ReelViews for R movies

Despite being sold and marketed as a thriller, the most interesting aspects of Shot Caller are the dramatic ones. Beneath all the machismo and traditional crime movie trappings, writer/director Ric Roman Waugh has something to say about the d...

Spoiler Alert: Although every effort has been made to limit the revelations in this review, it's difficult to provide a coherent discussion of Shutter Island without giving away something, so readers are hereby placed on alert. If you're familiar...

I can understand director Matthew Ross’ dilemma. In order to get Siberia made, he needed a “name” to become involved. That “name” was Keanu Reeves. Unfortunately, Reeves lacks the intensity necessary to play the main character, Lucas...

Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve embraces a bleak worldview, or at least that's what his filmography would lead audiences to believe. His celebrated movies, which include Incendies, Prisoners, and now Sicario (and will soon add the long-gestat...

Sicario: Day of the Soldado joins Deadpool 2 and Incredibles 2 as summer 2018 sequels that, despite not being on quite the same levels as their predecessors, provide reasons to make trips to theaters. Although not a direct continuation of the ...

There's something delightfully old-fashioned about Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects. It's the kind of thriller that Alfred Hitchcock might make if he was still alive and active today. It never seeks to do too much with the premise nor does it go ov...

Sideways is from Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt), whose films simultaneously satirize and observe life in America. Unlike David Lynch, who uses saws and butcher knives to dissect the American dream, Payne prefers a scalpel. Lynch often ri...

It's not hard to argue that Edward Zwick is one of the best Hollywood film makers toiling in obscurity. Although the average movie-goer recognizes the names of directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Zemeckis, and Stone, Zwick is relatively unknown. ...

To say that The Signal has major tone problems is to understate the problem. While it's possible for a movie to function simultaneously as a horror movie and a parody of the genre, it's not the easiest trick to pull off and first-time feature dire...

Spoilers Ahoy! This isn’t the kind of narratively-driven movie where spoilers make a great difference to the overall experience but, in order to provide an analysis of Silence, I have opted to talk about some key plot points that occur late in ...