Movie Reviews

  Only the River Flows is a tightly constructed crime film about a good detective who begins to lose his grip on reality when he gets too involved in a case. Only the River Flows takes place in a rundown city in Southern China in 1995. The buildings are dilapidated, the streets are dirty, and it is always raining. An old woman, known around town as Granny Four, is murdered and the prime suspect is…

  Club Zero is a bizarre, quietly terrifying film about blind faith and following new trends led by a terrific lead performance by Mia Wasikowska. Ms. Novak (Wasikowska) takes a job at an elite prep school teaching a new health class about what she calls “conscience eating”. Less than a dozen students join her class, but Ms. Novak has an immediate effect on them. Teaching the kids her conscience eating method seems simple enough, as…

  The People’s Joker first gained notoriety in 2022 because its premiere was pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival lineup at the last minute because, according to writer/director/star/editor Vera Drew, a media conglomerate sent her, “an angry letter pressuring to not screen” due to copyright issues pertaining to characters in the film. Drew was able to clear any and all rights issues and has been showing the film around festivals this year. The People’s…

  Killers of the Flower Moon is another sprawling epic from director Martin Scorsese. It is a gripping, three-and-a-half-hour-long crime western about an American atrocity that shows how America is rooted in blood and greed. It is another masterwork from the living legend and one of the year’s best films. Based on David Grann’s non-fiction book Killers of the Flower: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, Killers of the Flower Moon takes…

  As of writing this review, the superhero genre is a hot mess. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is lost in the world of the multiverse and doesn’t seem to be getting out of it anytime soon. The Universe seems stagnant and there doesn’t seem to be a direction to where it is going. DC is going through a revamp by bringing in James Gunn to take control of its new universe, but they might also…

  The Hill is a run-of-the-mill inspirational baseball movie about how one man beat the odds to make it to the pros with the help of the people around him, hard work, and determination. The film was co-written by Angelo Pizzo, a screenwriter who has made a living off writing inspirational sports films. He has written such films as Hoosiers and Rudy, along with a few other inspirational sports films, all focusing on underdogs who…

Oppenheimer is a biopic as only Christopher Nolan could make. It features a plot with multiple timelines and multiple perspectives. It is filmed on a scale that no other director is capable of working on. It is a technical marvel and features possibly the best ensemble cast in 2023. It is a towering achievement and one of the best movies of the year. J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) was one of the most brilliant minds…

  Theater Camp is a film that has heart, humor, and not much else. This is a paper-thin mockumentary that despite having several interesting characters, can’t decide which character or story to focus on. Theater Camp takes us to AdirondACTS, a theater camp in upstate New York. After its founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, her clueless “crypto-bro” son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is tasked with keeping the thespian paradise running. With the camp…

  The opening ten minutes or so of Great Gerwig’s Barbie are truly magical. Through the voiceover of Helen Mirren, Gerwig establishes that there are two worlds: there is the “Real World”, where real humans live, and Barbieland, a matriarchal utopia that is inhabited by several different variations of Barbie, like President Barbie, Doctor Barbie, and Lawyer Barbie, among other occupations. Their counterparts in Barbieland are all named Ken (and there is one named Allan,…

  The League is an informative and excellent documentary about the Negro League, the all Black baseball league that produced some of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game, like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Satchel Paige. The film looks at how the League got started in the late 1800s, the struggles it faced, and the effect it had on Black America and its communities. When most people think about the Negro League…