Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: Directed by Radu Jude. With Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Nicodim Ungureanu, Olimpia Malai. Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender to their pressure. As a subtitled film, this fell to the bottom of my watch list, and as a film with no US distribution, finding a copy of it to watch wasn’t a fun endeavor, but if you do get the opportunity, try to give this one a...

Minions: The Rise of Gru: Directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val. With Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Taraji P. Henson. The untold story of one twelve-year-old’s dream to become the world’s greatest supervillain. Have you seen other Minion films? Did you like them? You’ll have the same opinion of this one if you have opinions on the others, as there’s nothing ground breaking here. It’s the same goofy minions doing the same goofy stuff, but this time they’re with a young Gru and they’re trying to take a different McGuffin than the other films, but it’s...

Being Human: Directed by Bill Forsyth. With Robin Williams, Kelly Hunter, Maudie Johnson, Max Johnson. One man must learn the meaning of courage across four lifetimes centuries apart. Four different stories, all told in different ways, all in vastly different time periods, and all of them staring Robin Williams as the main character. It’s an ambitious movie and sticks it’s landing in my humble opinion, it wasn’t received very well by either the public nor critics, with a 54% on RT. There’s never an explicit mention within the film that this is the same “soul” or person that’s living through...

I Think We’re Alone Now: Directed by Reed Morano. With Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Paul Giamatti. The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse — until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship. I’m a fan of both Dinklage and Fanning, so it’s no wonder that I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic story so much. This is the first piece of content that I’ve seen from Reed Morano, but it looks like she’s been doing some pretty well received work on ‘Billions’ and “Handmaiden’s Tale”. The story is one of those “last man on earth”...

The Lost Daughter: Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. With Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris. A woman’s beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past. A slow meandering movie with horror creeping around every scene with no ultimate pay off. There’s something to be said about watching it twice, once to figure out to what kind of movie it is, then watching it knowing where they’re going with the story and which parts of it you can ignore. This is a good film, but it’s a confusing one, and features the...

Hellbound: Directed by Aaron Norris. With Chuck Norris, Calvin Levels, Christopher Neame, Sheree J. Wilson. Two Chicago cops (Chuck Norris, Calvin Levels) investigate a murder until they encounter an ancient demon. There’s a lot to unpack with this relatively unremarkable film. First up is that it’s directed by Aaron Norris, who is Chuck Norris’s younger brother. He’s better known for his stunt work, and while he made a good effort at directing ‘Hellbound’, I think it’s for the best that he seems to have gone back to working on just stunt choreography and setup. Second, it has Chuck Norris as...

Welcome to Me: Directed by Shira Piven. With Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack. When Alice Klieg wins the Mega-Millions lottery, she immediately quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own talk show. For nearly the entire movie I was asking myself, is the studio shooting this show taking advantage of Klieg or is she taking advantage of them? There’s clear signs that both parties are getting something out of the arrangement but I can’t really say who’s more responsible for the bad behavior that ultimately ends up being broadcast on tv. The concept is pretty interesting, her...