Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tōko Miura star in director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car
Review / Personal Essay by Logan Kenny
I will never forget the sound of her voice. I will forget a million other things as I grow older but that is not one of them. Because it will always be there when I need to hear it, even when she’s been gone for longer than she was alive. That’s one of the fundamental reasons I immediately connected with Drive My Car.
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Review by Zach Dennis
In both print journalism and the work of Wes Anderson, there is a bit of room for humanity under their lavish facades.
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Review by Andrew Swafford
Labyrinth of Cinema is one of those movies that is easily described as a career-capping magnum opus: it’s 3-hours long, it’s a highly experimental work by a filmmaker who had been experimenting with form for half a century already, it’s a metafictional movie-about-movies that spans a great deal of Japan’s sociopolitical and cinematic history, it was written, directed, and edited during Obayashi’s battle with cancer, and it was likely made with the full understanding that it would be Obayashi’s final statement as a filmmaker. As someone who has seen at least a handful of Obayashi’s films, I feel relatively more qualified to speak on Labyrinth of Cinema than the average white American film critic who has only seen House, but I have to admit that I struggled greatly with it.
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Review by Logan Kenny
Cry Macho is a cinematic version of thinking about memory while you’re experiencing a moment in time. As we think of a specific moment and how it is destined to become nothing more than a memory soon, intensively reflecting on our exact place in the universe, it slips away from us.
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Nathalie Emmanuel and Vin Diesel star in F9 by longtime series director Justin Lin
Review by Logan Kenny
F9 reminded me how good it can be to be alive, even if it’s just for a couple hours in the multiplex.
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LeBron James and Bugs Bunny in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Review by Zach Dennis
There’s a difference between constructing a narrative that doesn’t coalesce together and piecing together references to other icons that the audience would recognize in order to continue to keep them interested.
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Review by Jessica Carr
I did not think I was going to get this emotional while watching a pig movie starring Nicolas Cage.
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Theo Anthony captures his camera’s reflection while observing the headquarters of Axon
Review by Andrew Swafford
All Light, Everywhere encouraged me to reflect on the profound importance of how cameras can be used to justify or condemn police violence – and who is better positioned to take advantage of the power offered by them.
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Personal Essay / Review by Logan Kenny
Inside has little focus because it is a frantic pool of despair for Burnham to wallow within, taking the same bitter solace in complaining about basic irritants as he does outlining all the things in the world that cause him great existential suffering.
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Gal Godot stars as Wonder Woman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Review by Aster Gilbert
Justice League is about the merciless passage of time and how that passage can only be overcome through miracles.
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Review by Aster Gilbert
At its best, Can’t Get You Out of My Head is a timely indictment of neoliberal centrism. The analysis presented across these six episodes, however messy, are essential. Where the series leaves off is where we now stand, facing down the barrel of a gun.
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Review by Etan weisfogel
Always and Forever takes the trilogy’s idealized fantasy world to a whole new level. The film’s message—that, despite life not going exactly as planned, it’s possible to adjust and adapt, to ride out the storm without giving up one’s goals or dreams—actually functions as something of an accidental allegory for the way COVID waylaid so many people’s lives.
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Review by Michael O’Malley
Earwig and the Witch faithfully converts hand-drawn imagery into computer animation while retaining none of the spirit of the former. It’s mind-boggling to think that Studio Ghibli could allow such a disaster to be released, and it’s absolutely no fun to report that this is a wretched failure. But it is one.
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Denzel Washington and Jared Leto star in director John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things
Review by Crue Smith
As I’ve read a handful of reviews and first impressions from critics, I kept coming across statements, that said something to the effect of “The Little Things is nothing more than a cliché cop drama, that doesn’t really have any aspects that sets this film apart from previous genre installments.” However, Hancock reliance on genre conventions isn’t the reason the film doesn’t hold up.
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Review by Seth Troyer
The post apocalypse genre, as of late, has become associated with young adult page turners. While this film showcases young characters yearning for a better life, Mare has far more to do with films like Tarkovsky's Stalker than it does The Hunger Games. This directorial debut from Nicholas Ashe Bateman is a feast for the eyes, mind, and heart.
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Gabriel Cañas stars in director Jorge Olguín’s La Casa
Review by Reid Ramsey
Did you happen to miss out on visiting any haunted houses this past Halloween due to COVID? Fear not – a new Chilean horror film named La Casa is here to transport you back to that feeling of fear and claustrophobia. Unfortunately, beyond its concept, La Casa does not offer much else for viewers.
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Review / Personal Essay by Paige Taylor
It is important to showcase the grim reality of the cross that women bear, but the only solution we can offer is to lose every bit of your soul to grief and rage, die at the hands of abusers, and allow our judicial system to handle the rest?
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Review by Logan Kenny
Mank is a film that frequently soaks itself in booze stains and nihilistic prophesying, alters conventional historical reports of his relationship with Orson Welles, and has managed to piss off the majority of the people who’ve seen it in some way or another. It is a messy, almost malignant tribute to the broken profiteering racket of the classic film industry and all the backstabbing, melancholy and destruction that comes with any form of success in its waters.
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Stranger Things star Joe Keery stars in director Eugene Kotlarenho’s Spree
Review by Crue Smith
By far the strongest aspect about Spree is its cinematic style and aesthetic, primary Kotlarenho’s editing sensibilities. The many points of view from the cast of characters are shown through GoPros, smartphone live streams, and Youtube videos, as well as cop car dash- and traffic-cameras. Compared to most of the other found-footage films, Spree has much more of a personal vision and Kotlarenho elevates this gimmick into a unique cinematic experience.
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Review by Ash Baker and Cam Watson
The movie Hillbilly Elegy is not about Appalachia, is not about injustice. It is not even about a family. Hillbilly Elegy is about poor J.D. Vance, a white boy who had to work hard.
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