STACK #196 Feb 2021

FILM & TV REVIEWS

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LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

BREACH

TESLA

FREAKY

RELEASE DATE: 17/02/21 FORMAT:

RELEASE DATE: 24/02/21 FORMAT:

RELEASE DATE: 10/02/21 FORMAT:

RELEASE DATE: 03/02/21 FORMAT:

Based on the novel by Matt Ruff and executive produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, this HBO horror-fantasy series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) on a road trip through Jim Crow America in the 1950s, as he searches for his missing father. With friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) along for the ride, the trio face monsters of the white supremacist variety, as well as supernatural ones ripped from the pages of the legendary H.P. Lovecraft’s eldritch fiction. Balancing the fantastic with real world characters and issues, this weird and wonderful thrill ride will appeal to fans of Watchmen and The Color Out of Space . AC

Having blended the slasher film and Groundhog Day in Happy Death Day , writer-director Christopher Landon hits the jackpot again with Freaky , a fiendishly funny body-swap horror- comedy in which Vince Vaughn plays a hulking psycho who winds up switching bodies with a bullied high school cheerleader (Kathryn Newton). This ‘Freaky Friday the 13th’ has a lot of fun lampooning the tropes of each genre, as well as delivering some creative – and very gory – death scenes. And Vaughn is an absolute blast, combining the menace he exuded in Brawl in Cell Block 99 with his wacky comedy persona. A guaranteed crowd pleaser. SH

Bruce Willis is back in action as an ex-military type aboard a 23rd century arkship bound for New Earth – the old one having been ravaged by a virus and rendered uninhabitable. Something nasty and alien is also onboard and it isn't long before the hostile organism begins to parasitically control the crew, prompting Bruce to do what he does best. Yippee Ki Yay! With nods to Alien , Event Horizon and any Bruce Willis B-movie actioner you can think of, Breach delivers exactly what it says on the box, along with a strong supporting cast including Thomas Jane ( The Expanse ), Cody Kearsley ( Riverdale ) and Rachel Nichols ( Star Trek ). AC

Nope, it's not a movie about Elon Musk's car company but rather a biopic-of-sorts on Nikola Telsa, the 19th century electrical engineering genius who invented alternating current. He recently popped up in The Current War and a Doctor Who episode but here takes centre stage, smoothly played by Ethan Hawke. Kyle MacLachlan is also nicely cast as his competitor, Thomas Edison, who is pushing his own direct current model while condemning Tesla's discovery as impractical and dangerous. While this might sound a bit stuffy, director Michael Almereyda invests the film with a quirky arthouse sensibility that makes it compelling viewing for those on the right wavelength. BS

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Violence and coarse language

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24 SEPTEMBER 2020 *while stocks last