Reviews

There is something quintessential American about the story of Jerry and Marge Selbee, two retirees who exploited a loophole in the lottery system and made themselves rich. A story like this can only become truly…

Most musical biopics are forgettable, generic fare. They rarely resemble nothing more than a fond tribute to the artists, but as historical films or character studies, they are extremely lacking. They usually take a simplified…

It brings me no joy to report that an indie comedy film evidently made in earnest did not resonate or connect with me, but Parker Seaman and Devin Das’s debut feature, Wes Schlagenhauf Is Dying, is…

There’s a certain type of fascination in watching a film where you can immediately tell that other people’s enjoyment of it will be almost entirely predicated on how much they’re able to live with its…

Expanding on the thematic foundation established by his previous feature, The Killing of Two Lovers — a film in which a father of four, emasculated by his wife’s relationship with a new partner in the midst of a…

Hot off the heels of winning the SXSW Audience Award with his charming, witty, and near-universally loved directorial debut, Saint Frances, writer-director Alex Thompson’s return to the silver screen appears to be a complete tonal shift,…

A devious recipe of psychological manipulation, profoundly unsettling family dynamics, and grisly horror that never quite feels like it coalesces into a full meal, Peter Hengl’s Family Dinner is certainly one of the more interesting horror…

Warning: this review contains unabashed adoration for Tom Cruise.  So leave your shit at the door, no one wants any part of it. Cowards couch their praise of Cruise behind opening statements like, “We all…

Kids, eh? Buncha weirdos the lot of ’em. Not yours obviously, they’re lovely. No offense meant. But they can be confusing little blighters at times, something horror movies have used since at least 1960 with…

The Secrets of Dumbledore never really stood a chance, did it? A tepid critical response to the first two films and controversy after controversy, left the once-promising “Wizarding World” fumbling its bag. It’s been nearly…

Sometimes a film comes around that is so deeply imaginative, so wildly entertaining, and so gut-bustingly hilarious that you leave the theater excited and grateful to have had the opportunity to experience it. These are…

The Aviary opens on Jillian (Malin Akerman) and Blair (Lorenza Izzo) stumbling into the pre-dawn desert and looking back at a compound that “looks so small from here.” We quickly learn that they are escaping…

A year ago, Nicolas Cage starred in a small, buzzy movie called Pig.  When I wrote about it, I described his performance as somber and moving — an excellent Cage performance that put him back…

Regular MovieBabble readers must be growing tired of every review from yours truly opening with a sermon-esque pontification bemoaning the state of contemporary studio cinema, desperately trying to find some light at the end of…

Coming off of the back of the critical failure The Woman in the Window, Joe Wright is making a return to form (of sorts) with his latest picture, the romantic, musical, period piece Cyrano. Based…

As a cynical film reviewer with a chronic case of cape fatigue frustrated and concerned with the current state of Hollywood cinema, it takes a lot for me to muster up any excitement for superhero…

When You Finish Saving the World Is it the least shocking film development ever that Jesse Eisenberg, one of our most anxious, idiosyncratic performers, centered his directorial debut around two highly anxious, idiosyncratic characters? If…

The reported heinous acts committed by the Russian government sound like something straight out of a 1970s political thriller. And that’s probably exactly how they like it. “If you want to kill someone,” Alexei Navalny…

If you’ve watched an indie film or two in your day, odds are you’ve stumbled upon a movie about a white guy who just can’t figure things out. They have no idea what to do…

Clean is a passion project of sorts for one Mr. Adrien Brody. He serves as the film’s star, co-writer, co-producer, and even composer. It took about a decade to get this film from his imagination, to…

Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love is truly a sensory overload, and not just because of its staggering archival footage of gorgeous volcanoes. On top of that, it’s edited like a French New Wave film to the tune…

After Yang has one of my favorite recent open credits sequences: after a few muted back-and-forths, Jake (Colin Farrell), his wife Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), his daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), and his android Yang (Justin…

Adapted from author Annie Ernaux’s quasi-memoir of the same title, and having instantly propelled itself into a modern canon of films about the stark realities of abortion — among them being Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3…

Rebecca Hall has been on a tear as of late, starring in one severely disturbing film after the next, while also taking time to direct a very impressive debut feature in Passing (which continues to…

If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if Terrence Malick in The-Tree-of-Life-mode directed a horror film, it would probably look something like Goran Stolevski’s staggering feature debut, You Won’t Be Alone. My first bold statement…

Director Carey Williams has an exceptionally powerful film on his hands with Emergency, the first great film I’ve seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Based on his short film (that also premiered at Sundance)…

Underneath the surface of most films about online life are commonplace themes about appearances and authenticity: the consequences of anonymity, the rapid spread of misinformation, the ways that social media limits expression of our genuine…

Every once and a while, a filmmaker comes along to flip the script and tackle themes and ideas that most are afraid to touch. Sean Baker has done this his entire career, but especially with…

“People are desperate to tell you who they are.” This lesson is one of many imparted to Stan (Bradley Cooper) in the first act of Nightmare Alley — the story of a rise and fall…

The media is composed of a large segment of our contemporary society, being the main channel of collective mass communication. The media consists of broadcasting, publishing, and the internet, which includes, but is not limited…