Monthly Archives: June 2025

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Promised Land

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40 Acres

by Hope Madden

At one time, a lot of people were promised 40 acres and a mule. It was a lie. But Hailey Freeman’s ancestor had freed himself, left his family behind, and walked to Canada to make his own promises. Generations later, Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler, a force of nature) will be damned if the apocalypse, wandering cannibals, or a teenage boy’s hormonal behavior is going to jeopardize that farm.

Co-writer/director R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic horror/thriller feature debut 40 Acres benefits early and often from inspired framing, gorgeous shot making, and one remarkable performance. Indeed, Deadwyler is so good that sometimes the cast around her can’t keep up.

She’s the matriarch of the Freeman farm and she’s a hard woman. She has to be, but the land is providing for the family, and the family is protecting it from those outside the electric fence and barbed wire who might want to come inside.

The bigger problem might be Hailey’s oldest, Manny (Kataem O’Connor), whose restlessness and desires put the family at risk.

Thorne uses flashbacks sparingly, which gives them some weight. Wisely, these serve less to explain the apocalypse than to hint at relationships and character, because, naturally, the real story here is not the flesh eaters moving from farm to farm, but the strains of coming of age within this pressure cooker.

Many films—horror movies, in particular—rely on terrible decision making to move the plot forward. 40 Acres weakens as it moves from Act 2 to Act 3 with wildly bad character choices. But something has to trip this family up so Thorne can show off remarkable instincts for action cinematography, as well as his lead’s range.

Yes, we know Danielle Deadwyler—snubbed by Oscar for her searing performances in The Piano Lesson (2024) and Till (2022)—is a magnificent actor. One of the best working today. But you might not realize (unless you’ve seen her fantastic 2019 thriller Devi to Pay) that she’s also quite at home in genre films. The degree to which she brings authenticity to her role as an Army veteran annihilating redneck cannibals with machetes is breathtaking.

Michael Greyeyes (Wild Indian, Blood Quantum) delivers needed warmth and humor, and he and Deadwyler share a touching chemistry. A full slate of nasty marauders impresses, especially veteran genre actor Patrick Garrow.

The writing periodically drags 40 Acres backwards, particularly the budding romance and related choices. But for thrills-aplenty action with something on its mind, you could do worse than this.

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Doll Parts

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M3GAN 2.0

by Hope Madden

Sometimes a fun horror movie needs to become a fun action movie if you really hope to have a franchise. At least, a PG13 franchise. That’s clearly Gerard Johnstone’s thinking with M3GAN 2.0

Co-writing this time with M3GAN scribes Akela Cooper and James Wan, Johnstone imagines a future where the tech that fueled a bloodthirsty doll has been stolen and put to use as a weapon called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno).

Amelia sets her murderous sights on the architect of her AI, Gemma (Allison Williams)—which, in turn, puts young Cady (Violet McGraw) in peril. Guess it’s time to dust off last year’s model.

So, in the same way that the old T-800 helped John and Sarah Connor save the world from Terminator 2, M3GAN (Jenna Davis voice, Amie Donald body) has to help humanity survive Amelia.

Johnstone and team do abandon the horror in favor of action, but the comic tone remains, thankfully. Even before we’re graced with M3GAN’s gallows wit, Johnstone’s fellow Kiwi and comedic treasure Jemaine Clement joins the cast as a billionaire philanthro-capitalist and easy mark.

Clement is a hoot, and soon enough, the dark wit that made M3GAN so much fun is back, and secured safely in the body of a child’s toy. But if they really are going to do battle with hew new model, upgrades will be needed.

Plenty of self-aware dialog inches the film more clearly toward comedy than the original, which wore its own dark humor with a little more nuance. 2.0 is definitely going for laughs alongside its thrills, helping to elevate scenes burdened with exposition.

The plot gets convoluted and silly, the message about AI holds no water at all, and Amelia’s true purpose is always beside the point, never driving the narrative. And abandoning horror entirely is a bit of a disappointment.

Still, M3GAN 2.0 delivers some summer fun.

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Formula Won

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F1: The Movie

by George Wolf

With Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski understood the assignment better than any director in recent years. Talent, swagger, airborne thrills and pinpoint vibe control made that film better than we could have imagined.

Now Kosinski brings a very similar blueprint to F1: The Movie, right down to that punctuation in the title.

Brad Pitt effortlessly assumes the role of a rogue mentor flying by his own rules, this time on the racetrack. Thirty years ago, Sonny Hayes (Pitt) had a promising career as a Grand Prix driver. A nasty crash derailed that, sending him to decades of minor league racing, professional gambling and even some cab driving.

But now, Sonny is the Hail Mary called by his old racing partner. Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) is a desperate team owner with a cocky young driver named Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and a losing streak about to bring the whole thing down.

If Sonny’s “maverick” approach to driving can somehow get Ruben one win before the season ends, he can save the whole APX team.

Can Sonny be the Crash Davis to Joshua’s Nuke LaLoosh? Is he up for taking one more shot at glory and maybe some sexy time with APX tech director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon)?

It doesn’t matter if you already know, just like it doesn’t matter that much of the dialog is cheesy, many reaction shots deliver sitcom-worthy mugging and the TV commentators narrate straight from “Racing for Dummies.”

Pitt, Bardem, Condon and Idris might as well be winking through it all. They’re clearly having a ball, and elevate material that – like Maverick -would have been insufferable in lesser hands. F1 may not have nostalgia in its cockpit, but the swagger and the vibe are too fun to resist, while Kosinski (also a co-writer this time) delivers the pinpoint control.

Filmed for IMAX, F1‘s racing sequences are as thrilling on the track as Top Gun is in the air. The camerawork and pacing, the editing and some rockin’ needle drops keep the adrenaline pumping, and even that two and a half hour run time doesn’t feel as bloated as it probably should.

F1: The Movie won’t keep you guessing. And it won’t challenge your brain. But that isn’t the mission of this race team. The goal here is (really) big screen entertainment, movie star glamour, plenty of speed-fueled visceral thrills and maybe even a fist pump or two.

Ground control to victory lane: get the champagne ready.

Outtakes

Wellness Center

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Pins & Needles

by Hope Madden

I love Max’s unapologetic nature. Writer/director James Villeneuve’s spare feature Pins & Needles shares an adventure with a biology major and insulin-dependent diabetic who has no Fs to give. The result is a nice change of pace from “likable female leads.”

Max (Chelsea Clark) is leaving her biology field trip early, mainly because she’s not about to ride several hours back to campus with her “don’t be mad” lab partner, John. Because she is mad. And she’s not thrilled with Harold (Daniel Gravelle), even though he’s volunteered to give her a lift. She’s especially irritated when he picks up a buddy along the way, chooses an off-the-map route to avoid drug sniffing police, and gets a flat.

What Pins & Needles does in Act 1 is slightly revise the traditional road trip horror story in that it gives us a lead who doesn’t care if anyone—audience included—likes her. Everything else, from the medical frailty to the isolated home to the suspiciously friendly homeowners, is straight out of the genre playbook, though.

For the film to proceed, you need a reason that Max doesn’t just bolt while she can. Well, it’s that pesky insulin, an obstacle that certainly feels convenient and telegraphed, but honest enough.

What matters is that Clark and the homeowners, Emily (Kate Corbett) and Frank (Ryan McDonald) keep it interesting and sometimes wickedly funny back at the house.

Villeneuve’s medical horror contrasts the genuine needs of ordinary people (Max’s insulin) with the diabolical excess of obscene wealth (what’s going on in that basement). The commentary might feel heavy handed were it not for the sharp comic instincts of both Corbett and McDonald. The film itself is by no means a comedy, but the absurdity the actors bring to this glibly privileged pair of villains gives Pins & Needles a bright tension rather than the grimy feel a movie this gory might carry.  

The plots needed some complications. This feels like a short film padded to feature length, and a couple of the lengthening pieces (particularly a dream sequence) don’t fit well. A solid b-story would have added needed depth, but there are some tense and satisfying moments to be had.

Outtakes

At the Mountains of Madness

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The Sound

by Adam Barney

“Hey, what’s that?” is a phrase that has driven the majority of human exploration, from the first cave person to see a hill to your dad hearing a noise outside at night. This phrase also drives the plot in The Sound, as climbers ascend a forbidden mountain to check out what’s on top.

The CIA is aware of a mysterious signal emanating from the top of a mountain range in indigenous territory. A failed climbing expedition in the 1950s has brought them no closer to the truth, as none of the climbers returned. Now, six decades later, the tribal authority has agreed to let another team of climbers attempt the ascent. The mountain is sacred so they can’t drill or otherwise deface the surface, so the climb will also be technically difficult.

It is clear that writer/director Brendan Devane is an avid climber. There’s an attention paid to the specific details of the climbing depicted in the movie that you don’t see in other mountain climbing films. Characters carefully latch themselves into crevices, pitch their mountain-side tents, and otherwise skillfully scale a sheer granite cliff. No one is going to make an epic leap with an ice axe in each hand.

Cinematographer Ryan Galvan also does a tremendous job of capturing some breathtaking shots of the climbers as they ascend. They likely used professional climbers for the long shots and their cast for the close-ups, but it all blends together convincingly.

Outside of the climbing elements, the movie suffers from a generic sci-fi plot and dull characters. You won’t find yourself caring about any of them as they meet their various ends as they get closer to the mysterious object. There’s a fight scene that has some Power Rangers-esque choreography, including magically teleporting characters, that is truly groanworthy.

Some notable faces like William Fichtner (Blackhawk Down, The Dark Knight), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), and Alex Honnold (Free Solo) show up for brief cameos, but they don’t really boost the movie, other than having their names attached. There’s a clear strength when The Sound is focused on the actual climbing, but it falls flat once it tries to mash in its sci-fi elements.

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Original Gangster

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The G

by Hope Madden

Get to know Dale Dickey. There is nobody else like her in film or TV, and what she brings to a role is grit and authenticity that can be heartbreaking or frightening. In the case of filmmaker Karl R. Hearne’s The G, it’s a bit of both.

Dickey plays Ann, known to her step-granddaughter Emma (Romane Denis, Slaxx) as The G. She smokes a lot, drinks vodka by the bottle, and has a tough time returning her invalid husband’s affection. Until a sketchy doctor tells a scheming judge the couple can’t care for themselves, and before either can change out of their PJs, their new custodian has them locked in a cheerless room with no access to the outside world.

It’s like I Care a Lot, J Blakeson’s 2020 thriller about the organized, legal business of preying on the elderly. Except The G takes place in a depressed small town where the stakes are lower and the lives considerably less glamorous. But the fantasy is still the same.

Because The G has connections and skills her new facility leadership doesn’t expect.

Dickey is, characteristically, understated, gravely perfection as the wrong granny to cross, but Hearne is not in this for comedy. This is no Thelma. The G mines a horrifying reality of disposable people for indie thrills without abandoning the tragedy at the film’s center.

A plucky Denis and the balance of the supporting cast populates this bleak town with low-rent hoods, smalltown gangsters, sleazy opportunists, and cowards. Hearne complicates the slow boiler without losing the threads or the sense of realism.

There are one or two lapses in logic, but at least as many welcome surprises. The G boasts a tight script and a director who knows how to showcase a lead. And Dickey takes advantage, from the drunken joy of Ann’s face bathed in the artificial light of a bulb she managed to change, to her pitiless growl, “He might last a day out here. Maybe less.”

Dickey’s a treasure, and one filmmakers are finally, truly recognizing. Her finest moment might have been Max Walker-Silverman’s lyrical A Love Song, but Dale Dickey delivers no matter the role.

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Boldly Gone

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Elio

by Hope Madden

Few films, animated or otherwise, breathe the rarified air of Pixar’s best. The animation giant has turned out an alarming number of outright masterpieces: Toy Story, WALL-E, Up!, Toy Story 3, Inside Out. Their second tier is better than nearly every other animated film you’ll come across. The originality, humanity, and visual magic on display in these films is so superior to anything else out there, it becomes an almost impossible standard to bear.

Pixar’s latest effort, Elio, tells the sweet story of a lonesome orphan who wants desperately to believe that “we are not alone.” Elio inadvertently casts himself as leader of earth and invites aliens to abduct him. They accept.

Elio’s writing team includes Julia Cho, who penned the charming Turning Red, and Mike Jones, whose Soul rightfully took 2021’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The directing team includes Turning Red’s Domee Shi and Coco’s Adrian Molina. That’s a solid team, one fully aware of the wondrous possibilities of animation and family friendly storytelling.

And they do tell a lovely story. As Elio (Yonas Kibreab) finally finds a friend in galactic warlord Grigon’s (Brad Garrett) son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), he also realizes that he might have liked his Auntie (Zoe Saldaña) more than he thought.

Once Elio is space bound, the film brightens. The inhabitants of the Communiverse are delightfully oddball. There’s brightly colored fun to be had. But Act I doesn’t dig deep enough into Elio’s relationship with his auntie to give the film real stakes, so the emotional center that creates the Pixar gravitational pull is never as strong as it is in their best efforts.

The story beats also lack the freshness of the best Pixar has to offer. Still, a first-contact film that retails a childlike wonder about what lies beyond the stars without resenting what waits at home is a rare thing.

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Still Crazy After All These Years

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28 Years Later

by Hope Madden

Nearly a quarter century ago (!!), director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland unleashed the genre masterpiece 28 Days Later. Smart, prescient, with a broken human heart and 113 minutes of sheer terror, it changed the “zombie” genre forever with living, breathing, running, rampaging humans infected by a rage virus.

Original as it was, there was still a little Romero in there. You might not have seen it with the racing beasts, but Boyle and Garland understood what Romero knew all along—it’s organized human authority you need to really worry about.

Boyle’s film was followed in 2003 with a fine, if mean spirited, sequel, but the Oscar winning director returns for 28 Years Later. So does Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, Civil War), who’s gone on to be one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time.

They pick up the story 28 years after the rage virus hits London. Onscreen text tells us that continental Europe was able to turn back the virus and keep it from spreading globally, but the islands that were once the UK are, and will forevermore be, quarantined. No one leaves. Not ever.

We’re dropped into a small Scottish highland community where 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) is about to go on his first mainland hunt with his father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). They’ll cross a bridge only passable during low tide, which means 4 hours to get back or it’s an overnighter on the big island full of the infected—which includes some mutations we didn’t worry about 28 years back—and the uninfected, who can be worse.

Wisely, Garland and Boyle anchor the film with family drama. Plucky Williams makes for a great hero, his arc from innocent to survivor both heartbreaking and impressive. A supporting cast including Jodie Comer and the great Ralph Feinnes enhances that tender drama. But what’s missing are the scares.

As Romero’s zombie films developed, so did his monsters. By Land of the Dead, they had their own leaders, their own families, their own kind of consciousness. The zombies were evolving around and without us. It was interesting, but it wasn’t scary. Likewise, 28 Years Later conjures beasts that have evolved into their own kind of society, and while it’s clever, it lacks the visceral terror of both previous installments. There’s also a lot of dubious science afoot.

The film’s opening and closing segments promise something meaner and more mischievous in upcoming sequels. (There are three films in this second part of the series, and the next installment—28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta—is in post-production now.)

Maybe the bar set by the original is simply too high for any sequel to meet. 28 Days Later remains one of the scariest films ever made. Circling back to see how humanity’s getting along a generation later is interesting, sometimes gorgeous, awfully bloody, and frequently very sweet. It’s just not very scary.

Outtakes

Pumpkin Spice Horror

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Eye for an Eye

by Hope Madden

Way back in 1988, legendary practical FX and make up genius Stan Winston directed his first feature film, Pumpkinhead. In it, a grieving father (Lance Henriksen) awakens an unstoppable evil to avenge his terrible tragedy.

The film remains effective because it is so genuinely heartbreaking. Winston, who also co-wrote, understands the unreasonable, destructive nature of grief, and that is what every frame in the film depicts.

Fast forward nearly 40 years, and veteran music video director Colin Tilley shapes Elisa Victoria and Michael Tully’s similarly themed script Eye for an Eye into something like Pumpkinhead lite.

Still reeling from the car wreck that took her parents, Anna (Whitney Peak, Gossip Girl) moves in with Grandma May (S. Epatha Merkerson, Chicago Med) in the Florida bayou. Grandma’s blind, but behind those big, dark glasses is evidence of something cursed, something supernatural. And now that Anna has gotten mixed up with a couple of locals who bullied the wrong kid, she might be cursed as well.

What works: some really believable performances almost salvage the film. Reeves has an understated, shell-shocked approach that slows down reactions, giving proceedings a dreamy quality while ensuring audiences keep up with plot twists.

Both Laken Giles and Finn Bennett veer outside of cliché as the nogoodnik townies Anna takes up with. And veteran Merkerson elevates the villain-in-waiting grandmother character with endearing bursts of humor.

Everything that works in the film delivers a YA drama. Three lost teens, one finding her way, the other two already poisoned by circumstances, face the music after an ugly incident.

But Eye for an Eye is a horror movie. And besides Grandma May’s empty stare, nothing genre related works. The confused Freddy Krueger-esque mythology feels Scotch-taped onto an indie drama.

Nightmare sequences are weak, backstory feels convenient and of another film entirely. The production values impress, giving creepy bayou vibes that emphasize the horror. But conjuring both Pumpkinhead and A Nightmare on Elm St. sets a very high bar for an indie horror flick, and Eye for an Eye can’t deliver on that promise.