Saturday, November 16, 2019
First Lines: John Flanagan - The Ruins of Gorlan
"Try to eat something, Will. Tomorrow's a big day, after all."
Kawaki (2014)
As former detective Akikazu searches for his missing daughter, Kanako, he soon learns she has a mysterious secret life.
Made with all the director's hallmark wild imagination and panache, this movie is not simply a downward spiral, but rather, right from the start, an exhausting visitation of a hellish world with no redeeming moments allowing the audience to take breath.
In the Tall Grass (2019)
After hearing a young boy's cry for help, a sister and brother venture into a vast field of tall grass in Kansas but soon discover there may be no way out...and that something evil lurks within.
OK supernatural horror doesn't do much to enhance its (implausible) premise, but does deliver some mild shocks along the way.
Friday, November 15, 2019
First Lines: John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In
It makes you think of coconut-frosted cookies, maybe drugs.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
High Life (2018)
A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.
Leftfield and dark sci-fi drama explores interpersonal relationships and human nature under extreme conditions; it helps to ignore the scientific components of the tale.
Doomed to Die (1940)
Mr. Wong and a girl reporter investigate a shipping magnate's murder.
Second-rate, run-of-the-mill crime mystery in the Mr. Wong series with implausible, complicated plot; one of the minor entries in the series.
Maltin*1/2
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
First Lines: Ken MacLeod - Newton’s Wake
As soon as she stepped through the gate Lucinda Carlyle knew the planet had been taken, and knew it would be worth taking back.