'Daniela Forever' (2024) Movie Review

Not everything that looks perfect truly is. That’s the underlying conceit of Daniela Forever, the latest genre-bender from Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal, Timecrimes). Quirky and off-kilter, which is particularly on-brand for the Spanish writer/director, this romance smudges the lines between drama and sci-fi, blending earnest yearning and self-delusion into a careful-what-you-wish-for smoothie of memory, flawed recollections and conceptions of people, and the chaotic nature of dream logic.

'My Old Ass' (2024) Movie Review

If you could go back in time and offer advice to your younger self, what would you say? What wisdom would you impart? Invest in a particular stock early? Follow a certain career path? Maybe don’t eat that burrito you left sitting out overnight that one time? That’s the basic concept of My Old Ass, a gentle, moving, light sci-fi coming of age story from writer/director Megan Park (The Fallout). This feels like one of those movies that has the potential to become a generational touchstone. It’s lovely and earnest, deeply emotional, and achingly bittersweet in poignant ways.

'Bookworm' (2024) Movie Review

Do people still like movies where Elijah Wood walks around the New Zealand wilderness? Because there’s a great deal of that in Bookworm, the latest directorial effort from Ant Timpson (Come to Daddy). It may not be quite as epic as the Lord of the Rings movies, but it’s impossible for that landscape to not look incredible, and there’s plenty of adventure on this sweet, earnest journey of reconciliation between a long-estranged father and daughter, a journey that also happens to be something of a cryptid hunt.

'The Tragedy Of Macbeth' (2021) Movie Review

Full of witches, madness, and courtly power-grabbing machinations, not to mention it’s Shakespeare’s shortest play, Macbeth makes for good movie fodder. And now, with The Tragedy of Macbeth, we get Joel Coen’s take on The Scottish Play. Added bonus, this also marks the Coen Brother’s first solo joint, sans sibling, filmmaking partner, and career co-conspirator Ethan.

'Lamb' (2021) Movie Review

For most of the 106-minute runtime of Valdimar Johannsson’s directorial debut, Lamb, the film plays its bizarre concept entirely straight. But there’s a moment where the surreal conceit at the center of the story just becomes silly. Watching it, at a certain point, I thought this has to be intentional, they have to know what they’re doing, this is a comedy, right? But I honestly don’t know. 

The 2020 Seattle Film Critics Society Award Winners

It’s that time of year again. Okay, thanks to COVID-19, it’s significantly later than usual, but still, it’s the middle of awards season, the time where various groups get together to laud their favorite movies of the past year. I’m fortunate enough to vote in a couple of film critics groups and one, the Seattle Film Critics Society, just announced our 2020 awards.

'A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood' (2019) Movie Review

When you make a movie about a regular, everyday person who encounters a fascinating, larger-than-life individual—especially one based on a real-life icon—and that interesting person isn’t the main character, you run the risk of your protagonist fading into the background, being nowhere near as engaging as this secondary character, and the audience not giving a shit about the central figure in your narrative.

'The Death Of Dick Long' (2019) Movie Review

I’m not going to write a full review of The Death of Dick Long. To talk too much about it is to ruin the fun. Just know it’s easily the best movie about an Alabama-based Nickelback cover band I’ve ever seen. From director Daniel Scheinert (co-director of Swiss Army Man), this startling comedy is not the movie you expect. But it’s hilarious and twisted, unexpected and shocking, and legitimately moving and introspective.

SIFF 2019: 'International Falls' Movie Review

Dee (Rachel Harris) is a harried wife and mother working a at a hotel in a small Minnesota town on the Canadian border. Stuck in a dying marriage, she dreams of doing standup. When Tim (Rob Huebel), a burned-out, low-level, road-warrior comedian—Dee tells a coworker, “We don’t get the kind of people you’ve heard of”—makes a stop in her town, the two form an unlikely bond.

The 10 Best Movies Of 2018

Okay, it’s that time of year again, the time of year I swear I’m not going to make a best-of list, only to cave and ultimately do just that. At this point, you’re probably sick of hearing me rant about how I hate ranking movies, pitting them against one another, and stating that one is objectively better than another. I don’t believe that’s true. What I put stock in is personal preference. And that’s what this list is. It’s not a “ten best movies” list, that should be readily apparent, it’s a “my ten (or whatever number) favorite movies list.” 

'The Favourite' (2018) Movie Review

With movies like Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer on his CV, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos crafts singular, alluring, if often cold and standoffish films. With his latest, The Favourite, he delivers his most accessible, warmest offering to date. Not without its own oddities, peculiarities, and the filmmaker’s trademark strangeness, it’s anchored by next-level performances; lush, intricate costume and production design; and will serve as an entry point for many into his cannon. 

'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' (2018) Movie Review

Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) is a miserable human being. She’s a drunk, working menial jobs she feels are below her, and does her level best to push away everyone in her life except her elderly cat. In dire straits and driven by desperation, the former best-selling author and celebrity biographer turns to forging personal letters from famous literary figures, selling her wares to unsuspecting collectors. Such is the plot of Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which recounts Israel’s bizarre real-life saga, carried by a soaring, career-best performance from McCarthy.

'Bodied' (2017) Movie Review

“New jacks are spending mad time on they battle rhymes.”

-Blue Scholars, “No Rest for the Weary”

Joseph Kahn’s Bodied follows Adam (Calum Worthy, American Vandal), a nerdy white college student. Fully entrenched in the PC world of academia, his thesis focuses on the use of the granddaddy of all racial slurs in the world of underground rap battles. Immersing himself in this world, he, along with his mentor Behn Grymm (Jackie Long), discovers a penchant for sick rhymes and ill burns that outrages everyone around him and throws his coddled, carefully manicured life into chaos.

'A Star Is Born' (2018) Movie Review

Did you know Lady Gaga is a phenomenal singer? Apparently only Bradley Cooper does, which is the basic premise for his directorial debut, yet another remake of A Star is Born. Which also happens to be yet another movie where a mediocre white dude is the only one who truly recognizes how talented, remarkable, and beautiful the central female figure is. So, that’s obnoxious. The movie is actually very good and emotional and romantic and all the other superlatives bandied about—to degrees—but there’s that one massive hurdle to get over, so your mileage may vary. 

SIFF 2018: 'Chedeng & Apple' (2017) Movie Review

A bittersweet, blackly comic riff on Thelma and Louise, with a flourish of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia thrown in for good measure, Chedeng & Apple is part road trip comedy, part lesbian romance, part off-kilter voyage of self-reclamation. After all, one title character spends most of the movie toting a Louis Vuitton bag holding the severed head of her abusive husband. Sounds like a hoot, right?

SIFF 2018: 'Hearts Beat Loud (2018) Capsule Review

Sundance fave Hearts Beat Loud shows maybe the best on-screen father-daughter relationship I’ve ever seen. Sam (Kiersey Clemons) is the driven, focused one, about to start a pre-med program. Her father, Frank (Nick Offerman), is the head-in-the-clouds dreamer unable to relinquish a fading musical ambition and desire to start a band with his daughter.

Watch The Trailer For 'Champion,' A South Korean Arm Wrestling Drama

Directed by Menahem Golan, half of the team behind the venerable Cannon Films, the 1987, Sylvester Stallone-starring Over the Top combines the high family drama of a child custody battle with…competitive arm wrestling. And it’s glorious. Thanks, Menahem, you glorious madman! But it’s also pretty much the only real movie that speaks to the arm wrestling enthusiast. Until now. South Korea’s Kim Yong-wan is making his directorial debut with Champion, and he’s enlisted Ma Dong-seok to star. Check out the trailer and try to convince me this isn’t going to rule.

'Phantom Thread' (2017) Movie Review

There’s much to admire in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, though I’m admittedly less high on it than many folks. But it lands in a precarious position of being a movie that, while I appreciated and enjoyed certain aspects, outside of hardcore cinephiles, I can’t think of a single person to whom I can recommend this and reasonably expect them like what they see.

'In The Fade' (2017) Movie Review

I’m here all day for Diane Kruger fighting Nazis. The only problem with Faith Akin’s In the Fade is that, instead of focusing on that part of the story, it turns into a middling Law & Order episode.

'Molly's Game' (2017) Movie Review

As a writer, Aaron Sorkin has an ability to make me care about topics I don’t usually give two shits about. I’m not particularly interested in the d-bags who created Facebook, but The Social Network makes that story as compelling as it’s going to get. The same goes for Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs), Sabermetrics (Moneyball), and Tom Cruise as a lawyer (A Few Good Men). His directorial debut, Molly’s Game, for which he also wrote the script, follows a familiar pattern.