The kids are not alright, and this movie’s version of New York barely looks like the city at all. Read my full review at RogerEbert.com.
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Return to Seoul 2022
“As far as complicated characters go, Freddie is an impressive mix of conflicting emotions: angry, lonely, selfish, and resentful. But in her occasional vulnerable moments, there’s a sense of a wounded tenderness, like a bruise that has never quite healed up and will always be a source of pain. Even in Freddie’s cruelest moments, when her antics push away others (and, to some extent, the audience), there’s an understanding from the actor’s performance that her actions are coming from a…
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The Darkest Minds 2018
Going to the latest dystopian YA novel adaptation used to feel more like escapist fare. These movies had fantastical scenarios where teenagers discovered who they were and how they could fix the messed-up world around them. But the times have changed, and the stories haven’t. The narratives that once elevated the act of surviving adolescence into a hero’s journey now feel stale. With so much anxiety about the future in the real world, we don’t need entertainment to transport us into a dystopian one.
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Game Over, Man! 2018
A dumbed-down “Die Hard” tribute debuting on Netflix, Kyle Newacheck’s “Game Over, Man!” is a movie full of bodily fluids and violence, centered on three dopey hotel housekeepers with terrible ideas of how to achieve their ideas of getting rich who choose the worst possible time to pitch one of their harebrained ideas to a playboy investor — just as a well-armed squad of thieves takes over the high-rise where they work. “Boys will be boys,” says their boss in an early scene, laughing off their unprofessional behavior. But their conduct does not improve, and neither does this action comedy riddled with pop culture references.
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Paradox 2018
Trading the spotlight for the director’s chair, Daryl Hannah teams up with her partner, musician Neil Young, to helm a fantasy western musical. Made between Young’s tour stops, Paradox is a chance for Hannah to experiment with film-making and a behind-the-scenes look at Young rehearsing with his band, Promise of the Real. It’s a wild journey that is difficult for outsiders to follow if they’re new to either her activist career or to Young’s music.
Most of 'Paradox' features collage…
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Ready Player One 2018
"Unfortunately, 'Ready Player One' has a noticeable girl problem: it can’t see female characters as just other people. For as skilled and resourceful as Art3mis/Samantha (Olivia Cooke) is, her avatar is that of an impossible pixie dream girl – a creature with a svelte body, anime-inspired big eyes, weapons training and the person who knows and loves almost every reference Wade makes. Of course, she’s damaged with a birthmark on her face, and he’s the only nice guy who can see that she’s truly beautiful. Samantha is the artificially programmed Eve to Wade’s Adam, but worse because she never gets the chance to sin."
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Blockers 2018
Blockers is similar to 'Superbad,' but made from the perspective of overprotective parents. The premise is ripe for spoofing and commenting on the latest parenting crazes and paranoia. The kids are relatively normal: unsure, insecure, trying to act older than they are. That sense of normalcy is echoed in the film’s setting and look.
It’s an idealized version of an upper-middle class life, now with interracial couples and parents with healthy sex lives. There’s nothing visually out of the ordinary…
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Ophelia 2018
"To be, or not to be empowered? That is the question this insecure movie attempts to answer. Over the years, Ophelia has come to symbolize love’s maddening power, but this Ophelia doesn’t quite shy away from that narrative. Instead, the film tries to refashion it as a moment of empowerment not victimhood. It’s not unlike the Kristen Stewart movie, Snow White and the Huntsman. These former damsels are given agency to change their stories, but the result is a lukewarm fanfiction tale with different costumes."
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Hollow in the Land 2017
"Alison closely resembles Jennifer Lawrence’s character in 'Winter’s Bone,' another self-sufficient young woman whose family and community turn against her. This movie is not as tense, but it gets close thanks to Ms. Agron’s resolute performance and the movie’s hostile small town setting. "