Knives Out (2019)
Genre-hopping writer-director Rian Johnson has done a neo-noir teen flick in Brick, a family crime dramedy in The Brothers Bloom, a twisty time-travel sci-fi excursion in Looper. More famously, he also ushered in the...
Genre-hopping writer-director Rian Johnson has done a neo-noir teen flick in Brick, a family crime dramedy in The Brothers Bloom, a twisty time-travel sci-fi excursion in Looper. More famously, he also ushered in the...
2010s / Drama / Mystery / Romance / Science Fiction / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published April 4, 2017 · Last modified August 1, 2018
The Discovery offers up an interesting theoretical drama about what might occur from a sociological standpoint if it were to be proven that there’s life after death. The film posits that the fear of death...
2010s / Comedy / Drama / Romance
by Vincent Leo · Published June 19, 2016 · Last modified July 4, 2018
Sweet but predictable, Me Before You will likely please those among the target demographic that predominantly consists of women looking to smile and cry, not minding that most of the emotional beats are manipulated and manufactured...
2000s / Action / Comedy / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published March 8, 2013 · Last modified February 18, 2019
Standup comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (That’s How We Do It, World’s Greatest Dad) writes and directs this wildly violent satire that targets popular television programs and the media in a bold and very bloody way....
2000s / Science Fiction / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published June 15, 2008 · Last modified January 6, 2020
If I had thought, even for one second, that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan was making a spoof of end-of-the-world sci-fi thrillers from the 1950s, I might give The Happening much more credit than I’ll be...
Nominated for six Oscars, and winner of four, Ordinary People is a small-scale drama that is almost as notorious for besting Raging Bull for Best Picture as it is for being a good film. Although it seems like...
If you were to hear the central premise of Little Miss Sunshine without having ever seen a preview, you’d probably dismiss it as just another knock-off of National Lampoon’s Vacation series, and choose to ignore it. Don’t. While...
A nicely structured depiction of true-life events, based on the book by Alan Dershowitz, Reversal of Fortune takes a fascinating look into the events of Claus von Bulow’s appeal to the case involving his comatose...
Based on the book by Jeffrey Eugenides, the setting is the 1970s, where a suburban family — mom, dad, and five sisters — come to an untimely demise. The details aren’t spelled out. although...
1980s / Comedy / Mystery / Thriller
by Vincent Leo · Published February 18, 2003 · Last modified June 26, 2022
Bates Motel was announced in February 1987 as a two-hour pilot for a proposed new comedy-thriller series on NBC. It was the brainchild of screenwriter Richard Rothstein, creator of the HBO series, “The Hitchhiker”....
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.