Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age film soars and stumbles Perhaps no director has more of a monopoly on childhood than Steven Spielberg, whose family-focused output in the 80s and early 90s is wallpapered on the interior of every Millennial brain. Now the … Continue reading ‘The Fabelmans’ Review: Impersistence of Vision

This petulant and mean-spirited foodie satire is undercooked The setup for The Menu is pulled straight from an Agatha Christie whodunnit, but there is little mystery in this undercooked and mean-spirited satirical horror from producer Adam McKay. A group of … Continue reading ‘The Menu’ Review: Reservations are Required

The studio behind Wolfwalkers returns with another gentle, beautifully-animated gem I’ve been re-watching classic Disney animated features, and all of the early films begin with the opening of a storybook, as if what you are about to see is a … Continue reading Review: Enter a Storybook World in ‘My Father’s Dragon’

James Gray’s turgid coming-of-age drama is well-meaning but self-indulgent  There’s only one true moment of greatness in James Gray’s turgid coming-of-age drama Armageddon Time, and it’s carried off by who else but Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins plays the grandfather of protagonist … Continue reading Review: In ‘Armageddon Time’, All of This Has Happened Before

Cate Blanchett gives her all in Todd Field’s unflinching character portrait The first time we see Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) in the film that bears her name she is psyching herself up for a live Q&A. When she arrives on … Continue reading Review: Separating the ‘Tár’ From the Artist

The Korean auteur trades his signature maximalism for Hitchcockian smolder  The latest from master maximalist Park Chan-wook may surprise fans weaned on the explosive violence and graphic sex of The Handmaiden and Oldboy. While those films tapped into the exploitative … Continue reading Review: Park Chan-wook Reaches New Heights with ‘Decision to Leave’

The final film in David Gordon Green’s lopsided trilogy desperately wants to be anything but a Halloween movie Halloween Ends is the middle finger on the monkey’s paw that is success in modern Hollywood. In 2018 David Gordon Green and … Continue reading Review: Michael Myers Gets Jokerfied in ‘Halloween Ends’

The latest Hulu original is a worthy reboot of horror’s kinkiest franchise The Hellraiser series has always been the dark horse of horror franchises: too baroque for a popcorn-munching slasher and too trashy to be taken seriously by the mainstream, … Continue reading Review: ‘Hellraiser’ Hits the Nail On the Head

Netflix’s faux Marilyn Monroe biopic is little more than sadistic fanfic I’d call Andrew Dominik’s new Marilyn Monroe quasi-biopic Blonde salacious trash, but that would be an insult to trash. Trash at least has the virtue of being fun, but … Continue reading ‘Blonde’ Review: Some Like It Not

Peter Dinklage is a triple threat in this touching and tragic musical romance The lovely and entrancing new musical Cyrano owes as much to Shakespeare as to its original author Edmond Rostand. The fingerprints of Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film adaptation … Continue reading Cyrano Review: No Nose is Good News

Kristen Stewart stars in a hallucinatory horror film about the dehumanizing effects of tradition. For many of us, the upcoming holiday season is tinged with a sense of dread. As much as the holidays are a time of joy and … Continue reading Spencer Review: Ghosts of Christmas Past

The first half of the sci-fi epic is beautifully realized but frustratingly lopsided. Update: Warner Bros. has officially greenlit Dune: Part Two The more new films I see that serve as individual entries in a multi-film saga, the more awed … Continue reading Dune: Part One Review: Spice Spice Baby

Despite some gnarly violence, the third second Halloween movie is a dull, fan servicing mess. Full disclosure, I haven’t seen the first Halloween. I mean, I’ve seen the first first Halloween, but not the third first Halloween. Or the second … Continue reading Halloween Kills Review: Less Talk, More Stabbing

Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson navigate toxic relationships in this off-kilter superhero rom-com Remember those weird-concept romantic comedies from the 80s? You know, the ones where a guy falls in love with a mannequin possessed by the soul of an … Continue reading Venom: Let There Be Carnage Review: Tentacle Difficulties

Everything is exactly as it seems in this mundane road trip western. There’s a comforting simplicity to the world depicted in Cry Macho. Men are strong and stoic, women are either virtuous or temptresses, cities are dens of sin and … Continue reading Cry Macho Review: Clint Eastwood Serves Up Macho Cheese

The cards never quite form a winning hand in Paul Schrader’s bleak horror noir. How much are we responsible for our own actions? To what extent is the path of our lives forged by chance or by choice? And when … Continue reading Review: Oscar Isaac Tries to Control the Game in The Card Counter

Nia DaCosta’s sequel to the 1992 horror classic falls into the very trap it attempts to critique. Sometimes I wonder if the success of Get Out did more harm than good for Black filmmakers. Suddenly you had a rush of … Continue reading Review: Candyman Looks Sweet But Lacks Sting

The director’s ode to comic book nonsense is violent, absurd, and refreshingly cinematic. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but comic books are ridiculous nonsense. They’re full of mutant freaks and interdimensional monsters who only stop punching … Continue reading Review: Obstacles are Opportunities in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad

If Woodstock was the heart of the 60s, the Harlem Cultural Festival was its soul.  Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary concert film Woodstock is widely considered the definitive cultural document of the 1960s. Yet the audience and performers in attendance during … Continue reading Review: Summer of Soul Celebrates the Sound of a Revolution

The long-awaited Summer gateway movie is inventive and charming, if a bit hollow.  Here it is, just shy of one year since its original June 2020 premiere date, the musical movie event to launch you into Hot Girl Summer 2021. … Continue reading Review: In the Heights is a slightly watery Summer treat