Film Reviews
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Is Goofy Delicious Fun: Review
In the latest MCU installment, delightful weirdness wins the day. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Is Goofy Delicious Fun: Review Liz Shannon Miller
Sharper Review: Apple TV+ Scores with Twisty New York Neo-Noir
No one is who they seem in the appropriately sharp drama film coming to Apple TV+. Sharper Review: Apple TV+ Scores with Twisty New York Neo-Noir Mary Siroky
You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale
The new Netflix film, featuring Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill, succeeds with its realistic portrayal of race issues — and killer jokes. You People Review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill Star in a Funny and Refreshing Update of a Familiar Tale Paolo Ragusa
Sundance Review: The Hilarious and Authentic Theater Camp Takes Center Stage
This review is part of our coverage of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: “You need to know that only 3% of people make it. The rest end up in a mental facility — or a Go Go box in Hell’s Kitchen.” Welcome to AdirondACTS, a cozy, scrappy theater camp where such nuggets of wisdom are imparted upon young thespians. Over the course of the summer, we see the minutiae of theater camp play out in a mockumentary-style film, sharply directed by Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon (both making their feature directorial debuts). First framed as a documentary following AdirondACTS founder Joan (Amy Sedaris), things begin to go awry when she falls into a coma — a result of “the first Bye Bye Birdie-related injury in the history of Passaic County” — leaving former campers, best friends, and devote...
Sundance Review: Jonathan Majors Is Here to Pump You Up and Bum You Out in Magazine Dreams
This review is part of our coverage of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors) wants one thing, and one thing only: To be remembered. Following in the footsteps of his idols (including one he writes to regularly, played by four-time Mr. Universe Michael O’Hearn), he’s committed himself to bodybuilding, shoving down 6,000 calories of chicken breast and pumping iron morning, noon, and night. He practices his poses in front of cameras, molds his physique to near perfection, rips through steroids like they’re Diet Cokes. He chugs protein shakes while watching porn, but doesn’t masturbate — whether that’s due to steroid-induced impotence or some unstated facets of his sexuality, we don’t yet know. He competes in amateur bodybuilding competitions, but ju...
M3GAN Will Dance and Slash Her Way Into Your Horror-Loving Heart: Review
The Pitch: Gemma (Allison Williams) works as a roboticist at a toy company, Funki, that churns out monstrous-looking hybrid versions of every kid’s ultimate companion –– a Furby, Tamagotchi, and Neopet all rolled into one. But while Gemma’s job revolves around the needs of children, she’s unfortunately ill-equipped to take in her recently orphaned nine-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), whose parents died in a tragic car accident. Feeling overwhelmed with the responsibility of having to care for a young, grieving child while feverishly trying to meet work deadlines for her demanding boss (Ronny Chieng), who expects a new toy prototype imminently, Gemma decides to kill two birds with one stone. What if she perfects her latest AI-powered invention, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android)...
Whitney Houston Comes to Life (At Least On Stage) In I Wanna Dance With Somebody: Review
The Pitch: In 2012, America lost its Voice — Whitney Houston, the once-in-a-generation pop music icon, tragically died at the too-young age of 48. She was on the verge of a comeback after a stint in rehab, haunted by the twin specters of drugs and expectation; that we never got to see that beautiful second act makes her passing all the more tragic. In the meantime, we’ve got the songs and story Whitney left behind, and Kasi Lemmons’ I Wanna Dance with Somebody (or, as Sony’s SEO-focused title change goes, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody) tries to stuff that into a two-and-a-half-hour speedrun of her life and career, featuring Naomi Ackie as the tragic figure. We see her early days as a gospel singer, groomed for greatness by her ambitious mother Cissy (a perfectly-balance...
If These Walls Could Sing: 5 Things We Learned From the Abbey Road Doc
There’s a certain reverence linked with Abbey Road Studios. It’s one of the most famous recording studios on the planet, and a household name, having welcomed such greats as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, John Williams, Oasis, and so many more. It’s also the namesake of The Beatles’ final — and arguably best — record. Its iconic album artwork, taken on the street opposite the studios, continues to inspire thousands of fans to make a pilgrimage to London themselves and recreate their own tribute. If These Walls Could Sing is the debut documentary feature by Mary McCartney, daughter of Paul McCartney, and it is her love letter to a recording space that her father still has such an intimate connection with, a place that she herself calls home. Featuring interviews with the musical greats who have c...
Damien Chazelle’s Babylon Proves He Loves and Hates the Art of Cinema: Review
The Pitch: It’s 1926, and the movie business is a-boomin’. If you’re on top, you ride along with big-time movie producers to glittery bacchanals out in the California desert, uninhibited orgies stuffed with ticker tape, booze, cocaine, and elephants trudging through the masses of people. If you’re not, well, you sneak in anyway and hope for your big shot. It’s at one of these parties that we meet six figures who represent the end of one era and the beginning of another: Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a silent film star whose shine is wearing off after decades in the biz; Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a hard-partying Jersey girl desperate to make it in the pictures; and Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a hustling assistant climbing the ladder one ludicrous favor at a time. There’s also Elinor St....
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Breathes New Life Into the Classic Fable: Review
The Pitch: 2022 has really seemed like The Year of Pinocchio. While the original 1883 Italian novel by Carlo Collodi has had its fair share of adaptations over the years (from classic Disney delights to, well, Pauly Shore in middle-aged twink mode), this year saw new takes on the material from two of cinema’s most acclaimed directors. But where Robert Zemeckis’ retelling felt morbid and soulless, master of the macabre Guillermo del Toro returns to gift us with a version that hits the classic beats of the fable, while slotting it handily into the concerns and aesthetics the director has pursued his entire career. The lumber is the same, but the construction is quite different: Pinocchio (the cherubic Gregory Mann) is still the wooden boy whittled into existence by old carpenter Geppett...
George Clooney and Julia Roberts Reunite in Seaweed-Thin Romcom Ticket to Paradise: Review
The Pitch: David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts) are two hugely successful, extremely divorced people, with 19 years of bitter animus between them. In fact, the only times they even see each other are for the major milestones in the life of their daughter, Lily (Kaitlin Dever), and even then they can’t help but snipe at each other through forced smiles. But they’re forced back into each other’s orbits when Lily shacks up with a handsome seaweed farmer (model Maxime Bouttier) on her post-graduation trip to Bali, and invites them to her whirlwind wedding on the Indonesian island paradise. Recognizing that throwing her career away for idle island living and a guy she’s just met is a Bad Idea, the two plot to sabotage the wedding from the inside. Along the way, though, t...
In Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson Rejects the Hero Part of Being a Superhero: Review
The Pitch: Thousands of years ago, in the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Kahndaq, an evil king enslaved his people to mine for a precious ore. One young boy rose up to challenge the king, and his bravery was noticed by some wizards with the ability to grant the pure-of-heart awe-inspiring powers. (Cool idea for a superhero origin — definitely sounds familiar.) Stories about what happened to the boy once he was able to harness those powers and defeat the king are vague, but the resulting hero, known as Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson), was not heard from again. Until the present day, that is, a time when Kahndaq is largely under the control of outside mercenaries who are also trying to mine for the unobtanium vibranium adamantium eternium there. Despite their strict control, the mercenaries ...
