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Skincare takes its inspiration from the real-life case of Dawn DaLuise, a West Hollywood aesthetician whose dubious business tactics, which may have included hiring a hitman to eliminate a rival, made headlines in the L.A. era back in the mid-2010...

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is about 70% style and 30% substance. It has a plot and characters, but those are almost beside the point. They are devices that function as hooks upon which first-time director Kerry Conran can hang his amaz...

Slingshot is about the first manned trip to Titan but, somewhere along the way, the primary narrative is hijacked by a series of too-long flashbacks and a questionable decision to insert a late-in-the-proceedings twist. A problem with this movie, ...

Smile 2 takes the ideas and aesthetic of the original Smile and doubles down on them. Unlike many horror sequels, which come across as watered-down retreads of their predecessors, Smile 2 uses the first installment as a jumping-off point for a sto...

"People ask if this film is autobiographical, and many of the circumstances in it are but I've pushed them farther than they really went. It's personal, but not completely autobiographical. It was common in my home and my friends' homes to s...

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a popular thriller trope in which a character (or group of characters) would form a connection with a stranger (or strangers) but, over time, the actions and motivations of one character would turn murderous....

If I were in a kind mood, I might say that The Specialist attempts to be an atmospheric, dramatic thriller. On the other hand, if I wanted to be truthful, I could note that this film has two obvious assets (both of which are used to maximum advant...

Potential Spoilers: I reveal a little more about the plot than I normally do in reviews, primarily because I want to discuss the way the film progresses during its second half. There are no big "reveals" in the review - it's not the kind of movie t...

Place your foot on the accelerator. Press down. Watch the needle on the speedometer creep above fifty. Now you're trapped. Whatever happens, you can't drop below that level - if you do, you're dead, and everyone on the bus with you. It might n...

Spider-Man 2 has all the elements of a good, but not great, superhero motion picture. While lacking the tragic grandeur that made last year's Hulk such a unique experience, Spider-Man 2 fills the void with solid character development, self-referen...