The Life List: Movie Review

Ignore the premise, enjoy the romance.

The Life List is a simple lightweight romantic drama about helping a young woman out of a life rut. Part of my issue with the film is who says Alex (Sofia Carlson)’s life is in a rut? Well, her family, often and repeatedly, they offer this very odd ‘you’re not good enough’ lecture to her everyday. Personally I don’t think it’s for them to decide, but also if you’re going to always tell someone they suck, they are absolutely going to take that to heart and think of themselves as a failure, so really this all her family’s fault.		2025 Directed by: Adam Brooks Screenplay by: Adam Brooks, Lori Nelson Spielman Starring: Sofia Carlson, Kyle Allen

The 8th Day: Movie Review

Some interesting character developments, but very little action.

The 8th Day is primarily billed as an action movie, which is incorrect. It’s a pure crime drama with a touch of comedy. It has also been billed as a heist story with a female voice, and while this is definitely true, it can give away the ending when viewed from the female characters. A lot of this movie does look like every other crime drama, but it does have a slightly different flavour to make it a bit more compelling.		2025 Directed by: Alexandra Chando Screenplay by: Suzanne Weinert Starring: Darren Mann, Phoebe Tonkin

Borderline: Movie Review

Horror comedy which tries to balance fun and insanity.

Borderline fits right in line with the recent romantic comedy-esque horror movies like Companion and Heart Eyes. Although in this case the romance is all in the head of one deranged superfan, the comedy and horror elements are all front and center. Samara Weaving stars as Sofia, a rich and famous popstar whose cushy life has a rude and violent awakening and when one fan can’t take no for an answer, so instead she’s going to have to say, “I do.”		2025 Directed by: Jimmy Warden Screenplay by: Jimmy Warden Starring: Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson

Candlewood: Movie Review

Creepy, unfocused and unlikable.

Filmed on location in New Milford, Connecticut, Candlewood is supposed to about the real urban legends which haunt Candlewood Lake. It’s a human-made lake from the 1920s which included flooding over a town. With that type of backstory, the urban legends and ghost stories that exist are unsurprisingly endless, most of which would make for a fascinating horror movie. But Candlewood isn’t really about any of those urban legends, it’s just about an unlikable family that goes insane.		2025 Directed by: Myke Fuhrman Screenplay by: Veronica Flores-Argue, Joseph Patrick Conroy Starring: Joel Bryant, Lisann Valentin, Isabel Lysiak, Coulter Ibanez

F*** Marry Kill: Movie Review

A campy murder mystery thriller with some fun.

There’s a very difficult line to balance between pure camp and a mash-up between romantic comedy and murder mystery thriller, and F Marry Kill struggles for the entire length of the movie. It often veers into camp despite multiple efforts to be a more legitimate comedic thriller. When the main character is constantly debating whether or not her dates are marriage material or a serial killer, it’s kind of destined to be the exact level of camp it ends up as.		2024 Directed by: Laura Murphy Screenplay by: Ivan Diaz, Dan Scheinkman, Meghan Brown Starring: Lucy Hale, Brooke Nevin, Virginia Gardner

Picture This: Movie Review

Focuses on family and Indian culture instead of romance and comedy.

As a romantic comedy, Picture This is light on the romance and sometimes funny. But Simone Ashley shines as photographer Pia, a single, independent, career-focused young woman who is one of the best heroines this genre has seen. The film gets off on the right foot, even though Pia doesn’t, when she has to hightail it out of her studio pulling on soccer shorts and flip flops which she loses one of on her way to a secretive meeting with her mother at the bank.		2025 Directed by: Prarthana Mohan Screenplay by: Nikita Lalwani Starring: Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin