It's What's Inside

2024

★★★½ 9

A pseudo-whodunnit that feels fresh and electric, largely thanks to its editing and cast, that loses some of its steam halfway through but ultimately sticks the landing at the end.

Should be seen in a packed theater, but it won’t be because Netflix bought it.

Cuckoo

2024

★★★½ 9

A movie that throws its ideas against the wall to see what sticks— some of it does, some of it doesn’t. Fortunately, it features a zany Dan Stevens and a butterfly knife wielding Hunter Schafer, so I never had a bad time. 

Let this be the official campaign to put Hunter Schafer in everything.

Sing Sing

2023

★★★★★ 16

A very special movie. A reminder that in a broken system that only seeks to oppress, art serves not only as catharsis, but as liberation.

The Greatest Hits

2024

★★★½ 9

Music as a literal Time Machine to navigate love and grief. Far from groundbreaking but when everyone is so likeable and every needle drop is so good, who cares?

I eat these movies up every time, more please.

The Fall Guy

2024

★★★½ 15

In typical Leitch fashion, it becomes a convoluted mess in the second half, but luckily Ryan Gosling is charm incarnate so it prevents the film from completely unraveling. It’s an ode to the unsung heroes of stunt work and even if it is a bit uneven in its attempt to juggle romance, action, and comedy— it ultimately succeeds as a riotous crowd pleaser.

Podcast: Ep. 171- The Fall Guy

Immaculate

2024

★★½ 35

The cinematography and production design are its most exciting aspects but it doesn’t make up for what is mostly a shallow & unoriginal script masquerading as something profound. Tension only exists in the breath of a jump scare, and I’m still not completely sold on Sweeney—  in her moments of intensity she’s great, but it’s her quiet moments where I still feel she delivers lines like a robot.

Monkey Man

2024

★★★★ 15

The fusion of adrenaline and grit to create something nuclear. Sequences are composed with such a ferocity that it’s easy to dismiss the beauty in the basics— his framing, the frenetic editing, the way the camera moves with conviction. Maybe the best thing is the ion, there is an energy in his storytelling that cannot be ignored. Patel is telling his story. A story about his culture, his country, and the ion is tangible.

The fabric of Monkey Man’s DNA may be…