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Most comparable to Black Widow in of character personalities, secret organization-related plot points, and overall vibes, Thunderbolts* managed to catch and hold my attention while giving me hope for a new era of the MCU. This is a team-up film that is long overdue for the health of the MCU, but in this case I’m on the side of better late than never. I’m excited to see more… and that’s as much as we can hope for at this point, I think.

The Voyeurs started out as a simple premise filled with boring, chemistry-lacking one-dimensional characters, turned into a tragedy about the slowly growing distance in a relationship and the allure of greener grasses, and ended with a surprising twist that brought the film into larger-than-life “I can’t believe that just happened,” territory, which nevertheless worked.

And, yeah, Sydney Sweeney is hot, and plays well in that sexually taboo space, so the tension works even when it’s not at its most original. I ended up walking away more impressed than I expected; there’s just enough here to keep your eyes glued to the… ehem… screen.

Classic slapstick comedy, a surprisingly watchable performance from Schumer, and the sort of goofy characters and comedy beats that you’d expect from a Happy Madison production. I mean it wasn’t cinema, but I had a lot of fun with Kinda Pregnant and that’s as much as I could hope for. Underrated on here.

It’s crazy how invested you can get in a “film” where there’s ten seconds of plot and 95 minutes of glazing this guy the “King of Kings Corp,” (god they must say that 1000 times) while putting down the “nobody” Kingsley Baldwin. They just keep bringing in new characters who love one but hate the other, never realizing or believing that they’re the same person until (spoiler) the very end.

It’s so stupid. But I also went out of my way to find the whole thing on YouTube after seeing ads for it on TikTok a few times, so… that’s gotta mean something.

Thanks TikTok.

A Christmas Eve tradition. Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!

“It’s the wine that we drank at our wedding. I now own… every bottle.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

…and just when I thought I’d stopped being a romantic. 

Absolutely incredible that Lindsey Lohan could carry this film where she had to play two completely different characters across from herself. A genuine classic.

A chill, vibes-forward movie with some excellent lead characters and a unique twist on the time loop subgenre of films. Not the most traditional Valentine’s Day movie, maybe, but I had a pretty great time.

This was pretty great! A couple of the main romance storylines felt incredibly rushed and forced, but the comedy and characters were excellent, and the vibe overall was very nice. A worthy addition to the Christmas canon. Thanks to Aunt Brenda for the recommendation!

Why don’t I ever get what I really want for Christmas?

Real Estate.

Ten years ago when this first released, I saw it twice in one day; once with each girlfriend. I was newly coming to understand what it meant be polyamorous at the time, struggling to balance timing and priorities and everything else, and was met twice in one day with songs like “Moments in the Woods.” 

And then, not too long after, “Giants in the Sky” became an inside joke with my ex and I, and the Phineas and Ferb Bufort reference made it evermore eternal for me. Great son, great reference.

And then we broke up, and in my despair, and my searching for peace and catharsis, “No One is Alone,” entered my melancholic playlist. It hurt, but in a good way, and it made me feel all the best feelings.

And then there’s the 15 minute prologue song, which introduces everything and everyone, and which I almost have memorized thanks to listening to it on so many road trips. An incredible introduction to an incredible film, and I imagine, an incredible stage production…

And finally there’s “Your Fault,” which is the only one quick-beated enough to land on my running playlist, but which still hits hard emotionally when you’re actually watching the film…

Into the Woods is just an incredible musical all around, with whimsy, coming-of-age material, romance, comedy, tragedy, and of course, ear-worm-ability.

I love this musical and particularly as well these set-pieces and performances from the bottom of my heart, and I can’t think of a more magical turnaround for a lackluster evening. 

Into the woods, and out of the woods, and happy ever after.

The aesthetic, cinematography, performances and overall vibe of Miller’s Girl won me over more than the other reviews would lead you to believe. Perhaps this a film that only works if you have a fascination with writing itself or else taboo “romantic horror” layered commentary, but I found this film for all its simplicity to be captivating from start to finish and filled with emotional depth.

The camerawork and subtext do a lot of the work here, and the B-plots are minimal along with the cast, but I thought that everything worked brilliantly in a minimalistic kind of way. 

Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega have great screen chemistry.

A classic British musical family movie that I’ve surprisingly never seen before. The first hour and a half or so is delightful charming with its witching antics, witty banter, and eye-catching practical effects. I thought the film ended on a weirdly half-serious note that was a departure from the more whimsical adventures prior, but the film as a whole still felt quite special to me.

A product of its time, for sure, but one worth ing and revisiting even in the 21st century.

Instead of continuing the fish-out-of-water antics from the previous film, Disenchanted brings the original Enchanted characters back around for a story which steals from Beauty and the Beast and Tangled (among others) and which stylistically reminded me of Once Upon A Time and Schmigadoon! It’s a fantasy sing-along with extravagant set designs and larger than life characters, but much like the later seasons of Once Upon A Time it also leans on unearned melodramatic moments and fantasy elements that lake a deeper purpose. 

And finally… while “Badder” was a banger and the whole cast can carry a tune, the songs here just weren’t as memorable or as well-written generally as the handful in the first film. The songs I’d say detracted from the story more than they added to it. It’s a shame.

With a faster pace and a more dependable protagonist, I think this film could’ve been an interesting sequel to a film which certainly didn’t need one; but in the end it felt like a mediocre stand-alone fantasy musical with only the loosest ties to the original, slightly less derivative film.

With childish slapstick humor juxtaposed with heavy adult themes, Angels in the Outfield is a childhood classic (for me) which managed to live up to its original hype. The score, the performances, and the uplifting theme of believing in yourself against all odds are worthy of celebration even in 2024.

I’m surprised and impressed by how well this holds up.

With tropes ripped straight from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Enchanted is a live-action fish-out-of-water fairytale musical that keeps you entertained without reinventing the wheel.

A layered and artistically mesmerizing reflection on the destructive power of hatred and revenge, set upon the all-too-on-the-nose backdrop of a war between the inhabitants of “Iron Town” and the forest that they’re seeking to destroy. While the score, the creatures, and the key protagonists are highly captivating on a surface level, the relatively slow pace and the heaviness of the thematic framework prevent the film from ever gaining a sense of urgency and momentum. 

In essence… I love the idea of Princess Mononoke, I just find myself lacking investment in the minute-to-minute execution.

I haven’t seen this since it came out, and I’m glad to say it holds up. Solid action, good comedy, and a great pairing with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube.

Like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest or The Shawshank Redemption, Cruel Instruction is about the sort of institution which portends to be an above-bird rehabilitation facility, when in actuality it’s a power-tripping detention center that uses the guise of minimal external supervision to facilitate the grossest human rights violations imaginable. 

Miss Connie is a villainous sociopath and it was fascinating if disconcerting to watch her machinations unfold.

Tesla really like this movie, so that’s nice. For me it was… fine. But it seemed like not a whole lot happened, and there were too many boyband pop sequences and unlikable side characters for my tastes. It lacked some of the pulpy drama that you’d get from a less-grounded rom-com, which made me feel like this only worked as a film where you could imagine yourself as the audience stand-in. You know… if you’re into that.

If it weren’t for Anne Hathaway in the lead, I think this film would’ve really dragged.

An astonishingly provocative miniseries that’s creepy, spell-binding, mesmerizing, sympathetic, heartbreaking, cringy, twisty-turny and incredibly human. It speaks to the highs and lows of lost individuals, and their biases, fears, and trauma responses. The performances are phenomenal, the editing and pacing is excellent, and the story manages to be fully captivating for 7 straight episodes without overstaying its welcome. 

Truly a masterclass.

When I was in middle school, this was the peak of comedy. I mean, it still is… but it used to be, too.

Beef is tense, and filled with characters that are problematic and toxic probably more than they are likable; but despite their negativity, aggression and unrelenting Beef, they’re sympathetic enough that you wish they’d just get over themselves enough to move on with their lives.

This is a series that I thought would be more fun than it was, and had more similarities to a gritty drama like Breaking Bad than I would’ve expected. Still, that’s a comparison which only highlights the quality of writing on display here; credit where credit is due for this engaging and thought-provoking miniseries.

Watched: Taylor’s Version

I’m far from a Swiftie (or at least… I was…) but I couldn’t help but be awed by the sheer scale, style, and talent on display in this concert special. With 10 albums making an appearance (albeit with only “Our Song” from the self-titled 2006 album), and each one having its own unique costume, set, backdrop and theme, the Era’s Tour really is a tour de force of Taylor Swift’s monumental song catalog and the variety of tones and genres that she’s delved into. 

I didn’t know every song, and I was mildly disappointed by some of the options left on the cutting room floor; but as someone who never understood why T. Swift had such a massive, cult-like following compared to other performers… I get it now.

I’m far from a Swiftie (or at least… I was…) but I couldn’t help but be awed by the sheer scale, style, and talent on display in this concert special. With 10 albums making an appearance (albeit with only “Our Song” from the self-titled 2006 album), and each one having its own unique costume, set, backdrop and theme, the Era’s Tour really is a tour de force of Taylor Swift’s monumental song catalog and the variety of tones and genres that she’s delved into. 

I didn’t know every song, and I was mildly disappointed by some of the options left on the cutting room floor; but as someone who never understood why T. Swift had such a massive, cult-like following compared to other performers… I get it now.

Adorkable: the movie.

When a clueless-to-dating twenty-something woman makes a career out of giving dating advice to clueless-to-dating men, her own blindspots and secret desires brush up against those of her clients.

There’s a few slightly subverted cliches, a lighthearted tone and a cast of cringy yet well-meaning characters that adds up to an extremely underwhelming cookie-cutter “rom-com.” It’s not all that romantic, and it’s not all that funny, but at least it lands the tone and goes by quickly. A breezy, cringy watch that somehow still could’ve been worse.

The Marsh King’s Daughter opens promisingly enough, with an extensive introduction focused on establishing the dynamic between the “marsh king” father and his 12-year-old daughter, Helena. You see how he’s both mentor and disciplinarian; you see how he’s uncompromising yet subtly nurturing; and you see how Helena (aka “little shadow”) ires her father’s skills and strives to become as strong and capable as he is.

But while the first act ended on a high note for the film, the second act flash-forward stumbles through the motions of a mystery-box home-invasion family drama. There are a few really good themes in this sections particularly in regard to how Helena grapples with her misplaced iration for her imprisoned father, and the impact that her childhood had on her ability to trust and have a “normal” life.

But these themes are not explored as deeply as they should be. This is a film primarily about familial trauma, and yet more time is spent focused on mysterious noises and looking for intruders than it is in facing that history head on. There are a few good relationship moments between Helena and her husband, Helena and her step-father, and Helena and her daughter; but they’re all fairly surface level. They make it feel like those moments are headed toward a big emotional payoff that never fully comes.

And finally there’s the “Marsh King” himself. I don’t know if it’s the casting, but something about the character here just never landed for me. Particularly in the “present day” part of the film, he’s a character who is unafraid of violence and willing to use force, but he nevertheless comes across as harmless when he speaks. Maybe that’s part of the balance that the filmmakers were going for with the character to try to make him more nuanced and sympathetic; but I think there’s a point in the third act where he does and should stop being sympathetic in any respect, and yet his character never becomes more menacing or invigorated. It seems like there should’ve been a huge rise in his screen presence in order to build into a successful climax, but instead he’s just a quiet villain like a senile dog that needs to be put down.

And so the family drama is never quite big enough and the titular marsh king feels more like a marsh… mayor. He knows how to survive in the marsh, sure, but he’s not some nearly unstoppable force that needs a real innovator to defeat him; he’s just kind of a bad guy who is far enough off the grid that no one can find him.

I don’t know… I guess that I wanted to like this a bit more than I did, but I still generally enjoyed it? I think I might’ve been spoiled by Where The Crawdads Sing, because that film has a similar aesthetic and some similar themes, only with better scenery-catching cinematography, a deeper look into how being raised a hermit in the swamp would affect future integration into society, and a better central mystery to keep the tension consistently high. The Marsh King’s Daughter was a fairly good movie, but it also had a whole lot of missed potential.

Grainy footage and shaky camerawork make Once feel like the sort of grounded, gritty, on-a-budget film that the characters themselves would’ve made. There’s something incredibly charming about the small scale of it all, and the emotional depth that the music, lyrics, and quiet conversations are able to bring out between the two unnamed protagonists. 

But despite its charm, I still feel like Carney’s spiritual sequel Begin Again takes a similar premise and runs with it. Maybe it’s the cast, maybe it’s the comedy, or maybe it’s the New York setting, but that film just does everything for me.

Still… Once showcases the breadth and depth of emotion that music is able to convey, and focuses more on quiet moments and subtext than bombastic, show-stopping sequences. And I love it for that.

I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but this is probably the best comedy of all time.

Lots of cliches, and I’m still kind of jaded on Sydney at the moment, but it’s a fun film with likable-enough characters. Sure, there’s the classic “if you actually just talked to each other you could probably resolve a lot of your problems,” plot contrivance, and there’s a basically-perfect ex-boyfriend that the lead girl only left because she was “too comfortable” (ouch), and of course everything ties up unrealistically nicely in the end and everything is happy and perfect.

But I guess that’s why people like these films, right?

There’s plenty of fun set pieces along the way of this film, and both the leads and the side characters work well enough. The central gimmick is explored about just as much as it has to be while still being a fairly standard rom-com.

And… I feel like there should be more to say, but I’m gonna end it there. The rest can be Unwritten.

What starts out as a quirky, goofy, laugh-at-these-girlfriends slapstick comedy slowly turns into something more heartbreaking, resonant, and beautiful. While I can’t say that the resolution was the one that I had hoped for, it felt all the more realistic because of that.

I fucking hate it when things end.

This really is such a creative way of saying, “there’s no magical age where you figure everything out, and we’re all in the same boat; deep down we all still have that little kid in us.”

And I love that.

It’s good to see a new entry in the SparkShorts series!

And I thought this one was pretty great. The style and animation won me over, even though the “be yourself, don’t conform” messaging came off as slightly heavy-handed to me. It was still a good message, but maybe not as deep as it seems like it wanted to be.

An exquisite manor, a budding romance, some imaginative monsters, a unique time-travel mechanic, a plethora of powers, Miyazaki-style world-building, a scenery-chewing Samuel L. Jackson, the Welsh countryside, a climactic seaside amusement park, a remarkably poised leading lady, a sunken shipwreck, a goofy father figure, a German air raid, and a squirrel in a tree. 

Any day spent watching Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a day worth making into a time loop.

“Oh, hidey-ho Officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were, minding our own business, just doing some chores around the house, when these kids started killing themselves all over our property!”

It almost makes me want to invest in a Dior dress.

You’ve gotta respect the commitment to the bit.

Great cast, great story: when a sweet, unassuming bouncer fights his way onto a minor league hockey team, he copes with disappointed parents, jealous teammates, and a deeply unpleasant impersonator complex.

The story beats are fairly predicable, but the cast and characters are full of such life and energy that the film ended up more than winning me over.

I can see why Goon is considered a cult classic.

Ben Kingsley teams up with a bunch of evil robots in a vain attempt to hook up with the main kid’s mom, and then a bunch of misfit adolescents take on a surprisingly-well-designed robot/alien army.

The plot doesn’t give you enough time to buy into the characters, and it doesn’t give you enough depth to really care much about what’s happening in the story, but it’s a pretty-much-nonstop sci-fi action-adventure film from the get-go, with satisfying-enough B-movie visuals, and fairly likable if incredibly shallow characters.

Wow, that’s a lot of hyphens. But I had a surprisingly good time with this despite its many problems; could’ve been a 1.5, but I’m giving it the benefit of my mostly-thorough enjoyment.

Visually bleak, with a small cast of characters and a lonely, drab, boarding school aesthetic, The Holdovers might just be the prime exemplar of “the cloud with a silver lining.”

When a handful of grouchy, miserable, and self-sorry individuals are forced to hangout over the Christmas holidays, they come to learn a little bit more about themselves, their perspectives, and the cold preconceptions that they’d made about one another.

Me;
Though I have to travel far,
Me;
Each time you hear a sad guitar…
And know that I’m with you the only way that I can be;
Until you’re in my arms again…
Me.

A breezy little rom-drama; when a young couple in the middle of an argument are suddenly separated by time and space, one of them warps to the middle-future while the other lives out their life in his absence.

And even though there’s a time-warping sci-fi element, the plot itself is very grounded and very mundane in its relationship simplicity.

This is a film about loss, yes, but allegorically and specifically it’s about the loss that occurs when one person breaks up just because the other person can’t “read their mind.” It’s tragic and heartbreaking; and it’s so cathartic to see how the older, sadder, more reserved version of June reacts to seeing her younger self’s behavior again. It’s a classic, “you don’t know what you’ve got till you lose it,” scenario. 

And while there’s some added sci-fi 2040 pseudo-futuristic elements in here, and while there’s a subtle B-plot about two neighbors also forming a connection in the Big Brother future, the real heart of the film is just in the quiet interactions between two lovers who can no longer be together due to shifting tides, who nevertheless feel immense ion for one another still. It’s sad and it’s sweet, and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger man’s clothes.

Anyway… not bad for a super-quick time killer. The concepts of the film are never fully developed, but there’s something in the heart of this, and in the theming, that really does kind of work.

Men will literally agree to be hunted for sport instead of going to therapy.

But, I mean, it’s a million dollars. So can you really blame him for trying?

Regardless, the more I think about this film the more I’m captivated by it. It‘s a super original premise, and the film wastes no time in getting to it: ten minutes in, and the game’s already begun. 

…or has it?

Part of what makes Self Reliance so interesting is that for most if not all of the runtime, it’s ambiguous as to whether there really is a death game afoot. Since Tommy can only be attacked and killed when he’s completely alone, it’s imposssible to say for sure whether the entire misadventure is a made-up delusion. 

In fact, just about everyone that Tommy interacts with on his adventure is either convinced he’s crazy, or absurdly unbelievable themselves. Was Andy Samburg really in that limo? Was a cowboy really aiming a rifle at his sister’s bathroom window? And did those production assistant ninjas really hide in plain sight? 

But beyond the absurdity of the game itself is the realization that Tommy is going to therapy, in his own way, by engaging in this high-stakes adventure. He’s forced to confront his ex-girlfriend of many (23!) years, to be told that, basically, she grew bored and overly contented with him, and needed “more” out of life (relatable, and hurtful, but damn was it well written). Then, he sees the father that abandoned him for the first time in 30 years, and achieves catharsis by learning of his father’s regret but also relative success at becoming a better man. And, finally and most importantly, Tommy learns how to get out in the world and be social again, so that he can meet wonderful people like the homeless man Walter and the crazy-yet-datable Maddy (Anna Kendrick). He becomes a better, more well-rounded person, and then tells his interventionist family what’s what. His growth journey was remarkable… and it’s all thanks to the game.

Or… is it actually just… Self Reliance? Maybe, in truth, Tommy’s character growth through the film was work that he was constructing and orchestrating. Many of the characters (including everyone related to the game) could plausibly not have existed at all. Tommy even its to Walter at one point that his mind has a tendency to just… “make things up.” So is that it, then? Was it all made up?

I certainly don’t think so, in the end, and I do think that the film feels a lot more fun if the events of the game really did happen in the way that Tommy saw them. But I do think it’s important to see what his journey looks like from a more grounded, less whimsical perspective: a lonely man suffering from heartbreak attempts to connect with his family, feels like he can’t get close enough to them, reaches out online, subsequently befriends a homeless man because he’s willing to be there, meets a girl he found online, moves into a hotel with her for a few days, spooks her off, runs away with the homeless man, runs away from his family intervention, and lives under a bridge for several days as he loses his grip on reality.

I honestly think that this film could’ve gotten away with a slightly more ambiguous ending, but I must be in the minority on that because apparently test audiences yearned for a clear resolution. So maybe I’m wrong about that, I don’t know.

What I do know, though, is that seeing Wayne Brady, Andy Samburg, Christopher Lloyd, Anna Kendrick, and Jake Johnson himself (among others) flesh out the cast was a joy and a marvel to behold. 

I just had a lovely time with this tight, fun, and engaging 1:25 film. I can’t wait to see Jake Johnson’s next project.

Fool Me Once is a deft, twisty, 8-episode series that adapts what I’m sure was a gripping murder-mystery/thriller novel. It centers on the late Joe’s widowed wife, Maya, and the deteriorating Detective Kierce as they try to get to the bottom of not only Joe’s murder, but Maya’s sister Claire’s as well.

And episode by episode there are new twists, new reveals, constant tension and enthralling character developments. Everyone has a motive, everyone has an angle, and there are enough mysteries and red herrings to keep the whole thing interesting.

Truly a great watch from start to finish, and exactly as long as it needs to be. Limited Series are a beautiful thing.

P.S. I loved the style of the opening credits.

I’m sad to say that I just couldn’t get into this. The Blue Beetle suit is cool; the fight scenes are pretty good; and the performances are generally able— but the plot felt a bit too unoriginal and lacking in depth to connect on the level that it needed to. 

A few gripes:

— a weak, straightforwardly evil villain lacking complex motivations, abilities, or strengths. She’s kind of just bad for the sake of being bad and getting rich.

— Jaime is ridiculously overconfident and quippy for a kid who has only used his newfound abilities a handful of times. He’s talking smack to a military guy in a supersuit who’s trying to murder him and his family. With lines like, “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.”

— George Lopez says “Cabezón” like a thousand times and it gets really old.

— there’s a massive, implied backstory for the OG blue beetle, Jenny’s Dad, Ted, but it never goes anywhere.

— most of the family is surprisingly capable of fighting with only a casual “you don’t know my history,” pseudo-explanation given.

Just lots of little things that took me out. I was kind of hoping this would be quietly great— but, at least to me, it missed the mark.

I get it, I get the hate. But this was actually pretty sweet. And Hardin actually grew (hell, 3/4 of the movie was his growth arc…), and he and Tessa end up together, and it’s very kitschy, and very sentimental, and very dependent on the work setup in the previous four films… but, eh, whatever. It worked well enough for me.

It’s sappy, and it’s campy, and it’s beautiful. 

Plus: the heartfelt conversation between Hardin and his Dad is actually really, really good. That’s solid, real advice. That’s cinema.

Oh. And Lisbon is freaking gorgeous.

80s camp; Michael J. Fox; goofy prosthetics; I don’t even know what else to say about this one.

See also: Turning Red, Spider-Man, High School Musical, and The Luck of the Irish as Teen Wolf’s spiritual children. 

I can smell that liverwurst from over here.

Phenomenal. So funny. So fun. So romantic. So sweet. 

The effects are amazing. The characters are magnetic. The romance is earned. The story is beautiful. 

I loved this film. Sci-Fi Rom-Coms forever.

The minions are overplayed; the plot is paper-thin; the villain is less entertaining; the love story is silly at best; and the sentimentality of the first film is lost since Gru no longer needs the character growth that he had in the first film.

Despicable Me 2 is down there with Frozen II and Ralph Breaks the Internet as a mindlessly watchable, cash-grab sequel to what should’ve been a timeless one-off. While Despicable Me felt fresh, inventive, fun, and charming, Despicable Me 2 comes across as overly goofy, overplayed, and unoriginal. There are some comedic moments here that really work, but the film as a whole just does not come together the way that it needs to.

I think I would’ve been slightly more generous if I had reviewed this film back when I first watched it in 2013, but, eh. Today’s tastes are different, and it pales compared to its predecessor.

With Despicable Me, Illumination a better Grinch movie than they did with The Grinch.
It’s a film about a bad guy— in this case, a super villain— whose heart grows three sizes thanks to a trio of little girls.

And despite earning its success, I really wish that Despicable Me had remained a one-off lacking sequels, prequels, or spinoff shorts. Obviously, the minions were ripe for mining and I can’t imagine that corporate would ever actually leave the property alone— but if they had, man, this could’ve been a standalone classic.

Instead we all got tired of the minions, and tired of Gru, and tired of this world that actually is a lot of fun in this original movie. 

I mean, a supervillain adopts three little girls as part of a plan to steal the moon? It’s a great hook that sadly would not be lived up to again.

Jesus Revolution started out on a high note, diving headfirst into the anti-hippie sentiment that was present in the early-70s church, establishing the conflict between the would-be hippie-preacher Lonnie Frizbee and the Cavalry Chapel’s Pastor, Chuck Smith. And for the first thirty minutes or so these ideologies duke it out, with the traditions of the church slowly giving way to the love and open-armed approach that Jesus himself preaches… and during this section of the film, the momentum is strong, the conflict is engaging, and the Revolution feels like a necessary force for the church at the time.

But after what amounts to an impressive opening prologue, we finally meet the real main character of the film, Greg Laurie. And once we start following him, all of the momentum and tension that the first act had built, collapses into a rather mundane, preachy story saying, “Try Jesus, not drugs.” And it’s really a shame, because that message would be fine if it wasn’t the only thing that the story had going for it— but the whole middle section of this film consisted of Greg’s rising interest in a religious career, and a quiet slip into the background for the two main characters who started the whole movement in the first place.

Basically, Greg’s own personal story of “Coming to Christ,” steals the focus away from the titular “Jesus Revolution” itself. It stops being about a pastor overcoming the traditions that are expected of him; it stops being about a hippie preacher who has deep-seated flaws of his own, flaws which are never really explored here; and it stops even being about the message of what it’s supposed to mean to be a part of this Christian revival. It would be one thing if the film went all in and tried to make you feel what the hippies themselves would’ve felt at their time of conversion— but instead we just get shots of baptisms, shots of healings, shots of prayer, and nothing personal to connect to and make it feel real or personal. And so it feels empty. It’s a film that tells you what these people believe, but sort of fails to show you why they would actually believe it.

Hope? Maybe?

But, as I say, it’s the sudden focus on Greg’s own life and his relationship with Cathe that gave me plot whiplash and really took my interest away from the film. The first act sold me on a really interesting pseudo-documentary about the rise of an actual historical movement, but then I was rug-pulled into a mediocre love story that couldn’t hold my attention.

 But, I also can’t deny that by the end of the film, the love story did start to win me over and the fallout from the first act did have almost enough resolution to get me satisfied. I think that once I adjusted my expectations a bit, the film really was significantly better than I was thinking throughout the second act. The visuals were generally pretty good, honestly, and aside from Greg much of the cast was magnetic. So it’s a mixed bag.

While I was hooked on Jesus Revolution at the start, and bored to tears in the middle, the ending managed to balance the two feelings well enough to ultimately land me somewhere in the middle.

This is certainly a film where YMMV.

An ongoing list of the 2023 theatrical releases I’ve seen and how they stack up.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. Suzume
3. Beau Is Afraid
4. Wonka
5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
6. The Holdovers
7. John Wick: Chapter 4
8. Evil Dead Rise
9. Haunted Mansion
10. Elemental

...plus 78 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 11 Pixar “SparkShorts” short films, from best-to-worst.

1. Kitbull
2. Wind
3. Out
4. Twenty Something
5. Self
6. Burrow
7. Float
8. Loop
9. Nona
10. Purl

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 10 episodes of the Marvel Shorts Series, I Am Groot, from Best-to-Worst

• I Am Groot: Groot's Snow Day
• I Am Groot: Groot and the Great Prophecy
• I Am Groot: Groot Noses Around
• I Am Groot: Magnum Opus
• Groot's First Steps
• I Am Groot: Are You My Groot?
• The Little Guy
• Groot Takes a Bath
• I Am Groot: Groot's Sweet Treat
• I Am Groot: Groot's Pursuit

My personal ranking of all 62 “canon” Disney Animation Feature Films, from Best-to-Worst.

1. Lilo & Stitch
2. The Lion King
3. Pinocchio
4. Hercules
5. The Emperor's New Groove
6. Frozen
7. Tarzan
8. Aladdin
9. Raya and the Last Dragon
10. Alice in Wonderland

...plus 52 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 10 Saw films, from best-to-worst.

1. Saw II
2. Saw
3. Saw X
4. Saw 3D
5. Saw III
6. Saw V
7. Saw IV
8. Saw VI
9. Spiral: From the Book of Saw
10. Jigsaw

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2022 nominees for “Best Animated Short,” “Best Live-Action Short,” and “Best Documentary (Short Subject),” at the Oscars.

• Ice Merchants
• My Year of Dicks
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
• The Red Suitcase
• Stranger at the Gate
• An Irish Goodbye
• Night Ride
• The Elephant Whisperers
• How Do You Measure a Year?
• Haulout

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 27 Pixar films, from best-to-worst.

1. Inside Out
2. WALL·E
3. Finding Nemo
4. Ratatouille
5. Toy Story
6. Onward
7. Soul
8. Coco
9. Elemental
10. Up

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The Top 100 Domestically-Released Films of 2021 (By In-Year Release, According to BoxOfficeMojo).

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
4. Black Widow
5. F9
6. Eternals
7. Sing 2
8. No Time to Die
9. A Quiet Place Part II
10. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The Top 100 Domestically-Released Films of 2022 (By In-Year Release, According to BoxOfficeMojo).

1. Top Gun: Maverick
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
4. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
5. Jurassic World Dominion
6. Minions: The Rise of Gru
7. The Batman
8. Thor: Love and Thunder
9. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
10. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2022 nominees for “Best Picture” at the Oscars.

• Top Gun: Maverick
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Everything Everywhere All at Once

  And the Oscar goes to…

• Avatar: The Way of Water
• Women Talking
• The Fabelmans
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Triangle of Sadness
• Elvis
• TÁR

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the short film entries in the Love, Death & Robots anthology series.

1. Love, Death & Robots: Bad Travelling
2. Love, Death & Robots: All Through the House
3. Love, Death & Robots: The Drowned Giant
4. Love, Death & Robots: Snow in the Desert
5. Love, Death & Robots: Ice
6. Love, Death & Robots: Mason's Rats
7. Love, Death & Robots: Beyond the Aquila Rift
8. Love, Death & Robots: The Tall Grass
9. Love, Death & Robots: The Very Pulse of the Machine
10. Love, Death & Robots: Blindspot

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2021 nominees for “Best Picture” at the Oscars.

1. CODA

   And the Oscar goes to…

2. Belfast
3. Licorice Pizza
4. The Power of the Dog
5. West Side Story
6. King Richard
7. Nightmare Alley
8. Dune
9. Don't Look Up
10. Drive My Car

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2021 nominees for “Best Animated Short,” “Best Live-Action Short,” and “Best Documentary (Short Subject),” at the Oscars.

1. The Dress

   Best Live Action Short

2. Please Hold

   Best Live Action Short

3. On My Mind

   Best Live Action Short

4. Beast

   Best Animated Short

5. Take and Run

   Best Live Action Short

6. The Queen of Basketball

   Best Documentary (Short Subject)

   And the Oscar goes to…

7. The Windshield Wiper

   Best Animated Short

   And the Oscar goes to…

8. Affairs of the Art

   Best Animated Short

9. The Long Goodbye

   Best Live Action Short

   And the Oscar goes to…

10. Lead Me Home

    Best Documentary (Short Subject)

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 10 “Pixar Popcorn” shorts, from best-to-worst.

1. Pixar Popcorn: Soul of the City
2. Pixar Popcorn: Cookie Num Num
3. Pixar Popcorn: Chore Day - The Incredibles Way
4. Pixar Popcorn: To Fitness and Beyond
5. Pixar Popcorn: Fluffy Stuff with Ducky & Bunny: Love
6. Pixar Popcorn: Fluffy Stuff with Ducky & Bunny: Three Heads
7. Pixar Popcorn: A Day in the Life of the Dead
8. Pixar Popcorn: Unparalleled Parking
9. Pixar Popcorn: Dory Finding
10. Pixar Popcorn: Dancing with the Cars

The first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ranked from best-to-worst.

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. Avengers: Endgame
4. Doctor Strange
5. Captain America: The First Avenger
6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7. Captain America: Civil War
8. Thor: Ragnarok
9. The Avengers
10. Spider-Man: Far From Home

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of all 8 Harry Potter movies, from best-to-worst.

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2020 nominees for “Best Picture” at the Oscars.

1. The Father
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Promising Young Woman
4. Sound of Metal
5. Minari
6. Nomadland

   And the Oscar goes to…

7. Judas and the Black Messiah
8. Mank

My personal ranking from best-to-worst of the 2019 nominees for “Best Picture” at the Oscars.

1. Parasite

   And the Oscar goes to…

2. Ford v Ferrari
3. 1917
4. Jojo Rabbit
5. Joker
6. Little Women
7. The Irishman
8. Marriage Story
9. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood