3.5 Razors

Murder in a Small Town – Family Concerns

  • Title: Murder in a Small Town – Family Concerns
  • IMDb: link

After a couple of weeks with no murders within the town, “Family Concerns” offers two with the unrelated murders of two women found in the woods. The explanation of one turns out to be obvious enough with Karl (Rossif Sutherland) uncovering an affair and an unfortunate escalation of a disagreement between the victim and his lover’s daughter (Natalie Malaika) which left the woman dead. Despite the father’s (Ryan Allen) attempts to take the fall, after failing to pin the crime on the murderer of the earlier victim, the truth is far too easy for Karl to see once the facts emerge. 

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MaXXXine

  • Title: MaXXXine
  • IMDb: link

Reveling in 80s style, writer/director Ti West completes his X series with MaXXXine featuring Mia Goth reprising her role from X. Having built up a name for herself as a pornstar, Maxine Minx finally gets her big break in an auteur’s (Elizabeth Debicki) horror film but that’s when her past comes to call in the form of a degenerate private investigator (Kevin Bacon) and his mysterious employer (Simon Prast) who know the secrets from Maxine’s past she wants to stay buried.

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Pearl

  • Title: Pearl
  • IMDb: link

Made after, but set chronologically before, 2022’s X, Pearl acts as a prequel to the first film of the X Series with Mia Goth reprising her role as Pearl introduced as a not-quite-right young woman living on her parents Texas farm in 1918 while her husband fights abroad in WWI. The same location is used for the house as in the first film with it getting quite the makeover as well a concerted effort writer/director Ti West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett to exaggerate the look and vibrant color scheme of the film with brighter and bolder colors taking inspiration from Technicolor films of the past such as The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins.

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The Outrun

  • Title: The Outrun
  • IMDb: link

Saoirse Ronan stars in director Nora Fingscheidt‘s stylish memoir based on Amy Liptrot’s true story. Jumping around her timeline to showcase various moments of Rona’s (Ronan) life from childhood to present provides context to how she ended up one one of the most remote Orkney Islands fighting her addiction with alcoholism and building a new life. While following her inner journey, the film also examines life on the island and nature beyond as her relative isolation brings her a peace she hasn’t seen in years.

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Wicked

  • Title: Wicked: Part I
  • IMDb: link

Mean Girls with a side of fantasy? Adapted from first act of the Broadway play, Wicked: Part I covers the childhood of Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and her enrollment at Shiz University where she’ll be partnered with the mean but popular Galinda (Ariana Grande). It’s also where Elphaba will discover that her magical ability is even rarer than her bright green skin eventually leading to trip to the Emerald City and an audience with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).

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