Review: “A Quiet Place”

4 out of 5 stars. It’s a long, long time into “A Quiet Place” before there’s any spoken dialogue—or any long, prolonged noise, for that matter. The horror film uses sound not just as a gimmick for its monster—which hunts its prey through sound—but to create tension, not just in terms of a family’s survival, […]

Review: “Isle of Dogs”

4 out of 5 stars. “Whatever happened to man’s best friend?” That’s the question posed by Professor Watanabe to Kobayashi—the cat-loving mayor of Megasaki City on the Japanese coast—just before he signs a decree requiring all the city’s dogs to be sent to the neighboring Trash Island in the wake of a dog flu virus […]

Review: “Ready Player One”

2.5 out of 5 stars. It’s one thing for a film to reference or pay homage to pop culture figures; it’s quite another thing for a film to entirely revolve around said references. In some cases, this has worked splendidly: 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” is a modern classic in which iconic cartoon characters coexist […]

Review: “Pacific Rim Uprising”

1.5 out of 5 stars. Hey, do like watching giant monsters fight giant robots? Did you love the movie “Pacific Rim”? Then boy, is this not the movie for you. It’s like Godzilla, but it isn’t quite Godzilla. It’s also like Transformers, but it’s not quite Transformers. Its style is derived somewhat from Japanese anime, […]

Review: “Love, Simon”

4 out of 5 stars. “Love, Simon,” has everything you’d expect to find in a teen rom-com: a quirky sense of humor, misunderstandings that complicate friendships, attempts to fit in while navigating the drama of high school, and the search for first love. But the one thing that makes “Love, Simon” not just stand apart […]

Review: “Tomb Raider”

3 out of 5 stars. With “Tomb Raider,” director Roar Uthaug tries to do something that no other film based on a video game has managed to do: imbue the story and characters with some humanity extending beyond the action scenes. By giving the film a more serious and gritty tone—and with an outstanding leading […]

Review: “A Wrinkle in Time”

2.5 out of 5 stars. Minor spoilers ahead for those unfamiliar with the story. I first read Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel “A Wrinkle in Time” when I was in elementary school. I remember not being especially thrilled by it, but decided last year, in anticipation of Disney and Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation, it was time […]

Review: “Red Sparrow”

2.5 out of 5 stars. There have been a lot of people referring to “Red Sparrow” as the “Black Widow” movie. While we have yet to receive a stand-alone Black Widow film from Marvel Studios, Natasha Romanoff’s past has been referenced in past films. But outside of the similar titles, the fact that both characters […]

Review: “Annihilation”

4 out of 5 stars. Often, the best science fiction films are the ones that don’t give you all the answers, but rather give you more to puzzle out on your own long after leaving the theater. Such is the case with Alex Garland’s second directorial effort, “Annihilation,” based on the first book in a […]

Review: “Black Panther”

5 out of 5 stars. Although several superhero films over the past couple years have done different things to make audiences rethink the genre, it’s easy to be inundated with the sameness of the Hollywood blockbuster. This is especially true of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which found a formula that seems to please audiences and […]