COLLIDE
GENRE: Action, Thriller
TEMPO PREDICTION: 3 stars
When Casey Stein joins a ring of drug smugglers, he discovers himself out of his element when his own employers chase him down a high-speed autobahn.
THE GOSSIP: The original title was “Autobahn.”
DIRECTED BY: Eran Creevy
CAST: Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins
SPLIT
GENRE: Horror, Thriller
TEMPO PREDICTION: 4 stars
Kevin is a man with 24 distinct personalities, each of which is cut off from the rest. When three teenage girls are kidnapped by one of them, they must figure out which of his personalities can help them escape, and which they have to be wary of.
THE GOSSIP: James McAvoy has played as a character suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder before in a film called Filth (2013).
DIRECTED BY: M. Night Shyamalan
CAST: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson
THE SPACE BETWEEN US
GENRE: Adventure, Drama
TEMPO PREDICTION: 3.5 stars
Gardner Elliot is the first human to be born on Mars. During his very untraditional upbringing, he has only met 14 other people in his life. At the age of 16, he develops an online friendship with a girl from Colorado, giving him a reason to go to Earth and experience everything we take for granted for the first time.
THE GOSSIP: Asa Butterfield has previously starred in another film set in space with Ender’s Game.
DIRECTED BY: Peter Chelsom
CAST: Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Carla Guigino
Hidden Figures
GENRE: Drama
TEMPO PREDICTION: 4 stars
The space race is on in 1960s America, where a group of 3 women must battle against racial and gender-based prejudice in order to provide NASA with the math they need to launch their first successful space mission.
THE GOSSIP:
DIRECTED BY: Theodore Melfi
CAST: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe
Tempo Reviews
by Noelle Pope-George
Pet
This psychological movie stars a man named Seth, bored with his life and disinterested in the daily drawl. He doesn’t have any friends besides the guard at the animal shelter he works at and a german shepherd. On his way home one day, he runs into a woman named Holly, whom he used to go to school with. However, Holly has dark and disturbing tendencies, having taken countless lives seemingly for the fun of it. In his own twisted mind, Seth decides to take matters into his own hands, kidnapping Holly and locking her in a cage in order to “save” her, while preventing her from hurting anyone else. It is within this prison situation that Seth may find more than he bargained for.
Those who find satisfaction in the thrill of moral ambiguity will love this film. The questions it raises are ones that will haunt you for possible days after you watch: Were Seth’s actions justified? Should Holly be judged on her past actions at all? Were both of them monsters, or just acting out on the darker side of their morality? Viewers could find themselves debating this for hours after they watch, or simply sit in stunned silence while they attempt to process the twist ending. Overall, Pet is a must-see for the February batch of films.
Catch it on Blu-Ray: Blair Witch
A found-footage horror film whose predecessor scared unfortunate moviegoers into throwing up (no, really!), the sequel to The Blair Witch Project throws our protagonists into the very same haunted woods. After James Donahue discovers found footage alluding to the location of his missing sister Heather, he brings his friends Ashley, Peter, and film student Lisa to track down her whereabouts near Burkittsville. Along the way, the crew meet with locals Lane and Talia, who promise to lead them through the woods in exchange for accompanying them on their search. At first, everything goes according to plan, until nightfall brings about disaster, loss, and a potential curse amongst the small group of campers.
Blair Witch follows the same formula as The Blair Witch Project: a slow start to establish the plot and develop the characters, a fluid transition into the emerging problem, and finally, an exciting and fast-paced climax where the real thrills come into play. Whether or not you’ll enjoy this film depends on what you look for: are you someone who prefers story over action, action over story, or a balance of the two? Those who enjoy story and balance will take pleasure in the easy pacing and the ventures of the ending. However, those who prefer to have more action may not harvest the same excitement in this one as they would in a conventional horror film.
