Oct 14, 2026 • Watched

Heretic

Not A Review For Heretic. When I click "Here (2024)", Heretic pulls up, so I guess this will be where I put my thoughts on the Zemeckis film from the same year. The use of a static frame for a feature length, post-modern time-traveling mood board is cool. Its graphic novel source material is inspired. In practice, though, it's a gimmick that sinks. Its storytelling centers around unsatisfying Americana boomer cope with token minority tales wedged into the background. Nice experiment, at least.

Oct 14, 2026 • Watched

Masters of the Universe

This would have done so well if it had come out a decade or two prior, but in the age of comic book movie burnout, it's just the wrong time for a blockbuster like this. 'Tis a shame, because this is way better than I expected it'd be. They really took the time & care to balance its tone, action, fan service, broad appeal, characters, and pacing to make a solid popcorn flick. Perhaps the best surprise is that Jared Leto works in a flashy role. Perhaps the worst is that it's set in Oklahoma City.

Oct 14, 2026 • Watched

Digger

This is my placeholder until Digger (2026) gets added to the db. Career defining work from its director & lead actor that breaks the fourth wall so hard, I think even the seventh wall in another dimension got broken, too. Inarritu writes a ton of loopholes into his film that ensure every criticism can be explained away as an artistic choice or self-aware commentary. It's indulgent and daring, but everything it does passes snuff. Crucial, urgent, necessary intellectualism against intellectualism.

Oct 14, 2026 • Watched

Primetime

I find that the best aspects of Primetime are its aesthetics. Pattinson is incredible, and the visual language of color, light & editing are impressive. It captures the mid-2000s threshold between dial-up and broadband, tube TV to flatscreen, reality shows to the no-rules world of YouTube. It's very loose with the truth, though, and not in a self-critical way. Too much is implied or left vague. For a skewering of the good taste & ethical journalism blur, Nightcrawler is better in every respect.

Oct 13, 2026 • Watched

Undertone

I forgot I watched this, which maybe says something. As someone with a podcast, I do like the podcast premise here. The sound design would probably have been great in a movie theater, jarring as it can be. I like the minimalist approach alright, but I guess I'm just forever tired of demonic psychological thrillers. It works better for me as a metaphor for whatever is happening with the hospice situation upstairs, but that is muddled. The finale is cliche, but at least it escalates to something.

Oct 13, 2026 • Watched

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Should I have seen it without being caught up on the Marvel MCU? Maybe not. I haven't seen an outing with Spider-Man since Avengers: Endgame, and I haven't seen a Spider-Man film since Homecoming. Despite not being able to appreciate the aftermath of whatever happened in No Way Home or Multiverse of Madness, I found a lot to love. I was able to fill in some of the gaps, I found the surprise villain a nice turn, and the themes of loneliness & exile may be as good as Spider-Man 2. Fun & endearing.

Oct 13, 2026 • Watched

Passenger

I'm not naturally inclined to liking horror movies, especially if they depend on hauntings and jumpscares, and I wouldn't have seen this if someone else hadn't picked it for spooky season. It's not a bad concept -- haunted house demon stuff except it's with folks living out of a van -- but it never does anything all that interesting with it. The lore is undercooked, the characters are minimal, the villain is generic as hell, and the plot developments aren't set up well. I was bored by the end.

Oct 1, 2026 • Watched

Sleepy Hollow

Perfect movie to start off the October month!!

Sep 8, 2026 • Watched

The Odyssey

Not a perfect movie, and not even a subject matter I much care about. The casting is weird, sure, but if it means Travis Scott is a Greek bard, I'm in. Give me that sweet anachronism; it's icing on the cake. I've always been forgiving of Nolan's weakness in portraying the human heart because I think he gets the human spirit right. Here it is in all its glory, all its failings, and all its tenacity. Impeccable filmmaking, incredible on IMAX, built on a timeless tale with a new twist of relevancy.

Sep 8, 2026 • Watched

Lou

I was curious to see an older woman badass role, and I got what I came for. I dunno much about Allison Janney, but her grizzled, loner character worked for me. The other characters, though, were tropey, thin, or both. The plot twists are kinda cheap, so the way they inform the characters feels cheap. The visuals are glum, which enables a few nice shots. Lots of rain. I still lost interest by the final two set pieces. An ok diversion if it fits the mood, but I'm not sure it had much to say.

Sep 8, 2026 • Watched

Coyote vs. Acme

Lots to love here. My favorite parts of the whole film are the peripheral gags & easter eggs, jokes that felt so clever, yet so Looney, that its tonal worldbuilding hooked me. Absolute magic. I wanted to stay. But not exactly for the narrative, which is topical and cute but ultimately tepid. Wile E. is great. Will Forte is fine. The CG animation has its moments, both good and bad. Might be the best live action animation hybrid since Roger Rabbit? But it's still a far cry from that masterpiece.

Jul 31, 2026 • Watched

Colossal

Despite the warm critical reception, I had low expectations from a few key reactions I heard, and yet still, I was disappointed. I love the idea of blowing genre to bits, to be clear. This makes all the moves of a rom-com and subverts them all. But what's left? Ridiculous in-world logic and a metaphor so frustratingly messy that I gave up by the finale. Hathaway does her best, Jason Sudeikis is fine, but neither character is convincing. Then it teases the Bechdel test only to fail it. No thanks.

Jul 24, 2026 • Watched

BlackBerry

I thought I'd avoided all of these product biopics (Nike, Flaming Hot Cheetos, Tetris) until I watched Nirvanna & learned that Blackberry is from the same creators. Gosh bless them Canadian can-do kids. I gather this is very exaggerated, and no doubt the timeline of events was squished together for the sake of efficiency and pacing. It works. I was glued to the screen. The handcam zooms capture tech garage dreams as they are eaten up by cheap, glossy capitalist machinery. Smart, sad, inevitable.

Jul 20, 2026 • Watched

Dune: Part Two

All I know about Dune is what I've seen in the Lynch version and Villeneuve's Part One (and Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice"), but my partner confirms it's as faithful an adaptation as one can expect. I couldn't appreciate those details, but I do love this darkly calculated epic grandeur. It's edited to utmost efficiency, its visuals hum with originality, and thankfully someone told Hans Zimmer to simmer down. A satisfying middle to a trilogy is never guaranteed, so I was exceptionally pleased.

Jul 20, 2026 • Watched

Frankenstein

I struggle to critique it. It's an expertly crafted, passionately told story that feels more definitive than any take in decades on this classic tale. I don't know the source material, so I had to find out later which elements were new and which were standard. It didn't make much difference; my feelings are the same. The reliance on CGI, especially in impossibly picturesque wide shots, felt too perfect to me. Somehow, I find the tailored filmmaking undercuts the flawed nature of what it serves.

Jul 20, 2026 • Watched

Donkey Skin

Maybe I'm too used to conventional Hollywood storytelling, but I wanted this to be either more streamlined or more unhinged, more family-friendly or more adult. A friend had to explain to me the context of its gay director and the story's rationale for being about incest at all. It helps, as do the anachronistic elements. The songs are fun. (I'm less partial to the score.) The colors, costuming, and set design are truly iconic, but the plot detours and pacing kept me at odds with the experience.

Jun 27, 2026 • Watched

12 Angry Men

Jun 26, 2026 • Watched

The Apartment

Jun 22, 2026 • Watched

Star Time

A few years before Natural Born Killers became the poster child for mass murder media infamy, this forgotten indie explored the topic through a shadowy, painfully isolated lens. Its satire is aimed directly at the psyche instead of the societal, with unreliable narrator, splintered timeline, and a wire walk between absurd humor and off-putting horror. Lynchian-weird in the best ways, its ramp-up is best viewed without a synopsis. Hardly revelatory in its message, but inspired in how it tells it.