All posts by Ben Sears

Sasquatch Sunset Review

Sasquatch Sunset

  • Director: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
  • Writer: David Zellner
  • Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek, Nathan Zellner

Grade: C+

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey is almost 30 minutes long. No, this review will not argue that David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset measures up to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, but some similarities can easily be drawn. Namely, both films contain depictions of primordial beings as they cope with unexpected obstacles beyond their comprehension.

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Civil War Review

Civil War

  • Director: Alex Garland
  • Writer: Alex Garland
  • Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman

Grade: B+

Alex Garland’s Civil War feels like a massive increase in scope and scale compared to the writer-director’s previous work, but contains some of the same storytelling deficiencies that have held him back. For as celebrated as his screenplays have become – from 28 Days Later to Sunshine and Ex Machina – he has run into the same problem that screenwriters like Charlie Kaufman or Diablo Cody have. That is, their best work often comes when someone else directs their screenplays. But Civil War sees Garland crafting a sneakily smart set of ideas while creating a palpable sense of dread.

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Fallout Season 1 – TV Review

Fallout Season 1

  • Creators: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner
  • Starring: Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, Leslie Uggams, Frances Turner, Dave Register, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton
  • Eight episode season, eight episodes watched for review

Grade: B

Here’s the problem inherent in a TV version of Fallout, which most video game adaptations face: no matter how many episodes are created, no matter how much detail the creators throw in, the experience of watching the show will never match the experience of playing the game. Unlike The Last of Us, perhaps the most successful in the genre, Fallout wasn’t inherently designed to be cinematic, or to follow one straightforward storyline. In fact, part of what makes the games so great (I’m a huge fan, so color your reactions to the rest of this review accordingly) is in how free you are to do just about anything at your own leisure. Television doesn’t provide the same luxury, but that doesn’t mean a series adaptation was doomed to fail from the start.

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The Regime Episode 6, “Don’t Yet Rejoice” Review

“Don’t Yet Rejoice”

  • Creator: Will Tracy
  • Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillame Gallienne, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant

Grade: B-

Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

Just as I predicted at the end of last week’s episode, Elena has to choose in the season finale of The Regime between her love of Herbert Zubak and her love of power. Of course, it gets much more complicated than and dangerous than a simple binary choice, and episode 6 puts them both through the ringer repeatedly. I didn’t know exactly how this show would end, or what kind of statement it would be making by the end of it, but for every expected beat, there was an added surprise or two.

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Girls State – Movie Review

Girls State

  • Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

Grade: A-

Can documentaries have franchises? Whether they intended to or not, it seems that directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss have one on their hands with their newest documentary Girls State. It’s a premise that lends itself to endless revisions, where no two versions can be the same, but some similarities emerge.

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The Regime Episode 5, “All Ye Faithful” Review

“All Ye Faithful”

  • Creator: Will Tracy
  • Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillame Gallienne, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

Six months have passed since “Midnight Feast”, and episode 5 quickly and frequently shows how much things have gone off the rails for Elena (Kate Winslet) and her country. What started out as unruly protests in episode 4 has evolved into a full-scale civil war. The episode even chimes in by occasionally showing the increasingly small distance between the rebels and the palace. I remain impressed with how The Regime has fully embraced its silly side, from this week’s opening moments to the end. But, as always, it manages to balance sharp character drama (and action, in the final moments) in-between.

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The Regime Episode 4, “Midnight Feast” Review

“Midnight Feast”

  • Creator: Will Tracy
  • Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillame Gallienne, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant

Grade: B

Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

Minute for minute, episode 4 provides the most explicitly comedic material of The Regime so far. But it still manages to add in plenty of darkness, as Elena (Kate Winslet) tightens her dictatorial grip on her people, and Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) descends further into madness. One piece of humor comes in the uniquely bizarre way that Elena tortures Zubak as he rots in his prison cell, pumping in a loud, endless stream of news updates and public addresses with Elena’s voice.

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Late Night with the Devil – Movie Review

Late Night with the Devil

  • Director: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
  • Writers: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
  • Starring: David Dastmalchian, Fayssal Bazzi, Laura Gordon, Ingrid Torelli, Ian Bliss

Grade: B

Found footage horror was run into the ground in the wake of films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, but Late Night with the Devil finds a new way in to a tired genre, thanks to its commitment to atmosphere and a mounting sense of tension. The television landscape of the 1970s offers a fruitful setting for a horror film, with the ongoing Vietnam war, political strife, and the cultural upheaval after the swingin’ 60s. Writers and directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes have certainly done their homework to make Late Night with the Devil feel authentic on the screen and on the page, in spite of the bizarre circumstances within it.

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The Regime Episode 3, “The Heroes’ Banquet” Review

“The Heroes’ Banquet”

  • Creator: Will Tracy
  • Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillame Gallienne, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant

Grade: A-

Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

To the surprise of absolutely no one outside the palace walls, last week’s revelation that Herbert Zubak (Matthis Schoenaerts) is the heir to the country’s foundling leads to hilariously disastrous results in episode 3. The Regime continues to remain within its singular location – with the exception of some generic countryside stock footage for a palace infomercial and a montage of news reports after the country’s “reunification” operation – but we get an even better look at what’s going on around this fictional country, and Elena’s deteriorating psyche.

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The Regime Episode 2, “The Foundling” Review

“The Foundling”

  • Creator: Will Tracy
  • Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Andrea Riseborough, Guillame Gallienne, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of The Regime will contain spoilers.

You know you’re in the hands of a talented creative team when what you’re not being shown is just as impactful as what you are being shown. In episode 2, The Regime still feels hampered by its self-imposed limitations, but manages to mine a great deal of comedy and drama out of so little. I admire a project that takes place almost entirely in a single location, as is the case so far with the show, but I wonder if we’d get a better sense of the problems that plague Elena’s (Kate Winslet) still-unnamed country.

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