Category: 2020s

Oscar Isaac is a former soldier, previously jailed for his role in the Abu Ghraib war crimes, whose sole focus now in life is to play cards. When the son of a soldier who served with him, Tye Sheridan, shows up in his life, it upends the sparse existence he has cultivated. The film completely revolves around Isaac’s performance and it’s a very strong one. It almost doesn’t matter what happens around him as it is to just watch him try to hold on to his constraint of self in a world that trained him to do otherwise.

Having recently broken up with his girlfriend, Brian Tyree Henry mixes his house keys with her car keys and locks himself out. Having hit somewhat of a rut in life and becoming a bit of a recluse because of it, this move forces him into his neighborhood, interacting with neighbors he’s never met before. The climax is confusingly rushed and there is a nonsensical ‘mistaken identity’ attempted police arrest which pulls away from an otherwise low-key and warm film. Henry is an appealing lead who does a good job portraying his character’s reticence and growth, at least in all but that climax.

Recently accepted to a London fashion design school, naïve and sheltered Thomasin McKenzie is also uncomfortably obsessed with the style of the 1960s. On her first night sleeping at her new bedsit, she finds herself transported to that decade and following Anya Taylor-Joy, a woman who appears to encompass all Thomasin finds attractive about the time period. She soon finds out nostalgia for a decade she didn’t live through is too often misguided. The first half of this is a fluffy, candy-colored, fish out of water story. Then out of nowhere it turns on its head and becomes a dark, shadowy ghost story involving prostitution and murder. The characters throughout are some of the most one-dimensional, cliched cutouts of actual human beings I’ve ever seen on screen. Most egregiously, the film presents the possibility that the pimp and johns that exploited the young woman are the biggest victims.