DUNE Review

Director Denis Villenueve and an Expansive Cast Translate Frank Herbert's 1965 Sci-Fi Masterpiece into a Digestible First Half of a Story That Immerses if not Invests.

HALLOWEEN KILLS Review

David Gordon Green Follows-Up his 2018 Re-Boot of the Iconic Horror Franchise with a Middle Chapter that is Messy, Unfocused, and Brutal but not Very Scary.

NO TIME TO DIE Review

Daniel Craig's James Bond Swan Song is Everything a Fan of the Series Could Want from A Spy Thriller and Often Times...More.

VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE Review

Andy Serkis Takes Over Directing Duties in this Sequel to the Surprise 2018 Smash that Doubles Down on all the Worst Parts of its Predecessor.

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS Review

The Introduction of the Latest Hero to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a Rousing and Aesthetically Beautiful Underdog Story Until it Isn't.

NEW WEST Review

Dildos, like farts, are always funny and there are plenty of both in writer/director/editor Jordan Mears debut feature(ish) film, New West. Well, to be honest, I don’t know that I can confidently say I remember any particular instances of flatuation but trust me - there are plenty of gags involving dicks, dildos, and...rubber horse masks? Different function for the word "rubber" than you might have expected given the previous few sentences, huh? Well, that's what makes Mears and company's trip down South all the more enjoyable: it's mostly unpredictable (and often pretty funny to boot). Whether in sight, sound, or purely by association the gags built around these "lewd" objects shaped like erect penises used for sexual stimulation along with a particularly sturdy rubber horse mask, New West is a frothy and filthy little excursion that takes sincere pleasure in delivering what so few trips to the cinema tend to offer these days in that it is a pure, unadulterated broad comedy. Speaking of unexpected word functions regarding this movie - don't expect to see "pure" in the same sentence as New West anywhere else. 

With the shift to streaming and the expansion of platforms for which content is being produced comedy is the genre that has suffered the most given different flavors of the genre have each found their niche in different silos of the culture, meeting the needs of multiple segments of the population, but no longer bringing us together as they once did so casually (or frequently). Now, I'm not saying New West is here to right the ship of the broad comedy or even that, should it see the light of day beyond the festival circuit, it will be for everybody but what I am saying is that it demonstrates there is a hunger for the communal comedy experience once again after the onslaught of negative world events and abundance of bad news that has hammered citizens of the planet from every direction for what feels like the better part of a decade now. With New West, Mears along with co-writer, composer, and actor Coty Greenwood have crafted what is clearly something they knew would make themselves laugh, something that they had a grand time concocting, and something that - while sometimes vile - clearly has good intentions and aspirations given those don't seem to stretch for anything more than bringing a group of friends and/or strangers together to make them laugh.