Movie Reviews

          Nearly forty years after Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining hit the silver screen, Doctor Sleep has finally come along to answer the question that has been burning in our brains since: what happened to Danny Torrence after his father tried to kill him and his mother? Okay, maybe this wasn’t burning in our brain.  But Doctor Sleep is a sequel to The Shinning and, thanks to the recent popularity of adapting Stephen King books, we got…

        The last time we saw director Taika Waititi he was changing the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Ragnarok, a film many regard as the best Thor film and a real standout of the entire MCU.  How does Waititi use his new found cache?  By making Jojo Rabbit, a movie about a Nazi youth who has an imaginary friend who just happens to be Adolf Hitler (who is played by Waititi…

        I saw Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite a little less than a month ago.  As soon as the credits started rolling I knew I had just watched a truly special film, but I was unsure how special.  I recently saw the film again and was blown away once again.  Bong Joon-Ho has crafted undoubtedly one of the best movies of 2019.  Fewer films have surprised, shocked, and moved me like Parasite did.  And yet, telling you what…

        Harriet Tubman is inarguably one of the greatest Americans to ever live.  The former slave-turned-abolitionist is responsible for freeing hundreds of slaves through various ways, including the Underground Railroad.  She is a true legend and it was only a matter of time before we got a biopic about her and her incredible journey. Kasi Lemmon’s Harriet is the worst kind of biopic.  Not the worst, but the worst kind.  This is…

          Writer/director Robert Eggers burst on to the cinematic scene in 2016 with his haunting debut, The Witch, a movie many consider to be one of the finest horror movies of the decade.  It is one of the strongest debuts of the decade and Eggers immediately established a style of writing and directing that was different and new, which made him one of the most exciting new voices in the game…

        The Terminator franchise is a franchise I wish was over.  In fact, I wrote a piece a few years ago about which franchises needed to die and spoiler for those who wanted to read the list, but the Terminator franchise landed at the number one spot.  It’s a franchise that has been around for almost forty years and one that should have ended ten years ago. James Cameron’s first two films, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement…

        Paradise Hills is one of the strangest movies I have seen in 2019, if not the strangest.  Writer/director Alice Waddington, in her feature directorial debut, has created a unique science fiction film that hooks you from frame one.  It’s a stunning debut and a film I couldn’t look away from. Paradise Hills opens on a Victorian-style wedding with a twist.  We meet Uma (Emma Roberts), our bride, who is wearing a white…

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film.         Extracurricular is wild, rambunctious film that subverts the hostage genre.  This is a hostage film that is about far more than that hostage that is taking place.  This is a movie that looks at broken families, corrupt governments, and a man desperate to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. The film looks at…

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film.             When you think of the sport of basketball, you think of the jump shot.  Like dribbling or passing, the jump shot seems to be just a basic fundamental of the game of basketball and something you are taught when you are first introduced to the game. But did…

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film.         Milos Forman was an all-time great director.  He was a major player in the Czech New Wave, a film movement in Czechoslovakia where Forman and a number of other rebellious filmmakers made avant garde, cinema verité-like films in response to their countries propaganda-fueled cinema.  He’s a two time Oscar winner…