The opening scenes of director’s Michael Matthews “Five Fingers for Marseilles” — which premiered in the Discovery section of this year’s edition of Toronto International Film Festival, and is now screening at Fantastic Fest — already pay homage to the genre he hopes to breathe new life into. With dazzling wide-open shots, Matthews brings the spaghetti western to South Africa, all the while examining issues of apartheid and colonialism through the native people’s lenses.

Continue reading ‘Five Fingers For Marseilles’ Is A South African Spaghetti Western [Review] at The Playlist.

U.S. award-winning crime novelist Nancy Pickard published “The Scent Of Rain and Lightning” in 2010 and now, seven years later, its film adaptation has been released. Directed by Blake Robbins (“The Sublime And Beautiful“) and based on the adapted screenplay by Casey Twenter and Jeff Robison, the film centers on the story of Jody (Maika Monroe), a young woman living in the American Midwest who just learned the man arrested for the murder of her parents has been released from jail.

Continue reading Maika Monroe Shines In ‘The Scent of Rain and Lightning,’ A Surprising And Slow-Burning Whodunnit Mystery [Review] at The Playlist.

“If you did bad things but don’t remember, are they still part of who you are?” That’s the central question troubling Jane (Abbie Cornish), a woman who, after years of repressed memories, begins to wonder what role she played in the massacre that resulted in the death of three of her family members.

Canadian director Ed Gass-Donnelly (“The Last Exorcism Part II“) opens “Lavender” with an ambitiously shot scene.

Continue reading Despite Its Ambitions, Psychological Thriller ‘Lavender’ With Abbie Cornish Fails To Deliver [Review] at The Playlist.