Reviews
SNOW WHITE Review: Disney's Latest Live-Action Remake Delivers Frustratingly Uneven Results
Disney’s latest exercise in brand management and IP (intellectual property) extension, Snow White, arrives in theaters clouded by unwanted controversy. A combination of factors ignited the controversy, initiated by relentless reactionary, regressive "fans" regarding Rachel Zegler's (The Hunger Games: The...
Berlinale 2025 Review BLUE MOON: Lyricist Lorenz Hart at a Crossroads
Richard Linklater's new film follows lyricist Lorenz Hart as he tries to salvage his career. Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott star.
Cinequest 2025 Review: I'M NOT AN ACTOR, A Long Distance Drama Unfolds
A man and a woman audition for a film; he from Frankfurt, Germany, her from Mumbai, India. He is a banker, she is a serious actor, but the only way they get the job is by working together over a...
Cinequest 2025 Review: VOICES CARRY, Grim Generational Trauma Thriller
If countless genre films have taught us anything, returning to a lake house where you spent your childhood and where some troubling events may have occurred is never a good idea. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Sam (Gia Crovatin) and her...
THE FISHBOWL Review: Freedom, Fate, and Family Collide
The history of Puerto Rico is the history of colonialism. The history of Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, is the history of American imperialism. During World War II, the United States forcibly expropriated most of the...
HOOD WITCH Review: Run For Your Life
Golshifteh Farahani stars in Saïd Belktibia's searing thriller.
THE ASSESSMENT Review: So You Want Children?
Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Himesh Patel, Charlotte Ritchie, and Minnie Driver star in director Fleur Fortuné's savage science-fiction parable.
JAILBREAK Review: Martial Arts Mayhem, Behind Bars
Directed by Jimmy Henderson, the Cambodian thriller stars Celine Tran, Laurent Plancel, Tharoth Sm, Jean-Paul Ly, and Dara Our.
GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE Roars Onto 4K UHD from Criterion
Tempted to pay out the nose for a used Blu-ray from Echo Bridge? Don't! Criterion has you covered with a much, much cheaper option that looks much, much better too.
THE ALTO KNIGHTS Review: Comfortable Sleep Aid for Mob Movie Lovers
The opening of The Alto Knights is wildly disorienting and, frankly, embarrassing. Viewers are placed in gangster Frank Costello's (Robert De Niro) point of view as he's shot, overwhelming the screen with double exposures, aggressive Dutch angles, and rapid cuts...
BEING MARIA Review: Rebuking Unchecked Sexism in Film Industry
Jessica Palud's film is a scathing rebuke to unchecked sexism that dominated the film industry for too long, and a well-deserved portrayal of trailblazing actress/activist.
SXSW 2025 Review: BROTHER VERSES BROTHER, A Live Cinema Musical With A Huge Heart
Twin brothers roam the streets of San Francisco in search of their AWOL father in Ari Gold’s blissfully introspective live cinema musical, Brother Verses Brother. The fact that Brother Verses Brother recently added Francis Ford Coppola to its credit block...
AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD Review: Investigating Doomsday
Directors Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto dig into the origins and evolution of a group that committed the poison gas attack in Japan in 1995.
THIEF 4K Review: Bank Vaults and Coffee Shops
Michael Mann explodes out of the gate with his debut feature, setting up decades of inquiry into the mindsets of professional criminals.
A WOMAN OF PARIS Blu-ray Review: Charlie Chaplin's First Drama A Hidden Gem
Charlie Chaplin remains one of the most important and talented legends of the silver screen, one of the few performers who made a smooth transition from silent film to talkies, one who wore his anti-fascist politics on his sleeve and...
SXSW 2025 Review: ODYSSEY, A Super Tense Thriller With A Bloody Edge
Natasha Flynn (Polly Maberly) is a hustler. She runs an estate agency, selling and leasing properties all over London. Working from a flashy office with a cadre of hungry employees, on the verge of a profitable merger with a bigger...
SXSW 2025 Review: GLORIOUS SUMMER, Three Women Seek Freedom From Their Gilded Cage
Three women exist in an abandoned castle, bound by rules and rituals disseminated by disembodied voices, unburdened by want, but trapped in a dystopian wonderland they cannot leave in directors Helena Ganjalyan and Bartosz Szpak’s Glorious Summer. An ennui laden...
SXSW 2025 Review: NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE, Matt & Jay Go Back to the Future!
A pair of lovable losers come up with a series of ridiculous schemes to get their band a gig at Toronto’s legendary nightclub, The Rivoli in Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. A feature...
CONTROL FREAK Review: Kelly Marie Tran Elevates Psychological Horror
Eight years ago, toxic Star Wars fans almost derailed Kelly Marie Tran’s career, whining non-stop on social media about her character in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, ultimately forcing her to quit social media altogether. And while that completely...
SXSW 2025 Review: THE SURRENDER, A Mother Attempts to Save Her Husband From Death Through Black Magic
Megan returns home after a long time away to support her mother, Barbara, as her father enters his dying days in writer/director Julia Max’s black magic horror film, The Surrender. Barbara’s (Kate Burton) husband has been ill for a very...
