Reviews

Mangrove is the first film in the five-part Small Axe anthology series directed by Steve McQueen and stars Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, Rochenda Sandall, Jack Lowden, Alex Jennings, Sam Spruell and Malachi Kirby. When a group…

Greenland is Gerard Butler’s latest attempt at starring in a disaster movie, following the flop that is 2017’s Geostorm. Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring the aforementioned Gerard Butler along with Morena Baccarin and Roger…

The most important relationships in any teenager’s life, no matter where they are in the world, are their friendships with other teenagers. It’s the crux of socialization, of discovering one’s own identity, of creating a…

When looking at Werner Herzog’s filmography, it’s clear he’s made pretty much every type of film out there. He’s done historical epics, horror remakes, and even a Nicolas Cage crime drama. Recently, with the success…

It’s pretty safe to say our relationship to the police has forever changed in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25th. Although it goes without saying it should have never gotten to that point…

There’s something about the way Farewell Amor demands your attention that is unbelievably comforting. Maybe it’s because it functions as a triptych yet still seems formless and character-driven. Perhaps all the wonderful, reserved performances put…

Fatman is an R-rated action movie starring Mel Gibson as Santa Claus… I can already feel many people shaking their heads. But, if you’re more like me, you might think this has the potential to…

Night Of The Living Dead. Paranormal Activity. The Blair Witch Project. All micro-budget horror films that made an absolute fortune at the box office. Which, unfortunately, leads hundreds of people to think making a horror film…

We’re getting to the point where noticing similarities between a movie and the hellscape that is the current pandemic is reaching levels of self-parody. (“She Dies Tomorrow has a virus that spreads from person to…

Dirty God is the story of Jade, a twenty-something mom living in London, who is recovering from a vicious acid attack that left her permanently scarred. We meet Jade late in the story — after…

We normally attribute accusations of witchcraft to the Salem witch trials, or some other time in the distant past that was more conducive to such barbaric measures. Little do we realize that many innocent people…

What happens when you mix threads of The Shape of Water with economic European storytelling and pervasive sadness? You probably get something like Christian Petzold’s Undine, an update of the European mythology in which a…

Pablo Larraín begins Ema with an indelible image: fire engulfs a traffic light in the middle of a street, slowly making its way down from the red light to the green light with the titular…

Ancient myth collides with modern society in Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings, a film that takes place in the La MACA prison in Abidjan on the southern side of the Ivory Coast. The guards…

Ever since the release of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, there has been a renewed interest from studio heads and filmmakers in creating character-centered pieces set in space. One of the most prominent movies capitalizing off of…

Dialogue is one of the most prominent aspects when it comes to filmmaking. Lines such as “I’ll be back,” and “I am your father” have become nearly as notable as the movies they’re featured in…

Action films centering around martial arts have been having a resurgence as of late. Movies such as The Raid: Redemption, Ip Man, and The Man from Nowhere have all found a decent amount of success…

Regina King makes everything better, doesn’t she? Lately, she’s been on another level, winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her beautiful performance in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and quickly moving on…

On February 13th, 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia after being attacked with the VX nerve agent, an extremely toxic chemical that has…

Watching a Christmas film around Halloween felt a little odd; however, scary stuff mixed with Christmas is an excellent combination. It’s still a common phenomenon to share ghost stories at Christmas time, after all. Let’s…

British gangster noir meets the haunted house genre in the gripping and visually stunning The World We Knew. The film opens right where we need to be: gang members have a robbery go wrong, and they flee…

Loner Jack throws away some of his old stuff after his parents die in a freak accident, including his childhood teddy bear, Benny. But, in a twist of fate, Benny springs to life! He desperately…

MovieBabble continues to be my not-so-subtle avenue to share my love for my hometown of Philadelphia, and what better way to continue that trend than to talk about a movie where Idris Elba rides a…

Don’t Look Back starts with a haunting montage of (what looks like) real-life footage bystanders shot on their phones of people being attacked… or worse. Immediately, you begin thinking about what role you would play…

Writer’s Note: the following discussion of Dangerous to Know includes brief mentions of suicide. It is difficult not to be utterly impressed by Dangerous to Know. The film is an ultimate passion project, made almost entirely by director…

Welcome to a world where monsters are real and the world is in despair. The second feature film by Michael Matthews is set in a world seven years after an apocalyptic event wiped out 95%…

In case you weren’t already aware, Riz Ahmed is super talented. With Sound of Metal and Mogul Mowgli playing to overwhelmingly positive praise on the festival circuit, this is the sort of coming out party for…

Admittedly, the sole reason I was interested in watching The Pale Door was that Joe R. Lansdale’s name was on the poster. If you’ve never heard of him, stop reading and check out some of…

For as much as Martin Luther King Jr. did for this country, it’s exasperating seeing the amount of effort the government put into trying to discredit him. As recently declassified documents show, the FBI began…

A multi-year romance set in the 1950s Harlem jazz scene starring Tessa Thompson? Sounds promising, right? Eugene Ashe’s Sylvie’s Love has so many things going for it, following Thompson as the bright-eyed, ambitious Sylvie who begins…