That's our blog

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases.This review was originally posted after the film?s premiere at the 2018 SXSW Interactive Festival, where it played under the titleSearch. It has been updated for the film?s wide theatrical release.

In 2015, the movie Unfriendedlanded in theaters, telling a conventional supernatural revenge story with an unconventional conceit: the entire film took place on the screen of one character?s laptop. That approach really shouldn?t have worked, but Unfriended was nevertheless a creepy, unsettling, low-budget success. When I spoke with producer Timur Bekmambetov at the time, he envisioned ?screen movies? as an entire genre.

The filmmaker is taking his next big swing at the format with Searching,starring Star Trek?s John Cho and Will & Grace?s Debra Messing. It?s the story of a father who frantically tries to find his daughter when she goes missing ? only this time, the film doesn?t just take place on a single laptop. It takes place on the screens of multiple computers, with an iPhone thrown into the mix for good measure. Once again, this is an idea that shouldn?t work. But Searchingis a taut, surprisingly emotional ride. It doesn?t entirely stick the landing, but it?s proof the screen-movie concept isn?t just a one-off fluke.

Bekmambetov might have described it as ?a screen movie? a couple of years ago, but now, Searching can just be considered a straight-up thriller.

David Kim (Cho) is recently widowed, and he?s been having a hard time connecting with his teenage daughter Margot (Michelle La). One morning, David wakes up to find he?s missed several late-night FaceTime calls from Margot. As the day unfolds, he discovers she?s not at school, and never even came home the night before. Detective Rosemary Vick (Messing) is assigned to the case, and with her help, David begins digging through his daughter?s computer, her search history, and the live-streaming services he never knew she used. They initially suspect she might have simply run away, but as the evidence piles up, it seems likely that something sinister has happened to Margot.

Director Aneesh Chaganty, who co-wrote the script with producer Sev Ohanian, has a couple of themes on his mind with Searching. Writ large, it?s a movie about the way we deal with grief. David shut down emotionally in response to his wife's death, compartmentalizing his memories to the point of forgetting her birthday, and hiding any videos that might spark painful memories from his computer?s search results. While he thinks Margot has been doing okay, as he investigates, he slowly realizes she has been struggling more than he ever realized.

Searchingalso illustrates how we sometimes use online outlets and social networks to express feelings that would perhaps be better discussed in real life. Margot is comfortable talking about her mom to anonymous strangers on a video chat, but doesn?t want to bring up the issue with her own father, which pushes them further and further apart.

Searching is shockingly effective, not just in creating a sense of constant, palpable tension, but also in the way it pulls off authentic, effective emotional beats. The first five minutes of the film tell the entire backstory of the Kim family, opening with the mom?s computer (running Windows XP) as the family starts documenting Margot?s young life. Through video clips, glimpses of emails, and calendar schedules, we learn that in the ensuing years, Margot?s mother got cancer, fought it into remission, suffered a relapse, and finally succumbed just as Margot was about to start high school. It?s legitimately affecting. (Think the opening prologue of Pixar?s Up, only told through a computer screen.) By the time Searching catches up with the present, and the iMac the family uses at home, the movie has set up an emotional foundation that propels the rest of the film.

As a filmmaker, Chaganty knows a few things about merging technology with filmmaking. He shot an early Google Glass commercial called ?Seeds,? and was responsible for some of the snarky ads for Google Photos. But here, he moves beyond those early experiments, and what was accomplished in previous computer screen projects like Unfriended or the Modern Family episode ?Connection Lost.? watch searching 2018 ?s rhythm and pacing stand out, from the way the camera punches in and moves around computer screens to the way it creatively adds new angles to the mix, while still adhering to its basic conceit. More often than not, the fact that we?re watching an ersatz computer screen falls away completely, leaving only the drama of David? Watch Searching 2018 . It feels impressively cinematic, which is no small feat, given the stylistic limitations. Cho also delivers a strong performance, capturing the denial, grief, and anger David experiences as the situation with his daughter becomes increasingly more dire.

The film does have its flaws. Messing?s performance seems out of sync with the rest of the actors at times, as if she?s playing scenes from a much more melodramatic TV show. (The script does give her character some of the clunkiest lines, so there?s only so much she can do.) And while Searching has several moments where it feels like things are wrapping up in a truly unexpected, yet emotionally satisfying way, the film unfortunately doesn?t know when to call it quits. It finally comes to a conclusion with an extended coda that really tests the audience?s suspension of disbelief, and while the movie ultimately delivers a final moment that some audiences will definitely be craving, the way it gets there is easily the weakest part of the film.

Searching through Facebook, creating Google Docs, and making FaceTime calls is pretty family-friendly. Let?s call this a PG, given the general subject matter.

What a great cast! Manoj Bajpayee and Tabu! You do not want to remember their earlier films together which were nothing but disastrous: Gaath and Dil Pe Mat le Yaar (both released in the year 2000). Unfortunately, this time too the duo simply fails to deliver.

How they ham! Sushant Dubey (Manoj Bajpayee) tries really hard to be sleazy to the receptionist at the hotel, staring at her cleavage. He just does such a terrible job of it, and looks uncomfortable saying things like, 'My wife and daughter will leave in the morning, do you think I will need a single room?'

Aparna Dubey (Tabu) is made to carry a blanket stuffed with pillows that does not remotely look like a child. Effort from the production team is zilch. Movies of the seventies and eighties made more effort when they showed bodies going over a cliff than shown here. ThanosTV that there is no child.

You don't even wish to groan about very obvious inaccuracies: the child is three years old, and Tabu is carrying baby diapers for her, and you are alarmed at the pills! watch missing 2018 prescribe syrups to babies and toddlers and not pills!

There is a brief moment where you are forced to watch a love-making scene between the Dubeys and you know they are unhappy doing what they are made to do. Thankfully their roll in the bed is fuzzed out of focus.

The child is missing by the morning. We discover many things about Sushant and Tabu and how they met. What you don't understand are Tabu's motives for anything she does and Sushant's either. If your met someone, and they carried a chopper in a baby's diaper bag, you would put as much distance between you as it was possible, no? Maybe that is the mystery.

Alas, it is for Inspector Buddhu (Annu Kapoor who was last seen hamming it in Baaa Baa Black Sheep) and his Tweedledee and Tweedledum cop duo assistants who have to solve the mystery of the missing kid. Their supposed Shenanigans are so tedious, you are too exhausted to ask the writer director how he managed to sell such tiresomeness to the production house?

Perhaps Tabu's face has undergone some reengineering (the stars are in the business of looking good, so we're not complaining!) and that is why she looks odd initially, but then everything she says is either shrill or vapid, you begin to look out for scenes with Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Of course, not one police officer bothers to check or even confiscate Manoj Bajpayee's cell phone to corroborate the stories he's telling. The background music tries really hard to create some sort of ambience but ends up being super annoying. Even worse is Annu Kapoor speaking Hindi in a Bihari accent and even speaking French (so grating to the ears!) to prove that he is indeed Mauritian.

It?s hard to tell if the makers of the bewilderingly awful home invasion thriller 14 Cameras? which follows cartoonishly gross Internet voyeur Gerald (Neville Archambault) as he uses nanny-cams to spy on a nuclear family at a secluded California summer house ? believe that web users are innately monstrous or if the Internet only underscores mankind?s innate cruelty.

On the one hand, disaffected teenager Molly (Brytnee Ratledge), one of Gerald?s four victims, evokes the nihilism of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and seemingly speaks for screenwriter Victor Zarcoff when she diagnoses Gerald?s monstrous behavior: ?Some guys are just fucked up.?

On the other hand, Zarcoff and neophyte co-directors Seth Fuller and Scott Hussion mystifyingly juxtapose Gerald?s skeevy real-world behavior ? he likes to sniff women?s pantiesand drink milk straight out of the carton! ? with the childish shit-posting that defines the members of his private ?dark web? chat room. It?s especially hard to understand why one anonymous user seems to quote John Belushi?s Jake Blues when he asks Gerald to auction off his unwitting camera subjects: ?How much for the girl?!??

Unfortunately, ThanosTV ?s churlishly over-the-top performance makes it impossible to take 14 Cameras seriously, no matter how you interpret Gerald?s actions. He breathes (heavily) through his mouth and waddles around like a cartoon yenta with his shoulders hunched, his eyes wide open and his jaw sticking out. Archambault? http://ow.ly/6osU101nKxI suggest that the Internet, like bad horror movies, is only as bad as you make it.

14 CamerasDirected by Scott Hussion and Seth FullerGravitas VenturesOpens July 27, Cinema VillageAvailable on demand

Written and directed by Ari Aster, HEREDITARY is both a commentary on death and grief as well as a critique of inherited affluence and the lengths families go to at the expense of others to acquire and preserve it.

Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne and Alex Wolff star as, respectively, Annie, Steve, Peter Graham, in this terrifying?if trope-filled?film. But https://www.thanostv.org/movie/hereditary-2018 is Milly Shapiro as Charlie, a child whose disquieting manner forewarns of a deeper disturbance brewing since the passing of the Grahams? matriarch. Barely fifteen (portraying a thirteen year-old), and in her first feature, Shapiro?s transformation into the accursed Charlie stands alongside ensemble of seasoned performers, including Alex Wolff who won several critics awards for his performance in COMING THROUGH THE RYE.

In addition to a narrative twist I won?t spoil, the cast largely elevates HEREDITARY from contemporary pablum to classical horror in the style of Argento?s SUSPIRIA. Collette in particular deserves at least a few award nominations for three scenes that demonstrate her range from the subtle to the extreme?spanning the emotional gamut.

Let?s talk about contemporary horror for a minute. This year?s A QUIET PLACE has all the same moving pieces yet takes the slow disintegration of the family unit in the direction of a creature feature riddled with plot holes. Far more disturbing was Jennifer Kent?s THE BABADOOK. An indepedent Australian project, it used its creeping, behatted bogeyman as a metaphor for postpartum depression.

In HEREDITARY, clever use of lighting, perspective and depth immediately create a sense of unease in the Graham household. A smart person (or anyone who saw the PUPPET MASTER films) might get rid of the eerie figurines inhabiting Annie?s affectatious dioramas?in another life she was Delia Deetz. It soon becomes clear, however, that the household is under another kind of spell, and not the Harry Belafonte variety.

Suddenly, a tragedy befalls the Grahams, propelling Annie from melancholy into a kind of grief that teeters on the edge of what appears to be mental illness?hence the title. As the saying goes, ?It?s watch hereditary 2018 if it?s real.? And this is only the end of the first act. Most horror films have a threshold to artificially ground an otherwise supernatural plot in some kind of relatable reality?nobody can see the evil except the ?crazy? person. HEREDITARY toes the line for the first two acts, then sprints past it. As William Shakespeare once wrote: What?s past is prologue? What follows is totally bat-shit.

Aster?s use of tropes?a disfigured child, spooky things in the shadows, jump scares, something rotting in the attic?are all distractions to lull us into a familiar routine so we never see the real evil around the corner? or, rather, in the treehouse. Nothing I describe can prepare you for it. It?s not the gore that?s terrifying. It?s the entire visual composition and its unspeakable, immeasurable portents.

The real horror in HEREDITARY manifests as grief and dissociation. Like THE BABADOOK, the film examines how grief clouds judgment and renders us susceptible to manipulation by those who would abuse it for material gain. In that regard, it is the oldest and yet most opportune of narratives.

A quartette of top-notch directors from India entertain us with Lust Stories, four separate short films exploring love, sex, desires and relationships in modern India. It�s interesting to note that filmmakers Zoya Akhtar, Dibaker Banerjee, Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap agreed to participate in this anthology project but were surprised when all four of their films ended up with female lead characters. I�m very glad that happened.

Fortunately, four terrific actresses bring these diverse women to life on screen. Kudos to Radhika Apte, Bhumi Pednekar, Manisha Koirala, and Vicky Kaushal! It�s difficult to decide which one delivers the best performance because they are all quite believable as their characters try to deal with their yearnings and dreams in an ever-changing world. We may shake our heads at some of their actions, but we can�t help feeling compassion for them.

Four women shine in four short flicks.

Each one reveals desires and picks.

Modern India is the WHERE --

relationships the WHAT to bare.

Obsession holds her in its spell.

She doesn�t handle it too well.

Then a shy servant and her boss.

We shudder at how big her loss.

She works so hard and loves him so.

Will class win out? I think you know.

with hubby�s best friend. Is that fair?

Keeping the peace might be the best.

watch lust stories 2018 finds it hard to pass that test.

Her husband can�t understand why!

Judgments from them do not evolve.

http://tinyurl.com/yapsce8q might enjoy it with your mate.

(Released by Netflix. Not rated by MPAA but I would give it an �R� rating for mature themes and sexual situations.)

NOTE: Lust Stories is a sequel to the successful Bombay Talkies, an anthology movie released in 2013 and featuring short films from the same directors. Personally, I hope we get to see more anthology movies. For some of us, that�s the only way we can watch short films. I know there are so many splendid non-feature length movies that most of the public never gets to view. Netflix, are you listening?

At least it looks super fly. It?s too bad that Director X (born Julien Christian Lutz), the Canadian short-form film master for the likes of Rihanna, Drake and Nicki Minaj, stumbles when he has to stretch a scene past video length. He sets his blaxploitation remake in present-day Atlanta to separate it from the 1972 Harlem-based original, directed in a more straightforward-but-effective style by Gordon Parks Jr. (whose father, incidentally, took the reins of the equally influential Shaft the year before). It?s still basically the same plot, but instead of Ron O?Neal in the role of reluctant drug dealer Youngblood Priest, model-handsome Travis Jackson steps up to the plate and steals every scene that?s not first purloined by his awesome, straightened, upswept hair. The hair wins every time. If hair could act, the Jackson tresses would be up for a follicular Oscar.

The story twists are basically warmed-over tricks from screenwriter Alex Tse. Superfly Review: A Fun, Violent Remake of a Blaxploitation Classic is a street-bred success, one so smooth that he can sweet talk his enemies out of shooting him. But ?SuperFly? Is Silly, Pandering, and Full of One-Note Fools wants one big score before leaving the game to live large in Montenegro with Georgia (Lex Scott Davis), his girlfriend, and their mutual sex toy Cynthia (Andrea Londo), who?s conveniently handy whenever Priest hankers for a threesome in the shower. That scene will draw derisive, #TimesUp laughter wherever movies are shown. So, for that matter, will the risible dialogue, like the voiceover inanity, ?No car can outrun fate.? Good to know.

Even the violence has a stale feel, enlivened only by the presence of Jason Mitchell (a brilliant Eazy-E in Straight Outta Compton) as Eddie, Priest?s right-hand in the cocaine-dealing business. It?s a problem for the movie having Mitchell around because he can actually act ? which makes things worse for Jackson, a successful singer, dancer and songwriter whose thespian skills here and on such TV shows like American Crime have yet to rise to the occasion. In his scenes with his right-hand man or Michael Kenneth Williams? mentor or Esai Morales? Mexican cartel druglord, the man of the hour simply flounders. Even the Snow Patrol, a group of rival coke dealers who dress absurdly in white parkas in the steaming Georgia sun (!), show more personality. All the car chases and gunplay in the world can?t disguise the void where characterization should be. As for the white characters, corrupt cops personified by Brian F. Durkin and the against-all-odds excellent Jennifer Morrison seem like refugees from relic TV shows that died decades ago.