Category: Reviews

Reviews of movies, television, games, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

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Review: ‘Schmigadoon!’ is hilarious, fun, and clearly made by people who love musicals

Schmigadoon!

Here’s a true fact: I grew up watching musicals. I spent a lot of time at my grandmothers house when I was a kid and she had lots of them on VHS. It is my heartfelt belief that she loved them, but it was probably also that they were super long and could keep us distracted for hours at a time. Anyway, the point is that I have seen a lot of the classic musicals and my appreciation for the musical continues to this day.

So it is easy to see why I really like AppleTV+’s new series Schmigadoon!, which features two modern day characters dropped into the middle of a classic 1940s musical.

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Review: ‘Monsters at Work’ is exactly the continuation this franchise needs

Monsters at Work

Ok, this is where I make a confession: I’ve never really liked Monsters Inc. I get why the people who love it love it, but I never have. I never watched Monsters University because the world doesn’t hold a lot of interest for me.

When I heard about Monsters at Work I thought that television might actually be the perfect place for a franchise like this. A workplace comedy about monsters in the laugh factory is probably the best possible way to explore these characters and this world. It turns out that’s probably true, even if it’s not for me.

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Review: ‘Fear Street Part One: 1994’ is a superfun, 90s inspired teen slasher

FEAR STREET PART 1: 1994

There are many things you could say about movies and media from the 90s, but one thing that can’t be denied is that the teen slasher went through something of a golden age. There are too many to list but suffice to say that if 90s teen horror is your jam, then Fear Street Part One: 1994 was made specifically for you. If you happen to like fun movies, then it was also made for you.

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Review: ‘Black Widow’ is a great, character-driven action-adventure

Black Widow

Marvel Studios has become an unstoppable cultural behemoth. Under normal circumstances, their films routinely make a billion dollars at the box office, the kind of money that every other studio on the planet has been chasing ever since the 2012’s The Avengers proved that the interconnected universe of films is a thing that could work.

It’s a shame that these aren’t normal circumstances then, because with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic pushing Black Widow –the film so many fans have been waiting for for years– into a hybrid release, it probably won’t make a billion dollars at the box office. To be clear: that’s a shame because it’s excellent.

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Review: ‘F9’ is ridiculous, but knows its audience

F9

I feel like writing this review might be a little redundant. This is the tenth film in this franchise, so if you’re not on board with the fambly at this point, I’m not sure you ever will be. The franchise shifted from “people who drive good” to “international super spies” over the last few films, and this one continues the cycle of one-upmanship with a trip to space.

Yes, they go to space in this one, so it’s an apt comparison when I say that this might be their Moonraker moment when they finally abandon all pretence of realism. Please note: I like Moonraker.

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Review: ‘Good On Paper’ is ok in practice

Good on Paper

A woman walks through an airport complaining to a friend on the phone about being in the security line for 45 minutes because the woman ahead of her lost her boarding pass. “Who loses their boarding pass between check-in and security?” Then, as she reaches her gate, a handsome man hands her a piece of paper. “You dropped this,” he says as he hands her own boarding pass. This is the meet-cute in Good on Paper, a film which follows standup comedy Amanda (Iliza Shlesinger) as she embarks on a relationship with a man who seems too good to be true.

Written by and starring Shlesinger and directed by Kimmy Gatewood, the films seem primed to tell a story unlike what we’ve seen before, but while the intent is noble, the execution is only fine.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘False Positive’ is a suitably creepy thriller with a scene stealing performance from Pierce Brosnan

False Positive

It’s never fair when a new film is compared to a classic, but that’s what I am going to do with False Positive. While this film cribs from many others, it is perhaps most obviously an homage to Rosemary’s Baby. They’re both films in which a young woman gets pregnant but not all is what it seems, and the array of slightly odd characters surrounding her life are clearly not telling her the whole truth.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain’ investigates the life and death of an icon

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain

Celebrity deaths are strange. Many people feel connected to celebrities for many reasons, and each one affects us differently. Anthony Bourdain affected a great many people. The fast-talking bad boy of the culinary world, the man who spent 200 plus days per year travelling to show us the world we lived in, did not seem the type to take his own life. Yet, he did, and we are left with no answers.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain does not promise you those answers, as they are unknowable. What it does do is examine the life of a man who took everything he did as far as he could take it. A man whose propensity for speaking fast and frankly about his whole life, demons and all, made him an icon.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘Love Spreads’ is a difficult watch about difficult people, with a couple of great performances

Love Spreads

The process of writing music can be a difficult one. I can’t relate, but what I can relate to is writers’ block. It can be maddening, whether you’re staring at a blank sheet of paper for hours or doing everything you can to avoid that staring. This is one of the core components of Love Spreads, a film about a band that heads to a remote studio to write and record their sophomore album. Of course, it’s hard to record anything when your lead singer and songwriter doesn’t can’t bring herself to write.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘The Novice’ is a searing portrait of obsession

The Novice

“You finished first. Why’d you take it twice?”

This simple question asked of –but not answered by– the main character of The Novice might tell you all you need to know about her. In the films opening scenes, she is sitting at a desk, chewed up pencil in hand, finishing a test for the second time because she is cannot let herself be anything other than the best at what she does. Make no mistake, dear reader, this is not a story of admirable ambition but rather a story of obsession, the lengths one will go to because of it, and the effect one might have on those around them.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘Werewolves Within’ is fine. It’s fine. It’s totally fine, team.

Werewolves Within

There are few things more frustrating than getting yourself hyped up for something and then not connecting with it. It’s a perfectly human thing to do; we love the things we love, and when something looks like a thing we might love, it’s natural to get excited about it. This is the case with myself and Werewolves Within, a movie based on a game where you sit in a room with a bunch of people and one of them is a werewolf. This premise, the single location mystery, is exactly my jam.

Now, the opening paragraph of this review might lead you to think that the movie is bad and let me stress right now that it isn’t. It has a lot going for it, including two fun performances and some excellent direction, and a few genuine laughs, but not enough for me to love it. In fact, barely enough for me to like it.

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Tribeca 2021 Review: ‘No Running’ aims high but misses the mark

No Running

Science Fiction is the perfect conduit for social commentary. From Star Trek to Get Out, placing a theme within heightened circumstances is a good way to make it more relatable and universal and easier to reach a wider audience. No Running, the directorial debut from Delmar Washington, sets its sights on this goal. While its aim is high, it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

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Review: ‘Luca’ is all about the power of friendship

Luca

Disney and Pixar have a long track record of making movies about fish out of water characters. You know the story, a shy or sheltered child who longs to explore meets another child who is out in the world and shows them things they could never imagine until they have a falling out, only to reconcile and have a happy ending.

Luca, the latest film from Pixar, is very much a film that, in the broad strokes, you’ve seen before. In the details though, you are going to find that Pixar warmth, charm, and heart.

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Review: ‘Fatherhood’ has a heartfelt performance from Kevin Hart

Fatherhood

Fatherhood starts with an unimaginable loss. Matt (Kevin Hart) and Liz (Deborah Ayorinde) are in the hospital to give birth to their first child. The birth goes well, but soon after, Liz suddenly dies from a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs, that leaves Matt devastated and alone to raise his newborn daughter Maddy. Combined with pressure from his mother in law, everything about life looks difficult and bleak, but Matt resolves to raise his child the way that Liz would have wanted.

The opening scenes, cutting back and forth from Maddie’s birth to Liz’s funerals, let you know exactly what kind of film this will be and that Kevin Hart –a man known for being funny– has some dramatic chops, too.

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