The Call of the Wild Review: Come for the Dog, Stay for Ford

The Call of the Wild Review: Come for the Dog, Stay for Ford

Serious fans of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild novel will likely be disappointed in the latest adaptation by 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox, now owned by Disney, and one of Fox’s final productions). The novel is surely dated and somewhat problematic now, with its treatment of North American indigenous people and the…

Birds of Prey Review: Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Is Back

Birds of Prey Review: Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn Is Back

A funny thing happened on the way to my press screening of Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (and if you think I’m typing that title full-on again in this review, well, we’ll see how the word count goes), and I blame myself entirely. I didn’t know that Birds of Prey…

Bad Boys for Life Review: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Are Back!

Bad Boys for Life Review: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Are Back!

January tends to be a dumping ground for movies. Everyone’s wrapped up in awards talk, and studios are busy pushing their films for Oscar consideration. Sometimes, as a critic, I wonder if studios can walk and chew gum at the same time, much less release a big-budget action film in January while trying to navigate…

Zombieland: Double Tap Review

Zombieland: Double Tap Review

Unlike the Twinkie (supposedly), zombie movies don’t seem to have an expiration date. And so we get Zombieland: Double Tap, a 10-years-later sequel to 2009’s Zombieland that, at first blush, doesn’t seem to be a movie we necessarily needed or wanted. Ruben Fleischer’s original film was an enjoyable comedy with some fun, gnarly zombie kills and…

Knives Out Review - Fantastic Fest 2019

Knives Out Review – Fantastic Fest 2019

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is an engine of perfect entertainment. From the opening moments, we are swept into the story and characters, and it feels completely confident and effortless. It’s old-fashioned in all the best ways but it also has modern sensibilities and themes that give the film weight and substance. The murder mystery, as a…

Synchronic Review - Fantastic Fest 2019

Synchronic Review – Fantastic Fest 2019

These days, science fiction films aren’t necessarily about the ideas but the spectacle.  Many have several hundred-million-dollar budgets, gigantic CGI moments, and actors who work against green screens all day playing pretend on a wide scale. And while those films done right are perfectly enjoyable, it feels like something has been lost. Great character work,…

It Chapter Two Review

It Chapter Two Review

It Chapter Two is a glorious mess. When the decision was made to split Stephen King’s It into two films, it seemed a sensible choice. The novel is over 1,100 pages long, and even the space of two lengthy films couldn’t possibly cover everything. King’s novel not only dives into the characters of the Loser’s Club…

Stuber Review

Stuber Review: The Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista Action Comedy

Stuber feels almost revolutionary in a summer where every film seems to have earth-shattering stakes and where the simple pleasures of a good belly laugh and solid chemistry between actors happy to be there seem like the movie staples of a bygone era.  To whip out an old critic’s cliché, they really don’t make them…

Midsommar Review: Let the Festivities Begin

Midsommar Review: Let the Festivities Begin

It’s difficult not to compare Ari Aster’s Midsommar to his previous film, Hereditary; in both, Aster uses grief as an entry point into explorations of horror and despair. In the case of Midsommar, that grief hits directly and quickly as Dani (Florence Pugh) is given some devastating news that destroys her world as she knows it. Her…