GOOD TIME (full article at The Guardian Australia)

With Robert Pattinson’s Batman currently impressing on the big screen, what better reason to look back at the role which The Batman director Matt Reeves credits as the catalyst for his casting. The Safdie brothers’ 2017 film Good Time is a tense, nervy, caffeine jolt of a crime thriller, which sees Pattinson in top form as a small-time crook, trying to save his brother over the course of 24 agonising hours.

Connie Nikas (Pattinson) and his developmentally disabled brother Nick (co-director, Benny Safdie) rob a bank in New York but bungle the getaway. Nick is arrested while Connie manages to flee the scene. In a darkly amusing piece of irony, Connie attempts to bail his brother using the very same robbery proceeds they just stole. It’s not enough to spring Nick, so Connie scrambles to find $10,000 in a single night, as events spiral rapidly out of his control.

Read the full article at The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/06/youll-have-a-bad-time-watching-good-time-but-youll-never-feel-so-alive

IMDB: Good Time

AWAKE (full review at Screen Realm)

Jill (Gina Rodriguez) is widowed ex-soldier and recovering addict. She works in security at a research laboratory and sells expired drugs on the side for extra cash. She is determined to win custody of her two children, Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) and (Lucius Hoyos), who live with their grandmother.

During a routine school-run an unspecified global event take place, cutting the power and, it transpires, preventing the entire world from falling asleep. Without any decent shuteye, it’s not long before everyone descends into hysterical wide-eyed mania and society begins to crumble.

Jill escapes the city with her kids, meeting escaped convict Dodge (Shamier Anderson) en-route and heading for a research station run by her boss, Dr Murphy (Jennifer Jason Leigh). All the while keeping the closely guarded secret that Matilda can still sleep.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://www.screenrealm.com/awake-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: Awake

ANNIHILATION (full review at The Reel Word)

Lena (Natalie Portman) is a biologist and former soldier, who arrives at a research base in Area X following the reappearance of her husband Kane (Oscar Issaac), who had gone missing
on a classified military operation. As Kane slips into a coma, Lena agrees to join a team of other scientists on a journey into The Shimmer, an unknown area of alien origin which is rapidly expanding to cover everything surrounding it.
The team’s mission is to reach the centre of the anomaly to collect whatever data they can, and Lena is joined by Dr Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya (Gina Rodriguez), Cass (Tuva Novotny) and Josie (Tessa Thompson). As they travel further into The Shimmer they experience the strange effects of the alien zone, from memory loss to technology failure to the wild mutations of the plants and animals.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/annihilation-movie-review/

IMDB: Annihilation

THE HATEFUL EIGHT (full review at The Reel Word)

Set not long after the end of the American Civil War, The Hateful Eight follows bounty hunter John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth (Kurt Russell) as he transports his profitable quarry, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to the town of Red Rock where she is due to be hanged. Along the way, they meet fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson) and prospective sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), when they are Waylaid by an unforeseen blizzard. The quartet, plus their stagecoach driver O.B., seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery knowing that the inclement weather will force them to hole up for a few days. As the storm closes in, paranoia and suspicion prevail, and the bounty hunters and their fellow guests begin to understand that perhaps all is not as it seems.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
http://www.thereelword.net/the-hateful-eight-review

IMDB: The Hateful Eight