Tag: chaos

New Life

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 June 2024
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Director – John Rosman – 2023 – US – 85m

***1/2

Neither the widow nor the assassin pursuing her towards the Canadian border are quite what they seem – genre-bending thriller is out on digital in the UK

The sound of a distressed woman. Now we see her (Hayley Erin) – her head is bleeding as she walks. Away from – what? She makes it down the street in a very normal-looking, small town somewhere in Middle America, into her very ordinary, well-kept, no frills, suburban house. She washes the blood off her head, switches a hoodie for a sweater. Constantly checking around her, she sees the armed men in the hallway and exits through a window.

Another woman (Sonya Walger) puts down her handgun on the edge of a bathroom sink. She looks tired. The yellow post-it notes on her mirror read “I have unlimited opportunities to succeed” and “I am in the process of becoming the best version of myself”. She takes a pill from the ‘M’ compartment of a little circular dispenser marked in letters for days of the week. On her mobile, she hits Play on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, specifically the song Like a Rolling Stone.… Read the rest

Tags a facility somewhere, a place to stay, accommodation, ALS, armed men, Ayanna Berkshire, bar, bathroom sink, been in contact, Betty Moyer, Blaine Palmer, bleeding, blood, Bob Dylan, border crossing, bottle of wine, breakfast, campfire, Canada, care professional, cat and mouse, change appearance, change clothes, chaos, chase, client, computer nerd, contract, dependent, dispenser, distress, escape, genre bender, glove compartment, guns, handgun, Hayley Erin, hayloft, Highway 61 Revisited, hit-man, hit-woman, incarcerated, incurable, Jeb Berrier, John Rosman, Kevin-Michael Moore, last known position, lift, Like a Rolling Stone, Lisa Cross, medical condition, medication, medicine, Middle America, mirror, mortality, Nick George, normal-looking, normality, on the run, out of control, outrun, patient, personal freedom, personal hell, personal nightmare, pickup truck, pill, pity, post-it notes, prey, prisoner in your own body, pursuer, pursuit, rely on others, rucksack, small town, Sonya Walger, stowaway, stray dog, street, suburban, supplies, survival, target, temporary work, theft, tired, Tony Amendola), tracking, US, videolink, walking stick, washes, woman, woods

Features Live Action Movies

The Shift

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 25 March 2024
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Director – Brock Heasley – 2023 – US – Cert. 12a – 115m

***

A former hedge fund manager is separated from his wife when a mysterious stranger ‘shifts’ him into a parallel world devoid of hope – out on digital from Monday, March 25th and Blu-ray / DVD from Monday, April 1st following its release in cinemas in the UK on Friday, December 15th

A fully clothed, bloody-handed man unexpectedly finds himself in the middle of a lake, swims to shore and, in voice-over, introduces us to a flashback as to how he got there. Fearing for his job security in a stock market crash, Wall Street hedge fund manager Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha from Jurassic World Dominion, Colin Trevorrow, 2022; Mad Men TV series, 2007-9) hits a hotel bar where he is approached by Molly (Elizabeth Tabish from The Chosen TV series, 2019-2024) who was dared to get him to date her by her three drinking companions.

To both of their surprises the pair end up going on a date, and then, in a rapid fire montage, marrying and having a child, only to later lose the child and have their relationship slowly implode as a result. One day, everything falls finally apart: he (it’s about him, not her) has failed to pay some bills, misses an important early morning meeting at the office, and is hit by another car whilst driving home talking to her on the phone.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Master Gardener

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 15 May 2023
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Director – Paul Schrader – 2022 – US – Cert. 15 – 107m

****

Order and chaos. A man works bringing horticultural order to his employer’s garden estate, but the disorder of his past threatens to catch up with him and wreak havoc upon it

Or. A man engaged in sexual relations with his female employer becomes involved with her grandniece, to whom his employer may one day leave her inheritance

Or. A man orders his employer’s garden estate until she ejects him for sleeping with her grandniece, leaving the pair to survive in the tough world beyond – out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 26th

This appears to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it concerns a man (the central character, the eponymous master gardener) imposing order, but he is a man coming from chaos and at some point that chaos may undo what he has achieved there. On the other, it concerns two women – one his monied, controlling, matriarchal employer, the other her grandniece, from the wrong side of the tracks, who the employer wants to learn the business. The man is initially the lover of the first and, later, becomes the lover of the second, for which the first fires him.… Read the rest

Tags abuse, Adam and Eve, American underbelly, apprentice, avenging angel, bad choices, Bible, blood, blood relative, chaos, charity auction, Devonté Hynes, dog-eat-dog, drugs, drugs dealer, Eden, eject, Esai Morales, evict, fall from grace, far right, far right group, flawed character, formal, formal garden, garden, gardening, grandniece, handler deputy marshall, horticulture, imposing order, inheritance, intimate relations, Joel Edgerton, learning the business, legacy, marriage, marriage breakup, master gardener, motels, nightmare, order, order and chaos, outside the garden, Paul Schrader, pleasant dream, poor housing, pride and joy, Quintessa Swindell, rich and poor, Robert De Niro, saving a younger female, sex, sexual relations, Sigourney Weaver, social underbelly, tattoo, troubled past, US, violence, witness protection programme