Movie Reviews

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film as opposed to the more in-depth reviews I usually do.           No, this isn’t a Lion King origin story.  Rafiki, which means “friend” in Swahili, is a forbidden love story about tomboy Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) who falls in love with Ziki (Shelia Munyiva), though not without problems.  Besides the fact that both of…

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film as opposed to the more in-depth reviews I usually do.             Joël Karekezi’s film The Mercy of the Jungle tells the story of Sergeant Xavier (Marc Zinga) and Private Faustin (Stéphane Bak), two men who get separated from their troop and must travel long distances to join them.  However,…

*NOTE: This review is going to be a CAPSULE review, which means it’ll be a tight, quick critique of the film as opposed to the more in-depth reviews I usually do.           Over the years of going to the Chicago International Film Festival, the After Dark program has been one of my favorite parts of the festival, as it showcases some of the wildest movies from around the world.  Filled with…

“The world has enough superheroes.” Such is the tagline for Ruben Fleischer’s Venom, a film that looked to be the supervillain origin story of one of Spider-Man’s most infamous foes.  Supervillain origin stories have never been a thing in cinema, especially from major comic companies like Marvel and DC.  The closest we’ve gotten is M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, but other than that, the only villain-focused film we’ve gotten is Suicide Squad, which, simply put, is an abomination.  But…

      “Music is essentially 12 notes between any octave – 12 notes and the octave repeat. It’s the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer this world is how they see those 12 notes. That’s it.”     Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, A Star is Born, is the fourth telling of the classic story, dating all the way back to 1937, with subsequent remakes in 1954 and 1976.  Each movie…

      Director Eli Roth is known for being a horror director (and being the Bear Jew in Inglorious Basterds).  Kicking off his career with Cabin Fever and progressing into bigger, bloodier fare like Hostel, Green Inferno, and Knock Knock, with a slew of shorts and guest spots, Roth gained notoriety for the immense violence and gore in his movies, becoming a staple in the Torture Porn Horror genre. But 2018 has been a growing year for the director. …

        The Predator is a movie that I am going to watch constantly on HBO in about a year.  That isn’t necessarily the best compliment for a movie, as I tend to have HBO on as background noise while I write reviews or go to sleep.  The movies I tend to choose for my background noise are movies that I love dearly that I’ve seen dozens of times or movies that I don’t…

        As I walked into A Simple Favor, there was one question looming in my mind.  And no, it wasn’t, “what happened to Emily?” The question was could Paul Fieg direct a thriller? Fieg, known for some of the great comedies this decade with Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy, and Ghostbusters has never done a movie quite like this before.  Film history has been mixed on comedic directors going towards the dramatic side.  Sometimes it’s been great, like…

        One of the things that excites me most as a critic is seeing new voices.  New directors who show us something fresh and unique that strays away from the norm of cinema.  It offers up an interesting film-going experience, as well as gets me excited for the future of cinema. Kin is the debut film from twin directors Jonathon and Josh Baker and it is an impressive debut.  Though the film is…