Coleman Spilde
Movies reviews only
Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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MaXXXine (2024) |
A brilliantly self-referential text that offers endless points of study and heaps of blood-soaked, femme fatale belligerence. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jul 09, 2024
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Danger in the Dorm (2024) |
Surprisingly, Frankel’s talent holds down this modest little piece of cable camp. Alright, maybe she can’t cry on cue. But although her tear ducts may have dried up, Frankel’s talent and appeal have not. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023) |
Louis-Seize’s film is an inviting coming-of-age tale about how a vampire gets by when she’s not inclined to kill. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Fancy Dance (2023) |
Watching Lily Gladstone rack up hit after hit has been so damn enjoyable: She’s put in the work to earn it, and none of her performances is exactly the same as the last. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 21, 2024
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Lake George (2024) |
It’s nice to see a Los Angeles-set neo-noir that manages not to squander its simple premise. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Tuesday (2023) |
In a sea of exhausting cinematic sameness, when you can buy a ticket to any one of the multiple grief allegories playing at your local movie theater at any given time, a little novelty goes a long way. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 13, 2024
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Am I OK? (2022) |
The new dramedy directed by comedian Tig Notaro and her wife, actress Stephanie Allyne is a well-intentioned but grating look at coming out in your thirties. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 10, 2024
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The French Italian (2024) |
The trio pierce the inanity of a problem every city-dweller must face, and turn The French Italian into one of the most instantly memorable New York comedies in years. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 10, 2024
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Rent Free (2024) |
Writer-director Fernando Andrés graceful touch makes Ben and Jordan’s bond feel special. That distinct perspective and Andrés’ stylistic filmmaking turn Rent Free into an enjoyable—and bleakly relatable—journey through the unease of young adulthood. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jun 10, 2024
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Robot Dreams (2023) |
Where this dialogue-free animated film can take you in just 102 minutes is nothing short of masterful. The movie is a feat of sight and sound, with delightful foley work and a beautifully composed score keeping its pacing at a pleasant stroll. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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Summer Camp (2024) |
Summer Camp is ultimately a forgettable experience—albeit an enjoyable one—that focuses too much on how its characters have changed as opposed to the buoyant ways they reconnect. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 31, 2024
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Atlas (2024) |
The film is a nonsensical, emotionless dreck that can’t conjure a compelling character to save its dwindling life. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 24, 2024
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Gaga Chromatica Ball (2024) |
This new special replicates all of the excitement that swirled around the singer in those early years. It’s an exhilarating watch from start to finish, bolstering an already stellar show with trippy editing and crisp, stylistic filmmaking. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 24, 2024
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The Garfield Movie (2024) |
The Garfield Movie fundamentally misunderstands the charm of Garfield. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 22, 2024
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Back to Black (2024) |
It’s not because Back to Black is surprisingly great or woefully awful, but because it lands firmly in the middle, struggling to say much about the iconic late singer that hasn’t already been mused on by her millions of fans. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted May 17, 2024
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We Grown Now (2023) |
Writer-director Minhail Baig leaves enough room for the bright glow of childhood wonder to shine through the newfound cracks in the boys’ altered lifestyles. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Apr 25, 2024
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Challengers (2024) |
In the film, tennis is very much a three-person sport, and every new serve feels like it’s for the match point... Heat swells, tensions flare, and skin is slick with perspiration, but fatigue never once sets in—for the characters or the audience. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Scoop (2024) |
But whether you’re intimately knowledgeable of this moment in royal history or completely unaware of its importance and impact, Scoop is still a treat to watch unfold. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Apr 06, 2024
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Shirley (2024) |
Such an extraordinary legacy merits an equally exceptional movie, but Shirley... is far from the phenomenal biopic that Chisholm deserves. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 22, 2024
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Irish Wish (2024) |
Christmas movies are expected to have a tolerable level of kitsch. It’s part of their charm. But those low standards don’t apply to other seasonal fare, and certainly not to a love story released in time for St. Patrick’s Day. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 15, 2024
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The Greatest Hits (2024) |
[Ned] Benson’s film is a crafty yet subtle inversion of a stale genre. It moves the viewer and gets out while it’s ahead, aiming for maximum emotional impact over any flashy, absurd striving. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 14, 2024
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A Nice Indian Boy (2024) |
A Nice Indian Boy is filled with enough novel truth to transcend its predictable elements, leaving viewers with a film that feels like a genuine love story, instead of an idealistic imitation. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 13, 2024
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Immaculate (2024) |
Given that the stale beats and absurd twists of this new film very much recall the successful franchise preceding it, Immaculate ends up feeling like one of those cheap knockoffs of popular movies that are buried on streaming services. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 13, 2024
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Azrael (2024) |
[Samara] Weaving confirms that she has the nerve to be a horror icon, delivering a wicked and gritty performance, and rising to the demands of a film where she must believably convey the nuances of fright and rage, without any words to do so. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 12, 2024
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Monkey Man (2024) |
Monkey Man quickly falls lopsided as Patel’s story tries to balance the heft of his heart and the immensity of his affection for classic action films. This imbalance makes for a watch that isn’t just dissatisfying, but disappointing. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 12, 2024
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I Don't Understand You (2024) |
I Don’t Understand You stays one step ahead of its audience at every turn, armed and ready with unexpected gags and memorably biting dialogue that repeatedly quell suspicions about whether or not it can pull off its big narrative swings. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Road House (2024) |
Road House is a rollicking rage fest. [Doug] Liman was correct to be so haughty—this bloody action flick really might be his best movie yet. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Secret Mall Apartment (2024) |
An odd and outrageous doc that captures a low-tech blip in time, and affirms the power and necessity of art and those who create it. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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We Strangers (2024) |
How far can one lie take you? ...It’s also the primary query that clouds Valia’s film, which spends its brief 80-minute runtime attempting to stretch one fabrication across an otherwise sparse, shallow narrative. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Birdeater (2023) |
An absurdly stylish film that is never content to rest on its ambitious visual scope, burrowing under your skin for an eerie glimpse at how men in their youth form bonds with one another that can slowly spin out of control as time passes. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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Babes (2024) |
While Babes doesn’t seek to reinvent the comedy wheel, Glazer once again excavates the bonds between women to find all of those hysterical intricacies that she is so adept at sending up. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Mar 11, 2024
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The Greatest Love Story Never Told (2024) |
The Greatest Love Story Never Told is a glowing shrine to narcissism and its many casualties, a truly admirable documentary about never giving up, no matter how many people tell you that you’re draining your bank account for no reason. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Feb 26, 2024
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This Is Me... Now: A Love Story (2024) |
This Is Me…Now: A Love Story is a Marvel-grade cinematic spectacle that matches the album’s extravagant emotional base. It’s a long-form extension of the record and a standalone work by Lopez; think Beyoncé’s Lemonade film for ivory tower romantics. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Feb 14, 2024
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Lisa Frankenstein (2024) |
The film’s title is a cheeky take on Lisa Frank, known for her signature neon-colored landscapes and doe-eyed animals, and Frankenstein, whose creation was a little less…vibrant. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Feb 07, 2024
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Miller's Girl (2024) |
The film hits all of the familiar beats, but goes a few steps further when it comes to twisting the knife (even if the blade is metaphorical). These appealing new trimmings go a long way in reviving a stale genre. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jan 26, 2024
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Self Reliance (2023) |
Even if the premise’s general implausibility might irritate some viewers seeking broader answers, Self Reliance assuredly lands as a rare, truly original oddball comedy that succeeds by dialing up its idiosyncrasies. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jan 12, 2024
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Role Play (2023) |
Despite a fun cameo and a handful of semi-rousing action sequences (impressively shot on-location in Berlin), the film can’t escape its severe lack of verve, no matter how many rounds of bullets go flying by. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jan 12, 2024
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Mean Girls (2024) |
While it still has no decent reason to exist other than to make a few bucks off of nostalgic millennials and curious newcomers, Mean Girls prevails by leaning hard into its own pointlessness and letting its stars live out their catty dreams. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jan 10, 2024
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Good Grief (2023) |
If there were something between the lines, some kernel of novelty in the complicated and endlessly workable depth of grief, this 100-minute vanity project could easily save itself from the dregs of streaming content. But that originality never arrives. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Jan 04, 2024
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Anyone But You (2023) |
Sweeney’s distinct chemistry with Powell—along with Powell’s completely irresistible leading man charms—keep Anyone but You perfectly palatable, even if it won’t trigger a proper rom-com renaissance anytime soon. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Dec 25, 2023
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The Color Purple (2023) |
The film relies on its songs to prop up an underwritten screenplay too mawkish for its own good, but a show-stopping trio of performances keep The Color Purple from becoming completely washed out. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Dec 19, 2023
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Your Fat Friend (2023) |
It lets its subject—with her natural wit and almost unending empathy—try to fathom why it’s so difficult to allow ourselves to take up space in the world, and how important it is that we don’t degrade our spirits while trying. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Dec 08, 2023
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Leave the World Behind (2023) |
Leave the World Behind is blinded by its own smugness, fancying itself privy to the secrets of the human condition. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Nov 22, 2023
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EXmas (2023) |
To my delight, EXmas is one of the year’s most unexpected holiday surprises, a warm and highly amusing comedy that genuinely feels like a 90-minute glimpse into a big family holiday. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Best. Christmas. Ever! (2023) |
It’s a bit presumptuous (and maybe even intentionally ironic) to title a movie Best. Christmas. Ever! (Nov. 16) when the film itself falls below the standard of even the most mediocre of the streamer’s original holiday movies. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Quiz Lady (2023) |
Though Quiz Lady’s gags are sparse, they pair just nicely enough with the film’s big, beating heart to satisfy viewers looking for a perfectly enjoyable but instantly forgettable night on the couch. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Nov 03, 2023
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What Happens Later (2023) |
For all of its build-up, the movie ultimately deflates with a disappointing squeal, like a half-blown-up balloon that someone abandoned because finishing the process felt like too much work. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Nov 01, 2023
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Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) |
If there’s one frightening thing about Five Nights at Freddy’s—and truly, there may only be one—it’s that a movie nearly a decade in the making could turn out this lifeless. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Oct 26, 2023
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She Came to Me (2023) |
It turns out that the film is more red herring than red wine, using its cast of beloved, seasoned actors as little more than pawns to attract an audience to a movie wholly undeserving of their charm and talents. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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Totally Killer (2023) |
When Totally Killer leans into shamelessness, it becomes a piece of frivolous genre fluff amusing enough to justify its own existence. - The Daily Beast
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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