Alien: Romulus (2024)

written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues

based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett

directed by Fede Álvarez

Alien: Romulus is the ninth film in the Alien franchise, and the good news is it’s much better than the two prior outings, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). Then again, that was quite a low bar. Set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), Alien: Romulus pretty much plays like a “greatest hits” collection of moments that nod to all the other movies in the franchise, as a ragtag group of young miners face off against the deadly xenomorphs. The result is an entertaining, if somewhat unoriginal, entry that feels like it could’ve been more effective had it leaned more into horror and less into fan service.

Rating: **½

Conclave (2024)

written by Peter Straughan

based on the novel by Robert Harris

directed by Edward Berger

In the religious thriller Conclave, Ralph Fiennes plays Thomas Lawrence, the Catholic Church’s Dean of the College of Cardinals. When the Pope dies, it is up to him to gather the flock and elect a successor. What follows is a look into the secretive world of the Vatican, and whether or not it’s actually true is beside the point: Conclave is structured more as a pulpy Agatha Christie mystery in which everyone has an angle for the top dog position, and Lawrence becomes the film’s de facto Hercule Poirot, uncovering hidden secrets and power plays. Conclave is delightfully old-school in all the right ways.

Rating: ***

Force: Five (1981)

written by Robert Clouse, Emil Farkas, and George Goldsmith

directed by Robert Clouse

I watched this low-budget martial arts flick when I was ten, and at the time I thought it was kinda scary (people were tortured with acupuncture needles and then had to escape a killer bull) and pretty cool (one of the heroes would throw ninja stars at his enemies). What did I know, right? Force: Five is pretty dreadful, a laughable ripoff of 1973’s Enter the Dragon (from the same director) that’s neither fun nor exciting – even the “five” of the title is dubious, since there are six members on the team. The only saving grace is the funky score by William Goldstein. Look it up and skip the movie.

Rating: *½

回路 (Pulse – 2001)

written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

In Tokyo, a young woman by the name of Michi (Kumiko Asō) visits her techie friend Taguchi (Kenji Mizuhashi) and seconds later finds his body hanging from the ceiling. Was she just talking to his ghost? Elsewhere, student Ryosuke (Haruhiko Kato) starts to see strange images on his computer screen. He investigates with the help of Harue (Koyuki), a computer science expert. Other people start killing themselves (sometimes they just disappear and become black stains). Doors closed with red tape hold unspeakable things inside. And as J-Horror flick 回路 (English title: Pulse) unfolds, it becomes clear that spirits are somehow coming into our reality through various digital devices. It doesn’t fully make sense, but I like how writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa doesn’t go for the usual scares, making 回路 more a meditation on technology, loneliness, and lack of connection.

Rating: **½

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)

directed by Morgan Neville

The persona of chef/writer/documentarian Anthony Bourdain is explored in this fascinating documentary that attempts to reconcile the various facets of his personality, from the inspiring (thoughtful, kind, funny) to the dark (impulsive, narcissistic, selfish). It’s precisely this duality that made Bourdain the travel host celebrity he became (which he hated and loved in equal measure), and Roadrunner captures it with new interviews with family, friends, and coworkers, plus archival and unseen clips from his trips around the world. Watching this, Bourdain’s tragic death by suicide in 2008 now seems unavoidable, and a sad end to a storyteller who still had plenty of stories to tell.

Rating: ***

Sea Fever (2019)

written and directed by Neasa Hardiman

Young marine biology student Siobhán (Hermione Corfield) boards a fishing trawler in Ireland, hoping to get some work done on her ecological research. When skipper Gerard (Dougray Scott) decides to navigate into an exclusion zone, they discover a large organism underwater, and soon after start to get sick with an untreatable parasitic infection. Interestingly, Sea Fever is not as interested in the sci-fi/horror of it all. Rather, writer/director Neasa Hardiman is more concerned with the moral quandary of whether the sailors should try to make it back to port, or die at sea to avoid contaminating the whole world. This is a pretty good low-key thriller with a conscience.

Rating: **½

The Sentinel (1977)

written by Michael Winner and Jeffrey Konvitz

based on the novel by Jeffrey Konvitz

directed by Michael Winner

Fashion model Alison (Cristina Raines) moves into a Brooklyn apartment and discovers that the building is a gateway to Hell. Playing like a cheap hodgepodge of Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Burnt Offerings (1976), and all sorts of Italian horror flicks, The Sentinel is so incompetently made, it took me several days to finish it. Watch it for a laugh – the scene where a neighbor played by Beverly D’Angelo masturbates in front of Alison had me in stitches – and to catch early glimpses of Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum in supporting bits.

Rating: *½

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

written by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, and Simon Kinberg

from a story by Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson

based on characters by Arthur Conan Doyle

directed by Guy Ritchie

If the idea of updating iconic detective Sherlock Holmes as an action hero in the age of fast, slick, franchised film extravaganzas seems ridiculous to you, well, you’ll hate Sherlock Holmes. But what do you know, despite all the bombast there’s a lot to like here: Robert Downey Jr.’s evident relish at playing the genius investigator; his chemistry with Jude Law as ever-loyal sidekick Dr. Watson; and several exciting sequences that aren’t overedited to the point of exhaustion. Check your brain at the door and have a good time.

Rating: **½

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

written by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney

based on characters by Arthur Conan Doyle

directed by Guy Ritchie

Amazingly, this sequel to 2009’s Sherlock Holmes is every bit as entertaining as the previous outing, as Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) face off against criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). In fact, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows seems even more at ease with the formula – the eye-popping action set pieces work well, Downey and Law have a relaxed chemistry as the two inseparable friends, and the climactic chess game between Holmes and Moriarty is pretty cool. Perfectly dumb fun.

Rating: **½

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

written by Lucille Fletcher, based on her radio play

directed by Anatole Litvak

Over a crossed telephone line, Leona (Barbara Stanwyck), a rich, bedridden socialite, overhears a murder plot. She tries to warn the police, but they don’t believe her. She attempts to reach her husband Henry (Burt Lancaster), but he’s nowhere to be found. And as the day progresses, she discovers that the intended victim… is herself. Sorry, Wrong Number is a pretty competent thriller/film noir that nevertheless suffers from a hard-to-believe premise – from all the calls in New York City, Leona just happened to intercept that one? – and the fact that Stanwyck makes her a completely unsympathetic, spoiled brat. By the time the climax came along, I couldn’t care less whether she lived or not.

Rating: **½

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)

written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Teenager Casey (Anna Cobb), alone except for her computer and the endless array of videos that provide her company, decides to participate in a creepypasta horror challenge that promises bizarre changes to its players. It’s difficult to tell if any of it is true, although we see other videos in which people seem affected by the game – one even pulls tickets out of his arm, in an effective body horror moment that recalls the work of filmmaker David Cronenberg. But in the end, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun is after something more elusive, a hypnotic meditation on loneliness and disconnection similar to 回路 (Pulse – 2001), which I commented on above. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is an eerie slow-burn… and quietly heartbreaking.

Rating: **½

Carlos I. Cuevas