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• Play Movie Trivia

2012, Horror/Mystery & thriller, 1h 38m

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Playback   photos.

When a cop investigates the case of a missing local teen, he discovers a dark secret has been unleashed and an evil spirit is threatening everyone in his town.

Rating: R (Some Teen Partying|Sexual Content/Nudity|Bloody Violence)

Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Michael A. Nickles

Producer: Randall Emmett , George Furla , Lawrence Robbins , John M. Bennett

Writer: Michael A. Nickles

Release Date (Theaters): Mar 9, 2012  limited

Release Date (Streaming): May 9, 2013

Box Office (Gross USA): $252

Runtime: 1h 38m

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

Production Co: Emmett/Furla Films

Cast & Crew

Christian Slater

Frank Lyons

Johnny Pacar

Ambyr Childers

Toby Hemingway

Jonathan Keltz

Alessandra Torresani

Jennifer Missoni

Daryl "Chill" Mitchell

Michael A. Nickles

Screenwriter

Randall Emmett

George Furla

Lawrence Robbins

John M. Bennett

Chris Heldman

Executive Producer

Marc J. Leder

Mark Petersen

Cinematographer

Ellen Goldwasser

Film Editing

Merje Veski

Production Design

Bret August Tanzer

Art Director

Lizzie Cook

Costume Design

Jennifer Levy

Emily Schweber

Critic Reviews for Playback

Audience reviews for playback.

This is not what one would call a horror classic, to say the least. It's not even what one would call a mediocre horror film. It's, for all intents and purposes, a largely terrible horror film with a somewhat decent idea that it absolutely wasted. To be fair, even if the idea itself had been executed well, let's say a 6 out of 10 in its effectiveness, I don't think the film would've been very good anyway. It's just that everything around it, from the cast, the cinematography, the writing, everything was really working against this film. Let's not kid ourselves, Christian Slater was in this film simply for a paycheck and for the fact that his 'name value' could probably secure some funding for the film. It's very clear that he's there for those reasons and his character, while important in moving the "narrative" forward, isn't exactly necessary. The gore is pretty terrible as well to be honest. It just looks very cheap and B-movie-esque. Not saying that this movie was meant to be taken all that seriously, but there aren't a lot of hints of irony coming from this film, so that's a shame. The acting is pretty much what you can expect from such a low-budget horror film, not very good. It's not that there aren't some marginally talented people in the cast, it's just that the way their performances were directed/edited did absolutely nobody any favors. Nobody's stock improved from appearing in this film, not that it probably would've even if the film WAS good. That's how respected horror films are in mainstream Hollywood, even though it's probably got the most loyal fans of any genre, who are easy to get money out of, apparently. I did like the idea of this man, Harlan's great-grandfather, trying to possess the spirit of his relatives through the use of his films. That's about the only thing I like, that concept, because the execution is stereotypical slasher. I'm not even sure why I gave it one star. It's not like it's the worst horror film I've ever seen, so that's probably part of it. It's still a terrible horror movie and one that I regret watching. Not recommended, obviously.

Really Christian Slater? Heartthrob to Snarf?

Playback is a B-Horror film that in a sense is nothing more than a new take on the Amityville Horror. Instead of a demon possessing a house, the demon in this film, keeps his spirit alive on videotape, and when someone sees the tape, they become the next possessed killer. The story was entertaining but wasn't really anything new or extraordinary and the same can be said about the cast. The cast, led by The Covenant's Toby Hemingway, wasn't one of the most talented casts I've ever seen, but they may have been the best looking. There are some really good looking people in this film, and believe it or not, it helps to keep your attention. The film is a little dull and predictable at times, but there is always something nice to look at. This movie isn't original and won't shock or surprise you, but it may just entertain you for a couple hours and it will most certainly have your eyes glued to the screen.

This movie is also known as Playback: Bloodline and I assume that with a name like that is just a start of a franchise... Yes, it was supposed to be a thriller/horror movie starring Toby Hemingway but there was not too much of the good stuff from both genres! The story of a school assignment where high school students are digging into the infamous history of their town, finding family murders which will, without them realizing, unlock an evil that possesses them and destroys them. Of course, we all know that Satan is the Prince of the Air and what better way to possess his victims but through video playback ... and later he actually uses them for harming others. Of course at the end we will find the deepest secrets of the town exposed - but nobody would care! Half of the audience already left... half of the ones left were already snoring and others were busy with different activities! And I did not blame them. What a bore with ludicrous killing spree! Stay away!

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2012 Directed by Michael A. Nickles

Picture. Evil.

While digging into their town's infamous past, a group of high school students unwittingly unlock an even darker secret. Now, an evil spirit has been awakened and will stop at nothing to find his true heir.

Johnny Pacar Ambyr Childers Christian Slater Alessandra Torresani Toby Hemingway Lisa Jane Todd

Director Director

Michael A. Nickles

Writer Writer

Bennett-Robbins Productions

Releases by Date

09 mar 2012, 08 apr 2014, releases by country.

• Theatrical R

95 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by haley ★½

this movie only grossed a total of $264 and i can see why. if you want something to laugh at, open up rotten tomatoes and you'll see that this movie was spammed with a bunch of 5 star reviews referring to christian slater as christian bale and i'm sad i missed out on being part of it.

Review by HorrorSage ★★ 6

Good morning and welcome fellow Children of Chaos.

A forgettable slasher with little slashing.

There is a cool idea here of a killer to can use cameras to possess people either taking their bodies or using them as mind controlled slaves.

It's only ever really used twice. This movie is crap and really Ephebophilic for my tastes.

However it gets two points.

One for the conversation about a found footage movie. "Don't you have a better take this one is all shaky." "Its suppose to be like that. It makes it high energy." "Which means a headache for the rest of us."

Exactly, and it is why, till the day I die, I will fight the worst thing that has…

Review by Ms_Zero 🦄 ★★

Pretty ridiculous and extremely predictable, but not altogether unpleasant to watch. Probably my biggest issue is with why nobody seemed concerned by the fact that Quinn suddenly became a terrifying zombie and/or victim of the plague overnight. He was seriously f*ed up and nobody really responded to that at all. It seems like a copout to put Christian Slater all over the cover since he is such a minor character.

Review by Warren ★★

CGH: Cinematic Growth Hormone, a Scavenger Hunt

Movie #18: Film with a found footage element

(Playback was about all I had it in me to take in tonight, which breaks the order of my scavenger hunt, but I wanted to get something watched for the day so as not to fall behind.)

Christian Slater is a working actor, and that means that sometimes he makes Playback. The man had fourteen acting credits in 2012, this being one of them. Fourteen! I applaud him for that alone. I think I also applaud him for taking a role like this one. He plays a cop who is paying a teenage boy to secretly record his female classmates in the locker room or…

Review by Odie Arbuckle ★ 1

Christian Slater performance ranking

This starts off with an effective hand-held sequence set in 1994, showing a killer stalk through a house. Only for it to be undercut by switching away from found footage to showing the killer holding his camcorder and going around, and killing all of the tension. Once the 1994 sequence ends, we switch to some annoying teens in 2012. One of them is working on a project for journalism class that involves the murders from 1994. Yadda yadda yadda turns out there's a curse and the teens are gradually killed off. Nothing interesting to see here.

The actors playing the teens are all pretty bad(as per usual played by people in their 20's; lead Johnny Pacar…

Review by Bloodygoodjune ★★½

There are definitely some good elements in here, but low budget and perhaps inexperience muddled the storyline some.

I do really appreciate Christian Slater's portrayal of a creepy deputy with pedophilic tendencies. I liked the surprise of him in his role.

I just wish it had not been so chaotic in the middle and lent itself to a little more gore other than the one surprisingly gory scene.

Review by Jordan ★★

Had a really cool and interesting concept but horrid execution and not so good acting killed this movie.

Review by cerseii ★½

i liked that the pedophile got shot but it's unfortunate that it was christian slater

Review by tyreehoffman ★½

I’m not saying Christian Slater was born to play the creepy voyeur, but I’m not saying Christian Slater was NOT born to play the creepy voyeur.

Also, I wish this film brought something original to the table.

Review by jeniffer ½

not enough christian slater

Review by Arkham Knight Rider ★

Playback is your typical horror movie about evil spirits using technology to inact their wrath. The plot is threadbare and almost nothing happens throughout the 98 minutes of this movie. I want to believe that someone making this movie had a great idea for a horror movie and had at one point a great story. Unfortuntely, we ended up with a rough draft with barely anything of actual substance. Characters are essentially either expedition dumps or have no real purpose in the story. Christian Slater's character is a prime example of characters that could have easily been cut out of the movie and they would barely make a difference. He is a dirty cop who likes to fantasize about underage…

Review by ZaraGwen ★

Instead of watching the end I played quizzes on Sporcle

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• తెలుగు

'Play Back' Review: Inspired From 'Dark' Conveniently

Movie: Play Back Rating: 2/5 Cast: Dinesh Tej, Arjun Kalyan, Spandana, Ananya Nagalla, Karthikeya Krishna Malladi, Ashok Vardhan, TNR, Murthy, Chakrapani Ananda, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Tagubotu Ramesh, Gowtham Raju, Deepthi, Vishnu and Jenny Music: Kamran Editing: Bonthala Nageswara Reddy Cinematography: K Bujji Producer: Prasadarao Peddineni Story, Screenplay, Direction: Hariprasad Jakka Release Date: 5 March 2021.

One needs to be out of the regular line to get noticed by others. Sometimes, some films turn the heads of audience who are habituated to the regular stuff. This is one such film with regard to the genre and the subject. Let us see what prompted the makers to bring out this film. 

"Dark, the most popular German series on the Netflix has first streamed its season-1 in the year 2017. That has bulldozed the minds of many audience and film makers with its weirdest plot and the attempt to connect it to the theoretical metaphysics. The makers of this film have got strongly influenced by that series and that is clearly seen in "Play Back". 

A man who lives in 2019 gets into the contact of a woman from 1993 on a land phone. Some silly reason, though conveyed as a mere theory, was planted as the scientific possibility for the convenience to narrate this story. What happens to them? Will they meet each other? How they play with the time for fun and for a reason forms rest of the story. 

The drama unleashes when both of them discover that they are from different time lines. The series of incidents packed with fun, suspense, thrill and crime follow one after the other till the end. 

The entire intelligence to write this script including the character sketches are directly adapted from 'Dark' and whatever is originally conceived tasted insipid. Even the signature music of "Dark" is used in many places throughout the film liberally. The line ’don’t try to change the past’ is also taken from the same series. 

Keeping the similarities with the original aside, the attempt to show something different to the Telugu audience with local nativity is appreciable. But what lacks is the class in making it with a better élan and brilliance. Budget constraints seem to be one main reason for poor execution. The biggest saving for this film is it has no songs. That’s one good thing happened to the audience. 

Main female lead Ananya looks good, Spandana is glamorous and Dinesh Tej did his part. TNR has got nothing much to perform as an actor but keeps moving as a silent criminal. It’s a good start for TV5 Murthy as an actor and he can continue. All said and done, the strange storyline dominates the characters and their performances. It drives towards ‘what happens next’. Cinematography is good. Background music could have been far better for this kind of film. Screenplay and editing are reasonable. The temple collapsing scene is also done well.  Though a commendable adaptation, care would have been taken to make it in a more interesting manner with better technical aspects. This kind of story deserves a better making on a whole. 

Bottom-line: Setback

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Playback (Movie Review)

Joe r's rating: ★ director: michael a. nickles | release date: 2012.

“Playback” starts interestingly enough. A young man named Harlan Diehl walks around a country farmhouse with a video camera, filming recently slaughtered bodies (as we learn later, it’s Diehl’s adopted family being filmed and he’s the one who did the slaughtering). His camera then focuses on a little baby left untouched in the mayhem. Before we learn the reason for his murdering spree, however, he is gunned down by police officers. Would it surprise you to know that the baby survives?

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn’t come close to living up to the promise of these first few minutes. Written and directed by Michael Nickles, “Playback” seems content to be merely average. The script is laden with inconsistencies and plot holes, the dialogue is wooden, and many of the performances are stiff. A couple gory kills and cameos from actors who should know better aside, the film offers little reason for a recommendation.

After the opening scene (which took place in 1994), we fast forward to present day, to a group of high schoolers led by Julian (played by Johnny Pacar) who want to re-enact and videotape the massacre for a school project on the town’s history. They also learn that the farmhouse where the killings took place is still standing and decide to do some of their filming there.

Julian and his friends get a lot of their film equipment from Quinn, who works as an archivist at the local television station. While watching unreleased film of the farmhouse massacre, Quinn gets possessed by the film itself and goes from a brooding, hoodie-wearing creep to a brooding, hoodie-wearing creep with some lesions on his face. Seriously, there is no difference in his character’s demeanor before and after possession, which is a problem with the script but far from the only one. Quinn then possesses Julian’s schoolmates one by one and uses them to do his dirty work.

Julian eventually learns (through some rather clumsy exposition) that Harlan Diehl was a direct descendant of Louis Le Prince, an early pioneer of motion picture technology. Now, Le Prince was an actual person and his contribution to motion pictures is real. In fact, “Roundhay Garden Scene,” Le Prince’s early attempt at filmmaking, is included in “Playback.” But in this film, Le Prince is none other than the devil himself, with the ability to project his soul into his descendants by filming them. You see, Louis = Lucifer, and Le Prince = Prince of Darkness. How’s that for some serious sleuthing? And now Le Prince has taken control of Quinn and Julian’s friends.

The idea of making a horror movie based on motion picture history could have made for an interesting story. Nearly everything else about this film seems tired and worn, however. The characters are stereotypical and none of them are particularly likable, so when they’re finally killed you’re glad to be that much closer to the end. By the third act, “Playback” devolves into nonsense, with references to incest and mysterious adoptions, as well as a shootout that is downright laughable.

Is there any reason to watch “Playback?” Well, a couple of the kill scenes are inventive and cool in a gory way. You can also watch two actors who try their best despite the material they’ve been given. Christian Slater has a small role (playing— no joke — a police officer with a fetish for watching videos of high school girls disrobing). And I always enjoy seeing Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer from “Animal House,” playing a television reporter who ends up in an insane asylum for some reason that’s never really explained).

These are minor positives, however, but in the end they’re not reason enough to sit through “Playback.” Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

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Playback Reviews

• 1 hr 31 mins
• Drama, Suspense
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A vengeful executive (Shannon Whirry) tries to sabotage a co-worker's career and marriage. George Hamilton, Tawny Kitaen, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Grant. Directed by Oley Sassone.

Is it languid business intrigue seasoned with sex or languid sex seasoned with business intrigue? Either way, PLAYBACK just lies there, faking it. Brainstorming a satellite-communications merger, corporate vice president David Burgess (Charles Grant) is too busy to pay attention to spouse Sara (Tawny Kitaen). Realizing their marriage is on the verge of bankruptcy, they both loosen up and experiment with erotic videos as sexual aids. Back in the boardroom, conniving exec Karen Stone (Shannon Whirry) sees David's recharged libido as leverage for her own career. She arranges a liaison between Sara and company CEO Gil Braman (George Hamilton), and has a seedy PI (Harry Dean Stanton) snap pictures of the pair in a compromising position and mail them to David. Whether she seduces David or takes his place at Gil's side, Karen seems destined for success when a jealous David punches out Gil. But David realizes the truth and secretly reconciles with Sara. Sara tricks Gil into a videotaped S&M session, inserted into the multimedia presentation shown to the amused partners in the merger. Meanwhile David and some upstart allies put together a better merger deal on their own. With COVER ME (1995) and TEMPTRESS (1995), this makes a trio of spicy narrative features produced by the Playboy empire for the 1990s straight-to-video market and distributed via Paramount. Writer-director Francis "Oley" Sassone once did a half-decent steamy suspense film, FINAL EMBRACE (1992), for Roger Corman, but by the time Playboy got his services, the erotic-thriller genre, once boosted by the 1992 blockbuster BASIC INSTINCT, was basically stale. And so is PLAYBACK. Between torpid, torrid encounters, it strives for redeeming social value with a speech by Harry Dean Station scolding men like David for ruining countless lives in corporate streamlinings and restructurings; David's subsequent mega-deal is admired as an enlightened masterpiece of humane and fair management. Executive ethics and explicit eros are strange bedfellows indeed, and if PLAYBACK is any indication, a dull coupling. Tellingly, Playboy's later forays into B-filmmaking were not carried by Paramount; they later moved to Orion Home Video. (Adult situations, nudity, sexual situations, profanity)

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Payback review – every actor in this gangland drama oozes quality

This pacy crime drama from Jed Mercurio’s stable doesn’t have a single weak link among its stellar cast – although there is the odd dubious bit of plotting …

P ayback is the televisual equivalent of a sudoku puzzle or a crossword. It keeps your mind happily occupied without demanding any emotional investment whatsoever. This is mostly because it is about fraud and gangland criminals so – in the best possible way – who cares? A daughter gets threatened from afar but, you know, that’s just how gangland criminals roll. There are no missing or abused children, no gruesome murders, no raped, battered then murdered women. With only an untraceable £28m at stake, it’s practically a romcom.

Life is going along quite nicely for the Noble family. Husband Jared (Thoren Ferguson) and wife Lexie (Morven Christie) are hardworking accountants – she’s a partner at his firm – who live in a lovely house and have recently taken on a competent if sullen nanny Doris (Eileen Duffy) to help with the care of their two children, neither of whom has ever been threatened by a gangland criminal. All that, alas, is about to change because over on the other side of town, a man called Cal Morris (Peter Mullan) is trying and failing to buy an island with laundered cash. I think. I confess that despite many exposition-heavy scenes involving well-meaning characters who clearly do understand how the money is supposed to have got from A to B but instead went missing and want us to understand too, I do not. But it is enough to know that it has done, that Jared is involved and that Lexie knows nothing about it.

She doesn’t know she knows nothing about it until Jared is stabbed in the street in an apparently motiveless attack. Unable to track the missing payment without details to which only his accountant was privy, Cal turns his attention to Mrs Accountant and has his right-hand man Malky (Steven Mackintosh – oh yes, they’re all in it!) encourage her to seek them out. As luck would have it, she recently found a safe full of passwords and lists of transactions behind the riojas in the wine cellar and may be able to help.

But! The police have her house under audio surveillance. They know the sound of dirty account books being withdrawn from behind a dozen robust reds when they hear it, and soon Lexie finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place. Also, the marital assets have been frozen, so she is dependent on Cal’s cash handouts until this can all be sorted, which may skew things somewhat.

On the other hand, someone had Jared killed, so maybe they have the money and all Lexie’s efforts will be for naught?

Payback moves at a fair old clip, as you would expect with something bred by the Jed Mercurio production stable. It grew out of discussions between him and writer Debbie O’Malley and has enough momentum to get past a few minor holes without difficulty (though the coincidence involving Jared’s hoodie, popped on by his grieving widow for comfort, only to find the exact account details she needs clearly written on a scrap of paper in the pocket is … quite something).

It’s not going to set the world on fire or go down in television history, but it is one of those dramas that offers the inordinate pleasure of watching quality, understated actors do their quality understated work, without a weak link among them. There’s Morven Christie, completely believable as an ordinary woman – bit anxious, bit tired, head down, getting on with things, happy enough, solid husband to catch her if she falls – caught up in a completely unbelievable situation. There’s Derek Riddell just being the detective in charge of keeping an investigation that threatens to sprawl out of everyone’s control contained. There’s Steven Mackintosh embodying the beta vibe and careful cruelty of the natural-born lackey. And then there’s Peter Mullan, exuding the kind of casual, ingrained menace that crime lords must, surely, have. There is also Julie Graham as Cal’s wife Connie and by God, if she is not given more to do in the coming episodes I shall be writing to Equity or my MP or Reese Witherspoon or something because this kind of unnatural wastage must not go unchallenged. If she gets to let rip in the remainder, I’ll add another star to my rating.

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Payback aired on ITV1 and is available on ITVX.

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Shannon Whirry (Karen) Tawny Kitaen (Sara) Charles Grant (David) Harry Dean Stanton (Ernie) George Hamilton (Gil Braman) Quinn Duffy (Robert Miller) Jodi Thelen (Mary) Scott Williamson (Watson) Daryl Keith Roach (Franklin) J. Patrick McCormack (Jones) Charmagne Eckert (David's secretary) Lou Martini Jr. (Video store clerk) Hitoe Ohtake (Dominatrix) Candy Sherwin (Gil's secretary) Traci Adell (Galaxy Club host) Gale Van Cott (Talk show host) Kareen Germain (Cherrelle) Rick Hanson (Cowboy in bar)

Oley Sassone

The marriage of David, a senior executive, and his beautiful wife, Sara, an interior designer, is under great strain because he is in the process of putting together the biggest telecommunications merger in the history of the business. She suggests that they attend a kinky sex club to revitalize their marriage and help him to relax. However, his problems are exacerbated by a huge power struggle at his office between Karen, Gil and himself. Karen, a beautiful, ambitious, ruthless, senior executive, is determined to take over this merger at any cost. To further her aims she hires the services of sleazy divorce private detective Ernie to spy on David and Sara's. At the date of the merger draws near and all the blackmail and dirty tricks start to play themselves out, who will come out the winner?

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Discover the world of entertainment with Tetreault : Movies & Shows Box ! Our app is your go-to destination, providing you with the latest cinematic releases and theater hits, all conveniently accessible. Whether you're in the mood for a cozy movie night or a laid-back viewing session, Tetreault provides you with daily updates on the latest trending movies. Say farewell to the overwhelming selection, and allow Tetreault to lead you on your next thrilling cinematic journey. Features : - Plan Your Movie Calendar: Utilize our movie planner to schedule your film viewing in your calendar, helping you stay organized and never miss a movie night again. - Effortlessly Organize Your Favorite Movies : Keep your cherished films neatly organized and readily accessible. - Stay in the Loop with Trending Movies & TV Shows: Keep up-to-date with the latest in the world of cinema and television. - Locate Nearby Cinemas with Ease : Find cinemas in your vicinity effortlessly, making movie outings a breeze. - Discover Available Movie Providers : Quickly identify where you can stream or watch any movie of your choice. - Swift One-Tap Movie Search : Easily find specific movies with a single tap, saving you time and effort. - Sneak Peek with Trailers & Overviews : Preview movies and shows before deciding to watch, ensuring you make the right choice. - Access Essential Movie Info : Learn about movie length, ratings, and all the details you need to make an informed selection. - Explore a Variety of Genres & Categories : Dive into a plethora of genres and categories to find the perfect film for your mood. - Get Random Movie and TV Show Recommendations : Discover new content based on various criteria, ensuring a fresh viewing experience. And Much More : Explore additional features designed to enhance your movie and TV show experience ! Disclaimer : Movie information and images are sourced from TMDB.org and are licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. We utilize the TMDb API to retrieve all movie data. We strictly adhere to the "fair use" guidelines as per U.S. law. If you believe there is a direct infringement of copyright or trademark that does not align with the "fair use" principles, kindly contact us directly.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the synanon fix.

Rory Kennedy is a phenomenal interviewer. We’ve seen this before in her other projects like the Oscar-nominated “ Last Days in Vietnam ,” and it’s the main strength of her new project, HBO’s 4-part “The Synanon Fix.” Her skill set in making people feel comfortable allows former members of the self-help group that turned into a cult to speak so candidly about their time in the organization, to the point that some admit things on-camera that they surely never have before. These men and women are remarkably open about not just what Synanon meant to their recovery but how the group descended into darkness under the increasing madness of its leader, Chuck Dederich. As is so often the case nowadays, “The Synanon Fix” isn’t the right length—it would have made an excellent feature documentary—as the first couple episodes take too long to get to the downfall era of Synanon, but there’s something powerful about the sheer bulk of the hard-to-believe stories of a group that felt problematic from the beginning.

Many of the survivors of Synanon would disagree with that last sentence. It’s startling to hear how many of the people involved in this organization still speak about its origins positively, noting that they wouldn’t be here without it. And yet watching “The Synanon Fix,” one can see the rot at the core of this approach to sobriety from the very beginning. Founded in 1957 by Dederich, Synanon was a drug rehab program in Santa Monica that was built around tearing people down. They gained notoriety for something called the “game,” a form of attack therapy wherein people essentially criticize, ridicule, and insult someone, forcing them into sobriety through shame more than anything else. Does it work? There are people alive today who insist that it does. But it inherently creates a deeply flawed power dynamic in that someone has to be in charge of the “game.” It is incredibly easy to draw the line from Dederich overseeing attack therapy to the way he would increase his attempts to control Synanon members over the decades to come.

“The Synanon Fix” really captures how programs like this rely on brainwashing. By the end, Synanon was abusing children, forcing members to swap partners, and even allegedly attempting murder by rattlesnake. Between those early days of letting junkies clean up on a dirty couch and the downfall, Kennedy details the increasingly disturbing decisions by the power structure of Synanon, particularly Dederich. So much of what is captured here is a story of how controlling behavior feeds on itself. Every time Dederich got his followers to do one thing, he had to top it the next time, until he was breaking one of the core rules about violence, broadcasting his members’ personal trauma, and shaving the heads of the females in Synanon. When Kennedy gets to interviewing the children of a neighbor who was well-known for being a sort of Underground Railroad for young people fleeing the abusive compound next door, it’s clear that the group has long ago left behind its higher moral purpose.

And yet what’s so interesting about the final hour is how little judgment the survivors place on Synanon. As a standalone hour, it’s one of the most fascinating documents in a long time regarding how cults form and persist. We all like to believe that we wouldn’t fall for a cult leader like Dederich but listen to these people who have seen so much awful behavior speak about community, survival, and supporting one another. Cults form because people ignore the bad and focus only on the good that they’re getting from that organization. When a gentleman speaks of being forced into a vasectomy in his twenties during a time when Dederich thought their group should be childless—women were forced into abortions too—there’s almost no anger in his voice. One would expect these people to be furious at being manipulated, but they seem to still consider all of the bad stuff that happened as mere cost for the clean community that saved their lives. 

All of this could have been accomplished, and arguably more powerfully, in a feature film. The set-up takes too long—the first hour is particularly slow—and there could have been even more blunt power with better pace to the horror show of Synanon. There’s still enough here to warrant a look, largely because of how much Kennedy gets her subjects to open up in ways that feel almost unfathomable, speaking openly about trauma in a manner that reflects how a group like Synanon happens in the first place. We like to think that something like Synanon couldn’t happen today in a world more aware of cult behavior. Watching “The Synanon Fix” reminded me that human behavior can be manipulated in the name of rehabilitation or self-help. That's how cults happen. Leaders can do anything if they convince their members it's related to their best interest.

Whole series screened for review. Premieres on HBO on April 1 st .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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'la chimera' is marvelous — right up to its most magical ending.

Justin Chang

Carol Duarte and Josh O'Connor in La Chimera . Neon hide caption

Carol Duarte and Josh O'Connor in La Chimera .

The wonderful 42-year-old filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher practices a kind of cinema that I've come to think of as "Italian magical neorealism." She gives us portraits of hard-scrabble lives in poor rural communities, but they're graced by a whimsical, almost fable-like sense of enchantment.

Rohrwacher's 2014 film, The Wonders , was a lyrical drama about a family of Tuscan beekeepers. She followed that in 2018 with Happy as Lazzaro , about a group of sharecroppers on a tobacco farm whose story moves from picaresque comedy to aching tragedy.

'The Wonders' Of Family And Change

Her marvelous new movie, La Chimera , follows in much the same vein, with one key difference. While Rohrwacher has generally worked with non-professional Italian actors, this time she's cast the English actor Josh O'Connor , best known for his Emmy-winning performance as a young Prince Charles on The Crown .

But O'Connor's character here doesn't give off even a whiff of royalty, even if his name is Arthur. When we first meet him, he's asleep on a train bound for his old stomping grounds in Tuscany. He's just been released from prison after serving some time for the crime of grave robbing.

Arthur has a mysterious archeological talent: Wielding a divining rod, he can detect the presence of buried artifacts, many of which date back to the Etruscan civilization more than 2,000 years ago. Arthur works with a group of tombaroli , or tomb raiders, who rely on him to figure out where to dig.

Upon his return, many of those old friends welcome him back with a parade — one of several moments in which Rohrwacher briefly channels the vibrant human chaos of a Fellini film. Arthur is a little reluctant to rejoin his old gang, since they let him take the rap after their last job. But he doesn't seem to have anything else to do, or anywhere else to go. He may be an outsider — his Italian throughout is decent but far from perfect — but it's the only place in the world that feels remotely like home. And O'Connor plays him with such a deep sense of melancholy that it feels almost special when his handsome, careworn face breaks into a warm smile.

It's not immediately clear what Arthur wants; unlike his cohorts, he doesn't seem all that interested in making money off their spoils. The answer turns out to lie in his dreams, which are haunted by a beautiful young woman named Beniamina — the love of his life, whom he's lost under unclear circumstances.

And so Arthur's determination to go underground becomes a metaphor for his longing for an irretrievable past: Beniamina is the Eurydice to his Orpheus, and he wants her back desperately.

Arthur is still close to Beniamina's mother, Flora, played with a wondrous mix of warmth and imperiousness by the great Isabella Rossellini. Her presence here made me think of her filmmaker father, the neorealist titan Roberto Rossellini — a fitting association for a movie about how the past is forever seeping into the present.

One of the pleasures of Rohrwacher's filmmaking is the way she subtly blurs our sense of time. La Chimera is set in the 1980s, but it could be taking place 20 years earlier, or 20 years later. Rohrwacher and her brilliant cinematographer, Hélène Louvart, shot the movie on a mix of film stocks and sometimes tweak the image in ways that evoke the cinematic antiquities of the silent era. As sorrowful as Arthur's journey is, there's a playfulness to Rohrwacher's sensibility that keeps pulling you in, inviting you to get lost in the movie's mysteries.

One of the story's most significant characters is Italia, played by the Brazilian actor Carol Duarte, who works in Flora's household. Italia is a bit of an odd duck with a beguiling bluntness about her, and she might be just the one to pull Arthur out of his slump and get him to stop living in the past.

I won't give away what happens, except to say that La Chimera builds to not one but two thrilling scenes of underground exploration, in which Arthur must finally figure out his life's purpose — not by using a divining rod, but by following his heart. And it leads to the most magical movie ending I've seen in some time, and also the most real.

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A detective must uncover the truth behind the death of his daughter. But the truth hits close to home. A detective must uncover the truth behind the death of his daughter. But the truth hits close to home. A detective must uncover the truth behind the death of his daughter. But the truth hits close to home.

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• Oct 31, 2023
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‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Review: Running Out of Steam

The latest in the Warner Bros. Monsterverse franchise shows signs of an anemic imagination.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

Nothing about “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” makes sense, which is not, on the face of it, a problem. We have not settled into cushy cinema seats with our comfortingly stale popcorn to engage in discourse about metaphors and science; we are here for the stars in the title. About that title: “Godzilla x Kong” (meant to echo various other titles in other, non-Hollywood Godzilla movies) could mean Godzilla times Kong, or Godzilla crossed with Kong, or Godzilla against Kong — some permutation of titans. Whatever it is, there will be punching. We are here for the punching.

What we’re not here for is the humans, which is lucky, because they’ve been dropping like flies. Most of the characters from the last few films — including the 2021 “Godzilla vs. Kong” (also directed by Adam Wingard) — have disappeared, largely without explanation. Our main character now is Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), adoptive mother to a tween, Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a member of the Iwi tribe, who communicates with Kong directly via sign language. I particularly missed Alexander Skarsgard’s Dr. Nathan Lind, whose absence is sort of explained but not mourned, and who has been replaced, for narrative reasons, by a kooky veterinarian to the titans played by Dan Stevens. (For some reason, I assume to signal the kookiness, Stevens sports an exaggerated Australian accent.)

They’re joined once again by Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), the conspiracy podcaster-blogger-documentarian-weirdo from the last film. For some reason, he’s convinced that nobody believes his stories about the titans, even though actual Godzilla is roaming the Earth and shown on the nightly news. (I’m more stuck on the strangely fantastical idea that he’s a popular blogger. Wouldn’t he have a Substack by now?)

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These humans are pretty boring, more anemic than they were in the last movie. They’re there purely for narrative propulsion through this story, which begins with Kong living in the Hollow Earth (exactly what it sounds like) and Godzilla up on the surface. As long as the twain never meet, we’re good — and by we, I mean humankind.

Which means, of course, they’ll meet. The scientists spot Godzilla napping in the Colosseum, then stomping his way through Europe and northern Africa, seemingly absorbing as much nuclear power as he can because he senses some confrontation coming. At the same time, something is very wrong in Kong’s world down below. And Jia is having strange dreams, too — dreams that lead to an expedition into the Hollow Earth.

What follows is an attempt to establish a whole lot of mythology for the Monsterverse franchise. (Their term, not mine.) This is a big mistake. You can tell it’s a mistake, because all of that mythology has to be revealed in tedious expositional dialogue. More important, once you know what happened in the past, you know precisely what will happen in the present, which rips any remaining suspense out of the film, leaving only the punching. (So much punching.)

Besides: Does this series need a mythology? Both Godzilla and Kong have a rich screen history to draw on — this is the 38th movie for Godzilla and the 13th for Kong, and though they haven’t shared the screen until recently, they bring all of their baggage and back story with them. It feels like a desperate attempt for the crossover franchise to justify both its existence and its continuation.

Which is not surprising. This series’ track record induces whiplash. The 2014 film “Godzilla,” a kind of reboot of the original Toho series featuring the character, was a legitimately excellent film, balancing spectacle and human pathos. But then came “Kong: Skull Island” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” both meant to build toward a shared universe, both of which were not just bad but real bummers. Next was “Godzilla vs. Kong” which wasn’t, technically speaking, good — but it promised confrontation and delivered it, with a late-breaking coda of unwilling and visually spectacular cooperation between massive ape and nuclear lizard. It was a blast to watch, not least because the climax happened: The two monsters finally had their long-teased meeting.

But with that zenith in the rearview mirror, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” has very little road left to cruise, and it shows. The best stretches involve Kong lumbering through the landscape, Godzilla stomping around crushing things, and of course the inevitable final confrontation, which has a few surprises up its proverbial sleeves. Kong in particular seems to have no problem communicating without human language, and those extended scenes are so fun to watch that it’s disappointing to swing back to the humans.

Certainly, humans can be a fruitful part of these monster movies. The recent Japanese film “Godzilla Minus One,” produced for a fraction of the “Godzilla x Kong” budget and recipient of the Oscar for best visual effects this year, manages to combine the creature with true pathos and a focus on the human cost of war, guilt and trauma. It’s more in line with the origin of Godzilla, too, as a metaphor for Japanese generational trauma related to the atomic bomb. In 2004, writing for The New York Times , Terrence Rafferty succinctly described the monster as embodying “a society’s desire to claim its deepest tragedies for itself, to assimilate them as elements of its historical identity.”

None of that is here. In fact, “Godzilla x Kong” is evidence the original thread has been lost entirely — a shame, in an era haunted by monsters the movies can only hint at, from climate catastrophe, destructive weaponry and geopolitical strife to power-hungry, brutal authoritarianism. There’s no reflection here at all, not even space to contemplate what might lie beyond the literal. Beyond the main cast, the humans in this movie exist only to get squashed like ants by falling debris and mangled buildings. They are expendable, but it doesn’t matter. The meaning of these films isn’t in metaphor at all. It’s in punching.

Be warned: There’s a lot of guts in “Godzilla x Kong,” guts from mammals and reptiles ripped in half, guts from sea monsters, Technicolor guts, way more than I expected. They feel appropriate, for a monster movie, and aren’t quite gross enough to merit an R rating. But as I pondered the guts, I found myself wondering one thing: When will someone have the bravery — the guts, you might say — to make a movie with Kong, and Godzilla, and various other titans and monsters, and no humans at all?

Or maybe there’s a greater question at stake: When will Hollywood have the guts to make a fun blockbuster like this that dares to acknowledge the real menacing monsters?

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Rated PG-13 for destruction, some mild profanities and so, so many guts. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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Giancarlo Esposito Can’t Save AMC’s Haphazard and Predictable ‘Parish’: TV Review

By Aramide Tinubu

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The series opens in New Orleans amid a chaotic chase involving several police cars. Sliding back in time to a week prior, the audience learns how Gray, a middle-aged car service owner, became entangled in such a harrowing escape. Consumed by grief, despondent and prideful, the driver is easy prey for Tongai leader, The Horse (Zackary Momo) and his siblings, Zenzo (Ivan Mbakop) and Shamiso (Bonnie Mbuli). Impressed with his discretion and particular skill set, the trio isn’t so keen on turning Gray loose after just one successful job. As a result, Gray finds himself in the middle of the Tongais brewing war with another crime organization, which puts his livelihood, his wife, Ros (Paula Malcomson) and his daughter Makayla (Arica Himmel) in peril.

Despite the actors’ competency, plot holes and choppy dialogue bury the real meat of the episodes. Though plenty of violent and action-packed sequences are sprinkled throughout the series, the musical selections and montages used to portray Gray’s memories and inner psyche strip these scenes of intensity. In fact, the narrative doesn’t begin taking shape until the end of Episode 3, “Sanctuary,” when a plea from The Horse’s young son, Luke (Dax Rey), leaves Gray toggling between the boy’s anguish and his own family’s safety.

The show has some intriguing elements. Sister Anne (Amanda Brugel), an old acquaintance of Gray’s who has found solace in the church, isn’t given nearly enough screen time. Unpacking her background might have given viewers a more well-rounded view of Gray’s past. Also, the series follows new African immigrants coming into New Orleans who find safe harbor at the Tongais’ restaurant, Kemba. However, honest conversations regarding visas, work and the trafficking of Black bodies in the 21st century aren’t explored as thoroughly as they should be.

Throughout its six-episode run, “Parish” feels like being relegated to the passenger’s seat. As the show presses on, more is revealed about the life Gray once led, the true nature of the Tongais business and its connection to New Orleans’ political scene. However, obvious clues and disjointed dialogue give the series a haphazard flow that will make it challenging for viewers to see it through the end. With so many storylines, characters and revelations, “Parish” loses its plot, and even the prowess of Esposito can’t save it from feeling like a cobbled-together journey with no distinct destination.

“Parish” premieres March 31 on AMC and AMC +.

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