planet b234 Takes a Challenging Psychological Look at a Father-Son Relationship (Lighthouse International Film Festival ’22 Review)
I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for films about internalizing emotions. It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to portray on-screen in a visually engaging manner, and even when a piece of content isn’t entirely successful with this endeavor, I can still appreciate the effort that goes into it. Such is the case with planet […]
All Hellfire Breaks Loose in the “Stranger Things” Season 4 Premiere (Episode 4.1 Recap)
After a long, pandemic-laden three year wait, Stranger Things has finally returned to Netflix with its fourth, and penultimate, season. Ever since the release of season three in 2019, which left some asking why the show’s structural formula had not matured in any meaningful way creatively, the show has had to step up its game […]
Spanish Drama “Menina Casilda” Showcases a Disturbing Lockdown Pastime (Lighthouse International Film Festival ’22 Review)
We all accomplished something, or at least tried to, in our isolated quarantines in 2020. I was a junior in high school at the time, and to have any time off school was enough for me. It’s endlessly fascinating, though, to see what others were able to create during a time of being physically severed […]
Eiffel: The chemistry of the leads can’t salvage the film’s plotting (Review)
Let me first give a little disclaimer here and say that I’m not a French speaker. I’ve traveled in the country recently enough and have watched enough French cinema that I can pick up on a decent number of words, but I’m far from conversant. I raise this to say – as I’m about to […]
“The Boys” remains a gory delight even as real life closes in on the satire (Season 3 Spoiler-Free Review)
When I think about The Boys I’m invariably drawn back to a conversation with a friend of a friend. He’s a conservative, supposedly a “never Trump” sort, but is also vaccine hesitant, deeply concerned about the government encroaching on his rights, and the type of person who makes a “well you wanted to defund the […]