★★ Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee Starring: Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart Film Review by: Hope Madden The endlessly likeable Kevin Hart and the undeniably talented Tiffany Haddish join forces, which sounds like a solid plan except that Night School is a Kevin Hart movie, and when was the last time one of those was any good? Sure, Jumanji had some laughs. In fact, Hart’s films almost always boast a few chuckles, mainly because of the actor’s infectious energy and self-deprecating humor. But they’re not good. Neither is Night School which, even with Haddish and a handful of other proven comic talents, isn’t funny, either. Hart plays Ted, a good-hearted hustler, talking big and spending bigger, pretending to be more than he is to compensate for his own insecurities. Of course he is, it’s a Kevin Hart movie. Haddish is Carol, the overworked, underpaid night school teacher here to believe in Ted and the collection of losers in her class. It’s tough love, though, because Haddish is funnier when she’s mean. What the film does well could have been packaged into an enjoyable 15-minute short. Hart gets off a few laughs working for a Christian fast food chicken joint, and the camaraderie among his late blooming classmates sometimes draws a giggle. The actors portraying those night school chums work hard to establish memorable, funny characters with limited screen time and an even more limited script. Still, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Rob Riggle, Al Madrigal, Anne Winters and especially Romany Malco work wonders. Taran Killam amuses on occasion as the uptight principal with a grudge. But there’s only so much they can do. Director Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) drags every gag out about 8 minutes longer than necessary. The script, penned by Hart and five other writers, does Lee no favors. Even Haddish struggles to be funny with flat dialog and pointless, contrived physical comedy bits. While you’re not laughing you might notice that Night School does make a few surprising choices. Its comedy is good hearted. This is a film that likes all its characters—the females, the losers, those with success and even the parents whose coddling and/or verbal abuse may or may not be to blame for the whole night school problem. #HopeMadden #TiffanyHaddish #KevinHart #MalcolmDLee #NightSchool #comedies #movies #film #entertainment #moviereviews #filmreviews

★★★ Directed by: Craig William Macneill Starring: Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Stewart LGBT Film Review by: Hope Madden Screenwriter Bryce Kass has some interesting thoughts on the case of Lizzie Borden, the American woman suspected in the 1892 ax murders of her father and stepmother. In director Craig William Macneill’s hands, those intriguing ideas receive a proper, historical treatment. Whether they have merit or not is mainly beside the point. Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny) was a spinster of 32 when her parents died. She was home at the time, as was the family’s Irish immigrant servant, Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart). The film does not create a whodunit atmosphere, instead painting a historically realistic picture of some of the details that may have driven Borden to commit the crimes—likelihoods that wouldn’t have been considered in 1892 and have, therefore, rarely been taken into account over the years. The struggle facing a single woman—economic and otherwise—is handled throughout this film with a desperate grace that elevates most scenes. Sevigny’s wily, lonesome outsider role plays to her strong suit. She shows here, as she did in 2016’s Love & Friendship, a capacity with the delicate language of the entitled. Kristen Stewart continues to impress, even with a brogue. Yes, she is again morose, conflicted and put-upon, so maybe her range isn’t as strong as I’m suggesting, but she really knows her niche. The way Macneill and Kass piece together the well-known pieces to this puzzle, this time considering how each may impact and be impacted by the fact that Lizzie was an unmarried woman, is consistently compelling. Do the filmmakers take their somewhat subversive approach a step further than necessary, moving from honest if overlooked likelihood to vague possibility to “are they doing this just to be lurid”? They do. It doesn’t sink the film, though, mainly because Stewart and Sevigny commit to the direction and keep it from feeling exploitive. Plus, it is a fresh and believable take on a very old, oft-told story, so that counts for something. #CraigWilliamMacneill #HopeMadden #movies #film #entertainment #moviereviews #filmreviews #Lizzie #biopics #dhistoricaldramas #LizzieBorden #KristenStewart #ChloeSevigny #LGBTFilmReviews

★★★ Directed by: Alasdair McWilliams Written by: Alasdair McWilliams, Andrew Cant Starring: Elliot Cable, John Jesper, Pamela Cook, Peter Long, Charlene Aldridge, Mark Revel, Chris Lines, Mark Simkins Short Film Review by: Chris Olson The second instalment from Alasdair McWilliams and Andrew Cant in their intriguing four-part series of short films, Positive Action is a follow-on from 2017’s impressive short, Positive Result. In the first film, we see a society very much like our own but with one key difference. A zombie-esque virus has broken out, causing a large amount of peril and discord for citizens. In this second movie, we see the emergency services that are out on the front line attempting to tackle the deadly outbreak as best they can. Elliot Cable plays the lead role of police officer Jamie, a character whose hopes for a quick end to his shift are obliterated when he is called out to deal with a nasty smell in a rural cottage. Upon arrival and getting the low-down from the local nosy neighbour (Pamela Cook), Jamie enters the home of the dodgy pong in search of the owner Mr Barrow (Peter Long), whom he finds restrained in a locked closet with his zombie-sign. Catching himself on a needle, poor Jamie’s hopes of getting home early look even slimmer, as he must now wait for paramedics and the local zombie-clean-up-squad who will have to determine his fate. An enjoyably made short with a decent narrative and strong central performance, Positive Action is a good punt from McWilliams and Cant in the right direction. Whilst it lacks the intrigue and engaging social themes of the first movie, audiences will be compelled by the dialogue which arises once the various emergency services arrive on scene. A particular highlight was paramedic Claire’s (Charlene Aldridge) hot-tempered rant about the clean-up squad and their inhumane approach to their tasks. I wanted more of these topics to be explored rather than the large amounts of footage showing Jamie getting to the scene. That being said, the build up is perhaps needed for viewers who haven’t seen the first movie in order to immerse them in the atmosphere of the piece and get them caring about the main character, which is handled brilliantly. Above: the official movie trailer for Positive Action. Virus and zombie films have the ability to get us talking about how people would react in a decidedly volatile situation and whether or not that reaction would be based in goodwill or selfishness. Having seen the spectacular Irish movie, The Cured, last year, I can see similarities with this piece in terms of both the aesthetics and themes being explored. Having a look at the after-effect of an outbreak is a refreshing place for audiences to be in, allowing them to move past the one-mile-an-hour pest of so many genre films, to a place where storytelling can be vivid and engaging again. For this, I tip my hat to the filmmakers for creating something that is genuinely exciting. I thoroughly look forward to the next instalment in this series but if I am absolutely honest I want to see stronger performances from the entire cast, a tighter editing style, and more daring in the plot. All of which could add up to something rather important for British short filmmaking. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #ChrisOlson #Zombies #Horror #AlasdairMcWilliams #AndrewCant #ElliotCable #JohnJesper #PamelaCook #PeteLong #CharleneAldridge #MarkRevel #ChrisLines #MarkSimkins

★★★★ Directed by: Don Hardy, Jr. and Dana Nachman Starring: Patriot, Potomac, Phil, Primrose, Poppet Documentary Film Review by: Brandon Thomas Whether it’s true or not, dogs make us feel like their sole purpose in life is to fill us full of happiness. Dancing at the front door when you come home from work… a sneak attack of kisses that always ends with you in a fit of giggles…nice long naps together on the couch. More than just making us feel good, dogs can serve a greater purpose in the lives of people with visual impairments. That journey to find this purpose is where Pick of the Litter takes us. The documentary opens with the birth of Labrador pups Patriot, Potomac, Phil, Primrose and Poppet. They are the newest arrivals on the campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind, and their training will start on only their second day of life. The training to become a guide dog isn’t easy; out of the 800 dogs born there each year, only 300 become actual guides. The process is time-consuming, strict and unemotional… but it’s never, ever boring. Directors Don Hardy, Jr. and Dana Nachman give us plenty of cute puppy footage, but never shy away from the seriousness of what a guide dog will end up doing. Bonds immediately form between the puppies and their “raisers,” who will work to socialize them. They can be quickly pulled away from those same raisers if it’s felt that the dogs can benefit more from being in another home. It’s that pull between emotion and dedication that gives Pick of the Litter its ultimate strength. The urge to root for these pups is there from the beginning. Pick of the Litter doesn’t get too clinical in its approach to the dogs. We’re allowed to get to know them and pick out those distinct personalities. It also stings when one of them isn’t able to make the cut. The stories of the people involved are just as important. The frustration felt by the trainers when the dogs don’t pass is palpable. Of course, the end game is for these dogs to end up with someone who will rely on them as their guides. Those stories are thankfully not lost, and give the audience that light at the end of the tunnel for our pup stars. It’s easy to forget that dogs can do more than fetch, roll over and shake. They can give some people their independence back. Man’s best friend, indeed. #BrandonThomas #movies #film #entertainment #moviereviews #filmreviews #documentaries #guidedogs #dogmovies #DonHardyJr #DanaNachman

★★★ Directed by: Stephen Gaffney Written by: Stephen Gaffney and Erica Keegan Starring: Amy Kelly, Sohaila Lindheim, Saoirse Doyle, John D’Alessandro, Eddie Jackson, Brian Fortune, Rodrigo Ternevoy Indie Film Review by: Hannah Sayer Stephen Gaffney’s Red Room follows a group of violent men taking advantage of, and committing horrific acts of violence against young women for others pleasure in a voyeuristic and disturbing set up. In this extreme horror film, which relies heavily on shocking acts of violence, the majority of the film follows a predictable sequence of events, until an exciting revenge twist flips everything that has come before it. Set in Dublin, Red Room opens with a woman walking home at night through a deserted car park, as she remarks to the person on the other end of the phone that she’ll be home in ten minutes. From these opening moments, the viewer catches on to this woman’s vulnerability and that something sinister is about to happen. She answers a ringing phone which she finds on the ground and is then kidnapped and put into the back of a van. When she wakes up, she is tied up in an isolated room with three other women. What follows is a brutally violent and intense film as the three women, Kyra, Alison and Lily, attempt to escape from their captors before it is their turn to enter the “Red Room”. The film has a great deal going on in its feature length run time and at times it feels as if the narrative is trying to do too many things within the genre. Without giving too much away, the scope of the film becomes grander as it is slowly revealed what the “Red Room” entails, and that it involves many more people than just those in this deserted house. Some of the more intense and therefore more successfully frightening scenes are those which take place between the women in the isolated room. The visual look of the film is one of its stronger aspects, particularly the vivid use of colour. This is evocative in scenes when blues and reds are used to bring out both isolation and danger in the characters situations. ABOVE: the official movie trailer for Red Room. With strong performances from Amy Kelly, Sohaila Lindheim and Saoirse Doyle as the three women trying to escape from their captors, Red Room relies too heavily on shocking moments of violence for the film to get away with being great all round. However, the shocking and disturbing nature of the film is really what it is about and Red Room successfully achieves what it sets out to do. Red Room will certainly appeal to many fans of extreme horror, but it is not one for the faint hearted. Red Room will be screening at Belfast Horror Con on 27th October. The official movie trailer can be found below. #RedRoom #Horror #StephenGaffney #EricaKeegan #AmyKelly #SohailaLindheim #SaoirseDoyle #JohnDAlessandro #EddieJackson #BrianFortune #RodrigoTernevoy #HannahSayer

★★★★ Directed by: Heather Lenz Starring: Yayoi Kusama Film Review by: Hope Madden There is a great deal to find frustrating in the life story of 96-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and even more to celebrate. A maverick visual artist, Kusama is now the most financially successful female artist of all time. Given her years of struggle and the history of artists who languish during their lifetimes only to find success long after death, there is something supremely satisfying in seeing this uncommon talent live long enough to enjoy global success, both financial and critical. The fact that she sees it from the voluntary confines of a mental institution is all the more curious and remarkable. Co-writer/director/producer Heather Lenz’s biography follows Kusama’s story chronologically. Through interviews with the artist. and input from curators, gallery owners and friends, we’re privy to an unpleasant, and even scarring childhood. Naturally, it’s this very struggle that informed not only Kusama’s work but her work ethic, as well. Driven and unimaginably brave, Kusama moved to the United States alone in the late 1950s seeking success. Unsurprisingly, her ambition was seen as brash and self-serving; meanwhile, her ideas were being lifted by better known (read: white, male) avant-garde artists of the era. She created repetitive wallpaper before Warhol, who is just one of the icons of pop art to have robbed Kusama’s vision for their own inspiration. Obviously, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and after many years of frustration followed by ostracism, Kusama has finally found global popularity. Mirroring the tale she’s telling, co-writer/director/producer Heather Lenz’s film contains elements that frustrate, but what she celebrates more than makes up for it. If you’re looking for clarity concerning Kusama’s biography, you’ll find little here. Whether vague stories of the artist’s childhood, brief but inarticulate tales of Kusama’s her early years in New York, or fascinating but disconnected images of relationships, Kusama: Infinity drops biographical ideas as soon as it picks them up. What the film does convey well is the relationship between Kusama’s work and her mental state. Whether the OCD that refuses to let go of an image—hence the netting, polka dots and other repetitions in the work—to her depression and suicidal tendencies, Kusama’s mental health and art have always been tied. The other great selling point is the sheer amount of Kusama’s artwork Lenz spills across the screen. Few artists render work so vivid, images benefitting from the very largest available canvas. Lenz piques your interest with the story of this unusual, fierce talent, but the payoff is in the color and spectacle of the art. #HopeMadden #YayoiKusama #HeatherLenz #KusamaInfinity #movies #film #entertainment #moviereviews #filmreviews #documentary #art #avantegardart

★★★ Directed by: Karey Kirkpatrick, Jason Reisig Starring: Channing Tatum, LeBron James, Common, Zendaya, James Corden Film Review by: George Wolf So, while we're down here debating the existence of Sasquatch/Yeti/Bigfoot, an entire community of them lives above the clouds, wondering the same about us shorter, wee-footed folk. That's a cute and clever conceit for a family tale that might look a lot like Pixar's Monsters, Inc., which makes it even more surprising when WB's Smallfoot instead flirts with becoming the most ballsy, subversive animated film since Zootopia. It's a film with big ideas, some generic and some risky, but just too many to juggle into a truly memorable takeaway. Channing Tatum leads the voice cast as Migo, an affable Yeti who has always bought in to everything his village's "Stonekeeper" (Common) was selling, including the fact that the legendary Smallfoot wasn't real. But then Migo sees one, which raises some questions, and questions themselves are a problem. Above: the HD movie trailer for Smallfoot. Migo, like all the Yeti, has been taught to suppress any questions he may have about the stones the Stonekeeper is keeping. Those stones guide the beliefs of the Yeti through the various statements written on each. You might even call them...commandments. Woah. Smallfoot raises eyebrows early, but once Migo manages to bring smallfooted Percy (James Corden) back to his village, it settles into a pleasantly entertaining mix of messages, music, and Looney Tunes-worthy pratfalls. Tatum gives our hero a fine voice (though his singing is a bit thin), Corden is always fun and the support cast (including Zendaya, Danny DeVito, Gina Rodriguez and LeBron James) is capably unique, but co-directors Karey Kirkpatrick and Jason Reisig chase too many snowtrails. Some moments, like the Stonekeeper telling Migo about the ease of deception, find their mark, while others such as Percy's struggles with reality TV become overly familiar distractions. The driving theme here is truth, and how very hard it can be to find. Question, be brave, explore science as well as faith. Maybe sing a song. Though Smallfoot doesn't deliver on its radical beginnings, it finds a comfort zone less likely to spark partisan rancor in the aisle. #KareyKirkpatrick #JasonReisig #ChanningTatum #LeBronJames #JamesCorden #Common #Zendaya #GeorgeWolf #movies #film #moviereviews #filmreviews #familyfilms

★ Directed by: James Stern Film Review by: Matt Weiner As a documentary, American Chaos is in want of a natural constituency. It arrives far too late to offer anything more meaningful than the endless series of “Trump country” news features, all of which confirm the noncontroversial point that the Republican base still supports its Republican candidate. And the brief talking head interstitials with subject matter academics are both too pat to be targeted at Trump voters and too superficial to provide anything new for liberals that doesn’t confirm things they’ve already argued about back and forth on family Facebook threads. As for the film itself, it’s similarly competent but trivial. Filmmaker and card-carrying liberal James Stern sets out in the months before the 2016 election to meet with Donald Trump supporters, hoping to discover for himself why so many people supported his candidacy. A fair number of the interviews offer genuine insight into the lives of apolitical voters—that is, the vast majority of people (on both sides) who don’t really care about following politics or policy as much as they have vaguely formed ideas around personalities and parties, and that’s enough to get by. But we’ve had months of media profiles and years of political science research to tell us all this before. And Stern can’t help but inject himself into the debate, which takes the form of Sorkinesque appeals to hypocrisy and reason. It’s not that Stern is technically wrong when he pushes back—it’s that if he hasn’t learned by this point from his own interviews that there’s something else driving these voters than pithy speeches and fact checking and who “won” a debate, it makes you question just how much he’s been listening to the very people he claimed to want to hear out. Stern’s documentary is an illuminating anatomy of what went wrong from a liberal perspective, but it’s probably not the one he intended to make. As the chronology races toward Stern’s one-two gut punch of Trump’s election and inauguration, he attempts to contextualize what’s happening to his worldview in light of the people he spent months interviewing. One of his subjects sums up her political platform by exclaiming, “If the left is unhappy, that means I’m happy.” This is a more honest and accurate breakdown of the election and beyond in 2018 than anything explored by Stern, who spends his months traveling the country in a state of perpetual naivete and hashtag resistance outrage, unmoored and bereft of meaningful solutions from his party’s own milquetoast elite who, it turns out, were just as slow to adapt to a world where cultural grievance has subsumed political interests. Tugging on that string and filming the visceral id that spills out would have had more to say about who we are as a country than the extended personal therapy session we wound up with instead. #JamesStern #MattWeiner #film #movies #entertainment #documentary #AmericanChaos #politicaldocumentaries

★★★ Directed by: Robbie Walsh Starring: Robbie Walsh and Paul Ward Short Film Review by: Annie Vincent Robbie Walsh is no stranger to the crime genre and in this, his 2009 film The Debt Collector, his first film as producer, he explores the always alluring theme of revenge. The film opens with a simple montage of our protagonist, who curiously remains unnamed throughout, getting ready for work. He gets up, he gets dressed, he visits his girlfriend at work in the local shop: a seemingly regular guy. This morning though, he is present when a shifty debt collector, Paul Ward’s cruel gangster Thomas, arrives and threatens his girlfriend before having his henchman knock our protagonist out. A little shaken, but apparently determined to push past this, he goes about his day, door to door as an electrical engineer, arriving last at the house of a pretty girl whose electricity has been off for a little while. He fixes it and leaves, but this can’t be all it seems – and certainly it isn’t, as ahead of his dinner date with his girlfriend, our protagonist reveals his real occupation and delivers Thomas a brutal revenge. The Debt Collector is a little less polished than some of Walsh’s later films, though they all have a rough production quality somehow befitting of their gritty storylines. At times though, the audio balancing here is quite poor; I missed one or two lines in this film because of it. Occasionally the camerawork suffers from poor angle choices too with both sunlight and natural darkness obscuring our view of characters. And whilst these rough edges may marry well with the plot and characters in Walsh’s films, I can’t help but think that a little more polish would sharpen the film and deliver greater impact on viewers. The sheer defiance and almost crazed determination of the protagonist is enough to keep viewers going in this film though; Robbie Walsh has certainly crafted a dangerous character through his performance and audiences will leave the film feeling far less comfortable than when they started it. We like our hitman; after all, revenge against villains is often gruesome, but his almost psychopathic treatment of the debt collector and his girlfriend, neither of whom are offered a way out or a path to redemption, is unnerving – a pretty clever move that will leave audiences thinking about it long after the film is over. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #AnnieVincent #RobbieWalsh #PaulWard

★★★★ Directed by: Michael Moore Film Review by George Wolf Michael Moore may set up his latest film by asking "How the F did we get here?", but thankfully Fahrenheit 11/9 isn't just another empty load of hand-wringing on the perils of ignoring the "economic anxiety" of the heartland. Moore has much more legitimate axes to grind, and not just about Donald Trump. In fact, after a compelling open that reminds us how sure we were that Trump was never going to win in the first place, Moore shifts his focus entirely. From the water crisis in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, to striking teachers in West Virginia to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida to a history professor at Yale and beyond, the provocateur filmmaker is after the converging forces that made Trump possible, and the dangers of continued complacency. The film is at turns enraging, funny, chilling and inspirational, a rallying cry for a populace that may still be interested in maintaining any "aspirations of democracy." At his worst, Moore can be self-aggrandizing and overly eager to connect certain dots. Here, outside of one needless stunt at the Michigan governor's mansion, he's at his most forthright and committed. Beyond the question of how we got here lies the bigger problem of how we get out. Moore presents a wide-ranging and compelling argument that the answer starts with, in the words of the Parkland student activists, "calling BS." He calls it on the myth of "real America," and unveils his film's true target is not Trump, but a government that can rule by minority. Plutocratic cronyism, unabashed appeals to bigotry, and spineless capitulation from the "opposition party" have led to a voter apathy rooted in hopelessness. Amid flashbacks from Roger & Me, Moore's 1989 debut, we see the counter lies in "mobilizing for freedom, not safety." And if we don't? History points to some very unsettling answers. Accuse him of preaching to the choir if you want, but that's not who Moore is most interested in reaching. Pairing lessons from the past with hope for the future, Fahrenheit 11/9 is his plea to get invested and mobilize. #movies #film #entertainment #documentary #Fahrenheit119 #GeorgeWolf #MichaelMoore #DonaldTrump #Americanolitics #MathewHammond #WhiteBoyRick

★★★★ Directed by: Diganta Dey Starring: Sukomol Basak Short Film Review by: Alexandra James Documentaries unveil life’s hidden gems whether this be through real events or an expose’ of some extraordinary people. It allows society an opportunity to connect with others around them by revealing the weird and the wonderful and showing our world in its rawest form, providing honest revelations behind the world’s mysteries. Roadside Scientist follows Sukomol Basak, a humble man, living within the isolated side of West Bengal, India. The story highlights the severity of poverty and the effects it has on those aspiring to be recognised and achieve greatness. We learn that Basak is a respected man within his community and clearly has high expectations for himself. Many of his friends and family praise his intellect and encourage his goals. In 2005, Basak invented a self-dispensing liquid system, an invention that could help revolutionise the water conservation industry, which is key in cutting down India’s water wastage. Although he received the President Award, his innovation was unable to be kick started due to his financial status. This documentary really hits home about the issues that surround wealth, class and status. That even those that seek to help others and create a far more efficient way of living for society can often be silenced or not given a voice due merely to people’s position in life. It was right, in my eyes, to have pure focus on Sukomol Basak, to hear from those around him and are part of his life speak highly of Basak was extremely inspiring. Allowing him to share his story and deliver him a voice that enabled some form of recognition for the work that he has produced was obviously an important aspect of the documentary and I felt that this was a heart-warming moment. It may have been in the director’s interest to highlight in a clearer or more defined manner, an explanation as to how this innovation would have been able to benefit many and create a sufficient lifestyle for others, to show the importance of Basak’s invention. The audience could have been able to relate more to Basak's situation if there was more of an insight into his home life, family life etc. Perhaps some additional shots of his home and family would have solidified Basak's humble nature and created an even brighter image of the tremendous work he has been able to create, despite his educational background. Roadside Scientist is the short story of a man searching for a better life for his family and hoping that his work achieves the recognition it deserves. Although focused on one man, the documentary clearly highlights the much wider issues regarding the huge divide between the rich and poor, and points the finger at society, advocating them to change their ways. #ShortFilmReviews #ShortFilms #AlexandraJames #DocumentaryFilmreviews #DigantaDev #SukomolBasak

★★ Directed by: Sam Levinson Starring: Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse, Abra Film Review by: Hope Madden What if a rich white man reclaimed Salem, Mass for ostracized and victimized women by creating an outrageous, violent yarn about our out-of-control, whatever world? In the case of Sam (son of Barry) Levinson’s latest, a cross between Tragedy Girls and The Purge, the result is the self-conscious, self-righteous and sloppy Assassination Nation. A cautionary tale about online living, social media saturation, toxic masculinity, mob mentality, rape culture…I’m sorry—where was I? A lot. Levinson’s film is mad about a lot of stuff. And it will empower young women, mainly by filming them braless and wearing shorts that are bound to cause a yeast infection. Four high school besties (Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse, Abra) find themselves unsure if they will survive the night once a hacker shares half the town’s digital secrets with the world. What follows is a vibrant, kinetic spectacle that deserves note if only for its raucous attention to basically anything and everything that might make a teenage girl feel violently self-righteous. All of it’s empty, of course: lurid and stylish, pseudo-feminist and pretend-woke. Like the opening sequence “trigger warning,” the film promises something it lacks the spine to deliver. Here’s the point, if there is one: the perils of high school are more horrifying than they were a generation ago. Hell, they’re probably twice as bad as they were two years ago. But high school kids are just as idiotic, self-absorbed, naïve and insecure as they ever were, so things are going badly. But rather than empathize or provide insight, Assassination Nation offers exploitation and voyeurism. It’s one of those things you can try to get away with by passing it off as culturally relevant, zeitgeist embracing irony. That’s a tactic that might work if you aren’t just cribbing from two more clever and socially aware films where characters wear bras. #AssassinationNation #HopeMadden #movies #film #entertainment #moviereviews #filmreviews #Abra #SukiWaterhouse #HariNef #OdessaYoung #ChildAbuse