John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, 2023): 3/5

A very soft 3. Fun, great action sequences of course and my favorite here is Donnie Yen who plays Cane, the blind assassin. Totally stole the show. Very charismatic, and really dug his character's choreography.

At a certain point though, you can't raise the stakes any higher and you run out of gimmicks. This time, every henchman has a bulletproof suit! This time, every assassin in the world wants Wick dead...even harder! You can't help but laugh every time the movie makes a big deal out of the bounty increasing. (20 to 24 million? Please, we've been doing this since the second movie.) Also, demerits for the 3-hour runtime.

A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell, 2023): 3.5/5

A decades-spanning epic about generational poverty, Black motherhood, and the tragic reality of a city that is changing too quickly, pushing the economically challenged to live lives of desperation. It's a big film with a big heart, one that slowly builds its power as the years slip away and the characters scrape through hardship, even as the city prices them out. Director A.V. Rockwell makes the story feel like a vast journey across borrowed time, wherein the drawn-out perseverance of a mother is determined to build a new life for her son in a rapidly gentrifying New York City. Like the evolution of the city itself, the characters grow and change through countless obstacles that feel stacked against them from the start, laying the foundation for how a woman of color survives on the fringes of working class America, and how her son will grow into a teenager as he confronts his mother's complicated past. Very strong and affecting work from this new director.

Paint (Brit McAdams, 2023): 1.5/5

Not sure what's the point of casting Owen Wilson as an unofficial Bob Ross if you're just going to turn him into Vermont's womanizing cryptid. A harsh and clunky bizarre parody of sorts. More than anything, the key difference between Bob Ross and this Carl Nargle character here is that Bob Ross would never and will never be a has-been.

Renfield (Chris McKay, 2023): 2.5/5

Dumb, occasionally fun, highly disposable fare.

Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022): 2.5/5

A bit dull and insipid with lifeless BBC Sunday Night TV Movie vibes.

Is there going to be a new trend from certain filmmakers now where they make a film supposedly about their love of cinema, but really it's just a backdrop to the unrelated drama at the center? Cause I'm not digging it. Least not here and with The Fabelmans too. But, I'll take crazy Olivia Colman over mad Michelle Williams as Spielberg's mom any day though.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Rhys Frake-Waterfield, 2023): 0.5/5

I tried to think of a bunch of zingers for this review but why take the energy.

Deep End (Jerzy Skolomowski, 1970): 2/5

A weird amalgamation of tones (casual but slightly manic) and a strange story of unlikeable characters. I had a hard time going along with it. The film begins with a teenage boy getting a job at a scuzzy London bathhouse. The clients are creeps and perverts, and his colleagues are odd and abrasive. Among these colleagues is Jane Asher, who takes our adolescent 'hero' under her wing while still maintaining an air of cold hostility. The boy predictably becomes obsessed with the woman ... and that's pretty much it. It's very drawn out and meandering and feels interminable despite its short runtime.

Inside (Vasilis Katsoupis, 2023): 2.5/5

Bottle thriller that struggles to justify its 100-minute running time. Thankfully Willem Dafoe is always an interesting enough actor to captivate you even when the movie spins its wheel. Few actors self-destruct as well as Dafoe.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Anthony Fabian, 2022): 3/5

This is the fusion of Jacques Demy and John Hughes you didn’t know you needed. Sweet and wholesome.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, 2022): 2/5

Very “what if a Vice article was a movie.”

The Outwaters (Robbie Banfitch, 2022): 2.5/5

Makes SKINAMARINK look like something out of Syd Field, but that's not even really my obstacle here. I just... let me put it bluntly: I didn't know what was happening in the second half. There's no apparent narrative logic between one moment and the next. You could take all the scenes between the initial bloody freakout and the part where the dude finds the tooth or whatever, shuffle them around, and it wouldn't change the experience one bit. It's all just a collection of shock images... that you can't see. I feel like a narrative movie can show me pictures, tell me what's going on, and let me know why it matters, and all I ask is it do at least two. This director said nah to all that.

Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin, 2023): 2.5/5

A melange of homage, reboot, and probably fan fiction, EVIL DEAD RISE was shot in New Zealand two years ago and originally set to be released directly to HBO Max last year before getting upgraded to a theatrical release. That may explain the acceptably disposable streaming feel of it--there's really nothing wrong with it, it delivers untold gallons of gore, it has a frenzied energy to it, and delivers all the reference-filled fan service today's moviegoers crave, but it doesn't really bring enough of anything new to the table to justify its existence other than keeping another IP alive.

Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin, 2023): 2/5

A masterclass in vapid imitations.

The Covenant (Guy Ritchie, 2023): 3.5/5

Went in with zero expectations and came out satisfied. Dar Salim was superb in this and deserves immense credit. The Covenant is exceedingly competent as a thrilling war drama centered around the unshakable camaraderie between a sergeant and a local Afghan interpreter whose relationship and brotherhood is sold to us in full as unforeseen circumstances see the two men reliant on only each other for survival.

Air (Ben Affleck, 2023): 2.5/5

Was very unclear what decade this was set in. 70s? 40s?? Could’ve used a couple of references or something. Kidding aside, just an onslaught of “this is the historical significance of this moment” scenes.