Jon Negroni
Tomatometer-approved critic
Jon Negroni is an author and film critic based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. He's also the Film Editor for The Young Folks and hosts a weekly movie review podcast called Cinemaholics.
Movies reviews only
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
It's uncanny, amazing, spectacular, take your pick of whatever other superlative. There isn't just one that fully fits the bill. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted May 31, 2023
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The Boogeyman (2023) |
The Boogeyman pulls off serious tension and scare tactics in spite of its derivative elements. Maybe because it’s purposefully drawing from elemental ideas in the first place and executing them well. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted May 25, 2023
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The Little Mermaid (2023) |
Flipping its fins doesn’t get The Little Mermaid too far, but it’s one of the least surface-level Disney live-action remakes in a while. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted May 23, 2023
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Fast X (2023) |
Fast X marks a true first for this saga, in that it actually teases a satisfying exit ramp. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) |
Despite its issues — including a hyperactive third act, groan-worthy humor in spurts, and a few too many indulgent look-cool-for-the-camera moments — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is far and away the best Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 28, 2023
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Beau Is Afraid (2023) |
It aims to illustrate the feeling of being a passive observer in a nightmare-fueled hellscape of an existence. And in that effort, it succeeds. I now know what it’s like to wish I can wake up from a film and forget it ever happened. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Suzume (2022) |
It’s good, but in the way that leaves you wishing for something spectacular. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 13, 2023
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) |
Here’s a film about activism that doesn’t cut corners or try to be likable. It’s not trying to appeal to people who don’t care, but rather the people who know they should. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 12, 2023
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Showing Up (2022) |
It takes imperfect people to make beautiful things, perhaps because the most beautiful things are easier to appreciate and connect to when they’re imperfect. The same applies to family. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 07, 2023
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) |
Nintendo and Illumination as a duo are less like Mario and Luigi and more like Mario and his accountant. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Apr 04, 2023
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Air (2023) |
It’s easy to view Air as another Moneyball. Another King Richard. Another layup of a four-quadrant movie that uses underdog storytelling in the low-stakes world of sports that at least feels high stakes. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves deftly manages to roll a 20 where it counts the most. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Mar 23, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
If not for the final, glorious hour of Chapter 4, we would be well within our rights to declare the John Wick franchise dead and buried. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
If only they had just focused on making an Ant-Man movie. Not a redux of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by way of Rick and Morty and now wanted by the police for plagiarizing Ralph McQuarrie. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Feb 14, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
Who's there? Shyamalan at his worst. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Feb 01, 2023
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Magazine Dreams (2023) |
What drives men to violent behavior? Magazine Dreams chooses an "all the above" sort of answer. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Jan 24, 2023
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A Man Called Otto (2022) |
Repurposing this story into a Pittsburgh-set retread starring Tom Hanks when the original does the job well enough is just one of many relics of the past that Otto and his semi-titular film share. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Jan 04, 2023
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White Noise (2022) |
You get the sense that partway through filming, even Baumbach must've realized that this wasn't quite working for some magical, mystical, unexplainable reason. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Dec 29, 2022
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
It’s a prototypical mystery about the prototypical mystery, and that’s not exactly clever when simply laid out plain. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
The Way of Water is yet another leap forward in big screen spectacle, this time with even more feeling. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Dec 13, 2022
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The Whale (2022) |
'The Whale' is its own parody, a rejection of all the lessons society should've learned over the last decade about what happens when you give every reactionary forum avatar a megaphone and call it connection. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Dec 07, 2022
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Violent Night (2022) |
Santa’s a hero to many of us growing up, so seeing him be a hero in this extremely violent context is pretty much a Christmas miracle. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Dec 01, 2022
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Strange World (2022) |
It isn’t extremely good in any respect, nor is it ever extremely bad. It’s popcorn. It wants to be popcorn. At least it isn’t bland popcorn. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Nov 21, 2022
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
The Banshees of Inisherin strips all romance and romanticism from its time, place, and characters. It’s pure isolation and the anxiety of platonic loss. Anxieties, by the way, that few films tend to spend so much time addressing. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Nov 09, 2022
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One Piece Film Red (2022) |
A film doesn’t need to be all things to all people in order to be worth anyone’s time, thank Goda. But there is something to be said about what movies like this are really for. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Nov 08, 2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) |
Many who find themselves somewhat bored with the recent glut of Marvel content have good enough reason to step back into the circle for another round with Coogler and his amazing friends. - InBetweenDrafts
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| Posted Nov 08, 2022
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Till (2022) |
A clear example of how films should represent stories this sensitive and important. Not with an intent to somehow trick audiences into thinking we've moved past all this. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Oct 14, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
Tár is one of those rare films about a specific art that just about anyone watching it can embrace, even if they have no connection or previous knowledge of the art itself beyond a vague familiarity. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Oct 08, 2022
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Nope (2022) |
Some films preach societal morality packaged within stomach-expanding veneers of hollow goodness, and then there’s Nope. There’s Don’t Look Up and Jurassic World, and then there’s Nope. - The Spool
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| Posted Jul 20, 2022
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Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) |
It’ll toss plenty of lore at the audience but never demand much in the way of thinking. We all get to be Thor for about two hours, essentially. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Jul 07, 2022
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Elvis (2022) |
At 159 minutes, it would be almost redundant to point out that Elvis is an indulgent piece of work... - The Young Folks
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| Posted Jul 01, 2022
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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) |
In some ways, Marcel is a soft satire of documentary filmmaking, particularly the often heralded "fly on the wall" approach where directors treat their distant subjects as just that. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Jun 24, 2022
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Jurassic World Dominion (2022) |
After 'Jurassic World Dominion,' we might just be racing toward the extinction of the Jurassic Park franchise. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Jun 08, 2022
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Ambulance (2022) |
Its remarkable how Bay continues to double down on his mission to make movies that say the least possible. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Apr 08, 2022
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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) |
Probably the nicest thing you can say about Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is that its even truer to the whacky, zippy, and obviously breezily adventurous video games than the first film. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Apr 04, 2022
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X (2022) |
Fans of horror, 70s films, and 70s horror films have more than good enough reason to check out X for exactly whats being promised. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Mar 18, 2022
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Turning Red (2022) |
It wont make you feel deep, existential sadness the way Pixar is knownor memedfor, but is there such a thing as deep, existential laughter? If so, heres that. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Mar 09, 2022
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The Batman (2022) |
The Batman is really just a series of well-made, nice-to-look at vignettes that just barely connect to each other or lead into each other with the energy and propulsion audiences crave from big-budget action spectacle movies at this level. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Feb 28, 2022
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Uncharted (2022) |
...its a wonderfully unassuming, unpretentious blockbuster adventure with swashbuckling action, inventive set pieces, emotional character growth, and light-hearted quips that make the whole journey easy to sit through, let alone play through. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Feb 16, 2022
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I Want You Back (2022) |
I Want You Back will probably have curious viewers wanting to come back for seconds and maybe even thirds come this Valentine's Day and the next. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Feb 11, 2022
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Death on the Nile (2022) |
Death on the Nile has its fair share of stakes and emotional development for Poirot, more-so than any other character in this sequel, which is a big reason why the film doesnt sink under its own weight. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Feb 10, 2022
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Moonfall (2022) |
It's pure nonsense with a dash of sci-fi gibberish added to justify anything witnessed onscreen. But even though it's the end of the world, the characters are having a total blast, so it's easy for the audience to have ridiculous fun, too. - Inverse
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| Posted Feb 03, 2022
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Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) |
Much can and should be made about the warm performances, foot-tapping needle drops, and generally affirming attention to these characters overall. But the true heart of the film is the tender bond between Andrew and David. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Jan 25, 2022
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After Yang (2021) |
For Kogonada to pluck at not just the brain but the heart in such equal measure is a balancing act few other directors can boast right now. - The Young Folks
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| Posted Jan 21, 2022
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Scream (2022) |
It's not as clever a sequel in some respects as its predecessors, but it does succeed in navigating the current trends of horror in ways that serve its razor sharp story. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Jan 12, 2022
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The 355 (2022) |
The 355 is far from great or worthwhile, but if it were a Netflix film, it would probably be in their Top 10 for at least three weeks, then rarely ever talked about again. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Jan 07, 2022
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The Matrix Resurrections (2021) |
It's nowhere near as innovative and generational as its forefather, but there's something disarming and affectionate about how hard it tries not to be. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Dec 21, 2021
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The Lost Daughter (2021) |
A crushing, honest drama about the cruelties of motherhood. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Dec 18, 2021
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Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) |
Spider-Man: No Way Home should be the worst Spider-Man movie ever made, yet it's somehow one of the best - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Dec 15, 2021
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The King's Man (2021) |
It's a film crammed with good starts to good ideas, only for them to end abruptly or go in directions that don't feel inevitable or thought through to their fullest potential. - Cinemaholics
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| Posted Dec 14, 2021
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