The Film Print

  I got to view this on the big screen this past weekends on STUNNING 35mm film courtesy of the Music Box Theater's Destination Ghibli programming series. I'm completely mind-boggled as to why this never really did that much for me on prior viewings but I was *all in* on this with a gorgeous print and that score blasting over big speakers. I love how righteously unwavering our protagonist is despite the many shifts and revelations he goes through and all the different directions that people and beings try to pull him in with a new order of the world.  The thing that struck me most on this watch was the soundscape. It says more than any line of dialogue could - especially the moments of deafening silence in it. It feels like nature's interruption to the malignancy of industry taking place.

  Respect for trying something new but all they did was take an average tech paranoia slasher flick and morph it into a subpar sci-fi actioner that is absurdly heavy on plot and exposition for how stupid it is. Not without its moments that I had fun with (the reoccurring Steven Seagal bit got me!) but by the time it hit the reveal of *who the villain really is* I felt a strong urge to yell "Who cares?!" at the screen. Doesn't have the stones (or MPAA rating) to take this further nor the directional sauce to make the action hit in the heightened stylized manner it so badly wants to. Oh well! C-

  Extremely solid classic big brash entertainment with genuine practical thrills. Had a blast but this never breaks through with anything meaningful though it's certainly reaching for it. Damson Idris is by far giving the most fun and lively performance in this but Kosinski and co. give him the THINNEST characterization and it frustrated me so deeply with a run time that's damn near three hours. Ultimately it isn't able to rise above feeling like a piece of corporate synergy with all this tech and brand fetishization. Rocked on a big screen and had my heart racing but I can't imagine this translates positively to any other formatting. Brad Pitt said he was more interested in the racing than in the acting this time and boy does it show! C

Incredible to see Boyle and Garland almost 30 years into their collaborations working with more money than they've ever had and coming out with their boldest swing for the fences yet and it's potentially the best both of them have ever been. They reframe the visual language of this franchise into something bigger, lusher and clearer than ever before. It's both a horror film picking at the remains of life amid cultural rot AND, most unexpectedly, a tender folktale about a boy (an astonishing debut performance from Alfie Williams) who wants to save his mom and the humane lessons of death and life that he will learn. It builds to a sequences that is conceptually grotesque yet undeniably and starkly ethereal and moving. Reader, I cried pretty hard at this thing. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my biggest fear was losing one of my parents. I would have nightmares about it constantly and would think "when I'm an adult, I'm going to do whatever I can to protect ...

Much weirder than I expected and delightfully so. Less Nancy Meyers than it is Mike Nichols. Was pitched to me as “Moneyball for romance” and that is still the most honest way I can describe it. A very patient yet straightforward story about people getting past their own logistical cynicism to be vulnerable and actually accept their self-worth. Song’s writing is much more theatrical this time around and characters are all pretty transparently ciphers but the actors are able to imbue it with an engaging lovable lyricism. This might be my favorite performance of Dakota Johnson’s thus far (at least in a film not directed by Guadagnino). B+

Made almost exclusively for people who love the sweaty rules-heavy world building of the John Wick franchise which, thankfully, I very much am. Ana De Armas is a full fucking movie star in this; she's able to lift this thing all the way with steely showmanship whilst also delivering with some golden physical comedy and disarming vulnerability - she is just so goddamn watchable. Love the way this thing escalates too. It already starts off in a pretty crazy place but it ending up with Eve in a village comprised entirely of people whose entire purpose is to fucking kill her is such pulpy gonzo catnip for me and it makes for a truly face-melting final set-piece. I'll watch three more of these as well! B

Feels minor in comparison to Asteroid City but let's be totally real, everything does. Genuinely kind of astonished by how much new stuff Wes is going after in this one. Bold new stylings, characterization and formal tricks set against a back drop of all of his curiosities dialed up to their maximum and beyond. Using broad thrills and moments of intense violence to get at the brutality and hollowness of uber capitalism and somehow finding ways to make it exciting, harrowing, moving, and fucking hilarious. It's also one of his most finely cast outings; Benicio is such a commanding lead and Cera is given some all-timer material. The almost wordless epilogue of this film is one of Wes' finest - it gets at a sense of peace and honesty that feels lovely and rewarding and yet still with a slight edge of unease to keep it interesting. It's an incredible time to be a fan of this guy. B+

Barely adequate! Has that signature mix of heart and chaos but never manages quite the same heights of either that the original just crushes. Most of the changes this makes to the original are kinda confounding and don’t really add much. However, the cast here is aces. Maia Kealoha and Sydney Agudong are really surprisingly commanding leads and scene-chewers like Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance and Amy Hill color in a lot of the margins. Hard for me to dislike anything featuring these characters but I really wish this had more of the deeply defiant spirit that has driven Stitch for these decades. It’s 20+ minutes longer than the original but somehow feels like it has even less in it. C+  

  Could use some trimming to make this a tight 80 but man this is the most a movie has made me laugh all year. Robinson’s schtick never gets old to me even when the movie around him seems to be going nowhere outside of dwelling in the painful human need to be known and loved. Some genuinely incredible set pieces in this that rival the best of ITYSL. A great midnight madness movie because you start to feel just as delirious as its main character even though I think it could have gone further with its discomfort. But the real magic of this thing is that if you were to just read a summary of it with no context, you’d think it’s the saddest film ever made. Love that it’s basically shot like a David Fincher film with occasional circle wipe transitions. B

  A film that has gone criminally overlooked this year but it's not terribly hard to understand why. So inaccessible and harrowing I could never in good conscience recommend this to anyone I know. From its very first frame to its last this filled with such a profound sense of physical discomfort that still, even hours after seeing it, I cannot shake. But this is the first film in quite some time that I think I could honestly describe as challenging. It’s like Kulumbegashvili is blind folding you and daring you to feel your way down a dark corridor. Exposing but never reveling in the inconsolable oppression of it’s world (and it’s camera). Meaningful miserablism. A

  The Last Temptations of Ethan Hunt Exactly what I wanted out of an alleged last Mission: Impossible film and a huge W for people like me who personally dig the more meditative and existential elements of what Cruise/McQ are shooting for. The deck is stacked so absurdly and convolutedly firm against Hunt and his merry crew that even when you know this will probably all turn out fine they have you sweaty and on the edge of your seat picking hairs out of your head from anxiety. Huge props to McQ who, even with this epic runtime, constantly keeps this beast moving through war rooms, frozen tundras, sunken submarines and digital hiveminds with some of the snappiest and dialed-in cutting I’ve ever seen. He believes in our pre-built trust and love for these characters and keeps this at an almost elemental register as Ethan reconciles his choices and devotions with a fucking techno-god while committing clinically insane acts. I wrote in my most recent Fallout write-up that its finale was...

  No. 8 - Mission: Impossinle III No. 7 - Mission: Impossible II No.6 - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol No. 5 - Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning No. 4 - Mission: Impossible - Fallout No. 3 - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning No. 2 - Mission: Impossible No.1 - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

We've maybe never been more back. Cannot undersell the amount of joy that was just pumping through my veins as I got hurdled through the 4DX theater last night. Stein and Lipovsky just get this franchise and WB gave them some serious money to make the most hilariously cruel film about familial trauma ever. I'll always prefer practical gore to a lot of the digital blur that's present here but there's an elevated slapstick quality to this that helps it. The nu-metal grunge is traded in for something a bit more overtly cartoonish and, obviously, it's paid off because the filmmakers know what we're drooling for and they keep coyly teasing it out in surprisingly new ways. B+

  A bizarre and deeply uninteresting piece of self-flagellation/fellation that is like 95% first act and 5% mind-numbing climax. Shults is on a herculean task to elevate this to something moving or exciting and damnit he got close to making me think he’d get there. Unfortunately, no amount of formal swinging for the fences can help something that is fundamentally a whole lotta nothing. Would seriously be a career ender for anyone not currently on the highest grossing tour in NA for 2025. Just embarrassing for Abel. At least Ortega showed up for work! D-