movie to watch

Timothée Chalamet Brings His A-Game to the Raucous ‘Marty Supreme’
Elevation Pictures

One need not brace for the trite biopic standard when sitting down to watch Josh Safdie’s latest. The story of Marty Reisman (Marty Mauser by way of Timothée Chalamet in the film) is loosely adapted for this snappy drama that, if anything, uses ping pong as a background timekeeping device more than it does a major plot point. Marty Supreme is much more the next story of a fallible Safdie hurricane than it is a historical tribute to a late pioneer. And it’s all the better for it.

Mauser is in a similar precarious position to his cohorts in Howard Ratner (Uncut Gems) and Connie Nikas (Good Time), staying just barely avoiding drowning but choosing to sprint rather than tread water. He’s a sharp mouthed brat (a pisk, if you will) adept at the kind of charm that’s only effective until he keeps on talking. He’s an eye on an important prize: a ping pong tournament abroad that will grant him global acclaim. Mauser needs the cash to get himself there, and the resources to get there in style. So sets off his calamitous sprint through match losses, affairs, a nagging mother, a would-be business partner, and a pregnant old flame with a protective beau. Marty is a hurricane, like Safdie protagonists before him (though this one was crafted without Benny- but with their longtime collaborator, Ronald Bronstein). He is constantly in messes of his own making, something he feels slighted by as he is just doing “what it takes” to succeed.  Mauser uses people as rungs as he climbs to what he believes to be his manifest destiny.

Safdie sets his frantic drama in 1950s New York, where a generation of Jewish immigrants are still reeling from the holocaust. There’s the sort of scrappiness in Mauser one might expect to see in tales of post WWII gangsters like Benny Siegel or Meyer Lansky, men contending with being on the receiving end of a particular form of racism and refusing to be brought down. The backdrop allows Mauser to self-justify his sharpness and entitlement and also allows him to better appear a burden to Americans reeling from a war where they were made to liberate his people. It also lends Mauser a shorthand to interact with others in his neighbourhood and build the sorts of allyships that are only slightly more difficult to bruise with his antics.

Chalamet, who was already a favourite around cinephile circles, earns his place as a lead in a contender here. His delivery of Mauser’s snappy dialogue is deliciously funny, and his playful smugness is endlessly effective. Looking as much like a bar mitzvah boy as he does a snappily dressed 20th century man, he is able to play with the earnestness and entitlement of a man who has both childlike wonder and the weight of adulthood rushing through him. He’s complimented by titans in his co-stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, but there’s reason the character is titular.

Marty Supreme is a frantic tale of “pride before the fall” that’s dressed up like the most gorgeous period piece complete with fresh garments and detailed storefronts. Set against a table tennis tournament is the story of a snappy young pisk whose success comes from disobedience, the disobedience inherited into a people who were on the wrong side of a quest for extermination. 

Marty Supreme hits theaters December 25, 2025

‘It Feeds’ is the Off-Season Sport for Fans of Jump Scare Greats
Black Fawn Distribution

The opening of It Feeds sometimes seems at a hint to the ending, but that’s only because it’s so reminiscent of another story about a supernaturally gifted cleanser of evil spirits. The cold open has its gifted psychic therapist working her way through a darkened world on another plane and witnessing a beast seemingly trapping a young child. It’s a lot like the finale of Insidious. This original Canadian horror feature has a lot in common with the great modern horror franchise, but it doesn’t seem to want to compete with it so much as stand proudly beside it.

Ashley Greene leads as Cynthia, a psychically gifted therapist who performs supernatural cleanses on her clients under the guise of offering traditional mental health care. As a way of protecting herself and her daughter (Ellie O-Brien) from prying eyes or those experiencing difficult demons, she has a set of rules to prevent letting their secrets out or bringing too much supernatural hazard in. When they meet a frightened young girl covered in burns who begs for Cynthia’s help and her garish father (Shawn Ashmore) who refuses it, they face an ethical dilemma where they have to decide if they should help her and potentially expose themselves to danger, and whether they should heed the warnings of the sharp patriarch.

 The rules of Cynthia’s practice are quickly established, but so are the rules of the movie’s in-world villains. It’s smart and makes for consistent storytelling where the stakes and dangers are always clear to the audience. Of course, it all comes down to cheering on Cynthia to slowly make the decision to assist, which requires the film to bring the danger closer to her. Cynthia has reasons to be reluctant and her daughter has reasons to push her, so they’ll each have to face or avoid the dangers on their own until Cynthia has to metaphorically suit up.

Writer/ director Chad Archibald knows his audience and knows his genre and either pays a lot of homage to it or borrows heavily from it. While the comparison to Insidious is apt and worn on the film’s face, it also has some plot elements that feel like Let the Right One In or even The Omen. The girl’s father’s motivations are difficult to track which makes for a clever secondary villain when different characters have different ideas about how to best a dark entity. It’s in these “disagreements” that It Feeds becomes more than another in the canon of demon jump scare movies.

Canadian horror fans will rejoice not only at another on our list of horror successes, but at the gaggle of Canadian genre icons like Ashmore, Julian Richings, and Juno Rinaldi (probably more of a comedy icon but I still cheered at her appearance). It’s still a good time to be a Canadian horror fan, and It Feeds is here to remind us.

It Feeds has a lot of unique elements that make it a worthy twist on familiar skulking-dark-entity horror, but in a lot of ways is a truncated version of those movies. It holds its own on plotting and scares, but much of it will feel familiar to fans of the canon of James Wan. Though I don’t expect it to spark its own long-running franchise of spinoffs and sequels, I do expect to see more from Archibald who could submit It Feeds as quite the impressive reel in a campaign to direct more like it.

It Feeds hit select theaters in April of 2025

‘825 Forest Road’ is as Imperfect and Endlessly Cozy as Stephen Cognetti’s Other Spooky Movies
AMC Networks

Maybe “cozy,” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the Hell House LLC franchise, but they certainly fit the bill for lots of horror fans. In a take for another piece and another day, Stephen Cognetti’s found footage movies tap into that coziness sweet spot of parallel play and immersive theater (even in a meta way in the third installment). Veering from the found footage style, Cognetti’s latest, 825 Forest Road, holds onto the cozy spooky air of his earlier films. But with that, comes some of the usual missteps.

Similar to the Hell House LLC movies, 825 Forest Lane is location based and involves a haunted menace attached to a particular home. This is the home that Maria (Elizabeth Vermilyea who will be familiar to franchise fans) and Chuck (Joe Falcone) are moving into with Chuck’s struggling sister, Isabelle (Kathryn Miller). Chuck is attempting to swoop in for Isabelle in perhaps an attempt to reconnect with her after she suffered the loss of their parents. Shortly after relocating to the too-good-to-be-true home away from the bustling city, the group starts to notice strange goings on and prying eyes from concerned neighbours. Chuck starts to investigate the story of Helen Foster, a ghost who haunts the area, pushing its residents to suicide. With Isabelle as a risk for self harm, the group works to find the location of Helen Foster’s missing home at 825 Forest Road to break the curse before it comes for their small family. Told in small parts- from each of the main characters’ perspectives- the audience learns more about how they have arrived at the cursed locale and how they are trying to protect themselves and each other.

The multi-perspective structure isn’t quite Rashomon, but it functions well enough to give the audience breadcrumbs about what is happening in each of the characters’ rooms, though it cuts off some story elements for no real narrative reason. It pays off the most for the leading women when the story ends up a bit of a tale of supporting each other. If I were perhaps to give it too much credit, I’d nod to the feminist subversion of the perspective switch in how it tosses out the lead skeptic of the bunch in favour of a new view of the women supporting each other in their difficult experiences. Then there’s the “mental illness horror” of it all, which isn’t completely egregious but probably is tired and potentially objectifies the issue by using it as an easy entry point. It’s ideas about suicide and depression are potentially outdated, but they do tap into similar themes from movies like Smile about suicide as a contagion and depression befalling a generation of young people.

While this is his first feature outside of Hell House LLC, it’s very much a Film by Stephen Cognetti. Yes, there’s the haunted locale, but there’s also a lot of familiar scares including live streaming gags, moving mannequins, and creepy piano tracks. The haunted home locks them in to torment them, and there is the deterministic plot built around the characters’ old art. So, this movie isn’t breaking any molds nor is it a campaign for the creator’s versatility, but it is perhaps more evidence that his movies can adapt a familiar style to make more media for those looking for a comforting fright. It has the same quality of Things Heard & Seen where it perhaps doesn’t all stack up to a flawless narrative, but it allows for the sweater-clad-tea-sipping comfort of someone bopping around a small town thinking about a ghost. The Hell House LLC movies often forecast their own scares with talking heads which allows the audience to comfortably brace for scares that feel like controlled burns. 825 Forest Road is a feature length version of that.

So, will this latest Shudder haunted house have you begging your friends to fall in love with the newest ghost, or making comparisons to the best of Mike Flanagan’s work? Perhaps not. But if you’re the type of person who likes the terror that comes with invisible guard rails and the right amount of nightmare fuel, 825 Forest Road is shrieking to be added to your regular list. What can I say? I’ve already watched it twice.

825 Forest Road streams on Shudder April 4, 2025

‘Novocaine’ Wants to Remind You of When Action Movies Were Fun
Jack Quaid as “Nate” in Novocaine from Paramount Pictures.

That’s not to say that directors, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, are the only ones out here trying to thrust movie watchers back into the action movies of yore. Michael Bay and Doug Liman have been trying the same with films like AmbuLAnce and Road House. So with a surprising twist on the action comedy toned with splatstick comes Novocaine, a blood-soaked action comedy that breaks through the chains of midnighters.

Jack Quaid and his overflowing charm lead as Nathan Caine, the mild-mannered bank assistant manager living his life within the confines created by his condition. Caine can’t feel pain, so to avoid any life-threatening accidents, he lives life in a box made of smoothies (he could bite his tongue if he chews!), watered down coffee, and tennis balls acting as metaphorical and literal guardrails. Caine’s life finally gets tastier when he meets Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a colleague with a forkful of cherry pie and a whole other experience with self-inflicted pain. When their bank is robbed and Sherry is taken hostage, Caine uses his condition as his superpower and takes every kick, punch, bullet, and burn with ease and valour so he can rescue his dame.

The simple set up sends the every-man into the underworld fray, but Novocaine is more than just an average Joe taking on unreal baddies. It takes that premise and mixes in some gnarly gore (with this and The Monkey, those of us who laugh at good gore are having a great year), and a host of tropes that feel ripped from 80s action films. Its early reveal is massively forecast but simultaneously difficult to see until you clue into the sort of film you’re watching. Its gory midsection is sometimes tiresome but does its best to stay fresh, then the third act barrels into throwback action that’ll leave a queasy audience ready to cheer.

Novocaine almost never asks you to take it seriously which is to its own detriment. Dancing a little bit too close to parody, it stuffs the film with a comedy version of a cliched cop partnered with a serious version of one who still seems completely inept at police work. Pit them against the world’s dumbest and most brash bank robbers (seriously, they could learn restraint from the robbers in Point Break), and I guess you can see why the skinny bank manager would take this battle on his own.  It makes the lore of the cops and robbers difficult to buy into and sucks some of the comedy out of Caine’s splatter parade by being a bit too dumb. It’s perhaps worth it to see Ray Nicholson go full Bodhi but he is not given room to be Sonny Wortzick.

While it’s tempting to compare Novocaine to the other average Joe movies that succeeded John Wick, it’s much more on a plane with Baby Driver and Boy Kills World where a guy with a particularly special skill takes on larger than life villains with a specific motivation, the whole affair being brightly lit with saturated colours (that really make that red blood pop). Novocaine isn’t the next in line of average Joe shot-em-ups, it’s a reminder of a time where the best movies had action stars dangling off the sides of a city bus.

Novocaine hits theaters March 14, 2025.

The Belko Experiment

Image result for the belko experimentI can hardly count how many movies I have said were my “best Midnight Madness experience ever” at this point.  But if there is a film that fits the bill of quality, gore, fear and sheer madness that works so well with the live tiff Midnight crown, it’s The Belko Experiment.

I went into this one like “oh, cute, the guy from The Newsroom is in it.” The world building is so strong, that a quick opening montage and you are right on board with this spooky corporate allegory and you know this will be far from “cute.”

Americans are recruited to work at a cushy office in Colombia.  Over the top security is justified by the dangerous area and workers are treated to the cliche office of their dreams.  When the building locks down and  a mysterious voice floods the intercoms demanding employees participate in a bloody game, the foreseeable chaos ensues.

This Battle Royale meets Office Space take isn’t the only one of its kind, but it is no doubt the most successful.  It is the absolute best blend of gore and fear, completely balanced to keep it a legit thriller despite the splashing blood.  It also prompted me to update my zombie contingency plan for the office.  My monitor riser makes an amazing shield.

Great if you liked: Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, Mom and Dad, Shaun of the Dead, Mayhem, The Final Girls

 

In a Valley of Violence

Image result for in a valley of violenceThere are always moments when I bring up Westworld and someone responds “I don’t like Westerns.”  And often, I retort “well it’s more of a Sci-Fi than it is a Western.”  But, as someone who also never liked Westerns, I think I need a new retort.  Maybe I watched the wrong kind.

In a Valley of Violence is the right kind.  I saw this at a small festival for the sole reason that I trust Ethan Hawke.  Predestination had played the year before at the same fest and I wanted more of that.   I was totally blown away by how much fun Valley was and was revitalized in a desire to watch some cowboys.  The cast acts the hell out of this off beat script and it results in a real delight. It has all the ‘dog protectiness’ of John Wick and the “this dude made a western?” of The Quick and the Dead.

This is usually where I put the short synopsis to prime you for the flick, but it honestly would be really difficult to narrow this down to a few sentences.  In the tradition of a Western, rising actions are numerous.  The mysterious Paul stumbles across a town en route to Mexico where they run into this priest, and there are these girls, and a cop, and something about being an army deserter, I don’t know. Just trust this one.

Great if you liked: No Country for Old Men, John Wick, The Quick and the Dead, There will be Blood, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gangs of New York

Mom and Dad

Image result for mom and dad posterThere is a lot of buzz about Nicholas Cage and his horror chops these days with the release of the Mandy trailer.  Nick showcases some pretty spooky scary screams in that joint, and is being praised for his self aware “Cageiest performance ever.”  But for those of us that saw Mom and Dad, Cage going… full Cage… in horror is nothing so new.

This one part The Crazies and one part Santa Clarita Diet flick is the most fun you’ll have watching suburban parents try to slaughter their own children.

When an unknown cause inflicts a suburban town, parents are suddenly hit with an insatiable need to kill their own children.  Children left to fend for themselves, desperately cling to life by fighting back at their own parents.  Carl and Josh must survive this impossible day by using everything they know about their own family to fend off their murderous mom and dad.

This obscene horror comedy is so much more.  It serves as a blatant allegory for the stresses of being a suburban parent and what it means when your whole life is suddenly about your children.  Brent and Kendall struggle with their changing identity from individual to parent, you know, until becoming totally murderous.

I had so much fun watching this, and Cage and Blair are so flawless as the psycho Mr. and Mrs. Jones types. Blair’s performance is so great in this off beat genre, I feel obligated to campaign for her in more roles.

And, while I am not making early assumptions about Mandy, this movie features some pretty epic full blown Cage that I don’t imagine can be topped.

Great if you liked: Santa Clarita Diet, The Guest, Mum and Dad, The Crazies, Get Out, Cooties, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Jennifer’s Body, Weeds, Little Evil, Idle Hands, The Belko Experiment.

You’re Next

Image result for you're next posterThis month, I participated in Grim Magazine’s Slasher Madness bracket, where I, obviously, picked You’re Next to win.  But, despite making it to the final showdown, it lost by a large margin.  That leads me to assume one thing; not enough people have seen it.

I stumbled across this slashic by having my ear to the horror grindstone and it both revitalized my slasher fandom and skyrocketed me into becoming the massive fan of the blogged about, The Guest.

Erin is on her way to her new fiance’s family during their anniversary celebration.  The nerves of ‘meeting the parents,’ are taken to new heights when the family finds itself under attack by masked killers.

What this movie does painfully right is take us back to the slasher basics by mixing the right amount of camp and gore into a new story about a ‘cabin in the woods’ massacre.  It keeps it simple, doesn’t set out to do anything it can’t accomplish, and therefore leaves the viewer satisfied in the way you were after the seminal slashers of old.  Final girls have had such a great boom this decade, and Erin is no exception.  Yes, this was written and directed by men, but Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett are great at handling their female leads, something they double down on in The Guest.

Great if you liked: The Guest, The Strangers, Funny Games, A Clockwork Orange, The Purge, Hush, Vacancy, Black Christmas, Halloween, Friday the 13th

John Dies at the End

Image result for john dies at the end posterSorry, twitterverse, this movie’s title is a spoiler.  You’ll also never believe what happens at the end of The Sixth Sense.

This movie is weird as hell.  Is that enough of a selling point?  I immediately fell in love with this for being so strange and weird and fun and remember it being an hours long universe building mind trip, but it’s 100 minutes long.

After a party, Chase wakes to discover is friend, John, is missing.  After getting some mysterious phone calls from what appears to be a clairvoyant John, Chase sets on a mission to solve the mystery of the new drug, “soy sauce,” and save the planet from what might be an otherworldly, sinister force.   Along the way, he encounters ghost hunters, evil beings, and maybe an alternative universe or two. This movie takes you so many places, you will honestly feel both older and revitalized by the end of it.

Told by Chase to a reporter, the transcendence of a linear timeline in the plot is stacked with non-linear story telling, and it’s used with careful purpose.  Watching the level headed Chase transform throughout the narrative via his own telling is relateable enough to have you wonder if you’d, you know, hunt ghosts or whatever.

In the same way you fell for the “whatever is going on,” weirdness of Dirk Gentley, you’ll fall for this.  You will spend some time trying to reason the transcendence of space and time, and ultimately land on having a great time.

Great if you liked: Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Service, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Scanner Darkly, Bubba Ho Tep, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Phantasm.

Cube

I told IMDB that I liked this movie, and it started recommending movies to me like “Sphere” and “Triangle” as if the only qualification was that I liked movies titled for shapes. That said, Triangle looks dope. (And NGL, Circle is very similar and will probably be up here eventually).

Cube is like the expanded Saw franchise without the gore. Before Saw 2, there were lots of cool indie sci fi films that asked what would happen if strangers (to each other and the audience) were in an unfathomable predicament and had to reason their way out. Cube is one of the best of these.

Six strangers wake up trapped in a seemingly endless maze filled with twists, turns and traps.  Each stranger is attempting to reason why they have been selected for this deadly game and why they have been put near the others.  If you’re like me, math stresses you out, so prepare to be stressed.  The attempts to solve the cube are so frustrating for you and the characters, you’ll be scratching your head angry at every past high school math teacher for not making you care more.

Films like this are great because you never know who is telling the truth, it raises ethical questions of who’s lives matter most, and forces you to wonder how you would behave to stay alive.

A fun tidbit is that there is a sequal to this called “Cube 2: Hypercube” and a disappointingly named third called “Cube 0” as if no one noticed how good “Cube Cubed” would have been.

I recommend this for a rainy Sunday inside, which will hopefully happen at some point this sunny October, ammiright?

Great if you liked: Saw, Exam, Circle, Triangle, Identity, Coherence