[EXPRESSO] Sacrifice (2025) | Beer On The Sun

After debutting September 2025 at the Telluride Film Festival (to arguably very little acclaim), Sacrifice, the latest film from director Romain Gavrais (Athena) hit theathers here, to also very little fanfare or much in the way of marketing, despite having indeed an all stars cast of recognizable Hollywood actors

The premise sees a film star, Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), try to make a come back by partecipating in a gala full of powerful people, influencers and the likes, takin place in a old cave-temple situated in a Greek island , with the idea of promoting an enviromental positive message, only for a group of pagan cult terrorists (their young leader played by Anna Taylor Joy) that believe a nearby volcano will erupt, causing an extinction level event, and that the only way to advert that and save humanity requires sacrificing three people.

Mike inadvertedly gets imbroiled into their plans, thinking that this is some sort of performance or that he can get away with it, or captivated because he almost shares the same ideals.

Sacrifice is an interesting idea for a ecosatire drama-comedy about the performative lies of the elite that swears this time he won’t rape the Earth for profit, of “greenwashing” and so on, but after a very good first half that has you intrigued in where the plot’s gonna go… the answer is sadly up its own arse, really, just plodding towards its own premise without really doing nothing of substance with it, as it’s all mostly an exercise in stylistical mixture that doesn’t work out, as it lacks actual political commentary, doesn’t actually develops its own themes, and just feel empty.

It’s not exactly “boring” but i won’t lie, this is a movie held together mostly due to its great performances, though not for lack of trying.

[EXPRESSO] Red One (2024) | Christmas In Wakanda Pole

The Rock is back, as Santa’s bodyguard in Red One, which comes out in mid-November because fuck it, you’re already thinking of Christmas anyway.

One Red goes for the “Santa Is Real” school of phylosophy, but actually adds something as Santa is real and powerful as the legend says, as true as the various mythical creatures related to his figures, often working for/with him in a hidden Wakanda-esque city-factory, where they prepare all year so on Christmas they can actually deliver children worlwide their gifts in one night, using magic and top-tier technology to be unseen and unheard. This time however a legendary hacker manages to find a flaw in their security, which leads to a mysterious figure kidnapping ol’ Nick.

So its up to The Rock (as Santa’s grand general) to find out who’s responsible, alongside the same hacker that unknowingly helped kidnap Santa, and a gauntlet thingie that gives him bootleg Ant Man powers, because why not, it makes for some fun (albeit not original) ideas and visuals.

As expected, this is yet another one of those that could simply be called “The Rock/Dwayne Johnson movies”, as it features everything you’d associate with the actor and his filmography, so it has monsters, fantasy stuff, action, comedy, The Rock having “legal plot armor”, all in a family friendly package, even more as this one it’s a christmas film, so JK Simmons can’t reprimand Mark Grayson or insult Peter Parker.

The final battle is a bit of an anticlimactic cop-out, but overall, this one of the better ones as of late, far from turds like Black Adam but also definitely above middling and completely forgettable stuff like Red Notice, there’s definitely a bit more creativity and energy to be found in it, making for a decently entertaining action-comedy-fantasy Christmas romp.

[EXPRESSO] Knives Out (2019) | Ye Ol’ Murder Mistery

Knives Out 2019 poster.jpg

The short of it: it’s quite good, as you’ve probably already heard said by many others, and i do recommend you check it out in theathers.

The plot concerns the death of successful novelist Halan Thrombey on the day after his 85th birthday, celebrated with family and guests the night before. Assisting the police in unraveling the situation is famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who surveys the interrogatories of the numerous Thrombey family members, scrutinizing possible motives and alibis, as everyone could have gained something, and the already complex family affairs are complicated further when Blanc has the intuition of Martha, Halan’s young nursemaid, being at the center of it all…

Here we have Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) taking on the typical mistery murder format and – as you probably heard elsewhere – doing a “table flip” on the narrative structure and flow you expect from a murder mistery movie, but without being a pointless exercise in subvertion for it’s own sake, as it is still a murder mistery about a dead patriarch and his vile, grubby offsprings, after all, with a sense of humour (like the bit where they see a spanish dubbed Murder, She Wrote episode), an amazing ensemble cast of famous actors, and a tight script that plays well with expectations, and even if you get what’s it gonna go for, it’s still intriguing see the mistery unraveled knot by knot.

And, as a “plus”, it’s quite fun, well paced, and doesn’t stretch things out more than it needs. It’s not the movie of the year, but being just quite good is more than enough, and there’s very little else to say without going into spoilers.

So i’m just gonna share this unrelated thought: hope the new Black Christmas remake is any good.

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