Review: "Profile"

By Ben Miller

New and innovative films inevitably lead to imitators. 2018's Searching is the obvious predecessor to Profile, the new film from Russian filmmaker (and Searching producer) Timur Bekmambetov. While the film ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable levels, script issues and over-dramatic characterizations turn this film into a bloated mess, albeit a watchable one.

Valene Kane stars as Amy Whittaker, a struggling freelance journalist who has an idea for a story: what if she can get recruited by Syrian jihadists in order to discover their tactics? Amy creates a fake Facebook profile and in no time at all, "Melody" is befriended by Bilel (Shazad Latif), a London-born ISIS member living in Syria...

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Review: "Stowaway" on Netflix

by Matt St Clair

Shamier Anderson is the titular "Stowaway"

One common trope in space movies is daddy issues. Whether it involves trying to find one’s dad in space or a sad father dealing family issues, as this 2019 Vulture article points out, it's a constant in outer-space movies. That's been especially true of this last decade with First Man, Interstellar, Ad Astra, and Netflix’s very recent space venture The Midnight Sky. But a surprise development! The new space movie Stowaway, from writer/director Joe Penna, is the rare film to abandon that trend altogether. The central quartet have struggles but not one of them is a daddy issue. 

Commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), botanist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levensen (Anna Kendrick) barely touch on their respective home lives as they make their way to Mars for a two-year space mission...

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Review: Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough shine in "Monday"

by Matt St Clair

The film may be called Monday but it’s all about the thrill of living for the weekend. It opens with a tracking shot of people, including our two American protagonists Mickey (Sebastian Stan) and Chloe (Denise Gough), getting their groove on in the dance floor as “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer starts playing. Everyone dancing to the rhythm with hardly a care in the world reflects the picture's tone as Mickey and Chloe engage in a blissful romance under the Greek Sun. Both act as if they’re stuck on that disco floor and hoping that dread day Monday never comes...

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Review: "Thunder Force" (Netflix)

by Christopher James

Longtime friends McCarthy and Spencer in "Thunder Force."Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are already acting superheroes. Over their long careers, they’ve stolen scenes from the best, been nominated for Oscars (with Spencer winning in 2011), and headlined comedy, drama and horror films. There’s nothing these women can’t do… until now. Thunder Force is their kryptonite. There’s no superpower in their arsenal that can save this comedy, which is completely devoid of laughs. 

Thunder Force takes place in a world much like our own. The main difference: mysterious intergalactic rays touched down in the 80s and gave a few bad apples superpowers. These super individuals, called Miscreants, use their powers to terrorize everyone in sight. If only bad guys are given powers, how are the good guys ever going to prevail?

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Best International Feature: The Man Who Sold His Skin

by Cláudio Alves

For the past few months, I've been trying to watch as many Best International Feature submissions as I possibly can. For The Film Experience, I reviewed 33 of those titles, including nine of the 15 shortlisted films, with most of the remaining finalists being taken care of by other writers. Still, one feature remained unreviewed on Oscar nomination morning, and, as luck would have it, that very same production nabbed a somewhat surprising nod. I wish I could say I was happy about The Man Who Sold His Skin's triumph, but Tunisia's seventh ever submission and first nominee proved to be a disappointment…

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