“Yay, team good guys, I guess,” said my friend Max while leaving the theater and succinctly expressing my own ambivalence toward Ridley Scott’s dull, plodding, and completely unnecessary sequel. There… Continue reading "Gladiator II (Scott, 2024)"
Wicked is a bright, loud paintball splatter of a movie — one that seems to me to be as uncertain of what it wants to be as it is how… Continue reading "Wicked (Chu, 2024)"
On the pitch level, Red One sounds as though it should be critic-proof. The always likable Dwayne Johnson stars as an elf who heads Santa’s security team only to see… Continue reading "Red One (Kasdan, 2024)"
A Real Pain is a good, not great, film. The film depicts two Jewish brothers cousins (Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) on a “heritage” tour of Poland and concludes with… Continue reading "A Real Pain (Eisenberg, 2024)"
I was moved by Fighting Spirit, a documentary about military chaplains that is conventional in its filmcraft but mostly lets its powerful content speak for itself. While the film is… Continue reading "Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey (Hull & Roberts, 2024)"
Do a word cloud of early reviews of Last Party, and the most frequently used adjective would most likely be “confusing.” There are, of course, films that are confusing by… Continue reading "Last Party (Dozol, 2024)"
Earlier this year, I wrote on social media about a documentary chronicling the life of a gay subject, and my review almost immediately received a comment (since deleted) expressing surprise… Continue reading "Chasing Chasing Amy (Rodgers, 2024)"
Exhibiting Forgiveness is the second film I’ve seen in as many days that purports to address autobiographical or personal themes close to the film’s auteur. Director Titus Kaphar says it… Continue reading "Exhibiting Forgiveness (Kaphar, 2024)"
Modernish, Inc. is a good but not great documentary that advances my understanding of a topic — design — that I knew very little about going in. If that’s faint… Continue reading "Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story (Cohn, 2023)"
“Victory lies at the intersection of vulnerability and acceptance,” opines writer/director Rocky Walls. That sentiment so earnestly captures Dirty Laundry‘s themes and tone that it is tempting to accept it… Continue reading "Dirty Laundry (Walls, 2024)"
