2/4
|
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
The juice is diffuse.
Posted Sep 04, 2024
|
3/4
|
Night Shift
(1982)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Keaton's epiphany over tuna fish sandwiches is beautiful to behold.
Posted Aug 31, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Phantom of the Paradise
(1974)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...filters highbrow influences through colored 1970s strobe lights.
Posted Aug 29, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
The Pawnbroker
(1964)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...still manages to shock the system thanks to its stark, near-subliminal editing techniques.
Posted Aug 28, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Alien: Romulus
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Seemingly designed to settle the debate over whether the Alien films count as horror...
Posted Aug 14, 2024
|
3/4
|
Daughters
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...a bracing and necessary reminder that these are human beings behind bars.
Posted Aug 08, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Who's That Knocking at My Door?
(1968)
|
Josh Larsen
|
A stunning, if raggedy, feature debut from Martin Scorsese...
Posted Aug 08, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
The Instigators
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
A breezy crime farce with just enough political bite.
Posted Aug 07, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Good One
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...creates little ripples that eventually coalesce into something shattering.
Posted Aug 06, 2024
|
1.5/4
|
Trap
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...a real Shyamalan doozy.
Posted Aug 04, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Long Day's Journey Into Night
(1962)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...does little to disguise the fact that it’s based on the Eugene O’Neill play.
Posted Aug 01, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
The Fugitive Kind
(1960)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Brando has an inner turmoil that keeps everything within the frame on edge.
Posted Jul 31, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Sing Sing
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...presses gently on the inspirational pedal.
Posted Jul 30, 2024
|
3/4
|
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...richly rewards those familiar with movies such as The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death.
Posted Jul 24, 2024
|
3/4
|
The Tales of Hoffmann
(1951)
|
Josh Larsen
|
To say that The Tales of Hoffmann is nightmare fuel is not to denigrate it.
Posted Jul 24, 2024
|
3/4
|
I Know Where I'm Going!
(1945)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... eschews The Archers' signature Technicolor for brooding black and white.
Posted Jul 22, 2024
|
3/4
|
Twisters
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...has a surprising reverence for nature—even when nature kills.
Posted Jul 20, 2024
|
3/4
|
Twister
(1996)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...transforms nature into the ultimate predator of man.
Posted Jul 18, 2024
|
4/4
|
Black Narcissus
(1947)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... steamy but never seamy, at once ardent and honest in its exploration of matters of faith.
Posted Jul 17, 2024
|
3/4
|
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
(1943)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... occasionally demonstrates the charm, flair, and flourish of other Archers' pictures...
Posted Jul 15, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Fly Me to the Moon
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... most interesting as a commentary on our deepfake moment.
Posted Jul 14, 2024
|
3/4
|
Longlegs
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...establishes a strong enough sense of mood and atmosphere to absorb a DEFCON-2 level Nicolas Cage performance.
Posted Jul 10, 2024
|
2/4
|
MaXXXine
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Imagine if Paul Schrader had directed Brian De Palma’s Body Double. Or if De Palma had directed Schrader’s Hardcore.
Posted Jul 07, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...a bitter pill chased by the world’s smallest spoon of sugar.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Kinds of Kindness
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...suggests what it might have been like if Stanley Kubrick had directed a handful of Twilight Zone episodes.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
A Quiet Place: Day One
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... has a vulnerability that’s rare in big, would-be blockbusters.
Posted Jun 27, 2024
|
3/4
|
Hundreds of Beavers
(2022)
|
Josh Larsen
|
As much Looney Tunes as Chaplin or Keaton...
Posted Jun 25, 2024
|
3/4
|
Janet Planet
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Intimately aligned with its 11-year-old protagonist’s point of view...
Posted Jun 23, 2024
|
3/4
|
The Bikeriders
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...part anthropological study and part gangster drama.
Posted Jun 20, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...retains the hard edge that made most of these movies register as piercing satires of our reality-television age.
Posted Jun 18, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Tuesday
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...has the incongruous feel of a lovely sort of last rites.
Posted Jun 17, 2024
|
3/4
|
The Crow
(1994)
|
Josh Larsen
|
... dark, rainy, and askew, like Gotham on extreme tilt.
Posted Jun 15, 2024
|
3/4
|
Inside Out 2
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
Less a quick cash grab and more of a natural progression...
Posted Jun 12, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Hit Man
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...mostly feels fashioned for Powell to make a play to be the next Brad Pitt.
Posted Jun 12, 2024
|
3/4
|
About Dry Grasses
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
There isn’t a boring frame in the film.
Posted Jun 08, 2024
|
1.5/4
|
Wish
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...would be instantly forgettable if it weren’t for the bizarre story choices that can only be described as autopopulated hiccups.
Posted Jun 08, 2024
|
3/4
|
Gasoline Rainbow
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...plays with the filmmaking process in intriguing, fruitful ways.
Posted May 24, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
Challengers
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
A love triangle framed by a rectangle...
Posted May 23, 2024
|
4/4
|
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...explores the tension between mercy and wrath, hope and despair.
Posted May 21, 2024
|
3.5/4
|
I Saw the TV Glow
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...has a welcoming weirdness that communicates in a subliminal way.
Posted May 19, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Wildcat
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
You can feel that O'Connor tension—the spiritual agony and the courage—all over Maya Hawke’s face.
Posted May 17, 2024
|
3/4
|
The Fall Guy
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
As a crowd-pleasing, romantic action comedy, driven by the magnetism of its stars, it feels like an increasingly rare treat.
Posted May 10, 2024
|
2.5/4
|
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...well below the standards that have been set by the previous films.
Posted May 09, 2024
|
2/5.4
|
Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...sits somewhere between being a seductive work of slow cinema and a more conventional, narrative-driven drama.
Posted May 02, 2024
|
4/4
|
The People's Joker
(2022)
|
Josh Larsen
|
If Andy Warhol had been raised on Minecraft, he might have made something like The People’s Joker.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
|
3/4
|
Funny Girl
(1968)
|
Josh Larsen
|
William Wyler may have been the perfect choice to center Streisand, for the first time, on the big screen.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
|
3/4
|
We Grown Now
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...foregrounds the joyful, resilient humanity of those who called Cabrini-Green home.
Posted Apr 21, 2024
|
3/4
|
Ben-Hur
(1959)
|
Josh Larsen
|
The Passion of the Heston.
Posted Apr 18, 2024
|
3/4
|
Civil War
(2024)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...a call to de-escalate.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
|
3/4
|
TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR
(2023)
|
Josh Larsen
|
...hits every prescribed, specified mark.
Posted Apr 07, 2024
|