Brandon Streussnig On Film

"An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father." Written & Directed by: Noah Baumbach Starring: Adam Sandler                  Ben Stiller                  Dustin Hoffman                  Elizabeth Marvel                   Grace Van Patten                   Emma Thompson In the last two or three years, Netflix has tried to position itself as a bastion for cool, interesting indie films. In the cinematic landscape we live in right now, many of the bigger studios aren't willing to make a play at smaller, more adult films. Everything needs to be based on an IP or able to hit all four quadrants to be green lit. Aside from A24 and Neon, distributors just aren't picking thes...

"A bank robber finds himself unable to evade his pursuers." Directed by: Benny Safdie                       Josh Safdie Written by:   Ronald Bronstein                        Josh Safdie Starring: Robert Pattinson                  Benny Safdie                  Taliah Webster                   Jennifer Jason Leigh                  Barkhad Abdi                  Necro                  Peter Verby Some films can give us joy because they're just that, joyful. Superhero films or the latest  Star Wars entry make us feel childlike wonder the way few things can. Rom-Co...

"An unhinged social media stalker moves to LA and insinuates herself into the life of an Instagram star." Directed by: Matt Spicer Written by:   Matt Spicer & David Branson Smith Starring:  Aubrey Plaza                  Elizabeth Olsen                   O'Shea Jackson Jr.                   Wyatt Russell                    Billy Magnussen                    Pom Klementieff It's rare that we get a film that reflects social media as it actually is. Sure, we've gotten a biopic about Mark Zuckerberg or some bad horror films centered around Skype or Facebook. We've even gotten looks into what the future of the medium could bring us in both great ( Her ) and awful ( The Circle ) films. It wasn't until this year, ...

"In a singular exploration of legacy, love, loss and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife." Written & Directed by: David Lowery  Starring: Casey Affleck                  Rooney Mara What will your legacy be when you die? Will what you accomplished mean anything? Will you mean anything? These are the questions that David Lowery's latest asks. Answering them isn't much of a concern for Lowery as much as exploring them is. A Ghost Story is an odd, sometimes silly, sometimes breathtaking little film whose whole is greater than its parts. It isn't like anything you'll see all year (or any other year, really) and it's not concerned with narrative conventions or characters or plot. If you can separate your preconceived notions of conventional storytelling, I think you'll find that this film works itself over you ...

"A love story set in a community of cannibals in a future dystopia. In a dessert wasteland in Texas, a muscled cannibal breaks one important rule: Don't play with your food." Written & Directed by: Ana Lily Amirpour Starring: Suki Waterhouse                  Jason Momoa                  Jayda Fink                  Keanu Reeves                  Giovanni Ribisi                  Jim Carrey A dazzlingly lurid wasteland washes over you as Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) descends into the dessert. In the darkness preceding it, you hear disembodied voices taking about "The Bad Batch" and reciting ominous rules. A tattoo is carved in to Arlen's neck, "BB5040." As the gate closes, you see a sign telling you you've entered the Bad Batch and that from he...

IT COMES AT NIGHT Written & Directed by: Trey Edwards Shults Starring:   Joel Edgerton                 Christopher Abbott                 Carmen Ejogo                Riley Keough                 Kelvin Harrison Jr.  "Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. But this will soon be put to the test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge." Is it possible to recognize how well made and well acted a film is and still not like it? That's the question I had when leaving Trey Edwards Shults's sophomore film It Comes at Night . Coming off of his breakout debut, Krisha , Shults has immediately shot up the ranks of "Must Watch" directors for me. When I heard he was ...

"Gloria is an out of work party-girl forced to leave her life in New York City, and move back home. When reports surface that a giant monster is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon." Written and Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo Starring: Anne Hathaway                   Jason Sudeikis                   Austin Stowell                  Tim Blake Nelson                   Dan Stevens  While the monster destroying Seoul, South Korea is very real and very dangerous, the real monster of Colossal lies within the men on the other side of the world. At first glance, Nacho Vigalondo's monster mash comes off as a comedy about a down on her luck woman finding true love after she moves back home. What you aren't pre...