like Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) and The Quiet American (2002), Fast Charlie is an old-school action crime thriller that incorporates elements of romance, creating a contrast with its unremittingly violent scenes. Adapted from Victor Gischler’s novel Gun Monkeys, the film maintains a straightforward narrative, offering instant firmness and watchability. And there’s this sly humor that venomously assesses the lack of morality in the Southern mob lands.

Pierce Brosnan takes on the role of Charlie Swift, a hitman loyal to Stan (James Caan in his last role), an aging mob boss in Biloxi, Mississippi, for over 40 years. When a rival boss (Gbenga Akinnagbe) from New Orleans arrives, leaving a trail of death, Charlie is tasked with avenging the losses. He ends up teaming up with his crush, Marcie Kramer (Morena Baccarin), whose ex-husband was targeted by Charlie.

Sometimes ferocious, sometimes funny, occasionally feeling routine, Fast Charlie is an ambitious adaptation by Richard Wenk, offering a taste of 1980s action flicks, where a hero like Charlie could be played by Charles Bronson or Chuck Norris. 

Noyce's no-frills approach to the story is an asset, eschewing sensationalist tactics. Still, you may find yourself wishing less obvious, more demanding situations and a more substantial result. It could use a lot more discipline in key moments, but the nature of the story naturally supplies the required energy to keep us engaged regardless the predictability of the plot. For all that, Fast Charlie is a mildly entertaining little crime thumper that sufficiently delivers on its genre expectations.

The Killer (2023)

Direction: David Fincher
Country: USA

The Killer, David Fincher's 12th feature film, further solidifies the director's reputation for delivering exceptional thrillers. Known for his masterful work in films such as Se7en (1995), Zodiac (2007), Gone Girl (2014), and Fight Club (1999), Fincher explores the world of a cold-blooded hitman. Michael Fassbender, in his first collaboration with Fincher, takes on the role of the meticulous and perfectionist assassin, delivering a performance that matches the film's somber mood. Adapted from the French comic book Le Tueur and co-written by Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker, the storyline follows the hitman's journey from Paris to the Dominican Republic, New Orleans, Florida, and finally, Chicago.

The film skillfully explores the dehumanization and vulnerabilities of the assassin, who adheres to a strict credo, repeating it in his head to suppress any emotion or empathy. The supporting cast, including Charles Parnell, Sala Baker, Tilda Swinton, and Arliss Howard, adds depth to the narrative, with each character playing a crucial role in this mysterious man's obsessive mission. The voyeurism of the first part is hypnotic and entices the viewers for what comes next in a simple tale enhanced by the music of the English rock band The Smiths. 

It feels like Fincher, with his slyly calibrated moves, wants to deconstruct Hollywood clichés. He makes a shift in the way he returns to the genre, keeping the audiences suspicious and attentive to every possibly relevant detail. Even if they take us nowhere, one still enjoys this restless feeling and unbending tension throughout. In turn, Fassbender’s stoic and icy performance conveys the protagonist’s patience and determination but also his rigidness and mercilessness. While some may expect more from this dark revenge thriller, the result doesn't disappoint.

The Royal Hotel (2023)

Direction: Kitty Green
Country: Australia

Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick star in The Royal Hotel, an Australian psychological thriller co-written and directed by Kitty Green, a documentarian whose career reached a pinnacle four years ago with the unforgettable fictional drama The Assistant (2019). Not as strong, her new dramatic effort centers on two Canadian best friends - the disquieted Hanna (Garner) and the undisturbed Liv (Henwick) - who experience a toxic male environment while working in a remote pub in the Australian outback. The tension comes from intoxicated men, dubious in their intentions and desperately searching for attention. They repeatedly pose a threat to them.

Green proves she can build up an atmosphere, but this story needed twists to shake things off a bit. The Royal Hotel is ultimately more about mood than action, and it never really takes off, settling into a familiar routine despite the underlying tension. It’s exceptionally confident in the tone it wants to set, but not as much in the story it wants to develop. The pace is slow-burn, the mood positively throbs with anxiety, and the film sways drunkenly towards an abrupt conclusion. Too bad the provocative premise wasn’t more fully explored. 

The cinematography by Michael Latham has an exciting, alive quality despite the dusky tonality of the long nights captured in camera, but if you're seeking horror, thrills, or stimulation, this may not be the film for you.

Rotting in the Sun (2023)

Direction: Sebastian Silva
Country: Chile 

While relaxing in a Mexican gay nude beach, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva meets American comedian and social media influencer Jordan Firstman, who is a fan of his movies. Despite Silva’s initial reservations, they agrees to an artistic collaboration. The two personalities feast on caricatural portrayals of themselves and mock death in this shaggy-dog meta-narrative called Rotting in the Sun. The true standout in the movie is Chilean actress Catalina Saavedra, who skillfully reprises her role as a morally-resistant maid - a character that garnered critical  acclaim in Silva’s second feature, The Maid (2009).

The film unfolds in two distinct halves, and unfortunately, neither proves satisfying. The first part comes off as gratuitous, fixating on the visibly depressed director engrossed in Romanian author Emil Cioran’s book The Trouble of Being Born while contemplating existential struggles and suicide. It’s also pelted with drawn-out, unsimulated sex scenes that add absolutely nothing to the plot. The second part takes a bleak turn, dealing with real death and disappearance, and adopting an investigative and slightly more thrilling tone. However, it fails to shake off the programmatic nature that plagues the narrative.

Silva's direction falters while striving to shock the audience at every juncture, and the repetitive scenes never compensate the lack of ideas. What could have been a provocative satire ended up feeling excessively simulated, derailed by an uncontrolled impetus that only makes it further rigid and cold. In the end, the uninspired director delivers a poor reality-fiction hybrid that proves challenging for the audience to engage with. Unapologetically unpleasant, the film feels stale, like it has been left to rot in the sun.

The Origin of Evil (2023)

Direction: Sébastien Marnier
Country: France 

The Origin of Evil is a petty comedic thriller with an ostentatious profusion of pretenses. Following Faultless (2016) and School’s Out (2018), writer-director Sébastien Marnier delivers another story centered on class defectors that lures one in at an early stage, keeping the audience on edge with a tight mysterious grasp until everything is suddenly revealed. Afterward, it falls into pure thriller routine with no smarts.

Equipped with a great cast but in need of better editing, the film follows Nathalie (Laure Calamy), a modest young woman who decides to meet her estranged, wealthy father (Jacques Weber) for the first time. Battling illness, this man lives controlled by his wife (Dominique Blanc), a compulsive consumerist; his arrogant daughter (Doria Tillier), who took over his businesses; and a constantly vigilant housekeeper (Véronique Ruggia). Although highly caricatured, not a single character is likable. 

Affected by the imposter syndrome, this is the kind of film where you cannot find a trace of honesty, and you know it beforehand. The director employs a bunch of deceits as narrative propellers, but the film, paralyzed by aloofness, runs out of ideas fairly quickly, leaving us with a general feeling that not everything is quite clicking the way it could have. I found myself struggling to find the laughs while observing avid women battling one another fiercely for dominance and acceptance.