30 Sep 2024

Flyin' Gosling: “The Wild Robot,” “Lee,” “Will & Harper,” “My Old Ass,” and “Megalopolis”

By Mike Schulz

Upon leaving our screening of The Wild Robot, I asked my favorite 10-year-old what she thought of the film, and she answered that it was one of the best movies she'd seen in her life. If I ever choose or am forced to retire from weekly reviewing, I hope this smart kid becomes my replacement, because as family-friendly adventures go, writer/director Chris Sanders' animated outing is one of the best I've seen in my life, too.

23 Sep 2024

Anything You Can Be I Can Be Better: “The Substance,” “Never Let Go,” “His Three Daughters,” and “Transformers One”

By Mike Schulz

No matter the season, we can always stand to have more movies like writer/director Coralie Fargeat's The Substance in area release.

16 Sep 2024

Weakened Weekend: “Speak No Evil” and “The Killer's Game”

By Mike Schulz

I didn't dislike James Watkins' fright flick because it wasn't frightening, though that certainly didn't help matters. I disliked it because, in a rarity for this genre, its (adult) heroes and villains truly seemed to deserve each other.

09 Sep 2024

Once, Twice, Three Times a Crazy: “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “The Front Room”

By Mike Schulz

You won't get Catherine O'Hara, against her will, leading a supernaturally choreographed “Day-O.” But you will get O'Hara, and supernatural choreography, and “Day-O” – just not in ways you may have anticipated.

02 Sep 2024

Wan One for the Gipper: “Reagan” and “AfrAId”

By Mike Schulz

Anyone who stumbled upon the Reagan poster and felt immediately inclined, maybe even compelled, to see the picture likely got exactly the experience they wanted; that visual image is pure hero worship, and so is the movie

26 Aug 2024

The Playing's the Thing: “Sing Sing,” “Blink Twice,” and “Strange Darling”

By Mike Schulz

Director/co-writer Greg Kwedar's Sing Sing allows Colman Domingo's soul to spill for roughly 100 solid minutes. Thrillingly, however, his isn't the only soul on display. Not by a long shot.

19 Aug 2024

Hybrid Scars: “Alien Romulus,” “Didi,” and “My Penguin Friend”

By Mike Schulz

Fede Álvarez's franchise extender is a punchy, routinely exciting entertainment, and coming after the twinned bores of Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, it's also a considerable relief.

12 Aug 2024

Lily and Her Valleys: “It Ends with Us,” “Cuckoo,” “The Instigators,” and “Borderlands”

By Mike Schulz

It Ends with Us isn't necessarily great. It is, however, a crowd-pleaser that's strong and sincere and unexpectedly touching … and unlike the film Blake Lively's husband is currently starring in, at least it makes a modicum of sense.

05 Aug 2024

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Cops Are Huntin' at the Concert and I'm Feelin' So Sad: “Trap” and “Harold & the Purple Crayon”

By Mike Schulz

Trap may not be very good, but you gotta hand it to M. Night Shymalan: He does have a flair for the perverse.

29 Jul 2024

X-Lax: “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “The Fabulous Four,” and “Shine On: The Forgotten Shining Location”

By Mike Schulz

Mind you, I'm not suggesting that anyone would do this. But if you were to make a drinking game out of the experience of Marvel's and director/co-writer Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine, here's a list of prompts to absolutely avoid – unless, that is, you want the game to end with one of your players rushed to the ER.

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