Multiplex Madness
Breeder
⭐️1/2
Genre: Horror
Director: Alex Goyette
Starring: Daniel Doheny, Dot-Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, Tanaya Beatty
A struggling M.I.T. student is lured into the home of a woman under the pretense of helping her breed dogs. In reality, she traps him in her home and forces him to breed with her daughters. The simple idea of "the way we treat animals is heartless and cruel if we treat humans the same way" is hardly a new concept, and Breeder has an interesting spin on it deep down its rabbit hole. One can see the idea its playing with and the vision of the way it presents itself. The issue is that the script is thinly written with little means of tension building, just abrasively pushing discomfort unpleasantness in our faces in hopes that the formula crafts unease by accident. The best aspects of this movie made me want to like it, but while it can be smart, it's never slick. There is little care in how it progresses its story, and at times it feels like pieces are missing and the movie fails to genuinely explore the idea it presents or just ignoring gaping holes in its logic. The movie never grabbed me because it was too busy frustrating me, concentrating on just being overbearing with its mood and never concerned with actually crafting something that was worth watching. There are things that this movie does very well, but telling the story that it chose to tell is not one of them.
Christmas at the Kringles
⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy, Action, Horror
Director: Kevin Lewis
Starring: Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, Rob Riggle, Thomas Linnon, Arden Myrin, Donald Faison, Beverly D'Angelo
My general arbitrary rule is that if a Christmas movie opens in October, that usually means it's not very good. I think I need to come up with a new one for Christmas movies that open in October but don't take place on Christmas, because this one sets itself on Valentine's Day. I don't even know what we're doing here anymore.
This black comedy features a family that moves in next to neighbors who celebrate Christmas year round. That jolly family actually belongs to a cult that tries to assimilate you into their joyful family or they will murder you. It's like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only if the cannibal rednecks were replaced with the Flanders family from The Simpsons and were equally bloodthirsty. Admirable anti-holiday cheer has charm, but the screenplay lacks any sort of propulsion to its madness. The only selling point to any of it is how perfectly cast it is. That cast is given a lot of mayhem and one-liners to deliver, but I wish that the film had some sort of idea beyond holiday themed maniacal cackling because it doesn't really do anything else. Some of the jokes are okay, some of the violence is fun, but the movie is pretty half-baked. When movies like Violent Night and Terrifier 3 exist and already offer the counter-Christmas programing experience of holiday bloodshed while also feeling like they have a complete screenplay, a movie like Christmas at the Kringles just isn't going to cut it.
Everest: The Other Side
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Documentary
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
Starring: Jim Morrison, Hilaree Nelson
The directors of the Oscar winning documentary Free Solo are back with another documentary about every MSTie's favorite pastime, rock climbing! And snow climbing, too! And a little bit of skiing.
Jim Morrison (NOT THAT ONE) and his wife Hilaree Nelson are mountain climbers who specialize in climbing to peaks and skiing down the snowy tops. They devise their big bucket list project to be, what else, Mount Everest. Not only that, they insist upon climbing up the northern side, which is the more rarely traversed because it's the more dangerous path. The effort takes more than five years to come to fruition, but the final climb happened in 2025, resulting in a four hour ski down the side of the great mountain. The venture can spurt around as the mountaineers encounter setbacks, false starts, peril, and tragedy. Those who follow these two likely already know of some of the film's more heartwrenching moments, which are caught on camera and are rightfully shocking. Sadly, documentaries are beholden to the narrative that plays out on camera, and as things go wrong and the climb gets pushed back, the movie can slump. However, the tenacity of the subjects is infectious, ensuring that the finale is one that is worth bearing witness to.
Fjord
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve
Sebastian Stan continues to push himself into roles where he proves himself to be a chameleon in this drama, where he plays a Christian Romanian man married to arthouse darling (and previous A Different Man co-star) Renate Reinsve and the couple moves their family to Norway. Freshly relocated, the couple's strict conservative values come under scrutiny when child protective services are called when second-hand accounts of them spanking their children is reported as child abuse.
Look. It's complicated.
Fjord is a movie that examines a lot of conservative and progressive ideals and it's the rare film that treats them both with fairness and respect. Whether or not Stan and Reinsve are abusive is a matter of perspective, but it should be noted that a lot of what they're accused of is not actually witnessed. There are accounts from their children, but it also feels as if they are not allowed to speak for themselves, and when they do, their words are interpreted rather than understood. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse, which brings up the question of where it is drawn and how do we define it. A lot of this has to do with idealistic scrutiny, with there being a gap between family values and seeing the differences as a harshness that demands to be answered for. Judging a family for using a spanking as a form of punishment is one thing, but bringing up evidence that the family doesn't allow their children to use cell phones or play video games is an irrelevance that is used to portray them in a negative light. That's not abuse. That's an upbringing and lifestyle choice. In my eyes, the most abusive act that I interpreted happens late in the movie and wasn't physical at all, being an act of forcing emotional repression rather than anything hands-on.
It's brilliantly nuanced stuff, and the movie is more compelling than most movies that try to portray a similar type of story, because most movies like this are faith productions that feed into a Christian persecution complex. But compared to what type of movie would have been made by a Christian group, this is a far more realistic portrayal and actually genuinely could generate sympathy from a non-Christian audience. It's a portrayal of a sensibility gap leading to a misunderstanding, judgment by people who bore limited witness, and the frustrating coldness of legal impartiality leading to a feeling of cruelty than a full persecution, which makes it more interesting than the more tired "atheists hate us because we exist" argument. The movie is frustrating because the simple solution is more efficient communication and understanding, but there are also no easy answers and it has none to offer. But it's also asking the right questions.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Noah Segan
Starring: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany, Steve Buscemi, Jamie Lee Curtis
John Turturro plays an aged pickpocket who unknowingly lifts a USB card off of some dangerous people, who threaten to kill his catatonic wife if he doesn't return it, promising they'll only kill him if he does. While that premise sounds like it's setting up excitement, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York uses it to set up life contemplation. Tutrurro's character doesn't really fight his promised fate, opting to use the time he is given to retrieve the card as one would spend his final hours, looking back at the life they were given, and thinking about the mistakes made and also a few things about old dogs in a new age. Sometimes the film struggles to really hit a beat, as our main character seems to waive off urgency and dawdle when he can, but the movie tells its story reasonably well. It isn't terribly profound, as it covers ground a lot of dramas have covered before and will again, but Turturro gives a strong, quiet performance that leads with his eyes. He gives the movie the heart it needs and it uses him to its advantage.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Clayface ⭐️⭐️1/2
Forgotten Island ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart of the Beast ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Other Mommy ⭐️1/2
Resident Evil ⭐️⭐️
Sense and Sensibility ⭐️⭐️1/2
Spider-Man: Brand New Day ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Street Fighter ⭐️⭐️
Verity ⭐️
Whalefall ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicker ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Wildwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You Can See Everything ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
The Dog Stars ⭐️⭐️
Forgotten Island ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Stunt Driver ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Verity ⭐️
New To Physical
Frankenstein ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Skincare ⭐️⭐️1/2
Coming Soon!
