Wanna see an unglamorous spy movie, or a nuts and bolts depiction of a resistance movement, or how's about a historically accurate film that still has room for some rad gunfights? Anthropoid is here to answer those needs. Director Sean Ellis has had a much more varied career then most filmmakers you can name, and this is only his fourth film, but it takes the grit from his crime drama Metro Manila, the unblinking approach to violence and the tension of his horror flick The Broken, and the keen photographic eye he's had for all his films to this one. Honestly, it could have stood to be longer, as the world it builds and the characters it depicts (Czech resistance during WWII) are under explored territory, and the performances for the most part are pretty good (sometimes a bit thin, but very often there's just not much character to play). So yeah, strong but conventional, with the occasional artistic touch that generally works out.
and Lights Out is a perfectly cromulent horror movie. Its extreme brevity and its visual inventiveness work in its favor. Its also got a nice twist on the 'haunted family' genre, in that this time its the kids who are being supernaturally menaced by the afflicted parent. Shame it mucks up its allegory, but at least its trying something (The Babadook did mental issues as a literal monster way better). But still, if more PG-13 horror flicks were this good, well, I'd go see more of them.
