The Shape of Water is a beautifully crafted story by master filmmaker Guierrmo Del Toro, but lacks the emotional depth to make it great. Love is love, even if it’s between a human woman and an amphibian man. That's the message that Guierrmo Del Toro seems to be trying to get across with his newest movie The…
Brigsby Bear is an offbeat comedy with a large beating heart at its center in the form of Saturday Night Live's Kyle Mooney Kyle Mooney is arguably the most underrated repertory cast member on Saturday Night Live. Since joining the cast in 2013, many of his sketches written with frequent collaborator and long-time friend Beck Bennet have been…
Phantom Thread is a surprisingly funny and poignant romance with stellar performances by Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, and, in particular, Vicky Krieps. I could listen to Daniel Day-Lewis order breakfast all day. In what is supposedly his final film performance, the three-time Oscar winner plays a role that encapsulates what makes him one of the greatest…
Mom and Dad is a ridiculous, campy horror-comedy starring Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair with a premise that it stretches to the absolute max. Mom and Dad comes on the heels of a line of highly successful horror movies about the anxiety of parenthood—mainly The Babadook, A Quiet Place, and Hereditary. While each of those examples is elevated…
Annihilation is equal parts beautiful, terrifying, and intellectual while also including an emotional truth about what it means to be human. High-minded sci-fi has defined the late 2010s with entries like Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 defining the period. Another film that could be included in that group is Alex Garland's Ex Machina. Garland explored extremely human topics by framing…
Red Sparrow delivers a thinly plotted, gratuitous espionage thriller that fails to take off despite a strong cast (with some questionable accents) At the end of Red Sparrow, the entire audience at the screening all physically recoiled when the screen cut to black. A few seconds after that, someone began to slow clap sarcastically and…
Love, Simon is groundbreaking as the first gay coming of age film by a major studio. Although, it is more than what it seems on the surface. This is what straight people must feel like when they watch romantic comedies. That's a comment that I've been seeing a lot about Love, Simon, the newest film by…
Ready Player One is a visual feast and boasts impressive action sequences that will certainly entertain, but it's missing heart, which makes the movie a letdown. The culture that Steven Spielberg’s latest film Ready Player One invokes is one that he had a hand in creating. Geek culture is something today that is discussed both positively…
Alex Strangelove, now streaming on Netflix, is a coming out dramedy with an identity crisis despite a charming lead performance by Daniel Doheny. Netflix's Alex Strangelove follows on the heels of Love, Simon, the first LGBT teen movie from a major studio. Love, Simon succeeds mostly in part to its lack of self-importance. It treats protagonist Simon as any…
Mission: Impossible — Fallout is yet another great entry in this long-running franchise thanks to Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise. Over the course of six movies, Mission: Impossible has basically turned into the franchise where Tom Cruise does crazy stunts. Fallout, the newest entry, is no exception—and I'd have it no other way. Christopher McQuarrie—he wrote and directed this…
