Dutch action filmmaker Roel Reiné directs, composes, and shoots the new survival thriller “Savage Hunt”. The film falls into the ‘Man versus Beast‘ category, centering itself around the bloody rampage of a giant bear in a sleepy Montana community. It’s a fairly straightforward genre movie that attempts to add several human layers to its story. But staying involved becomes difficult due to the film’s clear budget constraints and a paper-thin script that glosses over everything that could have made the story more interesting.

Screenwriters Chad Law and Christopher Jolley begin their story with two eco-activists making their way through the wilderness after scoping out a newly cleared construction site sitting in the middle of the pristine forest. The site belongs to a multinational conglomerate with plans of building a massive resort and spa. But as the activists are planning their sabotage, they are attacked and torn to shreds by a ravenous grizzly bear.

After discovering one of the victims and recognizing a bear attack, Sheriff Riggins (Colin Mace) and a local park ranger Kate Deeks (Fotina Papatheodorou) order the site to be shut down until they can hunt down the grizzly. Initially the site manager, Jace (Anthony Barclay) isn’t happy with their order. But he’s a bit preoccupied with the arrival of his wife Lacey (Noush Skaugen) and their daughter Alex (Priya Blackburn).

In the film’s most underdeveloped side stories, we learn Jace and Lacey are separated and she has brought divorce papers to be signed. There’s also some kind of disconnect between Jace and Alex which never fully forms into something relatable. In fact nothing about their family drama feels authentic. It’s not helped by the cold and stiff performances. But it’s mostly the script which only glazes over the themes it introduces rather than give them meaningful attention.

To add even more drama, more attacks lead Kate to seek help from Joe Regan (James Oliver Wheatley), a tormented local hunter and former ranger who she shares a traumatic history with Kate. After declining due to vague reasons that eventually gets explained (sorta), Joe reluctantly agrees and sets out to track the bear. Of course he ultimately comes face-to-face with the beast. But in the process, Joe is forced to reckon with his own haunting ghosts from the past.

Again, none of the human drama has much of an impact. And it’s hard to root for anyone when they’re constantly making bone-headed decisions, such as always finding ways to put themselves in the most dangerous positions. But at least we have the human vs. bear action, right? Well, not exactly. Much of the movie consists of people slow-walking through the scenic forest and what looks like stock footage of a bear running around in the wild. The lone exception is one weird scene of the bear randomly running down the Main Street of a small town.

Of course we’re treated to several bear kills which unfortunately range from serviceable to awkwardly bad. And other issues spring up along the way such as the shaky editing and the abrupt ending that seems strange for a movie already struggling to fill its 85 minutes. And it doesn’t help that “Savage Hunt” takes itself so seriously. It’s a mostly dour and joyless endeavor that would have been much better off embracing its absurdity. Instead we end up with a glacially paced, frustratingly hollow, and ultimately forgettable snooze.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS

“Sentimental Value” is the latest film from director Joachim Trier and his follow-up to 2022’s Oscar-nominated “The Worse Person in the World”. It sees him rejoining his regular writing partner Eskil Vogt to tell a resonant and layered story that uses the behind-the-scenes drama of a film shoot to explore the idea of reconciliation through art. It’s tricky ground to cover, but Trier succeeds thanks to his keen focus and tight grip on this mature and thoughtful material.

Trier also reteams with the extraordinary actress Renate Reinsve for their third collaboration. She plays a stage and television actress named Nora Borg. She and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) have their world shaken when their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) re-enters their lives. Gustav left when the girls were still young and his reappearance brings back waves of painful feelings, especially for Nora.

Gustav has had a successful filmmaking career, but it has come at the expense of his relationships with his daughters. Yet despite his success, Gustav hasn’t released a feature film in fifteen years. But he has written a new script – one that is very close to his heart. And he uses it in as a means of reaching out to his daughters in the only way he competently knows how – through the very artistic language that pulled him away in the beginning.

In one of the film’s (and one of the year’s) very best scenes, Gustav invites Nora to a diner where they can finally have what he calls a “proper talk”. The father-daughter tension is immediate and it comes through in every word penned by Trier and Vogt. It also pours from the profoundly genuine performances of Reinsve and Skarsgård, who shrewdly convey the emotional complexities within their characters. The exchanges that follow are riveting.

Gustav tells Nora he has written what he thinks is the best script of his career. He presents her with a copy to read saying he wants her to play the lead. Galled by his nerve, a stunned Nora angrily rejects his offer. “I wrote it for you,” he declares as if expecting her to immediately reconsider. “You’re the only one who can play it.” As Nora storms out, we are naturally sympathetic to her side. But Trier doesn’t paint Gustav as a villain. Instead he leaves us with our own questions about the character. Is Gustav’s script just a tool to get back in his daughters’ good graces? Is he using Nora to get extra funding for his film? Or is there something deeper and more personal?

“Sentimental Value” is a movie about daddies and daughters. But it’s also a movie about sisters. Nora and Agnes have a thoughtfully drawn relationship that grew stronger with every family trial they endured together. Agnes seems to have the more stable life. She’s happily married and has an adorable young son. Nora’s prickly veneer hides a vulnerability that weighs on her soul. She struggles with anxiety and loneliness, trying to satisfy both with ill-advised choices that hurt more than help. But the sisters share a special connection that Trier observes through various lenses.

Another crucial character in the film happens to be the family’s ancestral home which houses several generations of memories and trauma. Gustav still owns the house – a fact his daughters learned after their mother died. Gustav was raised there, and the secrets within its walls inform why he’s reluctant to part with it. He’s still wrestling with those secrets which date back to his own childhood, and his new film is his way of reckoning with it.

The richly observed family dynamics only get more compelling with each dramatic turn. One of the biggest comes when Gustav decides to shoot his new film in the family’s house. Even more, he brings in Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), a popular American actress, to play the lead role that Nora turned down. It’s a compelling turn of events that allows Trier to take Nora and Gustav in revealing new directions which poignantly help to define their relationship.

“Sentimental Value” sees Joachim Trier cementing himself as one of the must-see filmmakers of our time. Some may argue he had already achieved that status. But his latest film is his best to date. In it we see Trier broadening his focus yet maintaining the intimacy that has made his other films so incisive and nuanced. His considerations of fractured relationships, past family trauma, and art as a means of healing have significant weight and are delivered with such an assured sense of purpose that we can’t help but be utterly captivated by the drama that unfolds on screen.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

“The Secret Agent” opens with a sequence that highlights how beautiful filming in PanaVision can be. In sun-soaked rural Brazil, Marcela (Wagner Moura) pulls his canary yellow Volkswagen Beetle into a rundown gas station to fill up. After an encounter with a crooked local policeman, Marcela hits the road, eventually making his way to the city of Recife which is where the majority of the movie unfolds.

This opening sequence is an impressive introduction to the stunning look of this fascinating thriller. Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho and cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova shot “The Secret Agent” with PanaVision anamorphic lenses and vintage gear which not only captures the wider field of view, but it recreates the distinct visual style of the 1970s. And it’s not just some homage. The camera transports and immerses us into the story’s vibrant setting.

You could say “The Secret Agent” isn’t an overtly in-your-face political movie, but the politics of 1977 Brazil runs throughout this captivating period thriller. It’s described as “a time of great mischief” in the opening titles. But that seems gentile compared to the true Brazil of the time. The country was in the middle of a two-decade-long military dictatorship which saw the systematic persecution and silencing of those who opposed the authoritarian regime.

Once in Recife, Marcela seeks out Dona Sebastiana (a fabulous Tânia Maria) who secretly owns an apartment building that houses political refugees in hiding. We learn Marcela is one such refugee. His real name is Armando and he once was an engineering teacher and researcher. He was far from being a major threat to the regime’s stranglehold on power – a revealing point that Filho uses to emphasize the breadth of the era’s persecution.

We learn through a lengthy flashback segment that Armando was heading a university project on the verge of being shut down by a corrupt federal official named Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli). Seeing the lucrative potential of Armando’s lithium battery studies, Ghirotti moves to shut down their department before selling their research to a private company that he owns stock in. But Armando and his wife Fatima (Alice Carvalho) resist, making them an enemy of Ghirotti.

Back in 1977, we learn that Armando’s wife died a short time ago and their son Fernando (Enzo Nunes) lives with her parents. Armando tells Fernando that his mother died from pneumonia, but we can’t help but be suspicious, especially after their run-in with Ghirotti. Speaking of Ghirotti, he gets wind that Armando is somewhere in the Recife. So he hires two hitmen from São Paulo, an ex-military thug Augusto (Roney Villela) and his step-son Bobbi (Gabriel Leone), to track down and assassinate Armando.

As you can tell, “The Secret Agent” has a lot going on and I’ve only scratched the surface. There are other key players with significant parts to play. We get some great scenes with Armando’s concerned father-in-law Alexandre (Carlos Francisco) who is a projectionist at the local cinema. The Chief of Police, Euclides Cavalcanti (Roberio Diogenes), is a corrupt lackey for the regime, doing their dirty work with the help of his two obedient sons. Even more intriguing is Elza (Maria Fernanda Cândido), the leader of a resistance network working to get Armando out of the city.

Wrangling together this many moving parts is no easy task. Yet watching Filho succeed is nothing short of fascinating. He works with an unhurried assurance, following his own set of rules at every narrative turn. At no point does he or his movie seem bound by formula or expectation. It brings a certain freedom to his filmmaking and storytelling. Yet that very freedom doesn’t always work in his film’s favor. Take his choice include a scene of a sentient severed leg attacking locals having open-air sex in a public park. In fairness, it’s based on an absurd newspaper cover-up story and it’s meant to symbolize the regime’s oppression of minority groups. But it’s such a preposterous and tonally distracting detour.

With this much story it’s not surprising that some characters and their storylines get shortchanged. Yet there is so much in Filho’s film to soak in. His richly detailed compositions transport us back to 1970s Brazil, vividly capturing every detail and never wasting an inch of the frame. From the sweltering heat to the chaos of the Carnival celebration, Filho immerses us into this turbulent period. Meanwhile Moura shines in a role that gets increasingly more complex as the story progresses. He is a terrific centerpiece to terrific movie.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

One of 2022’s biggest surprises was the historical action-fueled revenge thriller “Sisu”. The word “sisu” is Finnish and it has no single one-to-one English translation. It’s a word used by Finns that represents their national character. It conveys courage, grit, tenacity, and stoicism, especially in the face adversity. The movie “Sisu” embodied all of that and packaged it in a bonkers and bloody genre blast.

Now equally surprising, we have a sequel, “Sisu: Road to Revenge”. It’s pure and proud genre entertainment that’s more bonkers, much bloodier, and with a noticeable bigger budget. Writer-director Jalmari Helander is back, serving up a full-course meal for action lover’s. And Jorma Tommila returns as the film’s fury-filled silent protagonist, dishing out heaping helpings of justice on a variety of well-deserving Nazi and corrupt Soviet scumbags.

The story takes place in 1946. The Nazis have been defeated and the Soviets are taking advantage of the regional instability. Finland had been forced to cede a large portion of its land to Russia. Sitting within the now Soviet-owned territory is the old homeplace of Aatami Korpi (Tommila). He’s a former Finnish Commando still grieving the brutal murders of his wife and two sons by Nazi soldiers while he was away at war. Aatami is a quiet, solitary man. But as we saw in the first film, he’s not someone you want to upset.

Together with his beloved Bedlington Terrier, Aatami crosses the border and returns to his old home. The cabin that remains is all that’s left of his past life. So he dismantles it and loads the wood beams onto his truck, determined to transport it back to Finland and rebuild it in his family’s honor. But as he works, the Soviets get wind of Aatami’s presence. Knowing his violent reputation, a KGB officer (Richard Brake) travels to Siberia where he approaches imprisoned Nazi war criminal Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang).

We learn Draganov is the man who murdered Aatami’s family. He ruthlessly and proudly boasts of cutting Aatami’s wife and children to pieces with a shovel in order to save bullets. The KGB offer Draganov a deal – track down and kill the legend he created and he can go home a rich man. So as Aatami and his pup make their way back to the border, they’re suddenly pursued by the maniacal Draganov who throws everything at them including an APC full of troops, armored bikers, fighter planes, and more.

“Road to Revenge” opens and closes with two surprisingly moving sequences. Everything in between is quite literally non-stop action. Helander crafts one wild set piece after another, each a little bigger and a little bloodier than the one than came before it. By the end the movie reaches a point that some could argue is simply too absurd. But it works gloriously because Helander never takes the action too seriously. In fact, there are injections of black humor all throughout which ensures we never lose sight of what the movie is at its core.

It’s true, there’s not a much of a story and the characters are who they are from beginning to end. But that’s okay in a movie so assured of its identity. “Road to Revenge” prides itself in being a no-holds-barred action romp. Helander pulls no punches in letting the bullets spray, the blood splatter, and the limbs fly. As for his key players, Lang is no stranger to playing snarling villains and Blake is always fun on screen.

But it’s Tommila who sells it all the best and without uttering a single word. His steely intensity, the fury burning behind his eyes, and his fearless physicality infuse the action with grit and purpose. His straight-faced handling of humor makes the funny scenes funnier. And the amount of raw heartfelt emotion he brings to the story’s bookends begins and ends things on just the right notes. Impressively he manages it all in an openly over-the-top genre movie that never pretends to be something it isn’t.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

From film critic to filmmaker, Chris Stuckmann moves from his YouTube screen to the directing chair with his debut feature “Shelby Oaks”. This unique supernatural horror mystery makes for an impressive feature film debut for Stuckmann who serves as director, writer, and producer. Even with a small budget, Stuckmann’s film almost didn’t get made due to a lack of funds. But that changed after a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign and NEON acquiring the distribution rights.

To his credit, Stuckmann doesn’t let budget constraints hinder his vision. As a result, “Shelby Oaks” is able to create the precise effect he’s going for. It’s a movie where atmosphere is the prime focus. And while he throws in a well-timed jump scare or two, Stuckmann concentrates most on creating and developing a steady sense of unease. It results in a richly atmospheric chiller that’s brimming with the kind of sustained tension that keeps you fidgeting in your seat for all the right reasons.

With “Shelby Oaks”, Stuckman employs several methods to tell his story. Much of the first half features a combination of documentary style and found footage. For many of us, the latter has ran its cinematic course. But Stuckmann uses found footage in a compelling way. And he wisely pulls away from it before it becomes a liability. The film’s second half goes the traditional narrative feature route which works well with the story he’s telling, despite some final act bumps in the road.

The story is an interesting mix of true crime and the supernatural. Without question it’s a creepy tone-centered horror film but with a distinct mystery element to it. The mystery revolves around the disappearance of Riley Brennen (Sarah Durn), the host of the YouTube ghost-hunting show “Paranormal Paranoids”. In 2008, Riley and her three crew members disappeared without a trace while investigating the old ghost town of Shelby Oaks.

Many believed the disappearances to be a hoax – a gimmick to build anticipation for their next episode. But when the three gruesomely murdered bodies of her crew members were discovered, the fate of Riley Brennen became a national discussion. The last time she was seen alive is in some grainy video footage that shows her leaving a room and being confronted by something outside of our sight.

Twelve years later, Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) hasn’t given up her search. While being interviewed for an upcoming true crime documentary, Mia is visited by a mysterious man who rambles incorrectly before pulling out a gun and shooting himself in the head. A shocked Mia notices the man is clutching an old camcorder cassette labeled “Shelby Oaks” which she grabs before the police arrive. On it, Mia finds new information that refuels her already obsessive investigation.

In the first of several head-scratching character choices, Mia sets out for Shelby Oaks alone(?) and in the middle of the night(?) to follow her new leads. The series of dark discoveries she makes sends the story into some unsettling territory. And as the mystery patiently unfolds, the film is able to generate some authentic suspense, aided by the eerie and dread-drenched presentation from Stuckmann and his DP Andrew Scott Baird.

But as we’ve seen time and time again, landing the perfect ending isn’t as easy as it looks on paper. “Shelby Oaks” doesn’t botch its finish, but it leaves it feeling underdeveloped. The supernatural components are especially underwritten which shortchanges key pieces of the final 30 minutes. But the movie easily makes up for it in other areas, namely in creating a dark, immersive experience that embraces its classic horror inspirations while adding some of its own touches.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

2025’s “Safe House” shouldn’t be confused with or considered connected to the 2012 Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds action thriller of the same name. They do fall into the same genre, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. This recent film features a much different story, and director Jaimie Marshall tells it within an impressively lean and efficient 90 minutes.

Penned by screenwriter Leon Langford, “Safe House” maneuvers us through a handful of contrivances and an occasional trope or two on its way to delivering a propulsive action movie that’s just as much a tightly-wound thriller. It does an amazing amount within its fairly modest budget and the ensemble make good fits, often adding more to their characters than the script itself.

The film opens in downtown Los Angeles as a convoy is transporting the Vice President of the United States to a gala being held at City Hall. Suddenly the convoy is hit with high-grade explosives only a few blocks from its destination. At the same time, a bomb is detonated in front of City Hall, releasing a chemical agent into the heart of the city. As unknown gunmen rain down bullets, five federal agents scramble to a high-security federal safe house operated by a “housekeeper” named Anderson (Lucien Laviscount).

With barely any connections between them, the six key characters find themselves locked in a safe house with fellow agents they barely know, if at all. Aside from Anderson, we meet Special Agents Owens (Hannah John-Kamen) and Reeves (Michael Bradway) from the Department of Defense, the secretive Agent Choi (Lewis Tan) who was among the VP’s security detail, the trigger-happy Agent Sorello (Ethan Embry) from Homeland Security, and the grizzled Agent Halton (Holt McCallany) from Langley.

Still shaken from the terrorist attacks, the six agents must navigate their suspicions and work together if they want to survive. But that becomes increasingly difficult after the safe house is contacted by General Marshall (Brett Cullen). He informs the agents that the signal from the detonator used in the bombing has been traced to their building. Believing one of the agents to be the bomber, Marshall remotely seals the safe house until the identity of the bomber is discovered.

Most of the film follows the six rats in a cage who are not only fighting to survive threats from terrorists breaking in from the outside, but also the potential threat from a traitor already among them. Fear and frustration soon leads to paranoia. And the characters, with their distinct personalities and tightly held secrets, begin to clash. As for the audience, we’re left to take it all in – studying the agents and weighing the variables, all in effort to figure out who is or isn’t the person they claim to be.

As the mystery is playing out, the filmmakers break it up with several kinetic action sequences as the terrorists begin penetrating the fortified building. If you look close, there are clues to spot in the hectic shoot-outs and bone-cracking brawls. But these scenes are mostly about the well-choreographed action. It’s intense, fast-paced, and thrilling in large part due to Marshall’s crisp approach and the skillful lensing from cinematographer Michael Merriman.

The biggest problem with “Safe House” is a frustrating one. It’s found in the movie’s big reveal which unfortunately goes the more obvious route. Not only is the culprit’s identity fairly predictable, but their revelation rushes the movie to an underwhelming finish that’s capped off with a cliffhanger meant to set up a sequel. But the unexceptional ending doesn’t undermine the taut powder-keg story that leads to it. Marshall shrewdly keeps us invested by steadily propelling things forward and raising the stakes every step of the way. His steady screw-tightening and bursts of furious action makes “Safe House” an entertaining watch.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS