Why So Blu?

Encapsulated Movie Reviews – Three New Indie Titles

Small crop of only a mere three lesser-known cinematic hopefuls this week, but thankfully I’ve got my first five-star indie flick of 2018.  (So don’t lose hope film fans!)  Girls with an affinity for quips and killing, a gang of grifters play a game of who’s conning who and a bad son tries to do a little good by finding his mother’s killer all make up the exciting line up of this edition of Encapsulated Movie Reviews.  Check out the critical skinny on Thoroughbreds, The Swindlers and Juggernaut all below!

THOROUGHBREDS
(Focus Features)

Witty, caustic and ever so unpredictable under a seriously delightfully dark umbrella, Throughbreds hits all the right notes.  From the clever characters (two grim thinking gals – one who feels nothing and one who feels everything!) to the story surprises (this one doesn’t go the way you think!) and especially the pitch perfect casting (the sensitive Anya Taylor-Joy and deadpan Olivia Cooke make bold and beautiful movie music together!), writer/director Corey Finley’s feature debut shows serious cinematic skills.  It’s fitting that this one was one of the late Anton Yelchin’s (who almost steals the show as a local drug dealing blowhard!) final films – Thoroughbreds is one awesome five-star movie animal that wins the race.

THE SWINDLERS
(Well Go USA Entertainment)

Kind of an ensemble Now You See Me with a con man flair, The Swindlers definitely has movie elements we’ve seen before.  But within this South Korean import there is also a fantastic story with twists and turns galore, not to mention nifty turns by everyone, especially Oldboy alum Yoo Ji-tae as a determined prosecutor and Hyun Bin as a fraudster with a personal vendetta.  So while The Swindlers doesn’t exactly break new ground as far as fleecing flicks go, all film familiarity still proves fun.

JUGGERNAUT
(Level Film)

Those familiar with the Razzie award-winning flick (and one of my personal guilty pleasure picks) Blue City will most assuredly recognize the ‘getting even’ story tropes within Juggernaut.  You got the moody bad son (Jack Kesy taking on the Judd Nelson role!) coming back to avenge his mother’s mysterious death by wading through a cast of colorful characters to find the answer.  And while this is most assuredly a more somber, bleak and not as fun version of that 1986 film (again, I’m probably alone in that opinion!), there are still a few notables.  Dug the subtle relationship between Kesy and his brother’s fiancée Amanda Crew (yes, she’s like the Ally Sheedy of this one!) and especially the work of old hats Peter McRobbie and Stephen McHattie (their sole scene together is Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat caliber!) as two dark dudes from Kesy’s past.  Fortunately there’s just not enough good stuff here to outweigh the mediocre – been there, done that better.