Film Reviews

Grade: B The subject of the pandemic is still a tricky one to tackle, given that partisan dipshittery and weaponized misinformation means it’s still very much going strong. While this seemingly unending pandemic continues to rage in pockets of the U.S. and over the world, there have been some interesting meditations on it that succeeded […]

Rating: C- Somewhere in the 100-minute run time of Lamb is perfectly great 30-minute short. The film, which had its premiere earlier this year as part of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, is no doubt a film with imagination to spare. However, imagination and premise do not a film make. […]

Rating: C- The gulf between intention and execution is often vast and unfathomable. There are a lot of great ideas in Mayday, the ethereal feature debut from writer/director Karen Cinorre, ideas that, in a vacuum, would make for an intriguing and engrossing film experience. Undoubtedly the film is wrapped in a compelling mystery, and it’s […]

This ‘Soprano’s Story’ feels like something Paulie might leave in the pishadoo.

Rating: A- It’s difficult not to view any movie about the ethics of robotics outside of an Isaac Asimov lens. His short stories and novels theorizing and pondering about the implications of robots on humanity are more than just formative; they’re defining. So much of what we think about when we think about robots has […]

Grade B+ Whenever you sit down for a movie starring Nicolas Cage, particularly one made during his steadily intensifying baroque period, there’s always a chance you’ll see a testicle explode. An outside chance, mind you, but still a much greater chance than one would expect from a movie where he doesn’t get top billing. Okay, […]

Rating: B- If Small Engine Repair had been made decades ago, it’s likely it would be revered as a cult classic today. Written, directed by, and starring John Pollono, based on his play of the same name, it’s a film told on the smallest of scales, with a story that plays out in the pauses […]

The Alpinist shows that humanity can reach great heights, literally and figuratively, if we dream big enough.

Marvel doesn’t reinvent any forumulas, but Shang-Chi is still an awesome addition to the assembly.

Rating: B The nature of folklore is change. That’s the first (and, really, only) rule that should be understood when going into Candyman, director Nia DaCosta’s sequel to/reboot of the 1992 classic. The stories we tell each other evolve from region to region, generation to generation, teller to teller. Whether it happened to your uncle […]

John Cena and Lil Rel Howery elevate a stale script into something almost charming.

Director David Lowery adapts one of the weirder, and best, Arthurian stories.

A familiar story with perfect execution, CODA never fails to charm.

Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks pen a beguiling and beautiful opera.

Writer/director James Gunn taps into the limitless potential of ‘The Suicide Squad’

The debut feature from Edson Oda is a powerful reminder of what life means.

Rating: B+ The arthouse crime thriller has had something of a renaissance in recent years thanks to the efforts of the directing team of Josh and Benny Safdie. Their work brought the genre out of the arthouse and into the mainstream with Good Time and Uncut Gems, proving that heady caper flicks can find wider […]

It’s nothing new, but it sure is fun.

The Blu-Ray release of A Quiet Place II is a lot like the film itself–inconsequential.

Rating: A- The line between stardom and artist is a difficult one to walk within the Hollywood system. Val Kilmer always felt like an actor torn between the two disparate worlds of movies. Coming up around the same time as his Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise, Kilmer always walked a different path. Where Cruise chose […]