2018 kicks off with a strong week for new releases. Jupiter’s Moon is an extravagant and audacious thriller from Hungary in which an unscrupulous doctor goes on the run from the authorities with the levitating Syrian refugee whose supernatural abilities he’s been exploiting. Despite the outrageous premise, the film features very human characters, along with some of the most stunning images you’ll see all year.
Best known as the movie that saw its director Ridley Scott replace original star Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer mere weeks before release, All the Money in the World is one of Scott’s best movies in recent years. Scott embellishes the 1973 Getty kidnapping drama considerably, but it’s a gripping thriller nonetheless, and Plummer really is superb.
Christian Bale is back to his brooding best as a racist Cavalryman forced to escort a Cheyenne War Chief to his ancestral home in western Hostiles. While it’s marred by white characters whose progressive behaviour fails to ring true for the 1890s, it’s a strikingly rendered portrait of rugged America.
Ben Stiller delivers arguably a career best performance in Brad’s Status. While touring prospective colleges with his teenage son, Stiller’s character begins to question his life choices, suffering a mid-life crisis as he compares his status in the world to those of the seemingly more successful friends he once knew in his own college days.
By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com