|
|
Beau Is Afraid
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Beau is Afraid is, without question, one of the best movies ever made about mental health. Hell, it might just be one of the best movies ever made.
Posted Apr 20, 2023
|
|
|
Titanic
(1997)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Those shots of the boat sinking — the grand terror of it all — goodness gracious, man…the swooning, doomed romance…Garber by the clock…Leo the damn movie star…cinema! Cinema, I say! Cinema!
Posted Feb 19, 2023
|
|
|
Knock at the Cabin
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
The world is a better place when Shyamalan just goes out there with a concept like this and does the damn thing.
Posted Feb 19, 2023
|
|
|
Your Place or Mine
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I’m a little concerned Your Place or Mine might be the first movie ever written by ChatGPT.
Posted Feb 19, 2023
|
|
|
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It feels like Marvel is starting to spin its wheels a bit, with this Ant-Man movie a weird blend of refried Guardians of the Galaxy and a far-less interesting extension of what Loki was doing with all the multiverse hubbub.
Posted Feb 19, 2023
|
|
|
A Man Called Otto
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s the kind of schmaltzy, big performance studio drama that used to get a billion Oscar nominations, and darn it, I kind of miss those being in vogue.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Plane
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
This one is more solid than you’d expect it to be, refreshingly straightforward and knowing in what its job is and how to execute it without much fuss.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Missing
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Missing is an absolute blast. Such a smart way to play the true crime game while cutting the culture around it to pieces.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
You People
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Kenya Barris isn’t a bad director by any stretch, but just imagine what this could’ve been with a better script. It's good for what it is, even if the potential was tantalizing. We only get so many Eddie Murphy vehicles, so you take what you can get.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
When You Finish Saving the World
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s a solid first feature, brimming with ideas but not always able to communicate those clearly. Still, I admire the hustle.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Polite Society
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Nida Manzoor is going to be a rockstar.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Little Richard: I Am Everything
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
In 90 minutes, you get what you need, but a legend like this deserves a lot more. All music icons get the solid, standard doc treatment, though.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Landscape with Invisible Hand
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Cory Finley takes a gigantic swing here, and I so appreciated the gusto to make this one. It’s a very strange sci-fi romance with tinges of comedy and melancholy strewn about.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
King Coal
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I really appreciated the thesis in this one, that coal is so ingrained in Appalachia’s culture that it’s going to be near impossible to pry it away from the hills.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
The Persian Version
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I wish we could get more mainstream movies like this, ones without big names in the cast but a lot on the mind and in the heart.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Victim/Suspect
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A very solid, depressing piece of accessible documentary journalism about a very troubling trend.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Rye Lane
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A very sweet and funny meet-cute, akin to the great lineage of walk-and-talk romcoms.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Shortcomings
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I didn’t peg Randall Park be the one to make High Fidelity for Film Twitter, but here we are!
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
The Starling Girl
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
This is quite good, even if it’s an uncomfortable sit. It’s just sad to see someone’s faith get so wrecked by fundamentalist garbage.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Eileen
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I really dug the filmmaking and the performances, but the movie purposefully going off the rails kind of lacked the control to make its venom settle.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Cat Person
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s 80ish minutes of a clever “nowadays” dating satire flanked by one of the most self-defeating third acts I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
A Still Small Voice
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s a sobering watch but an important one all the same.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Dude, Where's My Car?
(2000)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
This is horrible, but it’s also offensive as hell.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
(2012)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Stuff like Dobis is right up the alley you’re used to. However, the transition to R-rated material and a feature-length format isn’t quite as seamless as you’d hope. John C. Reilly is hilarious as you’d think, though.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Assassination Nation
(2018)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
If Joker, Euphoria, Kill Bill and The Purge did the same TikTok dance, but Sam Levinson was the one who came up with the moves…yeah.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
Life
(1999)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Y’know, this was pretty solid. Kind of a funnier riff on The Shawshank Redemption, if not … well … as good.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
House Party
(2023)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Some of the jokes here are mercilessly funny, including one NFL star cameo that has to be one of the best gags in a studio comedy in eons.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Spoiler Alert
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Michael Showalter is competent enough to make the real-life drama sink in, and the cast is good enough to sell it.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
The Pale Blue Eye
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A pretty study February chiller with snow everywhere and Henry Melling doing his best Foghorn Dreadhorn impression.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Jurassic Punk
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I’m a sucker for showbiz docs, and I quite liked this one because I think it’s the best thing we’ve gotten in a long time that actually deals with the VFX revolution.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
We’re probably past due for another Shrek movie, and this was a good reminder that there is more to do there now that DreamWorks seems like it’s actually trying again with the golden goose.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Better than the '90s one!
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Cats Don't Dance
(1997)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I refuse to believe anything else but that a young Damien Chazelle walked into a movie theater, watched this and left thinking, “I’m going to make this movie, but it’ll be a 3-hour bacchanal with Brad Pitt.” (Mark Dindal kicked ass with this one)
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Armageddon
(1998)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Clearly ridiculous, but damn it, we didn’t know what we had. This was a blast, and startlingly emotional by the end. The Aerosmith song is still a bop.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
House Party
(1990)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s the affable hangout movie that I kind of expected it to be, with a delightful George Clinton cameo, a great Robin Harris performance and one of the most “oh…oh dear” dated comedy bits of the early 90s.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Fred Claus
(2007)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
What a weird-ass movie. It’s not really for kids, it’s not really for adults, it’s not really for anyone who enjoys Christmas.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Grumpy Old Men
(1993)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Oh, to have been a senior citizen at the height of the Grumpy Old Men films. What dreams may come.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Grumpier Old Men
(1995)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s not quite as efficient as the first, but it’s much better than whatever the hell those reviews were in 1995. Those movie critics had no damn idea what was coming in the streaming age.
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
|
Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights
(2002)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
The juvenile nastiness can be pretty darn funny when it clicks, but the fact that you actually feel for any of these characters is a testament to the attempt to tell a meaningful story.
Posted Dec 17, 2022
|
|
|
The Whale
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
The comeback story for Fraser is heartwarming, but his performance here is like watching someone run into a burning building. There’s a deep riskiness to it that puts the entire film in jeopardy every five minutes, but Fraser never hits a false beat.
Posted Dec 17, 2022
|
|
|
Violent Night
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
If David Harbour doesn’t commit to the bit so hard in this he delivers a genuinely great performance, it’s just a lark. He’s just way too good of an actor to keep this from floating away.
Posted Dec 17, 2022
|
|
|
Troll
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A goofier riff on 2014’s Godzilla, greatly in debt to the Roland Emmerich disaster textbook.
Posted Dec 17, 2022
|
|
|
To Leslie
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
Riseborough takes a really tough role and gives it some soul and levity. She’s a gem.
Posted Dec 17, 2022
|
|
|
Amsterdam
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A kooky piece of messy Americana, but it’s enjoyable enough to make you appreciate the cast and craft.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
Athena
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
This is clearly explosive, a sensory attack crusted with some searing political commentary. I think it functions best as an assault on the senses, but it definitely made me think when it was over. That opening scene is as brilliant as advertised.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
Thirteen Lives
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
I saw someone say that this is like Ron Howard made a Clint Eastwood movie, and yes.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
Hit the Road
(2021)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s Little Miss Sunshine with a brooding sociopolitical terror lurking after every single Batman quip and bathroom joke.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
White Noise
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
It’s a film that’s very smart, but doesn’t always know how to communicate the ocean of ideas in the work it’s adapting.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
The Menu
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
A delightfully despicable B-horror comedy disguised as an artsy meditation on creation and commerce.
Posted Dec 06, 2022
|
|
|
Bullet Train
(2022)
|
Cory Woodroof
|
If Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is wagyu steak, this is a juicy dive burger.
Posted Nov 30, 2022
|
>