Alci Rengifo
‘Your Friends and Neighbors’: Jon Hamm Becomes an Empathetic Portrait of Upper Class Woes
Amanda Peet • Published on April 2025
If you are beginning to feel the pangs of a midlife crisis, Apple TV+ is always here for comfort and understanding. “Your Friends & Neighbors” is the latest wonderfully-cast, gorgeously-shot series from…
Alex Garland’s ‘Warfare’ Evokes Every Searing Detail of Ray Mendoza’s War Battle Memories
Alex Garland • Published on April 2025
As a sensory experience, Alex Garland’s “Warfare” is one of the most visceral recent examples of cinema’s capacity to place a viewer within a moment. Garland co-directs and wrote the script with…
‘Hacks’: Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder Brilliantly Feud and Dream in Engrossing Fourth Season
Features • Published on April 2025
With great talent can come great force of will, which is one reason why artist underdogs become such natural heroes in drama or comedy. We want to believe that with enough drive, natural…
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Returns for a Final Season That Never Loses Urgency
Cherry Jones • Published on April 2025
Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” has survived the typical cancelling purges common in streaming thanks to its relevance. The writing may have highs and lows, though Elisabeth Moss’ performance remains strong and consistent,…
‘Dying for Sex’: A Superb Michelle Williams Seeks Sexual Liberation With Emotionally Stirring Gusto
Dying for Sex • Published on April 2025
By now it would seem that sex has been explored from every possible angle in media. Then a show comes along like FX’s “Dying for Sex” that feels new by looking at…
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s ‘Freaky Tales’ Is an Ode to Oakland Full of ‘80s Nostalgia and VHS Dreams
Features • Published on April 2025
We just can’t let go of the past. “Freaky Tales” is another headlong dive into 1980s nostalgia, clearly made by millennials who cherish their childhood memories encased in VHS. Directors Anna Boden…
‘A Minecraft Movie’ Brings Its Block-Shaped World To Life With Colorful Humans and a Colorless Story
A Minecraft Movie • Published on April 2025
All that is greenlit must first be I.P. per current studio dictum, so now we get “A Minecraft Movie.” As the title announces, this is the movie adaptation of the 2011 sandbox…
‘The Bondsman’: Kevin Bacon Is a Perfect Antihero in Gory Demon Hunter Romp
Features • Published on April 2025
Kevin Bacon is the cantankerous heart and soul of Amazon’s “The Bondsman.” He’s one of those actors with the range to be the most likable guy in the room and the most…
Peter Cattaneo’s Delightful ‘The Penguin Lessons’ Confronts Fascism and Classism With Wit and Kindness
Features • Published on March 2025
In “The Penguin Lessons,” Steve Coogan plays a character we seem to instantly recognize. He is a teacher who has become jaded and figures he can coast through a cushy new job,…
‘A Working Man’: Jason Statham Punches Through David Ayer’s Latest Dose of Absurd Action
A Working Man • Published on March 2025
A movie like “A Working Man” is pre-designed to function as a crowd experience. You need to see it in a theater, with an audience ready to laugh and holler at the…
‘Death of a Unicorn’: Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega Face Big Pharma in Odd Creature Feature Satire
Alex Scharfman • Published on March 2025
There is such a drought of original content at the box office that you want to sigh with relief when approaching the premise of “Death of a Unicorn.” It’s not fibbing with…
‘The Studio’: Seth Rogen’s Star-Studded Satire Celebrates Hollywood While Skewering Franchise Overkill
Anthony Mackie • Published on March 2025
There are many common misconceptions about how studio films are made. Famous directors are believed to be domineering geniuses conjuring personal visions for the screen, guided by their brilliance. Making movies is more…
‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light’ Lavishly Brings About the Downfall of Henry VIII’s Right Hand
Claire Foy • Published on March 2025
History is made by people. This is hard to forget because of the magnanimous perception power and fame project. The late Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” Booker Prize-winning novels are some of the best…
‘Magazine Dreams’: Jonathan Majors Blurs the Line Between Art and Life in Career-Best Performance as a Raging Bodybuilder
Features • Published on March 2025
Nearly three years after first stirring buzz at major film festivals, “Magazine Dreams” is finally being released with added baggage that only increases the intrigue around its plot. This is one of…
Robert De Niro Transforms Into Dueling Mafia Bosses in Barry Levinson’s Mundane Crime Saga ‘The Alto Knights’
Barry Levinson • Published on March 2025
Barry Levinson’s “The Alto Knights” has the feel of an aged band getting back together to perform their famous hits. It is basically a tired celebration of a classic form of gangster…
‘The Residence’: Uzo Aduba Chases After a White House Killer With Oddball Charm
Features • Published on March 2025
What odd timing for Netflix’s “The Residence.” This oddball murder mystery set in the White House arrives seeming quite innocent, even fantastical, in light of real world political events. Everyone looks so…
‘Dope Thief’ Pairs Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as Huckster Vigilantes Who Cross the Line
Apple TV Plus • Published on March 2025
Apple TV+ demonstrates versatility within its own brand of television with the entertainingly gritty “Dope Thief.” It features the streamer’s taste for moody lighting and despairing situations, but with morbid humor and…
‘Novocaine’: Jack Quaid Becomes an Oddball Hero in Briefly Entertaining Action Romp
Features • Published on March 2025
We have been here before. “Novocaine” is another action romp about a regular guy who somehow gets pulled into a violent set of challenges, revealing the inner strength he did not know…
‘The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie’ Lets Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Go Wild With Zany Glee
Candi Milo • Published on March 2025
Right now we need a good laugh, even if it entails gags about the world facing potential doom. “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” harkens back to a…
‘Black Bag’: Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender Are a Sizzling Duo in Soderbergh’s Seductive Spy Thriller
Black Bag • Published on March 2025
Lazy spy thrillers turn to large action sequences to resolve everything, or when the plot runs out of gas. It is much more difficult to do something like Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag,”…