Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Creed III (2023)

I think they did as good as they could with a formula that’s so tired at this point. Jordan is a good actor, and yes his physicality is impressive. Majors has a scary, wonderful mix of innocent charm and ferocity. They did a great job with the simultaneous slow reveal…

Full Review

Flee (2021)

Highly praised, and the historical background is tragic, but the personal story didn’t grab me, and I found it awfully boring. The animation and subtle score were nice and barely enough to keep me engaged.

Full Review

The Whale (2022)

Heavy (pun intended). Watching someone die is never fun. Fraser’s first proper dramatic performance. Always found him very annoying, but he conveys some real heart through that fat suit. Sink plays a good bitch. She has a fiery, articulate cuteness like Britt Robertson. Morton’s pretty good as a trashy American…

Full Review

The Father (2020)

Cleverly structured movie, with editing and visual tricks that recreate Anthony’s confusion and delusion for the viewer. Not as disjointed and manipulative as Chris Nolan’s Memento, but definitely a step in that direction. Is there a movie that captures the excruciating and heart-wrenching experience of dementia more effectively? The one…

Full Review

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Delightful little story. I could imagine this playing out perfectly on the stage with a couple of quality actors. The story is driven by the dialogue, and oh how wonderfully playful and natural it is. This is some really good writing, worthy of Best Screenplay awards. Beautifully shot. Everything takes…

Full Review

Farha (2021)

In a horrifying, depressing, but beautifully simple way, Sallam shines a light on a bit of history that many may not be familiar with. As the first movie I can think of that makes the Jews the bad guys, it’s definitely making me rethink things a bit. This story is…

Full Review

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Probably the most horrifying war movie I’ve seen, with vivid grit and graphic brutality that eclipses even Saving Private Ryan and 1917. In this one, we have an interestingly sympathetic German perspective, but in the end, we get the familiar statement about the senselessness and futility and tragedy of war.…

Full Review

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

A light-hearted, faithful story with lots of homages to the franchise. Good characters, fun voices, and great music, with lots of familiar themes thoughtfully reworked to fit scenes. Pratt does this stuff with ease, though maybe he wasn’t given enough free reign here. He’s not hilarious. Anya Taylor-Joy gives Peach…

Full Review

Werewolf by Night (2022)

Wonder, weirdness, and dark whimsy of Tim Burton with the realism and structure of Marvel. A wonderful play on the genre, with old school horror music and title cards and expressionist lighting and blood spatters. And the wonderful color twist at the end. A cute little story! Great casting and…

Full Review

Glass Onion (2022)

Blanc is in the tradition of Holmes and Poirot and Colombo. I wonder who’s the smartest? Watching these, we try to keep up with Blanc, right? We want to see if we’re as smart as he is. But there’s no way to do this if things are hidden from us…

Full Review

Tina (2021)

Nicely paced with great footage, dramatized just enough with a gentle score. She seems like a great woman.

Full Review

LA 92 (2017)

Definitely a lot of footage I haven’t seen. I knew the violence and destruction were bad, but I didn’t know this bad. And some cross-cutting at the end that ominously implies that things haven’t changed and likely won’t change anytime soon. Definitely one of many scars on the face of…

Full Review

Green Lantern (2011)

Silly story, characters, dialogue, and visuals. Iron Man had come out 3 years earlier, why couldn’t this movie take some cues? Effects are dated and overdramatized with cool colors and cool camera movements and cool sounds. We were supposed to be done with that in the 90’s. Reynolds and Lively…

Full Review

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Recently crowned best movie ever by Sight & Sound magazine, so I had to give it a shot. Admittedly, there is something voyeuristically interesting about this. The long takes combined with dioramic, flat, Wes Anderson camera angles in rooms and hallways are strangely captivating. But the novelty wears off. Watching…

Full Review

My Octopus Teacher (2020)

Surprisingly delicate and sweet and sad. Foster seems like an interesting, articulate, humble, spiritual guy. His narration is well-paced and natural. His voice and accent are very zen, and I think that does a lot to make the film very gentle and warm and contemplative. I can’t imagine a guy…

Full Review

The Rescue (2021)

Claustrophobic and gripping, with incredible suspense and tension throughout. Gentle scoring really works well to sustain the mood. Helpful, beautiful graphics are combined with great explanations by the cave divers. You really do admire these rescuers in the end. Despite their admitted social anxieties and insecurities, they’re intelligent and well-spoken…

Full Review

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

A long wait for this one. Was it worth the wait? Almost. Overall, another technical masterpiece from Cameron. There’s no disputing that the beautiful world he has created and the visual effects used to bring it to life show a creativity and technical competency that makes him one of the…

Full Review

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

A cute and pleasant film. I really enjoy how they avoid Marcel’s whole origin story and completely gloss over the fact that Marcel is a sentient, anthropomorphic shell. Biggest issue is that not a lot happens, and it starts to get a little boring after the novelty wears off. Slate…

Full Review

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This year’s WTF art movie. But what kind of movie is it supposed to be? Funny? Cool? Interesting? Complicated? Philosophical? Quirky? Inspirational? Romantic? Touching? When it tries to be all at once, it succeeds at nothing. And if every 7 minutes we have another climax with a time-distorted, magical confluence…

Full Review

In Bruges (2008)

Things feel a little weird in the beginning, with loosely edited dialogue and light comedy that doesn’t really work. But as the story deepened and the characters developed and the beauty of Bruges slowly revealed itself, it all grew on me. By the end, we have a cleanly told, symbolism-filled…

Full Review

Confess, Fletch (2022)

Hamm channels Chevy in expression, habit, and quick wit, but he’s not Chevy. I’m just not convinced Hamm is all that funny. Some of his dialogue feels a bit scripted and forced, and a smart-ass who is not that funny starts to get annoying. Izzo looks like a mix of…

Full Review

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993)

What a remarkable connection to history she is. Great to have been able to get these interviews with her, even if this project was conceived by Leni herself. Fiery and pretty sharp for 90. I really appreciated Leni’s very frank and matter-of-fact answers. What I like most is how they…

Full Review

On Deadly Ground (1994)

A festering pile of shit, from story to editing to acting to casting. Seagal is a C-list action star and a D-list actor. Shame seeing respectable actors like Caine and Thornton wasted. Hard to take McGinley seriously. The PSA and associated press footage tacked onto the end is laughable. And…

Full Review

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)

The guy is passionate about movies. I wonder how many of today’s directors have this kind of passion for and familiarity with the classics. Should have been required viewing in film school. I like how personal it is, and I love Scorsese’s unique, fast-talking narration. But a camera fixated on…

Full Review

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

This is not a biography, but it certainly gives us a lot more insight into the man than we’ve ever gotten before. A true personal statement, and since he’s one of the few experienced enough in this subject, he’s earned the right to make one. Beautiful footage from the documentaries…

Full Review

Coda (2021)

A beautiful film, with magic coming from the sweet and cleanly told story, the heartfelt and authentic characters, and perfect casting. The drama of having a voice in a deaf family is real and marvelously explored in this one. Similar drama plays out in Mr. Holland’s Opus (though perhaps in…

Full Review

Soul (2020)

Interesting exploration of complicated ideas and a real thinker for spiritual adults, but it might be a little too cerebral for kids. The genius of Pixar is that their stories are not about enemies. Instead, the antagonist is always life and its emotional complexities. The hero must find a way…

Full Review

The Batman (2022)

They set out to make something even darker and moodier than the Nolan’s Batman, and they succeeded. The contemplative pace something different for a superhero movie. I like it overall, but it starts to wear a bit in a movie this long. After The Lighthouse and this one, Pattison is…

Full Review

Encanto (2021)

Engaging story full of magic, wonderful animation, and good comedy. It’s clear that Disney has assimilated Pixar without major consequence, as this one feels like an independent Pixar release.

Full Review

Nope (2022)

Beautiful photography, effects are impressive, and Peele is really great at creating tension and suspense for a few moments at a time, but all these little moments don’t support a very good story. Carnivorous alien spaceships? Why are they here and what do they want? Where is the media or…

Full Review

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Nice to get all the old stars back, I guess, but the story and dialogue is awfully goofy. A spell that has the power to destroy the universe is interrupted by Peter Parker being annoying? And now his motivation is to make all the bad people from the old movies…

Full Review

What Is a Woman? (2022)

It takes balls (no pun intended) to take on this topic, as it’s certainly controversial and messy, but I wish Walsh was a little more sincere in his approach. Dramatizations of fishing and kicking a bulletin board and waking up in the middle of the night, along with melodramatic cutaways…

Full Review

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

Animation is good, but story is thin, characters are not that interesting, and the editing is dizzying. A few smirks.

Full Review

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

A wonderful sequel, even more impressive considering it’s been 36 years. Kosinski has done a really good job honoring the story and style of the first, with many of the shots and scenes playing clear homage. Kosinski’s filmography is also a testament to how versatile he is. So far, so…

Full Review

Ricky Gervais: SuperNature (2022)

Simultaneously irreverent and insightful, Gervais really pushes the envelope but maintains the funny. Wish he would have stuck a bit more to his central theme, though. The tangents are all enjoyable but make me wonder why he created this title for the material.

Full Review

The First Wives Club (1996)

A comedy essentially about feminist empowerment. A sneaky line to walk, as questionable moral stances can be masked with laughs. There are perhaps some double standards at play here. Would love to see how a “The First Husbands Club” movie would work, where men punish and blackmail and humiliate their…

Full Review

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

A combo of Richard Proenneke and The Revenant, with some 1970’s weirdness.

Full Review

American Outlaws (2001)

Farrell had a magnetism, even back then, and does OK with the accent, sounding American though not all that southern. Interesting how they made no mention that James was shot in the back of the head. But the movie’s not so great. The Moby score at the beginning and end…

Full Review

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

I really liked this as a kid, and the gags still hold up today. Amazing how Nielsen was able to come out of nowhere to crank out a string of light comedies at the end of his career. Weird seeing OJ in it now, after everything that has transpired since…

Full Review

Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon (2021)

I smiled a couple of times, maybe. Love seeing the old crew back together, but it’s just not that funny. Smaller roles by more well-known comics do not help.

Full Review

Palm Springs (2020)

A Groundhog Day rip-off that is less creative and less funny. If we’re supposed to take the whole story seriously and feel for the characters, what’s the deal with the dinosaurs? They get out of this metaphysical dilemma by blowing it up? What’s redeeming about that? Samberg can be so…

Full Review

Paris, Texas (1984)

Definitely something different, maybe one of the better movies to come out during a very awkward time for movies. Wasn’t sure I was on board at first, with things moving so slowly and Stanton’s vacant, emotionally unexpressive performance leading the way. Stanton has never been one of my favorites, with…

Full Review

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

Surprisingly dark, not the story I expected. But the biggest issue is that the story and characters are a little too simple. There’s not much going on in this movie. Mr. Rogers, who by all accounts really was a great guy, is a little too perfect here. Chris Cooper is…

Full Review

Don’t Look Up (2021)

Like McKay’s The Big Short, it straddles between being a dramatic story and a farce. Screaming rants by Mindy and Dibiasky, seriousness by Teddy, ominous scoring, and impressive visual effects make it seem like we should really care about what is potentially an end-of-the-world situation, but then idiotic, over-the-top behavior…

Full Review

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Interesting twist on the story, probably the best they could do after all this time. Similar to original in theme and style. They did capture some of the magic of the first movie, but it’s hard to make that kind of impact on a viewer again. Love that Keanu shaved…

Full Review

Klaus (2019)

A very neat take on a traditional story, stopping just short of being a literal origin story for Santa Claus and Christmas. Creatively, beautifully animated and kind of funny.

Full Review

Palm Trees in the Snow (2015)

A steamy, romantic, beautiful story about forbidden love in a faraway place and time, epic in scale and in length. A wonderful surprise. As a period piece, the scenery is exquisite and the sets are wonderfully authentic. It feels like we were really there, with only CGI ships and planes…

Full Review

Sing (2016)

Wonderfully animated, nicely paced, good characters, and great singing voices from an impressive cast. Newcomer Tori Kelly makes an impression as Meena the elephant, and McFarlane shines as Mike the mouse.

Full Review

The Forgiven (2017)

Poignant story about the political and psychological power of forgiveness, redemption, and compassion. Whitaker is really good. His embodiment of Tutu seems a little more jovial and silly than it should have been, but his performance is spot on when it counts. Bana plays hate very well but can’t seem…

Full Review

Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)

Camp as Emily Elizabeth was smarter-than-her-years interesting at times, but very ordinary at others. Whitehall was pretty good, with light laughs and expressions and delivery that reminded me a bit of T.J. Miller. Everyone else was annoying. The dog effects are mediocre, soft compared to the sharp details in background…

Full Review

Red Notice (2021)

Pretty people, beautifully shot, nice effects, and decent action scenes. But with the plot bending on itself every few minutes to throw yet another twist at us and every scene filled with people trying to outcool each other with dialogue, I didn’t care about the story or any of the…

Full Review

Rocky Vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut (1985)

Some of the new footage indeed adds some humanity, but at the cost of some of the old footage, editing, pacing. Despite an honest effort to preserve the integrity of the story, things didn’t flow quite as well in this one as in the original. Drago has slightly more dialogue,…

Full Review

Dune (2021)

An epic film which straddles the line between fantasy and science fiction. People and places and times so far removed from us and moments of magic push us towards fantasy, but the implied, very distant ties to Earth history, bull imagery, bagpipes, and palm trees remind us that this is…

Full Review

No Time to Die (2021)

So many characters in this one. I’ve seen all the Bonds, but it was still hard for me to follow along. Great to see Waltz back, but he competed with Malek for attention as the film’s primary villain. Lynch is a nice addition, de Armas is fun, but she’s only…

Full Review

Planet of the Humans (2019)

Lots of emotional, disturbing footage. So green energy is bad, silicon is bad, graphite is bad, electric cars are bad, solar panels are bad, turbines are bad, batteries are bad. Making or doing anything is bad, and nobody can be trusted. But it all just seems fatalistic when it doesn’t…

Full Review

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004)

Interesting and well-made. John Waters is the perfect narrator for this project.

Full Review

Val (2021)

An interesting profile of an interesting guy. It’s personal, historically interesting, with a blanket of melancholy over the whole thing. Sad to see Val in his state, but glad he was able to help put this together while we still have him. Must have been an editing nightmare, with so…

Full Review

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

Very stylish, but that gets old very quickly and it ends up being just a pile of shit. Part Kill Bill, part Baby Driver, and part The Professional, with the glorified violence, theatrical lighting, blazing colors, gratuitous slo-mo, exaggerated sound effects, melodramatic score, and horribly stereotyped villains that we’ve become…

Full Review

The One Where They Get Back Together (2021)

A documentary, a sequel, a love letter, an emotional tribute to a sitcom that touched millions. An amazing collection of show clips, backstage footage, bloopers, interviews, with masterful editing weaving it all together. A subtle, slow variation of the show theme at the end adds a nice accent. Glad that…

Full Review

Biography: Chris Farley – Anything for a Laugh (2019)

Nice profile of a big, funny guy.

Full Review

Don’t F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)

A creepy, intimate look at a psychopath. The exploration of his character is interesting and the collection of security camera footage is impressive, but there are way too many melodramatic interviews and useless cutaway shots to Facebook posts, search bars being filled, and lingering cityscapes. It’s all useless filler. This…

Full Review

Collective (2019)

The hallmark of a good documentary is interesting and emotional subject matter, well-assembled footage, and an invisible camera. This documentary succeeds on all levels. It truly is an impressive collection of footage. The most private, emotional, and potentially dangerous conversations are captured with quality and care and, often, with multiple…

Full Review

The Frozen North (2006)

Hard to understand Dick’s own voiceover, presumably recorded when he was an old man. He’s not very good at reading his own material. Might have been worth combining all the footage to produce a more complete, succinct, well-rounded documentary about Dick and his experience.

Full Review

Alone in the Wilderness Part II (2011)

This one is mostly from the point of view of two others, giving us a bit more background on the man, which makes his life a little more interesting. But the footage is starting to get a bit boring.

Full Review

Alone in the Wilderness (2004)

Dick led a fascinating, solitary existence in Alaska. It’s amazing what kind of life he was able to build for himself. Like Bob Ross, Dick has a real appreciation for the Alaskan outdoors, and he does a good job capturing it with his modest photography skills and equipment. All the…

Full Review

Sound of Metal (2019)

Powerful. Should be an easy Oscar win for the exquisite sound design. Fantastic performances by mostly unknowns. Ahmed is fantastic in the lead, and Amalric gives the rest of the cast a solid tether. Only thing I don’t totally get is why his relationship with Louise ended. It’s implied that…

Full Review

Marriage Story (2019)

The tragic, downward spiral of broken love and divorce. A wonderfully tragic illustration of how getting courts involved can make things expensive and ugly very quickly. If there’s a better movie about divorce, I haven’t seen it. Cynical name for the title. Good drama, painful to watch. The scene where…

Full Review

Coming 2 America (2021)

Expected a disappointment, but I liked it! As good a sequel as they could have made. I even found it a bit touching. Great to get so much of the old cast back, more impressive considering it’s 33 years since the first film. So many great cameos that I had…

Full Review

Tenet (2020)

Classic Nolan fare, with a clever, mind-bending, intense story, polished lighting, photography, and editing, seamless and impossible effects, and a heavy, droning score. I think I’m with most people when I say that the story was hard to follow. There are so many things happening to so many people in…

Full Review

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Jenkins and Gadot did an admirable job with the first one, but they both lost a lot of cred here. The story is an absolute mess, to the point that it’s hard to care about any of the characters. Pascal does his best, but his character… grants wishes? That what…

Full Review

The Lighthouse (2019)

Beautiful, but very weird. What you’d expect from an art film. As a period piece, it’s exceptional. Sets, costumes, the beautiful photography, pacing, and performances all seem truly authentic. Really great historical flavor. But as a descent into madness, something’s not right. Howard, in particular, is mad from the start,…

Full Review

Death to 2020 (2020)

Sadly funny. Well-written, a lot of rapid-fire puns. Fishburne’s voiceover is deadpan perfect. Only the English could pull off something this smartly critical and witty. Amazing how they got so many of these stars to participate, interesting how so many different personalities were successfully directed to deliver the same kind…

Full Review

Alien: Covenant (2017)

A nice continuation of the Prometheus story, and a really good opportunity to continue the story further. Would love for Scott to tie things up with one more film to complete the trilogy. I know I’m in the minority here, with most critics and viewers destroying this film. Yes, sloppy…

Full Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

I liked the first Godzilla in Legendary’s MonsterVerse a lot more. This one got a bit silly, and now I’m a bit worried about the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong. A very thin story with lots of strange and stupid plot leaps. Titans make hurricanes? And not just any hurricanes, category…

Full Review

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)

Robin was a great mind and spirit, wasn’t he? Thorough and thoughtful. Great to have so much voiceover from Robin, and so much great commentary from his friends. Would have been nice to dig a little bit deeper into the darkness that drove him, though. I think there was something…

Full Review

Uncut Gems (2019)

Dark, twisted, disturbing. You know it’s going to be intense going in, with a compound fracture and a first-person colonoscopy five minutes in. Every scene has a frenetic energy, a tension, an urgency, a nightmarish sense of dread, thanks to good writing, dialogue, editing, and photography. The retro synth score…

Full Review

Overboard (2018)

Some light comedy. Faris pulls it off, she’s almost like the new Goldie Hawn. Which is not really a coincidence since this is a gender-swap remake of Hawn’s 1987 movie? Derbez is pretty funny. I’m surprised he hasn’t worked more in American comedies.

Full Review

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

The ultimate cringefest, with some funny moments and others with real shock value. Definitely harder to for Cohen to play Borat now that everyone knows the character, but he pulls it off. I don’t know how he got through this without being jailed or killed. A lot of additional footage…

Full Review

The Land Before Time (1988)

Interesting themes for kids. Definite racial segregation overtones early on, perhaps a little too on-the-nose. I don’t like how, in most fiction stories, it’s only the mom who cares and is present and is the emotional heartstring that gets plucked. Where’s the dad in all these stories? And weird how…

Full Review

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)

Fun. Surprisingly good effects.

Full Review

The Big Sick (2017)

Respect for Nanjiani. He’s charming and funny, the story he’s telling is personal, and it’s told with real heart and humility. Kazan is fantastic. Romano and Hunter are perfect in supporting roles.

Full Review

Honeyland (2019)

A slice of life in remote corner of the world, blurring the line between documentary and scripted story. As I watched the film, I thought it HAD to be scripted. How could a crew capture so many private, emotional moments with characters so unaffected by the camera’s presence? That’s the…

Full Review

Lady Bird (2017)

Mildly entertaining, but despite quick pacing of scenes and dialogue, the story doesn’t really go anywhere. Saoirse turns in a very natural performance, except for the accent. It’s passable but generally sounded a little forced and overenunciated. She almost pulled a muscle in her face trying to pronounce some of…

Full Review

Richard Jewell (2019)

A polished film by Clint Eastwood that honors the man in a way that he probably hasn’t been honored before. Admirable job combining real footage with new stuff. Hauser does a great job, amazing that there was an actor so perfect to play this guy. Rockwell is always good. Hamm…

Full Review

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Beautifully shot, with seamless, natural-looking lighting and painterly photography that make some frames look like they could be paintings all on their own. Nice, long takes give every scene a slow, pensive feel. But there’s maybe a bit too much of that. There are moments when the beautiful images make…

Full Review

Little Women (2019)

A classic story about young women coming of age, historically significant because it’s a feminist story from a feminist author when women were not allowed to be feminists. The detail and tenuous connection of scenes to the larger dramatic story suggests that a lot of the material is autobiographical, and…

Full Review

Babe Ruth (1998)

Prob the best of the Ruth documentaries, with the deepest exploration of his character and personality. Schreiber’s voice is just so silky. We dive right into his career, skipping over his his early life, then jump around a bit, from his “called shot” to his start in Boston and then…

Full Review

“ESPN SportsCentury” Babe Ruth (1999)

No doubt an impressive and interesting historical figure. Just wish this was longer, slower, more in-depth, and had less of the sappy, melodramatic music.

Full Review

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019)

A few good lines, funny if you’re a fan of Zach and his show. But when the outtakes are funnier than the movie, that’s a sign that maybe the movie wasn’t so funny.

Full Review

Tiger King (2020–2021)

A remarkable collection of footage, the crew was there for everything. When they shot out in the open, everything seemed to happen naturally right in front of them. And when there was a private confrontation or phone call, someone was there to record it secretly. So much footage. How does…

Full Review

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

Everyone’s back except Renée Zellweger. Amazing job returning with most of the original cast, but Zellweger’s obvious plastic surgery and skinniness are jarring when she’s supposed to be playing the same character. If this is the new Bridget Jones, maybe work that into the story an explain the transformation. And…

Full Review

My Left Foot (1989)

Touching portrait. Shame how, in this day and age of internet research, we know that the ending as a bit misleading and it wasn’t quite so happy for Brown. It would have been more powerful if the truth had been told. Day-Lewis is exceptional, but we already knew that. He’s…

Full Review

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Difficult subject matter to do comedy with, but Waititi pulls it off. It’s an interesting mix of comedy, drama, and action that works. Can say I’ve seen a movie like it. Great performances from the kids. Archie Yates is one of the cutest, funniest fat kids that we’ve seen in…

Full Review

Togo (2019)

Touching tribute to a heroic dog. This is standard Disney material. Cute animals having dainty moments with happy music, while one diminutive, rebellious underdog with unflappable spirit rises above the rest. The structure is also pretty standard, with the story jumping right into the action with flashbacks to establish character.…

Full Review

Parasite (2019)

First half is wonderfully simple, fun, and theatrical, perfect for a stage play. But then things get awkwardly sexual, and both the family and story lose their innocence. Things suddenly dark and twisted and graphic, and by the end, it almost feels like we’ve watched two different movies: the first…

Full Review

Knives Out (2019)

Why do all the great detectives have such distinctive accents and wordplay? When was the last time you saw a brilliant detective with a standard American accent just telling it like it is? Interesting cast of characters. I’m sure Craig and Evans both loved playing against type for a change.…

Full Review

1917 (2019)

Intense and humbling, like Saving Private Ryan and any good war movie. An amazing accomplishment of camerawork and editing. The shortest unbroken shot was 39 seconds long, while the longest single continuous shot was 8 1/2 minutes long, both of which are impressive. The steadicam shots through trenches and houses…

Full Review

Joker (2019)

Artsy, weird, intense, disturbing. We’ve never seen a superhero movie as dark and twisted as this one. Beautifully shot. There is some magic here. Great character study. Joker is solidly developed with rich backstory, his descent into crazy is wonderfully paced and deep. This is the first act of a…

Full Review

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

A bit fast-paced, with wall-to-wall dialogue and dizzying scene changes, almost like there’s a rush to wrap up the story and franchise as thoroughly and as quickly as possible. Maybe it had to be like this. Maybe there was just too much for Abrams to do, too much ground to…

Full Review

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Damon and Bale play off each other nicely, with Damon pulling off a Bill Clinton accent and a believable performance. But it is Bale, with colorful wit, a charming accent, and goofy facial expressions, who steals the show. Miles has his own dramatic arc, and I found myself wishing the…

Full Review