Empire
In a Quentin Tarantino movie, the arrival of a group of people into a confined space is usually a cue for bloody carnage. In Sally Potter’s peppery dinner party comedy — The Hateful After Eight, if you will — the shots fired are of the verbal kind, but just as devastating in their own way. This satirical dissection of the secrets people keep, filmed in stark black and white, calls to mind The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie. In Luis Buñuel’s surrealist romp a group of middle-class types is inexplicably trapped at a dinner party; here, the door is at hand but hostilities unfold in such sudden and unexpected ways, no-one gets a chance to use it.
You go into a movie thinking the main character is the good guy and then BAM–you had it all wrong.
MAI Review (2024): Phuong Anh Dao and Tran Thanh sparkle the brighest in this overdramatic movie.
One of 2023's biggest and dumbest creature features is making waves right now on streaming around the world.
