Monday
Let’s be clear from the start: there is nothing especially unique about Monday’s plot. Chloe (Denise Gough) is an immigration lawyer from America planning to return home from Greece in just a few days. Mickey (Sebastian Stan) is another ex-pat, well-rooted in Greece by now, DJing and waiting for more time with his young son. Mickey’s uncouth privileged by birth friend Argyris (Giorgos Pyrpasopoulos) introduces them in the worst way at a dance party. Mickey’s interested but embarrassed by his friend’s behavior, while Chloe is offended, but a little bit drunk and a lot angry at her ex, Christos (Andreas Konstantinou). Despite starting as a fairly ill-advised one-night stand, the two hit it off and begin to alter their plans and rearrange their lives to make a go of it. Continue Reading →
Little Fish
Based on an Aja Gabel short story and directed by Chad Hartigan, Little Fish follows a married couple as they try to hold onto what they love in a world ravaged by a pandemic. In a lot of ways, there are eerie similarities with our present reality, but the main difference is that the virus in this film slowly takes away memories – functioning very similarly to Alzheimer’s. In the midst of a flurry of pandemic-themed media coming out which tries to reflect the situation which the world is presently in, Little Fish manages to distinguish itself from the crowd with its brilliant leads and emotional resonance. Continue Reading →
Outside the Wire
SimilarAlien (1979),
Blade Runner (1982) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Twelve Monkeys (1995),
Netflix has really made a play in recent years to corner the high-concept action movie market: Extraction, The Old Guard, 6 Underground, Project Power et al. feel like they fill the algorithm's innate need to fill the John Wick-sized hole in the moviegoing public's diet. It's that sweet spot that Outside the Wire is unabashedly trying to fill: sci-fi concepts right out of Black Mirror blended with brutal, highly-choreographed fight sequences. The trouble is, despite (or, more precisely, because of) its military sci-fi premise, Mikael Håfström's (1408) latest crumbles under its own sociopolitical weight. Continue Reading →