By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on the dark and gritty novel of the same name by Frank Bill, writer/director Tim Sutton’s adaptation is a darkly meditative piece that slowly burns until its explosively brutal climax. Jamie Bell and Frank Grillo star as foes with a similar goal–to escape the helplessness… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: DONNYBROOK
Category: Reviews
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: APOSTLE
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) From Gareth Evans, the acclaimed director behind The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, comes a film which shows a different side of Evans’s talents. Apostle may not be the insane action fests that his Raid films are, but it certainly displays his gifts for striking… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: APOSTLE
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: CAM
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) This dark erotic thriller reveals some of the more mundane realities of being a camgirl as well as the nasty, creepier ones. Written by Isa Massei, a former cam girl and sex worker, Cam offers some true-to-life insight on the world of online sex workers while… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: CAM
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: MADAM YANKELOVA’S FINE LITERATURE CLUB
By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Israeli director Guilhad Emilio Schenker makes his feature film debut with this sweet and lovable tale with a bit of a dark side. Considering that this film was included in the Fantastic Fest programming, I expected it to be much more gruesome and disturbing. However, this… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: MADAM YANKELOVA’S FINE LITERATURE CLUB
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: HOLIDAY
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) On the surface, one might think that the protagonist Sascha (Victoria Carmen Sonne) is perhaps a rather fortunate young lady. In the prime of her life, she gets to experience a luxurious vacation along the Turquoise Coast in Turkey with a lively and fun group of… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: HOLIDAY
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: THE BOUNCER
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Jean-Claude Van Damme may be 57 years-old, but he can still kick ass on screen like any action star, thirty years his junior. After a bit of a lull following his stardom during the 1980s and ’90s, the actor made quite the comeback with his appearances… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: THE BOUNCER
Review: THE HATE U GIVE
By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) 2018 has already given us three great films which deal with the African-American experience: Sorry To Bother You, Blindspotting, Blackkklansman. Going into this film based on a young adult novel, I began to wonder if cinema had a fourth to offer. The answer is an empathic… Continue reading Review: THE HATE U GIVE
Review: GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Tis the season to be creepy and scared a little bit, but why should the adults have all the fun? With all of the dark and disturbing horror fare out there for the grownups, there’s not much out there for the kids to enjoy. Well, thankfully,… Continue reading Review: GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
Review: FIRST MAN
By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Most people know that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon, but don’t ever consider how stressful and emotionally trying it was for him and his family to get there. The new film from acclaimed director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La… Continue reading Review: FIRST MAN
Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE
Closing Night featured Drew Goddard’s “Bad Times at the El Royale By Liz Lopez Rating: B- Six years after writer-director Drew Goddard’s big-screen debut (“The Cabin in the Woods”) comes his follow up film, “Bad Times at the El Royale,” featuring a retro-looking resort hotel and casino as a prominent character. It has a… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE