Donnie Darko (2001) Review
Donnie Darko (2001) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A time loop film that works better as a portrait of adolescence than as a mechanism. Failed on release for reasons of timing, found its people on DVD,…
Films where the battlefield is a mind. Psychological thriller and drama reviews for stories that unsettle without a single monster on screen.
Cult ClassicDonnie Darko (2001) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A time loop film that works better as a portrait of adolescence than as a mechanism. Failed on release for reasons of timing, found its people on DVD,…
CrimeTaxi Driver (1976) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Schrader wrote it living in his car after a divorce, and the film never once steps outside Travis Bickle's head. The narration sounds reasonable. That is the horror.
HorrorTwo men wake chained in a filthy bathroom and discover they are pawns in a sadistic puzzle designed by the Jigsaw killer. Saw is James Wan's 2004 American horror film depicting two men who wake chained in a filthy bathroom…
Foreign MoviesTakashi Miike directs the story of a widower staging fake auditions to find a new wife, with consequences he could not anticipate. Audition is Takashi Miike's 1999 Japanese horror-thriller film depicting a Tokyo widower who stages fake film auditions to…
HorrorAn FBI trainee consults imprisoned cannibal Hannibal Lecter to catch a serial killer skinning his victims. The Silence of the Lambs is Jonathan Demme's 1991 American psychological-thriller film adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel, depicting an FBI trainee who consults…
HorrorHitchcock's adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel about a woman who steals from her employer and stops at the wrong motel. Psycho is Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 American horror-thriller adapted from Robert Bloch's 1959 novel, depicting a Phoenix real-estate secretary who steals…
HorrorMisery is Rob Reiner's 1990 American psychological-thriller film adapted from Stephen King's 1987 novel, depicting a romance novelist who crashes his car in a Colorado snowstorm and is rescued by his self-described number-one fan, who imprisons him in her isolated…
Detective
DramaForman's 1975 mental hospital drama. Nicholson as McMurphy, Fletcher as Nurse Ratched.
HorrorM. Night Shyamalan's 1999 ghost story with the most-quoted twist of its decade. Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, a script that earns its reveal twice.
PsychologicalTom Cruise psychological thriller. Substantial ambitions, uneven execution.
PsychologicalDavid Fincher's 1997 psychological thriller. Michael Douglas as a wealthy banker experiencing immersive CRS service.
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