Movie reviews of Alex Brannan

The lead performance from O’Donnell is committed and engaging, and Stacy Keach’s entirely sedentary performance is surprisingly dynamic. There are ideas in this worth exploring, which fill out this metatextual environment well, but it does not all come together into a coherent whole. Review

The film flails around histrionically to keep up with them as they wreak havoc on a small suburban town. It is an engaging, if not unfulfilling, experience. On the plus side, the music is quite good, with one recurring earworm that really grew on me. Review

Monster Seafood Wars is a deliriously silly send-up of low budget kaiju movies. Review

A good documentary requires a great subject. Hail to the Deadites is a passionate film made by fans of The Evil Dead for fans of The Evil Dead. Unfortunately, its subject does not provide a wealth of content. Review

The more I think about Patrick, the more I feel I may have been deceived by its simplicity. Expecting an offbeat anti-comedy, I got something much more existential. And it is possible that that is why I wasn’t able to get on the film’s level. Review

Mainly, I could not wrap my head around the episodic structure, in which increasingly wild happenstance encounters occur and are made all the more wild due to the presence of a covert alien. This may have been more palatable had this structure culminated in a satisfying conclusion, or if the happenstance encounters were so intriguing in their own right to excuse the lack of a meaningful narrative arc. Review

Special Actors might not reach the highs of One Cut of the Dead, but it is nevertheless a humorous and wholly engaging experience. Review

As interesting and idiosyncratic as the world is, it is less fascinating to learn about the world than it is to see how it resembles our own. There are parallels established that make this a very clear satire of our technological existence, yet the film’s plot rarely lends itself to this satire. Review

The film is fairly engaging, particularly if you do not know the full story of Pepe. Review

Yummy is a charming, nasty little horror comedy. It presents clever twists on familiar horror movie tropes and strings along a plot with a number of pleasant (and morbidly delectable) surprises. Review

Sleep is quietly engaging, not the least of which because of the great lead performance from Gro Swantje Kohlhof. Review

As much as I may be quibbling with the minutiae of this story world as it relates to larger interpretation of the human condition, She Dies Tomorrow does provide a specific, singular vision that is engrossing. Some of the performances may waver in tone, but Sheil and Adams feel consistently in the pocket of what this script is going for. Review

Brie's presence alone adds an emotional dimension that is lacking at the script level. But that is not enough to salvage what is ultimately a less-than gripping thriller with uneven plotting and an uncompromising, yet thoroughly unsatisfying, climax. Review

The Old Guard is stylishly directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, but it struggles to get off the ground due to the script’s inability to develop these characters in a real meaningful way. Review

In the end, though, Guest of Honour is fettered by its own nested design. Review

While the film, when taken as a whole, does not contain the most efficient or focused narrative, this underlying tension remains compelling. As such, Mr. Jones is a powerful watch, if not an uneven one. Review

It is a crude depiction of an industry, populated by crudely-drawn characters, with crude tone shifts that do not complement one another. Review

The King of Staten Island survives on its emotional heft, not its comedy or narrative. In moments, the tone and narrative cohere into something that borders on poignant, but often the film is an oscillating pendulum filled with tonal inconstancy. Review

It is elegance painted with a thick brush, but that, still, is elegance. Review

The adeptness of the two poster performers can only do this movie so many favors. In the end, Becky falls under the weight of its own violent simplicity. Review

This is a sloth of a movie, trudging through an insane 150-minute runtime with no sense of pacing or narrative intent. Review

Shirley is a fascinating character study. The emotions it deals in are intense and fraught, and the atmosphere created by Decker’s formalism puts these emotions in a disquieting light. Review

With great leads and a more-than-capable director, the potential of this film outweighs the results. The script does not provide consistent humor, putting forward plenty of out-dated references but rarely a genuinely clever joke. It does better work fleshing out a grounded relationship for its eponymous pair, but even this falls short of emotional effectiveness. Review

Despite following a well-worn generic path, however, there are kernels of novelty in Arkansas. Review