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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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TK Burton
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It’s far from the worst superhero film we’ve seen in the past few years, and far from the best either. But it’s that relentless mediocrity that makes it frustrating.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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The Wrath of Becky
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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The tone of the sequel is more cartoonish than the original -- the lighting is brighter and the blood is redder -- but it’s no less satisfying.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Boston Strangler
(2023)
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Sara Clements
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Boston Strangler isn’t a true crime film that hits Fincher heights, but it’s still an incredibly fast-paced and gripping story of tense, hard-hitting journalism.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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The Long Game
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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For those who like treacly, paint-by-number underdog sports films, The Long Game will scratch that itch.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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The Herricanes
(2023)
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Seth Freilich
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It’s the perfect kind of documentary, introducing you to something you likely have never heard of, rooting it in current-day matters, with a host of compelling and interesting talking heads
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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No Ordinary Campaign
(2022)
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Seth Freilich
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Director Christopher Burke does a good job of doling out just enough information for the viewer to understand what needs to be understood while keeping the focus on the people
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Join or Die
(2023)
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Seth Freilich
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While the talking heads run the gamut from politicians to scientists to community organizers, among others, the Davises deftly provide enough story to let us understand the topic without getting lost in it
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Problemista
(2023)
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Lindsay Traves
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A cool-toned and warm-blooded take on the young-ish-adult experience of keeping your head above water. It’s also a smart tale of how different people’s experiences shape them and how they interact with the world as a result.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Self Reliance
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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Most of it is a blast, so long as it aims for laughs instead of trying to be a thriller. The third act flags, however, because Johnson’s forte is comedy instead of action.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Flamin' Hot
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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There is nothing subtle about Longoria’s direction. But the big swings befit the story that is essentially a tall tale, and in her first feature directing effort, Longoria proves to be an immensely adept and funny storyteller.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
(2023)
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Petr Navovy
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Operation Fortune stalls after a relatively promising opening and never recovers. By the end, I was completely disengaged from what was happening on screen.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Who I Am Not
(2023)
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Seth Freilich
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I found myself equal parts delighted and heartbroken and eager after the fact to learn more.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
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Seth Freilich
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Impressively, filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein shed the baggage and thread the needle, delivering a mostly fun, though slightly bloated, fantasy adventure.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Appendage
(2023)
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Lindsay Traves
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Appendage’s on-the-nose metaphor loses steam really quickly, which is why it worked better as a short. It’s not so much a rich metaphor as an idea that directly announces itself through pointy practical effects teeth.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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The Arc of Oblivion
(2023)
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Seth Freilich
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Cheney wisely keeps the mood light and the film moving. The Arc of Oblivion is not the kind of documentary that poses questions that are easy to answer, and it smartly does not even try to answer them. How can it?
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Scream VI
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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Scream VI seems fine with staying to its series of quick blasts, leaving us temporarily rattled but never profoundly stirred, never deeply disturbed.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Champions
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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It would be unthinkable not to immediately adore these players, the movie posits, just by virtue of their existence. And so Champions is never inclined to strain to define any of them much beyond that.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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It’s a ferocious but hilarious love letter to two men who hopefully will not spend the rest of their careers defined by The Slap.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Creed III
(2023)
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TK Burton
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Whatever the reasons were, it took something great and made it into something mediocre, an unfortunate end to this powerful trilogy.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Somebody I Used To Know
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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It’s genuinely nice to see a good indie romcom that gently subverts but does not try to reinvent the genre. It’s a solid date movie, and that’s just not something the marketplace offers much of anymore.
Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Children of the Corn
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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Plenty of cornpone corn porn to go around
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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The Strays
(2023)
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Petr Navovy
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The Strays has an interesting and resonant message at its heart, in theory. It has a lot to say, in theory. Yet after the first few minutes, theory is all that’s left.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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We Have a Ghost
(2023)
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Petr Navovy
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In the ’90s, this might have been good. That’s not to say that the movie is terrible, but it’s not good either, and the hypothetical contrast that it encourages doesn’t do it any favors.
Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Cocaine Bear
(2023)
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Melanie Fischer
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Cocaine Bear is the kind of movie that knows exactly what it is, does that well, and has no pretenses about being anything else.
Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Attachment
(2022)
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Lindsay Traves
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For those who are used to hearing their mothers spit to ward of a curse, who’ve worn hamsas and evil eyes, or who’ve been gifted challah and salt in their new homes, Attachment taps into a magical exploration of the Jewish religion.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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TK Burton
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There are some truly fun pieces to it, some genuinely inventive and impressive visuals, and a mostly likable cast. But it doesn’t do enough to separate itself from the blurred, messy palette that the MCU has become to truly stand out. It’s… fine.
Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Sharper
(2023)
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Sara Clements
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There’s much to admire about a high-stakes game that both sees terrible people get what they deserve and keeps us guessing until the very end.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Your Place or Mine
(2023)
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Petr Navovy
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I didn’t laugh once in this movie. A shadow of the memory of the rumor of a smile never once threatened to appear on my face.
Posted Feb 13, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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There’s no sweaty cash bulging out of this movie’s thong once it hits backstage because it never drops its damn pants in the first place.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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The Outwaters
(2022)
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Jason Adams
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A found-footage flick that vibes hard on genre-daddy The Blair Witch Project... I’m just left with a sinking feeling that The Outwaters doesn’t really add up to much in its end.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Viking Wolf
(2021)
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James Field
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It sounds more interesting than it actually is, unfortunately. It hits most of the typical werewolf movie high notes, from the first kill to the big reveal, but it feels very rote.
Posted Feb 08, 2023
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Alice, Darling
(2022)
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Petr Navovy
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Alice, Darling is a decent enough debut, sincere and heartfelt, shot competently, with an important message that isn’t quite matched by its quality.
Posted Feb 06, 2023
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80 for Brady
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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80 for Brady’s badness won’t matter to the people who pay to see this movie, and there are plenty enough of them to generate a profit. If you are not a fan of Brady or of the Patriots, however, there is no reason to pay to see this movie.
Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Magazine Dreams
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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[Jonathan] Majors is more than up to the task of holding the center of the frame in his teensy posing strap for this measly two hours. His work in Magazine Dreams is enormous, electrically charged, alternately terrifying and endearing
Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
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Lindsay Traves
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A beautifully made horror feature about love and shouldering the burden of the whole world. It’s all held up by stellar subtle performances that work to jam the audience into a war between the lines and their meaning.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Pamela, a Love Story
(2023)
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Kayleigh Donaldson
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Her contradictions are part of her story, so why sideline them? Are audiences only willing to reconsider their mistreatment of women in the past if they’re presently devoid of problems?
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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The Quiet Girl
(2022)
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Alberto Cox Délano
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The Quiet Girl is what you properly call a beautiful film, a film about beautiful things, but also a heartbreaking one because it never forgets how poverty can deprive you of your humanity.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Fair Play
(2023)
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Sara Clements
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Writer-director Chloe Domont crafts a sharp and tense psychological thriller that examines gender office politics with brutal honesty.
Posted Feb 03, 2023
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You People
(2023)
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Dustin Rowles
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It’s two hours of characters painfully, stupidly sticking their foot in their mouths disguised as a comedy. It has its moments, but they don’t make a dent in how otherwise terrible the film is.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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Polite Society
(2023)
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Sara Clements
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It kicks so much ass. It’s an original action comedy that’s a blast from start to finish with a touching story of sisterhood at its center. It’s a special, unique teen movie that breaks the mold of what an action hero can be
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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Sweet and genuine and perfectly human-sized... a simple and lovely fable about how honest we need to be with the people closest to us, You Hurt My Feelings is honest in every single place that it counts.
Posted Feb 01, 2023
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Shotgun Wedding
(2023)
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Lindsay Traves
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The stakes are low throughout, the tone never rising to the darkly comedic levels of its cohorts, so it lives and dies by the performances of Lopez and Duhamel keeping the comedy and the heart intact. They deliver.
Posted Feb 01, 2023
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birth/rebirth
(2023)
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Sara Clements
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It's a Frankenstein-inspired story that takes the horror classic in a new direction, eliminating the patriarchal dominance over the feminine. Unfortunately, there's a bit of disappointment in the fact that it doesn't go full horror with gore and violence.
Posted Jan 31, 2023
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1922
(2017)
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Dustin Rowles
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Ultimately, 1922 is not an earth-shattering film, but it’s a solid, well-crafted story featuring strong performances and a few moments of ick that will get under viewers’ skin.
Posted Jan 30, 2023
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When You Finish Saving the World
(2022)
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Petr Navovy
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When You Finish Saving the World is not good. It’s not terrible, but I felt every one of its eighty-eight minutes keenly, struggling the entire time to get invested in any part of its meandering story or in any one of its unengaging characters.
Posted Jan 30, 2023
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Passages
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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Ira Sachs’ masterfully callous romantic quandary of a film
Posted Jan 30, 2023
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Rotting in the Sun
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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A farce of mounting miscommunications and pornographic indignities... breathlessly funny and mean-spirited, a tonic for these trying, boring times. Call it chicken soup for the sodomites.
Posted Jan 27, 2023
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Infinity Pool
(2023)
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Jason Adams
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Infinity Pool feels genuinely dangerous in ways that other recent one-percenter satires like The Menu and Triangle of Sadness never quite muster
Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Close
(2022)
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Jason Adams
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Close, gorgeous and devastatingly sad, is a tender whisper of brutality, a razor precise excavation of a year of innocence lost
Posted Jan 25, 2023
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House Party
(2023)
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Brian Richards
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This version wasn’t as funny or as good as it could’ve and should’ve been, and it doesn’t even have the same level of heart as the original, which touched upon social issues while still making the audience laugh.
Posted Jan 23, 2023
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