Movie Reviews

By Tom Pacak Dear Aspiring Directors and Writers, This is how you do a thriller! Director Steve McQueen masterfully gives us a thriller that pins us to our seats but also gives us something to think about.   “Widows” is an entertaining as hell heist flick that I’ve been waiting to see for years. The Oceans movies (which I love) focus more on the con itself but not really on the characters. The characters are cool but that’s really it. They steal for fun and revenge. In “Widows,” the characters planning the heist, are stealing for survival. Their husbands are con men but the widows have nothing and everything to lose.    Since seeing “Widows,” I’ve looked at the box office receipts and they haven’t been well. The film managed to place fifth at the box office with an opening at $12361307. The film since then has had receipts around the one million mark on Monday and Tuesday. Despite being a great movie, the marketing for “Widows” has been poor. The poster for...

By Tom Pacak Watching “Wildlife,” I was reminded of the countless people in California trying to set out these terrible fires. What the state is going through right now is very serious and I hope everyone finds safety. “Wildlife” isn’t necessarily about the men who risk their lives to put out these fires, but instead focuses on how scary it is having a loved one gone fighting the unknown. There are no scenes of the male protagonist Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) fighting the fires, but we worry every minute that he might not come back.   The film also brings to question, what does a family do when someone you love is gone and may not return? There are several things out of character you may do when the person in charge isn’t home. You’ll have an affair with somebody you don’t care about; you’ll drink every night, or get a job to provide for the family. These are all things actor Paul Dano wants us to question in his new directorial debut. Paul Dano’s portrayal of th...

By Tom Pacak “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is a film about lonely people. A film that shows lonely people commit criminal acts for attention, survival, and desperation.   People steal, kill, and commit forgeries all for the sake of getting recognized. The criminal acts in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” are not only crimes of desperation but also crimes of passion.   Nobody dies from these acts but people definitely screamed “Bloody Murder” about them. The film’s protagonist Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) and her best friend Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) are people trying to get by but in the end, loved the crimes they were committing. Lee Israel is trying to make ends meet. She is a struggling alcoholic author who was popular back in the 1970s-1990s who specializes in writing high profiles on women. Now, she has lost her mojo and relevance. Her cat is sick; her apartment is falling apart, and can’t make a book deal. She’s broke! Her agent stresses to her that she’s ...

By Tom Pacak “Outlaw King” looks like one of those films that would be good. It’s got a talented cast, talented director (David Mackenzie), and the cinematography is amazing. I’m trying to figure out where this movie fell flat. The story of Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine) launching a guerrilla war on the English army is definitely an interesting story to make a good movie (especially with all the talent involved). David Mackenzie and Chris Pine both teamed up for one of the best crime movies of the 2010s (Hell or High Water) so I was excited to see where this film would take me as a filmgoer. The film has an overwhelming budget of $120 million, so you know Netflix was trying to strike gold. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t evens strike silver. The film is set in 1304 AD and covers the life of Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce was the ambitious 14th-century king of Scots who waged a war against the English army. At first, the Scots and English have a pretty civil relatio...

By Tom Pacak When “Suspiria” the remake of the 1977 Italian horror film was released at the Venice Film Festival, it was meet with very polarizing responses. Some people loved it and some people hated it. When you look on Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll see a streak of positive responses with 4-star reviews and then a streak of reviews with a 1-star rating. There was no between responses. I fall under the loved it category! In fact, I prefer Luca Guadagnino’s vision of the film a lot better than Dario Argento’s original film. I have nothing against Dario Argento’s “Suspiria.” I think it’s very good for its time and still has some pretty good scares. I also like the use of colors the original had, which gave the film a somewhat campy vibe.  In Luca’s version, cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name) uses bland colors to show how depressing times were during the Berlin Wall.  The remake, however, goes into uncharted territory and tries to be something differ...