Appearances can be deceiving, both in people and in the arts. Longtime producer and first-time director Marc Turtletaub crafts together a soft, tender story of a middle-aged woman (Kelly Macdonald – Anna Karenina, No Country for Old Men) searching for an identity she didn’t even know she was searching for in the understated, well-executed Puzzle. It’s a movie that, despite its premise and, specifically, its non-descript trailer, gives life to a well-narrated tone that explores each of its five lead characters in a way you would never think that competitive puzzle-building could. I only saw this movie because I was trying to break my record for the number of films I saw in one year. As I approached triple digits, few remained that caught my eye as something I needed to see. However, the 83% critic/78% audience score for Puzzle was enough for me to try the movie, and I needed only to see the first 15 minutes or so to know that this was a movie I would also be reviewing.
Category Archives: Hidden Gems
Borg Vs. McEnroe (2018)
The 1980 Wimbledon Men’s Championship Match was among the greatest tennis matches ever. It featured the number one player in the world (Sweden’s Bjorn Borg) seeking his fifth street title in the most famous tournament in the sport against the upstart American John McEnroe, who had quickly climbed to be the number two player in the world. Young director Janus Metz captures the history of both men and their rivalry up to this point in their careers while centering on this all-important match.
The Mustang (2019)
Roman Coleman, the career-defining role that journeyman Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone, The Drop) has been waiting for, does not disappoint. Finally, the 42-year-old actor you’ve seen in the background here and there and everywhere gets his opportunity to truly lead a movie. As the hardened felon-turned-horse trainer proves, anything can happen to anyone, given the right circumstances. The Mustang is a brilliantly directed movie by first-time director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Roman seems to desire to serve his time quickly and with as little human interaction as possible. He is nearly unrecognizable with his shaved head, as well as chiseled, tattooed body. But his problem with the latter leads to a longer than expected stay, and his explosive anger to go with that machine of a body suggests that he might not be going anywhere anytime soon.
Revenge (2017)
Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge (a terrible title since it has the same name as the Kevin Costner 1990 movie, a 2002 Roman Polanski film, a 1971 Shelley Winters film, and more) might be the best movie of 2018 you have yet to hear about. However, I can’t think of a better one for a movie that makes no bones about it, a movie about revenge, and nothing more. Driven by a first-time director in Fargeat, a cast that has no one that you’ve ever heard of, and a marketing campaign that likely consisted only of trailers on just as unknown straight-to-DVD releases, Revenge earned less than $125,000 at the box office and its limited May 2018 release, the movie resonated with the critics (92% with 119 reviews) though, with more than 2400 ratings, just over half (55%) gave the movie a favorable review. Much more than a simple popcorn flick, Fargeat creates a highly likable protagonist in Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz – Somewhere Beautiful, Rings) and three highly unlikeable antagonists, whom I’ll discuss in subsequent paragraphs. You’ll find yourself cheering hard for Jen and hoping, even if you are against violence, that those who have wronged her get what they deserve.
Searching (2018)
While by no means a perfect movie, what an ambitious and stunning debut for first-time director Aneesh Chaganty. At the ripe age of just 27 years, he took a movie that many people (including the cast) thought was an impossible task while others thought would come across as a complete trainwreck and made this one of the absolute must-sees in 2018. Searching is so entuned with today’s technology, especially relating to social media, webcams, the dangers of communicating online with strangers, and the idea that an online persona can be so different than who a person is in real life. Chaganty considered that technology, including social media platforms, constantly evolves. He knew he only had a while to write, cast, film, edit, market, and release this movie that felt relevant and current.