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Hector A. Gonzalez
Tomatometer-approved critic
Hector Gonzalez is a Puerto Rican film critic and the Co-Founder of the PRCA, as well as a member of OFTA and PIFC. He is currently interested in the modern reassessment of Grindhouse cinema, the portrayal of mental health in film, and everything horror."
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Longlegs (2024) |
Throughout Longlegs, this persistent sensation of dread holds the viewer in a chokehold. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jul 15, 2024
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MaXXXine (2024) |
Even if Mia Goth cements herself as this generation’s top scream queen in MaXXXine, the film does not conclude her character’s journey in the best way possible. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jul 08, 2024
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Kinds of Kindness (2024) |
What is missing here is the blend of the sadistic and absurd with the humanistic and sensitive, which Filippou does not know how to construct through Yorgos’ mad ideas. - InSession Film
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| Posted Jul 08, 2024
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Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024) |
While Chapter 1 of Horizon: An American Saga exudes an old-school Western magnetism, Costner’s vision and scope are televisual rather than cinematic. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Jul 03, 2024
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The Vourdalak (2023) |
In The Vourdalak, French filmmaker Adrien Beau reimagines the vampiric creature from Slavic folklore as a vessel for inherited trauma.
- Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Jul 03, 2024
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The Human Surge 3 (2023) |
The Human Surge 3 is a globe-trotting, fragmented piece about connection and the longing for a better life and richer connections. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Jun 27, 2024
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The Bikeriders (2023) |
This glossier look and focus on the theatrics rather than the intricate character development strips The Bikeriders from what made his work so compelling in the first place. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jun 22, 2024
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Inside Out 2 (2024) |
Banks on the original’s charm and concept to pull the viewer’s emotional heartstrings, albeit forcefully and without earned tenderness. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jun 16, 2024
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Firebrand (2023) |
In Firebrand, Karim Aïnouz recaps the marriage between Katherine Parr and King Henry VIII through a stale canvas that doesn’t do justice to her powerful story. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Jun 12, 2024
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The Watchers (2024) |
Nothing is left up to the viewer’s imagination; you are being forcefully spoonfed. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jun 10, 2024
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Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) |
Bad Boys: Ride or Die ends up being what you expect from a Bad Boys film—which some audiences are looking for that nonsensical, comedic running-and-gunning—yet in its worst tendencies. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Jun 09, 2024
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Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (2024) |
It is a crime drama with a neo-noir background that isn’t explored due to its focus on the personal and meditative – a blend of elements and dark tones that borrow from a variety of genres, most to its favor. - InSession Film
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| Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Savanna and the Mountain (2024) |
His play’s style sometimes falters as the structure grows creaky and repetitive, often keeping the audience not so much at a distance but without a precise narrative hook to latch onto outside of the mutinous story elements. - InSession Film
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| Posted Jun 07, 2024
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Christmas Eve in Miller's Point (2024) |
Taormina opts for a narrative without a precise lead or tone, which keeps the audience away from the tenderness we were expecting from the feature. - InSession Film
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| Posted Jun 07, 2024
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When The Light Breaks (2024) |
There are certain directorial decisions that Rúnarsson applies, which make When the Light Breaks lack the potency of its topics and the relatable power of the performances. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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The Story of Souleymane (2024) |
Aubu Sangare, in his debut performance, does a tremendous job at keeping everything genuine, personal, and impactful. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Holy Cow (2024) |
There’s an artificiality that distances the viewer from the characters, leaving us without much to hold onto after the credits roll. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 29, 2024
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Anora (2024) |
Madison is effortlessly magnetic, oozing confidence in the way she does a balancing act of desperation, feistiness, and vulnerability amidst the screwball and thriller-like tension that shifts Anora into a place of cinematic appraisal. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 28, 2024
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) |
Whether it is a rain of bullets or raiders in parachutes, Miller puts them on the canvas with significant muscular heft. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted May 27, 2024
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The Shrouds (2024) |
It is cinema as a cemetery, much like The Shrouds, and it is an exploration of the living brooding, lamenting, and interrogating about the people we wish they’d be next to us. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 24, 2024
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Block Pass (2024) |
A genuine yet poorly structured story about two best friends’ trials and tribulations. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 23, 2024
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Ghost Trail (2024) |
Jonathan Millet’s feature-length debut Ghost Trail (Les fantômes) is a neatly crafted film that explores the psyche of a Syrian refugee via a spy-genre model. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 22, 2024
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Simon of the Mountain (2024) |
The film lacks the brevity to showcase its beating heart properly. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 21, 2024
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The Substance (2024) |
The Substance is a work of sheer expertise. You are perplexed by the tastelessness in the brutality, in awe of the vision in her creations, and captivated by the approach to this damning story. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 21, 2024
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The Other Way Around (2024) |
By blending reality and fiction, as well as wishes and desires, he transforms a standard narrative into a touching feature with many intertwining details. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 21, 2024
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Oh Canada (2024) |
Schrader taps into a manner of storytelling that we haven’t seen from him before; he is reflective and more personal, which amounts to a moving portrait of a flawed man looking back at his life and coming to terms with his mistakes and regrets. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Bird (2024) |
Bird comes off as a meretricious attempt at making a slightly feel-good picture due to the mishandling of the story within the confines of the magical realism that Arnold wants to place. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Megalopolis (2024) |
Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola’s own Southland Tales, a project so bold and ambitious that it doesn’t have a coherent bone in its body due to the high amount of frenetic ideas being encapsulated. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 19, 2024
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Universal Language (2024) |
He captures the longing for belonging and solidarity via a poetic Matryoshka doll concoction that doesn’t make sense at first but slowly blossoms into a thing of beauty. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 18, 2024
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The Hyperboreans (2024) |
It’s a cinematic experience unlike any other. This work solidifies them as two of the industry’s most original and innovative minds today. - InSession Film
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| Posted May 16, 2024
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Back to Black (2024) |
While the approach is quite faulty... Marisa Abela’s performance and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ score are some of the few positive facets worth watching the picture for—making the journey less rock than it is. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted May 16, 2024
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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) |
Unfortunately, director Wes Ball doesn’t lead this engrossing premise to a formidable height, even though the technical aspects remain top-notch. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted May 13, 2024
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Challengers (2024) |
Challengers can’t work to its highest possibilities, ending as stylistically overcooked and unamusingly tame. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Apr 29, 2024
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Humane (2024) |
Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane contains more than a handful of thought-provoking ideas, but she doesn’t seem to have the right hook for them. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Apr 24, 2024
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The First Omen (2024) |
While The First Omen has many things going for it, I believe its best asset is the performance by its leading lady, Nell Tiger Free, the film’s beating (and terrifying) heart. - InSession Film
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| Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Immaculate (2024) |
Cinematographer Elisha Christian shoots Immaculate with a careful eye and a unique, horrific beauty that ascends into a bloody nightmare. But looks aren’t enough to suffice. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Apr 05, 2024
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Yannick (2023) |
With Yannick, Quentin Dupieux creates a satire that explores the modern cinemagoer’s relationship with the art form. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Apr 02, 2024
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La Chimera (2023) |
It is the healing process personified, made by a filmmaker who converts our worries into fables that are as grounded as they are poised and soul-stirring. - InSession Film
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| Posted Mar 30, 2024
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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) |
If you thought the 2021 feature was dull and full of cheap nostalgia dumps, hold on to your hats because this one is far worse. - The Movie Buff
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| Posted Mar 29, 2024
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Riddle Of Fire (2023) |
Riddle of Fire is a slick experience constructed inside and out from children’s minds and aimed at the viewer’s previous selves—the inner child in us all. - InSession Film
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| Posted Mar 28, 2024
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Death Game (1977) |
Newly restored by Grindhouse Releasing, exploitation cinema gem Death Game (aka. The Seducers) is a provocative yet entertaining home invasion nail-biter. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Choose or Die (2022) |
Choose or Die has some interesting concepts about shifting realities and some 80s nostalgia, but it never succumbs to its true potential due to an unsightly approach by director Toby Meakins. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Virus-32 (2022) |
Although Virus: 32 has some engaging horror sequences and a nice performance by Paula Silva, it doesn’t live up to its full potential. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Lux Æterna (2019) |
Although it may seem like a gimmick at times, for the most part Gaspar Noé’s Lux Æterna engages and entrances with its split-screen techniques and bad-acid trip neon stylistic tendencies. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Morbius (2022) |
After multiple delays, Morbius, the “highly anticipated” new entry into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, arrives with some of the worst world-building we have seen in a long time. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Aline (2021) |
Aline is a biopic freely inspired by the life of Celine Dion that’s, in most cases, on the brink of becoming an intentional farce. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Gagarine (2020) |
Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s feature debut, Gagarine, is a beautifully told story about shattered dreams with magical realism attached to it. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Umma (2022) |
Umma is a tale of past generational trauma that is unfortunately bogged down by half-baked set pieces and horror clichés. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film) (2022) |
Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U (A Sour Film) goes through the writing process of the triple-platinum record while intertwining it with lovely live performances. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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Moon, 66 Questions (2021) |
Jacqueline Lentzou’s directorial debut, Moon, 66 Questions, is a delicate revaluation of two lost souls, in this case, an estranged father and daughter. - Loud and Clear Reviews
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| Posted Mar 24, 2024
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