LATEST FILM REVIEWS
Colony Review: The Next Evolution of the Zombie Film
South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho doesn’t just make zombie films, but they’re the part of his filmography that has made the biggest international impact. His debut feature, Train to Busan, and its animated prequel, Seoul Station, and live-action sequel, Peninsula, established his reputation as a horror director. Now he’s returned to the genre with Colony,…
Idiots Review: The Curse and Comedy of Self-Deception
“Are you familiar with the philosophy that everyone, everywhere is always doing the best that they are able to in that given moment?” If seemingly irredeemable but ultimately harmless scumbag Mark (Dave Franco) is right when he muses this thought to a motel manager, then he’s in real trouble because his best is not that…
Coyote vs. Acme Review: When Cartoons Take Corporations to Court
Between their hilarious debut in 1949’s “Fast and Furry-ous” and the end of their golden era run in 1966 with “Sugar and Spies,” Warner Bros. released 40 animated shorts featuring the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. That the modern incarnation of the studio famously tried to bury their first feature-length collaboration, Coyote vs. Acme,…
It Ends Review: The Road to Nowhere May Lead to Enlightenment
There’s a Zen koan about a monk, hanging off a cliffside on a vine being chewed by mice, with a tiger above him and one below. In the middle of this peril, he sees a wild strawberry, plucks it, eats it, and announces to no one in particular, “Ah, how sweet!” Like all koans, it’s…
Late Fame Review: The Old Guy’s Still Got It
Given Coyote vs. Acme’s tortured history (that Warner Bros. Discovery anvil drop) and Late Fame’s winding festival flight path, it’s unlikely the two films’ shared screenwriter, Samy Burch (May December) anticipated them both arriving in movie theatres at the same time. Could you get much further apart in terms of tone and content? Maybe not,…
The Dog Stars Review: The End of the World, Again
The most generic post-apocalyptic plotline imaginable can be boiled down to “isolated hero leaves his fortress of solitude, sets off in search of some magical place where the old world survives, and discovers that the real civilization is the friends he made along the way.” The Dogs Stars, director Ridley Scott’s film of the 2012…
Romería Review: Surfacing the Past
Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón’s Romería opens on the ocean, shot grainily on a lo-def camcorder, with a woman’s voiceover describing the different temperaments of the water. The footage is captured by the film’s protagonist Marina in the year 2004, and the words are from her mother’s 1980s diary – adapted from real-life letters written by…
The Magic Faraway Tree Review: The Family That Adventures Together…
Kids on both sides of the pond already went nuts for the Paddington pictures and Wonka, both sourced from beloved British children’s books. With The Magic Faraway Tree, writer and performer Simon Farnaby (The Mighty Boosh, Ghosts) tries his hand at a third British children’s lit classic. Based on an Enid Blyton series first launched…
Insidious: Out of the Further Review: Time to Close the Door
Imagine a Halloween haunted house. The first year you go, everything is new and exciting and every scare is fresh. The second year is fun in a different way, as you kind of know what’s going to happen but this time you can look for what’s new and appreciate the experience a little more. Now…
Nimrods Review: American Idiots on the Road
Nimrods is a classic road trip comedy in that it’s pretty clear that the central characters are chasing a delusional dream. In this case, it’s high school punk trio Analog Dogs honestly believing that Green Day would invite them to drive from Kansas City to Los Angeles to open for them on New Year’s Eve.…
Tony Review: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Lout
Tony, the biographical study of the young Anthony Bourdain, begins with a quote from the legendary chef, author, and traveler about himself as a teen, and it’s far from complimentary. Even if the film inevitably takes such narrative shortcuts and indulges a few ahistorical lapses as are seemingly requisite for the biopic format, Bourdain would…
The Rivals of Amziah King Review: Voice of the Beehive
Every kind of farming takes a different mentality. Crops need constant attention. Pigs will turn on you in a second. But if your crop is honey, it’s all about patience. Can’t make the flowers bloom, can’t make the bees fly. Maybe that’s why the few films about apiarists demand a lead performance that’s both burly…
The Wrong Girls Review: Stoners Save the World
If you mix together giant squids, weed-enhanced ESP, and Danish henchmen, you get this summer’s delightful stoner comedy The Wrong Girls. This directorial debut from screenwriter Dylan Meyer (XOXO, Moxie) stars Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as two best friends, strapped for cash and always high, who find themselves at the center of a government…
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Review: It’s a Scream
There’s a very important piece of representation in director Jane Schoenbrun’s latest feature, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. I’m not talking about the queer romance at the film’s heart, or the trans killer of the film’s fictional slasher series. No, the moment this reviewer personally felt most seen by the movie was when…
The End of Oak Street Review: Nostalgia Is a Trap
The End of Oak Street – or Temu Jurassic Park II, as it should probably be known – is a film out of time. Apt, since that’s the fate of its time-displaced residents of one Midwestern neighborhood, who find themselves displaced to the era of the dinosaurs. In some random unnamed suburb of Detroit in…
Cookie Queens Review: Youthful Exuberance Meets Late-Stage Capitalism
If there’s a damning indictment of the state of American late-stage capitalism, it’s within the first two minutes of Girl Scout Cookies documentary Cookie Queens. Twelve-year-old Olive is briefing her bored and confused fellow troop members on the ways of cookie selling. The hero of this scene is an adorable curly-haired moppet who, when quizzed…
The Samurai and the Prisoner Review: Mystery and Revelation in Feudal Japan
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of re-enforcements from lord Mōri Terumoto, the rebellion of Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki) against the barbarous warlord Nobunaga Oda (Bando Shingo) was doomed. In 1578, inside the walls of the impregnable Arioka Castle, Murashige knows it is all over. He’ll never say it: not…
Ice Cream Man Review: Summer Bummer
There was a brief moment of hope for Eli Roth as a filmmaker. In 2018, the gorehound director made his first foray into kid-friendly territory with the charming The House With a Clock in its Walls, and three years later experimented with documentaries with shark advocacy piece Fin. But his urges won out and back…
One Night Only Review: This Is Fine?
Technology ruined the romantic comedy. No way would the benign plot complications of the original screwballs fly these days. Crossed wires, missed connections – none of that happens when everybody’s got a phone in their pocket, a Google alert on their name, and seven different kinds of social media accounts. So modern rom-com screenwriters must…
Sheep in the Box Review: Digital Cuckoo in an Empty Nest
It used to be that a stork delivered babies. In Hirokazu Kore-eda’s near-future science fiction family drama, Sheep in the Box, it’s more likely to be a flying drone. At least, that’s what delivers an advertising hologram from REbirth to the Kotomes, Otone (Haruka Ayase) and Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto). A happily married couple in the…
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Review: Solid Ground
When a character has been in constant publication for 64 years, there will be times when you’ll like the writing, and times you won’t. Take Spider-Man. My least favorite runs have tended to be the mythology-heavy ones, with all the clones and mystic spider spirits. I prefer the arcs from the early-to-late Eighties, centered around…
Motor City Review: Speak Softly and Kick Ass
Hey Academy voters. I have some names for you. Remember how the production design team made you feel like you were in the cinematic Los Angeles of 1969 when you were watching Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood? Well, production designer Mayne Berke, art director Rick Dennis, costume designer Amy Roth, and set decorator…
Her Private Hell Review: Lost in the Mist
When Nicolas Winding Refn is at his best, there’s no director like him. Quite literally. Films like Bronson, Only God Forgives, Drive, the Pusher trilogy, even Neon Demon, a magazine perfume insert come to life, there’s no point at which his work can be confused with any other director. The same cannot be said of…
Due West Review: A Very Modern Western
For all its ancient skylines and sun-battered roadside signs that haven’t seen a lick of paint since LBJ was in office, Due West is a film of modern West Texas. The kind of West Texas where, if you don’t know someone’s face, then you’ll know their car, because everyone’s keeping the same old beater on…
Rose of Nevada Review: At Sea With an Inescapable Past
Avant-garde filmmaker Mark Jenkin’s latest is a curio – strange and beguiling, a conversation piece – and a curiosity, its mysteries resisting clear resolution. The story of a ship that docks in a Cornish fishing village 30 years after it went missing, Rose of Nevada bobs between objet d’art and – due to its technical…
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