Relay (2025) Review: Riz Ahmed and Lily James Can’t Save This Thriller Snoozefest

Relay 

Directed by: David Mackenzie

Written by: Justin Piasecki

Starring: Riz Ahmed, Lily James

Release Date: August 22, 2025

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆Relay (2025), directed by David Mackenzie and starring Riz Ahmed and Lily James, is a dull corporate thriller that wastes a talented cast. Here’s why this film is one of 2025’s biggest disappointments.

A Thriller Without Thrills

Relay is the overly chewed bubblegum of movies. There’s a hint of flavor at the start, but soon enough, you’re left with a soggy, flavorless mass that you only keep chewing because you paid for it. It’s the kind of film you’ll regret watching before the credits roll.

The movie stars Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed as James, a fixer who helps whistleblowers return stolen information to corrupt corporations, blackmailing them into leaving his clients alone. It’s an unusual concept that could have been sharp and suspenseful. Instead, Relay is a lifeless slog of repetitive scenes featuring James typing messages on a special device while a third-party relay service reads them aloud. That’s it: typing, staring, pacing, rinse and repeat.

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A Great Director Stumbles

Director David Mackenzie shocked audiences with Hell or High Water (2016), a gripping modern Western brimming with tension and layered characters. Here, his talent is nowhere to be found. Relay feels like a failed TV pilot, a bland procedural stretched to feature length.

Even with Ahmed’s immense skill and Lily James as Sarah, a sweet but naive scientist being hunted by corporate thugs, the film has no spark. Their characters rarely interact directly, leaving them with zero chemistry. Instead of a taut thriller, viewers get a plodding exercise in style without tension.

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The Premise: Clever, but Pointless

James’ use of relay services—designed for the hearing-impaired—to communicate securely with clients is a neat narrative detail. Unfortunately, the movie leans so heavily on this gimmick that it becomes tedious. For a film marketed as a sleek thriller, it’s astonishing how much time is spent watching characters silently type while a robotic voice speaks their words.

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Wasted Talent

Riz Ahmed plays a former whistleblower turned fixer, but his character is neither heroic nor compelling. His performance is subdued to the point of invisibility. Lily James fares no better as Sarah, a vulnerable scientist holding proof of a company’s plan to poison the public. Together, their scenes are meant to carry emotional weight but feel flat and lifeless.

Mackenzie’s choice to drain the energy from every interaction results in a thriller with no pulse. Even action or suspense scenes feel perfunctory, as if they exist solely to break up the monotony.

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Final Verdict

Relay had potential: a gifted cast, a unique premise, and a director known for delivering gripping drama. Instead, it’s a boring, joyless misfire that plays like a network procedural destined for cancellation.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5)

If you’re looking for Riz Ahmed at his best, revisit Sound of Metal. If you’re looking for David Mackenzie’s brilliance, stick with Hell or High Water. Relay is not worth your time or ticket price.

Next (2007) Movie Review: Philip K. Dick’s Legacy, Nicolas Cage’s Hair, and Hollywood’s Latest Sin

Directed by Lee Tamahori| Written by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel
Release Date: April 27th, 2007

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Jump to: Premise · Twist · Trap · Verdict

Premise

Has any sci-fi writer been more abused by Hollywood than Philip K. Dick? For every Blade Runner or Minority Report, there’s a Paycheck or Impostor. Now comes Next—a loose, lobotomized take on Dick’s short story “The Golden Man.”

Nicolas Cage plays Cris Johnson, a Vegas lounge magician who can see two minutes into the future. He uses it to dodge hecklers and win at blackjack—until the FBI (Julianne Moore) and nuclear terrorists both want a piece of him.

Twist

Enter Jessica Biel as Liz, the one woman who magically extends Cris’s visions beyond two minutes. Soulmate? Plot device? Both. Meanwhile, the FBI insists two-minute foresight can stop a nuke. (Spoiler: the logic collapses faster than Cage’s hairline.)

Director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day, XXX: State of the Union) brings the same energy he allegedly brought to a 2006 drag-solicitation arrest—chaotic, desperate, and deeply unserious.

Trap

Cage sleepwalks through another paycheck role, rocking a tragic long-in-back, bald-in-front mullet-wig combo that deserves its own credit. Moore looks mortified—rightfully so. Biel, fresh off Stealth and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, settles comfortably into eye-candy autopilot.

“Philip K. Dick saw the future. Hollywood keeps burying it in dumb action schlock.”

Dick’s legacy—paranoia, identity, free will—gets flattened into a Criss Angel magic trick with explosions. The film’s one clever idea (branching timelines) is teased, then abandoned for a twist so cheap it should come with a refund.

Final Verdict

★½☆☆☆ A bald-faced assault on Philip K. Dick—and good taste.

Next? Hard pass.

Want more Sci-Fi Reviews? Check the links below 

Tron Ares (2025) 

Source Code (2011) 

Minority Report (2002) 

Borderline (2025) Review: A Dark Comedy That Forgets to Be Funny

Borderline 

Directed by: Jimmy Warden

Written by: Jimmy Warden

Starring: Ray Nicholson, Samara Weaving, Eric Dane

Release Date: March 14, 2025

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

Borderline (2025), starring Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, and Eric Dane, is marketed as a dark comedy but delivers a confused, tensionless thriller with no real laughs and a flat narrative.

Jimmy Warden’s Borderline wants desperately to be a stylish, dark comedy, but what unfolds is a disjointed mix of limp suspense and failed humor. Despite a cast packed with talent—Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, and Eric Dane—the movie feels lazy, incoherent, and tonally confused.

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A Stalker Comedy Without Comedy

Eric Dane plays Bell, a hapless bodyguard assigned to protect Sofia (Weaving), a famous pop star. Bell’s incompetence is on full display in the opening sequence, where he confronts Duerson (Nicholson), a deeply disturbed fan who has been stalking Sofia long enough that Bell and Duerson are almost friendly. Rather than calling the police when Duerson shows up at Sofia’s door late at night, Bell tries to parent him out of the situation.

Things spiral quickly. Duerson stabs Bell and enters Sofia’s mansion, gleefully playing around as wacky music attempts (and fails) to signal humor. While Bell bleeds out on the porch, Duerson calls 911 on himself—an event we’re told about rather than shown. Six months later, Bell returns to work, scarred and shaken, but Sofia’s excitement over his return doesn’t last. Duerson, now escaped from a mental facility with his eccentric accomplice Penny (Alba Baptista), is plotting to kidnap and marry Sofia, whether she likes it or not.

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A Hero Without Heroics

Rather than growing into a redemption arc, Bell continues to make foolish decisions that derail the story. He’s tricked into leaving Sofia unprotected, kidnapped alongside his sister and daughter, and survives only through dumb luck rather than skill. Dane plays Bell with a baffling lack of emotion, making the character feel like an afterthought in his own story.

Nicholson, meanwhile, tries to inject humor into Duerson, portraying him as an offbeat, unpredictable stalker. Unfortunately, the script and direction don’t give him the support he needs, and his comedic energy clashes with the flat, grounded tone of the rest of the film.

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Flat Direction, Wasted Talent

Borderline feels like it’s aiming for an absurd, heightened world where danger and humor coexist. Instead, Warden’s direction plays everything straight, draining scenes of tension and atmosphere. The editing feels arbitrary, the score is forgettable, and the supposed comedic beats land with a thud.

Even Samara Weaving, usually a vibrant and captivating presence (Ready or Not, Azrael), looks confused here. One scene has her reluctantly singing a Celine Dion duet with Penny, the unhinged French accomplice. The moment briefly sparks to life before the film retreats to its dull kidnapping plot.

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A Lazy 90s Setting

Adding to the confusion is the film’s late-90s setting, which serves no real purpose other than to avoid explaining why no one can call the police. Instead of feeling like a stylish period piece, it feels like a shortcut to sidestep narrative logic. That laziness extends to nearly every aspect of the film, from its limp visual style to its underdeveloped characters.

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Final Thoughts

Borderline has all the ingredients of a cult dark comedy—a talented cast, a deranged stalker premise, and a director with genre experience (Warden co-wrote Cocaine Bear). But the execution is so flat and lifeless that the movie never finds its tone. It’s neither suspenseful enough to work as a thriller nor funny enough to justify its absurdity. What’s left is a frustrating, forgettable misfire.

The Roses Review: A Wasted Opportunity Despite Colman and Cumberbatch's Chemistry

The Roses 

Directed by: Jay Roach

Written by: Tony McNamara

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Kate McKinnon

Release Date: August 29, 2025

The Roses (2025), starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, aims for sharp satire but stumbles over lazy writing and implausible storytelling. Here’s why Jay Roach’s latest comedy fails to bloom.

A Comedy Built on a Flimsy Foundation

The Roses asks audiences to accept a setup that collapses under the slightest scrutiny. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Theo Rose, a world-class architect whose career is destroyed when a storm brings down one of his signature projects: a sailing museum topped with a massive wooden sail that crashes through the structure.

It’s a striking image, sure—but the logic doesn’t hold. Are we really to believe that a wildly successful architect wouldn’t account for basic weather conditions? Add to that the fact that architects design, while engineers and builders execute, and the idea of Theo being solely blamed for this disaster feels like screenwriting corner-cutting.

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Overnight Success, Overnight Failure

If Theo’s implausible fall from grace wasn’t enough, his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman) experiences an equally improbable rise. Her failing seafood restaurant, cheekily named We’ve Got Crabs, becomes an impromptu storm shelter. By sheer coincidence, one of the stranded diners is the world’s most influential food critic. Ivy’s cooking earns her a glowing review, and overnight she’s a culinary star while Theo is a professional pariah.

It’s an amusing contrast, but the lack of plausibility makes it hard to buy. Restaurants on the brink of closure don’t stock enough ingredients to feed a packed house during a storm. These details may seem minor, but they highlight the script’s laziness—problems that could have been fixed with minimal effort.

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Kate McKinnon’s Wasted Talent

One of the strangest missteps is Kate McKinnon’s role. While McKinnon is undeniably talented, her brief, out-of-nowhere appearances feel like filler rather than genuine comedy. In one particularly awkward third-act scene, she pops in, delivers an offbeat line, and vanishes, clearly inserted because director Jay Roach felt the film needed a laugh break.

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Chemistry That Can’t Save the Script

Despite the weak script, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are the movie’s saving grace. Their sharp banter, biting insults, and electric chemistry add genuine spark, especially in their flirtatious meet-cute. For a brief moment, it feels like The Roses might deliver a dark, screwball energy akin to The War of the Roses (1989). Unfortunately, those flashes of brilliance fade fast, leaving a comedy that feels forced and unfocused.

Why is Andy Samberg in this movie? He's filling the role played by Danny Devito in the 1989 version of this story, The War of the Roses, but where Devito felt essential to that film Samberg is awkwardy shoehorned into The Roses. He's supposed to be Benedict Cumberbatch's closest friend but the two have zero chemistry. I do like Andy Samberg but he is dreadfully miscast as a modern day yuppie lawyer. He's also given nothing to work with by a desperately overstuffed and still lazy screenplay. 

Allison Janney, on the other hand, brings it in a cameo as Ivy's divorce lawyer. Where the rest of The Roses flounders, unwilling to fully commit to the nasty tone of the 1989 movue, Janney plays her part as if she should have been cast in place of Olivia Colman. Janney's energy is pure mercenary comic savagery and I loved it. It's about the only thing I love about this otherwise desperately mediocre and inept film. 

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Final Verdict

The Roses is proof that star power and witty dialogue aren’t enough to save a film with a flimsy premise and lazy writing. While Cumberbatch and Colman give it their all, Jay Roach’s direction leans too heavily on contrivances and random gags, resulting in a movie that feels half-baked. Fans of the stars might find a few laughs, but most audiences will leave disappointed.

A Walk in the Clouds (1995) Review: Keanu Reeves in a Timeless Romance

A Walk in the Clouds 

Directed by: Alfonso Arau

Written by: Robert Mark Kamen, Harvey Weitzman, Mark Miller

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Anthony Quinn

Release Date: August 11, 1995

Rediscover A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Alfonso Arau’s lush romantic drama starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, and Anthony Quinn.

A Surprising Gem from 1995

Covering the movies of 1995, for the I Hate Critics 1995 podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts, has been full of surprises, but none greater than A Walk in the Clouds, Alfonso Arau’s romantic drama starring Keanu Reeves and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón.

My memory of the film had been that of a gauzy, soft-hearted romance starring a then-teen heartthrob Keanu Reeves. Revisiting it three decades later, I discovered a well-textured, genuinely moving love story of incredible beauty and powerful performances.

The Story: Love, Loss, and the Vineyard

Keanu Reeves stars as Sgt. Paul Sutton, a young man freshly returned from World War II. Back home in San Francisco, his wife Betty (Debra Messing) is nowhere to be found at the docks. Despite Paul’s letters from overseas, Betty hasn’t read most of them and isn’t interested in his desire for a new purpose in life. Their marriage, hastily arranged before Paul shipped out, feels more like an obligation than a bond.

When Paul leaves Betty behind the next morning, it feels final—an unofficial divorce.

Fate soon intervenes when Paul literally crashes into Victoria Aragón (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a young woman pregnant and abandoned by her lover. Facing rejection from her strict father Alberto (Giancarlo Giannini), Victoria fears disgrace. Paul steps in, offering to pose as her husband for one night to protect her honor.

What begins as an act of kindness turns into something deeper as Paul is embraced—at least by some—into Victoria’s vineyard-owning family. Most welcoming is Don Pedro Aragón (Anthony Quinn), Victoria’s grandfather, a larger-than-life figure whose warmth and wisdom help guide Paul toward love and belonging.

A Visual Masterpiece by Alfonso Arau and Emmanuel Lubezki

Director Alfonso Arau, working with three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, creates images of remarkable beauty. The California wine country has never looked so heavenly on screen.

One unforgettable scene sees the family fighting to save the vineyard from frost, lighting torches and fanning giant butterfly-wing-like fans to keep the grapes alive. The visuals, paired with Maurice Jarre’s sweeping score, turn what could have been cloying into pure cinematic poetry. Watching Paul and Victoria grow close amid firelight and music is the essence of romantic filmmaking.

Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn: A Perfect Match

Keanu Reeves in 1995 was often criticized for lacking depth, but in A Walk in the Clouds he delivers a performance that is sweet, vulnerable, and earnest. He shines especially when paired with Anthony Quinn. Their scenes together, particularly one where Quinn’s Don Pedro drunkenly pushes Paul to declare his love, show a relaxed and heartfelt side of Reeves rarely captured on screen at the time. Quinn’s presence elevates the film, and Reeves rises to meet him with surprising warmth.

Final Thoughts: A Walk Worth Taking

A Walk in the Clouds is a wonderful surprise. It’s a warm, romantic film filled with irresistible characters, anchored by Reeves’s sincerity, Sánchez-Gijón’s luminous performance, and Quinn’s towering presence.

Against the breathtaking backdrop of California wine country, captured in all its glory by Emmanuel Lubezki, the film becomes more than a romance—it becomes a meditation on love, family, and finding purpose after war.

Looking back at 1995, A Walk in the Clouds deserves recognition not just as one of Keanu Reeves’s best performances of the decade, but as one of the most beautiful films of its year.

The Baltimorons (2025) Review: Jay Duplass Turns an Obnoxious Character Into a Surprising Romance

The Baltimorons (2025) Review

Directed by: Jay Duplass

Written by: Jay Duplass, Michael Strassner

Starring: Michael Strassner, Liz Larsen

Release Date: September 5, 2025

Jay Duplass’s Baltimorons (2025), starring Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen, starts off grating but transforms into a funny, heartfelt romance. Here’s why it won me over.

First Impressions: Ready to Walk Outt 

About 20 minutes into Baltimorons, I was ready to give up. The lead character, Cliff, struck me as obnoxious, whiny, and deeply off-putting. But I stuck with it, partly out of duty as a reviewer—and I’m glad I did. To my surprise, Baltimorons gradually won me over, morphing from an irritating character study into an unconventional but charming love story about a recovering alcoholic and his emergency dentist.

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Michael Strassner’s Cliff: A Man on the Edge

Michael Strassner stars as Cliff, a man six months removed from a failed suicide attempt. After his belt snapped during the attempt, he found sobriety in A.A. and walked away from his improv career, assuming he could no longer perform without alcohol. Cliff tries to reinvent himself as a mortgage broker, complete with a fiancée and family obligations.

On Christmas Eve, however, a fluke accident sends him scrambling for an emergency dentist. Enter Dr. Didi (Liz Larsen), the only one willing to open her office that night. After fixing his tooth, her kindness extends to helping Cliff when his car gets towed. By this point, I was practically yelling at the screen for her to walk away from this grating man.

Cliff is intially so whiny and unlikable that I wanted to walk out on the movie. It's remarkable how much I loathed this character. I was thinking that there was nothing the movie could do to redeem him, especially if he was going to continue down the road of being whiny and entitled. 

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When Baltimorons Finds Its Heart

But then something shifts. As Cliff and Didi spend more time together, the movie begins to evolve into a comic romance. Through late-night conversations, stories of trauma, and shared vulnerabilities, Cliff becomes more human—and Didi’s growing affection for him begins to feel believable.

One standout scene takes place at Didi’s ex’s Christmas party. Pretending to be her boyfriend, Cliff uses his improv skills to highlight her successes, win over the crowd, and defuse awkward attention aimed at her. For the first time, Cliff shows genuine warmth and support, and the film finds its spark.

Another key moment arrives when Cliff finally returns to the stage. Pulled into a sketch performance, he brings Didi with him, showcasing his sharp wit and comedic instincts. It’s both funny and awkward, but it proves Cliff’s talent and hints at the man he could be when not buried under insecurity.

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Liz Larsen Grounds the Film

While Strassner’s Cliff undergoes a gradual transformation, Liz Larsen anchors the film as Dr. Didi. Her performance is natural, unpredictable, and authentic. She doesn’t feel like a scripted “movie character” but like a real person reacting in the moment. Her grounded presence allows Cliff’s evolution to feel believable rather than forced.

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Final Thoughts: From Frustration to Affection

By the end of Baltimorons, I realized I’d gone from wanting to write a scathing review to genuinely rooting for these characters. Jay Duplass, along with Strassner and Larsen, crafts a story where redemption comes not from dramatic transformation but from small, revealing moments. Cliff doesn’t change overnight; instead, his better qualities slowly surface, making his relationship with Didi unexpectedly moving.

I began this film convinced I would hate it. I ended it loving the characters, laughing at their awkwardness, and believing in their connection. Baltimorons may not be easy to like at first, but stick with it—the payoff is worth it.

Doin’ It (2025) Review: Lily Singh Surprises in a Raunchy, Sex-Positive Comedy

Doin' It 

Directed by: Sara Zandleh

Written by: Sara Zandleh, Lily Singh, Neel Patel

Starring: Lily Singh, Ana Gasteyer, Stephanie Beatriz, Sabrina Jalees, Mary Holland

Release Date: September 19, 2025

Doin’ It (2025), starring Lily Singh, is a raunchy comedy with heart and a surprising sex-positive message. Read our full review of Sara Zandleh’s film here.

Low Expectations, Big Laughs

I’ll be honest: I went into Doin’ It with incredibly low expectations. I’ve never been a big fan of Lily Singh’s brand of humor. Her YouTube sketches and short-lived late-night show didn’t appeal to me, and I cringed at her awkward attempts to highlight her status as the only woman in late night.

So when I saw she was headlining a new comedy, I braced myself. But here’s the surprise: Doin’ It actually works. It’s not great filmmaking, but it’s consistently funny, surprisingly sex-positive, and buoyed by strong supporting performances. Against the odds, Singh delivers her best screen work yet.

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The Premise: A Virgin Teaching Sex Ed

Singh plays Maya, a recent college graduate still living with her mom—and still a virgin. When she lands a job teaching high school, the irony is that she’s hired to teach sex education. At first, Maya wants to quit, but her best friend Jess (Sabrina Jalees) pushes her to stick with it.

Things get even messier when Maya sparks a flirtation with fellow teacher Trevor Salter while simultaneously navigating awkward encounters with her students, who ask blunt and challenging questions. Her candid, no-nonsense teaching style earns the students’ respect, but uptight administrators, led by principal Ana Gasteyer and rival teacher Mary Holland, aren’t impressed.

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Family Complications and Cultural Clashes

As if school wasn’t complicated enough, Maya is also living with her mother (Sonia Dhillon Tunny), a traditional woman who previously moved Maya back to India after an embarrassing childhood incident. This backstory pays off in a mix of cringe comedy and heart, as Maya struggles to balance her mother’s expectations with her new life as a sex ed teacher.

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Why Doin’ It Works

The movie’s raunchy humor is balanced by refreshing honesty. Singh and her collaborators lean into sex-positive messaging, showing how candid conversations about sex can actually empower students. The comedy may be over the top, but the underlying approach feels surprisingly smart.

Singh brings an awkward authenticity to Maya that makes her more relatable than I expected. In interviews, she’s admitted she used to whisper the word “sex” out of embarrassment—an honesty that shines through in the film.

But the real MVP here is Sabrina Jalees as Jess. Her sharp, off-color observations and openness about her own relationship steal scene after scene. Every great comedy needs a supporting player who elevates the material, and Jalees fills that role perfectly. Also keep an eye on former Brooklyn 99 star, Stephanie Beatriz who steals a few scenes of her own as a lunch lady with a quirky secret life that will be important late in the film. Beatriz is effortlessly funny and wonderfully weird. 

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Final Thoughts

Doin’ It is far from a perfect movie—it’s raunchy, messy, and uneven in places—but it’s also funnier, bolder, and more thoughtful than its premise suggests. Lily Singh may not convert all of her skeptics, but this sex-positive comedy proves she has more range than many gave her credit for.

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Star Rating

3.5 out of 5 stars

Raunchy, sex-positive, and surprisingly heartfelt, Doin’ It is a comedy that works better than you’d expect.

The Cut (2025) Review: Orlando Bloom Endures a Brutal Boxing Horror Hybrid

The Cut

Directed by: Sean Ellis

Written by: Justin Bull

Starring: Orlando Bloom, Catriona Balfe, John Turturro

Release Date: September 5, 2025

Rating: ★½ out of ★★★★☆

The Cut (2025), starring Orlando Bloom, Catriona Balfe, and John Turturro, is a brutal mash-up of boxing drama and horror torture. Does Sean Ellis’s sports-horror hybrid work, or does it collapse under its own weight? Read the full review.

A Boxing Movie That Turns Into a Horror Film

The Cut is one of the strangest sports movies I’ve ever seen. It begins as a boxing drama but morphs into something closer to torture-porn horror. That’s a unique mix of genres I haven’t encountered before, so I’ll give the film points for originality. Unfortunately, that’s just about the only positive point. The movie quickly devolves into a messy, sloppy, and punishing experience. Its brutality overwhelms whatever story Ellis and screenwriter Justin Bull were trying to tell.

Orlando Bloom as “The Boxer”

The film stars Orlando Bloom as a character known only as The Boxer, a former champion whose career ended in disgrace after a devastating cut forced him out of his final match. Four years later, he’s working as an assistant trainer and janitor in his wife Caitlin’s (Catriona Balfe) boxing gym in Ireland. Though his glory days are behind him, The Boxer still dreams of redemption, sneaking in late-night training sessions.

That chance comes with grim irony. When a fighter set for a Las Vegas title bout suddenly dies, the promoter needs a name replacement. He approaches The Boxer with a lucrative offer. The catch? The fight is just two weeks away, and The Boxer needs to shed nearly 30 pounds to make weight—a dangerous, possibly deadly prospect.

The Descent Into Punishment

Caitlin opposes the idea, but when The Boxer insists this is his shot at redemption, she relents—believing he won’t actually make the weight in time. Once they arrive in Las Vegas, however, things spiral into nightmare territory. The Boxer subjects himself to starvation, purging, and extreme dehydration, yet the results aren’t enough.

That’s when a new trainer enters the picture.

John Turturro’s Disturbing Mentor

John Turturro plays Boz, who at first seems like he could become a Mickey-style figure, a tough-love motivator to help The Boxer achieve the impossible. But instead of a Rocky-esque mentor, Boz veers closer to a Jigsaw-like tormentor. He pushes The Boxer onto illegal drugs and forces him through dangerous, torturous sweat sessions that nearly kill him.

What should have been gritty inspiration instead transforms into outright horror. Director Sean Ellis leans heavily on dizzying camerawork, kaleidoscope filters, and flashing lights in an attempt to place us inside The Boxer’s perspective. Instead, the result is nausea-inducing, more obnoxious than immersive. The film soon resembles Saw or Eli Roth’s Hostel more than a boxing drama.

Style Over Substance

The problem isn’t just the camera tricks—it’s the lack of story progression. For long stretches, nothing happens beyond Bloom’s character hallucinating, vomiting, or collapsing. Caitlin, the one character with emotional stakes and forward drive, is sidelined once Turturro appears, leaving us with empty spectacle.

Orlando Bloom deserves credit for his physical transformation and willingness to suffer for the role, but the character has no arc. Catriona Balfe brings warmth in limited screen time, but her story fades into the background. Even the film’s title feels underdeveloped—the “cut” that once ended The Boxer’s career has little connection to the rest of the movie.

Final Verdict

The Cut is billed as a boxing comeback story but instead plays like a punishing endurance test. What could have been a gritty tale of redemption becomes an exercise in excess. Sean Ellis’s stylistic flourishes cannot disguise the film’s lack of depth or momentum.

Despite strong performances from Orlando Bloom and Catriona Balfe, and a menacing turn from John Turturro, the film is hollow at its core. The Cut is original, yes, but originality without purpose only cuts so deep.

Rating: ★½ out of ★★★★☆

31 Days of Horror: The Sad, Disturbing Beauty of May (2003)

May

Directed by: Lucky McKee

Written by: Lucky McKee

Starring: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris

Release Date: February 7, 2003

Lucky McKee’s May (2003) is a haunting, darkly funny, and deeply unsettling portrait of loneliness and obsession. Angela Bettis delivers one of horror’s most heartbreaking performances in this tragic modern cult classic.

****and a half stars 

A Lonely Girl and Her Doll

The pitch meeting for May could have gone something like, “It’s Carrie meets Dahmer.” But a film as wildly original and scabrously horrifying as Maydefies such a simplistic description. This debut from writer-director Lucky McKee is a terrifying portrait of sweet, sensitive madness — a slow-motion descent into horror that’s as emotional as it is grotesque.

Imagine Norman Bates trapped in the body of that painfully shy girl from high school who never talked to anyone, and you’ll get a vague idea of how strangely heartbreaking this film really is.

Angela Bettis plays May, a quiet veterinary assistant whose childhood was defined by isolation. Born with a lazy eye, she spent most of her youth ostracized, forming a disturbingly close bond with a doll her mother gave her — one she keeps sealed behind glass. It’s her only “friend,” until she meets Adam.

Love, Lust, and the Beauty of Body Parts

One day, May notices a handsome mechanic named Adam (Jeremy Sisto). But what fascinates her isn’t his face or his physique — it’s his hands. In a scene both tender and unsettling, May presses her cheek against his hand as he dozes off in a café. Instead of recoiling, Adam is intrigued. “You’re weird,” he tells her, “but I like weird things.” Famous last words.

At work, May’s co-worker Polly (Anna Faris) develops her own fascination with the shy outcast. Faris brings a surprising depth to Polly, a character who could have been pure comic relief or titillation in another horror film. Instead, McKee and Faris make her warm, flirty, and oddly sincere — a small spark of connection in May’s lonely world.

But as May’s relationships deepen, her sense of reality begins to unravel. Her fascination with “perfect parts” — Adam’s hands, Polly’s neck — begins to merge with her childhood obsession with her doll. Love curdles into something unspeakable.

A Horror Story with a Human Heart

May begins as a strange, sad “ugly duckling” story but soon morphs into something far darker. McKee’s screenplay lures you into a character study before turning the knife — literally. The descent from awkward romance to full-blown psychological horror unfolds slowly, allowing the audience to both fear and pity May.

McKee understands what makes horror truly disturbing — not the blood, but the empathy. Like Psycho or Jaws, he leaves much of the violence just off-screen, letting your imagination fill in the horror. And when the film finally reveals its hand (no pun intended), it’s devastating. The final scenes are both grotesque and tragically beautiful, the kind that make you squirm while wanting to look away.

Angela Bettis: Horror’s Most Overlooked Performance

Angela Bettis gives one of the most magnetic horror performances of the 2000s. She makes May fragile, funny, and heartbreakingly human, even as her actions spiral into the unimaginable. Bettis never lets May become a monster — she’s a wounded soul trying to build something beautiful out of all the wrong pieces.

Jeremy Sisto is charming and natural as Adam, a self-proclaimed weirdo who turns out to be far more conventional than he thinks. His fascination with horror movies and his own gory short film are ironic foreshadowing — he can play with darkness, but he can’t live in it.

Anna Faris, best known for her comedic work, surprises in one of her best early roles. Her chemistry with Bettis adds a sexual and emotional complexity that gives May its depth. McKee smartly avoids gratuitousness, focusing instead on May’s emotional unraveling rather than cheap titillation.

A Cult Classic of Compassion and Madness

Lucky McKee’s May is a modern cult classic — a film that’s both horrific and heartbreakingly sad. It’s about what happens when a lonely person reaches out for connection and finds only rejection.

This is a movie that makes you squirm, but it also makes you feel. McKee and Bettis created a character as iconic as Norman Bates — someone so devastatingly damaged that she’s impossible to forget. May is more than a horror movie; it’s a requiem for the lonely, the misunderstood, and the people who just wanted to be seen.

Even my jaded, horror-hardened self found May deeply disturbing — not because of what it shows, but because of what it understands about loneliness. It’s one of the rare horror films that makes you shiver with empathy.

Final Thoughts

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

May is not just scary — it’s sad, strange, and hauntingly human. Lucky McKee crafts a horror story that lingers, a meditation on obsession and alienation that crawls under your skin and refuses to leave.