10s movies
Movie Review: Alien — Romulus
4 stars out of 5 I was 10 when the original Alien came out so didn’t see it at the time, but even the poster was scary. Since then I think I only skipped part 4, despite the presence of Winona Ryder. So it was no surprise on an overcast late summer afternoon to find […]
Movie Review: Kinds of Kindness
4.5 stars out of 5 Welcome back, Yorgos! OK, director Yorgos Lanthimos hasn’t exactly been missing in action. His 2023 film Poor Things was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 4 of them. But he didn’t write that movie, or the one before, The Favourite. In fact, it’s been 7 years since Lanthimos and […]
Movie Review: A Quiet Place — Day One
3.5 stars out of 5 If you saw A Quiet Place II, you’ll recall that movie began with a flashback to Day One of the alien invasion. But that was Day One in the suburbs. Quiet Place III is Day One in the gritty city. With a kitty. And Lupita Nyong’o. No Emily Blunt, no […]
Movie Review: Civil War
4 stars out of 5 This film rattled me so much, I fully expected to exit the multiplex and find that civil war had broken out in the Harmon Plaza parking lot. As soon as I had seen the trailer, I knew I wanted to see this movie: U.S. states seceding, government cracking down on […]
Movie Review: Poor Things
3.5 stars out of 5 Dear Poor Things:Where The Wild Things Are called; it wants its font treatment back. OK, on to the review! For the first 30–45 minutes, I was entranced by this film, laughing out loud, prepared to re-order my top movies of the year, and ready to hand the Best Actress Oscar […]
Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One
4.5 stars out of 5 It’s the waning days of war in Japan, and Koichi Shikishima is a failed kamikaze pilot; you’d think the situation couldn’t get any worse. Ah, but you forgot about Godzilla, didn’t you? Frankly, no one would blame you. In 1998, the American film conglomerate tried to reboot the big scaly […]
Movie Review: The Marvels
1.5 stars out of 5 The credits list three screenwriters but I have to think ChatGPT was behind this script, because it does not make a lick of sense. (Keywords: SUPERHEROES + NOT-YET-BLED-DRY YOUNG FEMALE AUDIENCE + OUTER SPACE) I’m a big fan of Brie Larson and the first Captain Marvel movie was… eh, mostly […]
Movie Review: Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One
3.5 stars out of 5 In the Mission: Impossible films, protagonist Ethan Hunt famously disguises himself with rubber masks. At age 61, Tom Cruise is starting to look like he’s always wearing a rubber mask. But by gum, he can still crank out an entertaining action spectacle. And despite the return of writer/director Chris McQuarrie, […]
Movie Review: Asteroid City
4 stars out of 5Wes Anderson is one of my all-time fave filmmakers so if he wants to continue experimenting with the form — puppets, anthology, and now, a story within a story — it’s certainly OK with me. Whether these “exercises” create a bit of distance between film and viewer and thereby prevent the […]
Movie Review: You Hurt My Feelings
3.5 stars out of 5I’m feeling a bit self-conscious. This whole movie is about hurt feelings; what if writer/director Nicole Holofcener (“Who I’ve had drinks with,” said in my best Jon Lovitz voice) googles this review and finds out I didn’t think it was perfect, and then feels all sad? Alas, like Lee Nails, I […]
Jack Silbert, curator