HEREDITARY (Directed by Ari Aster, 127 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Hereditary is the feature length directorial debut from Ari Aster who made a name for himself with a disturbing viral short about a family harboring a dark secret called The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011). It is also arguably the best horror in the last five years. Hereditary premiered at Sundance in January, and quickly became the film to see this year for horror fans when the buzz surround it hit a fever pitch with some calling it the scariest horror movie in years. […]

  Upgrade is a high concept, low budget techno thriller written and directed by Australian filmmaker Leigh Whannell, who is probably best known for his writing credits on the Saw and Insidious franchises. After making his directorial debut with the solid supernatural sequel Insidious: Chapter 3, Whannel is now tackling an original script that vibes like a William Gibson-penned ‘80s action film. The film stars Logan Marshall-Green, doing his best Tom Hardy impersonation as noted technophone Grey Trace who, during the course of a violent robbery that takes the life of his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo), is rendered a quadriplegic. […]

DEADPOOL 2 (Directed by David Leitch, 119 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Ryan Reynolds returns as everyone’s favorite Merc with a mouth in Deadpool 2, one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the summer. The first installment of turned the superhero genre on its head with its hard-R, low budget take on the fan favorite character that was known for not only his miraculous regenerative abilities, but his penchant for breaking the fourth wall, providing a bizarre meta-commentary on the comic book world. With original director Tim Miller walking away from the sequel due to “creative differences,” […]

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (Dir. by Anthony & Joe Russo, 149 min., USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC More than a decade in the making, Avengers: Infinity War is Marvel Studios most ambitious story to date, bringing together the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to take on its greatest threat, the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), in an apocalyptic fight to the finish. First glimpsed in the post-credit stinger at the end of the first Avengers film and remaining just outside the periphery of our heroes over the course of Phase 2 and Phase 3, the coming of Thanos promises […]

AARDVARK (Directed by Brian Shoaf, 89 minutes, 2018, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Aardvark is the feature length debut of writer/director Brian Shoaf, and features an  intriguing ensemble cast starring Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate, Jon Hamm and Sheila Vand. Ostensibly, Aardvark is a “thriller” that tackles one man’s struggle with mental illness and the ghosts that haunt him. Aardvark splits its narrative between Josh (Quinto), a troubled young schizophrenic trying to get his life on the right track, and Emily (Jenny Slate), his licensed clinical social worker. As the film begins Josh has a new job, is back on […]

READY PLAYER ONE (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 140 minutes, 2018, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Ready Player One is director Steven Spielberg’s cinematic adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 best selling novel of the same name. Considering the book itself was a love letter to a decade in which Spielberg reigned supreme, it is something of a meta move for Spielberg to helm the film adaption. Curiously, Spielberg chose to tone down the book’s dozens of references to the his own work, while taking some fascinating liberties with the material. The resulting film is Spielberg doing what he does best: […]

DEATH OF STALIN (Directed by Armando Iannucci, 107 minutes, 2018, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITICThe Death of Stalin is a hilariously morose comedy based on the French graphic novel La mort de Staline by Fabien Nury (Les chroniques de Legion). Director Armando Iannucci (Veep) brings his razor-sharp eye for political satire to Stalinist Russia without skipping a beat in a film that is way more relevant than it has any right to be today. The director even opted to “tone down real-life absurdity” to make the film, which has been banned in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan a bit […]

BLACK PANTHER (Directed by Ryan Coogler, 134 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Black Panther catches up Chadwick Boseman’s Prince T’Challa — hands down the best part of Captain America: Civil War (2016) — upon his return to the fictional African nation of Wakanda in the wake of his father’s death. A quick prologue fills in the nation’s backstory: centuries ago a giant vibranium meteor crashed into Wakanda, helping the nation to flourish and advance at an amazing rate. Fearing this technological renaissance will invite marauding armies, the five governing tribes to seal off their small nation from […]

THE PHANTOM THREAD (dir. by Paul Thomas Anderson, 130 min., USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC After more or less going dark for three years, Paul Thomas Anderson returns to the silver screen with Phantom Thread, his follow up to 2014’s Inherent Vice, which reunites him with Daniel Day-Lewis for what reportedly will be the famously enigmatic actor’s final film role. Much like The Master, Phantom Thread is an evocative exploration of the ever-shifting power dynamics of dysfunctional relationships in Post-War period dress. But in stark contrast to sprawling American epics like There Will Be Blood and The Master, […]

I, TONYA (Directed by Craig Gillespie, 119 minutes, USA, 2017) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Much buzzed-about this Oscar season, I, Tonya is an unlikely prestige film about an unlikely Olympian starring Margot Robbie as the notorious Tonya Harding, the disgraced figure skater who conspired to have her rival maimed by her bodyguard right before the 1994 Olympics. This black comedy is constructed like a mockumentary, in the vein of The Big Short, where on-camera interviews with actors in character (“based on irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with the actual people portrayed in the film)  are supplemented by reenactments […]

THE SHAPE OF WATER (Dir. by Guillermo del Toro, 123 min., 2017, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Easily the strangest film this prestige season is Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric romantic masterpiece The Shape of Water. The film opens today at the Ritz Five and is a rather unique take on a love story that is an unlikely mash-up the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie) and the Universal Monsters. Shape has del Toro returning to his roots to give us a darkly fantastic fairy tale that has the director at his best and most unrestrained […]