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...
BOTTOMS Review: Hilarious, Original, Must-See Queer Teen Comedy
Rachel Sennott and Emma Seligman ('Shiva Baby') team up again for a subversive queer teen comedy.
BLUE BEETLE Review: The Family That Superheroes Together Stays Together
It’s taken the better part of two decades for DC’s Blue Beetle, aka Jaime Reyes, to make the belated jump from the comic-book pages to big-screen multiplexes. Created in 2006 by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner, Reyes became...
BIRTH/REBIRTH Review: Bold and Brilliant Frankenstein Story for the 21st Century
Laura Moss directed the horror drama, starring Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, and A.J. Lister. IFC Films releases, only in movie theaters, on Friday.
THE MISTRESS Review: Middling Psychological Thriller Goes Where Too Many Have Gone Before
A major, possibly key plot element in writer-director Greg Pritikin’s middling psychological/supernatural thriller, The Mistress, turns on whether a newly married, LA-based, 30-something couple, Parker (John Magaro) and Madeline (Chasten Harmon), can get a refund on their down payment and/or...
HAUNTED MANSION Review: Second Adaptation of Theme Park-Ride Better Than The First
In another, better universe, this weekend – or possibly any other weekend between 2011 and the present – would have seen the much-anticipated, feature-length debut of Guillermo del Toro’s Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately, a long-gone nameless studio executive nixed del Toro’s...
TALK TO ME Review: From Viral Sensation to Ritual Nerve-Shredding
Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou directed the thriller from Australia, starring Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, and Miranda Otto.
COBWEB Review: Whatever You Do, Don't Listen to the Voices in the Walls
Cobweb, a supernaturally-inflected, psychological horror film from director Samuel Bodin (Marianne), making his feature-length debut, and screenwriter Chris Thomas Devlin (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2022), a 2018 Black List nominee, should be on the “must-see” list of any horror fan, serious,...
OPPENHEIMER Review: Layered, Nuanced Character Study Led by a Brilliant Cillian Murphy
To say, “It’s J. Robert Oppenheimer's world and we just live in it,” might sound facile, glib, or even the punchline to an unfunny, bewildering joke, but it’s as true today as it was on July 16, 1945, the day...
INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR Review: Come for The Further, Stay for the Generational Trauma
Onetime Asutralian college students and longtime friends, James Wan and Leigh Whannell began their careers as filmmakers with a proof-of-concept short that — once fully financed — turned into Saw, a cleverly-plotted, attention-grabbing, gore-soaked horror film that spawned eight sequels...
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE Review: It's Cruise's World, Our Luck to Live In It
Beginning 15 years ago with Valkyrie, a WWII action-thriller centered on the ill-fated, real-life attempt to assassinate Hitler by senior military officers, Academy Award-winning writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) has been in the Tom Cruise business and business, as...
