Here is a summary of the films reviewed on today’s show:
- Despite some logical flaws, Captain Fantastic is a smart story of a family trying to live a genuinely countercultural life. The movie is able to dramatize that experience while illuminating our culture’s shortcomings and this family drama presents us with some interesting and complicated questions about how we live our lives.
- Jason Bourne is a competent action film but it doesn’t have the edge that distinguished the first three Bourne films. It’s obvious that the filmmakers are at a loss for what to do and the movie retreads the franchise’s greatest hits.
- Nerve is frequently ridiculous but it is also fun. As a teenage coming of age story and a techno thriller the movie succeeds more than it fails and the filmmakers successfully channel the cultural zeitgeist the way John Hughes did in the 1980s and Kevin Williamson did in the 1990s.
- The Game is a movie that plays with the audience’s expectations in a way that is very satisfying. Those who delight in the art of illusion will find The Game to be a fun head trip and the movie is very interesting entry in David Fincher’s filmography.
You can find full text of every review in the Sounds of Cinema Review Archive.