BREAKING NEWS: CRITICS DISMISS CARPENTER’S ‘THE THING’ AS “INSTANT JUNK”BREAKING NEWS: ‘THE THING’ AND ‘BLADE RUNNER’ BOTH BOMB ON SAME WEEKENDBREAKING NEWS: KUBRICK NOMINATED FOR WORST DIRECTOR FOR ‘THE SHINING’BREAKING NEWS: ‘FRIDAY THE 13TH’ UP FOR WORST PICTURE AT FIRST-EVER RAZZIESBREAKING NEWS: ‘HOCUS POCUS’ FLOPS IN JULY; EBERT GIVES IT ONE STARBREAKING NEWS: HARPER’S CALLS ‘TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE’ “A VILE LITTLE PIECE OF SICK CRAP”BREAKING NEWS: ‘THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT’ NOMINATED FOR WORST PICTUREBREAKING NEWS: STEPHEN KING HATES KUBRICK’S ‘THE SHINING’BREAKING NEWS: CRITICS DISMISS CARPENTER’S ‘THE THING’ AS “INSTANT JUNK”BREAKING NEWS: ‘THE THING’ AND ‘BLADE RUNNER’ BOTH BOMB ON SAME WEEKENDBREAKING NEWS: KUBRICK NOMINATED FOR WORST DIRECTOR FOR ‘THE SHINING’BREAKING NEWS: ‘FRIDAY THE 13TH’ UP FOR WORST PICTURE AT FIRST-EVER RAZZIESBREAKING NEWS: ‘HOCUS POCUS’ FLOPS IN JULY; EBERT GIVES IT ONE STARBREAKING NEWS: HARPER’S CALLS ‘TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE’ “A VILE LITTLE PIECE OF SICK CRAP”BREAKING NEWS: ‘THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT’ NOMINATED FOR WORST PICTUREBREAKING NEWS: STEPHEN KING HATES KUBRICK’S ‘THE SHINING’
FILM REVIEWS · FEATURES · FESTIVALS · INTERVIEWS Tuesday, October 27, 2026
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VOD · SUNDANCE ’26
‘THE MUSICAL’ Is Elite Crash Out Cringe Comedy

‘THE MUSICAL’ Is Elite Crash Out Cringe Comedy

Now available at home: The Musical is available to rent or buy on digital (Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home) as of October 20, 2026. Originally reviewed at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Doug Leibowitz (Will Brill) is an ostensibly mild-mannered but deeply disillusioned middle school theater teacher and once maybe promising playwright. When...

SUNDANCE ’26 REVIEW
Sundance ‘26: ‘CLOSURE’ Is an Electrifying, Devastating Search for Meaning in Loss

Sundance ‘26: ‘CLOSURE’ Is an Electrifying, Devastating Search for Meaning in Loss

Shot with cinematic flair, Michał Marczak’s Polish-language documentary Closure is a rattling search and rescue: both for an actual missing kid and the soul of the father searching. Following the disappearance of his teenage son Chris, Daniel diligently scours the Vistula River, hoping to either recover his son’s corpse or uncover some hint that he...

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

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

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....

SUNDANCE ’25 REVIEW
Sundance ’25: Disquieting Stalker Thriller ‘LURKER’ Lets a Fox into the Henhouse

Sundance ’25: Disquieting Stalker Thriller ‘LURKER’ Lets a Fox into the Henhouse

When an obsessive fan infiltrates the inner circle of his favorite up-and-coming pop star, Oliver (Archie Madekwe)—a single-name moniker à la Prince and Beyoncé—under the guise of being an unbiased outsider, an unsettling game of cat and mouse with far-reaching implications begins. Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) sleepwalks through a lackluster existence—working a dead-end retail job, mooching...

SUNDANCE ’24 REVIEW
Sundance ‘24: ‘DÌDI’ Comes Of Age in Observant, Rude Dramedy 

Sundance ‘24: ‘DÌDI’ Comes Of Age in Observant, Rude Dramedy 

In his cringe-tastic treatise on middle school awkwardness Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham captured the universal horror of growing up through the specificity of Elsie Fisher’s Kayla. Her oily identity crisis effortlessly evoked our own transitory 13-year-old state, subjecting us to the lost-but-not-forgotten dread of first crushes, online interactions, and seething parental conflict. With Dìdi, Oscar-nominated...

SUNDANCE ’24 REVIEW
Sundance ‘24: Buzzy and Mind-Bending ‘IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE’ Pulls Off a Terrific Magic Trick

Sundance ‘24: Buzzy and Mind-Bending ‘IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE’ Pulls Off a Terrific Magic Trick

Eight former college friends reunite the evening before their friend’s wedding to play a heady game with far-reaching consequences. Such is the set-up for Greg Jardin’s utterly transfixing debut feature, a precisely-constructed explosion of creativity that smashes together the college reunion comedy, puzzle box thrillers, and a Shane Carruth-esque level of science-fiction precision. Skillfully paced...

SUNDANCE ’24 REVIEW
Sundance ’24: ‘HOW TO HAVE SEX’ and the Obliteration of Carefree Youth

Sundance ’24: ‘HOW TO HAVE SEX’ and the Obliteration of Carefree Youth

When three British teenage friends, Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis), abscond for a weekend holiday of hard partying, thumping clubs, and fast sex, they find that their freewheeling existence is more fragile than imagined. Tara, or “Taz” when she’s in full party animal mode, is the rowdy, raunchy heart and...

SUNDANCE ’22 REVIEW
Sundance ’22: ‘CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH’ Channels ‘The Graduate’ for Zoomer Generation

Sundance ’22: ‘CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH’ Channels ‘The Graduate’ for Zoomer Generation

In life, one always has the option of just being nice. With the endearing SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Shithouse – an overtly sensitive college-campus drama that riffs on the sub-genre of conversation-driven romance films like Before Midnight –  and now with Cha Cha Real Smooth, writer/director/star Cooper Raif has proven this to be his...