Deadly Garage Sale: An Absurd Movie with an Irresistible Title
Although bogged down by a slow pace and moralistic intent, ‘Deadly Garage Sale’ (2022) makes the most of its silly and nonsensical premise.

Drawing heavily from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1971 novella 'Piknik na obochine' ('Roadside Picnic') as well as Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film adaptation ('Stalker'), 'Tretya planeta' tells the story of a father seeking a cure for his ill daughter by venturing into an area known only as "The Zone" to request help from the mysterious healers that dwell within its forbidden borders.
Although bogged down by a slow pace and moralistic intent, ‘Deadly Garage Sale’ (2022) makes the most of its silly and nonsensical premise.
Overall, Cruella stands above the other Disney retellings. Its dark and bold, and that is exactly what these retellings should be. Emma Stone continues to prove she's one of the finest young actresses working today, and Emma Thompson gives one of the best villain performances in the last decade. The fashion is stunning, the dogs are adorable, and the story is wildly vibrant and original. It's classic movie fun, and it shouldn't be overlooked.
These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.
One Christmas Eve, after a sudden snowstorm, a group of teenagers will discover how their lives will change forever.
"THANK YOU, Zach Creggar!" Back in 2022, this now established star in the horror film genre gave us the quirkily creepy, unexpectedly funny (at times!) cinematic gem that was "Barbarian". It felt like a cool breeze just washed over us as, for ONCE, the much traversed roads these films tend to go with got an upgrade of uniqueness without sacrificing the ambiance of uneasiness you desire.
As this critic continues to look back at some of this Summer's films I have taken in, I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the most overall unsettling trends in Hollywood over the last several years.....sequels, reboots, and remakes. Look, I am all for seeing more than one film for certain originals that made a splash, ie: "Jurassic Park", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Transformers", etc.