NAPOLEON Review: Ridley Scott's Engrossing, Enthralling Anti-Epic
Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby and director Ridley Scott star.
WISH Review: Disney's Love Letter to 100 Years of Disney History
To celebrate its well-earned 100th anniversary, the Walt Disney Animation Studios (hereinafter "Disney Studios") turned over its latest animation effort, Wish, to one of their veteran, in-house A-teams, Frozen co-director Chris Buck (Surf’s Up, Tarzan) and co-writer Jennifer Lee (Zootopia, Wreck-It...
IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE Review: A Slasher For the Holidays
The Hallmark Channel has turned the holiday season – specifically, the months-long Christmas season – into an incredibly lucrative all-year affair. Numbers-wise, Lifetime Channel isn’t too far behind. Both rely on formulaic plots, inexpensive, fungible talent on both sides of...
RADICAL Review: Sometimes Superheroes Don't Wear Capes, They Teach Instead
Based on Joshua Davis’s 2013 article for Wired, “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses,” Radical, a stirring, poignant drama co-written and adapted by Christopher Zalla (Blood of My Blood), literally and figuratively revolves around Jose Urbina Lopez...
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S Review: Too Much Trauma Drama, Not Enough Horror
Elevated or not, on-screen or off, trauma and the horror genre (and vice versa) have been practically synonymous for the better part of the last decade, if not longer. But tip the scales too far in one direction (i.e., trauma)...
THE HOLDOVERS Review: Paul Giamatti Shines in Award-Worthy Comedy-Drama
In Alexander Payne’s (Nebraska, The Descendants, Election) The Holdovers, his first film since the perplexingly underwhelming Downsizing six years ago, the liminal state between semesters at an elite, private educational institution, the fictional Barton Academy in New England, proves incredibly ripe...
DIVINITY Review: Lo-Fi Sci-Fi Packed with Fascinating, Intriguing Ideas
Scott Bakula and Steven Dorff star; Eddie Alcazar directed.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER Review: Mike Flanagan Ends His Partnership With Netflix On A High Note
Mike Flanagan’s (The Midnight Club, Midnight Mass, Gerald's Game) The Fall of the House of Usher, like his four previous ones, is a supernatural horror series influenced and inspired by classic works of horror: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill...
Sitges 2023 Review: LAST STRAW, Taut Diner-Invasion Neo-Noir Thrills, But Doesn't Chill
The first feature-length film from writer Taylor Sardoni and director Alan Scott Neal, Last Straw answers a seemingly simple, if rarely asked, question: When is a home-invasion thriller not a home-invasion thriller? The answer is just as simple, if also...
Fantastic Fest 2023 Review: TOTALLY KILLER, '80s Slasher Meets BACK TO THE FUTURE
Meeting your mother when you’re both teens can screw seriously with your head (e.g., the Back to the Future trilogy). Meeting your mom as a teen when there’s a serial killer targeting your teen mom and her circle of friends,...
MAMI WATA Review: A Singularly Enthralling Experience
Directed by CJ "Fiery" Obasi, the Nigerian film stars Rita Edochie, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Evelyne Ily Juhen, and Emeka Amakeze.
FAIR PLAY Review: Love Is a Corporate Battlefield
Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich star in the highly-charged drama, written and directed by Chloe Domont.
Fantastic Fest 2023 Review: V/H/S/85, Mixtape Horror Anthology Improves on Its Predecessors
Over the last decade, six standalone entries, two unlikely spinoffs, and even a limited series, the V/H/S anthology series has functioned as an efficient delivery system for period-specific horror, extra-gnarly, gory kills, and nightmare-inducing imagery. The series has also served...
THE CREATOR Review: Gareth Edwards Returns with Poignant Sci-Fi Parable
John David Washington and Gemma Chan star in the science-fiction action-adventure.
EXPEND4BLES Review: Belated Fourth Entry in the Franchise Disappoints, Underwhelms
What started more than a decade ago as a way for multi-hyphenate Sylvester Stallone to chill out with his movie-star buddies, make a low-effort, if still bankable, action flick, and collect a paycheck at the same time (i.e., The Expendables)...
DUMB MONEY Review: The GameStop Short Squeeze of 2021 Gets Its Own Movie
Director Craig Gillespie's newest biographical comedy-drama stars Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D'Onofrio and Seth Rogen.
EL CONDE Review: Pablo Larraín's Anti-Pinochet Satire Soars On Its Vampiric Metaphor
For Chileans, September 11th has an entirely different meaning than it does for Americans. For the latter, September 11th refers to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the nearly 3,000 lives lost. For...
A HAUNTING IN VENICE Review: Branagh Delivers Triumphant Third Poirot Adaptation
Over the last decade, actor, screenwriter, and director Kenneth Branagh (Belfast, Hamlet, Henry V) has shifted his attention from kickstarting one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most popular superheroes, Thor, to attempting to reboot the late Tom Clancy’s most famous...
THE NUN II Review: The Dark One Returns
With a cool $2.1 billion (US) take across a series spanning a decade, eight entries, and a rate of investment that would make any studio envious, the so-called Conjuring Universe shows little, if any, sign of slowing down, let alone...
THE EQUALIZER 3 Review: Denzel Washington Elevates Uneven, Middling Entry
Moments into the inelegantly titled The Equalizer 3, the trilogy capper that reunites director Antoine Fuqua (Emancipation, The Magnificent Seven, Training Day), and screenwriter Richard Wenk (The Equalizer and The Equalizer 2), with two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, two men...
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