Look up in the sky! What do you see? That’s right; it’s a crow coming down to impart the news that we’ve rounded up all our reviews of everything you can see this week for your reading. From a new take on The Crow starring Bill Skarsgård to Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut to the magnificent return of a cinematic legend who hasn’t made a feature in decades, we’ve got reviews of what you can see in theaters and at home, ranked by what we thought of them.
5 The Crow
Directed by Rupert Sanders
Get your black eyeliner and plastic jelly bracelets! The emo Gen-Z melodrama of your dreams, The Crow, is here! Bill Skarsgård does what he can to save this new version of the ‘90s cult classic, but this bird never quite takes flight. Thankfully, there are plenty more films ahead. In her review, Features Editor Therese Lacson wrote “struggling through an identity crisis, The Crow is doing too much and, as a result, doesn’t do enough to serve its core narrative.”
REVIEW
The Crow (2024)
The Crow is a flawed love story that stumbles but embraces its gothic and emo roots.
- Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs have great romantic chemistry and Skarsgård is a convincing romantic lead.
- The dialogue is often clunky, relying more on the performance of the actors than the written lines.
- The film struggles between being a romantic tragedy and a bloody revenge film.
- The reboot includes new elements of lore and worldbuilding that bog the story down rather than uplift it.
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4 Blink Twice
Directed by Zoë Kravitz
Channing Tatum is both sinister and charming in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, Blink Twice, which sees a group of women taken to a remote island by a billionaire where not everything is what it seems. It often feels like a collage of similar movies that it then puts a new twist on, but it still marks Kravitz as one to watch with whatever she then decides to take on next. In her review, Senior Editor Taylor Gates wrote “Blink Twice might not break entirely new ground, but it does offer a slightly different perspective on the sun-soaked, well-worn path it trods.”
REVIEW
Blink Twice
Zoë Kravitz’s debut struggles with pacing but provides some refreshing twists on the #MeToo thriller.
- The film is genuinely terrifying when it fully leans into its dark premise, diving into lesser-explored elements of patriarchal oppression.
- Ackie, Arjona, Tatum, and Davis give compelling and layered performances, with their comedic chops offering some welcomed levity.
- The cinematography is gorgeous and immersive throughout.
- The movie struggles with pacing, with the first half dragging and the ending too abrupt.
- It calls to mind a myriad of other films, never feeling wholly original.
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3 Hell Hole
Directed by John Adams and Toby Poser
A darkly funny mashup of The Thing and Tremors, Hell Hole is a creature feature where a being big on tentacles takes over the bodies of an unsuspecting group working at a remote mining operation. It’s a scrappy offering, full of both silliness and buckets of blood, offering plenty of fun for those who can stomach it. In my review from when it premiered at this year’s SXSW, I wrote “like the metaphor that gets thrown out by a character in a key moment about an octopus fitting into a hole, it shouldn’t work, but it still does in delightful fashion.”
REVIEW
Hell Hole (2024)
Hell Hole is more than a little rough around the edges, but it’s still a solid indie horror movie.
- It’s a scrappy horror film that embraces its silliness while still having strong practical effects.
- The experience cuts through any hiccups to get to the meat of a madcap indie monster movie.
- It’s presented in a way that is just cheeky enough to dig its away out of any holes it falls into.
- The film can drag in parts and some scenes carry on for a bit too long.
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2 Strange Darling
Directed by JT Mollner
Image via Miramax
The biggest surprise of the week by far is Strange Darling, a wild ride that sees Reacher’s Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner fall into a romance that becomes a spectacular survival horror. It’s one best entered into while knowing as little as possible, so trust us when we say it’s worth it. In her review, Gates wrote “the more the film proves that everything is not as it seems, the more Mollner and Fitzgerald prove themselves as singular talents to watch.”
REVIEW
Strange Darling (2024)
‘Strange Darling’ smartly plays with audience expectations while making a star out of Willa Fitzgerald.
- Willa Fitzgerald gives a career-defining performance you have to see to believe.
- J.T. Mollner’s script is a clever puzzle that continues to reveal unexpected layers and themes.
- Giovanni Ribisi’s cinematography is stylized and immersive, giving the film an impressive visual language.
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1 Close Your Eyes
Directed by Víctor Erice
The best film of the week as well as one of the best films of the year thus far, Close Your Eyes, marks the magnificent return of legendary filmmaker Víctor Erice decades after his last feature. In it, a director’s search for a missing actor becomes a deeply reflective experience about cinema and life. It’s an exquisite, once-in-a-decade gem worth cherishing. In my rave review, I wrote “you’ll want to hold Erice’s film tight, but much like the water pouring from a shoe you turn over after wading into the fleeting moments of wonder, it reminds us how the memories of life’s beautiful mundanities can all too easily slip through our fingers.”
REVIEW
Close Your Eyes (2023)
Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes is yet another magnificent work of cinema that is as beautifully shot as it is breathtakingly moving.
- The film is a mystery of sorts that soon asks essential questions about life itself, journeying its way through subtly painful yet often poetic conversations.
- It’s a surprising, deeply moving work that shifts from extended, patient scenes to something entirely different yet no less beautiful.
- Erice’s film becomes like a snapshot of an imagined memory, leaving us wanting to hold it tight just as we too realize that it will all too easily slip through our fingers.
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