MANDY (full review at Screen Realm)

In 2010 first-time director Panos Cosmatos created a surreal and grotesquely beautiful science fiction movie by the name of Beyond the Black Rainbow. Cosmatos crafted a movie with a superficially retro appearance, which, upon inspection, contained a depth of startling visual originality...

And while Beyond The Black Rainbow was certainly not for everyone, it found appeal among those who like to look in the dark corners and around the smudged edges of cinema for something a bit different. Even if you don’t agree that Black Rainbow succeeds in its mission, you can’t name another movie like it… until now.

...Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live an idyllic life together in their home in California’s Shadow Mountains, until one day they cross paths with a religious cult led by Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). Jeremiah decides he must possess Mandy and enlists the help of a monstrous trio of L.S.D.-bent bikers to take her by force.

...Mandy is dark and weird and unhinged, and very, very good.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/mandy-movie-review-nicolas-cage/

IMDB: Mandy

THE MEG (full review at Screen Realm)

After years in Development Hell, The Meg, based on the book by Steve Alten, arrives on our screens with the irresistibly high-concept formula of Jason Statham + Giant Shark. It has thus ramped up enthusiasm to giddy heights for those of us who consider ourselves connoisseurs of both the large-creature-runs-amok oeuvre, and the filmography of Mr Statham.

The plot involves an offshore, hi-tec science lab, dedicated to exploring the depths of the ocean. More specifically a team of scientists lead by Zhang (Winston Chao) and financed by Morris (Rainn Wilson) set out to prove the floor of the famed Marianas Trench is merely a deep sea cloud protecting a realm of undiscovered sea life. It begins as a forgotten world yarn in the grand tradition of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs. Think 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To the Center Of The Earth, The Land That Time Forgot. But in a similar plot development to Alexandre Aja’s feral Piranha remake, the scientists accidentally loose a gigantic prehistoric shark, or Megalodon, upon the modern world and it’s up to burly, expert rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) to stop it.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-meg-movie-review-jason-statham/

IMDB: The Meg

LET THE CORPSES TAN (LAISSEZ BRONZER LES CADAVRES) (full review at Screen Realm)

French writing/directing team Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani follow up their acclaimed neo-gialli Amer and The Strange Color Of Your Body’s Tears with their third feature, Let The Corpses Tan (Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres). Corpses… is a stylish and bloody crime noir that also takes influence from Italian cinema - this time in form of spaghetti western and classic Italian ‘poliziottesco’ crime films.

A criminal gang, led by Rhino (Stéphane Ferrara), uses local artist Luce’s (Elina Löwensohn) remote studio residence as cover to undertake an early morning gold heist on a coastal road outside an unnamed town. Returning to their hilltop hideaway, with a couple of hitchikers in tow, the gang plans to lie low until the furore around the robbery has died down. Unfortunately, two local motorcycle cops call in on a routine check and the situation quickly devolves, resulting a bloody stand off as both cops and criminals find themselves under siege.


Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/let-the-corpses-tan-movie-review/

IMDB: Let The Corpses Tan