Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – Imposter Horror
Invasion of the Body Snatchers remakes a great B-movie with intellectual terror. It knows that irony makes it even scarier. This is pure horror joy.
M.C. Myers
Cyrano (2021) – Glossing Over a Classic
Peter Dinklage is a powerful force for good in an otherwise listless adaptation that misinterprets whatever it doesn’t omit entirely.
Samaritan – Bum Rap
Samaritan accepts on faith that the audience thinks Stallone is a superhero. His charm, and almost nothing else, makes it sporadically watchable.
Sin (Il Peccato) – Holy Unhappiness
Sin is a portrait of an artist in pain, with god-defying amounts of melancholy. Lovers of classic art cinema will enjoy this more than he enjoyed himself.
Lightyear – Origin Sin
Lightyear was so tangled in its struggle for effective marketing that every aspect of its filmmaking became a lower, or nonexistent, concern.
Prey: Consent to Kill
Prey expresses a strong period aesthetic powered by fresh performances but relies on a screenplay that misplaces its series’ core values.
The Tragedy of Macbeth: Saggy Soliloquy
This well-endowed Macbeth strives for greatness without the stomach for it. Stylized visuals can’t cover for all the meaning it misses.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Prophet or False God?
Zack Snyder’s Justice League delivers on the promise to release every second of footage shot for its original cut, for better and not much better.
The House: Nightmare Meditation
The House shimmers with collective angst, a nightmare only stop-motion could make. So why does it make me feel so happy?
Black Widow: Explosive Tedium
Black Widow approaches genuine dramatic insight in parts but fails to make its title character more interesting than the performance is by default.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Part VI Review: Final Fizzle
The final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi gets everything to where it was going. Not even its best part could be worth the wait.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V Review
Part V continues Obi-Wan Kenobi’s habit of steamrolling plausibility with reverse-engineered plot directions, with a small twist.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Exposition Epic
Despite triumphant performances and high ambitions, Everything Everywhere All at Once hopes to be so well-understood that it overexplains its triumphs away.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part I-III Review
So far, Obi-Wan Kenobi seems to be relying more on Star Wars fans to be excited in the absence of creativity than on its own inspiration or technical ability.
Prometheus: Creator’s Angst
The much-maligned Prometheus hides an epic sci-fi fable despite failing to satisfy its own ambitions. Fassbender is genre-defining.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters – Faithless Tribute
Godzilla: King of the Monsters avoids the essence of its brand almost as aggressively as it avoids working on its script.
Locating Realism in The Revenant
The Revenant is a powerful statement on cinematic realism affected but not marred by its real toil. It’s old cinema made epic again.
Interstellar: Feeling Machine
Interstellar’s brilliant technical filmmaking hinges on a story thwarted by melodrama. Its head is full of ideas, but its heart is empty.
Let Me In: Warm Leftovers
Let Me In is an arousing remake that makes a cautionary tale more streamlined, romantic, and cathartic, three things it probably never intended to be.
Exorcist II: The Heretic – Horror as Anti-Horror
Despite its meandering awkwardness, one of the most hated horror films of all time features a compelling creative vision and the visuals of an epic.
Why Army of the Dead Should Not Be the Oscars Fan Favorite
Army of the Dead’s ruthless devotion to plagiarization is its most passionate aspect. Less effort was never spent on a film so casually praised.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022): Glossy Legacy
The new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film is exactly what you would expect from rebooting this dirty series into the glossed-up legacy sequel model.
The Batman: V for Vengeance
Admirably grounded and well-cast, The Batman tries its best to add relevance to a cluttered canon amid broken thriller mechanics and aloof dialogue.
Zodiac: Memories of Murmur
The 15th anniversary of Zodiac is the perfect occasion to revisit David Fincher’s best film and see how the thriller epic holds up in 2022.
Batman: Unfinished Business
Batman reflects the charm and the cost of a script that was not properly finished. But its lead and its meticulous visual design still enchant.
Batman Returns: Action Fairytale
Tim Burton’s Batman Returns is a dark Christmas fable, an action fairytale. It’s the whole experience of reading comics in one painful, beautiful mythology.
The Legend of Zelda and the Fantasy Feeling: Do Video Games Have to Be Art?
On its anniversary, The Legend of Zelda is a still-brilliant piece of fantasy fiction and a discussion piece for the question of video games as art.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) – Schlock and Awe
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake is far more willing to recreate its original than to understand it. The result is vile. And not in a good way.
Jurassic World Dominion Trailer: How Jurassic Park Evolved Into This
Jurassic World Dominion is supposed to be the climax of decades of franchise build-up. Here are my thoughts on the trailer and how this series got here.
Zack Snyder vs Superman: Why Intent Became Conflict in Man of Steel
A response to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel as well as to the debates about it, including both its problematic execution and its honest desire for greatness.