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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(2024)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Miller’s technical craft is almost always on full display, but Furiosa lacks the sheer spectacle of Fury Road. The film is nearly a half-hour longer, but the action feels smaller.
Posted May 30, 2024
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Happy Together
(1997)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Wong’s commitment to the tedious nature of his film’s core romance highlights a key pillar of the 90s LGBTQ experience. Many of us know what it’s like to give partners significantly more chances than they deserve.
Posted Apr 29, 2024
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Chutney Popcorn
(1999)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The film’s greatest triumph is the way Ganatra breaks down seemingly impassable messiness, making an impassioned case for the power of love to persist under the harshest circumstances.
Posted Apr 25, 2024
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Dune: Part Two
(2024)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Villeneuve spends so much time capturing the feel of Arrakis that he sometimes forgets that the audience needs to feel something toward Paul, perhaps the weakest character among the principal cast.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
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The Zone of Interest
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The deafening silence that lies at the core of The Zone of Interest is nauseatingly powerful, an impressive feat of filmmaking within a well-trodden genre.
Posted Feb 14, 2024
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Saltburn
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Saltburn is pretty and plenty of its audience will delight in being able to say they were in on the joke whenever the film resurfaces on social media. A viral movie is not necessarily a good movie.
Posted Jan 22, 2024
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Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The Dreamer is a lazy victory lap from a man with nothing else of value to offer the world beyond self-congratulatory musings on his own legacy, a lethargic effort aimed solely at fueling the far-right grievance industrial complex for another week.
Posted Dec 31, 2023
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Roadblock
(1951)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Director Harold Daniels assembles all the pieces of a rich noir thriller, but Roadblock never really builds on its compelling deconstruction of American capitalism.
Posted Dec 20, 2023
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Godzilla Minus One
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Godzilla Minus One is a breathtaking tour-de-force for the power of cinema itself, a much-needed reminder of how good it feels to sit in a movie theater when studios actually invest in work that respects the humanity of its audience.
Posted Dec 13, 2023
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The Marvels
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Somehow, against all odds, the film’s lean 105-minute runtime feels bloated and overwrought, a paint-by-numbers embarrassment from a company that cannot seriously claim to care about art. Its penchant for humor aside, the MCU is now thoroughly a joke.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Priscilla
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Coppola delivers a sleek narrative well-suited for her skills, a surface-level reading of a drug-addicted superstar who owes most of his success to the phalanx coddling his every move while safeguarding the means of production.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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Remy & Arletta
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The real triumph of the film is Wittman’s ability to remind her audience of the whimsical feelings that young queer love can bring to any of us blessed, or cursed, enough to have experienced it for ourselves.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Bottoms is one of the greatest high school narratives of the twenty-first century, a triumph of queer cinema.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Summer Hours
(2008)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The film likely carries greatest appeal for people who can relate to the impermanence of our formative years, but Assayas doesn’t exactly lean on nostalgia to get his point across, always looking toward the future.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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Made in Hong Kong
(1997)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Chan crafts a beautifully bleak tragedy that’s bound to resonate with anyone who understands the natural primal rage that surfaces upon a realization that the cards will always be stacked against them.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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Barbie
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Robbie spends so much time playing second fiddle to other characters that her emotional payoff ends up leaning on audience nostalgia more than it has any right to. Her Barbie is everything, and nothing at all.
Posted Jul 20, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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McQuarrie’s competent craftsmanship is perpetually at odds with the reality that this film isn’t as fun as it could have been, a frantic experience lacking the unadulterated joy of its predecessors.
Posted Jul 10, 2023
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The Flash
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The whole experience perpetually comes across like a first draft that nobody cared to revise, exuding the same sloppy mediocrity that’s defined the canon-level disgrace known as the DCEU.
Posted Jun 27, 2023
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Cold Water
(1994)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Assayas delivers a timeless slice of youth, powered by two emotionally raw performances from his young actors, as well as a killer score. Cold Water doesn’t necessarily reinvent the genre, but it’s a compelling narrative to spend time with.
Posted Jun 09, 2023
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Weekend
(2011)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Haigh produces one of the best defenses of the fleeting temporality that often defines gay relations, a film that captures the joys of hookup culture alongside its many real tropes.
Posted Jun 08, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Across the Spider-Verse is quite possibly the most beautiful animated film ever made, a powerful testament to the sheer might of blockbuster filmmaking in possession of more than an iota of ambition.
Posted Jun 05, 2023
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The Innocent
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The Innocent thoroughly marches to the beat of its own drum, a tender comedy that finds ample meaning within the simple mechanics of narrative.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Vol. 3 is not a stellar sendoff by any means, but Gunn delivers some of the most ambitious filmmaking of the MCU’s post-Endgame era.
Posted May 05, 2023
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All I Desire
(1953)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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All I Desire could have been a damning indictment on the forced idealism of suburbia, instead conforming to a 1950s audience who weren’t ready to see the dream of the middle class crushed before their eyes.
Posted Apr 25, 2023
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Criss Cross
(1948)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Criss Cross basks in noir’s proclivity to deconstruct the flawed nature of man, powered by Lancaster’s innate charm finally that’s confronted with its own limitations.
Posted Apr 18, 2023
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie seems genuinely concerned with putting on an authentic experience for children and their parents alike. The first-rate production values almost redeem this bland, soulless blockbuster.
Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Honor Among Thieves has some of the best practical sets in recent memory, a delightful playground for the eager cast to work their magic. Pine and company are clearly having a blast.
Posted Mar 30, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Chapter 4 is not a narratively ambitious film. The overstuffed runtime is buoyed by exceptional fight sequences, as well the relief that the franchise seems to understand its own limitations.
Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Fury of the Gods feels oddly empty for a film with far too many characters, coasting solely off any remaining goodwill earned by its predecessor. This narrative tries to pretend it has a heart to cover up the overabundant sense of nothing at its core.
Posted Mar 21, 2023
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Babylon
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Babylon is an easy film to hate. Chazelle’s work is sloppy, arrogant, and self-indulgent bordering on masturbatory, but also irritatingly beautiful and hard to get out of one’s head.
Posted Feb 27, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Quantumania represents an embarrassing low point for the MCU, a soulless cash-grab that debases the very idea of cinema itself. A just world would never allow the superhero genre to recover from such an artistically bankrupt abomination.
Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Tár
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Field’s pseudo-intellectual script betrays a spectacular exposition on power’s corrosive rot on the genius of the soul, though Blanchett remains perpetually able to pick up the pieces of his shoddy reactionary mess.
Posted Feb 13, 2023
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Titanic
(1997)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Cameron’s greatest strength is his unrelenting drive to amass a spectacle fitting of his source material. Titanic is a testament to a time when film tried to step outside the confines of the screen and change the very world around its walls.
Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Corsage
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Corsage wears some of its flaws on its sleeves. The desire for the film to be more than simply competent operates on the same wavelength as Elisabeth’s longing for a breath of life beyond the walls of her existence.
Posted Jan 18, 2023
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Avatar: The Way of Water
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Cameron often seems conflicted with the idea that his fun on Pandora might need to function as something resembling a narrative you would find in a movie, a notion that might be a problem if not for the film’s breathtaking beauty.
Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Happiness
(1965)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Varda takes great care with each frame of her lusciously shot film while presenting a nuanced perspective on polyamory that eschews the pearl-clutching ethics of non-monogamy that consumes far too many narratives on the subject.
Posted Dec 12, 2022
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Mickey: The Story of a Mouse
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Mickey: The Story of a Mouse is entertaining propaganda that should appeal to Disney superfans while only superficially engaging with the realities of Mickey’s status as the bastion of American capitalism.
Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Coogler puts all the pieces together in a way that makes Wakanda Forever feel like more of an epic than its predecessor, even if the special effects don’t necessarily support that thesis.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Dracula A.D. 1972
(1972)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Lee and Cushing barely share the screen together, a shortcoming that sinks the entire experience far more than its forgivable campy aesthetics.
Posted Oct 27, 2022
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Black Adam
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Black Adam squanders the DCEU’s meatiest moral quandary with an atrocious script hellbent on saying absolutely nothing interesting about its narrative or stacked roster of characters. It’s quite astonishing how boring this movie really is.
Posted Oct 22, 2022
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The Man I Love
(1946)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Walsh’s feature is a train wreck of unnecessary subplots entirely redeemed by Lupino’s mesmerizing performance and the highly effective jazz score.
Posted Jul 28, 2022
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Thor: Love and Thunder
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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There is no imperative driving Love and Thunder beyond its obligations to the gods of content, an empty shell of a film covered up with endless jokes and attractive people standing in front of exceedingly bland green screens.
Posted Jul 08, 2022
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Double Indemnity
(1944)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The murder isn’t the result of a battle between good and evil, but rather a natural response to a system that had no place for either Phyllis or Neff, both pawns in someone else’s game. Capitalism is the true villain of Double Indemnity.
Posted Jun 27, 2022
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Top Gun: Maverick
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Top Gun: Maverick is an expertly paced testament to the power of practical effects. Cruise’s tireless devotion to blockbuster filmmaking bleeds through the screen in every scene, a modern cinematic marvel.
Posted May 25, 2022
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Ricky Gervais: SuperNature
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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It's not particularly complicated to see why Gervais is so fascinated by trans people and social media criticism directed at anti-LGBTQ comedians. He doesn’t really have anything else to talk about, a pathetic display of artistic laziness.
Posted May 24, 2022
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Downton Abbey: A New Era
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The film’s pacing is perpetually rushed, scenes awkwardly written to accommodate characters with nothing else to do, the supporting bench overstuffed with far too many returnees.
Posted May 20, 2022
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Maurice
(1987)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Director James Ivory understands the political implications of his film better than anyone. Maurice rises above its predictable narrative through its resounding commitment to the idea that happiness will always triumph over a life in the closet.
Posted May 17, 2022
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Our Father
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The story is powerful enough to justify the experience, but Our Father hardly does right by the material with its overproduced delivery.
Posted May 09, 2022
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
(2022)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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The Multiverse of Madness is a disgrace to the idea that the MCU actually cares about building characters, a slap in the face to anyone who dared invest themselves in the idea of Wanda as anything more than a disposable commodity for all these years.
Posted May 09, 2022
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Daisies
(1966)
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Ian Thomas Malone
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Much of Daisies’ charm stems from Cerhová and Karbanová’s impeccable chemistry, often moving in complete synchronicity with one another while their characters remain fundamentally unaligned with each other.
Posted May 04, 2022
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