‘Compulsion’ (2024)
Neil Marshall, a normally deft orchestrator of the gritty macabre with such cult hits as “The Descent” (2005), “Dog Soldiers” (2002) and “Doomsday” (2008), has drifted from those roots and into the realm of erotic soft-core noir in his recent collaborations with muse, co-writer, lead actor and paramour Charlette Kirk (“The Lair” and “The Reckoning,” to name two). Here, in the exotic, rolling seaside hills of Malta, Kirk plays Diana, a gamer and attuned opportunist. Her tragically hip beau, Reese (Zack McGowan), is a former app entrepreneur with grand tastes who’s in deep to local heavies. The film, however, revolves around the demure newcomer next door, Evie (Anna-Maria Sieklucka), taking personal time at her stepfather’s palatial villa after breaking up with her girlfriend. In play are a series of recent grisly murders done by an assailant in an S&M getup wielding a straight edge with Ginsu precision. The detective on the case (Giulia Gorietti) is popping by constantly to ask questions, because one of the victims was Evie’s Uber driver, even as Diana and Reese scheme to clean out the stepfather’s secret safe. Since Evie doesn’t like boys, it’s up to the statuesque and most always half-naked Dianna (the budget’s line item for thongs must have been high) to bait the hook. The love triangle aspect has the psychosexual trappings of “Bound” (1996) or “Basic Instinct” (1992) if Brian De Palma had directed either through the lens of his “Rear Window” homage, “Body Double” (1984), or “Dressed to Kill” (1980) – but “Compulsion” isn’t worthy of comparison to any of those films. The dialogue is largely stilted, and many of the plot elements feel crammed in or tacked on. It’s a light erotic tease that doesn’t compel. (Tom Meek)
For rent on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming platforms.
‘Him’ (2025)
Religious allegories abound in this “sports horror” psychological thriller about the evils of breaking bread in the church of pro sports and its inherent expectation of sacrifice. At the center is Cameron Cade (a hyper generic Tyriq Withers), the crowned next Goat of a fictional NFL league in which there is no Tom Brady, but there is Isaiah White (Marion Wayans) of the San Antonio Saviors. Like Brady (as perceived by Belichick), White is aging out, and is asked to train Cade (his Jimmy Garoppolo?) in the offseason at a grand subterranean football complex in the vast nowhere of the desert, surrounded by rabid White fans camped out tailgate style. Cade, having suffered a significant brain injury after a strange (supernatural?) and random assault, has dropped in draft stock, but gets a call from the Saviors for a seven-day evaluation period. Besides the number of days that it took to create Earth and humans, there a whole thing about juicing the oxygenated blood of saviors, legends of the past and a press conference that looks like a Last Supper postcard. What actually happens in White’s football bunker is a gory acid trip of jock hazing and the blurring of the lines between reality and delusion. As directed by Justin Tipping, the film falters despite its energy and style – which Tipping is clearly pulling from “Apocalypse Now” (1979) and “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990). “Him” feels like an apt pronoun partner to the television anthology “Them” and Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019), at least in concept – Peele is even one of the film’s producers – but just what Tripping is getting at with race and ownership is both flat and muddled. The big win here is Wayans’ all-in performance: If this was a more grounded film that didn’t scuttle off into the realm of “Caligula” nonsense, I could see Wayans on the red carpet come Oscar time. As is, the film is likely to be soon forgotten. (Tom Meek)
At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge; Apple Cinemas Cambridge, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge Highlands near Alewife and Fresh Pond; and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.
‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ (2025)
It’s clear from the moment David (Colin Farrell) picks up his rental car on his way to a friend’s wedding that all is not as it seems. The car rental agency – literally named The Car Rental Agency – is in a cavernous warehouse at the end of a dark alley; the proprietors (Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline) speak exclusively in riddles and relationship metaphors; and the only car available is a 1997 Saturn sedan whose on-board GPS unit looks like a handheld Atari. He has a classic meet-cute at the wedding with fellow guest Sarah (Margot Robbie) and goes on his way, but the car has different ideas, first directing him to circle back and pick her up (wouldn’t you know it, her own rental car broke down), then routing the prospective couple to a series of mysterious doors, each of which transports them to a pivotal moment in one of their lives. “Journey” reteams Farrell with the mononymous video-essayist-turned-filmmaker Kogonada, who directed him in the excellent 2022 sci-fi parable “After Yang.” But where that film presented a soulful, lived-in take on the intersection of grief and technology, the central metaphor of “Journey” is simply obnoxious, a thuddingly obvious and cloyingly sweet manifestation of the baggage each party brings to a new romance. Farrell and Robbie are as charming as leads come, but they’re left to spout Hallmark-card platitudes and canned repartee. There is a grating theater-kid energy to the proceedings even before David revisits his high school production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” as if the entire film is playing constantly to the rafters and mugging for applause. The characters are frustratingly vague even as we learn their life stories, presumably so couples in the audience might project themselves into their shoes (David and Sarah live “in the same city,” she “downtown” and he “on the north side”). There are pleasures to be had here, to be sure; the colors are as big and bold as the title suggests, and the score, by frequent Miyazaki collaborator Joe Hisaishi, is suitably lush and twinkly. But “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is a misfire, reminiscent less of a classic Hollywood romance than one of those tacky little gift books sold as last-minute graduation or anniversary presents. It aims for the grand fantasies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, but lands closer to a Lifetime movie of the week. (Oscar Goff)
At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge, and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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