Now In Theaters
First Man
Damien Chazelle studies the humble, quiet man behind the mission. The history book facts are all here, but First Man works as a character study rather than moon thriller - what makes Neil tick, how does he summon nerves of steel when the rest of us would panic to become that notorious "whitey on the moon".
Biography/Drama/History - 141 Minutes
Damien Chazelle studies the humble, quiet man behind the mission. The history book facts are all here, but First Man works as a character study rather than moon thriller - what makes Neil tick, how does he summon nerves of steel when the rest of us would panic to become that notorious "whitey on the moon".
Biography/Drama/History - 141 Minutes
Venom
While the film has its fair share of eye rolls and gimmicks, its experimental atmosphere and desire to offer us just enough of a superhero ironic spin is enough to make Venom a decent addition to the club. You should take it in the same way you do exhibits at a Ripley’s Believe It or Not or the freak show tent at the traveling circus, with morbid amusement and cheap thrills.
Action/Horror/Sci-Fi - 112 Minutes
While the film has its fair share of eye rolls and gimmicks, its experimental atmosphere and desire to offer us just enough of a superhero ironic spin is enough to make Venom a decent addition to the club. You should take it in the same way you do exhibits at a Ripley’s Believe It or Not or the freak show tent at the traveling circus, with morbid amusement and cheap thrills.
Action/Horror/Sci-Fi - 112 Minutes
A Star Is Born
Cooper’s A Star Is Born is engaging, crafted with skill, and may even have you accuse someone of cutting onions in the theater. Jack and Ally are made for each other which is why the first half is one of the best film’s of the year. It’s the more melodramatic and plot-saturating second half which dims the magic of the first half’s glow.
Drama/Music/Romance - 135 min
Cooper’s A Star Is Born is engaging, crafted with skill, and may even have you accuse someone of cutting onions in the theater. Jack and Ally are made for each other which is why the first half is one of the best film’s of the year. It’s the more melodramatic and plot-saturating second half which dims the magic of the first half’s glow.
Drama/Music/Romance - 135 min
Night School
Night School may carry over the director, breakout star, and crew from Girls Trip, but it left everything behind - especially the laughs.
Comedy - 111 min
Night School may carry over the director, breakout star, and crew from Girls Trip, but it left everything behind - especially the laughs.
Comedy - 111 min
The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Horror director Eli Roth, playing nice here with a family film, channels the early '80s classics (E.T., The Goonies) to tell a story of another outcast kid coming to terms with a new situation. Themes champion individuality, families come in all shapes and sizes, and a most intriguing idea about coping with tragedy - move forward or go back?
Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 104 Minutes
Horror director Eli Roth, playing nice here with a family film, channels the early '80s classics (E.T., The Goonies) to tell a story of another outcast kid coming to terms with a new situation. Themes champion individuality, families come in all shapes and sizes, and a most intriguing idea about coping with tragedy - move forward or go back?
Comedy/Family/Fantasy - 104 Minutes
Blaze
Blaze feels like an Ethan Hawke passion project, the kind where a filmmaker hears about a legend, digs in to find out more, and discovers a movie underneath it. He’s right. Blaze’s story and Ben Dickey are made for the camera and Hawke’s country-western opera offers a realistic slice of Americana by a guy who appears to respect it, not a poseur intent on exploitation.
Biography/Drama/Music - 127 Minutes
Blaze feels like an Ethan Hawke passion project, the kind where a filmmaker hears about a legend, digs in to find out more, and discovers a movie underneath it. He’s right. Blaze’s story and Ben Dickey are made for the camera and Hawke’s country-western opera offers a realistic slice of Americana by a guy who appears to respect it, not a poseur intent on exploitation.
Biography/Drama/Music - 127 Minutes
The Predator
Shane Black exchanges Ahhnold, suspense, and horror for an embarrassing mess. The goofy family drama, the busload of psych cases that could, and Olivia Munn as an ass-kicking evolutionary biologist may make you feel shame for ever liking the original.
Action/Adventure/Horror - 107 Minutes
Shane Black exchanges Ahhnold, suspense, and horror for an embarrassing mess. The goofy family drama, the busload of psych cases that could, and Olivia Munn as an ass-kicking evolutionary biologist may make you feel shame for ever liking the original.
Action/Adventure/Horror - 107 Minutes
A Simple Favor
Imagine Doris Day and Marlene Dietrich day-drinking, confiding secrets, and generating conspiracy theories. Sounds pretty intriguing right? If only given the chance.
Comedy/Crime/Drama - 117 Minutes
Imagine Doris Day and Marlene Dietrich day-drinking, confiding secrets, and generating conspiracy theories. Sounds pretty intriguing right? If only given the chance.
Comedy/Crime/Drama - 117 Minutes
Peppermint
Jennifer Garner does Death Wish better than Bruce Willis, but Peppermint offers nothing new to the genre other than a gender switch.
Action/Drama/Thriller - 102 Minutes
Jennifer Garner does Death Wish better than Bruce Willis, but Peppermint offers nothing new to the genre other than a gender switch.
Action/Drama/Thriller - 102 Minutes
Kin
At one point, James Franco whips it out and pisses all over a gas station floor - that about sums up Kin. A movie about a firearm fetish masquerading as an indie road trip drama; the longest 102 minutes of my life.
Action/Sci-Fi - 102 Minutes
At one point, James Franco whips it out and pisses all over a gas station floor - that about sums up Kin. A movie about a firearm fetish masquerading as an indie road trip drama; the longest 102 minutes of my life.
Action/Sci-Fi - 102 Minutes
Operation Finale
Director Chris Weitz wants the mood to hover toward intrigue rather than despair. A story about Adolf Eichmann’s World War II atrocities can easily make the audience choke up and douse us in the heaviest of drama. Not so here, Weitz includes jokes and deliberate mood lighteners creating a precarious levity to avoid offering up a weeper.
Biography/Drama/History - 122 Minutes
Director Chris Weitz wants the mood to hover toward intrigue rather than despair. A story about Adolf Eichmann’s World War II atrocities can easily make the audience choke up and douse us in the heaviest of drama. Not so here, Weitz includes jokes and deliberate mood lighteners creating a precarious levity to avoid offering up a weeper.
Biography/Drama/History - 122 Minutes
The Happytime Murders
Some ideas are better left on the bar napkin they were dreamed up on over cheap beer. Brian Henson saw Sausage Party, thought he could use his Muppets to make a quick buck with raunch like that, but forgot about the script. Way to go 2018 - thanks for ruining Muppets too.
Action/Comedy/Crime - 91 Minutes
Some ideas are better left on the bar napkin they were dreamed up on over cheap beer. Brian Henson saw Sausage Party, thought he could use his Muppets to make a quick buck with raunch like that, but forgot about the script. Way to go 2018 - thanks for ruining Muppets too.
Action/Comedy/Crime - 91 Minutes
Skate Kitchen
Skate Kitchen works because of the believable non-professional actors playing versions of themselves and how Crystal Moselle leans back and lets the film breathe through extended skating montages to break up the more common plot line. I still do not understand the desire to board and skate culture as a whole, but Moselle made me appreciate it.
Drama - 106 Minutes
Skate Kitchen works because of the believable non-professional actors playing versions of themselves and how Crystal Moselle leans back and lets the film breathe through extended skating montages to break up the more common plot line. I still do not understand the desire to board and skate culture as a whole, but Moselle made me appreciate it.
Drama - 106 Minutes
Support the Girls
Andrew Bujalski pokes at a unique slice of Americana - the breastaurant. Showing real girls with real problems and a real humanity, the film screws comedic holes into the modern American value of young girls paid to flaunt, flirt, and flatter.
Comedy - 90 Minutes
Andrew Bujalski pokes at a unique slice of Americana - the breastaurant. Showing real girls with real problems and a real humanity, the film screws comedic holes into the modern American value of young girls paid to flaunt, flirt, and flatter.
Comedy - 90 Minutes
Mile 22
The script is a mess, the plot is near indecipherable, and the editing may be some of the worst in recent memory; however, my pulse raced. I was tense. Mile 22 has no idea what it wants to be, but it may physically impact the audience enough for them to not notice.
Action/Thriller - 95 Minutes
The script is a mess, the plot is near indecipherable, and the editing may be some of the worst in recent memory; however, my pulse raced. I was tense. Mile 22 has no idea what it wants to be, but it may physically impact the audience enough for them to not notice.
Action/Thriller - 95 Minutes
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Modernizing Shakespeare is a worthy effort and in the right hands can reinvent how you see the play (Romeo + Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing), but the attempt can also fall on its face. There is promise in the idea of contemporary Hollywood as Athens, but the haphazard translation produces far too many “WTF”s to succeed as a coherent whole.
Comedy/Fantasy - 104 Minutes
Modernizing Shakespeare is a worthy effort and in the right hands can reinvent how you see the play (Romeo + Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing), but the attempt can also fall on its face. There is promise in the idea of contemporary Hollywood as Athens, but the haphazard translation produces far too many “WTF”s to succeed as a coherent whole.
Comedy/Fantasy - 104 Minutes
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Not so much a who's who of salacious Golden Age details, but a study of the pimp who outlived them all. Welcome the curtain opening and reminder there are not a sect of famous people better than you out there, they just have full-time publicists telling you they are.
Documentary - 98 Minutes
Not so much a who's who of salacious Golden Age details, but a study of the pimp who outlived them all. Welcome the curtain opening and reminder there are not a sect of famous people better than you out there, they just have full-time publicists telling you they are.
Documentary - 98 Minutes
Now On DVD
