Streaming Movie Recap: July 2020, Part 2

Here’s part two of my streaming recap for July, featuring mini reviews of some more new releases! “FATAL AFFAIR” (Netflix) “Fatal Affair” is the sort of mediocre thriller you’d expect to find on the Lifetime Channel while channel surfing, and if those are the sort of movies you enjoy, you’ll likely find it a quick […]

Review: “Summerland”

“Summerland” is a period piece that is exactly as pleasant as it looks and sounds. But by injecting a rather traditional and sentimental narrative with a more contemporary attitude, and through Gemma Arterton’s winning performance, writer and director Jessica Swale’s debut feature is a sumptuous treat. Set during World War II, “Summerland” stars Arterton as […]

Review: “The Rental”

You may think twice about booking that weekend at someone’s Airbnb after watching “The Rental,” the thriller that’s Dave Franco’s directorial debut. The film, which is co-written by Franco and Joe Swanberg, follows two couples: Michelle (Alison Brie) and Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Charlie’s brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and his girlfriend Mina (Shelia Vand). […]

Review: “Relic”

The scariest aspect of “Relic” isn’t the unseen presence supposedly lurking in the rural Australian home of elderly Edna (Robyn Nevin). Rather, it’s something that many people have experienced within their own families: watching dementia or an illness such as Alzheimer’s overtake an older relative until they no longer know who you are. They’re still […]

Streaming Movie Recap: June 2020

June was a pretty busy month for movies released on streaming platforms, particularly as several films originally intended for theatrical release made their debut on demand or on streaming services like Disney Plus instead due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve already reviewed some of those films (and I’ve linked my reviews below), but you can […]

Review: “The King of Staten Island”

It’s a credit to “The King of Staten Island” that it stars two comedians I’m personally not a fan of, and yet I still immensely enjoyed not only the film, but the characters they played. The new comedy/drama from writer/director Judd Apatow (who co-wrote the screenplay with Dave Sirus and star Pete Davidson) possesses some […]

Review: “Babyteeth”

A romance with a terminally ill teen is practically a subgenre within the universe of young adult novels and films, often weepy, often tender, and often dwelling a lot on the illness itself. “Babyteeth,” a new release from IFC Films and the debut feature from director Shannon Murphy, is none of those things. “Babyteeth” centers […]

Review: “Da 5 Bloods”

On a surface level, Spike Lee’s newest joint, “Da 5 Bloods,” is about Black Vietnam War veterans reuniting and reopening their traumatic past. It’s a perspective of the war that never gets represented on screen. But in that special way that only he has, Lee connects the struggles of the past, present, and future in […]

Review: “Artemis Fowl”

I’ve been waiting for an “Artemis Fowl” movie for almost 20 years. I picked up the first book in the fantasy series by Eoin Colfer when I was in middle school and immediately became an avid fan, devouring each of the subsequent seven books in the series as soon as they were released. But whether […]

Review: “Shirley”

Writer Shirley Jackson is perhaps best known for her horror novel The Haunting of Hill House, widely regarded as one of the best and scariest ghost stories ever written. But Jackson’s personal life becomes a sort of horror story of its own in “Shirley,” a new drama based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell […]