Denzel Washington breaks a guys arm in THE EQUALIZER 3
FILM REVIEWS

THE EQUALIZER 3 (2023)

Denzel Washington eats, prays, loves, maims, mutilates, and murders in Anton Fuqua's The Equalizer 3 (2023), a dumb and dour action thriller that is both unpleasant to watch and bad for the world.

Academy Award statues standing in front of posters for the Best Picture nominees (American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest))
FILM REVIEWS

2024 OSCAR PICKS & PREDICTIONS

My choices for who will win, who should win, and who must not be allowed to win at the 96th Annual Academy Awards.

OTHER RECENT POSTS

A tight close-up of a menacing sloth's face and claws, from SLOTHERHOUSE
FILM REVIEWS

SLOTHERHOUSE (2023)

Godard said all you need for a movie is a girl and a gun, but did he ever really consider the cinematic possibilities of a sloth with a sword? The minds behind the horror-comedy Slotherhouse did, and we thank them for it.

Helen Mirren as GOLDA (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

GOLDA (2023)

As Golda Meir, Helen Mirren gives a showy but shallow impersonation, in a disappointing historical biopic more emotional than illuminating.

RETRIBUTION (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

RETRIBUTION (2023)

How do you continue churning out angry White man wish-fulfillment action fantasies in your 70s? If you're Liam Neeson, you make a forgettable bomb-in-a-car thriller that doesn't actually require you to move around too much.

David Harbour and Archie Madekwe in Gran Turismo (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

GRAN TURISMO (2023)

Though skillfully made, Neill Blomkamp's Gran Turismo squanders too much of what makes this true gamer-to-racer story unique, ending up a decent but overly familiar underdog sports movie.

Ben Kingsley, Jane Curtin, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jade Quon in Jules (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

JULES (2023)

Lonely senior citizens make an alien friend in Jules, Marc Turtletaub's slight, tonally mismatched, extremely odd little misfire of a film.

Xolo Maridueña in BLUE BEETLE
FILM REVIEWS

BLUE BEETLE (2023)

A qualified success, the first live-action superhero movie with a Latino lead is deliberately derivative, surprisingly charming, and stealthily political.

FILM REVIEWS

STRAYS (2023)

Funnier and more competently constructed than most mainstream human comedies, Strays is a raunchy delight in the dog days of summer.

Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Thomas (Franz Rogowski) dance in Passages (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

PASSAGES (2023)

Equal parts fascination and frustration, Ira Sachs' exploration of a destructive love-triangle provides a lot of heat but precious little illumination.

Daniella Carter in KOKOMO CITY
FILM REVIEWS

KOKOMO CITY (2023)

D. Smith's intensely intimate documentary Kokomo City, about Black trans sex workers, shines with humor, wisdom, and uncompromised humanity.

On a rainy night, a pale demonic figure lurks in the darkness behind a sailor on the deck of the ship in THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER
FILM REVIEWS

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)

Though far from perfect, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a good old-fashioned, wonderfully immersive, atmospheric monster movie with a genuine taste for blood.

Jason Statham races on a Jet Ski ahead of two giant shark fins in MEG 2: THE TRENCH
FILM REVIEWS

MEG 2: THE TRENCH (2023)

Friends, I've been looking forward to Meg 2: The Trench all summer, which makes this janky, joyless, shamelessly derivative dead shark of a movie 2023's biggest disappointment by far.

They're mutant turtles. They're teenage ninjas. They're teenagers. There are four of them, standing on a rooftop.
FILM REVIEWS

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM (2023)

That the new TMNT movie is getting positive reviews must be attributed to expectations that have been seriously lowered by every other big-screen version. To the uninitiated, this one looks great, but it doesn't have much else going for it.

Sophia Wilde in TALK TO ME
FILM REVIEWS

TALK TO ME (2022)

With a smart screenplay and a brilliant central performance from newcomer Sophie Wilde, the Philippou Brothers' debut feature Talk to Me is the best, most genuinely disturbing horror movie of the year.

Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield, and Owen Wilson in HAUNTED MANSION
FILM REVIEWS

HAUNTED MANSION (2023)

Perhaps Disney accountants can use a crystal ball to find out where $150 million went, because no film that stinks this bad should cost so much.

A black and white close up of Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER
FILM REVIEWS

OPPENHEIMER (2023)

Men will literally destroy the world instead of going to therapy. That's the lesson of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, a small and narrowly focused psychological study dressed up like a big historical epic.

From atop her dream house, Barbie (Margot Robie) surveys her candy-colored realm in BARBIE (2023)
FILM REVIEWS

BARBIE (2023)

Greta Gerwig's Barbie turns out to be a far more interesting film than we had any right to expect, but not necessarily the film Barbie and her fans deserved.

A Ukrainian girl, about five years old, sits huddled and crying in a bomb shelter in 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL.
FILM REVIEWS

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (2023)

Mstyslav Chernov's almost unbearably brutal documentary is vital reporting, but it is also an essential work of art, universal in its application and beautiful in its fury.

Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates in THE MIRACLE CLUB
FILM REVIEWS

THE MIRACLE CLUB (2023)

Some very good actresses board the bus for The Miracle Club, but crash headfirst into a tonal pile-up where the darkest subplots meet the silliest paddywhackery.

BLACK ICE
FILM REVIEWS

BLACK ICE (2022)

Hubert Davis's documentary Black Ice (2022) is a moving indictment of widespread racism in hockey, but sometimes feels like it's skating on the surface of a much larger problem.

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Gilles in PERSIAN LESSONS
FILM REVIEWS

PERSIAN LESSONS (2020)

Despite strong central performances, Vadim Perelman's Holocaust story Persian Lessons (2020) feels not just implausible, but badly misjudged.

Richard E. Grant in THE LESSON
FILM REVIEWS

THE LESSON (2023)

The lesson of The Lesson—a disappointingly dumb "smart" thriller—is that everybody involved should have studied harder.

Ty Simpkins in Insidious: The Red Door
FILM REVIEWS

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR (2023)

First-time director Patrick Wilson sees a red door and decides to paint it a dull, forgettable grey, in a pedestrian sequel to the already lackluster Insidious franchise.