Amazeballs

“Lifeline” is the kind of taut, haunted psychological drama that feels like it’s been mistakenly shipped to the Science Fiction shelf by a jittery intern, where it sits in the company of time-travelers and androids, looking around, appalled at the company it keeps. The film, directed by Feras Alfuqaha, has the brooding nerve to face the black and blue marks left by trauma, personal and societal, and invites you to press your thumb to the bruise. To call it science fiction is to miss the point with the earnestness only a certain kind of literalist can muster. The tricks with reality, disorienting, elliptical, aren’t flights to the moon but dives into a mind coming apart, or maybe clawing for unity in the first place. “Lifeline” wants not just to test its protagonist, Steven Thomas (played with a wonderful, agitated delicacy by Josh Stewart), but to prod at the audience’s own nerves, the little lingering doubts and regrets we all ferry around. There’s a current of self-examination running through this film that curls right back into the viewer’s lap, whether we like it or not.

If Alex Parkinson’s Last Breath reminds us of anything, it’s that even the most harrowing true stories can be neatly packaged, pressed into narrative conformity, and, somewhere along the way, lose their vital spark. Parkinson, remaking his own 2019 documentary, attempts to fuse the cold sweat realism of survival thrillers like 127 Hours with the hallucinatory dread of The Abyss, but winds up stranding us not in the abyssal dark, but somewhere in the anodyne blue light of a well-meaning, mildly gripping genre exercise.

Expectations were naturally high coming into "Lady Vengeance" (2005), Park Chan-wook's concluding opus of his acclaimed Vengeance Trilogy. With "Oldboy" having left a significant mark on the cinematic landscape, it was a challenge to present a film of matching prowess. Yet, "Lady Vengeance" stands strong on its own merits.

As I settled in to watch The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch, I felt a mix of anticipation and curiosity about this adaptation of the Belgian comic series. Directed by Jérôme Salle and featuring a talented cast led by Tomer Sisley, Mélanie Thierry, and Kristin Scott Thomas, I was eager to dive into this action thriller promising a blend of corporate intrigue and personal discovery. While I had seen a range of reviews suggesting mediocrity, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was an engaging adventure lurking just beneath the surface.

“Life” is the kind of film that takes you on a gripping interstellar journey while simultaneously gripping your popcorn with tension. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, this thrilling sci-fi horror flick from 2017 sprinkles just the right amount of suspense with science fiction.

Let’s get one thing straight: Land of Bad won’t be winning any Oscars for originality, but when you’re in the mood for a high-adrenaline, bullet-riddled spectacle, does that even matter?