REVIEW: Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Dave Bautista (left) in M. Night Shyamalan’s KNOCK AT THE CABIN — PHOTO. Universal Pictures.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan — Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman.

Like you may have read previously elsewhere, M. Night Shyamalan was once dubbed ‘the next Spielberg.’ It was meant as a great honor but became a bit of a challenge to live up to. After four or five disappointments in a row between the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, Shyamalan was no longer being compared to Spielberg but rather known for his reliance on twists and his cameo appearances, as well as for his kind of unconvincing dialogue. With The Visit and Split, fans of his — and I consider myself a fan — started to believe that he was making a return to form with simpler premises and genuinely strong films. Then Glass was released — the conclusion to his Unbreakable trilogy — and it was another crushing disappointment — a cruel twist on his supposed ‘return to form’ for fans of his. He’s not done, though. In 2021, he released Old to mixed reviews, and, this year, he’s got Knock at the Cabin to showcase his talents with. Unfortunately, neither of those films fully worked for me. They aren’t outright disasters like some of the works that derailed his career, but even though they indicate that Shyamalan is on his way back, they also show that he still has a ways to go before being back ‘in form.’

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REVIEW: The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Keanu Reeves is back as ‘Thomas Anderson’ in THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS — Photo: Warner Bros.

Directed by Lana Wachowski — Screenplay by Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell, and Aleksandar Hemon.

After the events of The Matrix Revolutions, in The Matrix Resurrections, Thomas Anderson (still played by Keanu Reeves) is somehow still alive. However, something is off about him. He is now a video game developer, and the creator of The Matrix, which the people around him claim to be a video game. But he has these dreams, and every time he crosses paths with a woman named Tiffany, she looks just like Trinity (played by Carrie-Anne Moss). He is prescribed blue pills by his therapist (played by Neil Patric Harris) to keep his dreams and visions in check. However, right as his business partner (played by Jonathan Groff) tells him that they have to make a new Matrix game, he encounters a young and different-looking Morpheus (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who asks him to take the red pill.

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REVIEW: MINDHUNTER – Season Two (2019)

The following is a review of the second season of Mindhunter — Created by Joe Penhall.

In my first season review of Netflix’s MINDHUNTER, I wrote that it is like catnip for true crime aficionados. I stand by that, but it really hurts being without that catnip for two years. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve rewatched the first season of the show, so when it became clear that it was finally making its anticipated return I was excited, and before I published this review I made sure to watch the entire season twice. Rest assured, the second season of MINDHUNTER proves that the wait has been worth it. The excellent true-crime series about methodology and research is back, and this time around they get to interview exactly who they want. Continue reading “REVIEW: MINDHUNTER – Season Two (2019)”

REVIEW: MINDHUNTER – Season One (2017)

The following is a review of the first season of MINDHUNTER – A Netflix Original Series

Have you ever found yourself reading Wikipedia late at night? Perhaps your venture into a deep Wikipedia rabbit hole, so to speak, has led you onto a page about some terrifying, but very real monster, and now you can’t stop reading about the Dahmers, Bundys, and Zodiacs of the world. Continue reading “REVIEW: MINDHUNTER – Season One (2017)”