When I was in the sixth grade, I participated in my first school play. It was an inane "musical" called The Case of the Missing Part of Speech. I shit you not. The whole "show" lasts for about 30 minutes, involves the cast collectively singing ditties about nouns, verbs, and prepositions (our production actually cut … Continue reading Next in Show – Theater Camp
Whatever your personal opinions may be when it comes to Tom Cruise as a person - and believe me, I have some issues - it's still important to note that over the last few years, he's been the driving force in saving the theatrical model of the film industry. When he insisted that Top Gun: … Continue reading The Human Element – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
There's an overarching theme in Joy Ride about the uncertainty and insecurity that people experience when it comes to their cultural heritage and personal identity. Throughout the course of the riotous road trip romp, the emotional core always comes back to the idea of figuring out who you are and where you came from, both … Continue reading Identity Slapsticks – Joy Ride
If you're a regular reader, you know that I have a few default settings when it comes to how I judge movies. Like any human being I'm not always 100% consistent in my takes, as one, there are exceptions to every rule, and two, sometimes I just forget in the moment depending on how a … Continue reading A Shot Across Disney’s Bow – Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken
We're halfway through the year, and as we go into July, I have to say, things don't look half bad. While the major tentpole movies of the 2023 Blockbuster Season have largely fallen flat, on the whole the general output for mainstream media hasn't been all that terrible. Yes, Indiana Jones disappointed to an extreme … Continue reading This Film is Not Yet Watchable – July 2023
When I was 12 years old, my family and I took a Spring Break vacation to Florida to go to Disney World. It was one of the greatest weeks of my life, and now that both my mother and the close family friend who was the impetus for the trip are gone, I hold on … Continue reading Old Man Yells at Klaus – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
One of the most enjoyable trends in recent cinema is the leitmotif of self-parody that also enhances the very tropes that are being aped. Perhaps the best examples are Knives Out and Glass Onion, which send up the conventions of the whodunit while creating genuinely ingenious whodunits. But it's not limited to just that one … Continue reading Game Night – The Blackening
Back in 2006, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan released what is arguably his worst movie, Lady in the Water. Derided for being incredibly self-indulgent, the project was rightly lambasted for Shyamalan's sanctimonious take on art, writing, and criticism, in which he essentially staged a cinematic hissy fit due to negative reactions to his previous work. He … Continue reading The Play’s the Thing – Asteroid City
Despite the fact that Elemental is the third straight Pixar film to have its trailer earn a place in the monthly TFINYW column, I went into it as I do every entry from this studio, with the hope that it'll dazzle the eyes, fill them with tears, and leave the audience breathless with a combination … Continue reading Happy Father’s Day! Here’s 10,000 Dad Jokes Instead of a Plot! – Elemental
For anyone who has been shivering with anticipation over this review, I do apologize for its lateness. The long-awaited follow-up to the Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse was certainly one of the most anticipated releases for the year, and its critical and box office reception shows that it did not disappoint. However, it did take me … Continue reading The Tangled Web – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
I Actually Paid To See This 