TheRetroCritic

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, mother! is a psychological thriller from 2017 about a couple living in the countryside who get a strange visit from another couple before things get truly out of hand, to say the least. Jennifer Lawrence is the titular mother who lives in an unfinished house with her rather intense husband, a writer (played by the ever-intimidating Javier Bardem) suffering from writer's block until he is visited by a fan and his wife. The latter couple, played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer, show up randomly one day as Lawrence's character becomes increasingly suspicious of their bizarre behaviour and nervous about their influence on her husband. "mother" isn't all that normal herself as she appears to be obsessed with fixing her house and spends pretty much all her time walking around looking confused by everything. You're never quite sure what this awkward dynamic between her and her much older husband is all about since they're r

Whether you like it or not, Disney is hell-bent on continuing the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise no matter what. And so here we have Dead Men Tell No Tales , a fifth instalment attempting to reconnect the series to some familiar, once discarded characters in an original way. Not so much a Jack Sparrow spin-off this time, the film sees Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), Will Turner's (Orlando Bloom) son, set out on a lifelong quest to find the Trident Of Poseidon in order to break his father's curse. With the help of a down-and-out Jack Sparrow and accused "witch" Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), an expert in astronomy and horology, he sets sail for the Devil's Triangle but the undead and frankly pissed-off Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) is on their trail as he attempts to capture and kill Jack Sparrow, who once cursed him to sail the seas forever like a zombie ghost. Story-wise, this isn't too far off from the last movie which was about three different

Back in 2007, The Coen Brothers swept the Oscars with No Country For Old Men , the bleak tale of a man who finds a briefcase full of money only to then be hunted by a madman. Based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, this was a return to darker territory for the Coens after a couple of more light-hearted efforts. An exploration of young and old, good and evil, right and wrong, No Country For Old Men was maybe Ethan and Joel Coen's most serious and dense film since Miller's Crossing . It stood out mostly thanks to a chilling performance by Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, the psychopath with twisted morals who toys with innocents and kills people with an oxygen tank. Tommy Lee Jones' Texas Sheriff Ed is our good guy who desperately tries to make sense of this new unpredictable brand of evil that has landed on his doorstep and Josh Brolin's everyman Llewelyn is the one in the middle of it all who meant well but doomed himself and others by taking something that didn't

Not really a fan of Ridley Scott's recent non-sci-fi works, I nevertheless give the odd interesting-looking one a go. Matchstick Men , American Gangster all had fun elements to them. Now, with The Counselor , you've got a star-studded cast and talented novelist Cormac McCarthy, responsible for No Country For Old Men , writing the script. Sounded promising. Yet, from the very first scene, it's pretty clear that this is one of those Ridley Scott projects that tries very hard, maybe a little too hard to be arty and "modern" in its approach, like A Good Year . While not as insufferable as the latter, The Counselor still has its overly pretentious scenes, most of which could be cut without it the film losing anything. This being McCarthy's first time writing a feature film of that type, it was always going to be a bit wordier than it should be but all those awkward conversations which characters have constantly in this movie just drag its pace down to a sta