2.5/5
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The Surfer
(2024)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
There's a profound message to be found within The Surfer. Unfortunately, it's clouded by a gonzo lead performance and a monotonous narrative.
Posted Apr 28, 2025
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2/5
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Havoc
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Havoc lives up to its namesake - loud, destructive, and chaotic. And with 50% of the film consisting of fight sequences, the underlying story also feels jumbled and tenuous.
Posted Apr 26, 2025
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4.5/5
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April
(2024)
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Joseph Robinson
|
April is a powerfully quiet, moving examination of control and one woman's relationship to it.
Posted Apr 25, 2025
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2/5
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Until Dawn
(2025)
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Joseph Robinson
|
With its stop-and-go pacing and plot points that go nowhere, Until Dawn may have benefited from staying more true to its source material.
Posted Apr 24, 2025
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2.5/5
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The Accountant 2
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
More goofy and charming than its po-faced predecessor, The Accountant 2 is a refreshingly adult action flick reveling in broad comedy and fraternal bromance as lead Ben Affleck adopts an entirely new persona and affect resuscitating his kindly vigilante..
Posted Apr 22, 2025
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2/5
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On Swift Horses
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
A soft soap opera attempting to recuperate erased queer narratives blotted over by the crushing onslaught of 1950s heteronormative sanctions, On Swift Horses unfortunately cuts so many corners on characterization it wallows in the ether of good intentions
Posted Apr 22, 2025
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3/5
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The Accountant 2
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Despite its overly complicated plot, The Accountant 2 bests its predecessor with a shockingly dark, extremely violent, yet lighthearted and surprisingly enjoyable take.
Posted Apr 22, 2025
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2/5
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On Swift Horses
(2024)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
On Swift Horses feels like it should be more substantive. As it is, to quote Janet Jackson in For Colored Girls, "You're saying a lot without saying nothing at all."
Posted Apr 22, 2025
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2.5/5
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The Wedding Banquet
(2025)
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Nicholas Bell
|
The dramatic logistics of Andrew Ahn's remake of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet feel speciously progressive, often in ways which suffocate its meaningfulness and cathartic potential.
Posted Apr 17, 2025
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4/5
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Sinners
(2025)
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Nicholas Bell
|
Love the sin and the sinner in Ryan Coogler's rich period genre film, Sinners, where music makes the evil come together in a complex, subversive tapestry of substance, subtext, and ambiguous moralities.
Posted Apr 17, 2025
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2/5
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The Wedding Banquet
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Failing to conjure much emotion or humor, The Wedding Banquet feels like a pointless remake.
Posted Apr 17, 2025
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4.5/5
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Sinners
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Coogler demonstrates a masterful ability to meld genres in this epic vampire tale.
Posted Apr 17, 2025
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3/5
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The Ugly Stepsister
(2025)
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Nicholas Bell
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Blissfully macabre, the message isn't so much 'pretty hurts' so much as it is a moral fable to repudiate the toxic beauty standards we may be complicit in normalizing.
Posted Apr 15, 2025
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2.5/5
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The Ugly Stepsister
(2025)
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Joseph Robinson
|
Yes, it's another remake of a classic fairytale, but The Ugly Step Sister is offering a more authentic, sinister take.
Posted Apr 15, 2025
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3.5/5
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A Nice Indian Boy
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Joyously endearing evidence that well-written rom-coms remain an affirming pleasure, A Nice Indian Boy hits all the familiar notes, but damn, it does so with exhilaration.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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2/5
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G20
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Gee, it's at least 20 minutes too long and watching Viola Davis trample terrorists isn't enough of a guilty pleasure to justify why nothing else about the film rises to her occasion.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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4/5
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Warfare
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
An agonizing and intense depiction of combat, it is perhaps one of the most effective yet spare portrayals of primal responses in a war zone reenacted for film.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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3/5
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Drop
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Meghann Fahy makes all the right moves in Christopher Landon's glass slipper in another breakneck B-movie formula which wisely gives characterization the spaces an audience needs to become invested enough to overlook the plot holes.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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1/5
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The Amateur
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Despite reflecting the capabilities and realities of our modern day surveillance state, this miscast remake of The Amateur is a narrative anachronism in this bloated, ponderous ethical espionage thriller irreparably impaired by its jittery lead star...
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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2.5/5
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The Woman in the Yard
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Deadwyler excels in this familiar folkloric parable about keeping one's inner demons at bay or else risk them consuming you.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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3/5
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Death of a Unicorn
(2025)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Oh, them silly unicorns - it turns out they're murderous, malicious monsters in Alex Scharfman's debut, which is having a lot of fun being a satirical takedown of elitism but falters when it comes to a hokey, strained relationship between a milquetoast...
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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2/5
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Gazer
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Time is not on the side of Gazer's protagonist nor it's shambling, ersatz neo-noir narrative siphoned from various auteur aesthetics, with whom unavoidable comparison suggests a better edit would have benefitted this film's capabilities.
Posted Apr 14, 2025
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3/5
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A Nice Indian Boy
(2024)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
A Nice Indian Boy is a heartwarming, if not slight love story - one perfectly suited for a Sunday afternoon with a warm cup of tea.
Posted Apr 12, 2025
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2/5
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G20
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Only an actor of Viola Davis' caliber could make this shoddily constructed, rudimentarily written green screen dream palatable. Unfortunately, G20 barely satisfies as a frivolous single-use streamer.
Posted Apr 11, 2025
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3/5
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Drop
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Drop is an effective, if not tonally jarring and outlandish B-thriller.
Posted Apr 10, 2025
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4/5
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Warfare
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Warfare is the most intense movie going experience I've had in recent memory - a finely executed depiction of the horrors of battle.
Posted Apr 10, 2025
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1/5
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The Amateur
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
The Amateur might have made for an effective political thriller if it weren't for the wholly unappealing lead, his selfish motive, the absence of any tension, and an overly long runtime.
Posted Apr 08, 2025
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2/5
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Gazer
(2024)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Gazer has some interesting ideas but the overall result feels tedious.
Posted Apr 05, 2025
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2.5/5
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The Woman in the Yard
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Deadwyler rises above The Woman in the Yard's shortcomings with a haunting performance.
Posted Mar 29, 2025
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3/5
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Death of a Unicorn
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Death of a Unicorn charms with its dark humor but struggles with its forced sentimentality.
Posted Mar 26, 2025
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3/5
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2073
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Although it arguably provokes the same sense of apathy it analyzes, 2073 is a broad but galvanizing exploration of civilization's global death knell.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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2/5
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The Six Triple Eight
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Although it's clear Tyler Perry has taken more pains than usual with the relevant recuperation, The Six Triple Eight suffers from unbearable moments of earnestness and schmaltz, while an obvious lack of research undermines a handful of women who...
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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2.5/5
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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The third time's the charm as far as the Sonic franchise goes, although its anthropomorphic characters still pale in comparison to the secret comedic weapon that is Jim Carrey.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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2/5
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Mufasa: The Lion King
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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The circle of life flatlines in this mundane, redundant Lion King prequel which sacrifices charm, heart, and comedy in the pursuit of vanguard visuals.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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Presence
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
A uniquely rewarding ghost story playin with familiar expectations, including with a homographic title which suggests our own complicity as thrill seeking voyeurs futilely observing the victimization of its troubled family, this may be Soderbergh at his..
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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4/5
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September 5
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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A disquieting recuperation of an infamous act of terrorism, September 5 is a jittery look at a news crews on the precipice of determining when, exactly, the media, as an amplified witness, becomes, itself, the perpetrator.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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1/5
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Kraven the Hunter
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
Aaron Taylor Johnson prowls around this season's fatally flawed Marvel/Columbia production like a vainglorious Dr. Dolittle who veers into vigilantism as a way to dodge familial dysfunction.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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The Soul Eater
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
For those who enjoy police procedural thrillers gorged to the gills with bizarre plot twists, The Soul Eater is must have stocking stuffer as Bustillo & Maury have concoct their best film since debuting Inside (2007).
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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2.5/5
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Y2K
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
The deets of the narrative are janky and most of the peeps are rather unlikeable in this horror comedy about Y2K which feels like Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive with a Bodies Bodies Bodies facelift.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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Hard Truths
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin star in Mike Leigh's tale of two sisters, whose juxtaposed temperaments showcase a deliberate, ultimately meaningful contemplation of the need to acknowledge trauma but not be defined by it.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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Wicked
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Much like The Wizard of Oz might say, a film is judged by how much it's loved by others - and, quite remarkably, Wicked (at least the first half of it) pulsates with emotion and charisma thanks to an exceptional Cynthia Erivo who is warmly aided by...
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3/5
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A Complete Unknown
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Mangold develops a very straight laced portrait of the artist as a young man in this biopic on Bob Dylan's early days, but Chalamet, who is flanked by charming co-stars Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro, channels the restless, contrarian energies of...
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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2/5
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Werewolves
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
While this may be Steven C. Miller's most accomplished film to date, Werewolves is about as generic and basic as its title, playing like a hand-me-down Howling knock-off spliced with watered down Purge sensibilities...
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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0.5/5
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Tyler Perry's Duplicity
(2025)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Tyler Perry bolsters his filmography with yet another barrage of dumb characters doing nonsensical things while drowning in an inane narrative that takes entirely too long to arrive at its ridiculous conclusion.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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Misericordia
(2024)
|
Joseph Robinson
|
Misericordia is a peculiar and intriguing bird. One that left me satisfied but also hungry for more.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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4/5
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Queer
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Guadagnino brings a punk sensibility to the Beat Generation in Queer, the long gestating adaptation of William S. Burroughs' pseudo memoir led by a mournful Daniel Craig as a lonely misfit devouring his own soul.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3.5/5
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Nightbitch
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Amy Adams is exceptional in Nightbitch, a metaphorical exercise about the madness of motherhood which also touches on so much more regarding societal expectations and the anticipated sacrifice of one's self.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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1/5
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Elevation
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
No one's going to fear the reapers in Elevation, a dumb, grossly derivative blast of lazy sci-fi schlock barely managing to reconfigure borrowed story elements enough to avoid blatant creative appropriation.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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1.5/5
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Here
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
If these walls could talk they'd be asking to be demolished after being held captive alongside generations of boring humans engaged in cliched simulations of nuclear familial dysfunction.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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3/5
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Heretic
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
If religion is an opiate for the masses then the same might be said for cinema as evidenced in Heretic, an ersatz existential religious horror film that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
Posted Mar 21, 2025
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