Maximus is dead, but never underestimate a Hollywood studio seeking to capitalize on its IP. Ridley Scott returns to direct Gladiator II, a swords-and-sandals action-adventure that echoes in eternity when men are being impaled by spears or gored by slave-rhinos but flails when it gets bogged down in political scheming and debauchery. It may not
Movies
One of the wildest and unpredictable dramas of the year, Emilia Pérez is a highly entertaining piece of filmmaking–but your mileage will vary based on a multitude of factors. To set the stage, both my girlfriend and I went into this Netflix prestige film all but blind: I knew it was a serious Oscar contender
Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant—if Hugh Grant were a charming psychopath—in Heretic, an absorbing, chilling horror-thriller where the journey is more rewarding than the destination. Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) play two Mormon missionaries who arrive at a seemingly innocuous house in hopes of converting its inhabitants—and instead find themselves locked
A zombie movie unlike any other, MadS goes inside the heads of the infected, presenting a frightening vision of isolation and insanity—all captured in one continuous shot. MadS begins with a young, well-off man on drugs driving to a party—but who first stops to pick up a bandaged and bloodied women who proceeds to bite
So this is what happens when your most anticipated movie of award season turns out to be… just ok? Anora, riding a wave of unfair Oscar buzz, is unfortunately not the Best Picture-level flick it has been chalked up to be—though it still delivers plenty of laughs and chaos along the way. To be clear,
There’s a simple truth in life: I don’t like animated movies and TV shows made for adults. No matter how good the animation, compelling the story, or well executed the final product, animated adult-themes stories start at a disadvantage and rarely win me over. Memoir of a Snail is no exception, despite its obvious positives.
I didn’t particularly like the original Terrifer. Terrifier 2 was a bit better, with more of a plot and the introduction of stellar Final Girl Sienna, played by talented and attractive Lauren LaVera, but it still was a lot of gory violence without much purpose. Terrifier 3 demonstrates another positive evolution of director Damien Leone’s
There may be no movie released in 2024 with a more on-the-nose and absolutely dull title as Exhibiting Forgiveness, but make no mistake: the emotional drama is a nearly unrivaled acting showcase. André Holland is incredible, as is John Earl Jelks and the rest of the cast deserve serious award attention. The movie itself, from
There’s something special about Ralph Fiennes. I can’t quite place it–I’ll leave it to more eloquent and deep-thinking film critics to figure that out–but the dude can command a scene like few other actors can. He can be quiet, even passive, and yet the way his piercing eyes shift around the room, his lips purse,
Taylor Swift is terrorized by a smile demon in Smile 2, a suspenseful and scary thriller that sends its protagonist to the edge of insanity. Well crafted, cleverly scored, and satisfyingly gruesome, Smile 2 is a solid sequel from returning director Parker Finn. Naomi Scott (Aladdin) gives a terrific performance as a famous pop singer
A dude gets hit by a car and meets the girl of his dreams—but he’s not her #1 priority—in the emotionally resonant We Live in Time. Andrew Garfield gives a powerful performance as Andrew Garfield while Florence Pugh delivers another riveting one, playing a focused and determined chef who won’t let anything stand in her
A young Donald Trump’s moral compass goes awry as he aspires for more in the drama The Apprentice, a surprisingly entertaining movie that simultaneously humanizes the former U.S. president while depicting his descent into full-blown narcissistic asshole-ness. The Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan, immerses himself in the role, looking and playing the part well while
In The Outrun, Saoirse Ronan has fun drinking and partying—never mind that she is a severe alcoholic and addict. Based on a memoir that is most likely a fascinating read, The Outrun is a perfectly fine and perfectly forgettable examination of trauma and overcoming troubled pasts. Ronan is one of my favorite actresses, and one
A helpful robot pisses off thousands of animals, kills a family of geese and “adopts” it’s only survivor, and succumbs to the whispers of a wily fox in The Wild Robot, a pretty and immersive animated tale about creatures defying their “natural programming” to build a better world. Armed with a morbid if underused sense
Pretty much every great actor succumbs to it at some point: the straightforward biopic where they are the best thing in it. Kate Winslet plays photographer Lee Miller in Lee, which documents her rise to fame as she straddles the front lines of World War II. Directed by Ellen Kuras, Lee is a nice-looking if
Samara Weaving plays a game of hide and seek in the relentless Azrael, where the Ready or Not actress exchanges eluding her murderous in-laws for murderous religious fanatics and zombies. The results are mixed. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where most people don’t speak, very few words are spoken in Azrael. We’re introduced to the
As I write this review, surely there are other film critics out there–you know the type, the ones who think a little too hard about films and find magic where others don’t–who are actively psychoanalyzing Francis Ford Coppola’s expensive passion project Megalopolis, examining its deep themes, contrarian style, and unconventional storytelling. I am not one
Demi Moore learns a hard lesson–that you shouldn’t inject strange, green substances into your body–in The Substance, one of the wildest, boldest, and twisted movies of the year. Moore and co-star Margaret Qualley deliver impressively immersive performances in this body horror film like none other. It deserves to be seen, even if it ultimately sags
A unique coming-of-age dramedy that appears to star Aubrey Plaza but doesn’t actually star Aubrey Plaza, My Old Ass is about an 18-year-old who encounters her 39-year-old self and begins a journey of self discovery. From writer/director Megan Park, the filmmaker behind the excellent and sadly overlooked drama The Fallout (which made my Top 10
In Didi, a 13-year-old Taiwenese-American boy tries to find his way, navigating his first crush, attempting to figure out who he’s going to be, what culture he’ll belong to, and what “friends” will make him the coolest. One of the better coming-of-age dramas I’ve seen in quite some time, Didi is a sensational piece of
A young Optimus Prime—before he went by the name Optimus Prime, he was known as Bob—rallies his friends to battle corrupt forces on his home planet in the animated action movie Transformers One. Notably absent of any human characters, Transformers One of course puts the Autobots—and Bob—front and center, a refreshing change from the Michael
Viggo Mortensen writes and directs The Dead Don’t Hurt, a western about a dude who falls in love, gets laid, and then foolishly decides to high tail it to fight in the American Civil War. When he returns, he discovers things have changed. Polar opposite to this summer’s other western—Kevin Costner’s sprawling, epic-ish, messy, and
The American version of Speak No Evil is better than the original. Ok, I just said that to catch the attention of the 1% of people who saw the bleak and brilliant Dutch thriller. But… is that first statement so farfetched? The Dutch flick—released just two years ago—is one of the most unsettling and uncomfortable
A nostalgic sequel that delivers the ghouly goods while not entirely repeating the same batty beats, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fun, funny trip down memory lane—even if Tim Burton can’t entirely capture the same maggoty magic. It would have been very easy for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to be a disaster—it’s a 35-year-late sequel to one of
Big Yorgos fan here. And I have to say… Kinds of Kindness is… just okay? The great news: a “just okay” Yorgos Lanthimos movie is still more intriguing, clever, and twisted than your average “just okay” movie. Consisting of three different stories—none of which are good enough to warrant their own standalone movie, sadly enough—Kinds
Soaked in style and drenched in fervor, Blink Twice is an auspicious directorial debut for Zoe Kravitz. Tense, unsettling, and ultimately f**ked up, it’s easily one of the most entertaining suspense thrillers of the year. Naomi Ackie stars as Frida, who along with her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) is on a whim invited to join
The problem with making a sequel to the outback-set crime thriller The Dry is that if you decide to set it in the rainforest, you’re forced to come up with a stupid title like Force of Nature: The Dry 2. And here we are. I was a huge fan of the 2020 original–in fact, I
Color me orange, but… hell, do anything to me other than make me watch The Garfield Movie again. The Chris Pratt-voiced animated movie is a slog of a kid’s movie, a tedious, unfunny piece of bland filmmaking so dull that even my five-year old was squirming in her seat and later declared, “That movie felt
Who doesn’t love an uplifting and heartwarming children’s movie about death and grief? John Krasinski’s IF is a surprisingly good family film that I enjoyed and my five-year-old loved. So much so that we are already watching it again. IF begins with the main character’s mom dying of cancer and—cut several years later—her dad also
In space, no one can hear you scream. In the theater, you may hear screams of joy because after many attempts, we finally have another legit Alien movie. Alien: Romulus, from Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe and 2013’s Evil Dead), returns to the franchise’s roots with a claustrophobic and lean-to-the-bone thriller, a shift away from Ridley