Review: “Thunderbolts*”

There’s a string of scenes in the final stretch of Thunderbolts*— the final installment of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for those still keeping track— that’s as stirring and soulful as anything across the franchise’s 36 (and counting) film history. But like it’s title, the movie comes with an asterisk: any story element […]

Review: “The Shrouds”

I thought I was done writing. Then I saw David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds. Grief fucks people up. In all the expected ways, sure: the depressive episodes prompted by the gaping void the loss of someone— or something— beloved create a ripple effect that spreads about their circle of friends and family like a disease, the […]

Review: “Sinners”

Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1932. The signs that this is the Jim Crow-era South perpetually exist on the periphery of the lives of the town’s Black residents: in the fields flecked with white cotton as far as the eye can see, where Black sharecroppers labor day in and day out, and in Hogwood (David Maldonado), the white […]

Review: “I Know Catherine, the Log Lady”

You don’t have Twin Peaks without David Lynch. You don’t have Twin Peaks without Mark Frost. You don’t have Twin Peaks without Kyle MacLachlan’s Dale Cooper. And you certainly don’t have Twin Peaks without the Log Lady. The enigmatic resident of the small Pacific Northwest town of the iconic series’ title, played by Catherine Coulson, […]

Review: “Eephus”

I am not a baseball fan. This has plagued me for most of my life. Having lived in St. Louis— widely regarded as one of the nation’s most fanatical sports towns— for over half of my life now, I’m used to shrugging off the question I receive most from people when I’m out of town […]

Review: “Snow White” (2025)

I’ve done this song and dance before. I could be lazy and simply refer you to my review of Disney’s 2023 live-action update of their 1989 animated classic The Little Mermaid in lieu of writing an entirely new piece on the studio’s remake of their original princess picture, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as […]

Review: “Black Bag”

It wasn’t until a little over three years ago that I saw Out of Sight for the first time, at a rep screening at a local cinema running a Steven Soderbergh series. I remember walking out of the theater into the chilly night air, dazzled by what I’d just seen. Soderbergh’s 1998 crime flick may […]

Review: “Mickey 17”

In Martin Ritt’s 1979 film Norma Rae, Sally Field’s titular character is spurred to unionize the cotton mill where she works after hearing a speech by Reuben Warshowsky (Ron Leibman), a union organizer from New York City who states that, “your average working man is not stupid. He just gets tired.” In Bong Joon-ho’s earnest […]

Review: “Rats!”

Rats! is very much a your-milage-will-vary sort of movie. Writers, directors, and producers Maxwell Nalevansky and Carl Fry’s debut feature film’s blend of satire, gross-out comedy, and social commentary drew comparisons to the filmography of John Waters following its award-winning world premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2024, a comparison that turns out to be an […]

Review: “Paddington in Peru”

I do wonder how I might have received Paddington in Peru had I not had such an immediately ardent reaction to the two preceding films in the series. I’m not exaggerating when I say that 2014’s Paddington and 2017’s Paddington 2 are masterpieces of family entertainment that I’ve rewatched ad nauseam in the years since […]