Review: “Elvis”

With a drawn-out, deep howl and a vibration that starts at the toes and rolls up through his entire body, a pivotal scene early in director Baz Luhrmann’s newest movie lets us watch two stars being born. The first is Elvis Presley, the subject of Luhrmann’s biopic “Elvis.” Luhrmann gives us a glimpse of an […]

Review: “Lightyear”

“Lightyear” is the first movie from Pixar Animation Studios to receive a theatrical release since the March 2020 run of “Onward” was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It isn’t that Pixar hasn’t been churning out hits; films like “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” have all been released straight to streaming on Disney Plus, […]

Review: “Neptune Frost”

“Neptune Frost” is the sort of film that needs to be experienced without trying too hard to unravel the intricacies of directors Saul Williams (who also wrote and composed the music for the movie) and Anisia Uzeyman’s complex world-building in their Afrofuturist musical. At the same time, it’s essential to engage with the film with […]

Review: “Jurassic World Dominion”

There is likely no more egregious thing that the “Jurassic World” trilogy, or the “Jurassic Park” series as a whole, has done than reunite the trio of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum for the first time since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic, only to have Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler state that she reconnected with […]

Review: “Top Gun: Maverick”

I have to admit, I initially wasn’t all that excited for “Top Gun: Maverick,” long-awaited (both in terms of the 36 year distance between it and its predecessor, and multiple delays, first to shoot more complex action scenes, and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic, repeatedly pushing it from its initial summer 2019 release date) […]

Review: ”Crimes of the Future”

“Crimes of the Future” is not just the first film writer/director David Cronenberg has made in eight years. It’s also the first sci-fi/horror movie Cronenberg has created since 1999’s “eXistenZ,” and in many ways feels like a return to form for the king of body horror, the master behind such classics of the genre as […]