Review: “Toy Story 5”

I was five years old when Pixar’s first feature-length film, Toy Story, was released in theaters at the end of 1995. Now I’m 35, and the fifth installment of what’s become a classic animated series with an unfathomable amount of supplementary media and that kickstarted an entire studio’s popularity is just entering theaters. It’s so […]

Review: “Disclosure Day”

Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day— part fast-paced chase movie, part sprawling collage of cosmic ideas that marries empathy-driven storytelling with blockbuster spectacle—opens with a literal gut punch directed at the audience. The camera, assuming the position of a wrestler in the ring, rockets violently backward as he absorbs a blow from his opponent, and continues to […]

Review: “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”

On the press tour for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, director Jon Favreau cited Flash Gordon— specifically the 1936 Universal serial starring Olympic athlete Buster Crabbe, divided into 13 15-20 minute chapters that would screen before feature films in the theater— as a key influence on his movie. The space adventure was an inspiration […]

Review: “Together”

Almost everything about Together— the debut feature from writer and director Michael Shanks— is precise. The formal rigor of its lore-heavy script. The perfectly matched leads in Dave Franco and Allison Brie, long-term partners in real life playing long-term partners on screen. The exquisitely-rendered visual effects, which are just squirm-inducing enough to make the audience […]

Review: “Superman” (2025)

Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman still inspires a sense of awe with each subsequent rewatch, nearly 50 years after its initial release. I can’t quite say why this hold true for me too, seeing as how I wasn’t even alive when it premiered. Maybe it’s Christopher Reeve’s impressive performance, and how he subtly alters his physicality […]

Review: “F1”

The racing sequences in F1 are slick and propulsive. That’s evident from the jump, when former F1 star and current fallen-from-grace-racer-for-hire Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) hops into his car at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The quick cuts and the cinematography (with several cameras positioned inside each car granting a first-hand perspective of the race), […]

Review: “28 Years Later”

Hope. That’s the element of Danny Boyle’s 2002 apocalyptic horror film 28 Days Later that surprised me the most. Of course, a lot of my reaction can likely be credited to the fact that, despite its generally enthusiastic reception, it passed me by until I finally sought it out a couple months ago, and that […]

Review: “The Phoenician Scheme”

Zsa-Zsa Korda ought to be dead. He’s lying face-down in a cornfield, his limbs splayed at odd angles, some feet away from where the wreckage of the plane he was flying in before it began to crumple in mid-air smolders. The remnants of his belongings are similarly scattered about, licked by flames. They’re odd items, […]

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: “Deadpool & Wolverine”

As I stretch my fingers in preparation for typing up a response to Deadpool & Wolverine, I almost feel guilty about how badly I plan to savage it. The 34th entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first appearance for the raunchy Deadpool character there following Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019, […]