Episode Description: This week, a weekend trip to Myrtle Beach will change the lives of four best friends forever in 1989’s Shag, directed by Zelda…
Chaos Walking welcomingly deviates from the YA template and surprises with its visual design, but it crumbles under the weight of its unexplored ideas. From its…
Raya and the Last Dragon is beautifully animated and welcomingly eccentric, but also a little overly familiar. Much remains the same in Disney’s latest animated project,…
Episode Description: This week, nuclear war meets teen comedy as we take on 1986’s ill-conceived The Manhattan Project, directed by Marshall Brickman. Christopher Collet stars…
The Obituary of Tunde Johnson squanders its opportunity to use a time-loop gimmick to meaningfully engage with bigger ideas. Early in The Obituary of Tunde Johnson,…
When You Found Me is an emotionally mature, classic rock riff on Lucero’s singular sound. Lucero has always found themselves at intersections; sonically, the southern rockers…
Episode Description: This week, Summer Blockbuster!?! celebrates Valentine’s Day by taking on one of the least romantic romances ever filmed: 1986’s Under the Cherry Moon,…
Judas and the Black Messiah energizes necessary rhetoric and is impeccably crafted, but diminishes its power by sticking so closely to a prescribed biopic template. The…
PVT CHAT hints at sapient commentary of our transactional internet age, but the gesture ultimately proves empty. Writer-director Ben Hozie’s latest, PVT CHAT, is another film…
The Reckoning is a tonal and intellectual disaster, nothing more than an exercise in bland, base brutalism. On its face, The Reckoning seems like a strange…
Episode Description: This week, we conclude our discussion on the 2020 summer movie season by taking on a film we still can’t believe got a…
Beginning emerges from the influence of obvious formal antecedents to become a stirring, singular work from a new cinematic worth following. On its surface, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s…
Downfalls High barely qualifies as a film and attempts little but manages to ride MGK’s guiding charisma to some playful places. If you were one of…
Episode Description: This week, we continue our look at 2020’s very strange summer movie season by tackling the first wide release of the summer —…
Episode Description: We are back! 2021 is a new year, and after taking a break due to COVID (perhaps counterintuitive, we know), we are ready…
Pieces of a Woman showcases a bravura if ostentatious initial quarter, but it’s all downhill from there as the film devolves into mere misery porn tropes. …
The first 30 minutes of CoroNation, Ai Weiwei’s comprehensive snapshot of Wuhan, China in the earliest days of COVID-19’s global devastation, are among the most compelling…
The relationship between hip hop and punk rock is a long and complex one, evident since the early ‘80s and built upon a shared willingness…
One Night in Miami finds power in its discourse and suggests King’s legitimate directorial chops in moments, but it fails to fully translate its stage origins…