How do you stay concealed in a world that makes it nearly impossible to do so? How can you safely hide your identity at all times when all it takes is a partial photo of your face for the wrong person to learn more about you than you could imagine that they could ever know? These are all-too-real questions tackled by Relay, director David Mackenzie’s (Hell or High Water, Outlaw King) taut thriller. In a day and age in Hollywood where you can be anything, a typical moviegoer’s wish is for a film just to be original. That is what Mackenzie brings with this subtle, yet intense, character-driven whistleblower thriller, while also delivering the best twist of the year, one that will invite us to reexamine the movie’s entire timeline long after our viewing is complete.
Category Archives: Lily James
The Iron Claw (2023)
Talk about a gut punch of a movie. As a pro wrestling fan, I’ve known of the tragedy of the Von Erich family for years. However, while I know of the circumstances around each of the brothers, I was only familiar with the one brother who made it to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment – WWE). Kerry Von Erich had a two-year run as The Texas Tornado in the early 90s. His time in WWF was when I was getting into pro wrestling, and The Texas Tornado was one of my favorites. A biopic about the Von Erich family had been in talks for years before Sean Durkin’s (The Nest, Martha Marcy May Marlene) The Iron Claw came about. I’ve read pre-screener reviews about how emotionally devastating this movie was for months. While I felt prepared for my watch, I left feeling wrecked. What a masterful feat.
Darkest Hour (2017)
Before I start the review for Darkest Hour, we should get one thing out of the way. Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy, The Dark Knight Rises) will win this year’s Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Whoever the other four nominees can skip the ceremony. Buried in thick coats of makeup and padding that make him unrecognizable, Oldman (who was only six years younger in real life than the many he was portraying on screen was at the time of this movie but who takes better care of himself physically than the man he is portraying) pulls off one of the most remarkable actor character transformations in recent memory in his portrayal of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His performance will be compared to Colin Firth’s portrayal of King George VI (who ironically was a character in this movie) in 2010 The King’s Speech, a role in which he earned numerous awards, including the coveted Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Oscar.