Reviews
THE ORDER Review: Extremely Standard, Extremely Well Done
Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and Jurnee Smollet star; Justin Kurzel directs.
4K Review: Criterion's GODZILLA Release Reigns
Our friends at Criterion have always been huge Godzilla supporters. They’ve got tons of titles for sale and streaming on their channel (there are more than 30 sequels!), so it’s no surprise that they recently released the film that started...
PARIS HAS FALLEN Review: Staking Out Fresh New Thriller Territory
Tewfik Jallab, Ritu Arya, and epitome of evil Sean Harris star in the limited series, debuting in the U.S. on the Hulu streaming service.
HEAVIER TRIP Review: Impaled Rektum's Sophomore Odyssey Is Worth The Trip
Impaled Rektum, the world’s foremost symphonic postapocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal band is back with a headbang in Heavier Trip, Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren’s follow up to their 2018 underdog cult classic Heavy Trip. This time...
London Fantastic 2024 Review: THE KILLER GOLDFISH
This last week London International Fantastic Film Festival kicked off its inaugural edition with Tsutsumi Yukihiko genre mashup extravaganza, The Kiler Goldfish. The filmmaker, perhaps best known for his intense tale of neighborly discord 2LDK, has expanded his scope with...
MOANA 2 Review: Stellar Animation, Wobbly Storytelling, Middling Outcome
Repurposed from a limited series initially intended for Disney’s streaming platform, Moana 2, an eight-years-in-the-making sequel, arrives in movie theaters with the usual expectations associated with big-screen Disney fare: vividly realized, sometimes stellar animation, relatively well-drawn, well-rounded, arc-driven characters, and...
Camerimage 2024 Review: RUST, Haunted By Death
Alec Baldwin, Travis Fimmel, Frances Fisher, Josh Hopkins, and Patrick Mcdermott star in Joel Souza's film, marred by cinematographer Halyna Hutchins's tragic death during production.
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG Review: Bold and Decidedly Unsubtle
Mohammad Rasoulof's film 'grapples with mistrust and paranoia' in Iran.
QUEER Review: Respectable Adaptation, Rife With Self-Loathing
Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Lesley Manville star in Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of William S. Burroughs' semi-autobiography.
RITA Review: Horrific Dark Fantasy That Inspires and Infuriates
Jayro Bustamante's ('La Llorona') magical-realist thriller is now streaming on Shudder.
FLOW Review: The Brave Little Cat in a Brave New World
Gints Zilbalodis' animated film is Latvia's official selection for the 97th Academy Awards®️
Best International Feature.
GLADIATOR II Review: Ridley Scott Returns to Imperial Rome With Mixed Results
After more than two decades in development limbo, countless rejected drafts permanently memory-holed to studio vaults, and near endless studio dawdling, Ridley Scott (Napoleon, Blade Runner, Alien) seemingly inexhaustible even as his 87th birthday quickly approaches, makes a triumphant return...
NEVER LOOK AWAY Review: A Dangerously Extraordinary Life
Journalism is in crisis; in part due to people now getting their news from social media, in part due to the web forcing many newspapers and television outlets to publish their work for free; in part due to people not...
DRAG ME TO HELL 4K Review: Mad, Visceral Storytelling
Sam Raimi’s 2009 return to horror after the 1992 Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell, is from a more innocent time. Just like ye old E.C. Comics and Tales From the Darkside, Drag Me to Hell is a morality...
RED ONE Review: Short on Christmas Cheer, Long on Holiday Schmear
If there was a Guinness World Record for the most jacked-up Santa in a big-budget, Hollywood-financed, holiday-themed action-comedy, Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) would win hands down and biceps curled for his committed portrayal of Father Christmas (aka, St. Nick,...
Now Streaming: THE DAY OF THE JACKAL Feels Like a Week
Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, and Ursula Corbero star in a series inspired by Frederick Forsyth's suspense novel.
DOC NYC 2024 Review: UNION, A Film That Won't Be Streaming on Amazon
In a world of plutocracy, the working-class struggle is not a left or right issue.
GHOST CAT ANZU Review: Jaws Will Drop
To the sounds of cicadas during a Tokyo summer, 11-year-old Karin and her father Tetsuya leave the city by train to visit a countryside temple where the caretaker is the grandfather she has never met. It is a grand old...
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Review: A Major Work of Contemporary Indian Cinema
Payal Kapadia's soul-stirring docudrama, A Night of Knowing Nothing, delicately weaved together India's national politics, student protest movement, cinema, and its nostalgia in 2021. Her follow-up narrative film, All We Imagine as Light, proves that she is one of the...
HIPPO Review: Uncomfortable Laughs, Ludicrous Characters, and Much More
An unusual family lives an unusual life in Mark H. Rapaport’s Hippo, one of the stranger films that has played at the Fantasia Film Festival. Rapaport drops us into a suburban dystopic home where society’s rules don’t seem to apply,...
