Reviews

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some film festivals have moved online. This allowed me to — despite being based in London — screen some of the slate in the 2020 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.  So,…

On the first day of October, 2017, tragedy struck in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the final night of Route 91 Harvest, an outdoor country music festival. An estimated 22,000 people were in attendance. At…

When I saw Relic at the Sundance Premiere in January (it feels like an eternity ago), I was floored. Catching up with the film before sitting down to pen this, soon to be, overwhelmingly positive review,…

Young couple Emily and Randall (Liana Liberato and Noah Le Gros) travel to a getaway beach house for a weekend of relaxation. On arrival, they find the beach house double-booked with an older couple Jane…

Editor’s Note: The following review of The Truth initially ran during MovieBabble’s coverage of the 2019 Denver Film Festival. The Truth (La vérité) seems a particularly tricky film to handle. It covers the stormy reunion…

As a Dutch person who is used to having government made up of coalitions, American politics can feel daunting. Even scary at times, when they are essentially only two ways you can vote, for the…

The American dream has destroyed a lot of people. Sometimes one person’s dream comes at the expense of others. Other times, a dream required too many sacrifices, leading to spiritual decay or a short lifespan.…

What a FUN movie Scare Package is. Shot by seven different directors, the film is packed with diverse storylines. I am reasonably familiar with the anthology genre, and I like that it is mainly just…

I would describe myself as a Judd Apatow defender, for the most part. I tend to even enjoy his films many consider as his weaker efforts. While I wouldn’t describe him as one of the…

As MovieBabble’s unofficial and self-appointed Australian correspondent, it is my obligation to pounce on any Australian film that falls into the lap of the MovieBabble staff to review. My ears especially prick up when I…

Five sittings. It took me five different sittings to finish Disney’s Artemis Fowl, a mere 94-minute movie including the entirety of the end credits. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for what was supposed to become…

This is part 2 of my 2020 Sydney Film Festival Coverage. To read Part 1, click here. Part 1 covered the narrative features, and now we are here to focus on the documentaries screening online…

Like most good things in life that were put on hold or canceled due to COVID-19, the 67th Sydney Film Festival cannot go ahead in its traditional form in 2020. But thanks to the tireless…

Welcome to Part 3 of this ongoing series about interesting short horror movies on YouTube. I find most of them via the channel of ALTER, unless otherwise noted. Let’s have a look, shall we? Read…

What I expected from The Dinner Party was a wonderful combination of horror films Would You Rather and Ready or Not. Even though those movies are both about playing a traditional game with a horror spin, and The…

The name Shirley Jackson is well-known to horror veterans. She’s someone I mainly know for inspiring the hit Netflix television show The Haunting of Hill House. Personally, I’ve been too terrified to rewatch the show or even…

I like to live by a few principles, one of them being Willem Dafoe makes every movie better. It doesn’t matter if he has a hilarious man-bun and speaks a few lines of exposition in…

In small-town New Mexico in the 1950s, teen switchboard operator Fay and radio DJ Everett discover a strange audio frequency and they decide to investigate, which leads to them finding some terrifying history of their town…

Are you ready for my second selection of short horror movies on YouTube? Here we go! As usual, I found these short gems via ALTER (except for the second one, which I found by accident).…

One of my deepest fascinations in film is when artists find a way to blur the line between art and reality. As I’ve said time and time again, meta readings of films are some of…

Lucky Grandma is the Chinese/American debut feature film directed by Sasie Sealy, and tells the story of Grandma Wong, an ill-tempered, chain-smoking, newly widowed Grandma eager to live an independent life in the bustling Chinatown…

As a filmmaker, Josh Trank is less famous for his body of work than for his public persona. It all started with the modestly budgeted, Chronicle. Told via a found-footage narrative, it entailed the story…

Recency bias affects us more often than we realize when it comes to analyzing films. Many are so quick to spread effusive praise, claiming some film as the “best” in one way or another. You…

I always think it’s a little silly when we ascribe descriptors to a film that never intended to have them. Clementine has been described by many as an “erotic thriller”, which is pretty hilarious when…

How To Build A Girl is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by English journalist and broadcaster Caitlin Moran. As a woman who was writing for a national music magazine at 16 and writing for The Times…

On April 15th, 2020, we lost the great Brian Dennehy. It goes without saying that, as an actor, he left behind a great legacy. As with many people, the first time I noticed him was…

Days before the release of Bad Trip, I had discovered the wonderful stupidity of The Eric André Show. It’s a baffling show, not just hilarious, but sometimes eerily surreal. It’s not a show that wants you…

Did you know that YouTube is home to a lot of really good short horror movies? There are even some channels that are devoted to them, such as ALTER, Omeleto, and Screamfest. My favorite by…

The Half of It, the most recent iteration of Cyrano de Bergerac, after Sierra Burgess is a Loser, follows Ellie, a shy, hardworking nerd, as she helps Paul, a slow but sweet jock, try to win the…

Clark Duke has made a sizeable living being the dependable comic relief. He was the one who traveled to the fictional eighties alongside John Cusack in Hot Tub Time Machine; he was the nerdy sidekick…

You probably don’t need me to tell you that ICE detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants throughout the United States is a hot button issue. You also probably didn’t need me to start this review by…

I agonized over the title of this article for some time. (SEO is tough, ya’ll.) But sometimes, when a movie is as ridiculous as Deerskin, being as plain as possible can do wonders. It paints…

In January of 2019 at the Sundance Film Festival, I saw a film that I was convinced was going to resonate wide and far in Martha Stephens melancholic coming-of-age film To The Stars. The film…

Pop quiz hotshot, when a witch moves in next door with the power to make you forget about ever having kids with a meer whisper, what do you do? The Wretched takes some elements from The Burbs, The…

High school reporter Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan) is photocopying financial records from her district’s archives when she notices water dripping from the ceiling. She’s working on a story about a skywalk her superintendent, Doctor Frank…

Every generation has their favorite high school movie. From Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Booksmart, seeing whipsmart or daffy teenagers played mostly by actors in their 20s traverse the difficulties of growing has made for…

Why Don’t You Just Die! comes from writer/director Kirill Sokolov and tells the story of Matvey, a young man who has been tasked with murdering his girlfriend’s detective father, Andrey, by none other than his…

It’s safe to say I wasn’t lamenting Bloodshot‘s uninspired opening weekend at the box office in mid-March amid virus concerns. (You know what’s worse than getting the Coronavirus? Getting the Coronavirus AND having to listen to…

Cults. They’re fascinating, aren’t they? Groups of people who are convinced of one belief system or one way to live at the expense of their best interests, charismatic leaders, and often weird outfits. The cult…

One of the very, very tiny benefits of the current state of the world which is otherwise forcing me to have an existential crisis every twenty minutes is the ability to discover some of the smaller, more…