Chloe Sevigny shines as the infamous Lizzie Borden in a film that reminded me of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."
Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny), her sister Emma (Kim Dickens), and their father Andrew (Jamie Sheridan) and stepmother Abby (Fiona Shaw) live in a small house in Fall River, Massachusetts. They hire on Irish housemaid Bridget (Kristen Stewart), who the parents insist on calling Maggie. The household is in a constant state of tension, as Andrew tries to keep order but Lizzie often acts out like a repressed teenager. She and Bridget grow closer, despite Andrew's nighttime visits to Bridget's small room, and soon the new couple are pushed too far by the overbearing parental figures.
Knowing the basics of the Lizzie Borden case, the film contains many historical inaccuracies and the Savannah, Georgia location filming is all wrong. The strength of the film lies in its performances and direction. While Stewart's accent comes and goes as many times as Bridget meekly enters a room, Sevigny anchors the film with her strong performance. Her Lizzie puts up a strong facade that is easily shattered when confronted. The house is a prison of sorts to Lizzie and Emma, who are both trapped in societal expectations, expectations that may have contributed to Lizzie's not guilty verdict when she was tried on the charges of double murder. I've loved Shaw since "Mountains of the Moon," and she does a lot with her character. Although second billed, Stewart doesn't try to hog the film from Sevigny, and the two have a very halting chemistry just like their characters do. Sheridan is good as Andrew, if not a little to modern looking- I would have liked to see a full beard just like the original Andrew Borden had. Denis O'Hare is menacing as the women's ne'er-do-well uncle.
One piece of sound design/set decoration is the constantly creaking floors of the Borden house. No one can "sneak" around anywhere without being heard or overheard, and there are many quiet scenes where all you can listen to is creaking. Director Macneill also frames his film differently. There are many obscured shots, as panes of glass are opaque and distort what is being seen. I would have liked to see more background on Bridget, and a few scenes ring false, but I enjoyed the underwhelming sense of dread (I mean that in a good way) that develops without the use of jump scares or obvious foreshadowing. The violence in the film is brutal, the murders have become the thing of jokes today. Other reviews I read highlighted the nudity and sexual relationship between Lizzie and Bridget, forgetting that two people being bludgeoned to death with a hatchet isn't exactly fun. Kudos to Jeff Russo's careful score and the natural but unpretty cinematography.
Lizzie Borden's maybe-murders will probably never be solved. Over a century has passed, and there isn't any cold case DNA testing to do. Instead, we get quite a few dramatizations and murder mystery parties at the site of the original murders, which is now a bed and breakfast. "Lizzie" is one of the better, serious efforts to tell the stories of the murders, once Kristen Stewart fans get past her presence onscreen; the film isn't called "Bridget," after all.
Stats:
-(2018) 105 min. (8/10)
-Directed by Craig William Macneill
-Written by Bryce Kass
-Cast: Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Jamie Sheridan, Fiona Shaw, Kim Dickens, Denis O'Hare, Jeff Perry, Tara Ochs, Daniel Wachs, Jody Matzer, Don Henderson Baker, Jay Huguley, Roscoe Sandlin
-(US: R)-(UK: 15)-(Aus: MA15+)- Physical violence, some sexual violence, strong gore, some profanity, nudity, some sexual content, mild sexual references, strong adult situations
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Saturday, February 21, 2026
This Is the Tom Green Documentary (2025)
This is a surprisingly straightforward documentary on the subversive comedian Tom Green, who seemed to be everywhere in the 1990s and early 2000s before receiving a cancer diagnosis that derailed his career.
Green was from Canada, born in 1971. He was into skateboard culture, formed a locally successful rap group, and then started getting involved in making comedy videos that would emulate the man-on-the-street comedy that David Letterman was doing on his show at the time. The videos and material took off, Green was brought to the States and replicated his cult cable access show on MTV, and he and his friends started to rise in the entertainment industry.
Green directs the film and interviews his parents, who were the targets of many famous bits on his show. They seemed genuinely upset and put out by their son's shenanigans, unlike what passes as "reality" entertainment today. They were not privy to what their son was doing for TV (repainting the house plaid, waking them at 3am to listen to Bon Jovi), but they don't seem very angry about it today. Green goes through his career with friends and co-on air personalities Phil Giroux and Glenn Humplik (Humplik is the greatest name in the history of talk show sidekicks), his assorted films, his marriage to star Drew Barrymore, and his eventual testicular cancer scare that still shakes him and his family. I remember his cancer special, and talking about this taboo subject to millions of fans his age, like myself. He gives behind-the-scenes looks at how much pain he was going through in those times, the surgeries, the show cancellation, and we realized that we weren't immortal or enduring in this age. He tried to kickstart his career here and there, realizing the potential that the internet held, and now he's on the comeback trail with this documentary, a reality series, a stand-up special, and more.
Watching the old clips from his television show, I was having major nostalgia for the turn of the century when anything possible was in my future. Green is three years younger than me, firmly planted in our Generation X, and I felt a connection to him. He is more thoughtful and humble now, he doesn't try any zany stunts on his older parents in the documentary (thank god) because he's not that same guy. The film is well cut between crazed video bits from the good old days, and nice interviews with his subjects today. It's fun to see clips from the show and wonder where these people are now after having a huge impact on popular culture back in the day- Craig Kilborn, Flavor Flav, Janeane Garofalo, Monica Lewinsky, Dennis Miller, etc.
As I fast approach my late fifties, and friends and family start leaving us at an alarming rate (in the past year, I've discovered college classmates and coworkers have passed away and I had no idea until well after the fact), it's comforting to see I'm not the only one who is taking a step back and reflecting on the future. Green keeps his eye on his eventful past, but is doing the work instead of becoming frozen-in-place creatively, rising above internet-age rage and tumult. This is a very good film.
Stats:
(2025) 97 min. (8/10)
-Directed by Tom Green
-With Tom Green, Mary Jane Green, Richard Green, Glenn Humplik, Phil Giroux, Chris Mullington, Merilyn Read, Jackie Stearn, David Letterman, Drew Barrymore, Eric Andre, Joe Rogan, Monica Lewinsky
-(Amazon Prime Video: 16+)-(UK: 15)-(Aus: MA15+)- Some physical violence, gore, profanity, strong adult situations
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Green was from Canada, born in 1971. He was into skateboard culture, formed a locally successful rap group, and then started getting involved in making comedy videos that would emulate the man-on-the-street comedy that David Letterman was doing on his show at the time. The videos and material took off, Green was brought to the States and replicated his cult cable access show on MTV, and he and his friends started to rise in the entertainment industry.
Green directs the film and interviews his parents, who were the targets of many famous bits on his show. They seemed genuinely upset and put out by their son's shenanigans, unlike what passes as "reality" entertainment today. They were not privy to what their son was doing for TV (repainting the house plaid, waking them at 3am to listen to Bon Jovi), but they don't seem very angry about it today. Green goes through his career with friends and co-on air personalities Phil Giroux and Glenn Humplik (Humplik is the greatest name in the history of talk show sidekicks), his assorted films, his marriage to star Drew Barrymore, and his eventual testicular cancer scare that still shakes him and his family. I remember his cancer special, and talking about this taboo subject to millions of fans his age, like myself. He gives behind-the-scenes looks at how much pain he was going through in those times, the surgeries, the show cancellation, and we realized that we weren't immortal or enduring in this age. He tried to kickstart his career here and there, realizing the potential that the internet held, and now he's on the comeback trail with this documentary, a reality series, a stand-up special, and more.
Watching the old clips from his television show, I was having major nostalgia for the turn of the century when anything possible was in my future. Green is three years younger than me, firmly planted in our Generation X, and I felt a connection to him. He is more thoughtful and humble now, he doesn't try any zany stunts on his older parents in the documentary (thank god) because he's not that same guy. The film is well cut between crazed video bits from the good old days, and nice interviews with his subjects today. It's fun to see clips from the show and wonder where these people are now after having a huge impact on popular culture back in the day- Craig Kilborn, Flavor Flav, Janeane Garofalo, Monica Lewinsky, Dennis Miller, etc.
As I fast approach my late fifties, and friends and family start leaving us at an alarming rate (in the past year, I've discovered college classmates and coworkers have passed away and I had no idea until well after the fact), it's comforting to see I'm not the only one who is taking a step back and reflecting on the future. Green keeps his eye on his eventful past, but is doing the work instead of becoming frozen-in-place creatively, rising above internet-age rage and tumult. This is a very good film.
Stats:
(2025) 97 min. (8/10)
-Directed by Tom Green
-With Tom Green, Mary Jane Green, Richard Green, Glenn Humplik, Phil Giroux, Chris Mullington, Merilyn Read, Jackie Stearn, David Letterman, Drew Barrymore, Eric Andre, Joe Rogan, Monica Lewinsky
-(Amazon Prime Video: 16+)-(UK: 15)-(Aus: MA15+)- Some physical violence, gore, profanity, strong adult situations
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Attack of the Doc! (2023)
This documentary covers the cult show "Attack of the Show!" on the old G4 cable television channel. After watching the film, and doing a little reading online, the internet troll vitriol was sometimes more entertaining than the film.
I never saw "Attack of the Show!" or anything else on the G4 network. My first marriage had ended four days before the 9/11 attacks, and I was too busy sulking in a basement apartment or renting a spare bedroom from my best friend to sit down and watch cable television much, when I could afford basic cable at all. I was not a gamer anyway, getting that out of my system back in high school thanks to popping quarters into arcade machines or suffering through the Intellivision system at home. I didn't know AOTS was a thing, and I'm not even sure if G4 was on my cable system. One thing I was familiar with, however, was Chris Gore. I used to frequent a rundown little gas station in my then-hometown because they carried Film Threat magazine for some ungodly reason that I never figured out. I read and re-read every issue I could get my hands on, along with the Film Threat Video Guide, before loaning my collection to a friend and never seeing them again. I was going to be a film maker back then, carrying around well-worn issues of FT, Entertainment Weekly, Movieline, Premiere, and reading Variety and Film Comment at my alma mater university library. I wrote and directed one music video of a friend's song, graduated from college with a degree in Broadcasting (no, everyone in my life, it's not "the same thing" as film making), and never pursued my "chosen career." Writing about film, on the other hand...
When I was in elementary school in the late 1970's and early 1980's (I'm the epitome of Generation X), I used to flip through Leonard Maltin's TV and Movie Guide. I started writing capsule reviews on 3x5 inch index cards, and put them in a little recipe file box. It was stuffed full by the time I got to high school, but it eventually disappeared during one of the many moves in my life as an Air Force Brat. Once I discovered the internet, all bets were off. I wrote reviews for Epinions, and then eFilmCritic/HollywoodBitchslap- those sites are long gone now. I had 10,000 TV and film rankings on IMDb, which consistently crashed my local library's computer. I'm now on Letterboxd, where I have over 6,600 films ranked, and I have almost a thousand old reviews here and there- an archive blog, IMDb, TMDB, Amazon, and Rotten Tomatoes. All told, I've made approximately $1.75 from my decades of online film criticism.
I've been watching and reading Chris Gore since he had dark hair, and I had any hair. I don't have time to do entire podcasts, I'm a stay-at-home Dad and recovering victim of three decades in the Corporatethink/Big Box Retail field, but I enjoy Film Threat's clips on YouTube and Rumble, and reading the written reviews on their website. Gore pops up on Film Courage's YouTube channel as well, and his long interviews have me nodding in agreement consistently. I found a kindred spirit in Chris Gore and his Film Threat sidekicks (Alan Ng), as well as Heath Holland at Cereal at Midnight, The Critical Drinker, and Jeremy Jahns- they're among my must-watches. I don't necessarily agree with them all of the time, but I like hearing their views on film, television, and physical media collecting- I own almost a thousand shiny discs and about as many books.
But what about the film?! Sorry, I'm talking about the film maker more than the film- something most of the reviews I read online are guilty of, too. "Attack of the Doc!" is a fun, nostalgic trip down memory lane for a show I had no memory of. Gore couldn't get interviews with the most famous hosts (Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn), and I don't know why. He covers it well, though, with plenty of old footage from the show as well as voiceover interviews with people involved in the production. Gore himself appeared on over eighty episodes, according to IMDb, and he appears onscreen in recently shot footage. I was never bored, the show seemed like something I could have watched in between episodes of "The State," "Mystery Science Theater 3000," "The Whitest Kids U'Know," "The Kids in the Hall," and all the other subversive comedy I absorbed, if I had known the show existed.
The trolls lambast Gore for an anti-woke section of the film. From my reading, I expected an hour-long diatribe, and was laughing out loud at the very few sentences I heard. They really couldn't do a lot of the material found on AOTS today, and it was funny to read about how "alt-right" Gore is: "A biased Gore inserts himself into the documentary on a show he was barely on and made it all about himself!" I'm hard pressed to think of a documentary that is unbiased, and when it comes to a film maker putting himself into a documentary, the names Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield, as well as almost every "reality show," are forgotten. I wouldn't call eighty episodes "barely on" the show. Gore is criticized more for his honest takes about current pop culture, which is something I appreciate in the left-leaning world of Hollywood and film criticism. Sometimes I just want to read a writer's thoughts on a film without detrimental comparisons to the latest Trump rally, which has nothing to do with the film being reviewed in the first place. This is why I also frequently read John Nolte, Armond White, Bret Easton Ellis, and Christian Toto, and old material from Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and Gene Siskel. I don't agree with any of them all the time, but I'm not insulted for being a Middle America Conservative either.
So yes, if you were a G4 fan back in the day, you'll like this film. If you are like me and had no idea what the show or network were about, I think you'll still like this film. Chris Gore is still "doing the work" as Gary Vaynerchuk preaches, and I appreciate that.
Stats:
(2023) 87 min. (7/10)
-Written and Directed by Chris Gore
-With Chris Gore, Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Candace Bailey, Sara Jean Underwood, Morgan Webb, Eric Andre, James Cameron, John Cena, Jimmy Fallon, Alison Haislip, Tom Green, Chris Hardwick, Tony Hawk, Stan Lee
-(Amazon Prime Video: 16+)- Physical violence, some gun violence, some gore, profanity, sexual references, adult situations
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
I never saw "Attack of the Show!" or anything else on the G4 network. My first marriage had ended four days before the 9/11 attacks, and I was too busy sulking in a basement apartment or renting a spare bedroom from my best friend to sit down and watch cable television much, when I could afford basic cable at all. I was not a gamer anyway, getting that out of my system back in high school thanks to popping quarters into arcade machines or suffering through the Intellivision system at home. I didn't know AOTS was a thing, and I'm not even sure if G4 was on my cable system. One thing I was familiar with, however, was Chris Gore. I used to frequent a rundown little gas station in my then-hometown because they carried Film Threat magazine for some ungodly reason that I never figured out. I read and re-read every issue I could get my hands on, along with the Film Threat Video Guide, before loaning my collection to a friend and never seeing them again. I was going to be a film maker back then, carrying around well-worn issues of FT, Entertainment Weekly, Movieline, Premiere, and reading Variety and Film Comment at my alma mater university library. I wrote and directed one music video of a friend's song, graduated from college with a degree in Broadcasting (no, everyone in my life, it's not "the same thing" as film making), and never pursued my "chosen career." Writing about film, on the other hand...
When I was in elementary school in the late 1970's and early 1980's (I'm the epitome of Generation X), I used to flip through Leonard Maltin's TV and Movie Guide. I started writing capsule reviews on 3x5 inch index cards, and put them in a little recipe file box. It was stuffed full by the time I got to high school, but it eventually disappeared during one of the many moves in my life as an Air Force Brat. Once I discovered the internet, all bets were off. I wrote reviews for Epinions, and then eFilmCritic/HollywoodBitchslap- those sites are long gone now. I had 10,000 TV and film rankings on IMDb, which consistently crashed my local library's computer. I'm now on Letterboxd, where I have over 6,600 films ranked, and I have almost a thousand old reviews here and there- an archive blog, IMDb, TMDB, Amazon, and Rotten Tomatoes. All told, I've made approximately $1.75 from my decades of online film criticism.
I've been watching and reading Chris Gore since he had dark hair, and I had any hair. I don't have time to do entire podcasts, I'm a stay-at-home Dad and recovering victim of three decades in the Corporatethink/Big Box Retail field, but I enjoy Film Threat's clips on YouTube and Rumble, and reading the written reviews on their website. Gore pops up on Film Courage's YouTube channel as well, and his long interviews have me nodding in agreement consistently. I found a kindred spirit in Chris Gore and his Film Threat sidekicks (Alan Ng), as well as Heath Holland at Cereal at Midnight, The Critical Drinker, and Jeremy Jahns- they're among my must-watches. I don't necessarily agree with them all of the time, but I like hearing their views on film, television, and physical media collecting- I own almost a thousand shiny discs and about as many books.
But what about the film?! Sorry, I'm talking about the film maker more than the film- something most of the reviews I read online are guilty of, too. "Attack of the Doc!" is a fun, nostalgic trip down memory lane for a show I had no memory of. Gore couldn't get interviews with the most famous hosts (Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn), and I don't know why. He covers it well, though, with plenty of old footage from the show as well as voiceover interviews with people involved in the production. Gore himself appeared on over eighty episodes, according to IMDb, and he appears onscreen in recently shot footage. I was never bored, the show seemed like something I could have watched in between episodes of "The State," "Mystery Science Theater 3000," "The Whitest Kids U'Know," "The Kids in the Hall," and all the other subversive comedy I absorbed, if I had known the show existed.
The trolls lambast Gore for an anti-woke section of the film. From my reading, I expected an hour-long diatribe, and was laughing out loud at the very few sentences I heard. They really couldn't do a lot of the material found on AOTS today, and it was funny to read about how "alt-right" Gore is: "A biased Gore inserts himself into the documentary on a show he was barely on and made it all about himself!" I'm hard pressed to think of a documentary that is unbiased, and when it comes to a film maker putting himself into a documentary, the names Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield, as well as almost every "reality show," are forgotten. I wouldn't call eighty episodes "barely on" the show. Gore is criticized more for his honest takes about current pop culture, which is something I appreciate in the left-leaning world of Hollywood and film criticism. Sometimes I just want to read a writer's thoughts on a film without detrimental comparisons to the latest Trump rally, which has nothing to do with the film being reviewed in the first place. This is why I also frequently read John Nolte, Armond White, Bret Easton Ellis, and Christian Toto, and old material from Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and Gene Siskel. I don't agree with any of them all the time, but I'm not insulted for being a Middle America Conservative either.
So yes, if you were a G4 fan back in the day, you'll like this film. If you are like me and had no idea what the show or network were about, I think you'll still like this film. Chris Gore is still "doing the work" as Gary Vaynerchuk preaches, and I appreciate that.
Stats:
(2023) 87 min. (7/10)
-Written and Directed by Chris Gore
-With Chris Gore, Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Candace Bailey, Sara Jean Underwood, Morgan Webb, Eric Andre, James Cameron, John Cena, Jimmy Fallon, Alison Haislip, Tom Green, Chris Hardwick, Tony Hawk, Stan Lee
-(Amazon Prime Video: 16+)- Physical violence, some gun violence, some gore, profanity, sexual references, adult situations
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Amanda Taylor: The Selfie Killer in Her Own Words (2025)
Jonathan Doe leaves his emetophilia fetish films (if you don't know what that is, you're better off) to interview the infamous "Selfie Killer" in this compelling documentary.
Amanda was leading a troubled life when she married Rex Taylor. They bonded over grindcore music, "Natural Born Killers," and writing serial killers in prison. Amanda gave birth to two children, one was Rex's, and they tried to create a family as they suffered the throes of addiction. Rex eventually committed suicide, and Amanda tried to grieve without really knowing how. She blamed Rex's father Charles for Rex's death, and stabbed him thirty-one times, taking a selfie with the body and posting it online afterward. She then went on the run with her new boyfriend, shooting him too, before being arrested and thrown in prison for the rest of her life.
The entire film is the video call interview between Doe and Taylor, with some footage of the locations that the Taylors would be at, and the outside of the house where the murder took place. Doe is a very calm, complacent, almost monotone interviewer, and he lets Amanda tell her story with few interruptions- and what a story it is.
I empathized, but did not sympathize, with Amanda. This is a deeply troubled woman suffering from mental illness. To say that she blames everyone but herself for her crimes and problems would be an understatement. I felt bad for everyone involved in this situation, especially Amanda's two children, as well as the victims of her crimes. This is not a jazzy "Dateline" episode, the production is bare bones to the detriment of the viewer. Doe gives Amanda a platform to speak, and Amanda contradicts herself again and again- not factually, she admits what she did, but about her feelings and thoughts of what she put people through. Amanda is photogenic and it's easy to see why some men would be attracted to her, but it seems she had three strikes against her before she got a chance to start living her life.
The film bogs down a bit in the middle, I took three days to complete it since listening to Amanda's twisted outlook on her life would depress anyone. Hoping to see her late husband in hell is not a goal anyone should have. Regretting not shooting up a parade is also a regret no one else should have. I didn't pity or like Amanda, but letting her talk uninterrupted, and wondering how much of what she said was the same manipulation she learned to be an expert at in jail, took up most of my thinking process during the film.
I wish Doe had tightened up his film, and given some much needed background. Searching for Amanda Taylor online brings up dozens of videos and stories about what she did, she's almost turned her murder into a cottage industry. Once again, the killer becomes the celebrity and the victims are forgotten.
Stats:
(2025) 120 min. (7/10) out of five stars
-Directed by Jonathan Doe
-With Jonathan Doe, Amanda Taylor
-(US: NR)- Strong violence references, some explicit gore, very strong adult situations, strong drug and alcohol references
-Media Viewed: YouTube
Amanda was leading a troubled life when she married Rex Taylor. They bonded over grindcore music, "Natural Born Killers," and writing serial killers in prison. Amanda gave birth to two children, one was Rex's, and they tried to create a family as they suffered the throes of addiction. Rex eventually committed suicide, and Amanda tried to grieve without really knowing how. She blamed Rex's father Charles for Rex's death, and stabbed him thirty-one times, taking a selfie with the body and posting it online afterward. She then went on the run with her new boyfriend, shooting him too, before being arrested and thrown in prison for the rest of her life.
The entire film is the video call interview between Doe and Taylor, with some footage of the locations that the Taylors would be at, and the outside of the house where the murder took place. Doe is a very calm, complacent, almost monotone interviewer, and he lets Amanda tell her story with few interruptions- and what a story it is.
I empathized, but did not sympathize, with Amanda. This is a deeply troubled woman suffering from mental illness. To say that she blames everyone but herself for her crimes and problems would be an understatement. I felt bad for everyone involved in this situation, especially Amanda's two children, as well as the victims of her crimes. This is not a jazzy "Dateline" episode, the production is bare bones to the detriment of the viewer. Doe gives Amanda a platform to speak, and Amanda contradicts herself again and again- not factually, she admits what she did, but about her feelings and thoughts of what she put people through. Amanda is photogenic and it's easy to see why some men would be attracted to her, but it seems she had three strikes against her before she got a chance to start living her life.
The film bogs down a bit in the middle, I took three days to complete it since listening to Amanda's twisted outlook on her life would depress anyone. Hoping to see her late husband in hell is not a goal anyone should have. Regretting not shooting up a parade is also a regret no one else should have. I didn't pity or like Amanda, but letting her talk uninterrupted, and wondering how much of what she said was the same manipulation she learned to be an expert at in jail, took up most of my thinking process during the film.
I wish Doe had tightened up his film, and given some much needed background. Searching for Amanda Taylor online brings up dozens of videos and stories about what she did, she's almost turned her murder into a cottage industry. Once again, the killer becomes the celebrity and the victims are forgotten.
Stats:
(2025) 120 min. (7/10) out of five stars
-Directed by Jonathan Doe
-With Jonathan Doe, Amanda Taylor
-(US: NR)- Strong violence references, some explicit gore, very strong adult situations, strong drug and alcohol references
-Media Viewed: YouTube
Captivity (2007)
The few defenders of this film have portrayed its detractors as a bunch of easily offended, pearl clutching sissies who were more affected by an aborted marketing campaign than what eventually showed up onscreen. I can attest that I never saw the original marketing campaign, and still feel this project is terrible.
Jennifer (Elisha Cuthbert) is a world famous model who is drugged at a party and kidnapped. She wakes up in a cement room and is terrorized by a hooded man. She has a fellow prisoner in the form of Gary (Daniel Gillies), who is not famous and can't figure out why he was abducted, too. The duo become closer as they look for an opportunity to escape when they aren't being violently tortured. In the outside world, the search for Jennifer continues.
Almost as shocking as the gore, anger, and violence of the film is the fact that it was directed by Roland Joffe, the two-time Oscar nominee for "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission." In one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes, Joffe seems excited to be helming something different- a claustrophobic thriller. Interestingly enough, in the second behind-the-scenes featurette, Joffe is shown directing the intense and unnecessary "torture porn" aspect of the film, and does not seem to have any of the enthusiasm that he had in the first featurette.
There are many versions out there, and the DVD I screened had a few deleted scenes and two absolutely terrible alternate endings. I don't know where things went wrong, but the R-rated version I saw, as released, is a gaffe-ridden, unbelievable film. Cuthbert and Gillies turn in awful performances. Scenes of violence play out with no context or purpose. Thanks to reshoots and alternate versions, Cuthbert's character is a mess of conflicting emotions, sometimes in the same scene. The climax is laughable, with the film makers trying to make a sociological statement that never sticks. Marco Beltrami's musical score sounds a lot like John Carpenter's incidental notes from 1978's "Halloween," except played in a different key. The film runs under an hour and a half, but I was often bored and checking the running time. The final motive for the murders is nonsensical, the script did not earn the taboo reason- not that the film makers give the audience any reason to care in the first place.
This is a mess, and I refuse to seek out any other versions to give the cast and crew a chance to redeem themselves. Maybe a "final edit" will come out one day, and join the "(R)-Rated," "Uncut," "Unrated," and "Non-Gory" versions but why bother? Escape this "Captivity."
Stats:
(2007) 96 min. (1/10)
-Directed by Roland Joffe
-Screenplay by Larry Cohen and Joseph Tura, Story by Larry Cohen
-Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael Harney, Laz Alonso, Rebekah Ryan, Remy Thorne, Elijah Runcorn, Carl Paoli, Trent Broin
-(US: R)-(UK: 18)-(Au: MA15+)- Strong physical violence, gun violence, some sexual violence references, some violence involving children, strong gore, profanity, sexual content, some nudity, strong adult situations, alcohol use, drug abuse
-Media Viewed: DVD
Jennifer (Elisha Cuthbert) is a world famous model who is drugged at a party and kidnapped. She wakes up in a cement room and is terrorized by a hooded man. She has a fellow prisoner in the form of Gary (Daniel Gillies), who is not famous and can't figure out why he was abducted, too. The duo become closer as they look for an opportunity to escape when they aren't being violently tortured. In the outside world, the search for Jennifer continues.
Almost as shocking as the gore, anger, and violence of the film is the fact that it was directed by Roland Joffe, the two-time Oscar nominee for "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission." In one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes, Joffe seems excited to be helming something different- a claustrophobic thriller. Interestingly enough, in the second behind-the-scenes featurette, Joffe is shown directing the intense and unnecessary "torture porn" aspect of the film, and does not seem to have any of the enthusiasm that he had in the first featurette.
There are many versions out there, and the DVD I screened had a few deleted scenes and two absolutely terrible alternate endings. I don't know where things went wrong, but the R-rated version I saw, as released, is a gaffe-ridden, unbelievable film. Cuthbert and Gillies turn in awful performances. Scenes of violence play out with no context or purpose. Thanks to reshoots and alternate versions, Cuthbert's character is a mess of conflicting emotions, sometimes in the same scene. The climax is laughable, with the film makers trying to make a sociological statement that never sticks. Marco Beltrami's musical score sounds a lot like John Carpenter's incidental notes from 1978's "Halloween," except played in a different key. The film runs under an hour and a half, but I was often bored and checking the running time. The final motive for the murders is nonsensical, the script did not earn the taboo reason- not that the film makers give the audience any reason to care in the first place.
This is a mess, and I refuse to seek out any other versions to give the cast and crew a chance to redeem themselves. Maybe a "final edit" will come out one day, and join the "(R)-Rated," "Uncut," "Unrated," and "Non-Gory" versions but why bother? Escape this "Captivity."
Stats:
(2007) 96 min. (1/10)
-Directed by Roland Joffe
-Screenplay by Larry Cohen and Joseph Tura, Story by Larry Cohen
-Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael Harney, Laz Alonso, Rebekah Ryan, Remy Thorne, Elijah Runcorn, Carl Paoli, Trent Broin
-(US: R)-(UK: 18)-(Au: MA15+)- Strong physical violence, gun violence, some sexual violence references, some violence involving children, strong gore, profanity, sexual content, some nudity, strong adult situations, alcohol use, drug abuse
-Media Viewed: DVD
Meteor (1979)
If Hollywood award gold is your benchmark for excellence in cinema, "Meteor" should have been one of the greatest films of all-time. The first nine credited cast members were all Oscar and Emmy nominees and winners sometime in their careers before and after the movie's release, with more golden talent further down in the cast list, credited and uncredited. Likewise with the director, screenwriters, soundtrack composer, cinematographer, editor, production designer, set decorator, and costume designer. It was nominated for an Oscar itself for Best Sound- the film's only nomination for any award from any awards group (getting beat by "Apocalypse Now"). However, the film craters thanks to an uninterested cast, hilarious special effects, screenplay padding, and its arrival a few years too late in the cooling disaster film subgenre.
Paul Bradley (a terminally angry Sean Connery) is called back in to his former employer NASA. A giant meteor is headed for Earth, arriving in six days. Paul was involved with the installation of nuclear missiles in space to thwart such a situation that will never happen, so instead the United States pointed the missles at those Commies in the U.S.S.R. As luck would have it, the Russians had their own system, and likewise pointed theirs at the United States. Neither country has the necessary firepower to destroy the meteor, but if we can just work together (any Cold War kid/Generation Xer remember détente?) we can defeat a common enemy and save this crazy screwed-up planet!
There's a germ of a good idea, copied many times later for straight-to-video and basic cable television pablum. A little online reading shows that some of the special effects companies involved were hired and fired, with the budget shrinking each time. I give plenty of leeway when it comes to special effects from the films and television of my childhood, but I couldn't help but shake my head at a lot of this. The production company was American-International Pictures, a studio known for its low budgets. It looks like their money was spent entirely on the cast. Natalie Wood doesn't appear until a third of the way through the picture but is involved in the best scene featuring duelling Russian translators. For a big piece of rock traveling at 30,000 miles per hour, this is one slow moving meteor. The nuclear missiles also move at a snail's pace, adding a few precious minutes to the running time. The underground command center looks like something out of a Bond film, disconcerting when you consider the film's lead. There's an argument during a Cabinet meeting that had me muttering "you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" as Landau portrays a typical Hollywood unhinged military officer, more concerned with the Russkies finding out about our missiles than trying to save the planet. Speaking of typical Hollywood unhinged military officers, a surprising amount of supporting cast members also guested on the television series "M*A*S*H," a show whose episodes I have seen many times over thanks to syndicated blocks of programming on over-the-air stations.
Like the previous year's "Avalanche," "Meteor" comes at the end of the disaster film cycle, which gave us classics like "The Poseidon Adventure," "Airport," and "The Towering Inferno," and the genre was skewered a year later by "Airplane!" The Best Sound Oscar nomination was a surprise, but considering the Special Visual Effects Academy Awards nominees for that year, there was no way "Meteor" was going to score anything else- Visual Effects winner "Alien," and nominees "The Black Hole," "Moonraker," "1941," and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
I remember wanting to see "Meteor" when it was released (I was eleven and already a rabid film fan, recognizing most of the cast names), and then when it appeared again on HBO. I never seemed to get to it, not even clips, so watching it on a streaming service was a bittersweet nostalgia.
Stats:
(1979) 108 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Ronald Neame
-Screenplay by Stanley Mann & Edmund H. North, Story by Edmund H. North
-Cast: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, Joe Campanella, Bibi Besch, Clyde Kusatsu, Peter Donat, Sybil Danning, Philip Sterling, Johnny Yune, Roy Edward Disney, John Spencer
-(US: PG)-(UK: PG)-(Au: PG)- Physical violence, mild gore, profanity, alcohol use
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Paul Bradley (a terminally angry Sean Connery) is called back in to his former employer NASA. A giant meteor is headed for Earth, arriving in six days. Paul was involved with the installation of nuclear missiles in space to thwart such a situation that will never happen, so instead the United States pointed the missles at those Commies in the U.S.S.R. As luck would have it, the Russians had their own system, and likewise pointed theirs at the United States. Neither country has the necessary firepower to destroy the meteor, but if we can just work together (any Cold War kid/Generation Xer remember détente?) we can defeat a common enemy and save this crazy screwed-up planet!
There's a germ of a good idea, copied many times later for straight-to-video and basic cable television pablum. A little online reading shows that some of the special effects companies involved were hired and fired, with the budget shrinking each time. I give plenty of leeway when it comes to special effects from the films and television of my childhood, but I couldn't help but shake my head at a lot of this. The production company was American-International Pictures, a studio known for its low budgets. It looks like their money was spent entirely on the cast. Natalie Wood doesn't appear until a third of the way through the picture but is involved in the best scene featuring duelling Russian translators. For a big piece of rock traveling at 30,000 miles per hour, this is one slow moving meteor. The nuclear missiles also move at a snail's pace, adding a few precious minutes to the running time. The underground command center looks like something out of a Bond film, disconcerting when you consider the film's lead. There's an argument during a Cabinet meeting that had me muttering "you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" as Landau portrays a typical Hollywood unhinged military officer, more concerned with the Russkies finding out about our missiles than trying to save the planet. Speaking of typical Hollywood unhinged military officers, a surprising amount of supporting cast members also guested on the television series "M*A*S*H," a show whose episodes I have seen many times over thanks to syndicated blocks of programming on over-the-air stations.
Like the previous year's "Avalanche," "Meteor" comes at the end of the disaster film cycle, which gave us classics like "The Poseidon Adventure," "Airport," and "The Towering Inferno," and the genre was skewered a year later by "Airplane!" The Best Sound Oscar nomination was a surprise, but considering the Special Visual Effects Academy Awards nominees for that year, there was no way "Meteor" was going to score anything else- Visual Effects winner "Alien," and nominees "The Black Hole," "Moonraker," "1941," and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
I remember wanting to see "Meteor" when it was released (I was eleven and already a rabid film fan, recognizing most of the cast names), and then when it appeared again on HBO. I never seemed to get to it, not even clips, so watching it on a streaming service was a bittersweet nostalgia.
Stats:
(1979) 108 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Ronald Neame
-Screenplay by Stanley Mann & Edmund H. North, Story by Edmund H. North
-Cast: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard Dysart, Henry Fonda, Joe Campanella, Bibi Besch, Clyde Kusatsu, Peter Donat, Sybil Danning, Philip Sterling, Johnny Yune, Roy Edward Disney, John Spencer
-(US: PG)-(UK: PG)-(Au: PG)- Physical violence, mild gore, profanity, alcohol use
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Drop (2025)
I appreciated so many aspects of this tight thriller that I'm disappointed that I was disappointed in the final product.
Widow Violet, who was in an abusive relationship with her late husband Blake (Michael Shea), decides to date after being a single mother to Toby (Jacob Robinson) for many years. Violet counsels abuse survivors, healing vicariously through them, and decides to take the next step herself and go out with too-good-to-be-true photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar). Smart aleck sis Jen (Violett Beane) comes over to babysit, and Violet meets Henry at an impossibly beautiful restaurant that's located in a towering skyscraper.
The couple goes through the awkward first date motions as Violet begins receiving threatening AirDrops (labelled as something else) on her phone. I'm not gonna lie, I had to look up exactly what the heck these were, and I never thought of myself as technically inept. Someone in the restaurant wants Violet to kill Henry, or else a mysterious masked man now in her home will kill her sister and son. The game is on as Violet tries to figure out who in the restaurant is terrorizing her without telling Henry too much.
I read a few reviews where Fahy's performance was criticized, but I thought she did a fantastic job as the formerly abused Violet. During the more threatening, angry aspects of the mystery dropper's campaign of terror, Violet would remove herself from the situation- putting on a blank expression and pulling inward- and her performance was very effective. Sklenar as Henry is very good and they have a great chemistry, but this is Violet's story and we spend the most screen time with Fahy. The restaurant locale is a triumph of set decoration and design. Along with the fantastic cinematography, the restaurant, bar, cage-like entry tunnel, and even the bathroom are memorable and menacing. I also appreciated that director Landon or the screenwriters did NOT have Violet read her messages out loud to herself so the audience would know what was happening. The film makers made great use of text and images onscreen, reading what was being sent while watching Violet react to the messages as we were reading them. Violet is not former special forces/commando, so that was another plus.
Unfortunately, as with many films of this ilk, the filmmakers could not maintain the intensity of the opening act as things began to get more ridiculous. I started to question character motivations and scene placement- there's a strange man beating your sister and child at home, but we're going to pause to open up about our feelings to our new date? Are we going to circle around to the immediate danger later, after dessert and coffee? The final few minutes of the film are especially disappointing, losing me and my timeline belief suspension completely.
Landon's direction is certainly enthusiastic and interesting, and I was glad we didn't try to stretch this tight little story into a two and a half hour running time just because we could. I was hoping to get a lean-and-mean tone, but "Drop" will probably drop out of my memory as soon as I post this review.
Stats:
(2025) 95 min. (5/10)
-Directed by Christopher Landon
-Written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach
-Cast: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Sarah McCormack, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Ben Pelletier, Travis Nelson, Saoirse Hayden, Fiona Browne
-(US: PG-13)-(UK: 15)-(Au: MA15+)- Physical violence, gun violence, some gore, some profanity, adult situations, alcohol use
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
Widow Violet, who was in an abusive relationship with her late husband Blake (Michael Shea), decides to date after being a single mother to Toby (Jacob Robinson) for many years. Violet counsels abuse survivors, healing vicariously through them, and decides to take the next step herself and go out with too-good-to-be-true photographer Henry (Brandon Sklenar). Smart aleck sis Jen (Violett Beane) comes over to babysit, and Violet meets Henry at an impossibly beautiful restaurant that's located in a towering skyscraper.
The couple goes through the awkward first date motions as Violet begins receiving threatening AirDrops (labelled as something else) on her phone. I'm not gonna lie, I had to look up exactly what the heck these were, and I never thought of myself as technically inept. Someone in the restaurant wants Violet to kill Henry, or else a mysterious masked man now in her home will kill her sister and son. The game is on as Violet tries to figure out who in the restaurant is terrorizing her without telling Henry too much.
I read a few reviews where Fahy's performance was criticized, but I thought she did a fantastic job as the formerly abused Violet. During the more threatening, angry aspects of the mystery dropper's campaign of terror, Violet would remove herself from the situation- putting on a blank expression and pulling inward- and her performance was very effective. Sklenar as Henry is very good and they have a great chemistry, but this is Violet's story and we spend the most screen time with Fahy. The restaurant locale is a triumph of set decoration and design. Along with the fantastic cinematography, the restaurant, bar, cage-like entry tunnel, and even the bathroom are memorable and menacing. I also appreciated that director Landon or the screenwriters did NOT have Violet read her messages out loud to herself so the audience would know what was happening. The film makers made great use of text and images onscreen, reading what was being sent while watching Violet react to the messages as we were reading them. Violet is not former special forces/commando, so that was another plus.
Unfortunately, as with many films of this ilk, the filmmakers could not maintain the intensity of the opening act as things began to get more ridiculous. I started to question character motivations and scene placement- there's a strange man beating your sister and child at home, but we're going to pause to open up about our feelings to our new date? Are we going to circle around to the immediate danger later, after dessert and coffee? The final few minutes of the film are especially disappointing, losing me and my timeline belief suspension completely.
Landon's direction is certainly enthusiastic and interesting, and I was glad we didn't try to stretch this tight little story into a two and a half hour running time just because we could. I was hoping to get a lean-and-mean tone, but "Drop" will probably drop out of my memory as soon as I post this review.
Stats:
(2025) 95 min. (5/10)
-Directed by Christopher Landon
-Written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach
-Cast: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Sarah McCormack, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Ben Pelletier, Travis Nelson, Saoirse Hayden, Fiona Browne
-(US: PG-13)-(UK: 15)-(Au: MA15+)- Physical violence, gun violence, some gore, some profanity, adult situations, alcohol use
-Media Viewed: Amazon Prime Video Streaming
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