Kristen Stewart has a gripping and anxious presence in this unsettling and somewhat unsatisfying thriller from writer-director Olivier Assayas. She plays Maureen, a young woman marooned in self-imposed isolation in Paris after the death of her brother Lewis. An individual attuned to the spiritual world, Maureen is attempting to contact her departed brother, searching for certainty … Continue reading Personal Shopper
Paul Verhoeven doesn't do subtle. It's a view that's easy to countenance, if one only recalls his most famous films. Robocop; Total Recall; Basic Instinct; Starship Troopers perhaps most of all. These films wear their views openly, emblazoned on their sleeves the symbol, perhaps, of a winking smirk. Each has a position or hypothetical to explore, and does so brazenly. With … Continue reading Elle
In 1970s Boston, an arms trade is set up between IRA footmen and a South African livewire; it goes bad and a gunfight ensues. What might act as the opening gambit in a Scorcese epic, or the finale of a Francis Ford Coppola classic, is writer-director Ben Wheatley's beginning, middle and end - a tense and … Continue reading Free Fire
