We’ve all heard the saying, “two is plenty, three’s a crowd,” at some point in our lives. While it’s self-explanatory, the saying means that two people can enjoy each other’s company comfortably, but adding a third person can create awkwardness or tension. Watching Tim Story’s The Pickup, that old proverb kept running through my head. The film stars Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson as two armored truck drivers whose truck is the target of…
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Weapons has an incredible hook: one night, at 2:17 am, 17 kids from the same class woke up, ran out of their houses, and seemingly disappeared into the night. Nobody knows where they went, nobody knows why they ran out of the house, and nobody can find them. It’s hard not to be hooked by such a simple yet chilling premise for a film. But with that comes the pressure of executing a story…
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Mike Nichols’ 1971 drama Carnal Knowledge has been added to the Criterion Collection. Amid the sexual revolution and social upheaval of the early 1970s, acclaimed director Mike Nichols delivered a zeitgeist-defining examination of American mores. Sharply written by Jules Feiffer, this acerbic drama flashes through more than twenty years in the lives of two college buddies (Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel) whose casual chauvinism is all fun and games—until it’s not. As the women who suffer and…
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After leaving my screening for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and processing my thoughts on the film, the subtitle First Steps kept circling in my brain. With this being the first time we have seen the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film very easily could have just been titled Fantastic Four, much like how almost every other superhero’s first film is just titled…
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Is it too soon to make a COVID-19 movie? While the virus that overtook the world back in 2020 has been featured in a few films over the last five years, whether directly like in Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi or Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which found our characters working from home, isolating, and wearing masks, or allegorically like in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, where the characters are quarantined after coming into…
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We are halfway through 2025, which means it is time to look at the best movies of 2025 so far. I have seen 55 new releases so far this year (97 total, including film festival movies and movies that will be released later this year). At this point in 2025, I would consider it a mixed year for movies. A lot of the movies I have liked have been smaller indie films or auteur-driven vehicles….
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Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh entry in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, is almost a great film. Following Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film, the franchise hasn’t come close to sniffing the quality of that masterpiece, with each entry seemingly getting worse. With Jurassic World Rebirth, it starts with a great idea and interesting characters. It even features moments that reminded me of Spielberg’s first film, which makes the “almost” even more heartbreaking. Jurassic World Rebirth…
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James Gunn’s Superman is an important movie. Not only is Gunn rebooting the iconic superhero for the fourth time, but he has also been appointed to launch a new DC cinematic universe, following the failed attempt in the 2010s by Zack Snyder. Starting with Superman to kick off a cinematic universe of this magnitude is a good idea. The Man of Steel is arguably the most famous superhero and has been for decades. Everyone…
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Charlotte Zwerin’s 1988 documentary Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser has been added to the Criterion Collection. The closest a film camera ever got to enigmatic jazz visionary Thelonious Monk, this intimate portrait sheds light on the corners of a brilliant and complex life. Superbly crafted by Direct Cinema pioneer Charlotte Zwerin from a trove of precious 1960s archival footage, Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser captures the pianist, composer, and bebop innovator in rare, unguarded moments on- and offstage, revealing an…
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F1® The Movie establishes its personality right from the opening scene. Taking place at the 24 Hours at Daytona, an endurance race where race teams race for 24 hours, we are introduced to Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is preparing to take over the driving from his teammate. When Hayes gets behind the wheel, we immediately learn how great a driver he is. He’s aggressive and smart, seamlessly moving past other drivers. Director Joseph…
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