Sean Durkin’s “The Nest” was met with tepid applause at its world premiere screening last night at the Eccles Theater. It’s not that Durkin’s slow-burn-of-a-movie is bad, actually it’s quite good, an artfully rendered take on the disintegration of a family. It’s just that the film goes by its own rhythms and may test the patience of restless audiences expecting something that is plot-heavy. Rory (Jude Law) and Allison (Carrie Coon) are a well-off NYC-based couple whose life couldn’t be filled with more wealth and happiness. Or so it seems. He’s a successful commodities broker, she’s a freelance horse trainer, together they have a son and a daughter. Things couldn’t be peachier. However, Once Rory moves Allison and the kids to London because of a new job, things start to deteriorate badly. Sure, they now have a huge mansion, she gets her own personal horse, and the kids end up going to the most elite of schools, but something seems a little off. Rory’s lies start to get exposed, Allison starts to rebel against the deception, whilst the kids see mom acting up and decide to do the same at school. Durkin, much like he did in his excellent “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” uses mostly wide and medium angle shots, there is nary a close-up here. The atmosphere is filled with dread as we, the audience, must learn to expect the unexpected. The last half hour of the film is when the slow build-up delivers scathing thrills in unexpected ways. Coon, a commendably underrated actress, gives her best performance to date as Allison, a repressed wife who starts to realize that the privilege she’s been seeking her entire life and finally got by marrying Rory years ago, may be too toxic to live with. [B/B+]
Dee Rees premiered her third feature-length movie, “The Last Thing He Wanted,” with expectations sky high after the double success she had with 2011’s “Pariah” and 2017’s “Mudbound.” The film is based on Joan Didion’s novel of the same name and set during the Reagan-era, where American government was purposely arming both sides of the contra conflict, causing chaotic civil war in Latin America. Anne Hathaway leads the cast as a reporter who becomes involved in the very story she's trying to break by helping her father (an under-utilized Willem Dafoe) broker an arms deal. The film turns out to be an incoherent mess of the highest order. Rees is in over her head here with her narrative. Is it her fault? Not entirely. Some of the tracking shots she produces in this film are fantastic. No, the film’s flaws have actually more to do with the screenplay and editing, which isolate the viewer in trying to follow the Byzantine plot. “The Last Thing He Wanted” will be quickly forgotten after it premieres on Netflix February 3rd. [D]
Only a Cronenberg could direct something like “Possessor,” a bloodily convoluted and erotic sci-fi caper that is never dull to watch. No, David isn’t in the director’s chair for this one, but rather his son Brandon Cronenberg, who clearly shares the same cinematic DNA as his father. The body-horror in “Possessor” is upped to the nth degree as a female agent (Andrea Riseborough), working for a corporation that uses brain implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies to commit assassinations, slowly loses control of her mind when she inhabits a new body (Christopher Abbott). To reveal more would reveal all the twists and turns Cronenberg has in store for his audience, but, make no mistake about it, it’s the violence that makes this movie well-worth a look. I tweeted that “Possessor” may just be the most violent movie I have ever seen at Sundance and that an NC-17 rating is all but assured, that is if this movie ever gets to see the light of day in theatres. [B]
If any film so far this Sundance could be become a major hit at the box-office, it would have to be “Palm Springs,” a “Groundhog Day”-esque comedy starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milloti. Despite retreading the familiar time-loop trope, the film is silly but incredibly entertaining — one of the funniest movies you will likely see this year. NEON and Hulu teamed up to buy “Palm Springs” for a whopping $15 million. A summer release would be most convenient for this movie, which follows a man and woman forced to continuously relive a day in their life at a friend’s wedding. It’s better than it sounds. Samberg, along with director Max Barbakow, find new and original ways to make us laugh with this usually tiresome narrative gimmick. However, the movie isn’t just another silly Lonely Island production, it’s also sweetly touching thanks to Samberg and Milloti’s surprisingly humane chemistry. I never thought of Samberg as a typical leading man in a rom-com, but he’s found the perfect partner in Milloti. [B+]