Movie Reviews and Other Writings

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is about Lars and Sigrit, a band of Icelandic musicians who hope to make it big at Eurovision. Because of sheer dumb luck, the band actually gets their chance at the big show. They become the plucky underdogs of the competition while dealing with their long unsaid and gestating feelings for one another. The film stars Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Demi Lovato, Mikael Persbrandt, Graham Norton,

Miss Juneteenth is about Turquoise, a single mother and former Miss Juneteenth pageant winner, who is struggling to get her daughter, Kai, interested in the pageant. She also has to make ends meet by working at a bar and part time at a funeral home. All while fighting to get the money owed by her estranged husband and Kai's father, Ronnie. The film stars Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson, Alexis Chikaeze, Lori, Hayes, Marcus M. Mauldin, Liz Mikel, Akron Watson, and Phyllis Cic

Da 5 Bloods is a film about four black Vietnam vets who return to Vietnam to find the remains of their friend and squad leader and a chest of gold they left behind, but it's the baggage they bring with them into Vietnam that weighs them down. Getting in isn't as easy as getting out, as they find the war may be over, but the memories still live with the people they meet. It stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Mélanie Thierry, Pa

The Last Days of American Crime is about taking its title literally. Some scientist has figured out a signal to send to brains in order to stop criminal behavior. Graham Bricke is a career criminal and wants to escape to Canada in order to avoid the signal. Kevin Cash is a mobster's son who says he not only can get Bricke into Canada, but he can make him a billionaire in the process if they can pull off one last heist. The film stars Edgar Ramírez, Michael Pitt, Anna Brewster

Shirley is a fictionalized account of a year in which a young couple, Fred and Rose, stay at the home of Professor Stanley Hyman and writer Shirley Jackson. Rose is suddenly relegated to becoming a housekeeper and minder of Shirley who never leaves the house and has bouts of depression. The two eventually form a bond as Fred and Rose's relationship becomes strained and Shirley becomes more invested in the story she's writing based on a woman that went missing from the college