Veron The Reviewer

To Leslie is a 2022 drama film starring Andrea Riseborough as Leslie, a woman who won the lottery six years ago only to waste it all on drugs and alcohol. When the film opens, she is kicked out of the motel she has been staying in. Left without money and a place to stay, Leslie only has her son James to turn to. James allows her to stay with him, but makes it clear to her that she can stay only as long as it takes for her to come up with a plan, and that drinking is not allowed. Unfortunately, things quickly spiral out of control, and Leslie finds herself falling deeper and deeper into alcoholism... The film is very character-driven, with much of the film centering on Leslie and her downward spiral and constant struggles against alcoholism. Andrea Riseborough's performance as Leslie is raw and powerful, a very natural performance that depicts an authentic downward spiral, a real portrait of how alcoholism can ruin the life of the alcoholic and those around them, as well as how cath...

Till is a 2022 film about the real-life events surrounding the death of Emmett Till and its fallout, particularly its effect on his mother Mamie Till and how she was driven to pursue justice in the aftermath. This is not an easy film to watch, and will undoubtedly hit especially hard for anyone who has had to deal with racism and discrimination first-hand.  The movie starts off slow, with an introduction to Emmett and Mamie and their relationship, setting the stage for Emmett's upcoming trip to Mississippi and the tragedy that follows. For context, Emmett Till was the target of lynching, an unlawful killing, by Mississippi locals, and the film centers on Mamie Till as she comes to terms with her son's brutal murder and its aftermath, trying to raise awareness of just how horrific and widespread racism can get, in order to prevent what happened to her son from happening again. Whether you already know the story of Emmett Till or are learning about it for the first time, the film...

CODA is a comedy-drama film directed by Sian Heder and starring Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, Daniel Durant, and Eugenio Derbez. Jones stars as Ruby, a child of deaf adults, or coda, who is the only hearing member of her family. She soon finds herself torn between her commitments to her family's struggling business and her own dreams of being a singer. The premise is simple enough, but what makes it really work is the sheer emotional impact. Sure, all the plot beats are almost entirely predictable, but all the lead actors give utterly committed performances that draw you into the world of the film and keep you invested in all the drama that unfolds throughout the film.  All the characters feel very realistically portrayed, with very human flaws and sympathetic moments. The struggles Ruby has to deal with are rooted in understandable concerns and fears centered around Ruby growing up and developing her own dreams in the face of her family relying greatly on her as the on...

Shadow (2018) is a wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring real-life couple Deng Chao and Sun Li.  Deng plays Commander Ziyu, a respected military leader in the kingdom of Pei. Pei lost the city of Jingzhou to the kingdom of Yang, led by the fearsome warrior Yang Cang, who also defeated Ziyu in battle. Ziyu now wants a rematch, against the wishes of the King of Pei, so he can restore his wounded pride and retake Jingzhou, with the King being seen as a coward who makes concessions and only wishes to avoid war at all costs. However, it is soon revealed that Ziyu is in fact still recovering from his fight with Yang Cang, and the Ziyu seen at court is in fact his "shadow", a man named Jingzhou (also played by Deng), who looks exactly like the real Ziyu did before his injuries took a toll on him. Jingzhou is a native of the city of Jingzhou and is tasked with finding a way to defeat Yang Cang so as to retake Jingzhou for Pei on the real Ziyu's behalf. Meanwhile, not every...

12 Hour Shift  is a comedy-horror/thriller directed by Brea Grant and starring Angela Bettis as drug-addicted nurse Mandy, who is prone to stealing medication from her patients to get high... and also has a side gig of being a murderer who kills some of her patients to steal their organs and sell them to a trafficker. However, when a bag of organs go missing and the problems at the hospital begin to pile up, Mandy and Regina are both forced to go to extreme, bloody, and plain hilarious lengths to save their necks amid the chaos at the hospital. The film is uproariously funny despite the blood and the brutality on display, with all manner of unexpected twists all based on the fact that Mandy and Regina are generally unscrupulous and willing to resort to very illegal and unethical means to obtain a kidney for the trafficker, with Regina also being quite  ditzy, and causing all kinds of mayhem as she desperately tries to get a kidney from a patient without being noticed, with the...

War Drama double-feature!!! "Beasts of No Nation": 2015 war drama film directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Abraham Attah and Idris Elba. Set in an unnamed African country, a young boy named Agu, played by Attah, is separated from his family and conscripted into a battalion of rebels that are part of the Native Defense Forces (NDF). The battalion is led by the charismatic Commandant, played by an absolutely menacing Idris Elba. Attah plays Agu with a wide-eyed innocence that swiftly gives way to both terror during his horrific initiation into the NDF, as well as a gradual descent into brutality and blind obedience driven by his experiences as a child soldier under the Commandant, who is not only adept at swaying and manipulating the young troops under his command, but gradually shows himself to be a ruthless and ambitious commander who actually only cares about himself. The horrors of war and the life of a child soldier is on full display here, and even as Agu kills, h...

Smile  is a 2022 horror film directed by Parker Finn and starring Sosie Bacon. The film is an expansion of  Laura Hasn't Slept , a short film directed by Finn. Bacon stars as Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who meets with Laura (whose actress Caitlin Stasey also starred as the protagonist of Laura Hasn't Slept ), a patient who insists that an invisible presence is stalking her, appearing in various hallucinations where people smile eerily at her. Laura then begins screaming and ultimately commits suicide in front of Rose. Rose soon finds herself being subjected by frightening experiences and begins to suspect that she has now been targeted by the same presence that Laura was apparently tormented by. Smile is a film that melds together two general trends in horror: jump scares, and the exploration of trauma through the lens of horror. The jump scares are abundant and most of them are very effective in scaring the audience, and even though it can feel like the scares pile on on...