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IR Film Review: ON THE ROCKS [A24/AppleTV+]
"On The Rocks" is a tale of perspective but also misdirects. It is pretty much a two-hander between Rashida Jones as a daughter whose husband may or may not be straying and her father, a relentless charmer who sometimes is misled in the form of Bill Murray.
IR Film Review: AN AMERICAN PICKLE [HBO Max]
Rogen understands how to share the screen and be generous, even when he is playing against himself.The premise of "An American Pickle" reflects this literally. Ben's great grandfather returns to modern day Brooklyn because of a pickle mishap. If you actually think of it, the set up is very heartbreaking yet disturbingly and wonderfully nonsensical.
IR Film Review: THE POOL [Shudder]
The simplicity of a film is sometimes a hard aspect to accomplish. While some of the circumstances in "The Pool" are a bit exaggerated, its end result is not.
IR Film Review: LAKE OF DEATH [Shudder]
"Lake Of Death" reflects these ideas in a persistent veil of childhood trauma which is not necessarily balanced within the story. As with some horror movies, it uses the concept of a location, usually far removed from the normal vein of living to act as a surrogate vision for these troubling issues that bubble to the surface and explode in a vein of action.
IR Film Review: GREYHOUND [AppleTV+]
With "Greyhound" which details a crossing of the Atlantic corridor during World War II, Hanks plays the captain of a ship (called "Greyhound") whose job it is to oversee and in a way cut off attacks on the ships (including the supply chain) by elusive U-Boats.
IR Film Review: METAMORPHOSIS [Shudder]
The texture of Korean horror is pushing elements beyond their breaking point in being both uncomfortable but mythic and cautionary in a certain way. "Metamorphosis" is a play on that idiom but it leans a lot on the basis of "The Exorcist".
IR Film Review: YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT [Universal]
"You Should Have Left" is an apt film but it is neither exceptional nor bad. It is effectively entertaining and a film that definitely has re-watch value, not because there are new aspects to discover but because the mechanics are smooth.
IR Film Review: ARTEMIS FOWL [Disney+]
"Artemis Fowl" doesn't quite know its audience and its audience doesn't quite line up here either. It plays too young while not playing older much like a more expensive version (sorry) of "Agent Cody Banks" with mythology thrown in.
IR Film Review: WARNING - DO NOT PLAY [Shudder]
Granted this inlay within "Warning: Do Not Play" has a bit of "The Ring" to it. Instead of a TV screen it is an old movie theater where a film was once shot and by extension a play. And there is a film that doesn't want to be found that was pulled from a film festival that the protagonist is searching for.