Gothic Vampire Epic ‘SINNERS’ is the Movie of the Year

April 15, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O'Connell, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Lola Kirke, Ludwig Göransson, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton., Omar Benson Miller, Ryan Coogler, Sinners, Wunmi Mosaku Leave a comment

There’s an ironic poetry in the fact that it took Ryan Coogler walking away from the MCU — and Marvel quietly shelving Blade — for a Coogler-made vampire film to just appear out of nowhere. And thank God it did, because Sinners is the early contender for best movie of the year. A Gothic Southern vampire tale layered with the legacy of Jim Crow and pulsing to the rhythm of the blues, Sinners is a soulful, thoughtful, sexy, funny, riveting piece of big-ish budget studio filmmaking that actually has something to say. And says it with bloody fanfare. It’s the rare work of a genuine auteur embracing genre thrills while coloring outside the lines of what is expected within that genre, enriching the narrative with real history, spirited music, and undeniable soul. The real thrill of Sinners is in how it balances traditional vampire movie pleasures with embedded deeper ideas, making them textual rather than ornamental. Read More

Overwhelming ‘WARFARE’ A Gonzo Descent into Garland’s Hellish Sandbox

April 10, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged A24, Adain Bradley, Alex Garland, Allon Reich, Andrew Macdonald, Charles Melton, Cosmo Jarvis, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, David J. Thompson, Evan Holtzman, Fin Oates, Finn Bennett, Henry Zaga, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, Matthew Penry-Davey, Michael Gandolfini, Noah Centineo, Peter Rice, Ray Mendoza, Taylor John Smith, Warfare, Will Poulter 1 Comment

Warfare, the immersive Iraq War survival thriller from Navy SEAL veteran and first-time filmmaker Ray Mendoza and co-writer/co-director Alex Garland, is a blisteringly intense procedural experience. On one hand, it’s an incredibly effective piece of transportive filmmaking—one that leans into both the numbing banality of war plans and its most barbaric excesses. Told through a real-time, boots-on-the-ground POV, the film drops us alongside a platoon of Navy SEALs tasked with infiltrating a seemingly innocuous position and establishing a sniper nest. That’s all the context we’re given. No grander mission, no tie-in to some greater geopolitical scaffolding—just a squad, a target, and a whole lot of code words. Which may very well be the point: a war without meaning, with boys playing at war. Read More

‘DEATH OF A UNICORN’ a Satirical Creature Feature that Beats the Dead Horse

March 25, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged A24, Alex Scharfman, Death of a Unicorn, Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Richard E. Grant, Téa Leoni, Will Poulter 3 Comments

When uptight compliance attorney Elliot (Paul Rudd) drags his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) on an out-of-state business trip, what was meant to be a major career opportunity takes a turn for the absurd: they hit a unicorn. In a moment of panic (or probably just impatience), Elliot bludgeons the moaning mystical creature to death and stuffs its bleeding corpse into the rental’s trunk. But not before Ridley touches its horn, forming a vague, E.T.-style bond with the mythical beast. Read More

‘MAGAZINE DREAMS’ Showcases Jonathan Majors at His Best — And Most Frightening

March 17, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Elena Hurst, Elijah Bynum., Haley Bennett, Harriet Sansom Harris, Harrison Page, Jonathan Majors, Magazine Dreams, Mike O’Hearn, Taylour Paige 2 Comments

In Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams, Jonathan Majors plays a roided-up rage monster who hurts those unfortunate enough to cross his warpath. I’ll let you do the association to real life events on your own here. It’s a shame, truly, that Majors, who was convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend before being swiftly ejected from the MCU, is a person who has done objectively bad things. Because he’s also an objectively great actor. His turn in Magazine Dreams—as an emotionally-isolated, physically imposing bodybuilder with frighteningly low IQ and EQ—would be among the best performances of any year. The guy can act. But watching him embody this volatile, dangerous man, knowing what he did off-screen, makes for an alarmingly uncomfortable experience, as it is alarmingly difficult to separate the art from the artist in key moments.

‘LAST BREATH’ an Effective Exercise in Sustained Underwater Tension

February 27, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alex Parkinson, Cliff Curtis, Finn Cole, Last Breath, Out in Theaters, Simu Liu, Woody Harrelson 3 Comments

In 2019, director Alex Parkinson released Last Breath, a documentary chronicling diver Chris Lemons’ first descent 330 feet beneath the North Sea. After days of breathing a specialized gas mixture to acclimate to the brutally inhospitable conditions awaiting him, Chris is about to take on one of the world’s most dangerous jobs: repairing miles of pipeline on the ocean floor—the very infrastructure that, we’re told, keeps regular Joe Schmoes warm through the winter. He and his crew expect to be cut off from the air-breathing world for a full 28-day cycle: a few days of acclimatization, long underwater shifts divided among three teams of three, and a final three-day decompression period. But rough seas and a sudden power outage turn their routine work tour into a desperate underwater rescue when Chris’ umbilical cable is severed, leaving him trapped 100 meters below the surface—without enough oxygen to survive until help arrives. Now, in 2025, Parkinson returns to the same harrowing tale, this time adapting Last Breath as a feature film.

‘THE MONKEY’: Oz Perkins’ B-Movie Goes Bananas

February 18, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adam Scott, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Elijah Wood, Out in Theaters, Oz Perkins, Stephen King, Tatiana Maslany, The Monkey, Theo James 1 Comment

A ceramic drumming monkey (don’t call it a toy) wields the awesome power of life and death – though mostly death – in Oz Perkins’ madcap grindhouse horror movie, The Monkey. A wickedly sardonic midnighter-comedy with its tongue planted firmly in simian cheek, Perkins’ follow-up to his 2024 cult hit Longlegs sees the celebrated genre director fully embracing B-movie sensibilities—leaning into excessive gore and absurdist storytelling to deliver a shockingly barbaric yet gleefully silly fable about the dangers of wielding fate’s cruel blade. Read More

‘CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD’ Heralds a Bold New Era of Superhero Sameness

February 12, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anthony Mackie, Captain America: Brave New World, Carl Lumbly, Dalan Musson, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito, Harrison Ford, Julius Onah, Liv Tyler, Malcolm, Malcolm Spellman, Marvel, Matthew Orton, MCU, Rob Edwards, Shira Haas, Spellman, Tim Blake Nelson, Xosha Roquemore 8 Comments

Much has been written about the death and resurrection of the Marvel Cinematic Universe—and the wider superhero subgenre writ large. Fatigue! Fanfare! Box office records! In both the red and the black. The story has been told from every angle, re-examined with fresh eyes upon every new theatrical release, trailer drop, or scrap of casting news. And so the discourse around the superhero film has become just as stale and beaten to death as the genre itself. To its credit, Captain America: Brave New World, directed by Julius Onah and co-written by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, and Dalan Musson, at least postures at doing something differently. With a fresh(ish) face donning the iconic mantle, Marvel (kinda, maybe) actually passed the torch—only to mostly fumble the handoff, failing to make it mean much of anything. Read More

Sundance ‘25: ‘IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU’ – Rose Byrne is Remarkable in This Maternal Panic Attack of a Movie

February 3, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged A24, ASAP Rocky, Christian Slater, Conan O'Brien, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mary Bronstein, Rose Byrne, Sundance 2025 2 Comments

Two hours of uncut existential dread and a career-best turn from Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You from writer-director Mary Bronstein is an uncomfortably intimate character study of a mother unraveling under the weight of her daughter’s medical issues and a gaping ceiling leak threatening to drown what’s left of her sanity. Byrne has long mastered the art of self-loathing and performative pleasantries (see her Apple TV+ series Physical for a masterclass), but she’s operating on another level here. As Linda, she’s barely holding together her personal and professional life in this cortisol-spiking, secondhand-stress-inducing domestic drama. Read More

Sundance ‘25: ‘THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND’ A Crowd-Pleasing Folk Charmer

February 3, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Carey Mulligan, James Griffiths, Sundance, Sundance 2025, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Tim Key, Tom Basden 1 Comment

It’s been a decade since the folk duo McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) broke up. But if Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric, well-meaning, and possibly unhinged wealthy bachelor, has anything to do with it, their reunion is imminent. He’s determined to bring them together for one last performance—both as a personal passion project and a tribute to his late wife, their biggest fan. What follows is a funny, bittersweet, and deeply charming British comedy musical, powered by strong performances and even stronger music. Read More

Sundance ’25: ‘OH HI! – A Rom-Com with a Body Count?

February 2, 2025 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Geraldine Viswanathan, Logan Lerman, Molly Gordon, Oh Hi!, Sophie Brooks, Sundance, Sundance 2025 6 Comments

Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman are lovers on a seemingly idyllic upstate weekend outing in writer-director Sophie Brooks’ Oh Hi!. What begins as a disgustingly cute romantic getaway takes a sharp turn when the nature of their relationship is drawn into question. Despite their easy chemistry and rollicking sex life, Lerman’s Isaac insists on keeping things casual, while Gordon’s Iris yearns for the most meager crumbs of commitment. When he can’t even manage that, she makes a split-second decision to prove they’re meant to be together, though her methods are, let’s say, unconventional. Read More