>>> The Shallows is an effective, efficient survival thriller starring Blake Lively as Nancy, a young American surfer trying to stay alive after a shark attack in a Mexican inlet. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NNNN
Independence Day: Resurgence is a sequel to the summer blockbuster about an alien invasion. It may not have been great cinema, but it was a spirited, fun summer movie, offering the vicarious thrill of scrappy heroes surviving planetary carnage to rally and defeat a faceless alien horde. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NN
The Neon Demon is more fetish object than motion picture, with director/co-writer Winding Refn crafting a long, lurid tale of L.A. culture eating its young in slick, overheated early 80s synthesizers and scarlets. Elle Fanning is eminently watchable as a teenage ingenue at risk of being swallowed whole by the modelling industry, but Winding Refn only seems interested in her performance as it relates to his lighting schemes. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NN
Three is a tightly contained thriller from the revered director, set entirely within the walls of a Hong Kong hospital, where the lives of an exhausted neurosurgeon (Zhao Wei), a wounded Triad gangster (Wallace Chung) and a determined cop (Louis Koo) intersect on one especially busy evening. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NNN
Free State of Jones is a well-meaning but disposable Civil War drama telling the true story of Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer and former Confederate soldier who organized a small militia of fellow deserters and escaped slaves to take on the Confederacy in Mississippi. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NN
Look Again stars Anand Rajaram as Amit, a middle-ager who’s been screwed a few too many times. A helpful gift from guardian angels, a pair of eyeglasses that magically reveal whether a person is good or bad, allows him to find the right girl (Brittany Allen) and land a job as a talent scout before he starts abusing his powers for kicks. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NNN
>>> Tickled plays like a click-bait story come to life: “This New Zealand Journalist Wanted To Know More About Competitive Endurance Tickling. What Happened Next Will Shock You!” The thing is, it’s not an exaggeration. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NNNN
>>> Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a lovely little study of bonding and healing in the New Zealand bush, with a misfit kid (Julian Dennison) and a grumpy older bloke (Sam Neill) forced to go on the run together after a series of misunderstandings launches a national manhunt. (See full review).
Opens June 24. See listing.
Rating: NNNN
Available now on Netflix
Far From The Madding Crowd sees Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene, the headstrong centre of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd, Mulligan is magnetic. She’s in nearly every scene of the two-hour film and has not one but three men to play against. Not to mention sharing the screen with some gorgeous landscapes evoking 19th century Dorset. (See full review).
Rating: NNNN
Available to watch here.
