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Disappointing ‘GLADIATOR II’ Offers Bread and Circus

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When civilization is on the brink of collapse, proffer bread and circus. The entire spectacle of Roman gladiatorial battles was perhaps history’s most extravagant example of distracting the hoi polloi with empty spectacle as the structural integrity of their civilization collapsed around them. At least until the end-stage capitalistic United States came along. So long as bellies are full and minds are lulled by materially empty entertainment, the masses remain appeased. Nearly two millennia later, we very much live in an age of bread and circus (thanks a lot Captain America), and that’s exactly what Ridley Scott offers with his long-awaited sequel, Gladiator II – a film that, despite its supreme spectacle, feels calorically empty and narratively unsatisfying. Read More

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‘ANORA’ A Blistering Anti-Romance That Only Sean Baker Could Make

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An up-and-coming twenty-something adult film star, a scorned Black transgender hooker, a down-on-her-luck Florida mom turning tricks, a well-endowed, washed-up male porn star, a Brooklyn stripper and sex worker—these are the protagonists of Sean Baker’s filmography, brought vividly to life in his uncompromising, deeply empathetic movies. To say he has a type is to state the obvious: the man likes to make movies about people whose work, in one form or another, is sex. And yet his subjects are all so different, so grounded in harsh realities, so uniquely broken, that to lump them together under their professions is perhaps to miss his distinctly humanist approach to storytelling. Through the lens of sex work, Baker crafts stories that reflect modern-day America in all its myriad challenges, where the boot of capitalism presses heavily upon underrepresented, working-class people like Jane (Starlet), Sin-Dee (Tangerine), Halley (The Florida Project), Mikey (Red Rocket), and Anora (Anora), each of whom struggles to find their American Dream in tragic, funny, jaded, and heartbreaking ways. Read More

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‘CONCLAVE’ A Punchy Papal Political Thriller and One of the Best of the Year

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The Pope is dead. Cardinals from across the globe arrive in Rome, ready for an unknown period of sequester and deliberation wherein they must elect the future leader of the Catholic Church. The ceremony, known as a papal conclave, is amongst the most secretive and ancient election processes in the world. The doors and windows are secured, shuttered, and locked. The flow of information in and out of the Sistine Chapel limited to billows of chimney smoke. It is here that Edward Berger’s papal political thriller, Conclave, smoothes its vestments and edges its daggers to deliver a sharp-tongued battle of worshipful wits. Read More

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Brutal Sequel ’SMILE 2’ Hosts The Curse of Celebrity

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Six days have passed since the chilling finale of writer-director Parker Finn’s Smile, and Joel (Kyle Gallner) is frantically trying to escape the sinister forces closing in on him. After investigating a string of interconnected victims, each of whom killed themselves in gruesome fashion, he knows the only way out of the loop is by passing the curse on—by killing someone in front of a witness. Thanks to his police access, he’s found the perfect lowlifes deserving of such a fate and is ready to dole out karmic justice, moral consequences be damned. Things don’t exactly go as planned and the curse instead lands in the lap of low-rent drug dealer Lewis, played with fiery, cracked-out intensity by Lukas Gage. He wastes no time handing the curse off to client and pop-superstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) on the precipice of greatness. Soon, she’s haunted by diabolical smiling faces – as well as the public. Her big comeback tour, meant to mark her recovery from addiction and personal tragedy, derails as she unravels under the grin of her supernatural oppressor. The recovering pop star’s descent into madness is exacerbated by the expectations of her fans, the relentless pressure from her team to continue performing, and the watchdog gaze of the media—all of whom seem to be waiting for her to slip up and fall apart. And they don’t even know about the whole demonic possession thing. Read More

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‘TERRIFIER 3’ Clowns Audiences With Depraved Slapstick Slashing

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“It’s a Terrifier Christmas!” chimes the Terrifier 3 in-movie musical anthem, dripping with sardonic holiday cheer. Lyrics like “Let the horror fill your heart” and “He’ll burn your face with acid, he’ll saw you clean in half” set the tone for this third Terrifier film— the fifth time rising horror icon Art the Clown has graced the screen in a decade. This time out, the bloodthirsty clown is celebrating the most festive season of all. Donning the iconic red suit and hat a la the Grinch, who looks like a certifiable saint in comparison, Art joyfully embraces the Christmas spirit by sawing the jolly white beard off a still-breathing Santa Claus and attaching it to his chin. Naughty or nice, it’s all the same to Art, whose killer holiday spirit manifests as a singular goal: to “out-do himself and top his latest kill.” Or so goes the song. Not even good little boys and girls are spared from his murderous glee. Read More

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A24’s ‘WE LIVE IN TIME’ a Thoughtful Melodrama About Quality Time, With Strong Leads

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We live in time, but John Crowley’s film exists across it. An emotional portrait of a relationship unfolding across a number of years, Crowley’s romantic drama allows audiences to experience Almut and Tobias’ love story in an unconventional and nonlinear manner. Their meet-cute coincide with scenes of their later life as parents of a young daughter, punctuated by other moments throughout the beginning, middle, and end of their time together – free-form, finite and infinite. This creates a mosaic of the moments that make up a marriage – deep love, tragedy, lust, betrayal, make-up sex, arguments, flirtation – swirling in and amongst each other, unbound by the usual constraints of time.  Read More

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Singsong Sequel ‘JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX’ Is Provocative Anti-Entertainment

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If you’re like me, when you first heard the title of Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his controversial 2019 smash hit Joker, you probably Googled “folie à deux.” It refers to a kind of shared insanity experienced by those closely connected. Pretentious? Absolutely—doubly so for a Joker sequel—but it promised more than just your standard superhero/villain fare. Especially when we learned the film would be a love story between Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck/Joker and a new take on Harley Quinn, played by none other than Lady Gaga. Then came the kicker: it’s a “jukebox musical.” Doubts redoubled. Much like the first film sparked a million think pieces, fan adoration, cultural backlash, and Oscar plaudits, Joker: Folie à Deux is sure to rile up the masses—but this time for a very different reason. It’s an aggressive form of provocative anti-entertainment. Read More

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Demi Moore is Breathtaking in Body Horror Triumph ‘THE SUBSTANCE’

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Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is staring down the barrel of her 50th birthday, and her Hollywood star has more than a few cracks—both literal and metaphorical. To make matters worse, the once-popular aerobics queen just overheard her sleazy, keyed-up boss (played with pure snake oil charm by Dennis Quaid) plotting her replacement. The network wants someone younger, fresher, tighter in spandex. Enter a shadowy black-market pharma company with a miracle drug, the titular Substance, promising to rewind crucial time on Elizabeth’s biological clock. The promise is…misleading. As she drinks down the sketchy elixir of youth, she doesn’t just regain her youthful glow—she begins to lose herself, piece by horrifying piece, to the younger version she thought she so badly wanted. Read More

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Wistful ‘MY OLD ASS’ Stops to Smell the Roses

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When college-bound Elliot takes shrooms on a friends’ camping trip, she hallucinates a conversation of her future self, played with acidic charm by Aubrey Plaza. The future Elliot won’t tell her which hot stocks to invest in – for fear of butterfly effecting her younger self – but she does issue a single warning: avoid some dude named Chad. Also, spend more time with her family. Post-trip, Elliot encounters none other than some dude named Chad, a shaggy but sweet summer hand on her family farm, and despite the warnings—and the fact that she had believed herself to be a lesbian—she promptly starts falling for him in Megan Park’s sweet-natured and emotionally-stirring dramedy My Old Ass. Read More

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‘OUT COME THE WOLVES’ A Howling, But Much Too Slight, Nature Thriller

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In nature, you learn who you really are—or so says Sophie (Missy Peregrym), echoing the wisdom of her hunter father, ingrained in her during her upbringing in the remote Ontario wilderness. Now, she’s back in that secluded cabin, accompanied by her editor-in-chief fiancé, Nolan (Damon Runyan), who’s been assigned to write about man’s primal connection to food. However, Nolan, a noxious blend of protective, arrogant, and haughty, has never hunted a day in his life. Enter Kyle (Joris Jarsky), Sophie’s blue-collar childhood friend, who’s been tapped to guide Nolan through his first hunt, but a chance encounter with a pack of blood-thirsty wolves turns this learning experience into a firsthand account of survivalism at its most feral. Read More