Brent Lorentson

The film Phantom Thread may be flying under the radar for most cinema-goers, but this little gem is a nice distraction from the big-budget fare that floods the theaters. While I’m a fan of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s earlier work (Boogie Nights and Magnolia), the big draw for this film is the perhaps last cinematic performance we may see from Daniel Day-Lewis, who last collaborated with Anderson in the 2007 film There Will Be Blood. While I have to admit the trailers for this film didn’t inspire much excitement from me, it’s the pairing of Anderson and Day-Lewis I was more curious about. The result is one of the more unexpected film experiences I’ve had in sometime. 
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As a director, George Clooney just hasn’t managed to reproduce the magic he had in his first effort Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  I keep hoping that we’ll get another film at that caliber, but it seems over and over it is a swing and a miss.  Now he has his new film Suburbicon, and this could be his most divisive work to date.  There is nothing wrong with adding a social commentary to a film, but sometimes adding it can be a distraction from the film.  In the case of Suburbicon, it is a tale of two films that couldn’t be any more different from each other.  First we have a tale of a family attempting to keep their lives together following a home invasion, and then we have the story of a black family moving into a white neighborhood and the backlash that follows.
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When I first heard about The Snowman, this was a movie that got me excited, that we could possibly have a great thriller to look forward to. At one point Martin Scorsese was attached to direct the film. He eventually backed out of the project, though he is still credited as an executive producer for the film. To step in for the directing duties, Tomas Alfredson got the call, and it’s his involvement that initially got me excited. Back in 2008 Alfredson directed Let the Right One In, which I consider to be one of the greatest horror films to be released in decades. It’s hard for some directors to meet expectations when their first films are such a success.
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When it comes to ranking the top 10 cool movies of the past five years, Kingsman:The Secret Service would easily make the list.  From the opening sequence to the final credits, the movie was simply a fun ride with so many kick-ass moments. I mean, the fight in the church alone is worth the price of admission. The moment I heard Matthew Vaughn was returning to helm the sequel, I instantly got giddy with excitement. Heck, ever since his first film Layer Cake, the guy has managed to produce a stream of cool films that I’ve enjoyed. It’s when the trailer for the sequel first dropped something didn’t feel right;
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