Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

Leigh Monson

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Leigh Monson is technically a licensed attorney but somehow thinks movies are a lot more fun. Leigh loves both award darlings and hilariously bad films, does not believe in superhero movie fatigue, and calls it like they see it.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Colors Within (2024) 92% B EDIT “The Colors Within may be uneven in how it explores its characters’ individually, but the poignancy it achieves with them collectively is astounding. In the face of such a wave of emotion, it’s hard not to sit back and soak in the colors.” – AV Club Jan 20, 2025 Full Review Unstoppable (2024) 77% C+ EDIT “It’s commendable to avoid further clichés with regard to the portrayal of physical difference in film, but 'Unstoppable' fails to pin down what exactly should take their place.” – AV Club Jan 14, 2025 Full Review Transformers One (2024) 89% B- EDIT “The rarity of a franchise film that seems principally concerned with appealing to a new generation is more in line with the legacy of the original series than any film that has come since.” – AV Club Sep 12, 2024 Full Review AfrAId (2024) 25% D- EDIT “As much as we may wish to call this a monstrosity of artificial intelligence, its failures are unmistakably human.” – AV Club Aug 30, 2024 Full Review The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat (2024) 66% C+ EDIT “'The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat' is better served as a companion to the novel than a standalone experience. Earl’s may give you all you can eat, but eating too much too fast is a recipe for indigestion.” – AV Club Aug 8, 2024 Full Review Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024) 27% C EDIT “'Harold And The Purple Crayon' doesn’t quite provoke the blues that one might expect from such a crass-sounding adaptation, but neither does it paint the town red with its modest ambitions. We’re left mixed, as purple as the crayon.” – AV Club Aug 2, 2024 Full Review My Spy: The Eternal City (2024) 23% D+ EDIT “Perhaps four years between films was simply too much for a fledgling attempt at franchising, but My Spy: The Eternal City bears all the hallmarks of a sequel with nowhere to go and nothing on its mind.” – AV Club Jul 17, 2024 Full Review Despicable Me 4 (2024) 55% D+ EDIT “There’s nothing intrinsically offensive about a film with low stakes, minimal plotting, or even comedy for the blandest sensibilities. But when a film is all of those things, one has to wonder what we’re even doing here.” – AV Club Jul 2, 2024 Full Review 20,000 Species of Bees (2023) 93% B EDIT “Despite its limitations, 20,000 Species of Bees is crafted from a place of empathy so often lacking in conversations about trans childhood.” – AV Club Jun 10, 2024 Full Review The Garfield Movie (2024) 36% C- EDIT “As long as there’s another excuse to slap Garfield on another t-shirt, let’s keep the train rolling with a new generation of fans. When brand perpetuation is as soulless and milquetoast as this, it seems unlikely that it will create any new fans at all.” – AV Club May 21, 2024 Full Review I Saw the TV Glow (2024) 85% 6.5/10 EDIT “A transgender filmmaker laying bare these specific emotions for a general audience to empathize with is undoubtedly a cause for celebration. It’s just hard to escape the nagging feeling that we could be celebrating something more substantial.” – Paste Magazine May 10, 2024 Full Review The People's Joker (2022) 96% B+ EDIT “The People’s Joker is a chimera built of conflicts and contradictions, but so are we all. Our jigsaw assemblage of human experiences is universally messy, and if there’s one thing Drew seems to be telling us, we should be relishing those paradoxes.” – AV Club Apr 2, 2024 Full Review Arthur the King (2024) 70% C- EDIT “The draw here should be experiencing a story, seeing characters overcoming adversity, and watching them build a bond with an adorable pupper. Yet Arthur The King demonstrates incompetence at doing all three. Only one thing to say to that: Woof.” – AV Club Mar 13, 2024 Full Review Lisa Frankenstein (2024) 52% A- EDIT “This film could have easily come out in 1989 and been heralded amongst its contemporaries, but we’re lucky enough to have the 2024 version, performed by a very game cast who deliver what is likely to be one of the funniest films of the year.” – AV Club Feb 7, 2024 Full Review Fitting In (2023) 96% B EDIT “It’s a compelling journey through an unconventional adolescence, but it’s also not a completely foreign depiction of young adulthood, particularly for those who have a complicated relationship with their gender and sexuality.” – AV Club Jan 29, 2024 Full Review Mean Girls (2024) 68% C+ EDIT “The songs and the performances thereof have been packaged in such a way that they are now more accessible than ever. Yet the film that inspired them has been reduced to a hollow shell in which to carry them, like so much plastic meant to be thrown away.” – AV Club Jan 10, 2024 Full Review Poor Things (2023) 92% A EDIT “'Poor Things' is such a rare combination of talented collaborators working in perfect concert that it’s hard to consider the film anything short of masterful.” – AV Club Dec 6, 2023 Full Review The Marvels (2023) 63% C EDIT “There’s a light, breezy romp buried in here, begging to be let out from under the pressure of being a tentpole event film.” – AV Club Nov 8, 2023 Full Review Rustin (2023) 83% B- EDIT “Bayard Rustin deserves to be remembered for the entirety of his being, both as an activist and as an openly gay Black man in a time when it was criminal. As much as 'Rustin' attempts to balance both, it carries the former better than the latter.” – AV Club Nov 2, 2023 Full Review The Exorcist: Believer (2023) 22% D EDIT “An exorcism movie may not need to be compelled by the power of Christ, but something about it still needs to be compelling, and slapping the name 'The Exorcist' on a screenplay that reads like a brainstorming session is just not enough.” – AV Club Oct 4, 2023 Full Review Strays (2023) 54% C+ EDIT “It’s a breezy, inconsequential film that will drip from the wrinkles of your brain like slobber from a chew toy. It’s just hard not to shake the feeling that there should have been a hilarious squeaker hidden amongst all the mildly amusing fluff.” – AV Club Aug 17, 2023 Full Review Insidious: The Red Door (2023) 39% C- EDIT “'The Red Door' makes a vague gesture in the direction of emotional resonance, but it can’t figure out what to do with its allegory beyond what’s been done more successfully elsewhere, flimsily mimicking Ari Aster with all the conviction of Neil LaBute.” – AV Club Jul 7, 2023 Full Review Joy Ride (2023) 90% B+ EDIT “'Joy Ride' is a real blast, offering its sentimentality as a garnish to a road trip that emphasizes the sex in sex positivity.” – AV Club Jul 6, 2023 Full Review The Boogeyman (2023) 60% B EDIT “'The Boogeyman' is the rare 98-minute film that feels like it needed further tightening to rein in its dramatic dalliances, but it’s also a film that hits hard when it decides to unleash its beast.” – AV Club May 26, 2023 Full Review The Little Mermaid (2023) 67% C+ EDIT “Its most iconic moments are borrowed and copied wholesale, serving as little more than a reminder of simpler days watching clamshell VHS tapes released from the Disney Vault. Maybe that’s enough for some people. But maybe, like Ariel, we should want more.” – AV Club May 22, 2023 Full Review
No Reviews Yet
Load More