Category: Review

  • Eighth Grade

    Eighth Grade

    Anyone who says they loved eighth grade is lying. It’s the perfect storm. Bullies, hormones, rejection, fear, doubt, and self-loathing. Rinse, repeat. But what was hell on earth is cinema heaven. Enter stand-up comedian Bo Burnham. Eighth Grade is Burnham’s feature film debut, and he couldn’t have picked a time in our lives more rife…

  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

    Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

    Could there be a movie more needed in 2018 than Won’t You Be My Neighbor? As fear and tribalism reach fever pitch, we desperately need a mirror held up to our humanity. Fred Rogers was that mirror, not by pointing a finger, but by living a life of selfless love that still resonates today. The…

  • Cargo / Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom / Sicario: Day of the Soldado

    Cargo / Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom / Sicario: Day of the Soldado

    Welcome to another edition of Mini-Review Roundup where we present smaller reviews of several movies at once. Up this time: Cargo, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado.   Cargo   The zombie genre has just about come and gone in this era of prestige television and volatile blockbusters. The Walking Dead,…

  • The Boys in the Band

    The Boys in the Band

    In June I went to the library to pick up Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band, and while walking to the video section, I passed a display table of items in honor of LGBT+ Pride month. Perhaps it was a venial cynicism that heckled me from looking if The Boys were there, but after…

  • Lean on Pete

    Lean on Pete

    I think back on the genre of “horse movies” I have watched (some repeatedly) and loved such as My Friend Flicka, The Black Stallion, National Velvet, Sea Biscuit, and War Horse. In them, the horse was the central character or at least the co-star. Lean on Pete is not one of those. Rather, Lean on…

  • First Reformed

    First Reformed

    Paul Schrader is better known for his writing than directing. Though he’s directed over 20 films, it’s his screenwriting collaborations with Martin Scorsese that have stood the test of time. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Bringing Out the Dead highlight Schrader’s proclivities as a writer. All three feature a tortured protagonist walking against the current…

  • Incredibles 2

    Incredibles 2

    After a long hiatus, the Incredibles are back! Incredibles 2 has a lot to live up to, and Pixar’s Brad Bird does his best to make the family’s return a triumphant one. It’s All in the Family Incredibles 2 picks up right where the last film left off, and it immediately delves more into the…

  • Solo: A Star Wars Story

    Solo: A Star Wars Story

    In the continued Hollywood landscape of expanding universes and intellectual property mining, very few franchises feel at home apart from their source material. Comic book movies have, well, their comic books. Book series like Game of Thrones and old films like Westworld find their homes in prestige television ventures. But perhaps no existing franchise feels…

  • Hereditary

    Hereditary

    Despite the billing it has received, Hereditary is not primarily a horror film. Yes, it continues A24’s unsettling run of hybrid horror successes, along with The Witch and It Comes At Night. And yes, it is the scariest, most unsettling movie to hit theaters in years. But at the heart of Hereditary’s blackened soul lies…

  • Disobedience

    Disobedience

    The death of one’s last remaining parent can be impactful beyond one’s expectations. For most of us, it signals the end of the generation from which we learned who we were and that gave us our initial values. Some of us cling to those values without exception but most of us in our teens (Erik…