Ma
Director: Tate Taylor
Writer: Scotty Landes, Tate Taylor
Cast: Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Luke Evans, McKaley Miller, Missi Pyle, Corey Fogelmanis, Marjay Ross, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated R | Minutes: 99
Release Date: May 31, 2019

Ma can be seen as a cautionary tale about horrible teens doing horrible things because they are horrible people whose actions will have dire repercussions. The reality of this is that when a bully’s actions go unpunished, it is only a matter of time before the sins of the past come back to haunt the person. It’s a pretty sound premise for a horror film.

The only problem is, Ma lacks structure, balance, and cannot figure out what exactly it wants to be because it feels like there are two separate films going on at once. Director Tate Taylor’s latest effort brings out the best in Octavia Spencer, who plays the titular character, but she’s surrounded by characters who lack depth. My full review below.

We’ve seen Octavia Spencer in some pretty inspiring and Oscar-winning roles. But never quite something like Ma, which Universal Pictures has released an official trailer for.

In the film Spencer plays as a quiet loner who helps some teenagers buy booze and sees the opportunity to make some new friends by taking them to her basement. Though they suspect something, it turns out she isn’t all that bad. That is until she becomes more aggressive as her popularity starts to rise. And when one of the kids breaks the ground rules of never going upstairs, things in this once small quiet town become really scary. Check out the trailer for Ma below.

From Dusk Till Dawn
Available now on Blu-ray
Written by Quentin Tarantino & Robert Kurtzman
Directed by Robert Rodriguez
Starring George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Keitel, Cheech Marin, Ernest Liu, Salma Hayek
Miramax
Rated R | 108 minutes
Release date: January 19th, 1996
Fathom Events screening: November 6, 2016

“Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t give a f*ck how crazy they are!”

Twenty years ago, my father took a young 13-year old to the movie theater to see From Dusk Till Dawn. The movie was written by Quentin Tarantino who I had recently dubbed my idol after watching Pulp Fiction for the first time, and directed by Robert Rodriguez who did Desperado, another of my early favorites. It has since become something of a legend to us, and the phrase “don’t tell Mom” is part of the family vernacular. So when Fathom Events and Miramax put From Dusk Till Dawn back in the theaters, I knew I had to carry on family tradition and take my 12-year-old son to it. Sure, From Dusk Till Dawn is very rated-R. But this was a rite of passage.

More below.

Wayward Pines debuted on FOX last May and became an immediate hit during its 10-episode run. The series, based on the stories by Blake Crouch, is about a strange Idaho town that is much more than it seems. Executive Produced by M. Night Shyamalan (who also directed the pilot), the show featured an amazing cast, including Oscar nominees Matt Dillon, Juliette Lewis, Terrence Howard, and Oscar winner Melissa Leo, alongside other veterans like Shannyn Sossamon, Carla Gugino, and Toby Jones. The show had a definite LOST vibe to it, mixing science fiction, supernatural, and intense drama.

To get ready for the debut of season 2, FOX has released several short preview videos to prep audiences for the all new season, which starts next week. Check out the videos below including the in-depth recap of season 1.

Wayward Pines
Season 1 Episode 2: “Do Not Discuss Your Life Before”
Directed by Charlotte Sieling
Written and Created by Chad Hodge
Starring Matt Dillion, Juliette Lewis, Carla Gugino, Toby Jones, Shannyn Sossamon, Melissa Leo, Hope Davis, Reed Diamond, Terrence Howard
FOX
Air Date: Thursday, May 21st, 2015, 9:00pm

Fox’s new 10-episode series, Wayward Pines, debuted last week with a star-studded cast and a plot taken from the dark nightmares of X-Files and LOST. Based on a series of novels by Blake Crouch, the story centers on Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) who awakes from a car accident in the tiny Idaho town of Wayward Pines. He and his partner were to investigate the disappearance of two agents there. What he finds instead are a strange array of characters, who all seem to be lying or hiding something. A nurse (Melissa Leo) at the hospital won’t let him leave. The sheriff (Terrence Howard) is anything but helpful. The one nice person he finds is bartender Beverly (Juliette Lewis) who slips him an address where he finds one of the agents dead and decaying. Unable to reach his office or wife, Burke is quickly losing it. It only gets worse when he finds his former partner Kate (Carla Gugino) who claims to have been lost in Wayward Pines for years!

Done with this creepy town, Burke drives off, only to find the entire town is fenced in and there’s no escape. With nowhere to go, we enter Episode 2…