Heartless (2009)
Dec 13, 2010Pacts with a Possible Devil Figure
Fascinating British film about pacts with an ambiguous Devil figure. The film largely exists to push protagonist Jim Sturgess into as many morally uncomfortable places as possible
Jim Sturgess
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)
Sep 21, 2010Animation/Talking Owls
Zack Snyder makes an exquisite animated film for adults about talking owls that comes with a sweeping mythic arc
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Oct 24, 2012Cross-Historical Epic
A cross-historical epic from The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. An uneven film driven more by its determination we view it as an epic. Surely a studio publicist's nightmare, it grasps at the meaning of it all yet eludes telling audiences what it is about
Upside Down (2012)
Jul 28, 2013Two Worlds with Gravity in Opposing Directions
The frustration of a film that has a scientifically nonsensical premise - two planets where gravity is oriented in opposing directions - that is also surprisingly imaginatively made. This creates some genuinely amazing visuals and designs of the two worlds and showing the people on them interacting
Eliza Graves (2014)
Nov 22, 2015Victorian Asylum Taken Over by the Inmates
Brad Anderson adapts an Edgar Allan Poe story about an asylum where the inmates are posing as the staff. This is lush period piece with an amazing cast line-up – the only surprise is that it did no box-office
Geostorm (2017)
Dec 3, 2017Weather Control/Disaster Movie
Directorial debut of Roland Emmerich's regular screenwriter Dean Devlin who has clearly been given orders to make another Emmerich film. Thus we get all the same effects-driven mass destruction spectacle, absurd science and pro-environmental messages
London Fields (2018)
Jul 6, 2020Near Future/Femme Fatale/Precognitive Dream
Based on an acclaimed book that was at one point to be directed by David Cronenberg, this opened to a torrent of bad reviews but is not uninteresting. A near future setting, precignitive dreams and Amber Heard as a jaw-dropping femme fatale.
Apartment 7A (2024)
Oct 5, 2024Rosemary’s Baby Prequel
Did we need a prequel to the events of Rosemary’s Baby? The original one of the defining classics of the horror genre. Under producer Michael Bay Apartment 7A is just more IP churn