Veron The Reviewer

Fall is a survival thriller film, stripped down to all the essentials, with two young women and a tall tower. That's it. The young women in question are Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner). The tower is a 2000-feet-high broadcast tower out in the desert. One year after the death of Becky's husband in a climbing accident, Becky is jolted out of her alcoholism and grief by Hunter, who suggest that they climb to the top of a tall broadcast tower and spread Dan's ashes there. The rickety tower doesn't inspire much confidence in Becky, but she climbs nonetheless. As the two climb, we are treated to shots of bolts slowly coming loose from the ladder, but the women make it to the top without incident. They take some photos and begin to climb back down when the ladder falls apart. The film is very effective in causing anxiety for viewers, with constant shots of the height of the tower reminding the audience that the two women are at the top of a very tal...

Nocturnal Animals is a psychological drama/thriller directed by Tom Ford and starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film follows two narratives told side-by-side. The first concerns art gallery owner Susan (Amy Adams) as she deals with her failing marriage and her lingering regret over how things ended with Edward, her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal). She receives a letter from Edward, asking her to read the attached manuscript, an early copy of his upcoming novel Nocturnal Animals. Thus unfolds the second narrative, that of the book-within-the-film, which starts off with Tony (also Jake Gyllenhaal) driving down a long and winding road with his family when they are accosted by a gang of three local criminals, who ultimately drive off with Tony's wife and daughter, leaving him on the side of the road, starting a nightmarish journey for Tony as he tries to catch up to the criminals. The brutally bleak narrative of the book serves as a painful allegory for Edward's anger at Susa...

Crimson Peak is a an old fashioned ghost story, but it's also an old-fashioned love story, done in the style of the grand and dreamlike gothic horror and gothic romance films of yesteryear. Much in the tradition of Guillermo Del Toro's films featuring the vestiges of people from the afterlife, the ghosts are actually not the main attraction, so to speak, in this film. The centerpiece of the story is the romance between wealthy heiress Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) and aristocrat Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), with the ghosts often existing more in the background, and the mystery behind Thomas and his sister Lucille's (Jessica Chastain) intentions is more of a direct concern to Edith than any ghost. I liked the film for its gloomy gothic atmosphere, the set design (the mansion where most of the film takes place is very dilapidated, fitting for the mysterious tone and the mood of the film), and the performances, especially from Wasikowska, are excellent, even though the cha...

Mass is a drama film directed by Fran Kranz. It is a minimalist film, with four main characters, three supporting characters, and all of the film being set in a single location. The main four characters are two pairs of parents who are both grieving and still reeling from a tragedy that happened years ago involving their sons. As the discussion unfolds, sometimes civil, sometimes less so, and the underlying tensions between the pairs bubble up to the surface, we get to watch a stunning portrayal of grief brought to life by the four leads. The performances from Jason Issacs and Ann Dowd are especially moving. The film is excellent and riveting, and while details are slow to come to the forefront, there was not one second where I was not fully engaged and in-tune with the grief and loss that the four central characters were feeling. I don't have much to say on this one other than the fact that it is a moving story about grief, expertly crafted and performed, and that everyone should ...

The Sisters Brothers is a Western film starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix as the eponymous Sisters Brothers, feared assassins who work for the wealthy Commodore. The two are tasked with hunting down a gold prospector, Hermann Warm (Riz Ahmed), and a detective, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). I loved how the film forces the viewer to question the assumptions of the genre, and reframes the typical conventions of the Western by depicting its conflict as one where the supposed heroes are clearly ruthless murderers, and the employer they work for is gradually shown to have ulterior motives initially unknown to the brothers. I also really love the contrast between the more kindhearted and caring Eli (Reilly) and the brutish and greedy thug that is Charlie.  For much of the film, while Eli and especially Charlie are clearly in the wrong in their ceaseless pursuit, there isn't really a traditional villain, as all four central characters have their own sympathetic moments and even t...

You Were Never Really Here is a 2017 psychological thriller film directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a man with a traumatic past who specializes in rescuing kidnapped girls and has persistent suicidal thoughts. When he is tasked with rescuing the young daughter of a politician, he is forced to confront his demons and find redemption. What I liked about the movie: Joaquin Phoenix's acting in this film is phenomenal. He's able to say so much only a few words, a shift in posture, a slight change in his facial expressions. The film is quite sparse in terms of dialogue, preferring to use brief, simple flashes of imagery for exposition. I also admire Ramsay's restraint in explaining the plot to the audience, as it allowed me to engage with the story and what Joe might thinking about at any given moment. The plot itself is simple, but the decision to avoid focusing on action scenes in favor of a deep exploration of Joe's psyche is what makes the film ...