The first two notes I had from my advanced screening were about jokes in the opening five to ten minutes of screen time. Gru’s antagonist for the film takes on… Continue reading "Despicable Me 4 (Renaud and Delage, 2024)"
Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love is ruthlessly efficient at juxtaposing the boredom, banality, and brevity of stable domestic partnerships with the thrilling, intoxicating eroticism of newly found passion. In… Continue reading "The Nature of Love (Chokri, 2023)"
Tuesday is sort of a mash-up of The Seventh Seal and A Monster Calls, only death is a giant parrot who, instead of playing chess, does some grief therapy. Also,… Continue reading "Tuesday (Oniunas-Pusic, 2023)"
I spent most of Inside Out 2 trying to convince myself that it was significantly better or worse than what my gut was telling me, wondering how a film this… Continue reading "Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024)"
War and Justice suffers a bit too much from Well-Intentioned Documentary Syndrome. It is one of those films with a serious, self-evidently important topic (the International Criminal Court) that struggles… Continue reading "War and Justice (Gentile and Vetter, 2023)"
The hardest films to review are not the ones a critic dislikes but the ones he doesn’t get. When the reaction is antipathy, an honest critic can usually pinpoint specific… Continue reading "Gunfighter Paradise (Water, 2024)"
My click-bait reaction to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that it is the Star Wars movie that I’ve been waiting for almost forty years. The problem with… Continue reading "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Ball, 2024)"
Warning: This review contains plot spoilers. Those who want to avoid in-depth plot points prior to viewing should save this review and read it only after viewing. Somewhere during the… Continue reading "The Idea of You (Showalter, 2024)"
Red Whiteville and Blue has all the trappings of a Frank Capra picture. Small-town, plain folks join together in the face of economic hardship, seemingly powerless in the face of… Continue reading "Red Whiteville and Blue"
Part I of Martin Bourboulon’s newest iteration of The Three Musketeers made it onto my list of personal favorites from 2023. I was decidedly cooler towards Milady, so I’ve spent… Continue reading "The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady (Bourboulon, 2024)"
