Category: mystery
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![The Woman In The Window [2021] ★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/woman_in_the_window_ver3.jpg?w=510)
The Woman In The Window [2021] ★★
I really really wanted to like this Hitchcockian thriller, courtesy of director Joe Wright. Sadly, and after a solid start, the film veers towards cliche territory and never truly delivers a memorable twist. Amy Adams is good as always, playing an agoraphobic woman living alone in her New York apartment. In true Hitchcock fashion, she…
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![Run [2021] ★★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/run_ver2.jpg?w=490)
Run [2021] ★★★
After her deliciously creepy performance in the Netflix series “Ratched”, Sara Paulson delivers the goods yet again in the new thriller “Run”, from “Searching” writers Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian. The duo have done it again by delivering a suspenseful 90 minute rollercoaster that doesn’t pull its punches. The plot focuses on Chloe, a home…
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Enola Holmes [2020] ★★½
While far from being great, there’s still something charming and irresistible about “Enola Holmes”, Netflix’s answer to the “Sherlock Holmes” franchise. It helps that it moves at a fast pace. It also helps to have Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) as Enola, Sherlock’s younger sister who also happens to be a sleuth in the making.…
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Everybody Knows [2018] ★★★
I read somewhere that this movie was a “disappointing step back” for writer director Asghar Farhadi. But how do you top movies like “A Separation”, “The Past” and “The Salesman”? “Everybody Knows” may not be Farhadi’s best and most compelling work, but it has an intriguing story to tell and just the right actors to…
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I’m Thinking Of Ending Things [2020] ★★½
First off let me tell you how much I admire screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s work. From “Being John Malkovich” to “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, Kaufman has left his stamp on so many films that are now regarded as “essential viewings”. That being said, I didn’t fully appreciate his latest effort, which you can now…
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Wounds [2019] ★½
Netflix’s “Wounds” is 5% intrigue and 95% a waste of a talented cast. It starts out well enough then quickly degenerates into a confusing mess. Armie Hammer is good as always, but he doesn’t have much to work with. He plays a bartender who finds his life spin out of control when he finds a…
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Horse Girl [2020] ★½
“Horse Girl” is yet another Netflix movie that tries to juggle a lot of themes at once, only to end up falling flat on its face. Alison Brie co-wrote the script and stars as a socially isolated woman who becomes convinced that she is the cloned version of her grandmother. A series of increasingly lucid…
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Rattlesnake [2019] ★½
The thing about Netflix’s “Rattlesnake” is that it has an intriguing premise (hence the extra half star): a single mother (Carmen Ejogo) seeks help from a mysterious stranger when her daughter is bitten by a rattlesnake. The price? Take another soul before sundown or her daughter dies. Like I said, this sounds like a set-up…
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Fractured [2019] ★★½
Movies like “Fractured” have been around since…well…forever. Want more proof? Check out Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 superior film “The Lady Vanishes” or its 2005 rip-off “Flightplan” starring Jodie Foster as a mother whose daughter goes missing on a flight from Berlin to America. Netflix’s “Fractured” falls somewhere in between. It’s not great, not by a long…
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Lost Girls [2020] ★★½
Amy Ryan is sensational and the main reason to see Netflix’s crime drama “Lost Girls”, which is based on a real, unsolved case. The movie itself is intriguing and well-made, but it remains earthbound while its leading lady delivers an unforgettable performance. When her daughter disappears, Ryan’s Mari Gilbert would stop at nothing to get…
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Dangerous Lies [2020] ★½
“Generic” doesn’t even begin to describe “Dangerous Lies”, Netflix’s latest thriller that was clearly made by people who have never seen a thriller before. This film oozes 90’s B-movies, and that’s not necessarily a good thing in this case. Camilla Mendes (a Netflix regular) plays a caretaker for an old man. When he unexpectedly dies…
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Knives Out [2019] ★★★½
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated with a good “murder mystery”. I’ve watched films, played “Cluedo” endlessly, and read Agatha Christie books religiously. And yet, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a whodunit as perfectly crafted as “Knives Out”. You know you’re in for a treat as soon as…
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Doctor Sleep [2019] ★★★
When asked about “Doctor Sleep”, Stephen King said that he wanted to “check up” on Dan Torrance, years after the events of “The Shining”. And indeed, this sequel set over 30 years after the first film gives Ewan McGregor the chance to shine (no pun intended) in a movie that tries to juggle a lot…
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Ad Astra [2019] ★★★½
This is the science-fiction movie we’ve all been waiting for this year. “Ad Astra”, written and directed by James Gray and starring Brad Pitt in one of the best performances of his career, is a knockout from start to finish. Last year, Damien Chazelle’s underappreciated “First Man” celebrated an intimate bond between Neil Armstrong and…
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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile [2019] ★½
A movie about Ted Bundy, the serial killer who caused mayhem during his trial in the late 1970’s after he brutally murdered dozens of young women, wasn’t something I was looking forward to. But having seen the terrific Netflix documentary “The Ted Bundy Tapes”, I decided to give the movie a chance. As it turns…
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![Searching [2018] ★★★½](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/searching_ver3.jpg?w=509)
Searching [2018] ★★★½
It took 9 months, but the best thriller of the year is finally here. The gripping, nerve-frying suspense in this movie will pin you to your seat. And yet, movies like “Searching” are so easy to get wrong (hello, “Unfriended”, “Friend request” and other films of the same genre). That it manages to take a…
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5 Underappreciated Hitchcock Movies
Here’s another post that has been on my mind for a while. Quite often, I hear people mentioning “Vertigo”, “Rear Window” and “Psycho” as soon as we start talking about Alfred Hitchcock. But here’s a man that directed 57 movies over the course of 54 years. Having watched most of these movies, I’ve decided to…
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Red Sparrow [2018] ★★½
Check your brain at the door. This tense, often confusing spy-thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Bolshoi ballerina-turned-spy, gets a lot of things right, but also a lot of things wrong. My advice: go with the illogic or you’ll miss the fun. And there’s plenty of fun in seeing Lawrence kicking ass in Russian. OK,…
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The Shape Of Water [2017] ★★★½
Guillermo Del Toro makes movies like no other filmmaker. If you’ve seen “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”, you probably know the scale of his vision. But nothing could have prepared me for his latest masterpiece: a beautifully crafted, visually stunning love letter to cinema that ranks among his best films. Other Hollywood movies may…
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The Killing Of A Sacred Deer [2017] ★★★
In an era of remakes and cash-in sequels, it’s good to see filmmakers still taking risks with movies that keep their distance from the multiplex formula. I’m talking about Yorgos Lanthimos, the genius behind “The Lobster“. If you’ve seen that movie, you know he’s a director who doesn’t play by the rules. Then again so did…
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