This month we have a bonus gift for our friends, sent with love from our best film critic, David S. Enjoy!Brad Pitt in space
AD ASTRA
Superb cerebral, slow-burn sci-fi in the vein of 2001,but more accessible. Brad Pitt anchors it with a solid lead performance, and director James Gray (The Lost City of Z) backs him up with some wonderful visuals (effects and otherwise) and, with his co-writer, concocts a compelling central mystery.
Alligators on Earth!
CRAWL
A fun, funny and fantastically tense B-level thriller from French horror director Alexandre Aja (High Tension), in which a Florida father (Barry Pepper) and daughter (Kaya Scodelario, of the Maze Runner flicks) try to survive both a hurricane and some very hungry alligators. You’ll laugh, scream, jump and wring your hands as Aja expertly tightens the screws.
Acute Art
THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE
An interesting little black comedy/thriller that uses spot-on casting to nice effect. Jesse Eisenberg plays a timid accountant who starts taking karate classes (taught by Alessandro Nivola) to improve his confidence. That everyone speaks in monotone is all part of director Riley Stearns’ plan of commenting on modern-day masculinity.
Action-filled Anna
ANNA
La Femme Nikita director Luc Besson riffs on that seminal 1990 flick rather successfully with this action effort, which stars Russian model Sasha Luss as the title character, a victim of abuse turned lethal KGB assassin who wants out of her killer life. Very entertaining, thanks to some truly dazzling set pieces and Helen Mirren, who adds amusement and class as Luss’ Russian superior.