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The ultimate father/son film—and one that all parents can treasure. What an absolute treat this movie is. It’s a gift to the world that loving parents can share with their kids. Right now, my baby is obsessed with the beautiful colors, but I can’t wait to truly experience this film with her as she grows.

The visuals have aged better than you’d think—honestly better than many animated films released in recent years. And the comedy is perfectly layered for both kids and adults. Pixar at its absolute best. My wife and I were cracking up. 

So many tearjerkers too. The moment Nemo realizes Marlin swam 2,000 miles just to save him gets me every time. In his young life he’s never stopped to consider the depth of his father’s love, and suddenly it hits him all at once. So many simple but powerful moments just like that. But what’s most effective about the film is that it is grounded in the adventure, with the message being secondary - though still essential. Nowadays that ratio is usually flipped. It’s now all about the message as opposed to a well-crafted adventure. And because of this, the message gets lost too.

This isn’t Anderson at his weirdest, but it’s close. Not as magical as Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel—but few films are. I slightly prefer this to The Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums, resting solidly in the mid tier of the Andersonverse. It’s great to see Bill Murray in a lead role here before he settled into his later spot in Anderson’s ing ensemble. His trademark cynical narcissism is on full display, but it’s softened by a quiet, sincere search for real human connection. The ing cast is intriguing, the world is cool, and the style is just as gorgeous as you’d expect: the whole thing has a charm that lingers. Pre-monotone Anderson isn’t as stylistically strong, but is arguably more earnest.

Unsurprisingly bad given the short runtime, and it reveals nothing new in the hour you do get. About 45 minutes are spent on background and Jenn Sterger, with the welfare scandal getting haphazardly crammed into the final 15. Untold continues to struggle with quality control, which is a shame because this story had the potential for a valuable investigation. The documentary feels totally half-baked—lacking both depth and style. The absence of Brett Favre’s perspective also detracts from the narrative. I understand that he declined to be interviewed, and I’m not saying he needs to be defended (he definitely seems like a dirtbag), but any subject-focused documentary that doesn’t include the subject feels incomplete by default.

That said, there’s still some material worth chewing on. I came away feeling much worse for Jenn Sterger than I did going in. And while Jemele Hill has had a bunch of moronic takes over the years, her perspective here is actually solid. The most obvious critique is that the welfare scandal deserved far more attention than it got. Much is made here of the fact that Brett Favre is being protected because he was a white quarterback. I can’t help but point to Deshaun Watson—facing numerous sexual misconduct allegations, still cashing NFL checks, and publicly defended by players across the league. The NFL’s disgusting willingness to protect its stars clearly transcends race, and is implemented inconsistently.

Another wasted concept. Pratt is the definition of a serviceable action star, he will perform up or down to the level of the material that he’s given, rarely truly elevating projects but also not really ruining much on his own. He is commonly derided for being so popular with studios, but honestly the pendulum has swung so far with him that he’s oddly underrated by cinephiles — he’s really not that bad. A little stiff, sure, but at least he’s earnest. 

This film is just ok, offering some cool lore and decent action, but feeling jumbled at times. The concept is relatively fresh but many of the combined elements are derivative.

This review may contain spoilers.

Everything in the film is painfully obvious. First scene three friends climbing? Obviously somebody is going to fall to their death. One year later? One of them is at the bar drinking away their sorrows, drinking straight liquor. They are drunk? The camera becomes wobbly, and let’s add in some pill abuse for good measure. But then let’s never reference this again. There is a dad character? Let’s make that a strained relationship. The dude who died earlier was one of the girl’s husband? Obviously the other girl was cheating with him. You can call any one of these things from a mile away. 

Once they wind up on the tower the film tries to offer a few twists and turns, but even those are varying degrees of expected and just plain dumb. It’s just throwing foreshadowing and tension at the audience at all times hoping that some of it sticks. The decision making is truly laughable, and the twist in the end is pretty stupid. Still, the premise alone offers some decent mindless entertainment. Some of the dialogue is hilariously bad, especially from the influencer girl, but it adds to the film’s charm. So bad it’s good?

For sure a great documentary, but perhaps a tad overrated by the Letterbox Brazilians lol. That said, even as someone not particularly interested in Formula One, the significance and tension behind each moment was easy to understand. I had no idea so much politics were involved in the sport. Seeing the race replays and how fast these guys go is always insane to me.

What do you get when a C-list huckster hits his 16th minute of fame and then demands a chance to tell his story? An utter waste of time. This was a bizarre pick for the Untold series because Liver King wasn’t even involved in competitive bodybuilding so he doesn’t fit their usual sports focus. 

The film exposes his fraud, sure, but barely lifts a finger to hold him able or really press him with difficult questions. Daddy issues are a laughable justification for any of this. His dad died when he was 2 or 3. He’s now almost 50. At some point you have to be your own man.

The revelation that he had moonlit as a drug dealer and small time fraudster in his past was the least surprising part of the documentary. I knew this would be a waste of time, so I guess I deserve it for turning it on. Untold remains a tier below 30 for 30, and with more offerings like this it will stay there.

Dadcore. A gripping and comprehensive look at the horrific event that defined America in the 2000’s, and the hunt for the man responsible. It avoids buying into revisionist anti-America narratives while also avoiding becoming full-throated pro-America propaganda. A clear-eyed take that sticks to the facts, interviewing all of the necessary principals while keeping things moving at a satisfying pace. It is perhaps too apologetic to the intelligence community earlier on in the documentary, but the final episode giving the play by play of the operation to take him down was amazing.

This may be an unpopular take, but hear me out. 

Only 37.7% of Americans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 56% of student debt is actually held by those who pursued higher level graduate degrees—despite the fact that only 14% of Americans have attained such a degree. Why should someone who never went to college (a population composing the majority of taxpayers) be forced to subsidize someone else’s degree—especially when that degree leads to higher-paying jobs and gives the recipient a resumé that directly competes with those who didn’t go?

Working-class Americans are essentially being asked to bankroll their own career disadvantage. Graduate degree holders earn, on average, $1.5 million more over their lifetimes than those with only a high school diploma. This isn’t about helping the underprivileged—it’s about transferring wealth from the working class to the credentialed future elite as a kind of electoral spoils system. That’s not progressive policy; it’s reverse redistribution.

That said, I do agree with some points made by student loan forgiveness advocates:
1. College prices have become predatorily high. But guess what? These increases have partially come due to the rampant availability of federally guaranteed student loans. Colleges have every incentive to charge whatever they want because the government essentially becomes a loan shark on their behalf - the school doesn’t care if you default, they get paid either way. While they sound good, federally guaranteed loans can actually be a perverse incentive. 
2. Interest rates on many student loans are unreasonably high and should be lowered or capped. Interest is necessary to ensure continued payment, but there’s no reason it should be approaching 10%. 
 3. There’s a stronger case for making community college and trade schools free—they offer real economic mobility at a fraction of the cost. A degree at a 4 year college is a choice, or even status symbol, not a requirement. 
4. It’s fair to argue that certain majors (e.g., teaching, nursing, etc.) could be subsidized due to their value to society. But the meme of somebody being in debt for a “useless” degree still remains. 
5. I’m sympathetic to people who went into debt at 18 without fully understanding the consequences—but if we consider 18-year-olds mature enough to vote, we also have to expect a basic level of personal responsibility.
6. For-profit colleges are often scams that lead to debt and limited career rewards.

Dave Ramsey’s documentary team is on the money questioning the necessity of a college degree in the first place, and is certainly correct in pointing out the value of trade school and community college as an alternative. I can’t endorse all of his financial methods, but his heart is in the right place (despite his own
biases and possible conflicts of interest.) Dave’s take is that you shouldn’t go to college at all if you don’t have a specific plan in place to pay off the loans, and I tend to agree. Some may find that harsh or reductive, but it is nonetheless true. The solution can’t be “let’s tax everybody else to solve the problem.”

This review may contain spoilers.

What a joke that people think there’s any ambiguity here. “Believe all women” is a catastrophically dumb adage—we should believe people who are credible, regardless of their attributes. Can we approach life like rational adults instead of cultists?

Molly and her father are guilty as hell. It’s hard to take anything they say seriously, especially knowing her dad was literally an FBI agent. Molly comes off as a pathological liar who had the gall to coach Jason’s kids into vilifying their father after beating him to death with a brick—striking him while he was already down and destroying what little plausibility her flimsy self-defense claim ever had.

To their credit, the filmmakers mostly don’t buy into her narrative, but it’s disturbing that any public sympathy still leans her way. This is yet another case that will make you hate lawyers and how they can twist the truth. Her one-sided audio evidence is preposterous. 

The fact that these people are walking free is a travesty. People may not want to hear it, but the justice system doesn’t just fail women—in many ways it is systemically biased against men.

The film sured my rock-bottom expectations, but that doesn’t mean it was actually good. After a brief and heartfelt tribute to Chadwick Boseman and a decent setup with a potentially compelling villain and lore, it quickly overstays its welcome. I will offer a more detailed critique below, but ultimately it’s simply too long, ill-paced, and not enough fun. 

Just because a film honors someone beloved doesn’t make the film itself worthy of love. In fact, some scenes are laughably bad. There are flashes of brilliance, but the movie generally lacks the charisma and polish needed to sell a superhero world. Angela Bassett gives a strong ing performance, but Letitia Wright simply isn’t built to lead an action film. Other characters are simply wasted. 

The film feels unpolished. Some of the CGI is simply not up to the typical Marvel standard, and the story feels like it floats from action scene to action scene without establishing thematic weight. The characters talk about the grave threat that they are faced with, but the audience never has a reason to believe them. The various factions also don’t really make logical decisions. Things seem to happen just to drive the plot forward, not because they make sense. 

It’s a tribute Boseman would likely find touching—clearly made with love by his former co-stars—but it’s not one that lives up to his talent. The only thing more unthinkable than recasting the Black Panther would be trying to make a movie without him. And yet here we are, watching Marvel try to stitch together a narrative around side characters who were never meant to carry this kind of weight. The result, unsurprisingly, is unsatisfying. Some reviewers I respect seem to have liked the film and I am pretty confused as to why.

Obvious, ill-paced, occasionally funny but usually grating, often boring, and never insightful. The decision to have Ruffalo closely emulate Trump is a short-sighted one that holds the film back, turning what could have been a layered sci-fi parable into shallow satire. It would be wrong to suggest that Bong Joon-ho hasn’t always been political, but in his best work politics have been the way to frame the story rather than the message itself. Mickey 17 feels like it’s telling you what to think instead of exploring ideas in a way that invites interpretation. It’s more literal and didactic than metaphorical and resonant, and that weakens its staying power.

Films that pretend to challenge power while parroting the dominant cultural narrative always amuse me. There’s nothing subversive about mocking Trump or capitalism in Hollywood — it’s the safest move you could possibly make. I shouldn’t even have to clarify that I don’t particularly like Trump, because the whole exercise is painfully corny — even outside of Ruffalo. Strip the politics from your calculus entirely and the film is still sorely lacking: convoluted, listless, and forgettable. Bong, you aren’t fighting the man, you have a $118 million budget and are backed by Warner Brothers.

At times riveting but mostly just tragic and sad, this documentary is a numbing portrait of wasted potential and a culture that has failed itself. While compelling throughout, the film feels a bit too apologetic toward Javaris Crittenton — seeming to blame the environment around him for his decisions more than the man himself. I find it preposterous that Crittenton is out of jail after only 10 years (despite killing somebody in a drive by shooting) and is even counseling young men about how to avoid a life of crime. His new turn is especially egregious because he is only out of prison because of a sweetheart deal with a prosecutor who happened to be a family friend. His life has been ruined and yet it still feels like he has escaped ability. He was dragged down by the environment around him, but he consciously chose time and again to swim deeper into that water. Hood honor culture is so stupid. Gilbert Arenas comes off like a complete tool but this is really all about Crittenton. What a sad, senseless story.

Not nearly as bad as I expected. Begrudging 3 stars for style and artistic flair, but I didn’t ~love~ the film overall, mainly due to the message that villains are just misunderstood - which is a bad way to teach children about the world. This Cruella isn’t nearly as evil as the original portrayal, so the film works way better as a standalone than as a legitimate prequel. A woman who attempts to kill puppies is probably not the best vehicle for nuance, lol. Despite the popularity of moral relativism, it is important for kids to understand that objective evil exists in this world. The whole “let’s recontextualize villains” trend is so tired. The good: 60s and 70s London makes for a great musical and stylistic backdrop, the humor is pretty good, and Emma Stone gives a reasonably strong performance.

This review may contain spoilers.

No character in this behaves plausibly at any level, and the consulate’s security and surveillance situation is laughable. It becomes impossible to assess the true threat level because the main woman seems to be able to dispatch heavily armed men with ease and navigate the building at will, and yet we are supposed to fear for her because she is up against the mystique and power of the American empire. What should feel like infinite stakes are reduced to non-existent ones. There’s always a suspension of disbelief required with most action movies, but this one pushes the boundaries a little too far.

It’s always amusing when 5’6” babes are cast as unstoppable warriors with superhuman strength, infinite stamina, and the ability to absorb damage like a Marvel hero—but that’s hardly unique to this film. The movie also sucks for many reasons other than that. 

I could get all bent out of shape and call this anti-American propaganda—and on some level, it probably is. But it’s also not sophisticated enough to have any ideas worth chewing on. The soulless American power structure makes a pretty decent villain for a Die Hard-style romp, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

This film is one of the worst examples of “villain explains whole plan for no reason.” He has essentially won by the end of the movie but then confesses his crimes to the main girl who just happens to have a secret recording device. She has no leverage at this point so there is zero reason for him to do it. Incredibly lazy storytelling. But all of that aside, sometimes a little Netflix slop is exactly what a lazy Saturday calls for.

This review may contain spoilers.

I’ll just say this: demons and family curses seem incredibly real after watching this. This is yet another case of absentee fatherhood causing chaos and heartbreak, but I don’t want to fully absolve Charity - she its that she wanted to be a single mom because she doesn’t like compromise, and also its that she doesn’t regret getting Paris psychological help earlier in life despite his obvious violent tendencies. She wants to break the cycle of trauma in her family, but doesn’t fully understand where this trauma is coming from. Charity’s mother basically its on camera to murdering her husband and then manipulating the jury, and yet Charity and the mom seem to have reconciled by the end of the documentary. What a mess.

A tough film to rate — and even harder to watch, especially as a new parent to a beautiful baby girl. Everything about this is devastating. The documentary leaves a burning hole in your gut, giving you a lot to chew on intellectually and morally, but unfortunately part of this impact comes from the ridiculous way that the family tries to frame everything, and also in what the documentary chooses not to show. It leaves out the fact that Paris also raped his sister during the attack, which is unforgivable and subtracts at least a point from any honest review. It also leaves out that he itted that his motive was to mentally harm his mother, but the documentary frames it as him being jealous of his younger sibling. In trying to frame Paris as at least somewhat sympathetic, it omits key, sordid details the audience deserves to know — and those omissions undermine the truth. 

This film is a stark reminder that some people are simply too dangerous to live freely in society, and the rehabilitation role of prisons is clearly limited. Paris forfeited his right to nuance; I don’t care what age he was. By eighth grade — and with an IQ that high — he knew exactly what he was doing. And now he complains about “being raised by Big Brother” in prison? His complaints fall on deaf ears. He laments not going to prom or having a girlfriend? You. Are. A. Murderer. And beyond that, I’ve seen nothing here to indicate that he wouldn’t be on ongoing threat if released. 

The whole fiasco with him seeking books that had graphic content and rape was pretty informative. The grandmother sending him the books and then co-suing Charity (with Paris) for parental rights when she tried to shut it down is insane. The family blames the state of Texas for not giving him better psychological care while in prison, but maybe that’s just guilt talking — because the time to intervene was years earlier when he showed obvious red flags during childhood. Charity claims she has “no regrets” — despite the fact that Paris had already tried to stab her before killing his sister, and she still chose not to it him for psychiatric care. And now she blames the system for failing him? Pathetic.

I don’t believe any psychiatric solution that leaves the door open for release can be considered safe or just — especially for someone who is, by all s, a master manipulator. Charity openly its she feels trapped, terrified that cutting ties with her son might provoke him to one day kill her new son if he’s ever released. That says it all. Under no circumstances should release even be on the table. The documentary was highly intriguing, but loses points for attempting to create nuance where there really isn’t any.

The final boss of obnoxious liberalism. This film is screaming eat the rich but forgot to actually set the table with ideas more sophisticated than a ninth grade social studies paper. This film’s fans on here seem to have created a catch-22 re: criticism. If you like the film’s themes, great, you’re enlightened. If you didn’t, why are you analyzing the “fun unicorn movie” so deeply? They want it to be taken seriously but also shrink from that criticism. You can’t have it both ways.

The only lens from which I could see this being good is if your brain has been thoroughly broken by American politics. You would have to lib out to a preposterous degree to find this genuinely good. Even Paul Rudd is stripped of his usual charm, offering little that could save the film. At best this is a forgettable comedy that tries to do things slightly differently, but its good scenes are rarely followed by other good ones. Sure, there are a few solid laughs, especially from Poulter, but the Jenna Ortega hype train has officially outpaced her abilities for me (sorry, Tik Tok girlies.) Maybe she is just very bad at picking scripts (but isn’t that excuse a little too convenient?)

I am a sucker for all of these hyper-accurate war films from the ’60s and ’70s. This one mostly sticks to the facts, other than the inclusion of a half-baked romance between an American serviceman and a Japanese American woman. There is a procedural and almost documentary feel to this, which will either work for you or leave you pretty bored. The cast is certainly star-studded enough to keep your attention, but not all of the action sequences have aged well. Is it as good as Roland Emmerich’s highly underrated 2019 offering? Not even close. But it’s still worthwhile if you are a student of history. Midway is probably the single most important battle of the war that normies generally don’t know about.

Refreshing to see a Disney remake handled with reverence and care, though the added 45 minutes of material makes the pacing feel listless at times. Emma Watson and Luke Evans were fantastic choices, with Evans commanding the audiences attention and Watson conveying immense inner beauty. However, this isn’t nearly as good as the animated version because the limits of reality cannot possibly compete with untethered imagination. The late-great Howard Ashman’s influence is also conspicuously absent, with the musical elements not touching the heights of the original. But the offering here is easily able. The film is minimally subversive, advocating for a dignified and reserved feminist confidence, which plays well given Watson’s persona. Had this been made a few years later with a different lead actress I guarantee that this message would have been amplified to a garish extent.

Just because your film is “high art” doesn’t mean it automatically deserves a “high score.” Some of the images are beautiful, but I wasn’t moved by this, sorry. The type of film your buddy who went to film school and smoked a bunch of weed says changed his life. “A meditation on the human condition,” he says. Bro, just shut up. It shows how cultures live differently but ultimately share the same humanity, while also showing how fleeting an individual life is. It also illustrates the fragile nature of culture itself by showing the ruins of bygone epochs fading into the wind. But do I care? No. 

It purports to show how we are all at risk of destroying our own humanity through modernity, but this is done by jarringly alternating between natural vistas, Eastern religious rituals, and mechanized hellscapes. The West is shown solely through the lens of emptiness, excess, and decay — void of any spiritual, artistic, or architectural richness. There’s no Christian liturgy, no Western sacred spaces, no beauty. Meanwhile, the East is romanticized as peaceful, harmonious, and spiritually whole — even when it critiques Asian industry, it’s clearly a dig at capitalism, not culture. Meanwhile, when consumerism is shown in the West, there is no positive artistic or cultural counterpoint. To the creator of this film, beauty is in the eye of “the other.” And because of that, he misses his own point. His earlier films, Chronos and Baraka, painted a more balanced and thoughtful picture of humanity. 

This is valuable as a desktop screensaver, or perhaps for the backdrop of an Attenborough narration, but little else. Less a meditation on humanity, and more a projection of the filmmaker’s aesthetic preferences.

Watched this with my wife because we were looking for the Voight miniseries and couldn’t find it anywhere online. Turns out this version is pretty low quality: made-for-TV slop that doesn’t do justice to a great man.. even as a Protestant / non-Catholic I respect what he did for his nation and for the world in countering communism (despite his failure to uncover the ongoing abuse scandal that happened on his watch.) However, his life as pope isn’t covered here, so we’re left with the less interesting parts of his life. It’s a able WW2 docudrama and exploration of Soviet authoritarianism that Catholics will probably like slightly more than I did, but it’s not too good on its merits.

A so-so action flick that I have rated lower than it “deserves” for being a downright terrible adaptation of the book that dumbs down its themes to the lowest possible level, which is pretty ironic considering what the book is about. It turns a subtle takedown of mundane regressivism and mass hysteria into a mediocre action film about government authoritarianism. It misses a lot of Bradbury’s key points, but most especially the fact that the censorship of 451’s world was not the result of top down censorship - but rather popular demand. The film mixes itself up with 1984. Fahrenheit 451 was never meant as a critique of big government authoritarianism. The film attempts to tackle the Trump era, but very clumsily. At times it comes off as a “resistance” era film rather than a necessary update of a classic. I’d say Michael B Jordan deserves better, but he’s not exactly known for subtlety either. Still, the original ideas are so good that it can’t help but be decent.

*inside Hollywood boardroom*

Guys, what if we took much better source material than Divergent and then made the movie worse?

I will be rewatching this with my wife’s 8 year old brother and may be giving it a higher score soon. 

Jack Black and Jason Momoa really give it their all, which you have got to respect given how obviously stupid this movie is. That said, it is clearly made for kids and I think the humor lands with that audience. They occasionally try to reach across the aisle with humor for other groups, but just because there are flashes of edgier jokes doesn’t mean that adults will find much to enjoy. Black is basically alternating between yelling every single line and breaking out into song. It’s amusing at first but can we it that the whole Jack Black thing gets old after a while? (Sorry, not sorry, millennials.)

This feels (slightly) less soulless and corporate than the new Mario movie, but is technically worse. A Minecraft Movie is occasionally earnest but they definitely could have gone a better direction with it. The pacing is very weird, throwing the audience right in the action and forgetting to give them a reason to care about any of these people, while also cutting to the next scene at odd times. Some of the side characters added nothing of value and just wound up wasting screen time. A simplified story with less characters (maybe just the kids and Steve?) more oriented around meeting fellow players or characters within the game world would have been better.

A bunch of boring and/or incredibly annoying people making excuses for a woman that seems like she just kindof sucked. They blame sexism, her parents, her church (of course), her ex husband, etc, but maybe personal ability should come into it? Maybe don’t plot to murder someone? Even if she was entrapped, I don’t feel bad for her.

One of the ists spent time discussing how this case illustrated that “ambitious women” are often cast as “villains” - ridiculous commentary: she was literally on tape soliciting murder. Wtf is with this recent push to avoid making anyone out to be a genuine villain or re-contextualizing existing villains as misunderstood?

The other mom was probably a biatch, but that isn’t a killable offense, even in Texas. Everybody in this documentary sucks except for the poor daughter. A sobering reminder of how poor parenting and a poor underlying relationship between parents can potentially ruin your child’s life.

The only nice thing I’ll say is that the filmmakers deserve at least some credit for not stretching this into multiple episodes.

Watched on Thursday April 24, 2025.

A must-watch for anyone who’s ever owned a dog. The mockumentary format fits this world perfectly because it makes everything feel earnest, despite the obvious absurdity. The behavior of the cast is certainly ridiculous but also just grounded enough to make the whole thing feel oddly plausible. Any dog owner will tell you that one of the best parts of dogs is how weird they are, and this film captures that by revealing the foil - weird owners. The pacing is a delightful surprise, with razor-sharp comedic timing that keeps the laughs coming. If it were made today, it’d be 120 minutes long and half as funny. I was rooting for the poodle because I grew up with them, lol.

Fun fact, in addition to being a beloved character actor, having played the six fingered man in The Princess Bride and many other great roles, Christopher Guest arguably created the modern mockumentary genre with his work writing This is Spinal Tap, this film, and several others. He is a huge unsung cinema hero whose ideas have been imitated and built on by others countless times. There is no “The Office” without Christopher Guest.

A thoughtful meditation connecting the world of academic Christianity with the intuitive desires of the heart, adding in production values and story beats you’d expect in a typical rom-com - but perhaps missing some of the connective tissue between it all. Still, this was a pleasant surprise. 

It’s funny. It’s witty. It’s got something to say, but the film seeks to entertain first and preach second. It is confident enough in its own vision to feature likable ing characters who aren’t Christian, and isn’t afraid of presenting real arguments against Christianity at times. Bottom line, it doesn’t treat its audience like idiots, and isn’t afraid of challenging them or making them think. If you’ve seen any Christian movie made in the last decade you will appreciate how unusual that is.

Some may walk away with a sour taste in their mouth because of the film’s inevitably predictable conversion story and/or romance tropes, but it probably never had a chance with them anyways. The reality is that these romantic tropes became tropes for a reason - they often work. And conversion stories, while familiar, can still be meaningful - they often reflect real experiences which deserve a voice just as much as any other story.  

Too often, Christian filmmakers focus on converting non-existent atheists in the audience with in-your-face messages rather than enriching the faith of their real audience: other Christians. But director Ryan Whitaker seems to understand the mission here, providing real entertainment while still leaving the door open for theological coherence and not hitting the audience over the head with it. A skeptic could see this and connect with it on any level from literary to romantic to religious. 

Some of the greatest movies of all time are Christian, and even a majority of non-Christian films are informed by Christian themes- and yet the culture is often oblivious to this thematic heritage. Christian cultural power has faded, especially in Hollywood. Many believers neglect the broader culture in favor of living in their little enclaves, which is to their own detriment. It is time for Christians to make great art again, and while this film isn’t truly great, it is a start. It is right at home with any other random streaming rom-com you’d see from popular studios, if not a cut above, and for the genre that is more than ok.

Incomprehensible gish gallop drowning in its own self-indulgence. By definition, experiments have no guarantee of success - and so it is with Megalopolis, which tries much and accomplishes little. While I respect Coppola’s unwavering self-belief, the kind that can only come from a fantastically rich boomer who has spent the last 50 years being told that he was creative genius, the old adage still holds: a fool and his money shall soon be parted. He cultivated a creative environment where nobody was empowered to tell him no, and this whiff was the result.

Megalopolis is utterly incapable of exploring its high-minded themes in any meaningful way, so we are instead left with an offbeat unintentional comedy for the ages. Sure, there are sublime moments, but these feel like remote islands in the Pacific, surrounded by dazzling nothingness. Coppola sees America as a dying empire: bloated, decadent, and past its prime. But as it turns out, this is a more apt description of Coppola himself.

The most profound messages from the film come from meta analysis of the film itself, not from its contents. While it presents a technocratic artist (read: Coppola himself) as the would-be savior of Megalopolis (read: America), what it actually does is unintentionally show the danger of a society led by unelected visionaries who believe they know better than everyone else. Yes, Megalopolis is built - but at what cost? Cesar silences opposition, wins through pure charisma and unchecked power, and rejects democratic principles along the way. He is never truly challenged on a moral or ideological level. He wins because nobody had the power to stop him, and yet he is the anecdote to the explicitly Trumpian movement of the film? And despite Cesar’s idealized vision, there is no indication that it will actually work any better for the common people that have suffered under previous ideologues. That’s not inspiration, it’s autocracy in sheep’s clothes. Megalopolis is a monument to Cesar’s ego, otherwise he would be more concerned with improving material conditions through his work rather than just paying lip service through his words and then focusing more on aesthetic value and legacy, not the ability to sustain life. 

Coppola set out to create a new progressive manifesto for the creative class, but ended up showing how absurd, disconnected, and futile it’s own vision is. Ironically, and of course unintentionally, the film echoes aspects of the Christian worldview - where redemption can't come through cities, systems, or men, but only through something supernatural and greater. Because the film is emotionally cold, thematically incoherent, and reflective of unchecked ego, it ends up undermining its own message.

A brilliantly shot piece with amazing acting that mistakes propaganda for meaning. The slick production values and emotional gravitas of the story are almost enough to trick you into approval, but the goodwill erodes the more you learn about the realities that the show is trying to confront. When you dive in to the background and narrative around this film you will find that there is much to critique, and the show deserves and even demands that deeper look because it purports itself as fact. UK Labour has even pushed for it to be screened in schools across the UK, and did an official screening for parliament. They want it to be taken as fact, so let’s examine those facts. 

Many will point out, justifiably so, the fact that there is no epidemic of crimes against women (or in general) driven by the white, right-wing, so-called “manosphere” in the UK. There is in fact a rising epidemic of violence in the UK, but the culprit is not so convenient from Netflix’s perspective. Fact: Graham was originally inspired by the murders of Elianne Andam and Ava White. While the identity of Ava’s killer has been surreptitiously held from the public - which does leave open the possibility that they align more closely with Netflix’s portrayal - Elianne was killed by Hassan Sentamu, a recent immigrant from Uganda. Given the disparate impact of immigration on the rates of knife crime in Britain, it seems like Graham and Netflix are misattributing the root of the issue. At best, they are being obtuse.

Then, there’s the show’s odd reluctance to even consider the impact of poor parenting or broken households as the dominant contributing factors to violence, even outside of immigrant communities. In interviews Graham said that they went out of their way to avoid “blaming the parents.” Again, reality comes into conflict with the show - crime is overwhelmingly driven by absentee and ineffective parenting, usually from one parent households. And yet in interviews they repeatedly said that if you have a “good household” it wouldn’t necessarily be enough to save your boy from descending into this dark web of hate, and by implication, violence. This reeks of a cynical marketing ploy to gin up interest from well-meaning parents and cause a moral panic. If this was the intention, they succeeded. 

To be clear, it is fair to explore the potential impact of the "manosphere" on violence against women, especially given cases like Elliot Rodger in America, but the problem is being wildly exaggerated here. Statistical reality doesn’t bear out Graham’s vision of the world. If the goal is to prevent violence against women and girls, which of course it should be, it requires radical honesty from all sides about where this violence is coming from, and this series feels like it’s telling half of the story, or more realistically less than half, and then patting itself on the back for it. I have some problems with the show itself, but I have bigger problems with the goals of the show, whether it be a push for online censorship of unapproved cultural voices by mainstream gatekeepers, or the shifting of blame onto individuals that aren’t actually responsible for the rise in violence, and away from those actually responsible. You may hate Andrew Tate and wish for his voice not to be amplified, but what happens when the next person banned is someone you actually like? Censorship is a slippery slope.

If you take the show as pure fiction, it’s fine to good. Well-acted, tightly directed, emotionally impactful. A tragic, small-scale story about one boy, one girl, and the ripple effect of hate and violence. Fiction doesn’t have to reflect reality, and certainly isn’t obligated to capture nuance. But this show doesn’t want to be seen as fiction, and it does want to wear the mask of false nuance. Its creators and its political champions want it to be seen as objective truth. That kind of storytelling demands real scrutiny, something which mainstream audiences and the media are not offering. You can care deeply about women, be concerned about the growing divide between young men and women, and still recognize this show for what it is: propaganda wrapped in prestige.

A lot better than the slop I was expecting. “I don’t want to prove a woman is strong like a man. No, a woman is strong in her own way. Our strength is in our femininity.” Angela gets it. I didn’t expect to respect the art form as much as I did, it’s a genuine skill.

It’s time for the million dollar question, or in this film’s case, the negative $115 million question, did Snow White really need to be turned into a multicultural class struggle? Lmao. Making 14th century ethnically diverse sure made them feel great about themselves, but does it immediately break audience immersion? You bet. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, the issues with the film go way further than that superficial annoyance.

The film feels constrained by itself. It wants to cast Snow White as a brave and forward-thinking leader who wants to fight injustice and isn’t concerned with the traditional womanly role, but also has to include some of the original story beats that are at odds with this new vision because of the overall IP. It makes zero sense that this Snow White would be dumb enough to randomly accept a poisoned apple from the witch who appears seemingly out of nowhere, but the plot necessitates it. It doesn’t fit within the mood of this film to have the love interest wake her from her slumber with a kiss, but the plot necessitates it, etc. If they were at such odds with the original story, why update it at all into this Frankenstein worst of both worlds offering?

Without a hint of exaggeration I can declare that Gal Gadot is one of the worst actresses I’ve ever seen. Her line delivery is genuinely laughable. But perhaps the biggest clown of all is the ignominious Peter Dinklage who, despite not even being in the film, managed to get all of the actual little people cast as dwarves replaced by CGI in order to avoid being offensive.. to little people? The good? Ziegler is a great singer. But she’s not a great actress, or at least isn’t in this film. The result of all of this is a hilarious and garish monstrosity that was fun to watch as the train wrecked in spectacular fashion. Find a way to watch this and bring your bag of tomatoes to fling at the screen. It’s so bad it’s good.

Slightly below average, which somehow stands out comparatively well to some of the disastrous Disney remakes we’ve seen in the last decade. At least this is the rare case that seems to understand musical theater rules and allows its songs to drive the plot forward rather than just being window dressing or even being eliminated altogether. But that is an impossibly low standard.

Guy Ritchie was an odd choice for director here because his style doesn’t mesh with the film’s juvenile sincerity and high production values, and consequently the direction seems listless outside of his usual gritty wheelhouse. Ironically, for a guy known for hyper-violent crime flicks, the stakes here feel oddly low.. no one ever seems to be in any real danger - even compared to the cartoon. Ritchie badly needed a few scouse gangsters to walk on set to liven things up. Will Smith was actually pretty good! But he was far more natural when he was doing the whole Will Smith thing than when he was trying to echo the late, great Robin Williams.

In the end, this is a knockoff of the original that will be instantly forgotten, and it adds 30 minutes of content but not 30 minutes of value, but I still enjoyed it. There are some great musical numbers and comedic bits, the source material was great so this can’t help but at least be able.

This review may contain spoilers.

A film for the women who chose the bear!

Tim was certainly a lunatic, but an oddly beautiful one. The documentary is emotionally rich and can be genuinely hilarious in the way that only a Herzog film can be. There are so many incredible moments, but none more striking than Herzog listening to the audio of Tim and Amie’s death and solemnly telling Tim’s former lover to destroy the tape and never listen to it - because it will destroy her. But alongside these profound moments are the absurd and humorous ones: the hate mail about bear diets consisting of “crazy liberals,” Tim chasing a fox around and scolding it for stealing his hat, Tim ranting about how he wishes he were gay because his sex life would be easier, and on and on.

Herzog is the man - always finding immense humanity in the places you’d least expect it. He never mocks Tim or the interviewees, even when it would be easy to. Instead, he lets the absurdity and tragedy sit side by side, and the result is something haunting, strange, and resonant. Roger Ebert put it best, “Grizzly Man is unlike any nature documentary I've seen; it doesn't approve of Treadwell, and it isn't sentimental about animals.” And while he is right, through this honest nihilism it also shows moments of sublime beauty, as man tries to become one with beast, and briefly, if falsely, succeeds. “The documentary is an uncommon meeting between Treadwell's loony idealism, and Herzog's bleak worldview,” said Ebert. The immortal question of this documentary remains: did he have it coming? I think he did.

Disney is so lost. Eliminating all of the music to create a more ~realistic~ tone, only to include little girls with ninja abilities and a shapeshifting sorceress was… a choice. What’s worse, the film doesn’t provide any adequate dramatic scenes to replace the emotional weight once carried by musical numbers, despite a bloated and extended runtime. This reveals a deep misunderstanding of musical theater in general and also of their own original movie.

In musicals, songs appear during moments of heightened emotional tension. Characters express who they are, how they feel, what they want, etc. Remove those songs without offering meaningful dramatic replacements and the result will inevitably be muted, flat storytelling. One of my favorite YouTube creators, Sideways, once said: “You can listen to the original songs and get the story, but you can’t have the story without the songs.” If you’re adapting a non-musical into a musical, you take the biggest emotional moments of the story and turn them into songs. Similarly, if you’re adapting a musical into a non-musical, you should reverse that: turn the songs into emotionally intense scenes. Here, they’re just gone, replaced with nothing. The result is a film that feels soulless and hollow.

And as if the absence of music wasn’t a sufficiently fatal flaw, making Mulan immediately good at everything because of her “chi” defeats the entire purpose of the story. But Disney seems more interested in patting themselves on the back for including a ~strong female character~ than in taking time to understand what real character development looks like. In their rush to put women at the forefront of action franchises, they’ve forgotten two things:
 1. A woman struggling in areas where men have a natural advantage, like combat or physical prowess, but triumphing through traditionally feminine strengths like empathy, adaptability, and emotional intelligence isn’t anti-woman or regressive - it’s deeply human.
 2. Women are at their best when they’re the best version of themselves not when they are trying to be a man. Isn’t that the point of this story in the first place?

The original Mulan is one of cinema’s greatest heroines, not because she starts out strong, but because she grows as a character without compromising herself. She uses cleverness, determination, and comion to bring honor to her family and save the kingdom. She succeeds because she’s smart and uses her wits to overcome her limitations, not because those limitations don’t exist or are the artificial creation of the patriarchy. Here, she outperforms the men around her simply because she’s innately superior. She’s a second-rate superhero with no personality to boot.

The concept of “chi” is so misguided here because it strips Mulan of the victory she once had to earn. Instead, it is served up to her on a representation platter. She’s already a great warrior from the start- she just has to hide her power to appease a male-dominated world. That’s such an inferior premise to: “An ordinary peasant girl sacrifices everything, potentially even her life, to the army and protect her father. Through immense struggle, she triumphs.” You can’t make a man out of Mulan- because she’s not a man. And if she tried to win by doing things the way the men around her do, she’d just be a cheap imitation. Her brilliance comes from solving the problems of men in a way that only she can. But in this version she is leaping and kicking flying arrows out of the air because she has the Chinese equivalent of the force?

I wish I could rate this lower, but there is just enough production value here to save it from the absolute bottom. The visuals are occasionally striking, and the action is decent- but in the end, we’ve lost one of the all-time great female characters and been handed a bland Mary Sue in her place.

The existence of this movie is way more funny and entertaining than the movie itself. Unfortunately there were zero entertaining moments.

Based and Iowa-pilled. This movie should be bad but mysticism, an emotionally resonant redemption story, and pure Americana drag it to something that is more than the sum of its parts. Sure, it’s about a guy building a baseball field, but don’t be fooled - nothing about the film is that simple. It’s easily one of the weirder movies that is considered part of the American film canon. I don’t really see an argument for it to be 5 stars outside of nostalgia or love of baseball. Costner truly is the same in every movie.

This review may contain spoilers.

I saved a truly wild one for my 2000th film.
Mulholland Drive is unsettling and rough around the edges, but undeniably intoxicating. The unnatural dialogue and stiff acting can feel ripped straight from a B-movie at times, but somehow, it all works, and when the leads are given a chance to chew on some real emotions they are a vacuum for your attention. It’s easy to see why this role drove Naomi Watts to stardom. But this is a film where the acting is secondary to the direction. The blocking, the use of sound, and especially the absence of sound are masterfully done. I get why people love this film, it’s definitely one of the most creative takes on repressed emotions that I’ve ever seen. 

Some of the editing and scene transitions are jarring, though they add to an intentional feeling of disorientation rather than detract from it, mostly. But here’s the elephant in the room. I’m not afraid of saying that I spent a good portion of the film thinking that it sucked. I can see how someone casually watching would think that the exercise was overly pretentious and even downright bad, but I kept giving it chances and it eventually worked. Having seen Twin Peaks, the stylistic overlap is undeniable, but, again, it’s not for everybody. The last 30 minutes will either completely win you over or be a laughable miss. 

Some of the side characters feel like they walked straight off the set of The Room, but in Lynch’s world, that absurdity breeds art. The twist also explains much of the bad acting that you saw earlier, but this weighs on a first watch. Still, the dark comedy lands surprisingly well, representing a brutal satire of Hollywood and also an offbeat menace that evokes Kubrick, and even the Coen Brothers or Tarantino in the hitman scenes. It’s ironic that this film is so popular in film circles because this is clearly David Lynch’s middle finger to Hollywood, and from what I can tell Hollywood deserves it.

I’m a pretty discerning film viewer, but I’m also not too proud to it when I’ll probably need a rewatch to fully get something, and this was definitely among the most confusing films I’ve seen. I just can’t give it five stars - too much essential subtext is buried beneath a deliberately vague surface - but I also recognize that this is more a matter of personal preference than a universal rule. The film is obviously good, but it seems like some people are afraid to offer it a fair critique. You could argue that the filmmaking quality and subtext demand a higher rating - but at the end of the day, I can’t ignore how many 7/10 movies I’ve seen that I’d rather rewatch and simply enjoyed more. Very strong 3.5, possible weak 4.

Some of the most annoying people you could imagine discussing a dumb genre of content that I never followed and don’t care about. Hard to get through and not in the way that they intended it. Feel bad for the kids though. It oddly doesn’t go far enough in its condemnation.

Terrible, but easily on the high end of the trusty ~zero budget shark horror~ subgenre. The CGI is bad, but not abysmal. The acting is bad, but not abysmal. You get the point. The dumb but wild concept doesn’t necessarily carry it far, but if you like bad movies you’ll be able to find some laughs. Better than expected production values.

One more example of modern art being totally ridiculous. The girl using her unemployment checks to fund music videos and digital art really says it all, lol. The government shouldn’t be sending you money unless it’s for food. Most of the people associated with this subculture come off as incredibly annoying. But I digress.

In general, NFTs might be one of the dumbest concepts to ever gain market traction. The first part of the documentary is pretty misleading because most digital artists didn’t make much money off the trend, and nearly all NFT buyers lost money. It’s far too sympathetic to a concept that should generally be viewed as a failure. Even though they do get into the market crash eventually, this comes off as an ment for the concept as opposed to an investigation into it. It’s almost poetic that the NFT wave crested right before the rise of AI art slop.

Police pre-cedural? 

The ethical questions about due process, incarceration, and the exploitation of unwilling bodies are profound, and the sci-fi world-building is (mostly) superb. “Do the ends justify the means?” is a classic moral conundrum, and I’m firmly in the camp that they usually don’t- especially in the kinds of situations where that question gets asked. 

To put my nerd cap on for a second, this film is a great example of deontologist philosophy. The objective moral good and inherent dignity of the individual can’t simply be overridden by utilitarian goals or even righteous revenge, especially when it isn’t clear who gets to define what true justice is. The antagonists here feel almost Nietzschean, forging their own moral framework and embracing a will to power without divine authority, choosing one lesser evil over another in pursuit of an alleged greater good. But it becomes clear that they would be better off doing what is right regardless of context or cost. Protecting individual rights and moral principles matters more than maximizing outcomes, because principles don’t move, but a goalpost can, often in dangerous directions once you start seeing the world in grey.

This isn’t quite a classic for me, but there’s a lot to like. Cruise is Cruise, and Spielberg delivers once again. For a film that’s over twenty years old, the effects still hold up surprisingly well. Only a couple moments made me roll my eyes- but for the most part, it’s smart, occasionally thrilling, and still feels unsettlingly relevant. The false finale is a creative choice, but one that throws the pacing off a bit. The film sticks the landing in the end, but there is clearly turbulence.

Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt? Especially a real one. The whole thing is undeniably romantic. People’s lives need more adventure. I don’t really blame Forrest for the deaths of the searchers or for any of the other weird shit - people should be able for their own choices. Justin Posey really gets it.

Polonia is back with the exact same cast of friends and family that he always uses, and of course his trusty green screen. This one isn’t really that funny and relies on even more b-roll than usual. The fact that this was probably filmed in Pennsylvania is so funny lmao. I have a morbid curiosity in this dude’s movies and want to watch as many as I can in search of the worst movie of all time. But I also have an odd respect for him coming up with these insane premises and essentially just hanging around with the people that he cares about in his personal life.

The search for the worst continues…

This is probably the best and funniest Polonia film that I’ve seen so far. It works mainly because it’s less ambitious, so more of what they attempt actually works. There’s great ironic humor amongst the painful cringe. As with all of these, it’s at least 15 minutes too long.

It’s way better than Noah’s Shark and about the same as Cocaine Shark. As far as non-Polonia goes, it’s about the same as Sharks of the Corn, and much better than Ouija Shark, Shark Exorcist, and The Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre. Clearly I hate myself.

This review may contain spoilers.

Not terrible just pretty uninspired. The world of Buzz Lightyear needed to be way more ambitious. It’s wild that they took such a bombastic character and made him so generic and unfunny, he doesn’t feel like Buzz he feels like Captain America without super powers. Making him the straight man and giving more comedic weight to the side characters was a huge mistake. Buzz not feeling like Buzz alone makes this movie a failure. And the twist of having another timeline’s Buzz becoming the villain is a horrific misreading of their own character.

The good moments are good, and I liked the Sox character way more than I thought I would, but the other characters are quite forgettable. It’s funny that the lesbian relationship caused such immense controversy because it didn’t really affect the story at all. It’s not a meaningful plot point or developed emotional thread, hell, it’s barely a footnote. Obviously it’s fair to say that they included it for no reason other than to pat themselves on the back, but it’s definitely not a reason to rate the film higher or lower. The film is deserving of only two stars because it is a character study that butchers and misunderstands its own character based on existing IP. On its own merits it would be rated slightly higher.

Watched this with my wife and I went in ready to hate it, but it mostly won me over. She commented that this is pretty relatable for young girls and women, Asian or not, and we also found it to be surprisingly funny. Still, this doesn’t hold a candle to old Pixar and there are lots of obvious problems. First, the Panda metaphor becomes stretched too thin when they try to balance the puberty angle with the generational trauma angle. Either one would have been sufficient, but both together muddies the waters and makes it hard to follow. Next, the typical overbearing parent cliché (seen in pretty much all Disney movies) is here, amplified by the Asian parent sub-cliche, and they don’t do anything new with the dynamic that you haven’t seen done better in other films. Lastly, there is not a single male character who isn’t a villain or bumbling, submissive fool. For a film that desperately wants to be progressive it sure does rely on all manner of stereotypes. I guess the cultural arbiters at Disney are the ones that are allowed to determine which ones are ok?

This review may contain spoilers.

Sweet! Another visually overloaded, morally vacant Netflix production! Of course Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt play the same characters that they always play, but there are enough pro character actors filling out the rest of the cast to almost trick you into believing that this film has some potential.. but it quickly becomes obvious how cliched and tired this whole exercise is. It’s insane that this was one of the most expensive films ever made and we have this little to show for it. 

Set in a post-apocalyptic America where robots are feared and misunderstood and a massive corporation is just as powerful as the government, the film follows a teenage girl on a soul-searching road trip with her loyal android companion. Sounds familiar? That’s because it is- Hollywood’s favorite allegory about the “misunderstood other” re-skinned in chrome. They even included a few b roll shots of Trump’s actual border wall, depicted here as the “exclusion zone” where the robots are forced to live - just in case the viewer missed the obvious message. Institutions are corrupt, fears are misguided, and those deemed dangerous are actually the victims of systemic oppression. It’s the same narrative shell game that’s been applied to every social issue under the sun, now repackaged in dystopian sci-fi form. It’s not that this type of story can’t work, it just doesn’t here at all. 

With a bloated $320 million budget and little of value to say, The Electric State ends up as a joyless, gray sermon about empathy. The visual effects are really great, but what is that really worth when combined with a complete lack of narrative cohesion and good performances? They explain in the prologue that after robots gained sentience they rebelled against humans and almost destroyed them, but in the end we are supposed to believe that we can now coexist because Mr Peanut is MBB’s friend now? This is basically a worse version of Ready Player One mixed with elements from The Creator and Mad Max. Even Spielberg knockoffs should aspire to be better than this.

Why does Hollywood keep giving Amy Schumer starring roles? She’s probably the worst actress of a generation that includes the likes of Gal Gadot, lol. And why are we supposed to believe that multiple attractive men will fall for her in every one of her films? Her personality is awful and she treats the people around her like shit. And no matter how bad she fucks up, she’s always forgiven. She’s like the female Adam Sandler, but not funny. And I say that as someone who’s not a huge Sandler fan.

Schumer basically has one bit, crassness and self-deprecation disguised as “honesty.” Her earlier film Trainwreck worked because it had Judd Apatow directing, which gave it structure, pacing, and at least some emotional weight. Here, you don’t have any emotional weight to counteract her schtick. In the end, she’s just not that funny, and the writing isn’t good enough to save her. 

Kinda Pregnant attempts to highlight both the yearning for and fear of motherhood, but it does so through a lens of narcissism and anti-natalism. They also couldn’t help but include a scene to communicate to the audience that abortion is ok, as if they felt guilty making a film about pregnancy.

Here is a real quote from the film, from three elementary school teachers in the school hallway as children are walking by.

“You got this, bitch, you’re the GOAT”
“Don’t talk like that in front of the baby.”
“It’s not even a baby yet it’s just an embryo.”
“It’s not even an embryo, it’s just fermenting cum.”

And even before this quote you’ve got Amy Schumer in class talking about oral sex, again in front of 12-13 year olds.

There’s also a scene at a baby shower where they have a baby shaped piñata that they whack with a bat.

Later on, a family with a 10-11 year old boy witnesses Amy Schumer having sex through an open garage door. 

Hollywood is so fucking gross, and certainly isn’t beating the pedophilia allegations. It isn’t just out of touch- it’s actively hostile to the values of family, childhood innocence, and basic human decency. Kinda Pregnant is yet another example of a system that rewards self-obsession, degrades motherhood, and finds humor in the erosion of morals. If this is the humor for our times, we are the punchline.

Really great performances across the board but it struggles at times to keep up a satisfying pace. Much like Dylan meandered through life, achieving many great moments but also feeling the dull and/or bad ones in between- so does the film. Chalamet is pretty impressive, not quite fully disappearing into the role, but doing a great job of offering layered subtlety in a more difficult role than you’d think on paper. But some of the best scenes in the film actually come from Fanning and Norton who deliver the films weightiest emotional punches. Barbaro doesn’t necessarily have a standout moment, but it is clear that she has the look, charisma, and energy to become a massive star. I’d love to see her get a starring shot in a big project because she’s crushed working her way up through smaller roles. The film earns every bit of its 3.5 stars but at no point when I was watching was I thinking, “oh wow this is truly amazing, best picture material”

This is bound to become disorganized, but is generally pretty accurate.

1. Good Will Hunting
2. The Shining
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. About Time
5. Inception
6. Interstellar
7. Se7en
8. 12 Angry Men
9. La La Land
10. Blade Runner

...plus 2024 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Moonrise Kingdom
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Isle of Dogs
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• The French Dispatch
• Asteroid City
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

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

• About Time
• Nosferatu
• Sing Sing
• Daughters
• Anora
• Coco
• Erin Brockovich
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• Best in Show
• The Substance

...plus 142 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Room
• Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
• Camp Rock
• Starcrash
• Kazaam
• Steel
• Battlefield Earth
• Troll 2
• Zombeavers
• Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

...plus 93 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Last Dance
• O.J.: Made in America
• Fantastic Lies
• When We Were Kings
• Hillsborough
• Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
• The Two Escobars
• Undefeated
• Pony Excess
• Icarus

...plus 68 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. A Deadly American Marriage
2. Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever
3. The Life List
4. Untold: Shooting Guards
5. Chaos: The Manson Murders
6. Mickey 17
7. Death of a Unicorn
8. Con Mum
9. The Electric State
10. Snow White

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

• O.J.: Made in America
• The Thin Blue Line
• Fantastic Lies
• Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
• Girl in the Picture
• The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
• Wild Wild Country
• Lance
• Hillsborough
• Icarus

...plus 74 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Finding Nemo
• A Goofy Movie
• Mulan
• Shrek 2
• Monsters, Inc.
• The Incredibles
• Inside Out
• Up
• Ratatouille
• Spirited Away

...plus 233 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Schindler's List
• Saving Private Ryan
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Thin Red Line
• Enemy at the Gates
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Dunkirk
• Midway
• Jojo Rabbit

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My criteria:
1. Objective Accomplishment - On a basic level, does this film fail to accomplish what it sets out to accomplish?
2. Technical Quality - Is the film poorly made from a technical standpoint (e.g., cinematography, editing, sound design, special effects)?
3. Acting Quality - Is the acting subpar, considering the genre and context?
4. Inappropriate, Lurid, or Exploitative Content - Does the film handle sex or violence in a gratuitous or exploitative manner? Does the film rely solely on shock value or sexual content without offering substantial narrative, stylistic, or thematic quality? Is the film exploitative in some other way? Are the themes of the film covered appropriately based on context?
5. Budget Utilization - Does the film make effective use of its budget? If it has a mid to high budget, is it still of poor quality? If it has a low budget, does this negatively impact the film’s quality?
6. Pretentiousness - Is the film trying and failing to be deeper or more thematically important than it actually is?
7. Originality and Creativity - Does the film exhibit a lack of originality, relying heavily on clichés and tropes? Is it too safe?
8. Narrative Coherence - Is the plot coherent and logically structured, or is it confusing and disted? Are there plot holes or logical inconsistencies?
9. Themes - Objectively, is the film advocating for a reprehensible/malicious viewpoint? Subjectively, is the film advocating for something that I believe to be wrong, immoral, or incorrect?
10. Entertainment Value - Despite its flaws, does the film provide any entertainment value (e.g., so-bad-it’s-good appeal)?

1. Birdemic: Shock and Terror
2. Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle
3. White T
4. Samurai Cop
5. Battlefield Earth
6. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
7. Troll 2
8. 365 Days
9. Holmes & Watson
10. Jack and Jill

...plus 104 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Nosferatu
3. Sing Sing
4. Daughters
5. Anora
6. Late Night with the Devil
7. Conclave
8. The Brutalist
9. Nickel Boys
10. The Substance

...plus 81 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These could be movies that are unpopular, underrated, or seen as "good" that I think are "great"

• The Rainmaker
• The Descendants
• Midnight in Paris
• Margin Call
• The Abyss
• The Gentlemen
• The Death of Stalin
• The Nice Guys
• Late Night with the Devil
• Apollo 13

...plus 219 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Some of these aren't necessarily "great" but they are better than their letterbox average.

• Midway
• Run Hide Fight
• The Santa Clause 2
• Trainwreck
• Pearl Harbor
• The Internship
• Batman: The Killing Joke
• Get Smart
• Valentine's Day
• When We First Met

...plus 89 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Band of Brothers
• The Haunting of Hill House
• Chernobyl
• War and Peace
• Shōgun
• John Adams
• The Queen's Gambit
• Maniac
• Manhunt
• Waco

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Hit Man
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• Game Night
• Baby Driver
• Pride & Prejudice
• The Princess Bride
• When Harry Met Sally...
• La La Land
• Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Pretty Woman

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Movies for men and boys, with life lessons that everyone can enjoy. Or just some really cool shit.

• The Gentlemen
• The Holdovers
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• The Usual Suspects
• The Departed
• Inception
• Ocean's Eleven
• (500) Days of Summer
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• Hot Fuzz

...plus 241 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Logan's Run
• Masters of the Universe
• Battle Beyond the Stars
• Starcrash
• Galaxy of Terror
• Westworld
• Dune World

Movie recommendations for the women I love in my life. Strong or complex female characters, directors, writers, etc.

• Alien
• Aliens
• Gone with the Wind
• Little Women
• The Babadook
• Past Lives
• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Farewell
• Wonder Woman
• Barbie

...plus 133 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Blair Witch Project
• Hell House LLC
• Murder Party
• Airplane vs Volcano
• Terrifier
• The Gingerdead Man
• Virus Shark
• Evil Bong
• Sharks of the Corn
• Cocaine Shark

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I will hear no Grave Encounters 2 slander.

Some of these aren't great movies, but I like them for some reason or otherwise think they're scary

1. The Shining
2. The Thing
3. The Conjuring
4. The Descent
5. The Ring
6. The Witch
7. Midsommar
8. Alien
9. Psycho
10. The Silence of the Lambs

...plus 200 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Finding Nemo
• Monsters, Inc.
• Ratatouille
• The Incredibles
• Inside Out
• Up
• Toy Story 2
• Toy Story
• Cars
• Coco

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. When Harry Met Sally...
2. (500) Days of Summer
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. La La Land
5. Midnight in Paris
6. Moonrise Kingdom
7. About Time
8. Sideways
9. Shrek 2
10. The Princess Bride

...plus 93 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Wicker Man
• Carrie
• Mad Max 2
• Suspiria
• Deep Red
• Deliverance
• Rolling Thunder
• Dirty Harry
• The Evil Dead
• Dawn of the Dead

...plus 70 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Underground
• The Devils
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle
• To Sleep with Anger
• Witchhammer
• Ice Cold in Alex
• The Third Part of the Night
• Black Christmas
• Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
• Duel

...plus 287 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• A Bay of Blood
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Scream 4
• The Wicker Man
• Anatomy of a Fall
• The Shining
• Pulp Fiction
• Parasite
• American Psycho
• The Truman Show

...plus 161 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Deep Red
• Blood and Black Lace
• The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
• The Girl Who Knew Too Much
• A Bay of Blood
• Torso
• Tenebre
• The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh
• Don't Torture a Duckling
• The Fifth Cord

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. Die Hard
3. The Holdovers
4. The Shop Around the Corner
5. A Christmas Carol
6. The Polar Express
7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
8. The Family Stone
9. The Holiday
10. While You Were Sleeping

...plus 57 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Spooky stuff for kiddos

• Monster House
• Krampus
• Ghostbusters
• Jaws
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Hocus Pocus
• The Mummy
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• James and the Giant Peach
• Scooby-Doo

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films I watched for the first time in 2024

1. On the Waterfront
2. Dune: Part Two
3. M
4. Singin' in the Rain
5. Anatomy of a Fall
6. Society of the Snow
7. Anatomy of a Murder
8. The Wicker Man
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. Late Night with the Devil

...plus 363 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Perfect Blue
• The Night of the Hunter
• Cure
• Kwaidan
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
• What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
• The Innocents
• Onibaba
• Possession
• Phantom of the Paradise

...plus 172 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ranking the movies I've seen for spooky szn 2024. Cheating a little bit and including September.

1. The Wicker Man
2. Suspiria
3. Day of the Dead
4. The Birds
5. Night of the Living Dead
6. [REC]
7. An American Werewolf in London
8. Deep Red
9. Smile
10. Sinister

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Howl's Moving Castle
2. Whisper of the Heart
3. Princess Mononoke
4. Spirited Away
5. Castle in the Sky
6. Kiki's Delivery Service
7. Porco Rosso
8. Ponyo
9. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
10. The Boy and the Heron

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Fathers and father figures. Not necessarily the best dads (some are), but my favorite and most interesting portrayals of fatherhood.

1. Finding Nemo
2. The Lion King
3. The Pursuit of Happyness
4. The Descendants
5. A Goofy Movie
6. Interstellar
7. There Will Be Blood
8. It's a Wonderful Life
9. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
10. Good Will Hunting

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Anatomy of a Fall
2. Society of the Snow
3. Oppenheimer
4. The Holdovers
5. Beyond Utopia
6. Godzilla Minus One
7. 12th Fail
8. Past Lives
9. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
10. The Deepest Breath

...plus 81 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Not Documentaries

• Rocky
• Raging Bull
• Miracle
• Rudy
• Moneyball
• the Titans
• The Blind Side
• Creed
• We Are Marshall
• Rocky II

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Singin' in the Rain
• La La Land
• tick, tick... BOOM!
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• A Goofy Movie
• Mulan
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Sound of Music
• Labyrinth
• The Prince of Egypt

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

• Christmas in the Spotlight
• My Dad's Christmas Date
• Christmas with Da Fam

• Eagles: Hell Freezes Over
• The Last Waltz
• Stop Making Sense

• A Christmas Carol
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Scrooged
• Mickey's Christmas Carol
• A Christmas Carol
• A Christmas Carol
• Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

• Airplane!
• Vampires Suck
• Scary Movie
• Breaking Wind
• Meet the Spartans
• Epic Movie
• Spaceballs
• Young Frankenstein
• Blazing Saddles
• Top Secret!

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Shark Exorcist
• Love on a Leash
• Sharks of the Corn
• Cocaine Shark

There are lots of other horror movies that I like or even consider to be "better" than these, but these are ones that I actually being scary

1. The Descent
2. The Conjuring
3. The Ring
4. The Thing
5. The Babadook
6. Smile
7. Sinister
8. As Above, So Below
9. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10. His House

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My (unsuccessful) attempt at watching a spooky/horror movie every single day of the month of October 2023. Ranked by which I liked the most.

1. The Thing
2. The Ring
3. The Descent
4. Train to Busan
5. Carrie
6. His House
7. The Evil Dead
8. Signs
9. Evil Dead II
10. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Nosferatu
2. Battleship Potemkin
3. A Trip to the Moon
4. Steamboat Willie
5. Häxan

Ranking every Sword and Sorcery Exploitation film I've seen

1. Conan the Barbarian
2. Deathstalker II
3. Fire and Ice
4. The Sword and the Sorcerer
5. Barbarian Queen
6. The Warrior and the Sorceress
7. Conquest
8. Sorceress
9. Ator, the Fighting Eagle
10. Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Good Will Hunting
2. The Shining
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Interstellar
7. Se7en
8. Blade Runner
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

...plus 240 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 50 First Dates
• Happy Death Day
• Groundhog Day
• Happy Death Day 2U
• When We First Met
• Triangle
• About Time
• The Final Girls
• Palm Springs

A mix of films that may be spooky, nostalgic, throwback classics, genuinely scary, or just fit that fall aesthetic.

• The Conjuring
• The Descent
• The Witch
• The Thing
• Midsommar
• The Ring
• Late Night with the Devil
• The Shining
• Scream
• The Babadook

...plus 59 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.