Gretel & Hansel (2020)
(On Cable TV, October 2020) Big shrug on Gretel & Hansel—I can go either way on style-over-substance films, but on this one I’m going the way of the thumbs down: Exactingly directed by Osgood Perkins to come up with striking visuals, it’s a film that, ultimately, doesn’t have much to say: languidly paced to the point of stark boredom, it feels like a pretentious attempt to replicate The Witch without even bothering to understand what it is that people liked in that film. I suppose that the visuals save it from complete failure, but it’s still thin and unimpressive gruel in matters of substance—let along entertainment, which this film doesn’t really care about.