Movie Film Reviews

Under the Skin is experimental. Its extreme showing-without-telling might be confusing, repetitive, or pretentious to viewers looking for...

The Favourite is wonderfully unorthodox. It deconstructs the period piece genre with dark humor, risqué dialogue, social commentary,...

Damsel wavers between generic and subversive. While it deconstructs fundamental fantasy tropes for themes of feminine solidarity, that...

Imaginary is boring. Instead of a story, the script drags out its obvious premise. It tries to hide this fact with shoehorned drama and...

Kung Fu Panda 4 is mild. It has superficial themes of change, some setup/payoff, a running symbol, and an adequate side character arc....

Kung Fu Panda is optimally formulaic. Its plot is cliche and predictable. Characters are likable, motivated, dynamic, and typical. The...

Perfect Days expresses an elusive mood. Through minimal plot and dialogue, themes of mindfulness, appreciation, routine, caste,...

Miller's Girl is polarizing. It tries to broaden perceptions of victimhood but its unclear conclusions leave room for victim-blaming. The...

Monster weaves together conflicting yet justified viewpoints, showing the impossibility of knowing another's experience. In turn, it...

Spaceman surrounds a familiar premise with a thin story. There's heavy exposition, muddled stakes, and underwhelming payoff. Its telling...

Dune: Part Two is pure cinema. It has seamless exposition, dynamic relationships, setup/payoff, consequences, and accessible scope. The...

Arrival optimizes its genre with philosophical dilemmas, abstract theories, striking emotions, and fundamental themes. It explores ideas...

Prisoners is maximized suspense. Its plot can be familiar, convoluted, and contrived but remains robust with mystery, procedure, twists,...

Dune (1984) is overstuffed with punishing exposition, confusing lore, superfluous characters, dead-end threads, and convoluted devices....

The Machinist is a pure psychological thriller. Through themes of guilt, disassociation, trust, and obsession, it creates a link between...

Drive-Away Dolls has flavorful characters, internal/external conflicts, witty dialogue, motivated exposition, and absurd humor. There are...

Fargo contrasts tones for unique and heightened emotions. Its character-driven plot informs viewers of motivations and themes, creating...

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is deceptively sharp. On the surface, it has a meandering plot, one-note characters, and random messaging....

Space Cop is knowingly bad but bad all the same. The script offers nothing to emotionally invest in, placing the entertainment value...

Orion and the Dark makes mature themes accessible. Despite dissecting weighty ideas of fear, balance, courage, family, and life's...