|
|
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics
(2021)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
It hammers home how the creation of each of these deeply personal, heartfelt comics was also a powerful political act challenging the publishing status quo and pushing readers to grapple with the realities of a rapidly changing and more inclusive society.
Posted Nov 20, 2023
|
|
|
The Marvels
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
The Marvels definitely stumbles with a few important elements like its early pacing. But the risks The Marvels takes succeed far more often than they backfire, which is exactly the sort of promising energy the larger franchise has been lacking lately.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
|
|
|
Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
With Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese sets out to shine a harsh light on that horrific aspect of the US’s all-too-recent history and illustrate how it’s very much part of this country’s living legacy, and succeeds.
Posted Oct 25, 2023
|
|
|
Perfect Days
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Perfect Days doesn’t suffer from a Western gaze necessarily, but the film feels scrubbed of any grit or grime — sanitized of the textures that give a movie depth.
Posted Oct 11, 2023
|
|
|
Priscilla
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Her take on Priscilla Presley, wife of one of the most famous musicians of his century, is [Sofia] Coppola playing a familiar tune — but one that's getting a little old.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
|
|
|
The Zone of Interest
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Very few films of the past decade have been this haunting or sobering.
Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
Anatomy of a Fall
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Fall is clever, cutting, and nimble, a mystery that relies not on sleight of hand but on cruel honesty.
Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
Blue Giant
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
... You’re best off approaching Blue Giant as a musical. It rewards any listener with a big heart and open ears, ready to be moved by the beat.
Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Considering its dramatic title (predictably, a misnomer), this is a remarkably quiet movie.
Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
Totally Killer
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
Totally Killer really understands the space it’s working in and has a lot of fun twisting — and slashing — that framework to its own devious ends.
Posted Oct 09, 2023
|
|
|
Hit Man
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Hit Man is a familiar movie that just succeeds at every beat, with a touch of charm and a hint of inventiveness.
Posted Oct 04, 2023
|
|
|
In Water
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
Hong makes the type of thing that every streamer and algorithm is allergic to.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
|
|
|
In Our Day
(2023)
|
Kevin Nguyen
|
In Our Day is good stuff if you’re a Hong fan, though probably not enough here to convert a hater.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
|
|
|
Fingernails
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
It’s sweet and funny and occasionally grotesque — the rare romantic comedy that might make you wince.
Posted Oct 02, 2023
|
|
|
The Creator
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Despite having the look of robust action / adventure and impressive set pieces to spare, The Creator feels like it has very little to say outside of rehashing a handful of the man versus killer (but maybe friend) robot genre’s bigger tropes.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
|
|
|
No One Will Save You
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
No One Will Save You is a delightful surprise, and it comes just in time for spooky season. It’s a tight, focused thriller with a unique concept...
Posted Sep 25, 2023
|
|
|
Dumb Money
(2023)
|
Elizabeth Lopatto
|
We have a financial Love Actually, minus the charm and reinforcing one of the dumbest portrayals of the GameStonk debacle: like, the proles totally took down the hedge funds, maaaaan.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
|
|
|
Blue Beetle
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
By the time Blue Beetle’s end credits start rolling ahead of a pretty predictable mid-credits teaser, there’s a solid chance you’ll find yourself thinking that it would have been more memorable had Warner Bros. not taken so long to get it into theaters.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
|
|
|
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Everything about Mutant Mayhem’s quippy sense of humor, its sketchy visual language, and its focus on the Turtles’ obsession with the surface is meant to remind you that they’re goofy kids whom actual children are meant to be able to relate to.
Posted Aug 03, 2023
|
|
|
They Cloned Tyrone
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Director Juel Taylor’s debut feature is a slick and stylish celebration of the Blaxploitation genre and the Black culture that gave birth to it.
Posted Jul 27, 2023
|
|
|
Oppenheimer
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Oppenheimer is so prone to bouncing around that it often feels like Nolan shot far too much footage and cherry-picked moments that felt impactful to him rather than the ones necessary to set off a narrative chain reaction resulting in a cohesive movie.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
|
|
|
Barbie
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is often good and sometimes great, but it always feels like it’s fighting to be itself rather than the movie Warner Bros. and Mattel Films want.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
|
|
|
The Boy and the Heron
(2023)
|
Alicia Haddick
|
No less impressive, but a piece of the past carried on the shoulders of those who built it, tossed into the world more to remember what we lost than to build upon what we have today.
Posted Jul 18, 2023
|
|
|
Biosphere
(2022)
|
Andrew Webster
|
Biosphere doesn’t quite stick the landing — it tries to end on an open question, but it’s just a little too vague — but the journey there is well worth watching.
Posted Jul 03, 2023
|
|
|
Asteroid City
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Wes Anderson’s inclination to put style before substance is what keeps his latest from being the truly thought-provoking piece of cinematic art it wants to be.
Posted Jun 15, 2023
|
|
|
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Paramount’s new Transformers barely capitalizes on Beast Wars’ Maximals, but the action-packed movie has a couple of surprises sure to please a certain kind of fan, namely: anyone who’s just trying to see some robots turn into some cars and / or animals
Posted Jun 08, 2023
|
|
|
The Flash
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
While the core conceit of Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Flash is solid, the movie’s too-meta nostalgia plays highlight everything that has gone awry with the studio’s superhero movie experiment.
Posted Jun 06, 2023
|
|
|
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Rather than using Miles to celebrate Marvel’s 60-year-old Spider-Man mythos the way Into the Spider-Verse did, Across the Spider-Verse is more focused on artfully blowing the webhead’s canon so wide open that it’s hard to believe as you’re watching it.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
|
The Little Mermaid
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Halle Bailey’s turn as The Little Mermaid’s Ariel is inspired, but the movie’s lackluster sense of visual magic does her very few favors.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
|
Fast X
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Universal’s 11th Fast & Furious movie is essentially a thinly plotted telenovela that’s way more fixated on feelings and family than cars.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
|
Suzume
(2022)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume is his most exuberant movie yet and a powerful rumination on holding space for the past.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
|
|
|
Renfield
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
The things that work about Renfield are outweighed by those that don’t, and it’s a shame because it’s not hard to imagine a version of the film that could have been much better with a bit of massaging and a better grip on what makes these characters tick.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
|
|
|
Beau Is Afraid
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Even as it’s spiraling in its final moments, and raising more questions than it ever feels interested in answering, there’s a mesmerizing, captivating quality to it all that makes it hard not to get drawn into the strangeness of Aster’s vision.
Posted Apr 11, 2023
|
|
|
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
As the Mario bros. jump, flip, and twirl their way across town, you can immediately feel just how serious the movie is about translating the essence of its source material into something that feels familiar but also like its own distinct quantity.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
|
Paint
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
It’s not ridiculous enough to be funny and not charming enough to make you invested in what happens. Luckily, there are plenty of other places in the world to experience the joy of Bob Ross.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
|
Kill Boksoon
(2023)
|
Sara Merican
|
Kill Boksoon is as progressive as it is formulaic, veering between straight-laced action and poignant family drama.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
|
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
|
Jess Weatherbed
|
Honor Among Thieves is unashamedly camp, vibing closer to the likes of Shrek and The Princess Bride than your typically hardcore action-adventure movie.
Posted Mar 28, 2023
|
|
|
Tetris
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
This uneven Tetris origin story plays almost as if it were tailor-made for middle-age film festival goers who somehow lived through the end of the 20th century without ever having played the eponymous video game.
Posted Mar 23, 2023
|
|
|
John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
John Wick 4 is a supersized all-you-can-eat buffet of the franchise’s signature dishes: bullet-riddled revenge, teeth-chattering action sequences, and gossamer-thin characters.
Posted Mar 16, 2023
|
|
|
Cocaine Bear
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Cocaine Bear’s not without its charms, and both Convery and Martindale deliver exceptionally delightful performances that reinforce how just a little bit more substance for other characters could have done wonders to make them all more memorable.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
|
|
|
Creed III
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Creed III takes the literal and existential titles that once defined Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa and gives them to Adonis as a way of signifying that this really is his story now and his alone to carry into the future.
Posted Feb 24, 2023
|
|
|
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Watching the third Ant-Man film is sort of like being on a Marvel-themed acid trip that’s actually pretty fun until it comes to a confusingly abrupt halt.
Posted Feb 14, 2023
|
|
|
The Pod Generation
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Being so packed full of interconnected ideas that sometimes feel like they’re jockeying for attention, The Pod Generation ultimately ends up feeling just a bit too busy to be as effective a satire as it could be.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
|
|
|
Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Fans of Old and Servant know that M. Night Shyamalan never really left, but Knock at the Cabin feels like it just might convince those not in the know that he’s back.
Posted Feb 01, 2023
|
|
|
Talk to Me
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
It’s not the most original premise. But in Talk To Me... it takes on a new urgency and ferocity with a story that races to its bloody, brutal conclusion without letting up.
Posted Jan 31, 2023
|
|
|
In My Mother's Skin
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
This is a blood-soaked fairy tale, one that mashes together folklore and history in a way that’s reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro’s defining work, Pan’s Labyrinth — only it’s a lot scarier.
Posted Jan 28, 2023
|
|
|
Magazine Dreams
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Along with being a character study that Majors fully throws himself into with a vigor, Magazine Dreams also straddles the gap between being a drama and a psychological thriller not unlike Taxi Driver and, interestingly, Eminem’s “Stan.”
Posted Jan 27, 2023
|
|
|
Landscape with Invisible Hand
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
Messy as the movie can get in its back half, it’s saved by some great performances — Blackk feels like a star in the making, and Haddish is as charming as ever...
Posted Jan 26, 2023
|
|
|
birth/rebirth
(2023)
|
Charles Pulliam-Moore
|
Director Laura Moss’ Birth/Rebirth taps into the spirit of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to tell a haunting story about motherhood, mortality, and reproductive autonomy.
Posted Jan 25, 2023
|
|
|
Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out
(2023)
|
Andrew Webster
|
A lighthearted mashup of a family-friendly caper and coming-of-age tale, one that does just enough weird sci-fi stuff to help it get away with an otherwise formulaic story.
Posted Jan 24, 2023
|
>