MOVIE REVIEW: Materialists

For a stretch of Materialists, confidence is rattled, the hope of love is lost, and any rom-com gamemanship ends, as a more necessary, heavy, and therapeutic arc takes over. Admittedly and appreciably, for as bracingly honest as this swerve is in Materialist to emphasize the aforementioned risks that embody the reality of dating for many people—luxury level or otherwise, it is such a downer of a turn that it threatens to mar the good graces established by that opening scene’s instinctual simplicity of a shared flower.

MOVIE REVIEW: Thirsty

In the central performance of Thirsty, Jamie Neumann lays this character bare. In each scene representing a defining choice—whether it’s a buoyant stump moment impressing the gathered public or a privately tormented decision—the actress shows emotional mettle that is tangible, mature, and impressive. Harsher truths and consequences rightfully burn here.

MOVIE REVIEW: Predator: Killer of Killers

Larger than that, though, what transpires bends time and expands on previously unseen lore for the franchise, revealing borderline revisionist prophecies to the history and purpose of the whole shebang and saga. They mark a progression that promises to continue in Dan Trachtenberg’s next live-action film, Predator: Badlands, coming this November. Love them or hate them, the implications made by Dan and company are awesome and huge, and precisely the mature and heady injection this franchise sorely needed

MOVIE REVIEW: The Life of Chuck

One could go on and on, playing out those hypothetical scenarios and more after the movie. If you can reach this plane of empathetic understanding through the abnormal twists and turns of The Life of Chuck, you have found yourself one marvelous movie. If you can’t, or swaying between bliss and death makes you cynical or uncomfortable, you might be a little dead inside. That’ll be on you and not Mike Flanagan.

MOVIE REVIEW: Nora

Amid all the pressures she puts on herself to be a responsible mom, flexing artistic muscles and sparking the creative synapses of music creates a new balance in Nora’s life. It’s safe to say every parent watching Nora needs to carve out some self-care time in their schedules to do their own just-for-you enrichment activity, whatever it may be.

2025, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 23, 2025Nora, Anna CampbellComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Fountain of Youth

Putting those stars together with that concept surely has to generate some sizzle with the history and mythology crowds, right? Well, with all pun intended, leave it to Apple and professional retreading screenwriter James Vanderbilt (currently stewarding Netflix’s Murder Mystery series and the legacy sequel vapors of the Scream franchise) to go back to a fading Hollywood well, leap in, and find it dry.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Kiss

The Kiss (Kysset), the most recent film from Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August, a two-time Palme d’Or recipient, has finally arrived in limited theaters for North American audiences. Set during the onset of World War I in August’s native country of Denmark, The Kiss is adapted from novelist Stefan Zweig’s 1939 book Beware of Pity. Thematically, that titular emotion of pity from the source material courses through this film’s every vein.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

From “living manifestation of destiny” to “mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of chaos,” the pedestal positioning of Ethan Hunt—and therefore Tom Cruise—playing him has only gotten taller and taller, much like the heights the actor scales with his stunts. Here, at the announced finishing chapter of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning of the now-iconic character enduring nearly thirty years in our cinematic lives, we’ve witnessed the progression of him as a top spy with more lives than a litter of cats to something far more starry and radiant.

MOVIE REVIEW: Nonnas

Yet, all the while, we find ourselves pining to spend more time with the venerable ladies in Nonnas. They deserve a happy ending as much as Joe, and both history and the movie grant them a lovely one. With a marinade of humor and a dash of spiritual Catholic contrition, Chbosky and Maccie find the meaningful meat behind the fluff for a welcome crowd pleaser. Come hungry and leave full, with Billy Joel appropriately sending you out.

2025, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 8, 2025Nonnas, Vince VaughnComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Trouble With Jessica

There’s a compelling playfulness in The Trouble with Jessica where viewers’ rooting interests are worked like a seesaw. At certain junctures, we question who the true victim or victims are. We might even want our present party to get away with this dangerous little ruse. By the same token, other revelations tilt us to want to see their noses rubbed in shamefulness, guilt, and remorse. Like any sure-handed cinematic riddle, Matt Winn keeps pushing the teeter-totter at the right times, dropping question marks all the way until the end.

MOVIE REVIEW: Thunderbolts*

Even if there are fleeting bits of decent togetherness from the losers, Thunderbolts* is a meta image reclamation project going for no more than light applause, and it shows. By embracing the jokes of being jokes themselves, it all too often still becomes or stays a joke. Thunderbolts* goes to show that when you make something about cheap heroes, you get a cheap return.

2025, 2 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 29, 2025Thunderbolts, Marvel Cinematic UniverseComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Legend of Ochi

To say it most simply, The Legend of Ochi is a go-out-and-get-dirty movie. It is a methodical trek of a self-reliant kid left to their own devices, though none of them are of the smart or touchscreen varieties. Emanating from its very foreign, rustic setting, seemingly light on modern amenities, this is a no-tech, rocky, mossy, and muddy fairy tale that most studios don’t make anymore. Go ahead and call it a lost art.