Nope: A Takedown of Influencer Culture (Review)
On New Years Eve in 2017, former social media influencer/semi-professional boxer and current WWE superstar Logan Paul visited Aokigahara near the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, also unflatteringly known as “suicide forest”. There, he, camping with a few friends, found a recently deceased corpse and decided to film it to upload for his many […]
“The Black Phone” is effectively chilling, even for horror skeptics (Review)
Full disclosure; I don’t like horror movies. I was born too late to be nostalgic for the classics, and was the perfect young age to be terrified by the 90’s slashers that, in retrospect, aren’t all that scary. A movie like Scream, for example, was a type of meta I wasn’t capable of understanding at […]
“Cha Cha Real Smooth” succeeds in capturing human connection (Review)
Take a trip back to 8th grade with me. You’re a wallflower staring out at a sea of your peers, many of them far more bold than you would ever dare to be. Remember the anxiety and the excitement. The whole world was in front of you filled with seemingly infinite possibilities. In Cooper Raiff’s […]
‘La Haine’: The Film For A Generation…and The Generation After That…and The Generation After That… (Discussion)
A day is nothing more than a ticking time bomb in the slice-of-dreadful life drama La Haine. In 1990s riot-torn France, tensions between police and those they’ve sworn to protect are high after a brutal night of protests, riots, and looting. We are shepherded on our journey by Vinz, Saïd, and Hubert, each with a […]
“Jerry and Marge Go Large” is pleasant and utterly disposable (Tribeca Film Festival ’22 Review)
Jerry and Marge Go Large is a genial story of a recently laid off older man who manages to crack the formula for regularly winning a lottery game. He uses his discovery to win millions of dollars which is largely deployed to help revitalize his community. It’s a bit of groaner of a plot description, […]
“Lightyear” Soars When It Escapes the IP Shackles (Review)
It’s hard to escape the cynical genesis of this movie. Confusingly branded from the jump (voice actor Chris Evans once tweeted that it was about the human man upon whom the Buzz Lightyear toy was based), and the final explanation – that the film is the movie that blew Andy’s mind and inspired his desire […]
“The Policeman’s Lineage” is a Fever Dream Whose Rewards Are Outweighed by Its Demerits (Review)
The Policeman’s Lineage is a film of many faces, if all of those faces were blurry or faded, and none of them were fleshed out or fully realized. Directed by Kyoo-man Lee (Wide Awake) and starring two Parasite alums, Choi-woo Shik and Park Myung-hoon, the film establishes itself as something akin to a fever dream in […]
Family Dinner Shines a Light on the Horror of Body Negativity (Tribeca Film Festival 2022 Review)
There’s an instant sense of dread as Family Dinner, a horror film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, begins to play. We’re taken down the winding back roads of the Austrian countryside, past dead trees and empty fields, a dream that could so easily become a nightmare. A strong feature debut by Austrian writer/director Peter […]
Jurassic World Dominion is nowhere near enough fun for how dumb it is (Review)
Let’s step in a time machine for a moment. 1993. Eight year old Bernard’s mind is absolutely blown by a little movie called Jurassic Park. I saw it 8 times in theaters that summer, including hitting up relatives who’d yet to see the movie to make an extra trip. I later wore a VHS tape […]
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers – Clayne Crawford shines in a well-acted morality drama (Tribeca Film Festival 2022 Review)
I think it is nearly impossible to engage in any serious discussion of this film without describing the “twist” in the middle of the film. Accordingly, the spoiler adverse should be warned that the midpoint shall be outed. Clayne Crawford (Rectify) plays a man – the titular Joseph Chambers – who, obsessed with the general […]
Kaepernick & America – The Problem We All (Still) Live With (Tribeca Film Festival ’22 Review)
Kaepernick & America is a documentary film that tells the story of one of the most polarizing figures in American sports. A man who gave up his career and choose to be vilified and purposefully misunderstood, so that he could use his platform to give a voice to the oppressed and disenfranchised. The film spends […]
“Dr. Delirium and the Edgewood Experiments” is a terrifying portrait of American moral failure (Review)
PSA: The following may cause readers to lose whatever faith they have left in their government. In the 1960’s, the United States was smack dab in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. What many don’t know is that there was an internal war going on in their own backyard. Dr. Delirium […]