You Are Cordially Invited strives to find comedy somewhere outside of sitcom misunderstandings. It finds a little in farce — wrestling an alligator — but not enough to differentiate itself… Continue reading "You Are Cordially Invited (Stoller, 2025)"
I admired and respected September 5 as a work of art, but I confess that my interpretation of it seemed so out of step with those I saw it with… Continue reading "September 5 (Fenbaum, 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)"
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)"
If I am honest, I spent most of Sing Sing wishing there was a quality documentary about the material that I could watch instead. Part of that reaction can be… Continue reading "Sing Sing (Kwedar, 2023)"
Twisters was not a poorly made film from a spectacle perspective, but I found it repetitive and, hence, boring. There are five or six set pieces of the characters chasing… Continue reading "Twisters (Chung, 2024)"
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)"
