Rating: Okay Given that the first article I ever posted on this site predicted that Justice League Part One would be a disappointment, it goes without saying that I did not have high hopes for this film. During the production of Justice League, Zack Snyder dropped out of the director’s chair and was replaced by Joss Whedon, and while I enjoyed it more than I expected to, because of this directorial change the film has […]

Recently I saw a film I have been meaning to watch for years, The Shining, one of the most haunting and mysterious films in American cinema. Unlike most horror films, or films in general for that matter, The Shining can never be understood because it keeps the rules of its fictional world vague while delivering twists which are not and cannot be explained. However, another might argue that this ambiguity is not brilliance, but laziness […]

A paradigm shift is defined as a major change in thinking or approach, and after the results of the 2017 summer box office, I believe the entire film industry will undergo such a shift. In total, the summer box office has fallen from $4.45 billion in 2016 to roughly $3.8 billion this year, an even larger drop than was expected. Films which were once thought to be guaranteed successes, such as Transformers: The Last Knight, […]

Rating: Fantastic Detroit is a terrifying film which tells the story the Algiers Motel during the riots in 1960’s Detroit. More than a drama, Detroit’s story is told like a horror film, and its horror comes from its realism. Realism can often be a tricky goal for a movie to aim for, because story sometimes suffers for the sake of realistic outcomes. But here, realism imbues Detroit with horror and intensity. It isn’t a fairy […]

(Translation into emojis) 😀🎥➡🔎: 💩➡📆           Rating: Awful         ❌/💯: 💀 How can one capture the misery of The Emoji Movie? 🤔➡😢➡😀🎥? This is a rare film that makes you feel a sense of existential dread, even though everything you watch is stupid and exists purely for the sake of profit. 🎰🎥➡😨➡🙃➡🤑. While nearly every film exists for the sake of profit, good (or even decent) films can at least offer some entertainment. 🔛🎥➡🤑➡👍(🤷)🎥➡😄. […]

Rating: Okay Dunkirk tells the story of an entire army trapped on the northern beaches of Europe, awaiting the Germans to attack and destroy them. It is stunning on a technical level. The gunshots are sharp and loud, the cinematography is grim and intense, and the in-camera action is phenomenal. The film tells its story in a unique way, which again, works well on a technical level. Unfortunately, once you peel back all of Dunkirk’s […]

Rating: Masterpiece The third Apes film is one of the most surprising blockbusters I have seen in years. The film is incredibly bold in its restraint: rather than bombard the audience with action and noise it chooses to present a darker, slower story. The motion capture effects and performances are terrific as always, but there is more to this film that makes it great. It isn’t phenomenal because it has several hours of action-packed pay-off […]

Rating: Strong Ever since I saw Spider-Man swing into battle in Captain America: Civil War, I have been awaiting his first outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Spider-Man: Homecoming. Having now seen it, I was not disappointed. Unlike the past Spider-Man films, Homecoming places a young actor in high school and has him deal with teenage life, rather than casting a nearly thirty-year-old man supposedly on the verge of graduating. Marvel reportedly wanted Homecoming to […]

Rating: Strong Doctor Who’s tenth Season is one of the hardest things I have ever had to review. After I fell head-over-heels for Season 9, part of me thought that it would be impossible for showrunner Steven Moffat to top the work he had already done. And unfortunately, I was right. There was never an episode of Season 10 that I did not enjoy, nor was there ever a moment that made me want to […]

Rating: Fantastic Baby Driver is a kind of film that I wish I saw more often. It’s funny, but it never sacrifices drama; it’s action-packed, but it never sacrifices character. The action is eye-popping yet it still manages to feel grounded. It is the most fun I have had so far this summer, and it only cost $34 million to make. The film proves you don’t need hundreds of millions to dollars to make audiences’ […]