Tag: Studio Film Review
The Substance | Review
Woman of Substance: Fargeat Rejuvenates Body Horror with Pulpy Parable
To borrow a succinct phrase from Beyonce, ‘pretty hurts,’ a sentiment quivering through Coraline Fargeat’s...
Kraven the Hunter | Review
Snack Attack: Kraven The Hunter Is More Empty Calorie Superhero Slop
The existential fear among creatives is that one day, artificial intelligence will become so...
Gladiator II | Review
Eternity and a Day: Scott Rehashes the Dying Embers of an Empire
“The movie doesn’t have to be great; it can be stupid and empty...
Joker: Folie à Deux | Review
Joke’s On Us: Phillips Composes an Empty, Boring Spectacle
Kudos to Todd Phillips for forcing US audiences to be confronted with the intriguing subtitle...
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Review
Juice Cocktail: Burton Revamps His First Demon
There’s no way to reproduce the imaginative awe of Tim Burton’s 1988 idiosyncratic goth YA classic Beetlejuice. Or,...
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | Review
Woman Thou Art Loosed: Miller Wades into the Wasteland
In all likelihood, George Miller presumably will be closing out his filmography the same way it...
Ferrari | Review
I Got a Fast Car: Mann Gets Glossy with Longstanding Labor of Love
For his first theatrical release in eight years and his second biopic...
Killers of the Flower Moon | Review
The Moon in the Gutter: Scorsese Tackles the Osage Nation Murders
Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated adaption of David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction publication Killers of the...
Oppenheimer | Review
Bombs Away: How Christopher Nolan Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb
For his highly anticipated twelfth feature, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan returns to the annals of...
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | Review
Dead Again: McQuarrie Cruises Into the Eye of AI
For his seventh revolution around the sun as the indefatigable IMF agent Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise...
Air | Review
Sole Surfer: Affleck Revisits Impetus of Landmark Shoe Line
It’s difficult to ascertain where Ben Affleck’s storytelling interests lie even as he’s slowly but surely...
Boston Strangler | Review
Thank You for Choking: Ruskin Explores the Sordid Politics Behind Infamous Serial Killing Case
The tribulations of femininity in the fourth estate anchors Boston Strangler,...
Babylon [Video Review]
Something to Talkie About: Chazelle Swings Hard with Homage to Hollywood’s Unruly Infancy
If there’s a film deserving of the Leone-esque moniker Once Upon a...
The Pale Blue Eye | Review
Poe Boy: Cooper Fails to Find the Exquisite Beauty in Eerie, Dreary Period Mystery
You’ll certainly be reduced to the mindset of the weak and...
The Fabelmans | Review
All the Camera Allows: Spielberg Revisits Childhood in Semi-Autobiographical Portrait
Evident in many of the titles from his iconic filmography, whether science fiction, adventure or...
Don’t Worry Darling | Review
Die, Die, My Darling: Wilde Makes Utopia a Dirty Word in Sinister Thriller
“There’s beauty in control” affirms a suave Svengali at the center...
Fall (2022) | Review
Why Fall to Pieces?: Mann Mines Survival Formula for Anxiety Laden B-Movie
From the depths below to the heavens above, there’s no place safe for...
Nope | Review
Goodbye, Horses: Peele Elevates Creature Feature in Nostalgia Tinged Horror
Jordan Peele continues his distinctive mixture of mainstream aesthetics and unconventional tangential elements with his...
Jurassic World Dominion | Review
This World Is Not Enough: Trevorrow Goes Through the Motions in Extinction Level Event
It’s neither the first nor the last time a toxic commingling...
Top Gun: Maverick | Review
Take My Guilt Away: Kosinski Avoids Cruise Control in Enjoyable Action Sequel
Against all odds, especially considering how unnecessary a sequel seems to be...
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Review
All About Steve: Raimi Returns with Pandering Franchise Fodder
While Marvel may have bombarded us into cultural submission through mainstream audience infatuation and growing critical...
Memory | Review
Still Liam: Campbell Eclipsed by the Neeson Blueprint in Middling Thriller
Now over a decade into the perennial routine of a yearly (sometimes quarterly) B-grade...
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent | Review
The Cage Bird Sings: Gormican Gifts Nic Cage Meta Fan Fiction in Jaunty Caper
Not since Spike Jonze’s send-up of John Malkovich’s pomposity in Being...
The Northman | Review
Whisper Tales of Gore: Eggers Burns Trail to Valhalla in Viking Epic
In keeping with the time-hoary notion of revenge being a dish best served...
Ambulance | Review
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Bays Busts the Panic Button in Rambunctious Heist Remake
For a director who cut his teeth in music videos, Michael...
All the Old Knives | Review
The Worst Cut is the Deepest: Metz Revels in Tasty Romantic Thriller
Emerging somewhere between the thorny love pacts of Graham Greene and the surefire...
The Bubble | Review
The Exterminating Sound Stage: Apatow Skewers Hollywood’s Pandemic Age in Moderately Amusing Satire
Straddling a blurry line between satirizing Hollywood’s franchise cupidity and a queasy...
The Contractor | Review
Harper Does It Better: Saleh Taps Pine for Pluralistic Espionage
“It’s much easier to kill, but it’s harder to survive,” is the most useful line...
The Lost City | Review
The Jungle Lewk: The Brothers Nee Conjure Expected Charm in Casual Comedy
For their third feature, brothers Aaron and Adam Nee concoct something of studio...
Umma | Review
Sorry to Mother You: Shim Takes Familiar Conceits to Logical Conclusions with Innocuous Debut
From Aronofsky to Roger Michell, from Pearl S. Buck to Georges...
Deep Water | Review
An Affair to Dismember: Lyne Returns to Remind Us of the Adult in Adultery
“The love story is never the whole story,” is a fitting...
The Batman | Review
Gotham, Open City: Reeves Reconstitutes an Anti-Hero in Moody Reboot
Who would have ever predicted in the fifty-plus years since Adam West first donned the...
Being the Ricardos [Video Review]
Producers: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch.
Executive producers: Jenna Block, Stuart Besser, David Bloomfield, Lauren Lohman, Lucie Arnaz, Desi Arnaz Jr.
Director: Aaron Sorkin.
Screenplay: Aaron...
Nightmare Alley [Video Review]
Guillermo Del Toro's latest might not feel like a major departure from his general reputation as a creature-centric creator type, but there is a...
The Unforgivable [Video Review]
Healing the emotional wounds in the present day from the missteps of the past is part of the taxing bliss found in Nora Fingscheidt's...
Don’t Look Up [Video Review]
When an astroid is on a flight path to annihilate the human species, neither the cooler heads or those in positions in power prevail....
West Side Story [Video Review]
Definitely not a copy and paste job but there is indeed an air of familiarity that moves beyond the creative casting of actress Rita...
Licorice Pizza [Video Review]
Age is just a number but when you're a teen at footsteps of what are unattainable gates to adulthood it could feel like entire...
House of Gucci [Video Review]
One of rare breed of studio directors who effectively captures pageantry and opulence no matter the epoque the narrative is set in, social...
The Harder They Fall [Video Review]
Zest of the West: Samuels’ Western Soap Opera Long on Style, Short on Substance
In a film which plays as both recuperation and revisionism,...
Dune | Review
Spice Up Your Life: Villeneuve Embarks with Somber Take on the Sci-Fi Classic
The journey of Dune to the big screen has been an arduous...
Needle in a Timestack | Review
Stye of the Needle: Ridley Can’t Thread Conceptual Sci-Fi
Time travel is tricky, especially when trying to effectively demonstrate its parameters and ramifications in narrative...
Halloween Kills | Review
Boogeyman Nights: Green Overextends Himself in the Myers Saga
There is truth in having too much of a good thing, or, rather, adhering to the...
Venom: Let There Be Carnage | Review
How to Lose Friends & Alien Ate People: Serkis Navigates Odd Bedfellows in Routine Sequel
Though perhaps a novel choice for helming Marvel sequel...
No Time to Die | Review
A Time to Love & a Time to Spy: Fukunaga Lays Craig to Rest in Bond Bacchanalian
It all comes full circle, or at least...
Dear Evan Hansen | Review
Letter from an Unknown Human: Chbosky Hits False Note with Musical Adaptation
Now navigating its third medium following the publication of Steven Levenson’s novel and...
Candyman [Video Review]
Sweet Heat: DaCosta Resurrects a Darkness in Spiritual Sequel
Back in 1991, Bernard Rose’s Candyman rose to prominence as one of the few mainstream American...
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It [Video Review]
Satan’s Cheerleaders: Chaves Dowses Shallow Waters in Spiritless Witch Hunt
As we continue to plunder the mixed-up files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the infamous...
Cruella [Video Review]
Cruella Intentions: Gillespie Recuperates Another Villainess in Perky Origin Story
Those familiar with a particular period of pseudo-morbid live-action Disney productions from the 1970s and...
A Quiet Place Part II [Video Review]
Islands in the Stream: Krasinski Doesn’t Disappoint with Long Awaited Genre Sequel
There’s something intrinsically inviting about the grueling survival odyssey of the Abbott family,...
