So many bad films ever year. So. Many. Part 3, here we go!
1- The Smashing Machine
Directed by Benny Safdie. Starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. This film tries to be raw and chaotic but ends up feeling hollow and boring. The emotional beats never land, and the story keeps pretending it is deeper than it is. Johnson feels miscast and Safdie’s usual energy turns into noise instead of intensity. It is painfully slow and strangely heavy for no reason. You keep waiting for something real or emotional to happen and nothing ever does. By the end you just want to tell Dwayne to please go back to making dumb fun films because at least those understand what they are.
2- Hedda
Directed by Nia DaCosta. Starring Tessa Thompson. This is an adaptation of the classic play Hedda Gabler by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, but the film misunderstands almost everything that made the original sharp and dangerous. Thompson looks abandoned by the script, and the emotional logic disappears scene after scene. The tone keeps changing with no control. DaCosta never finds a vision and the film collapses into a clumsy, self-serious version of a story that once had real power.
3- Black Phone 2
Starring Ethan Hawke. A sequel that exists only because the first one made money. Derrickson repeats the same tricks with no tension, no suspense, and no new ideas. Hawke barely appears and the film moves like a collection of leftover scenes. Nothing scary. Nothing interesting. Just studio autopilot.
4- The History of Sound
Directed by Oliver Hermanus. Starring Paul Mescal and Josh O Connor. A film that was made because the studio thinks people will show up just to watch the two leads kiss. The script gives them nothing real to feel and nothing to fight for. The film never finds actual emotion. The scenes drag. The love story never comes to life. You keep waiting for a moment that hits the heart, and it never arrives. Instead, the film just floats around pretending it is deep when it is simply boring.
5- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera. Starring Maika Monroe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Raul Castillo. This remake feels confused from the very first scene. Maika Monroe brings tension, but the script gives her no real personality. Winstead feels like she is acting in a completely different film. The suspense never shows up. You sit there waiting for a big shock or at least one clever twist, and the film just shrugs. It is the kind of thriller that thinks slow close ups and creepy music will do the job, but all you feel is boredom. It is a forgettable copy of a story that once had bite, with all the bite removed.
Another batch of disappointments. I take the hits, so you don’t have to, and this new round was a rough one (again)