In the awkwardly titled Ballad of a Small Player, Netflix and Colin Farrell attempt to turn a mid-grade gambling drama into an awards contender—a “go big or go broke” attempt that unfortunately goes broke. About an expat living beyond his means in Macau, Ballad of a Small Player depicts a pathetic man with a gambling … Read more
In Blue Moon, Ethan Hawke delivers a strong, immersive performance in a genre I loathe: entertainment industry period pieces. Hollywood directors love making movies about writers, directors, actors, and playwrights, despite these people usually being wholly uninteresting to anyone outside of the entertainment industry. Blue Moon is no exception: sure, Hawke’s depiction of Lorenz Hart, … Read more
The Lost Bus isn’t the live action Ms. Frizzle adaptation we deserve but it’s an exciting, straightforward depiction of survival against all odds. Based on a true story, the movie is about a bus driver and teacher who attempt to rescue 22 children from the deadly Camp Fire that wiped out Paradise, CA in 2018. … Read more
The Las Vegas Raiders played the Chiefs on Sunday, or at least appeared on the same field as the Chiefs on Sunday. They were certainly there, in their spiffy white uniforms, in Kansas City, but with Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers both injured and inactive, “played” may have been asking too much. Vegas never entered … Read more
Now available on Digital In Together, we gain insight into the sex lives of real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie—and are treated to a terrifyingly grotesque depiction of co-dependence and twisted dedication. Not particularly scary but nonetheless wickedly satisfying, Together follows two individuals who move to a new town, drink from a very creepy-looking … Read more
Lucas (Tom Blyth) meets Andrew (Russell Tovey) in a bathroom stall, somewhere in New York state, sometime in the 1990s. Lucas is an undercover cop, sicced regularly on this cruising spot to lure gay men into indecent exposure charges. He’s not happy about it. Andrew brings his buried sexual curiosity brimming to the surface, and before … Read more
The idiom “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” has felt especially relevant in regards to horror lately – every hyped film of 2025 so far has ended up relying on some form of diabolical cult or yet another evil hag, resulting in more yawns than screams from avid sickos at the cinema. While … Read more
In the uniquely charming Roofman, Channing Tatum plays a nice guy who does naughty things while winning the heart of Kirstin Dunst. A sort-of-comedy, sort-of-drama, sort-of-romance, sort-of-crime story, Roofman is the movie that should be much more tonally confused than it ends up being, thanks in large part to Tatum’s endearingly complex performance and director/co-writer … Read more
“The ’80s,” gasps Jared Leto (the eponymous Ares) with something approaching the human emotion of reverence. “Classic,” he says during a sequence paying extended homage to the visuals of the original Tron movie. “I love the 80s,” he fawns as he talks about how great Depeche Mode are, in a segment intended to illustrate the difference between … Read more
Tron: Ares is like a hot Vegas hooker*: she looks sexy, she’s loud in certain situations, but she doesn’t care about you. This third Tron movie looks incredible, has an absolutely cranking score, and is emotionally distant. And yet—it is worth seeing on the big screen. Entertaining and suspenseful for a large portion of its … Read more