You are not prepared for The Substance. I could tell you everything that happens in this movie and it still would not prepare you for what happens in the film. It is an epic, fearless, gross, shocking film featuring two dynamic performances. It’s as visceral a filmgoing experience as I have had in 2024. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging celebrity whose star has diminished since she peaked in the 80s. After getting…
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John Mackenzie’s London crime thriller The Long Good Friday has been given a 4k restoration from the Criterion Collection. A combustible performance from Bob Hoskins is the fuse that lights this underworld saga, a landmark of British crime cinema. Hoskins plays Harold Shand, an ambitious London mobster who, just as he attempts to close a major real-estate deal with the American Mafia, finds his crime empire rocked by a string of attacks, sending him on…
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Alien: Romulus was a conflicting watch. I love the Alien franchise. It is one of my all-time favorite franchises. The world Ridley Scott built, and the unique sequels have made it one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time. But Alien: Romulus is not a great Alien film. It’s a fine Alien film that had some cool moments but didn’t expand the world as much as it could have nor did anything original….
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James McAvoy gives a terrifying and brilliant performance in Speak No Evil, James Watkins’ American adaptation of Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 Danish thriller of the same name. Speak No Evil is almost beat for beat the same as the original until the film’s final act. Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben (Scoot McNairy) are an American couple on vacation with their daughter in Tuscany. They befriend a British family, Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi),…
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is one of the best times I have had at the movies in 2024. Director Tim Burton returns to a form we have not seen from him in over a decade to give us an entertaining, hilarious, and heartfelt film that features spectacular sets, costumes, performances, and practical effects. Picking up 36 years after the original film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice introduces us to adult Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a paranormal hunter with a successful…
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