Destroyer

January 18, 2019April 11, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2018, bradley whitford, karyn kusama, los angeles, nicole kidman, noir, police, sebastian stan

Nicole Un-dimed

“[Actor] as you’ve never seen him/her before” is a movie marketing cliché I’ve grown to hate, but damn if Destroyer doesn’t earn it. As burnout LAPD detective Erin Bell, Nicole Kidman looks, in a word, rough. The beautiful actress is borderline unrecognizable here, sporting the face of an “after” picture in an anti-meth PSA. Erin’s hair is brittle, her teeth are gray, and her blue eyes – her one intact feature – are sunken. Her clothes hang off what appears to be a scarecrow-thin body. It’s an amazing makeup job, is what I’m getting at, and one that never distracts from the core of the movie. Continue reading →

Aquaman

January 14, 2019April 11, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2018, action, adventure, Amber Heard, aquaman, DC, James Wan, Jason Momoa, nicole kidman, Patrick Wilson, superhero, willem dafoe

aquaman

I Come from a Land Down Under

There’s a shot early on in Aquaman that sums up the movie better than any review could. Preparing for battle, an underwater cavalry unit enters formation, each soldier mounted astride a bus-sized great white shark. One of the massive beasts, restrained by its rider, thrashes its head and roars. It’s a moment that perfectly encapsulates the movie’s attitude: you’re either on board for all of this lunacy or none of it. For me, the decision was easy. Continue reading →

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

November 17, 2017April 11, 2020 Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews 2010s, 2017, barry keoghan, colin farrell, comedy, Horror, nicole kidman, the killing of a sacred deer

It’s never a bad thing when a movie is hard to describe. That quality doesn’t guarantee greatness (or even goodness), but it almost always means the movie is unique in some way. The Killing of a Sacred Deer falls into this category, and I’ll do my best to review it here. Continue reading →