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Nickel Boys: A Masterpiece I Can’t Watch Again
Nickel Boys is one of the best films of this winter season and Awards season, and it deserves all the accolades it’s receiving.
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Kraven the Hunter: A Retro Comic Book Fever Dream You Can’t Look Away From
As we now know from this week, we’re entering the end of the Spider-Man Supervillain universe movie, and we finally have one of the most absurd – Kraven the Hunter.
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Skeleton Crew: A Fresh Star Wars Tale That’s Equal Parts Nostalgia and New Horizons
I’ll be honest with you: I’m afraid for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. I’m fearful about how it will be received or if a group of people will try to tank it before most get to…
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James Gunn’s ‘Creature Commandos’ Turns Monster Misfits into Heroes in a Stellar DC Debut
The new DC Universe, under the leadership of James Gunn, begins this week with the animated series The Creature Commandos.
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Maria: A Beautifully Acted Tale of Art, Addiction, and a Diva’s Final Days
Angelina Jolie’s new starring role as Maria Callas, a famous opera singer who passed away in the 1970s, is a quirky biopic.
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Moana 2: Stunning Animation Elevates a Familiar but Entertaining Adventure
I think Moana 2 coming to theaters was a wise choice and a good elevation of the filmmakers’ hard work that I think most audiences will love and enjoy and rewatch for years to come.
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Gladiator II: Denzel Washington Steals the Show in Ridley Scott’s Sprawling Epic
So it’s kind of wild that we are getting a sequel to a film that was released twenty-four years ago. I know it happens, but did we really want and desire a sequel to Gladiator?
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Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez: A Musical Journey Through Crime, Identity, and Change
If you have the opportunity to see Emilia Pérez in the theater, go. The film will be worth watching on Netflix at home as well.
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‘Red One’ Delivers Holiday Action and 4DX Thrills, But Falls Short on Story
It’s an okay movie, but it can be an experience, and that experience can make fond memories.
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Cross: Aldis Hodge Brings Depth to Alex Cross in a Gripping Prime Video Thriller
Cross is a must-watch on Prime Video this season as it’s one of their best shows in this solid year for the service.
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Conclave: A Tense, Timely Look at Power, Faith, and Politics in the Vatican
When I walked out of Conclave, I instantly knew I just saw one of the best films of the year.
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Juror #2: Clint Eastwood’s Courtroom Thriller Explores Guilt, Justice, and Moral Dilemmas
Is Justice… Justice, or are people just trying to go home no matter what happens to people? I don’t know, but it’s a good film.
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Steve McQueen’s Blitz: A Fresh Take on WWII with Breathtaking Visuals and Deep Humanity
Blitz is a surprise excellence in cinema for the year and from Apple. If you can, go see it in the theater.
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Mr. Crocket: Hulu’s Creepy New Horror Villain Mixes 90s Nostalgia with Supernatural Terror
Mr. Crocket is a good Halloween horror movie and a concept to start a cool Hulu franchise if it’s given the opportunity.
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‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Is Equal Parts Trash and Treasure
Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie created one of the most significant new supervillains of the era – Venom.
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![Father-Son Duo Shine in the Hilarious New Sitcom ‘Poppa’s House’ [Ep 1]](https://riot-us.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/poppashouse_s1_horizontal.jpg)
Father-Son Duo Shine in the Hilarious New Sitcom ‘Poppa’s House’ [Ep 1]
Damon Wayans is back on television! Damon Wayans Jr. is back on television!
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Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ Delivers Grit, Humor, and a Dose of Realism
I think I first heard about Anora in the spring when all the baller critics who got to go to Cannes were talking about it all over Film Twitter, the articles, and Podcasts.
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Pharrell’s Creative Journey Comes to Life in ‘Piece by Piece’, A Delightful Lego-Animated Biopic
It’s hard to be objective in regards to Pharrell Williams.
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Ali Abbasi’s ‘The Apprentice’ Explores the Origins of Donald Trump in a Compelling Character Study
Directed by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, this film follows how Trump as a young man.
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The Joke’s on Us: ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is a Film No One Was Supposed to Enjoy
I guess we should talk about Joker: Folie à Deux, huh?
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The Franchise: HBO’s Sharp Satire Skewers Superhero Movie Madness
After twenty-six years of the modern superhero film and over fifteen years deep in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the way we think of the movie business is entirely different.
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Gremlins: The Wild Batch – A Playful Blend of Humor, Action, and Mystery in Season Two
Gremlins: The Wild Batch is a fun returning series and definitely something kids and adults who give it a shot will enjoy this fall on Max.
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Megan Park’s ‘My Old Ass’ Delivers Laughs and Life Lessons in a Time-Bending Teen Tale
Things never stay the same, and it’s a vital part of growing up and learning that lesson.
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Colin Farrell Shines in ‘The Penguin,’ A Riveting Dive into Gotham’s Crime World
Over the long 85-year history of DC Comics Batman many of his rogues gallery have captivated the public imagination as we journey through Batman’s crusade against crime in Gotham City. While Joker gets a lot…
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‘Dan Da Dan: First Encounter’ Takes Off: A Fresh and Exciting Anime Adaptation That’s Bound to Be a Hit
It was the summer of 2022 when I learned of a new upstart manga blowing up the charts over in Japan from all the different sites I read and checked out to see what was…
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Transformers One: A Vibrant, Animated Reboot That Honors the Classics and Delivers New Thrills
To celebrate the Transformers‘ 40th anniversary, Hasbro looks like it is starting another film franchise with Transformers One. It’s a film that tells another version of the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron and how…
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The Front Room: Brandy Shines in a Darkly Humorous Psychological Horror
I didn’t know what to expect when I saw The Front Room by Sam and Max Eggers from A24, which stars Brandy Norwood, most commonly known as just Brandy. I just wanted to see this…
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Awkward Encounters Turn Sinister in Blumhouse’s Entertaining ‘Speak No Evil’
So Blumhouse just gave me a very entertaining experience at the theater with their new film Speak No Evil. A remake of a Danish film from 2022 starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi &…
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‘His Three Daughters’ Confronts the Pain of Losing a Parent with Poignant Performances and Genuine Emotion
His Three Daughters was a tough film to sit through, and it’s not because of the quality of the film. This film deals with people losing a parent, which is a pretty hard thing to…
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Ali, Crime, and Ambition: ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist’ Is a Must-Watch Miniseries
Ever since I first heard about Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, I’ve been excited to see it. First, I love shows about crimes; it’s from growing up watching Police shows and detective shows on…
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The Killer (2024)
I’m not usually a big fan of remakes of action films, especially ones from other countries like Hong Kong, as they typically lose something as US filmmakers try to reinterpret it for this Western US…
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The Instigators
So Apple has another star-led expensive film that hasn’t been promoted well to the general public. One good thing, though, is that at least the film had a little time in the movie theater for…
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Adult Swim’s Psi Cops Marathon
Later tonight on Adult Swim starting at midnight the network is airing marathon of the series PSI COPS. They’re airing episodes 1 through 8 uninterrupted until 2 AM EST. Here’s the schedule. Psi Cops 8/2…
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Batman: Caped Crusader
It’s hard to review Batman: Caped Crusader for me because, honestly, a new Batman animated series by Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Matt Reeves, Ed Brubaker, and J.J. Abrams is a no-brainer. Just from Bruce Timm,…
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Deadpool and Wolverine – Julian’s Review
All right, Trill Believers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has had some troubles lately with the fans’ feelings overall through some of the shows, some actions by an actor, and just not packing them in the…
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KITE MAN: HELL YEAH! (season 1)
A few years back, I was pretty surprised with the Harley Quinn animated series. That show has a similar tone to Adult Swim shows. Still, with the animation quality you’d expect from a WB animation DC Comics…
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Longlegs
Longlegs – if you don’t know what this is, don’t feel bad; the marketing is very obtuse in trying to reach the public consciousness. I heard fellow critics being very excited about seeing this film…
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Fly Me to the Moon
Fly Me To The Moon is a weird film to me. It’s a film that takes what is a clear conspiracy theory and then wraps it up in a cute period romantic comedy. I find…
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MaXXXine
(This review will have spoilers for Ti West’s X.) Ti West just gave A24 its first trilogy and franchise with MaXXXine. The third film in the series is a direct sequel to the first film,…
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Despicable Me 4
I never thought Despicable Me would be such a major animated franchise rivaling Disney and Dreamworks in the cinematic landscape. The weird-shaped man voiced by Steve Carell, who is a villain who becomes a father…
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Donald Glover’s Bando Stone and the New World trailer released
Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, just released his new film Bando Stone & the New World trailer. The trailer first appeared earlier this weekend on the IMAX showings of A Quiet Place: Day One. From…
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Kinds of Kindness
So eight months after his hit and Academy Award-winning film Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos is back in the theater with what will be the wildest film of summer 2024 – Kinds of Kindness. Now, unlike…
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A Quiet Place: Day One
So A Quiet Place, the surprise survival horror film franchise that exploded onto the world in 2018, starring Emily Blunt and directed and co-written by John Krasinski, took audiences on a ride. The anticipated sequel…
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Batman: Caped Crusader trailer and new stills
Now, I don’t usually do this – posting news, but it’s not every day or shoot, even every year you get a new show, Batman: The Animated Series from Bruce Timm and James Tucker. Batman:…
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The Bikeriders
So The Bikeriders is a film that I didn’t expect to like before I saw it. The reason was the talk months ago about it, which seemed to be some road trip film with some…
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Ultraman: Rising
Ultraman – one of the most known Tokusatsu and Superhero characters from Japan known all over the globe. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya after co-creating Godzilla, Ultra Q, and later, the titular Ultraman is a hero…
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Inside Out 2 – Julian’s Review
I don’t want to start this off with sentiments like Pixar is back because Lightyear didn’t work for many when it was released. It also wasn’t their fault that four of their films were directly…
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The Acolyte -Episodes 3 and 4 review
So, while Sherin focused on the first two episodes of her review of The Acolyte, I’m going to focus more on the second two episodes – episodes 3 and 4. I won’t spoil much, but…
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The Watchers
If folks have an issue with nepotism in the show business, this film The Watchers isn’t going to help quell those issues. The supernatural horror film is directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, who is the…
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Young Woman and the Sea
Young Woman and the Sea tells the story of Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, a real person from the early 20th century who was a champion swimmer and the first woman to swim the English Channel. This…
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My Adventures with Superman season 2 premiere review
One of my favorite shows from last year is Back – My Adventures with Superman, the Adult Swim animated DC superhero series with a modern retelling of the early days of Superman and the budding…
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The Garfield Movie
Garfield was one of my favorite comic strips growing up. It was one of the first titles I read consistently, especially by going to the library and checking out the strip collections, as there were…
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IF
John Krasinski’s new film IF has always been quite peculiar to me as I couldn’t get a handle on what this film is and who it is for. Now, so that people don’t think I’m…
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Back to Black
It’s wild how something that used to seem so recent is actually a long time ago. Time moves very, very fast at times, even when the art and culture you love feel frozen in amber.…
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Star Wars: Tales of the Empire
In the Disney Era of Star Wars, since they got rid of the earlier expanded universe, it seems those in charge, specifically Dave Filoni, have taken upon the task of two things. One, curate what…
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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
It can be said that the feat of rebooting old franchises in a new era is quite challenging, and there have been many failures over the years for many reasons. It’s surprising that the 2011…
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The Fall Guy
I might be one of the only people under fifty years old who has been excited about The Fall Guy and knows that it’s a movie that is a reboot of the television show. The…
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Civil War
From my point of view, Alex Garland is one of the newer mantle holders of cinematic Science Fiction and Dystopic fiction. After writing 28 Days Later and Sunshine, two 2000s-era bangers, he came into his…
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Monkey Man
Like many, I was introduced to Dev Patel as Jamal in the film Slumdog Millionaire, the lovable main character on the Indian version of the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as he…
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The First Omen
I’m not always the biggest fan of horror films. For me, horror only works two ways: extraordinarily effective or utterly hilarious. I’m not really the best person to see these films in the theater because…
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Wicked Little Letters
Wicked Little Letters, a story that takes place in 1920s England, is very much a topical story to me. While many things aren’t the same a hundred years apart, this story is about a person…
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Problemista
I’m clueless about Julio Torres, the screenwriter and director of the new A24 film Problemista. From the trailer I saw last year back when it was supposed to come out in 2023, it just seemed…
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Julian’s Picks for the 96th Oscars
Alright, folks, it’s time for another Oscars ceremony, and like many other film critics, here are my picks on what’s going to win this Sunday, March 10th, 2024.
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Star Wars: The Bad Batch (season 3)
So, The Bad Batch is back with its third and final season. It snuck up on me even as it was announced that it was coming. Now, I’ll be honest: I fell off a bit…
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The Vince Staples Show
The Vince Staples Show follows the titular Vince Staples living his life as a rapper and his adventures and trials as a decently successful and known rapper in Southern California. While this sounds pretty basic,…
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Mr. & Mrs. Smith
You know, like most, I was pretty surprised that Donald Glover’s next project on TV starring was a TV series connected to a film from 2005 when stars were the driving force to see a…
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Love & WWE: Bianca & Montez
For those who don’t know, I’m a big wrestling person. I enjoy the serialized week-to-week storytelling, along with Fightin’, which is the best type of soap opera. And Soap is what it is, and it’s…
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The Underdoggs
The Underdoggs, the new film by Charles Stone III starring Snoop Dogg, feels like a Black comedy from a previous era. A comedy greatly inspired by films like The Bad News Bears and The Mighty…
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The Book of Clarence
I had to sit with this film for a little while, The Book of Clarence. Much like Jaymes Samuel, I grew up watching those cinematic biblical epics from the mid-20th century. Watching The Ten Commandments…
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The Beekeeper
Twenty Twenty-Four has just started, and David Ayer & Jason Statham are out here giving action movie fans a pure banger. Let’s just get to the plot in pure hyperbole. Jason Statham, the transporter, is…
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Mean Girls (2024)
I’ve gotten to the point where I know I’m old when they are doing remakes of movies I saw as a tax-paying adult. Mean Girls came out in Two Thousand and Four y’all. The story…
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True Detective: Night Country
Ten years ago, back when media was simpler than what we deal with now, HBO debuted a series that literally had me in a chokehold – True Detective by newcomer Nic Pizzolatto and Cary Joji…
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Saltburn
Watching Saltburn was an experience as I’m not entirely familiar with Emerald Fennell’s work overall as an actress or filmmaker. This film, one where a young man, Oliver Quick, played by Barry Keoghan, who has…
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The Color Purple (2023)
I still remember when I first saw The Color Purple (1985). I was a young kid, and it was the first time the film was to be shown on television. I could be off, but…
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What If…? (season 2)
So What If…? is back with season 2, the animated series that does offshoot stories of the MCU in a computer-animated Disney-styled look. Inspired by the first two volumes of the comics series from Marvel…
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Aquaman and the lost kingdom
I guess it’s time to say goodbye to this version of the DC Universe in film. The first attempt at an interconnected movie universe started with Man of Steel in 2013. An experiment that was…
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Grand Theft Auto VI trailer released
A decade after the release of the last entry of the series, Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto has returned. Initially planned for the trailer to debut on the morning of December 5th, 2023, Rockstar put…
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All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a film that, while confusing me at times, stuck with me for days after. It’s a film that doesn’t follow what most expect on how a story is…
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Cypher
Tierra Whack is one of the current era’s more exciting and talented new Rap recording artists. A woman artist in a very unwelcoming field to women, most of the time, she’s currently blazing a path…
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Candy Cane Lane
It’s the Christmas season, so now we’re in the wave of holiday movies, especially on all the many streaming services and basic cable channels. Amazon MGM has one entry themselves, Candy Cane Lane partnering Eddie…
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Woo boy, are we Godzilla fans living in some good times for Godzilla projects. Not only do we have the Legendary Western Godzilla (along with King Kong) starring MonsterVerse, we have had Netflix animated movies,…
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Napoleon
We have two octogenarians out here in the modern cinema landscape. With Scorsese taking up a lot of the mind space because of superhero movie fans’ issues with his feelings about the MCU and Superhero…
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Wish
So Disney is celebrating 100 years this year. What’s funny is that it might be in the most tumultuous years in its history, between the writers’ and actors’ strikes happening simultaneously and the CEO becoming…
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
While the huge phase of the YA novel series adaptations dominating the movie theater has moved on to the possible falling times of the Superhero era, we get a new Hunger Games film out of…
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Rap Sh!t season 2
Rap music is in a very interesting and, at times, troubling place this year. In a year where core features of the sounds of current rap are heard from other popular American music genres, it’s…
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The Marvels – Julian’s Review
Well, it’s almost been five years since Captain Marvel hit theaters, and since then, she has made some appearances, most notably Avengers: Endgame. The first film made over 1 billion dollars at the global box…
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Quiz Lady
Quiz Lady is a buddy comedy starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as two estranged sisters who must come together to help deal with their mother’s gambling debts. Sounds simple enough, right? The twist in this…
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Five Nights at Freddy’s
Five Nights at Freddy’s is the newest horror movie from Blumhouse and the latest video game adaptation in a year full of them. Based on a point-and-click survival horror game that built a huge following…
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The Holdovers
I really didn’t expect to get a holiday film in October. I guess I could complain about the extension of the holiday season into the warm parts of autumn and hating on pumpkin spice, but…
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The Burial
I must say it’s wild for me just how much streaming has changed the movie business and how we see what we see. While there is so much noise about concert films making a big…
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FOE
I didn’t know what I would be walking into when I sat down in my theater seat to see this new film from Amazon/MGM called FOE. See, after all these years reviewing films, I often…
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The Exorcist: Believer
It’s hard to try and make a new movie in a long-standing and beloved franchise. Especially when the first movie is a classic, and especially in the horror genre. Then you have something like The…
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Loki: Season 2 – Julian’s Review
Well, we have our first MCU show to reach a second season – Loki. Other than WandaVision, Loki was a favorite among many, but not much for me. See, for me, Loki season one started…
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Fair Play
Fair Play is a new film by Chloe Domont starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich. Fair Play is a throwback, a return to the erotic thriller genre, something that used to have films out all…
