Thoroughbreds

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

For some filmmakers, it takes them a very long time to get to a point where they can be considered a great director. For others, they become great right off the bat. Many famous directors, such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino & Wes Anderson are some great examples of established directors who have been great right from the minute the film started rolling in their debut film.

Thoroughbreds is a scathingly funny & thoroughly tense film that is one of the best directorial debuts in recent memory. The film follows Lily (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), a rich, smart & popular teenager in suburban Connecticut. She feels every emotion possible, & lives with her mother (played by Francie Swift) & her stepfather, Mark (played by Paul Sparks), whom she despises.

Her former best friend, Amanda (played by Olivia Cooke), who feels absolutely nothing, is at Lily's house to hang out & be tutored by Lily, but finds out her mother paid Lily to hang out with Amanda after an incident Amanda committed. Some time after this revelation, Lily & Amanda become friends again.

One night, after Lily tells her about Mark, Amanda asks her if she has ever thought of killing him. Lily denies this & asks Amanda to leave. However, after seeing Mark viciously berate her mother, Lily decides to plan with Amanda to kill him, proposing that Amanda do it, as she wouldn't feel remorse for it.

However, due to the incident Amanda committed, she feels that the prior incident would make her a prime suspect. As a result, Lily & Amanda hire Tim (played by Anton Yelchin), a drug dealer who is infamous for having sex with a 17-year-old when he was 23. But as the ball gets rolling, all of their plans start to crumble around them.

The cast is spectacular. Taylor-Joy & Cooke are 2 of the best rising stars in Hollywood, & they are both at the top of the game. And Yelchin, an actor who had the potential to be a star but went far too soon, is perfect. He is absolutely insane here. His performance is one of the best final performances I've ever seen.

Cory Finley's direction is excellent. Finley, a 28-year-old who had never even seen a film set before this film, directs this with the talent of a seasoned veteran. The film was originally planned to be a play, & that is evident here with the tense, claustrophobic feel in some parts.

Cory Finley's screenplay is brilliant. The dialogue is witty, dark & overall hilarious, & the characters are so well-written. Finley writes with the bravado of a young Paul Thomas Anderson.

Lyle Vincent's cinematography is amazing. Vincent uses a series of excellent long takes that are some of the best in a while.

Louise Ford's editing is excellent. Ford paces the film deliberately slow, allowing the intricacies of the plot to slowly unfold.

And Erik Friedlander's score is stellar. The cello-driven score adds another layer to the highly tense atmosphere of the film.

This is the best film of the year so far. Filled with amazing performances, a killer screenplay & stunning cinematography, I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up on my end-of-the-year list as one of the 10 best films of the year.

Thoroughbreds was seen by me at the MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16 in Troy, MI on Friday, March 9, 2018. It is currently in 4 theaters in the Detroit area: the MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16 in Troy, MI; the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI; the AMC Forum 30 in Sterling Heights, MI; & the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, MI. Its runtime is 92 minutes, & it is rated R for disturbing behavior, bloody images, language, sexual references, & some drug content.

A Wrinkle in Time

★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

A Wrinkle in Time could've been great. It could've been a visually groundbreaking masterpiece. With the performances & visuals, it's about halfway there.

However, everything else about this film is a complete mess. Based on the 1962 classic novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the film follows Meg Murry (played by Storm Reid), a 13-year-old that is wise beyond her years. After the disappearance of her astrophysicist father, Dr. Alex Murry (played by Chris Pine), Meg has become more withdrawn & arrogant. Her & her mother, Kate (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) believe that he went missing while looking for other worlds.

One night, Meg's younger brother, Charles Wallace (played by Deric McCabe), invites a woman named Mrs. Whatsit (played by Reese Witherspoon) into the house. She has information about Alex involving the tesseract, which he was working on for space travel. The next day, Meg, Charles Wallace, Mrs. Whatsit, & Meg's friend, Calvin (played by Levi Miller), travel to the house of Mrs. Who (played by Mindy Kaling), who only speaks in quotes.

Soon after, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, & Mrs. Which (played by Oprah Winfrey) appear in Meg's backyard, & "tesser" Meg, Charles Wallace, & Calvin onto the planet of Uriel, where Alex was seen. In Uriel's atmosphere, they find The IT, a dark entity representing all negative emotions that is set on world domination, guarded by Red (played by Michael Peña). Alex was captured by The IT. A meeting with The Happy Medium (played by Zach Galifianakis) reveals that Alex is trapped on the planet of Camazotz, The IT's homeworld. Now, Meg, Charles Wallace, Calvin, & the Mrs. Ws must save Alex before it's too late.

The cast is good. Reid is the best out of the cast, & I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes a big name someday. Winfrey, Pine, Witherspoon, & Kaling are good. Galifianakis seems out of place here, & McCabe's performance is what a child performance shouldn't be: clingy & annoying.

Ava DuVernay's direction is underwhelming. While DuVernay's ambition is great, & she does bring a great sense of wonder, the tone doesn't feel as powerful as it should be.

The screenplay by Jennifer Lee & Jeff Stockwell is a disaster. Although the novel has long been considered to be unfilmable, it doesn't excuse the fact that there are an absurd amount of plot holes that make the film so utterly confusing. However, it does have a good message.

Tobias A. Schliessler's cinematography is amazing. The color palette is very stunning & the camerawork is extremely grand.

Spencer Averick's editing is terrible. The film is horribly paced, making its 109-minute runtime feel like almost 3 hours. Also, there is some really frenetic editing here that is way overdoing it.

Naomi Shohan's production design is excellent. The places that the characters "tesser" to are so stunning & awe-inspiring.

And the visual effects are a mixed bag. Some of the effects are great, while some aren't so great. Also, the CGI tends to be way overused throughout the film.

This is a real disappointment. Although the performances & visuals are good, the direction, editing & screenplay really bog the film down. From a great director like Ava DuVernay, this feels like even more of a disappointment than it usually would.

A Wrinkle in Time was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Friday, March 9, 2018. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 109 minutes, & it is rated PG for thematic elements & some peril.

The Party

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Since I started my love for film, I've had a fascination with dark comedies. Making light of things that wouldn't be considered funny seemed to rise a lot of laughs out of me. There are some limits, but for the most part, dark humor is my type of humor.

The Party is one of the funniest dark comedies of the decade. The film follows Janet (played by Kristin Scott Thomas), a newly-appointed Shadow Minister for Health for the opposition party in the UK. To celebrate, she throws a dinner party. She invites 6 people: her cynical best friend, April (played by Patricia Clarkson); April's estranged German husband, Gottfried (played by Bruno Ganz), a spiritual healer; women's studies professor Martha (played by Cherry Jones); her partner, Jinny (played by Emily Mortimer), a chef; Janet's colleague, Marianne; & Marianne's banker husband, Tom (played by Cillian Murphy).

The guests arrive, except for Marianne, who Tom says will be coming late. In the living room, Janet's husband, Bill (played by Timothy Spall), stares blankly into space, drinking wine, & talking quietly.

As the drinks flow, revelations start to come to the surface. April & Gottfried are divorcing, Martha & Jinny are having triplets, & Bill is leaving Janet for Marianne. But that's only just the start of this eventful evening.

The cast is spectacular. Kristin Scott Thomas's performance is a more-than-welcome return to the silver screen. After a few years playing in very small films, she's starting to make a comeback. Cillian Murphy is perfect as a neurotic cokehead. But Patricia Clarkson is absolutely fantastic. Clarkson hasn't had this big of a role in years. And when she gets a big role, she shows that she is not to be messed with, & that is evident here. She is absolutely brilliant as a cynical, bitter realist.

Sally Potter's direction is excellent. The direction is subdued, maintaining a tense atmosphere while having a humorous undertone.

Sally Potter's screenplay is brilliant. The dialogue is some of the funniest in years, & is perfectly cynical & mean-spirited.

And Aleksei Rodionov's cinematography is amazing. Shot in black-&-white, this gives the film a darker & more bitter effect, matching the tone of the film.

This is one of the best films of the year. Sally Potter's writing is top-notch, & Patricia Clarkson absolutely steals the show.

The Party was seen by me at the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI on Friday, March 2, 2018. It is no longer in theaters in the Detroit area. Its runtime is 71 minutes, & it is rated R for language & drug use.

A Fantastic Woman

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

For many years, the portrayal of transgender characters in film has been less than satisfactory, to say the least. Some are more respectful, while some are downright offensive, but none of them have hit the mark, as many films do not have actual transgender actors or actresses portraying the roles. Some may say it's all about talent, but there are some talented transgender actors & actresses out there.

A Fantastic Woman treats the film's subject with such care & tenderness, & is one of the most beautiful films of 2017. The film follows Marina Vidal (played by Daniela Vega), a singer & waitress in Santiago, Chile. She has just moved in with her older boyfriend, Orlando (played by Francisco Reyes), a divorcée.

One night, after going out for Marina's birthday, Orlando wakes up in the middle of the night with a brain aneurysm. Marina takes him to the hospital, but he dies from his aneurysm.

After his death, Marina is brutally victimized. She is victimized because she is a trans woman. A police officer purposefully calls her by her old name. An investigator from the sexual assault unit oversees a traumatic inspection of her. And Orlando's family shuts her out, banning her from coming to Orlando's funeral.

But Marina will not be silenced. She will not be deterred. She will stop at nothing to mourn the loss of her boyfriend & to be known for what she is: a fantastic woman.

The cast is fantastic. Daniela Vega's performance is a complete revelation. She can show so much emotion with just the look on her face. This performance shows that transgender actors & actresses are out there, & that they need to be faithfully represented. And Francisco Reyes also has some excellent chemistry with Daniela Vega. But this belongs to Vega's fantastic performance.

Sebastián Lelio's direction is excellent. Lelio's direction is subdued, & treats such a heavy & thought-provoking subject with the care & tenderness that it deserves.

And the screenplay by Sebastián Lelio & Gonzalo Maza is amazing. The dialogue feels natural, & the plot & story are so intriguing, & give the lead transgender character the respect she deserves.

This is one of the best foreign films of the decade. Led by a fantastic performance from Daniela Vega, this beautiful film finally gives trans people the representation they deserve. Hopefully, this film will lead the way for more trans actors & actresses to play roles meant for trans people in film, & lead to wider acceptance of trans people throughout the world.

A Fantastic Woman was seen by me at the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI on Friday, March 2, 2018. It is currently in 2 theaters in the Detroit area: the Landmark Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, MI & the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, MI. Its runtime is 100 minutes, & it is rated R for language, sexual content, nudity & a disturbing assault.

Game Night

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

There hasn't been a great dark comedy made by a major studio since 2011's Horrible Bosses. Many attempts at this have failed in recent years, not devoting enough time to plot development & devoting too much time to jokes, which mostly fall flat.

Game Night is the first great, studio-made dark comedy since Horrible Bosses. There's almost a laugh every 30 seconds, & it's extremely well-made. The film follows Max (played by Jason Bateman), an avid gamer. He meets Annie (played by Rachel McAdams) at a bar trivia night, & they eventually get married. They are trying to conceive, but to no avail, probably due to Max's stress & insecurity because of his more handsome & successful brother, Brooks (played by Kyle Chandler), who is arriving in town for a while. Max & Annie have regular game nights at their house, but try to keep it secret from their creepy neighbor, Gary Kingsbury (played by Jesse Plemons), a police officer & ex-wife of a friend of Max & Annie.

After a game night at Max & Annie's house, Brooks invites Max, Annie, & their friends: Ryan (played by Billy Magnussen); Kevin (played by Lamorne Morris); & Michelle (played by Kylie Bunbury). At the game night, Ryan brings his date, Sarah (played by Sharon Horgan) along. Brooks's game night plan is a murder mystery, & they must all find clues to solve it. Brooks hires an actor playing an FBI Agent (played by Jeffrey Wright) to inform them how the mystery goes, but two goons break in, knock the FBI Agent unconscious, & kidnap Brooks, while everyone else is oblivious, believing this is part of the game.

Eventually, they come to realize that this is not a game, & the group of friends get themselves into some dirty situations, leading to a man known as The Bulgarian (played by Michael C. Hall).

The cast is spectacular. Bateman & McAdams are hilarious, & Chandler shows he can be funny as well as being dramatic. But Plemons is the real star here. He is so creepy, so awkward, & so deadpan. He is the "Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda" of this film. He's a true scene-stealer.

The direction by John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein is excellent. Daley & Goldstein, known for writing Horrible Bosses, bring more of the darkly comedic flair from that film & bring it to new heights here.

Mark Perez's screenplay is brilliant. The plot is intricate, the story is intriguing, & the dialogue is absolutely hilarious. It has more humor that lands than most comedies in the past few years.

Barry Peterson's cinematography is stellar. There are a lot of excellent wide shots (that brilliantly use game pieces to represent the characters & their surroundings), & there is one excellent long-take sequence that is one of the best in recent memory.

The editing by Jamie Gross, Gregory Plotkin & David Egan is amazing. They keep the film fast-paced & tightly controlled.

And Cliff Martinez's score is outstanding. Martinez, known for his scores from Traffic & Drive, once again composes an excellent synth-driven score.

This is one of the best films of the year, & is one of the best comedies of the decade. It's twisty, tense, & gut-bustingly hilarious, like all dark comedies should be.

Game Night was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Friday, February 23, 2018. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 100 minutes, & it is rated R for language, sexual references & some violence.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Gloria Grahame, while not the most well-known of actresses during the Golden Age of Hollywood, was one of the better of them. An Oscar winner for 1952's The Bad & the Beautiful, Grahame was a rising star in Hollywood, before plastic surgery & an alienating persona on set caused her film career to quickly wane.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool follows the true story of the last days of Gloria Grahame's life before her death from breast cancer & peritonitis in 1981. Based on the 1986 memoir of the same name by Peter Turner, & set from 1979-1981, the film follows Gloria Grahame (played by Annette Bening), the long-faded actress now renting a room in a boarding house in Liverpool, England. There, she meets Peter Turner (played by Jamie Bell), a 27-year-old struggling actor. They quickly develop a friendship, & eventually a courtship.

Peter eventually introduces Gloria to his parents, Bella (played by Julie Walters) & Joe (played by Kenneth Cranham), who are big fans of Gloria. Gloria also introduces Peter to her family, but there is some tension on that side of the family. As Gloria & Peter become closer, the tension rises between the two.

Two years later, in 1981, Gloria collapses in her dressing room before a performance of The Glass Menagerie. She is quickly dying from a reoccurrence of breast cancer. Gloria decides to recuperate at Peter's home with his parents. Together, Peter & his family try to look after Gloria in her last days.

The cast is spectacular. Annette Bening is absolutely phenomenal. Bening, unlike some actresses, embraces her aging & takes those few-&-far-between great roles for older women. She is way overdue for an Oscar (& she should've been nominated for one & won one for her performance in 2016's 20th Century Women), & this performance here solidified that fact that she needs an Oscar. Bell & Walters also provide great supporting performances, but this film belongs to Bening.

Paul McGuigan's direction is excellent. McGuigan, mostly known for directing mediocre action films such as Push & Victor Frankenstein, has finally struck gold here & shown that he can direct. His direction never misses a beat & keeps the film warm-hearted throughout.

And Matt Greenhalgh's screenplay is amazing. Greenhalgh faithfully adapts Turner's memoir & gives the story a well-intended sentimental feel that doesn't feel tacky.

This is one of the best & most overlooked films of the year. It has some great direction & amazing screenwriting, but this film would not be where it is without Annette Bening's tremendous performance.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool was seen by me at the AMC Forum 30 in Sterling Heights, MI on Friday, February 23, 2018. It is no longer in theaters in the Detroit area. Its runtime is 105 minutes, & it is rated R for language, some sexual content & brief nudity.

Every Day

★★★★★ - A Review by Cameron Kanachki

Film adaptations of young adult novels, for the most part, tend to be terrible. They're always so cliched, never offering anything fresh or redeeming. Two films in the past 5 years: Me & Earl & the Dying Girl & The Spectacular Now, are both excellent, but these are exceptions, not the rule. A few others have been good, but not great.

Every Day has joined the two aforementioned films as young adult novel film adaptations that offer something exciting & interesting to the genre. Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by David Levithan, the film follows Rhiannon (played by Angourie Rice), a 16-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Baltimore with her workaholic mother, Lindsey (played by Maria Bello), her unemployed father, Nick (played by Michael Cram), & her sister, Jolene (played by Debby Ryan).

One day, Rhiannon's boyfriend, Justin (played by Justice Smith), is acting different. He seems to be acting more respectful of Rhiannon. Later that day, Rhiannon & him ditch school to go to Baltimore. The next day, he returns to his old ways, with no memory of the day before. Rhiannon is asked by a new girl, Amy (played by Jeni Ross), if she can shadow her for the day. Later that day, Rhiannon feels embarrassed after an argument with Justin.

The next day, Rhiannon meets Nathan (played by Lucas Jade Zumann) at a party. He acts very friendly towards her, while Justin is off hanging out with his friends. A couple days later, Rhiannon is texted by a number that asks her to meet this person. The person tells Rhiannon she is a spirit that moves through a different person every day, is not the same person twice, is not far from the last person, & that the spirit was Justin, Amy & Nathan. The spirit is called A.

Rhiannon is shocked by this at first, but warms up to it, as A takes the form of David (played by Rory McDonald), James (played by Jacob Batalon), Vic (played by Ian Alexander), George (played by Sean Jones), Xavier (played by Colin Ford), Michael (played by Jake Sim), Kelsea (played by Nicole Law), Hannah (played by Karena Evans), & Katie (played by Hannah Richardson). But when A becomes Alexander (played by Owen Teague), a fellow classmate of hers, Rhiannon must face the implications of this ordeal.

The cast is amazing. Angourie Rice is phenomenal. After The Nice Guys, The Beguiled, & now this, Rice is starting to make a name for herself. She exudes so much warmth & realism from her performance. She's definitely going to make it big soon. The supporting cast, especially Owen Teague, Lucas Jade Zumann & Debby Ryan, are also great as well.

Michael Sucsy's direction is excellent. Sucsy maintains a calm, subdued, & warm-hearted atmosphere throughout the entire film.

Jesse Andrews' screenplay is amazing. Andrews, known for writing both the book & film adaptation of Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, continues his streak of excellent storytelling here, writing a faithful adaptation of Levithan's novel.

And Rogier Stoffers' cinematography is stellar. Stoffers, a lesser-known cinematographer for films such as Quills, John Q. & School of Rock, shows that he has some great filming abilities here. The lighting is great, & there are some great wide shots here.

This is one of the most surprising films in a while. What could have easily been extremely formulaic becomes something fresh & tender, something that doesn't come often in film adaptations of young adult novels.

Every Day was seen by me at the MJR Marketplace Digital Cinema 20 in Sterling Heights, MI on Thursday, February 22, 2018. It is in theaters everywhere. Its runtime is 95 minutes, & it is rated PG-13 for thematic content, language, teen drinking, & suggestive material.