Independent filmmaking is an important part of American cinema. Films that aren’t tied to massive budgets or governed by large studios tend to be more free to take risks and explore new possibilities of stories and their telling.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls delighted at first but steadily worsened. The endless brownie points earned spent themselves too fast and left a husk of a film.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife has several excellent moments, a great protagonist, and a heartfelt core, yet is underwhelming in a lot of ways. Those who watch it will remember it mainly for its fan service, and though that’s kind of the point—it’s not great we have a lot of movies made with that in mind.
Given recent movie adaptation trends, Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark has a lot of comparisons. Even attempting to evaluate it outside of context is semi-impossible because of its similarities.
The House is an interpretive art piece. The creators had a point to make, and a message to send—but I’ve yet to figure out what that message was.
Bill & Ted Face The Music Proves Itself I was a fool to underestimate Bill & Ted Face the Music. I knew that the original movie, by reputation, was shockingly fun with an irreverent sense of humor. That despite the two main characters being stereotypes, there was something special about this series. But still, my…
Watching Joker is Staring Into The Void My hands were shaking after I got home from watching Joker. I don’t mean that as hyperbole—this movie scared me, physically affected me. I curled in my theater chair, flinching away from this film. Unable, unwilling, to watch it again—but not because it’s not a masterpiece of acting….
Horror Is A Difficult Art Form To Create Coming from a horror writer, perhaps this topic seems a bit self-aggrandizing. And, yeah, perhaps to some degree it is—but I’m not all that good at horror. I’m passably okay at the practice. I know somewhat what I’m doing. And that doesn’t account for individual taste. But…
Corpse Bride Is Too Good To Leave Dead As a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, you’d think I would have gotten to Corpse Bride sooner, but here we are. And, yes, I do have to compare the two of them, because they are extremely similar. From style to plot to progression to even the…
There’s No Deep Issue In Captain Marvel I don’t get the Captain Marvel controversy. The internet’s reaction to this film was just a curiosity before I’d seen it but now is just abjectly confusing. I’m putting a line in the sand here and stating that the movie is fine, not fantastic, but fine, fun, and not…
The Lego Movie 2 Is Joyful Pure Brilliance Can we just openly acknowledge that the team behind the Lego Movie franchise is brilliant and understand a modern audience on a level that’s honestly shocking and delightful and only further prove that with The Lego Movie: The Second Part? What had already been a creation that made…
Will The First Live-Action Pokémon Movie Be As Awesome As This Trailer Looks? I’m not a massive Pikachu fan or a massive Pokémon fan for that matter, but even I must acknowledge the sheer newness that is this trailer. The idea that a live-action Pokémon movie is going to come to American theaters, with Ryan Reynolds…
