Jonah Hauer-King Archives - Silver Screen Riot

A House of Dynamite from Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award-winning creator of such American political thrillers as The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and the more uneven Detroit, is a taut, ensemble-driven thriller that wants to hold a mirror up to the global powder keg we’re all currently living in. It’s smartly cast, technically precise, and structured around a compelling premise: what happens in the wake of a rogue nuclear missile headed for U.S. soil? And yet, despite its ambition to provoke, A House of Dynamite fumbles the landing. Or more accurately, it refuses to make landfall at all, leaving audiences with more questions than answers. That may be the point – being intentionally provocative here seems the modus operandi – but it results in less than satisfactory storytelling. Read More

A legacy sequel nobody asked for, reviving a three-decade-old franchise that, let’s be honest, was never exactly beloved to begin with, 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer is generic modern slasher fare, but also kinda better than it has any right to be as an IKWYDLS fourquel. It slightly exceeds the low bar you’d expect, but not by enough to call it a top-to-bottom success. In a bit of (presumably knowing) irony, this sequel owes much to Scream (2022), just as the original was clearly cribbing from Scream (1996). You could argue the similarities between the franchises are coincidental, but like the skeptical cops of Southport, North Carolina, I’m not sure I’m buying it. The two franchises have been linked for decades, both helping to revitalize the slasher subgenre in the ’90s, earning a few sequels, and inspiring short-run TV spin-offs. It’s just that every time out, Scream had IKWYDLS beat. That still holds true today. Read More