Russ Fischer, Author at The Playlist

‘Captain Marvel’ Flies High & Fast, But Struggles With Narrative Turbulence [Review]

March 5, 2019 9:35 am

Marvel Studios introduces a massively powerful character in “Captain Marvel,” but despite the heroine’s significant potential, her movie constantly feels as if it is trying to catch up with the rest of the comp...

Nicolas Cage Gives The Performance Of A Lifetime In Bizarre & Bloody ‘Mandy’ [Sundance Review]

Russ Fischer

January 31, 2018 5:05 pm

News, Reviews

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Once every few years Nicolas Cage refreshes his mystique with a performance that radiates energy like a city on fire. Nearly a decade since Cage’s last such turn (in Werner Herzog’s "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Cal...

‘Lizzie’ Review: Chloe Sevigny & Kristen Stewart Smolder In This True Crime Tale [Sundance Review]

Russ Fischer

January 25, 2018 8:59 am

News, Reviews

A repressive family is destroyed in this more stolid than sordid 19th-century true crime recreation. The 1892 murders of Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby, scandalized the industrial bay town of Fall Rive...

‘Piercing’ Starring Mia Wasikowska Doesn’t Cut Deep [Sundance Review]

Russ Fischer

January 24, 2018 10:47 am

News, Reviews

"Piercing" does not cut deep. More like light body modification than a stabbing, this film about a sexually and socially dysfunctional guy meeting a woman far more extreme than he is foregoes incisive writing i...

‘The Lure’ Is A Delirious, Kaleidoscopic Cannibal Mermaid Musical [Review]

Russ Fischer

February 1, 2017 4:56 pm

News, Reviews

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. In mermaid tales — the old ones, before Disney — hybrid fish-women use their glorious voices to lure men into the depths. In some regions...