Mike Tyrkus

There is a certain cinematic gravitas associated with the name Charlie Kaufman when it appears in the credits either before or after the title of a film. He has, after all, delivered some of the more stunning screenplays of the past couple decades (films like Being John Malkovich [1999], Adaptation [2002], and Anomalisa [2015] are particular highlights). So, it is a bit disappointing then that his...[Read More]

Even though the new thriller, Centigrade, is beset by a few issues that prevent it from being a truly great entry to the genre, it is still a tremendously effective exploration of the effects a fight for survival has on a relationship that perhaps is not as strong as was initially thought. The scene is set somewhat simplistically as a young American couple, Matthew (Vincent Piazza) and pregnant Na...[Read More]

While the resting image from the new film Tesla may not have been intended to be the sight of Ethan Hawke as the titular iconic inventor singing—on what appears to be an open mic stage setting (and in character)—the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” it is, in fact, rather difficult to wrest that performance out of one’s psyche when ultimately evaluating the entirety of the ...[Read More]

The intense, often nerve-wracking, yet thoroughly enjoyable genre film Sputnik is also the debut for Russian director Egor Abramenko. This is a film that sports echoes of other classics of the horror/science fiction ilk like Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), or even John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (1982). Abramenko, however, displays a singular style with an impressive first feature that portends ...[Read More]

Apparently even potential politicians have their own summer camps where, over the course of a week each summer, participants are gathered in various capitols across the country to discuss politics, hold elections, compete with each other in mock legislatures, and have frequent and very authentic arguments. One such camp, held in Austin, Texas in 2018, is the subject of Boys State, an enthralling d...[Read More]

To call Made in Italy a comedy (as it has been billed) is misleading as it is essentially a story of loss and the coming to terms with and ultimately overcoming that loss. Yet, while there are some lighthearted elements to the film, the dramatic core of the film is what gives it the heft and resonance that makes it an above average tale of a father and son reconnecting through the oddest of circum...[Read More]

As far as feature debuts for a writer/director go, there have been few as rewarding as Summerland, the first endeavor from award-winning playwright turned filmmaker Jessica Swale. Utilizing breathtaking English locations and anchoring a wartime drama that sneaks in a wickedly effective love story, replete with fine performances all around, Summerland is that rarest of experiences, a film that some...[Read More]

While horror movies that predate The Rental may have tended to focus on a central idea and then stick on that one solid concept throughout, this film offers twists and turns that do not necessarily all end up being good choices. Although there is a solid film hidden somewhere in this often-cluttered thriller that tries to be all things to everyone, it would probably have been better off had it sim...[Read More]

Although The Painted Bird is only director Vaclav Marhoul’s third film (his previous works include Smart Phillip [2003] and Tobruk [2008]), it is, in short, an epic masterpiece of cinematic accomplishment. In an effort to spare their child the horrors of the Holocaust, a Jewish couple send their son Joska (Petr Kotlár) to live out the war in safety with a relative somewhere in the Eastern European...[Read More]

Although it may be tempting to compare the latest action-adventure science-fiction film The Old Guard to something like, say Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), or even possibly Atomic Blonde (2017) – especially given that both of those films featured Charlize Theron, who also stars here – that would be unfair to every one of those films, given that those earlier works delivered more succinct and focused v...[Read More]

While the new horror film Relic, starring Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote, is ostensibly about a haunted house, there is much more going on within the film’s ninety-minute running time that make the film from Natalie Erika James easily one of the better offerings in the genre in recent memory. When elderly widow Edna (Robyn Nevin) inexplicably vanishes, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and gra...[Read More]

Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche star as an estranged mother and daughter in Hirokazu Kore-eda’a film, The Truth (Le vérité), an exquisite representation of repressed familial frustrations and emotional repression that tells an energetic tale of pseudo redemption between two women. Writer/director Kore-eda’s latest film is a poignant portrayal of one family’s dynamics. Matriarch Fabienne (pl...[Read More]