Movie Reviews

  Watching Emilia Pérez felt like I was watching a movie made by five different directors, all of whom wanted to make something different. It’s part gritty crime drama, part musical, part soap opera, part love story, part social message movie. The result is an audacious yet messy film. Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is an underappreciated lawyer who just won a big case despite it being against her moral conscience. Struggling to stay passionate about her…

  Gladiator II is an epic sequel to the 2000 Best Picture winner that features stunning direction, thrilling action, and one of the best performances of the year only for it to be bogged down by an underwhelming screenplay. Sixteen years after the death of Marcus Aurelius, Rome is a city of corruption. It is now run by two psychotic emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and the city seems to be on…

  The Fire Inside is a great sports movie because it hits all the familiar beats a good sports movie should hit. It tells an inspiring story, features exciting sports action, and is exhilarating. The central athlete and coach are the heart of the film. But it is where The Fire Inside takes the story that elevates it into a great sports drama. The Fire Inside is the true story of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Sheilds (Ryan…

  A Complete Unknown is a good film and better than most music biographies. Director James Mangold, who also directed the excellent Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, has crafted an interesting biopic with great music and a sensational lead performance. A Complete Unknown is about folk/rock legend Bob Dylan, played here by Timothee Chalamet. The film doesn’t show his entire career as an artist but focuses on his life from 1961, when Bob first…

  I’m late to the party on Smile 2, which came out in the middle of October, but I just watched it for the first time a few days ago as it just hit streaming. A busy schedule of movies and life got in the way of me seeing this in theaters, but I’m happy I was able to check the movie out before the end of the year because Smile 2 might have shaken…

  Moana 2 is an enjoyable but disappointing experience. The sequel to the 2016 Oscar-nominated film is bright and colorful, features nice moments of humor, and has a good lesson at its core but it lacks the first film’s emotional depth and catchy songs. Moana 2 kicks off with our Polynesian heroine Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho), now her island’s greatest wayfinder and sea navigator, searching for other civilizations amongst the waters. When she finds…

  Actress Zoë Kravitz is the latest actor to take their talents behind the camera as director with Blink Twice, an interesting and well-made movie with familiar plot beats and twists. Roommates Frida (Naomi Acki) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) are working at a high-class dinner party thrown by Slater King (Channing Tatum). Through a chance interaction, Slater invites Frida and Jess to his new private island with a few friends. Frida and Jess take Slater…

There are few things cinematically that annoy me more than two great actors being in a terrible film. The Rule of Jenny Pen, which stars Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow, is such a project. While the actors give it their all and give good performances, everything else around them is bad, from the plot to the idiot side characters to the lack of scares in this apparent horror film. Rush plays Stefan Mortensen, a lonely…

  Aislinn Clarke’s Fréwaka is a chilling and haunting horror film rooted deeply in Irish folk lore. Siubhán (Clare Monnelly) — known to her friends as “Shoo”, is a home care nurse who is struggling with the recent death of her mother. She is assigned to the home of Pieg (Bríd Ní Neachtain), an elderly woman who lives in an isolated cabin far away from civilization. Pieg’s home is covered in wards and charms to…

  Known more for his work as a documentarian, director Joshua Oppenheimer makes his feature directorial debut with The End, a musical about the last family on Earth. Deep inside an underground bunker lives a family comprised of Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon), Son (George McKay), Friend (Bronagh Gallagher), Butler (Tim McInnery), and Doctor (Lennie James). The world ended years ago, and they have been living in this bunker since, despite having a part…