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Film Reviews

Movie Review: It Lives Inside

Immigrant assimilation becomes the stuff of potent metaphorical horror
By Scott Renshaw

Movie Review: A HAUNTING IN VENICE

Kenneth Branagh refusing to rediscover a sense of fun.
By Scott Renshaw

Fall Movie Preview 2023

What's on tap for an uncertain season in theaters.
By Scott Renshaw
Movie Review: It Lives Inside
Movie Review: It Lives Inside

Movie Review: It Lives Inside

Immigrant assimilation becomes the stuff of potent metaphorical horror
A modest proposal: Can we please retire the phrase "elevated horror" forever?

By Scott Renshaw September 20, 2023

The Case Against Focusing on Movie Plots
The Case Against Focusing on Movie Plots

The Case Against Focusing on Movie Plots

Spoiler culture and how the focus on "what happens" kills film appreciation
I'm concerned about this as a microcosm of a bigger problem, one that is absolutely murdering the ability to talk thoughtfully about narrative art forms like movies, television, theater and books: the way anything with a story has been reduced to a level of "what happens."

By Scott Renshaw August 30, 2023

Movie Review: GRAN TURISMO
Movie Review: GRAN TURISMO

Movie Review: GRAN TURISMO

The simple pleasure of knowing what the hell is going on in a movie.
You might reasonably assume that one of the baseline responsibilities for a filmmaker is allowing viewers to understand what the hell is happening while they're watching—that is, if so much of 21st-century filmmaking weren't evidence to the contrary.

By Scott Renshaw August 23, 2023

PASSAGES feature movie review
PASSAGES feature movie review

PASSAGES feature movie review

Brilliantly capturing a toxic brand of artistic narcissism
Tomas's movie seems to be a period piece, so it's not as though he's specifically creating a version of the story we're about to see unfold.

By Scott Renshaw August 16, 2023

Film Review: LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES
Film Review: LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES

Film Review: LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES

Documentary cinema and the power to make history real
Is our default approach to non-fiction filmmaking solely related to what it's about, rather than how it's about what it's about?

By Scott Renshaw August 9, 2023

Movie Reviews: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Afire, Shortcomings
Movie Reviews: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Afire, Shortcomings

Movie Reviews: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Afire, Shortcomings

Three new movies about misfits and their misadventures
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird was a mix of artistic creativity and elements cribbed from popular 1980s comics, so it's fitting to see this latest extension of the franchise follow that paradigm.

By Scott Renshaw August 2, 2023

Film reviews: Haunted Mansion, Sympathy for the Devil, Talk to Me
Film reviews: Haunted Mansion, Sympathy for the Devil, Talk to Me

Film reviews: Haunted Mansion, Sympathy for the Devil, Talk to Me

Three summer releases with different approaches to offering creepy material.
While director Justin Simien's 2000 feature Bad Hair showed his facility for mixing horror with humor, that mix just doesn't quite work here.

By Scott Renshaw July 26, 2023

Movies about the Manhattan Project
Movies about the Manhattan Project

Movies about the Manhattan Project

In honor of Oppenheimer, a roundup of stories about the dawn of the Atomic Age
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer tells the story of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb for the U.S. military during World War II.

By Scott Renshaw July 19, 2023

Film Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Film Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Film Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

The giddy thrills of great action mix with a surprisingly human hero
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation describing Hunt as "the living manifestation of destiny," which is about as close as you can get to defining someone as nigh-supernatural.

By Scott Renshaw July 12, 2023

Movie reviews: Joy Ride, Biosphere, The Lesson
Movie reviews: Joy Ride, Biosphere, The Lesson

Movie reviews: Joy Ride, Biosphere, The Lesson

Shifting relationship dynamics mark three new releases.
A problem with their home's food-creation system inspires a potential existential crisis, except that—as Billy notes while quoting Jurassic Park —life finds a way.

By Scott Renshaw July 5, 2023

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Latest adventure feels stuck between the hero's past and his present.
Let's get this out of the way: Harrison Ford is old. He was 79 when most of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was filmed, and during the film's first scene set in 1969, we see him in his full verging-on-octogenarian glory—grey-haired, shirtless and angry at being awakened from a nap.

By Scott Renshaw June 28, 2023

Movie Review: Asteroid City
Movie Review: Asteroid City

Movie Review: Asteroid City

Wes Anderson delivers another rich comedy about struggling with change
Every time a new Wes Anderson movie emerges, it feels like we have to re-litigate the same arguments about his work: that it's too precious and sterile, that it's all about quirky and mannered performances, that it lacks heart and soul.

By Scott Renshaw June 21, 2023

Feature Movie Review: Elemental
Feature Movie Review: Elemental

Feature Movie Review: Elemental

Pixar's latest nails its fantastical setting, but misses on its emotional subtext
For most of its nearly-30-year history of making animated feature films, Pixar has reliably taken a two-pronged approach to their construction: Let's call it The Hook and The Heart.

By Scott Renshaw June 14, 2023

Movie Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Movie Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Movie Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

The latest entry doubles down on being not a movie, but a delivery system for nostalgia
For a hot minute there, I was about to start writing about Transformers: Rise of the Beasts as though it were an actual movie.

By Scott Renshaw June 7, 2023

Feature movie review: Sanctuary
Feature movie review: Sanctuary

Feature movie review: Sanctuary

Psychological drama transcends its lurid plot-summary for a tale of living your truth.
Usually it's gender and/or sexuality, sometimes it's religion, but the common thread is folks reading a one-sentence synopsis and requiring no additional context or information to be certain that the book/movie/TV show/whatever in question is meritless and obscene.

By Scott Renshaw May 31, 2023

Feature movie review: The Little Mermaid (2023)
Feature movie review: The Little Mermaid (2023)

Feature movie review: The Little Mermaid (2023)

Remake of the animated classic lacks any sense of fun
Was "gritty reboot" something literally anyone was asking for when it came to a story about singing, dancing aquatic life?

By Scott Renshaw May 24, 2023

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