Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

The biggest problem with Ghostbusters: Afterlife is its disregard for what makes the Ghostbusters tick. It’s like co-writer/director Jason Reitman racked his brain to find the most uncharacteristic thing the original characters could have done and just went from there. At the same time, that very thing was the only new or original thought that went...

Three Day Millionaire (2022)

Three Day Millionaire is, for want of a better term, clickbait filmmaking. The opening scenes are dominated by an aesthetic that goes out of its way to misrepresent the movie as a Guy Ritchie work. And the title sounds suspiciously like Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Thus, director Jack Spring appoints himself a member of an exclusive club...

Miranda Veil (2020)

Miranda Veil is a wonderfully schizophrenic film — a morbidly twisted love story, a peyotized road movie, and a deranged black comedy that defies traditional storytelling conventions and offers an original, surprising cinematic experience. There is madness here, but it has a method.    Writer/director Levin Garbisch questions political correctness without resorting to gratuitous shock value. That...

The Idea of You (2024)

The Idea of You is a bait-and-switch. Solene (Ann Hathaway) wonders, “What if I could just be the sort of person that goes camping by herself? What if all I need is [her daughter] Izz[y], and my artists, and my gallery, and my friends?” I wish the movie had been about this self-sufficient woman.  ...

After We Collided (2020)

After We Collided tries to emulate the success of popular romance novels, but the derivative storyline makes it difficult to become invested in the film. The forced romantic tension between the two leads feels contrived and unconvincing, and the lackluster execution, overreliant on clichés and tropes from other works, detracts from its overall impact and leaves...

Wasp Network (2019)

Wasp Network is "based on a true story," but its makers may have been looking at reality through beer goggles. For example, there is a character played by Ana de Armas, whom I would describe as a young Tiffani Amber Thiessen. During the epilogue, a photo of the corresponding real person is shown, and what we...

Juniors (2022)

Juniors seems to think that a kid perpetrating a sick baby hoax is just ‘boys being boys.’ I think it’s more like boys being future sociopaths. These punks are liable to grow up to be like Nina Dobrev in Sick Girl, and that’s not what you want to do with your life.  You can make...

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a film whose pleasures lie not in what happens so much as how it happens. Early on, Howard (Walter Huston) spells out the plot in broad strokes: “Never knew a prospector yet that died rich … going with a partner or two is dangerous. Murder's always lurkin' about....

The Vast of Night (2019)

The Vast of Night is a spiritual successor to Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast, known for its realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion. This film understands the power of the spoken word (its heroes are a late-night DJ and a phone operator) and uses it to craft a fascinating story that relies more...