Tag: Mystery

The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025) | REVIEW

Keira Knightley in THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailer).

Directed by Simon Stone — Screenplay by Joe Shrapnel, Anna Waterhouse, and Simon Stone.

The generically titled The Woman in Cabin 10 — not to be confused with The Woman in the Window, The Woman in the Yard, The Woman in Black, The Woman in the Wall, or The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window — is the latest feature from The Dig director Simon Stone. The film, which is based on Ruth Ware’s novel of the same name, is designed as a whodunnit psychological thriller, and it follows a journalist (Laura Blacklock, played by Keira Knightley) on a billionaire’s luxury yacht, who believes she has witnessed a passenger being thrown overboard and possibly killed. However, when she brings this up to anyone on the ship, no one seems to believe her. As our protagonist starts questioning her sanity, she also starts to uncover clues. 

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Brief History of a Family (2024) | REVIEW

The family that Yan Shuo (played by Sun Xilun) tries to insert himself into in BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY — PHOTO: Films Boutique (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Lin Jianjie — Screenplay by Lin Jianjie.

Lin Jianjie’s Brief History of a Family (or ‘Blood and Water‘ as it is called in my region) is a Chinese mystery thriller flick that follows a young man, Yan Shuo (played by Sun Xilun), as he attempts to ingratiate himself with the wealthy parents of a classmate. This all happens after said classmate, Wei (played by Lin Muran), deliberately chucked a basketball at Shuo, while the latter was doing a pull-up exercise. When Shuo is injured, Wei takes pity on his classmate and invites him back to his parents’ apartment to play video games. When Shuo tells Wei’s family about his bleak daily life, they, too, take pity on him and begin to admire him for being everything Wei isn’t. As Shuo gradually becomes more and more a part of their family, Wei becomes jealous, while his parents’ past insecurities are revealed. 

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Caddo Lake (2024) | REVIEW

Dylan O’Brien in CADDO LAKE — PHOTO: Max.

Directed by Celine Held and Logan George — Screenplay by Celine Held and Logan George.

Every once in a while, you encounter a film that completely blindsides you in the best way possible for a variety of reasons including you not really having the highest of expectations for it. Why didn’t I have high expectations? Well, I think the fact that it was being unceremoniously dumped onto a streaming service, in this case, Max, certainly didn’t prepare me for something particularly great. But, and I mean this wholeheartedly, Celine Held and Logan George’s Caddo Lake is one of the better feature-length surprises of the year thus far — not necessarily because it’s one of the best films of the year (it isn’t and it almost definitely won’t be regarded as such), but more so because of how much this captivating and relatively strong film came out of nowhere. 

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REVIEW: The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

Christian Bale in THE PALE BLUE EYE — PHOTO: NETFLIX.

Directed by Scott Cooper (Hostiles) — Screenplay by Scott Cooper.

Netflix’s first major film release of 2023 is Scott Cooper’s (very late entry into the 2022 movie year) The Pale Blue Eye. The film, which is based on a historical fiction novel of the same name from author Louis Bayard, features an incredibly well-known author, Edgar Allan Poe, as a character that is integral to the narrative, and it should go without saying that the film does not come close to becoming even a little bit as notable as the author the creatives have built a fictional mystery around. That would be a tough ask, to be honest. Still, though, this is a pretty decent crime thriller, even if it won’t end up on many best of 2022 lists. 

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REVIEW: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson’s GLASS ONION — PHOTO: NETFLIX.

Directed by Rian Johnson — Screenplay by Rian Johnson.

In 2019, Looper and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson released his original ‘whodunnit’ ensemble crime mystery Knives Out. It was a huge success as it received critical acclaim and notable Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Oscar nominations. The film also helped to bring new life to the ‘whodunnit’ genre. It was so successful that this year there are several of those stories including See How They Run and the Apple-series The Afterparty. The massive success also led to a bidding war for Johnson’s Benoit Blanc-led Knives Out sequels. That bidding war was won by Netflix (they paid a whopping $469 million) and they have released its first sequel today just in time for Christmas. It brings me great joy to report that Glass Onion is almost exactly as good as the original film that preceded it, even though it no longer feels quite as fresh.

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RETRO REVIEW: The Ninth Gate (1999)

Theatrical Release Poster – Artisan Entertainment

The following is a retro review of The Ninth Gate (the review includes some story spoilers) — Directed by Roman Polanski.

Based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s novel The Club Dumas, Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate tells the story of an unscrupulous book dealer, Dean Corso (played by Johnny Depp), and his attempt to authenticate a mysterious book for a wealthy collector, Boris Balkan (played by Frank Langella). To properly authenticate the book, Corso has to bring it with him to Europe to compare it with the other two known editions of the book, but this isn’t just any book. Balkan’s book can supposedly summon the Devil, and, as Dean Corso soon finds out, crazed individuals are willing to go to great lengths to acquire it. Continue reading “RETRO REVIEW: The Ninth Gate (1999)” →

REVIEW: Under the Silver Lake (2019)

Theatrical Release Poster – A24

The following is a review of Under the Silver Lake — Directed by David Robert Mitchell.

In 2014, David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows was released to critical acclaim. It was one of the first horror films that I ever reviewed and I remember the film mostly for its riveting score and the unique premise of the film which was really more of a parable. In 2016, Mitchell shot his follow-up to the aforementioned horror film. His film, Under the Silver Lake, was eventually acquired by A24, and it competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

I remember watching the trailer and being intrigued by the cast and the mystery. It was meant to be released that summer, but then A24 pulled it from its release schedule. In 2019, Mitchell’s film was released without much fanfare. Supposedly, this was one of those polarizing films that you either hate or love. Recently, I found myself watching Mark Kermode’s review of Under the Silver Lake during which time I was struck by the severity of his reprimand as he proclaimed: “It’s so tooth-grindingly boring.” I’m a big fan of Mark Kermode, but, I have to say, I really dug Mitchell’s film. Continue reading “REVIEW: Under the Silver Lake (2019)” →

REVIEW: Burning (2018)

Theatrical Release Poster – CGV Arthouse

The following is a review of Burning (‘버닝‘) — Directed by Lee Chang-dong.

There are a couple of news reports during the first hour of Lee Chang-dong’s Burning. During the reading of these reports, the frustrated Lee Jong-su (played by Yoo Ah-in) is walking through his family home, a farm house so close to the North Korean border that he’s able to hear North Korean propaganda out in the open. As he is walking through the house, we hear how his generation is struggling to find work in South Korea, and we also see President Donald Trump on a television screen. Continue reading “REVIEW: Burning (2018)” →

REVIEW: Shirkers (2018 – Documentary)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of the Netflix Documentary Shirkers — Directed by Sandi Tan.

In the early 1990s, a group of teenage Singaporean cinephiles became filmmakers when they wrote, cast, produced, and shot their independent road movie, Shirkers. Though the film was directed by their American mentor Georges Cardona, the premise and the script came from Sandi Tan who also played the protagonist. As Sandi Tan waited to go into post-production on Shirkers, Cardona, who was in possession of the film reels, ignored her and disappeared out of nowhere with the film — leaving her and her friends empty-handed and without the film that a film critic friend of theirs thought was childish but ahead of its time.  Continue reading “REVIEW: Shirkers (2018 – Documentary)” →