THE NEST is among 2020’s best
Can you have a haunted house movie without any ghosts? You can — THE NEST is a brilliant domestic drama with the trappings of a horror film.
AFF 2020: We’re All Still Figuring Out Who We Are in SOME KIND OF HEAVEN
In popular media, the elderly are often used as a quirky punchline. They move to Florida, watch Matlock and Murder She Wrote, can’t figure out how to use the TV remote, and lose their dentures. Think rambling Abe Simpson in The Simpsons or Pam’s puritanical grandma in The Office. It’s …
Is MURDER DEATH KOREATOWN great found footage horror or exploitative nonsense?
MURDER DEATH KOREATOWN is a chilling new found footage horror film. Or is it a disgusting exploitation film? Outsider art? It’s hard to say.
SPIRAL is a moving thriller about outsiders
Kurtis David Harder’s SPIRAL is a memorable and chilling low-budget horror movie with a star-making turn from Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman.
THE EIGHT HUNDRED can’t escape the horrors of war movie cliches
China’s World War 2-era epic THE EIGHT HUNDRED was a massive hit in its homeland. Can that success translate to American audiences?
TENET, or trying to solve a math problem in a car crash
The latest blockbuster effort from Christopher Nolan falls a bit short
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD delivers, but may not live up to my great expectations
The Personal History of David Copperfield has been part of a parade of ‘oh-wow-are-they-making-a-movie-of-that-again?’ literary classic film adaptations to roll through the theaters (or, perhaps, our at-home-theaters) in the last 12 months.
I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS – a masterpiece of miserabalism
The latest effort from Charlie Kaufman is a perfect counterpoint for Synecdoche, New York
REVIEW: THE BOYS Season 2 ups the ante on psychotic supes
The Boys Season 2 continues to do what it does best – highlight the narcissistic and capitalist greed surrounding the “branding” of superheroes – while adding a new layer of terror to the world’s least heroic do-gooders.
PENINSULA makes for a massively disappointing Train to Busan sequel
The hotly anticipated sequel to the international zombie smash falls short on just about every metric
Class Solidarity, KNIVES OUT, and PARASITE
PARASITE and KNIVES OUT are two of 2019’s finest films. Together, they have something interesting to say about class solidarity.
RELIC combines horror with heartache
Metaphorical psychological horror directorial debuts from Australian female filmmakers – do we have a future possible hyper-niche listing for viewers scrolling Netflix?
THE OLD GUARD would have made a better TV show than movie
The Old Guard had a lot of potential to be something special as a longer-form, character-based form of storytelling, with an intriguing core concept and stellar cast.
Wrestling with HAMILTON in 2020
In celebration of Hamilton dropping on Disney+ today, I revisit it and wrestle with the show’s politics and legacy five incredibly long years later.
Kore-eda lives out his French filmmaking dreams in THE TRUTH
Hirokazu Kore-eda follows up his Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters with a tribute to one of the icons of international cinema.