“Brand New Day is the first live action Spider-Man film since the end of Sam Raimi’s trilogy to not take its audience for granted…It is the first MCU film in years to inspire genuine childlike glee in me.”
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“Araki visualizes I Want Your Sex with the vibrance and color he brought to Smiley Face and Nowhere. It mirrors the blissful serotonin boost that Elliot receives through playful subjugation.”
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“Motor City is a perfectly fine popcorn flick if you’re willing to overlook and be less nitpicky about its obvious issues. It has solid action, a good cast, and some pretty well done editing that brings it all together.”
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“Refn has always been one to interrogate sexuality in an uncomfortably incestuous way, with Her Private Hell angling towards anxieties of his daughter entering an unknowably artificial world of sexuality, vapidity, and violence. It’s a horror film for Refn and Refn alone; therapy by way of cinematic catharsis.”
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“‘They Fight’ picks up and drops plotlines with a speedy indifference only a director could love.”
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“Alongside Interstellar and Oppenheimer, The Odyssey is one of Nolan’s most personal films to date, and maybe his most pragmatic. A juggernaut in both scale and sentiment, The Odyssey is simply the real deal.”
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“…it gave me as good a time as a nice pickleball match: low stakes, great players.”
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“Mounia Akl and Hasan Akil share such a powerful chemistry that it’s rare a scene between them doesn’t pull at your heart. The two are a pair of incredibly thoughtful actors that bring the entire thing to life.”
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“When I walked out of the film — tears dried on my cheeks from laughter and, well, you know… farewells aren’t easy — the theater halls were echoing with Jeff Buckley’s rendition of “Hallelujah,” and I was struck by the incredulity of this final Jackass.”
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“Some will accuse it of chasing the trite trend of “horror movies about grief and trauma” and that is somewhat true, but instead of supplementing that with esoteric arthouse scares, it smashes a classic horror franchise into one of those stories to create a thrilling combination that feels fresh.”
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“In some sense, Kail’s Moana is more parody than adaptation. It’s a film aware that it’s based on a comparatively new and beloved property. This awareness is problematic.”
“…despite how male-dominated the mines were…the miner’s labor movement in Harlan County was driven by women. ‘Harlan County USA’, helmed, produced, shot, and edited by women, naturally reflects this femininity. Without overcompensation or hyperbole, Kopple spotlights the Kentucky women who served as both the backbone and frontline of the labor movement.”
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“[The Fast & the Furious] layered all the characters and their interpersonal conflicts well enough for the viewer to still care about the characters and not just the cars; it’s not about the cars, it’s about who’s behind the wheel.”
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“Enola looks at the camera so often that it serves as a complete distraction to the story, which is otherwise borderline functional.”
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“In a way, Minions & Monsters shares an end goal with Criterion’s addition of K-Pop Demon Hunters to the collection: creating gateways for the next generation’s cinephiles.”
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“ The near-overwrought Sundance-y vibe—35mm photography and all—works to The Invite’s strong though seldom cozy sense of intimacy.”
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“Couture is the type of film that entirely relies on your buy-in to its’ bleak world building.”
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“‘Toy Story’ has gone from a millennial childhood staple to a life affirming saga that has cemented a unique creative voice for a second era of storytelling with this fifth entry.”
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“Blue Film is a fascinating and nonjudgmental exploration of a dynamic that seems impossible to portray with anything but venom.”
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