65
An astronaut (Adam Driver) and a teenage girl (Ariana Greenblatt) are the only survivors of a crash landing on a planet filled with dangerous prehistoric creatures. The film is consistently exciting and engaging, and is filled with a number of great jump scares, moments of tension, and impressive visual effects. Though logic is a bit glazed over throughout, it’s usually hard to care because 65 does such a great job of putting you right in the middle of its action and making you forget about pretty much everything else for the majority of its brief ninety-minute duration.
GRADE: B+
Air
Set in 1984, this nostalgia-laden film tells the fact-based story about the business practices and struggle involved with the genesis of Nike’s Air Jordan tennis shoe. At first glance, the story doesn’t exactly seem like a fascinating one that urgently needs to be told. That being taken into account, it’s all the more impressive how entertaining, engrossing, and moving the final product actually is.
Featuring profound and funny writing by Alex Convery, impressively sturdy filmmaking by director Ben Affleck and his behind-the-scenes team, and flawless performances by Matt Damon, Affleck, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Messina, and Chris Tucker, the film boasts all-around impressive craftsmanship. Air is a surprisingly great film about perseverance, determination, and hope. It is a much-needed feel-good film executed with intelligence, care, and extraordinarily sincere heart.
GRADE: A
Albert Brooks: Defending Life
This documentary on comedian/actor/writer/director Albert Brooks is a lively, hilarious, and heartfelt historical examination of not only his life and career, but also of comedy in general. Centered on an intimate conversation between Brooks and lifelong friend Rob Reiner (who also directed), the film is littered with clips from Brooks’ television appearances and films and also features interviews with well-known comedians, actors, and filmmakers who cite Brooks as a major influence. Albert Brooks: Defending My Life is a warranted and joyous celebration of a one-of-a-kind comedic genius whose outstanding and brilliant body of work has yet to be appreciated by mainstream audiences the way in which it deserves.
GRADE: A
All of Us Strangers
A lonely, gay screenwriter (Andrew Scott) starts to inexplicably communicate with his deceased parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) while starting a relationship with an exciting and mysterious man (Paul Mescal) who lives in his building. Ethereally and surreally beautiful, precisely photographed, and exceptionally performed, this thoughtfully profound film opens many wonderful doors leading to many complex ideas that require deep contemplation.
The effectively moody film’s overall point is hard to digest in one sitting and with only one viewing, but the experience is still full and unique. The staggering quality of its execution, the grandness of its themes, and the powerful emotions it begets enable All of Strangers to rise above its minor faults and difficult opaqueness to be a fascinating experiment that almost entirely pays off.
GRADE: A-
American Fiction
A Black writer (Jeffrey Wright) writes a stereotype-laden book out of spite and, to his absolute horror, sees it become a smash success. The satire is sharp, the laughter is consistent, the characters are all believably human, and the story’s overall point of Black artists having to appease simplistic and ignorant white viewpoints is clearly and intelligently communicated. Unfortunately, the film falters with its sometimes sluggish pacing (it could have been fifteen minutes shorter) and its inability to end correctly or satisfactorily.
Faults aside, however, American Fiction is a must-see for those who want their beliefs intelligently tested and their mind thoughtfully provoked.
GRADE: B+
Anatomy of a Fall
A successful novelist (Sandra Hüller) is accused of murdering her husband (Samuel Theis) and her visually impaired son (Milo Machado-Graner) is the main witness. Beautifully acted and exceptionally realized by its entire filmmaking team, this character-based mystery is an overall compelling film-watching experience. Unfortunately, its pacing drags more and more as it progresses and, most frustrating of all, it winds up disappointing heavily by favoring indecisive ambiguity over a satisfying dramatic resolution.
Anatomy of a Fall is an exceptionally crafted film that showcases many merits and moments of undeniable quality, but its notable faults keep it from being truly memorable and fantastic.
GRADE: B
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
This third entry in the MCU’s Ant-Man series is an overall passable, entertaining, and endearing film that manages to primarily stand on its own without relying too heavily on the many MCU entries that preceded it. That being said, the film’s pacing is sometimes haphazard, its storyline is far too cluttered, and its two-hour-plus runtime is at least fifteen minutes too long. Though it contains some cool visual effects and inventive designs, has select moments of heart and humor, and, at least, tries to do something different from the previous two entries in the series, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania can’t fully overcome its inherently bloated and rough nature.
GRADE: B-
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
This last entry in the DCEU before James Gunn’s DCU officially begins is an overall fun though mildly underwhelming piece of work. It has a cluttered and generic plot, underutilized and underdeveloped supporting characters, and it doesn’t have anything particularly groundbreaking to offer the superhero genre.
That being said, the beautiful visuals, well-choreographed action sequences, tight pacing, and lead Jason Momoa’s natural charisma all work together to create an overall entertaining couple of hours. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn’t quite the grand and awe-inducing sendoff that the DCEU needs and deserves, but it still manages to pass and do just fine, regardless.
GRADE: B
Asteroid City
The films of Wes Anderson all belong in their own individual genre. They are similar to one another but unlike anything else. They all feature an overall unemotional execution, an individualistically quirky tone, obsessive attention to detail, clean and precise cinematography, theatrically stylized staging, dry humor, absurdist wit, and deadpan performances from an all-star cast. His films are as easily identifiable as those of any all-star auteur, and they all have the connective thread of being the product of Anderson’s unparalleled sensibilities.
Asteroid City contains all these qualities but it is, unfortunately, not one of Anderson’s best or most accessible works. The characters lack clear definition, the play-within-a-film storyline about a small town’s reaction to an alien encounter is meandering and sporadically dull, and any discernible overall point is primarily lost and/or uncommunicated. There are moments of exception, but the frustratingly uneven film simply doesn’t demand its audience’s attention or focus with any consistency. Though it has plenty of charm and style, Asteroid City simply doesn’t live up to the potential of its creator’s exceptional talents.
GRADE: C+
Barbie
For a big-budget studio production that is largely geared toward children and teenagers, this film is a surprisingly intelligent, edgy, and profound piece of satire on gender politics. Compared to adult-oriented productions with similar themes, however, it’s a tad obvious. With pacing that sometimes drags (it could have been a good fifteen minutes shorter) and an affinity for overly silly humor that only works as often as it doesn’t, the movie sometimes falls flat. Its excessively talented co-writer and director, Greta Gerwig, could have made a smarter movie, but, in all fairness, most likely not without losing some of its commercial appeal. As it stands, Barbie is an entertaining and thoughtful work whose criticisms of modern misogyny and whose message of female empowerment can be easily understood by mass audiences—and this is nothing short of a good thing any way you cut it.
Margot Robbie injects humanity and humor into her role as the titular plastic character, and Ryan Gosling is simply priceless as her airheaded and hopelessly needy suitor, Ken.
GRADE: B+
BlackBerry
This fast-paced, lively, funny, and heartbreaking depiction of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry phone (and, not to mention, the beginning of smartphones) is an overall standout film. It may belong to a group of like-minded, fact-based titles that depict cutthroat, high-stakes business practices associated with the national breakthrough of popular and influential products (The Founder, Air, Pain Hustlers), but that doesn’t steal too heavily from its overall thunderous impact.
The depiction of the eventual downfall of the BlackBerry isn’t quite as fascinating, exciting, or developed as the rise. The film’s energy dips like a sugar crash in its last act, but it still manages to have a satisfying and informative conclusion that meets the promise and strength of its beginning. Jay Baruchel, co-writer/director Matt Johnson, and Glenn Howerton all deliver knockout performances that do justice to BlackBerry’s intelligent and insightful intentions.
GRADE: A-
Blue Beetle
Though it features the members of a lovable and vivacious Mexican-American family as its central protagonists, there is nothing else that is particularly memorable or unique about this DCEU superhero effort. The action is forgettable, the story is flat, and the visual effects are completely uninspired. Aside from containing some quality characters and performances, Blue Beetle has nothing new to offer its genre and is an unfortunate example of how current-day comic book movies are significantly running out of steam.
GRADE: C
The Boogeyman
This slow-burning, character-driven horror film is based on an early Stephen King short story and it shows. It features the author’s love of depicting true-to-life relationships within damaged families and combining it with creepy-crawly supernatural horror elements that endlessly shock, frighten, and entertain. Though its pacing is sometimes sluggish and it doesn’t offer anything particularly new to its genre, The Boogeyman is still a well-acted, well-crafted, and memorable effort that offers some keen insight into the human condition while also delivering some solid and effective scares along the way.
GRADE: B
Boston Strangler
Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon deliver committed, focused, and grounded performances as Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole, two real-life reporters who tackled the Boston Strangler case in the early 1960s. The film, which is a fascinating history lesson that depicts the difficulties women faced (and continue to face) while trying to find equal opportunities in male-dominated workforces, is engaging more on an intellectual level than it is on an emotional one. Boston Strangler is consistently interesting but often forgets to pack dramatic power, resulting in a well-made film that thoughtfully examines some important issues and topics but isn’t exactly thrilling to watch.
GRADE: B
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Though the irreplaceable directorial touches of Nick Park and Peter Lord and the vocal talents of Mel Gibson and Julia Sawalha are sorely missed in this sequel to 2000’s Chicken Run, it’s still a movie with a good deal to offer. The family-friendly satire is intelligent, the story is clever, the stop-motion animation is beautiful, and the character and set designs showcase endless skill and ingenuity.
The absurd humor is more modestly amusing than it usually is laugh-out-loud funny, and it takes some time before the story becomes engrossing enough to demand full attention. Forgivable faults aside, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is still a highly creative and entertaining movie that will delight audiences of just about any age.
GRADE: B+
Cocaine Bear
Inspired by true events, this film follows the murderous rampage of a mammoth black bear after it ingests an absurd amount of a drug dealer’s lost cocaine. The premise has the potential to be a campy good time, but Cocaine Bear is, unfortunately, a disappointing horror/comedy that is neither scary nor funny. Its forced and overbearingly quirky tone unintentionally softens moments meant to be terrifying, suspenseful, and thrilling.
Despite an exceptionally talented cast (Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isiah Whitlock Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, Margo Martindale) and some sporadic moments of innovation by director Elizabeth Banks and her filmmaking team, the film fails to make its true nature and intentions clear. It mostly succeeds at being a befuddling mixture of conflicting tones that overshadow most of its strongest and most noteworthy aspects.
GRADE: C-
Copenhagen Cowboy
Creator/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Too Old to Die Young) delivers another surreal and dreamy crime drama that is executed with stylistic innovation and is primarily bathed in blue/red/magenta lighting. Unfortunately, Refn’s signature style and visuals are about all this six-part miniseries has going for it. With Copenhagen Cowboy, the filmmaker has crawled so far up his own ass that it’s hard to decipher what the hell is going on for the vast majority of its duration.
Character definitions and relationships are sloppily underdeveloped, the storyline is intentionally and pretentiously vague, and the pacing moves slower than a sickly snail moving uphill. It’s hard to believe that a filmmaker as great and as unique as Refn could create such a massive misfire, but the evidence is there for over five hours of this overall failed, painfully boring, and maddeningly unclear filmmaking venture.
GRADE: D+
The Covenant
Set during the Afghanistan war, this film centers on a sergeant (Jake Gyllenhaal) and an interpreter (Dar Salim) who are forced to survive hostile enemy territory and make their way to safety alone. Co-writer/director Guy Ritchie finally completely ditches his signature kinetic style and overtly obnoxious bravado for something more grounded and maturely inconspicuous. The Covenant is an intense and dramatically engaging film that is executed with care, realism, and sincerity. It isn’t anything we haven’t seen before and it starts to overstay its welcome towards the end, but the film is made so well that it’s easy to forgive its faults. Gyllenhaal and Salim both excel in their roles, delivering fiercely committed performances that only add to the movie’s impressive believability.
GRADE: B+
The Creator
During a futuristic war between mankind and artificial intelligence, a human solider (John David Washington) befriends an android in the form of a child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) that is the enemy’s most powerful asset, forcing him to question his beliefs and duties. Great and topical ideas, wonderful performances, and downright poetic moments make the movie notably stand out from other science fiction/action titles with similar themes and storylines.
Unfortunately, the emotions don’t quite soar the way they’re obviously intended to in key dramatic moments, the action sometimes lacks thrills and suspense, primary themes aren’t fully explored or properly developed, and the movie increasingly has trouble bouncing back from its consistently uneven pacing. Due to these faults, The Creator has to settle on being a pretty good movie instead of the great one its potential often suggests it could be.
GRADE: B-
Dream Scenario
Nicolas Cage excels as a college professor who becomes a worldwide celebrity after he inexplicably starts appearing in countless peoples’ dreams. Innovative, absurdly hilarious, and often surreally fascinating, the film is an overall Charlie Kaufman-esque success. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite know how to wrap itself up, as the last act somewhat mars the movie by presenting ideas that are too concrete and specific for a premise that would have been better left mysteriously and tantalizingly abstract.
Dream Scenario falls short of its potential to be great, but it still manages to be a compelling, amusing, and unique take on modern-day celebrity and the backlash that eventually and inevitably comes with it.
GRADE: B+
Dumb Money
Based on a true story that took place in the early 2020s, this film stars the limitless Paul Dano as an internet personality who becomes a stock market sensation. Director Craig Gillespie admirably tones down the kinetically lively style and sarcastic tone that dominates much of his recent work in favor of an even pace and a mature and observational execution.
Unfortunately, a story about the rise and fall of stocks isn’t exactly riveting, and it doesn’t help matters that high-stakes drama is lacking due to unempathetic characters who don’t start to feel satisfyingly developed until the movie’s end. However, solid filmmaking, the successful communication of facts about Wall Street, and excellent performances from Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, and Shailene Woodley (among others) help to make Dumb Money an interesting and modestly entertaining movie–though it’s a bit far off from being a great one.
GRADE: B
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Select moments of well-timed and quirky humor, well-staged action sequences, and the movie star charms of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant can’t quite make this adaptation of the ever-popular role-playing game something that is truly worth seeing. The story is nonsensical and cluttered, characters and their relationships are thinly developed, and the rather shoddy (though occasionally inventive) digital effects are often unbelievable. There are a few entertainingly noteworthy aspects to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but none of them can fully save the film from being a hopelessly average effort.
GRADE: C
The Equalizer 3
Star Denzel Washington, director Antoine Fuqua, and screenwriter Richard Wenk return for another graphic, brutal, and entertaining entry in their action/thriller series based on the popular eighties television series. The story takes itself a tad too seriously and is a bit too involved to be enjoyable on a purely escapist level, and the action is often too stylized and postured to truly feel real. As a result, the film struggles to fully and solidly exhibit a single and dominant tone. However, Washington’s endless icy charisma and Fuqua’s bold directorial flourishes, however distracting they can be at times, make The Equalizer 3 an overall worthwhile effort.
GRADE: B-
Evil Dead Rise
After an initial horror/comedy trilogy that was masterfully directed by Sam Rami, a straightforward horror reboot that was skillfully directed by Fede Alvarez, and a playfully gruesome three-season television series, it’s hard not to walk into a new Evil Dead movie without some serious expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations are not met with this flat, dull, and uninspired entry into the series. The film lacks the darkly humorous personality, twisted ingenuity, and demented charm of its predecessors. It relies far too heavily on cheap gross-out scares that increasingly lose their effect as the film progresses. Evil Dead Rise is a typical and generic horror effort that offers absolutely nothing new to its genre or its otherwise exceptional universe.
GRADE: D+
Expend4bles
This fourth entry in the Expendables franchise lacks the macho charm, personality, and humor of its predecessors. Though it has its rare moments of quality, it is overall marred by a lack of ingenuity, a dull execution, poor writing (particularly for Megan Fox’s newly added character), and distractingly bad digital effects. Expend4bles is a disappointing, stale, and tired ride that forgets what made the previous films in its series so completely and brainlessly fun.
GRADE: D+
Extraction 2
Chris Hemsworth returns as Tyler Rake, a highly skilled mercenary who is also apparently immortal, in this sequel that heavily and surprisingly improves upon its original. Most of the characters and pretty much all of the story aren’t particularly interesting, but that hardly matters because the true point of the move is its action sequences, and they are exceedingly and captivatingly well-done. The frequent use of extremely long takes lets the action unfold naturalistically onscreen in a way that makes their skillful choreography and impressive stunt work stand out. Extraction 2 may not be the most unique movie, but its skilled, ambitious, and lively execution makes it a thrilling and memorable experience, regardless.
GRADE: B+
The Family Plan
While this film may owe a substantial debt to True Lies, it still has just enough energy and personality to stand on its own. Mark Wahlberg stars as a former assassin whose incognito life as a suburban husband and father is disrupted after his cover is blown on social media. Though it can be a tad cutesy and a bit too self-aware of its own cleverness at times, The Family Plan is still an overall endearing and entertaining effort that mindlessly and breezily gets the job done.
GRADE: B-
Fast X
This tenth installment in The Fast and the Furious series is every bit as joyously ridiculous, unrelentingly kinetic, and purely entertaining as its predecessors. Featuring a plethora of tough guys and girls, fast cars, big guns, extraordinary explosions, gravity-defying stunts, and plot twists that stretch all forms of believability, Fast X is great fun if you just remember to check your brain at the door. Jason Momoa steals the show as the film’s primary villain, exhibiting a bold and theatrical exuberance that would make Nicolas Cage proud.
GRADE: B
Ferrari
Directed by Michael Mann, this biopic centers on Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his entry in the 1957 Mille Miglia race in Italy. The film will probably be fascinating to car lovers/race enthusiasts, but, for everyone else, it’s an overall tedious chore through which to sit. It takes too long to get moving, its characters are only sporadically interesting or relatable, and it lacks any form of dramatic urgency or tension until its final moments.
On the positive side and like all Mann-directed films, the filmmaking is top-notch and refined. Also, the performances are all dedicated and believable, particularly Driver’s. On the surface, the film appears to be bursting with quality. Ferrari’s failure to dramatically engage its audience for the majority of its duration, however, keeps it from being a filmgoing experience that is worth having.
GRADE: C
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Despite a clever and potentially fun premise involving lethal animatronic characters residing at a family-themed pizzeria, this disappointing film can’t help but be a tedious chore through which to sit. Unnecessary subplots interfere with the pacing, lifeless characters (despite being portrayed by talented actors) fail to provide the audience with anyone to care about or identify with, and the core action of the story takes far too long to begin. Based on the popular video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s may appeal to fans familiar with its source material, but will most likely be an excruciatingly dull experience for just about everyone else.
GRADE: D+
Genie
Melissa McCarthy again proves in this family-friendly Christmastime movie that she is every bit as lively, affable, and entertaining doing clean comedy as she is doing the edgier, raunchier, and adult-oriented type of comedy that launched her career. McCarthy plays a genie who attempts to help a workaholic man (Paapa Essiedu) get his estranged family back in time for the holidays. Though the film is fairly formulaic and predictable, it’s still a well-made, well-acted, and entirely entertaining piece of work. Genie is a nice, heartwarming, and adorable film that is guaranteed to bring you some good, old-fashioned holiday cheer.
GRADE: B+
Gran Turismo
A gamer (Archie Madekwe) who devotes all his time to playing the Gran Turismo car racing video game is presented with the opportunity to race in reality. Based on a true story, this formulaic and feel-good movie hits many familiar notes, but it does so with enormous heart and charm. Director Neill Blomkamp and his team of filmmakers execute Gran Turismo with endless ingenuity and impressive skill. The resulting film hits all the right notes and often makes you forget how predictable its story is. David Harbour delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as a tough-as-nails racing coach with a hidden (though unsurprising) heart of gold.
GRADE: B+
Godzilla Minus One
This movie is proof that if you want a Godzilla movie done right, you have to go to Japan, its country of origin. Not only is it a great, suspenseful monster movie with endlessly impressive effects, but it’s also a beautiful and surprisingly poetic metaphor about the tragedy, destruction, and consequences of war. Godzilla Minus One is an emotional and thrilling ride that thrives due to an intelligent and sensitive execution and overall flawless craftsmanship.
GRADE: A
A Haunting in Venice
Kenneth Branagh returns as both director and star with his third depiction of Agatha Christie’s classic detective character, Poirot. The delightful and alluring film is finely crafted, well-acted, and evenly paced. Though it occasionally lacks dramatic urgency and power in select scenes, the film never ceases to quickly recover and envelop the audience in its enticing murder mystery storyline. Minor faults aside, A Haunting in Venice is an overall intelligent and mesmerizing piece of escapist entertainment.
GRADE: B+
Heart of Stone
This Mission Impossible-esque actioner starring Gal Gadot goes through some pretty familiar motions, but is still well-executed enough to be moderately worthwhile. Involving action, impressive stunts, capable filmmaking, and sturdy performances make the film rise above its generic and derivative design. Heart of Stone isn’t anything new, though it does provide enough thrills and spectacle for an entertaining couple of hours.
GRADE: B-
The Holdovers
Paul Giamatti simply shines as a strict prep school teacher in 1970 who is forced to watch over the students who were unable to go home over Christmas break. The film is plenty charming and moving, though it does drag, overstay its welcome, and run out of steam towards the end. However, The Holdovers is still a solidly made, intelligent, and endearingly humorous character study. It just forgets to consistently keep a tight pace and sometimes loses its audience’s interest and focus as a result.
GRADE: B
Infinity Pool
While on vacation on a foreign island, a young married couple (Alexander Skarsgard and Cleopatra Coleman) joins up with up another couple (Adam Boncz and Mia Goth), has a little too much fun, and consequently gets into some pretty hefty legal trouble. The film gets increasingly surreal, aggressively psychedelic, bluntly sexual, and violently horrific from there.
The film’s screenplay (by Brandon Cronenberg, who also directed) goes off the rails in its second half, losing sight of an overall point and the exceptional quality of its first half. If Infinity Pool knows what it’s ultimately trying to say, it holds its cards rather close to the chest and plays it frustratingly coy. At its best, the film is a disturbingly Kafkaesque nightmare executed with innovation and skill. At its worst, it is a muddied and unnecessarily graphic (to a distracting degree) film that disempowers some highly intelligent ideas with cheap shock value.
GRADE: C+
Inside
Willem Dafoe stars as an art thief who gets trapped in a high-security penthouse while in the middle of his latest heist. He then has to utilize his wits and survival instinct while simultaneously attempting his escape and fighting off a steady descent into madness. Inside is an overall intense and riveting film whose success is heavily indebted to the strength, commitment, and endless intensity of Dafoe’s performance. Though it concludes with an unsatisfying ending that is more frustratingly unfinished than it is tantalizingly ambiguous, the journey getting there is still memorable and worthwhile.
GRADE: B
John Wick: Chapter 4
Time and repeat viewings will tell whether or not this fourth part in the John Wick action franchise is a victim of its own inflated hype. For my first viewing of it, I found the film to, at times, be overly long, roughly paced, disappointingly uninspired, and lazily derivative of previous installments. Keanu Reeves is still a lovable badass in the title role and director Chad Stahelski delivers some sporadic moments of ingenuity and well-executed carnage, but their contributions just aren’t enough to make the film stand up to the exceptional quality of its predecessors. John Wick: Chapter 4 is a tired sequel to an otherwise fantastic series that is most likely now due for permanent retirement.
GRADE: C+
Jules
Ben Kingsley stars as an elderly man suffering from early signs of dementia who comes across a crashed spaceship manned by as peaceful alien in his backyard. The film is primarily a quirky and sincere character study that also happens to contain some amusing science fiction elements. The results are wholly charming, inventive, and, ultimately, quite touching. Though the under-developed government-employed antagonists feel tacked on to the story, Jules is still a successful and unique film that thoughtfully examines the unavoidable journey of growing old.
GRADE: A-
Jung_E
In the 22nd century, the brain of a heroic and skilled soldier (Kim Hyun-joo) is repeatedly cloned to help win a war that ravages the few who remain on a now-inhospitable Planet Earth. This South Korean science fiction film is another smart, exciting, and thoughtful genre effort from writer/director Sang-ho Yeon (Train to Busan). While some of its more interesting ideas are underdeveloped and forced to take a backseat to the action and spectacle, Jung_E still manages to, overall, be an insightful and thought-provoking film that never forgets to entertain.
GRADE: B+
Knock at the Cabin
This apocalypse-themed horror/thriller from co-writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is a thought-provoking, suspenseful, and overall unpredictable film that should successfully keep its viewers engrossed for the majority of its duration. The film could have used a tad more development of some of its story aspects, character relationships, and character motivations, but it also deserves credit for keeping things simple, direct, and intensely tight. Dave Bautista delivers a powerhouse performance that impressively stands out from the film’s exceptionally talented ensemble cast. Knock at the Cabin is an intelligent and dramatically robust exercise in nonstop cinematic tension.
GRADE: B+
Leave the World Behind
After a cybersecurity attack causes a widespread blackout, a vacationing family is forced to survive without life’s modern luxuries. Echoing similar stories found in The Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and the film The Trigger Effect, Leave the World Behind manages to stand on its own by making its events seem plausible with the exploration of real-life modern threats. Interesting camerawork, a consistently suspenseful tone, and excellent performances (Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, and Mahershala Ali all excel) help make the film’s frustratingly inconsistent pacing somewhat forgivable. Faults aside, Leave the World Behind is a topical and intelligent film that manages to get its warnings and its point across by way of overall enthralling and intense storytelling.
GRADE: B+
Luther: The Fallen Sun
A spinoff of the BBC One series, Luther, this film mostly stands on its own for those, like myself, who are unfamiliar with the show. A few character details and a couple of storyline beats could have been better developed and explained to those new to the world and the former detective character portrayed with intensity and likability by Idris Elba, but such details don’t detract too heavily from the film’s overall success. Luther: The Fallen Sun is an enjoyable and suspenseful detective-hunting-a-serial-killer (a believably sadistic Andy Serkis) thriller that is executed with stylistic grit and impressive skill.
GRADE: B+
M3GAN
A recently orphaned child (Violet McGraw) goes to live with her robotics developer aunt (Allison Williams), who can’t think of any other way to properly comfort her niece than to build her a robot companion in the form of a young girl. It being a Blumhouse horror movie, the robot, of course, becomes dangerously self-aware and maniacally homicidal.
M3GAN has fun with its clever premise, never taking itself too seriously and consistently showcasing an amusingly and darkly humorous tone. Though it ceases to take full advantage of its best ideas at times, especially with a formulaic climax that could have belonged to dozens of other horror movies, it still manages to be an overall intelligent and joyously demented romp that has solid performances and is executed with skilled filmmaking.
GRADE: B+
Maestro
This biopic centers on the complex relationship between the complex composer Leonard Bernstein (an impressively unrecognizable and endlessly sensational Bradley Cooper) and his complex actress wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (a flawless Carey Mulligan). Director/co-writer Cooper delivers a film with grand theatricality, stylistic ingenuity, and dramatic boldness. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to fully understand who its subjects are or have the ability to communicate why their lives are interesting enough to warrant their own large-scale production. As a result, it’s not a particularly engaging experience, despite the care and talent that was obviously put into it. The flawed/complicated genius thing has been done before, and, despite impeccable craftsmanship and select moments of emotional power, Maestro doesn’t do much new with it.
GRADE: C+
The Marsh King’s Daughter
An excellent and focused Daisy Ridley stars as a grown woman who is forced to confront her father (an equally excellent Ben Mendelsohn), who kidnapped her mother and held them both in captivity for a large portion of her childhood. Intense, suspenseful, and emotional, the highly effective film is a character-based thriller that is executed with thoughtfulness and high quality. While the screenplay occasionally (and lazily) stretches believability in favor of plot progression, the film is still consistently engaging throughout.
The Marsh King’s Daughter is a finely crafted film that provides both solid entertainment and a healthy dose of dramatic power.
GRADE: B+
The Marvels
The MCU continues its downward trajectory with this silly, uneventful, and downright obnoxious entry to their canon. The thrills are basically nonexistent, the childish humor consistently falls flat, and the story never truly progresses in a manner that is interesting or involving. The Marvels is a mere shell of what Marvel and superhero movies once were, and it is a prime example of what needs to be corrected as future films with similar intentions are being considered for production.
GRADE: D+
May December
Julianne Moore is as great as she always is in her portrayal of a grown woman who made headlines years prior for having an affair with a thirteen-year-old boy who later grew up to be her husband and the father of some of her children. Natalie Portman is also mesmerizing as the Hollywood actress who is researching Moore’s life for a role she is playing in a movie about the affair.
Director Todd Haynes and his filmmaking team execute the story with exquisite filmmaking, intoxicating style, subtly sharp humor, and bold emotions. While the film is never boring, its pacing is sometimes so loose that it feels aimless. May December always gets back on track, however, and is ultimately a courageous and thought-provoking film that has edgy fun with tackling some fairly uncomfortable but highly relevant topics head-on.
GRADE: A-
Meg 2: The Trench
Jason Statham reprises his role from the 2018 giant shark thriller/horror movie in this ridiculous but fun sequel. This time, Statham has to survive numerous creatures (along with some more giant sharks) in the depths of the ocean, and the results are quite entertaining if you don’t take pesky things like logic or reality into account. Meg 2: The Trench knows it is not great cinema and unabashedly celebrates its B-movie design. It is a charmingly cheesy and endearingly silly good time.
GRADE: B
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
This seventh entry in producer/star Tom Cruise’s action series contains all the spectacle, excitement, and death-defying stunts that audiences have come to expect. One of the most impressive things about the film is how, at nearly two hours and forty-five minutes, it just flies by without its runtime ever being felt. Its pacing is simply unrelenting, keeping the viewer enthralled in its adventure for the entirety of its duration.
The film somewhat falters, however, with its over-reliance on knowledge of previous films in the series to make full sense. It expects audiences to remember the development of some of its characters and their relationships that had previously been spread out across several other films, never providing quite enough detail or humanity to make this particular film stand on its own. Adding to this drawback, the film is also designed to set up the next movie in the series and its storyline, while not entirely dissatisfying, is frustratingly unresolved. However much these faults interfere with its overall quality, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One still manages to persevere and be an endlessly thrilling and captivating piece of popcorn entertainment.
GRADE: B+
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie
This feature-length follow-up to the beloved Monk show that ended in 2009 is a fun, charming, and occasionally dark (though always tasteful) effort. Tony Shalhoub, Taylor Howard, Jason-Grey Stanford, Melora Hardin, Ted Levine, and Hector Elizondo all reprise their roles and exhibit the same, special, and irreplaceably lifelike chemistry that helped make the crime/mystery/comedy series such a success. Though it relies a bit too heavily on its audience remembering details and characters from the long-over series, Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie is still a wonderful reminder of how great of a show Monk was and how lovable the characters were within it.
GRADE: B+
The Mother
Jennifer Lopez stars as an assassin who is forced to come out of hiding in order to protect the daughter she had to give up over a decade prior. Believable and developed characters and relationships, solid writing, sturdy filmmaking, all-around great performances, and endlessly riveting action make this effort a must-see. Its story may not be particularly original, but the care with which The Mother is executed makes it stand out from many other, blander modern-day action films.
GRADE: A-
Next Goal Wins
A reluctant soccer coach (Michael Fassbender) with nothing to lose is assigned to lead a notoriously poor America Samoa team, and the results are predictably humorous and inspiring. Set in 2014 and based on a true story, the film follows a pretty standard feel-good sports film formula. Though it doesn’t offer any real surprises, it’s still a pleasant, inclusive, and effervescent film with some cleverly quirky humor (no doubt courtesy of director/co-writer Taika Waititi), lovable characters, and charming performances.
Next Goal Wins doesn’t break any new ground or light the screen on fire, but it is quite likely to bring a large smile to your face many times throughout its duration.
GRADE: B
Nyad
Annette Bening is outstanding and Oscar-worthy as the true-life Diane Nyad, a swimmer who made multiple attempts in her sixties to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida. Jodie Foster is just as amazing as her endlessly loyal coach. The film may follow a traditional inspirational sports film formula, but it is so well crafted in every conceivable way that it simply doesn’t matter. Nyad is beautifully acted by every key player (Rhys Ifans also deserves to be singled out for praise), visually striking, inescapably engrossing, tear-jerkingly moving, and wholly uplifting. Seek this one out.
GRADE: A
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
This comedic spy thriller from co-writer/director Guy Ritchie carries the filmmaker’s trademark bravado, flashy style, and kinetic pacing without, as his films often have a tendency to do, too heavily teetering over the line towards obnoxiousness. Featuring playful performances by Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Hugh Grant, Carey Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Josh Hartnett, the film manages to mostly rise above its screenplay’s overly involved and convoluted nature to be overall cleverly entertaining. It’s hard to always stay focused on Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre due to its unnecessarily complex design, but the fun with which Ritchie and his cast and crew executed the film is, more times than not, rather contagious.
GRADE: B-
Pain Hustlers
Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, and Andy Garcia deliver dynamite performances in this rise-and-fall tale of greedy pharmaceutical workers capitalizing off of selling dangerous administrations and dosages of fentanyl. Charged, flashy, and stylized in a similar manner to such films as The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street, the film is an entertaining ride, but there also isn’t much that is particularly new being explored in it. That being said, the layered characters, great acting, intelligent writing, and lively execution all make Pain Hustlers a film that is well worth seeing.
GRADE: B+
Pamela: A Love Story
This moving and intelligent documentary is the perfect antithesis to the guilty pleasure Hulu miniseries, Pam & Tommy. Offering a sensitive and sincere depiction of the world-famous sex icon, the film exposes the brain, heart, and humor behind Pamela Anderson’s very public image. Pamela: A Love Story is an intelligent and engrossing examination of fame, abuse in its many forms, and the sexism that is often present when female sexuality is explored and/or discussed. This is a strikingly moving achievement.
GRADE: A
The Pope’s Exorcist
Even star Russell Crowe’s massive talent cannot save this hopelessly mediocre horror effort. Yet another exorcism film, there is absolutely nothing about this particular production that stands out as unique or interesting. Functionally well-made but severely lacking inspiration, The Pope’s Exorcist is an overall bland and impotent excuse for a horror film.
GRADE: C-
Priscilla
Writer/director Sofia Coppola’s film boasts some downright exquisite filmmaking and craftsmanship. It is a tasteful examination of the long-term courtship and eventual marriage between a covertly abusive and slyly manipulative Elvis Presley (Jacob Eldori) and an initially teenaged Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny). Coppola captures the whimsical passion of naïve teenage love beautifully, but she also has trouble grasping the full and complex emotions involved with the eventual and inevitable downfall of the film’s core relationship.
The film offers mere snippets of Elvis and Priscilla over a passage of time and, as the film progresses, the snippets become more abrupt, more rushed, and less connected. Key dramatic moments are increasingly and trivially glazed over, significantly weakening its overall impact and heavily marring its otherwise exceptional quality. Priscilla contains a fascinating beginning to a fascinating story but unfortunately doesn’t seem to care much about properly developing or concluding it.
GRADE: C+
Reptile
This murder mystery/thriller is an annoyingly uneven and unfocused film that had the potential to be so much better than it is. The sluggish and meandering first half is only partially rectified by a more involving and intense second half. The film never fully gets on track, however, because it never clearly defines most of its many characters or the convoluted story they inhabit. While performances by Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Michael Pitt, Alicia Silverstone, and Eric Bogosian are all naturalistically believable, the emotionally dry and overly-intricate screenplay never gives any of them the chance to showcase any real dramatic power. Reptile is a missed opportunity of a film that fails to take full advantage of the talent involved in its creation.
GRADE: C
The Retirement Plan
Nicolas Cage stars as a former government worker who is forced to protect his previously unknown granddaughter (Thalia Campbell) from deadly criminals (Ron Perlman and Jackie Earle Haly amongst them). Despite solid work from a strong cast, the movie is forgettable, derivative, and uninteresting. The distracting and obnoxious nature of its forced flashy style resembles a poor man’s Guy Ritchie—who is already a poor man’s Tarantino. The Retirement Plan simply needs to be retired.
GRADE: D+
Saltburn
Barry Keoghan continues to stand out with another dedicated portrayal of an oddball that only he could accomplish. This time around, his role is that of an Oxford student with highly ambiguous and potentially sinister intentions who latches onto a popular classmate (Jacob Eldori), and then goes on to summer at his upper-class family’s estate.
Shocking, perverse, and refreshingly unformulaic, the film admirably follows the beat of its own drum, making its twisty narrative difficult to predict. Unfortunately, the revelation of the story’s core point is saved for the very end, making it a sometimes-tedious and sometimes-bewildering experience to make complete sense of or fully enjoy during the first viewing. Saltburn is an overall high-quality film with exceptional performances and impressive filmmaking, but it is told in a frustratingly lopsided manner that doesn’t allow the viewer to understand its intentions until it is too late to fully care.
GRADE: B-
Scream VI
This sixth entry in the Scream slasher franchise is tired, dull, uninspired, and highly (to a distracting degree) implausible. Despite some good performances, solid filmmaking, a few suspenseful moments, and an impressive set piece or two, there’s simply nothing new to the story or screenplay that justifies the film’s existence. Scream VI is rarely scary or amusing, and it’s nothing short of depressing to see the hopelessly mediocre and money-grubbing depths to which this once-innovative series has fallen.
GRADE: C-
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
This sequel to the hit 2019 DCEU entry about a boy (Asher Angel) who can change at will into a fully grown superhero (Zachary Levi) is an overall entertaining though slightly tired and uninspired effort. The sincerity and heart behind the first film are still present in this one, but its conveyance of innocence and its message of family unity are a little more forced and harder to buy now that most of the cast have outgrown the script’s intentions for their roles. Despite some contrivances, uneven pacing, and an unfocused story that is hard to always care enough about to fully follow, Shazam! Fury of the Gods still manages to provide solid escapist entertainment with some well-timed humor, impressive action sequences, and a handful of memorably touching moments.
GRADE: B-
Sick
This COVID-19-centered horror/thriller centers on two carefree college girls (Gideon Adlon and Bethlehem Million) who throw caution into the wind and take a lake house vacation during the height of the pandemic, only to be stalked by a knife-wielding maniac. Sick is a relentlessly intense, tightly paced, consistently shocking, aggressively violent, and highly suspenseful film that knows how to grab its audience’s attention and hold it for the entirety of its eighty-minute duration. Though a few of its jump scares and plot points are a tad predictable, it’s easy to forgive the film of its minor faults due to its expert execution and overall consistent high quality.
GRADE: A-
Silent Night
Director John Woo’s return to American filmmaking after a near-twenty-year hiatus is a welcome one, but it’s too bad he wasn’t given better and more original material from which to work. While the dialogue-free action film makes sense for its central mute character (Joel Kinnaman), it feels forced, gimmicky, and unnatural for all the other roles. The film contains some inventive and thrilling sequences that result from Woo’s world-renowned gift for handling action, but the unshaded characters and weak script leave a bit too much to be desired.
The film also can’t quite settle on a tone, as it seems to want to be both a colorfully living comic book and a deeply serious drama about the loss of one’s child. Silent Night ultimately takes itself too seriously to provide pure escapist entertainment, and it’s far too ridiculous to be taken seriously.
GRADE: C
Slotherhouse
An adorable but lethal sloth (that is quite obviously a low-budget puppet) is plucked from its tropical natural habitat and taken to America. The creature then somehow becomes a sorority house’s mascot and begins a brutal killing spree where it picks off the house members one by one. Slotherhouse knows how absolutely ridiculous it is, and it is undeniably and endlessly fun, funny, and campy as a result. The movie is by no means a masterpiece, but it is well worth checking out when you’re in the mood to laugh at some truly absurd depictions of mayhem and horror.
GRADE: B
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
This gorgeously animated and highly inventive incarnation of the Spider-Man universe is undeniably a massive artistic and technical achievement. Its comic book-in-motion design is aesthetically beautiful and endlessly breathtaking, but the overall flow of its narrative is consistently disrupted by obnoxious business and an over-saturation of ideas. As it progresses, the film becomes increasingly exhausting and scattered. Its kinetic execution only seems to serve the purpose of showing off how clever and flamboyant it is trying to be instead of providing excitement and entertainment to its audience. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a (no pun intended) marvel to look at, but it’s much too often a chore through which to sit.
GRADE: C+
Spy Kids: Armageddon
Cinematographer/editor/co-writer/director Robert Rodriguez reboots his charming, inventive, and family-friendly action/adventure series with this latest Spy Kids entry. Rodriguez’s family movies have a tendency to be a bit obnoxious in their cutesiness at times, but their faults can often be overlooked due to their imaginative ideas and storylines and their energized, adept, and beautifully stylish executions. Spy Kids: Armageddon is no exception to this, as it contains a few moments that might make you want to roll your eyes, but it overall manages to be an impressive, exciting, and entertaining experience.
GRADE: B+
Sympathy for the Devil
Joel Kinneman stars as an expecting father who is forced at gunpoint to drive a mysterious, dangerous, and amusingly exuberant passenger played by Nicolas Cage to an initially unknown destination for an initially unknown reason. Though Sympathy for the Devil occasionally struggles to keep up its momentum (even with its brief ninety-minute runtime), the film is an overall taut and intense thriller that will keep its audience engrossed for the majority of its duration. Kinneman is solid, sympathetic, and grounded in the lead role, providing a necessary contrast to one of the nuttiest and most unhinged performances of Cage’s endlessly brazen career.
GRADE: B+
Talk to Me
A group of Australian teenagers learns to communicate with the dead by way of a disembodied hand, only to meet with dire and terrifying consequences. The pacing is air-tight, the acting is solid, the filmmaking is impressively refined, and the overall tone consistently induces horror and suspense in its audience. The mostly solid screenplay does lose some steam in its last act, but Talk to Me still manages to prevail, overall, as a smart, scary, and highly potent horror effort.
GRADE: B+
Thanksgiving
Co-writer/director Eli Roth finally realizes a feature-length version of his mock Grindhouse trailer with this highly amusing holiday horror effort. The story is gleefully demented, the scares are fun, the suspense is gripping, and the gross-out moments are effectively and hilariously shocking. Thanksgiving may not be the most original, surprising, or terrifying horror movie ever made, but it still delivers enough gore and good old-fashioned scares to appease just about any horror addict’s insatiable craving.
GRADE: B
They Cloned Tyrone
After a murdered drug dealer (John Boyega) is mysteriously cloned, the door is opened to a complex conspiracy that targets African Americans. This satirical, mind-bending, and occasionally nightmarish sci-fi/comedy is loaded with great and amusingly bizarre ideas. It is executed in a notably realistic fashion, making its stranger and more outlandish aspects feel all the more tangible and probable. The only downfall to this approach is that the film isn’t quite as fun as its premise suggests it could be. It consistently misses opportunities for humor and doesn’t always explore the full entertainment value of its inventive concepts.
They Cloned Tyrone is a fascinating, intelligently absurd, and finely made movie that sometimes misses its full potential by relying on a presentation that is a tad too restrained and dry.
GRADE: B+
Totally Killer
A teenage girl (Kiernan Shipka) travels back in time to the ‘80s where she is forced to stop the serial killer who has haunted her mother (Julie Bowen) since her teenage years. Yet another horror comedy set in the ‘80s, the film is neither scary nor clever enough to compete with many other retro-oriented titles that have similar styles and designs. It fails to take full advantage of or have complete fun with its time period or concept, and the results are painfully lackluster as a result.
Shipka and her co-stars do their best with the material they are given, but Totally Killer still can’t help but totally be a waste of time.
GRADE: C-
When You Finish Saving the World
This character-based dramedy centers on a teenage internet musician (Finn Wolfhard) and his desire to be politically interested so he can impress a such-minded classmate (Alisha Boe). While struggling with his identity, he also struggles with his well-meaning but somewhat lost mother (Julianne Moore).
Though it’s not exactly dramatically robust and the pacing is sometimes glacial, the film is an overall warm-hearted, affably quirky, and insightful film with a familiar but important message about staying true to oneself. When You Finish Saving the World doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s still a nice, pleasant, and overall life-affirming way to spend ninety minutes.
GRADE: B
You People
Jonah Hill stars as a Jewish podcaster who falls in love with a Black woman (Lauren London)—much to the chagrin of her family and the discomfort of his. This feel-good comedy has its heart in the right place and delivers some thoughtful and thought-provoking insight into modern interracial romance. That being said, the film is often formulaic and predictable, and its jokes sometimes fall flat. The pacing is also uneven, no doubt the result of its overly long near-two-hour runtime.
You People’s good intentions and the overall exceptional talent of its cast (which includes Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, David Duchovny, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) manage to make the film rise above many of its shortcomings, however, and be an overall rewarding effort.
GRADE: B-
The Zone of Interest
In this film, we see the basic, ordinary, and everyday lives of an Auschwitz commandant (Christian Friedel) and his family as they lead a peaceful life right outside the walls of the camp. Did I enjoy this glacially paced film that showcases little dramatic urgency? Not really. Do I appreciate its impeccable and precise craftsmanship, respect its intentionally detached style, and find myself deeply affected by its examination of evil in its most apathetic and mundane form? Absolutely.
The film isn’t exactly exciting, but it will stir emotions and provoke thought in a completely profound and unique manner that will leave you speechless. The Zone of Interest is ultimately a highly valuable experience, but it’s one you most likely won’t ever want to repeat.
GRADE: A-
