Movie Reviews and Other Writings

Radioactive is the story of Marie Curie's scientific career and personal life with her husband Pierre. The film highlights the struggle as Marie fights for her place in the scientific community and in history. The film stars Rosamund Pike, Sam Riley, Simon Russell Beale, Sian Brooke, Aneurin Barnard, Katherine Parkinson, Drew Jacoby, and Anya Taylor-Joy. It is directed by Marjane Satrapi and is written by Jack Thorne. The film is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime. What I

First Cow is the story of Cookie Figowitz, an orphan dreamer, who has made his way from the settled East to the Oregon Territory in hopes of saving up for his dream. Cookie comes across another dreamer, King Lu, a Chinese immigrant, in the forest and the two men strike up a bond of friendship. Though, in order to make their dreams come true they need milk and the only way to get it is by stealing it from a man no one steals from and gets away with it. The film stars Joe Magar

Palm Springs is a film about an ordinary day in which an ordinary wedding will take place. Niles is the boyfriend of bridesmaid Misty. Perfectly ordinary, but slightly off. Niles seems aloof and able to predict actions and when he mingles with maid of honor Sarah, he takes her to a secluded spot to have sex. Though, when the night takes a strange turn and Sarah follows Niles into a cave with a strange glowing light, she is thrust into the time loop that Niles has found himsel

Sonny: Is there any special country you wanna go to? Sal: Wyoming. Sonny: Sal, Wyoming's not a country. I remember seeing Dog Day Afternoon in one of my first big pushes at the film canon. I think my plan was to watch the five nominees for Best Picture each year between 1970 and that present (2008, maybe). I did pretty good with that for a while, but I think after The Deer Hunter (Best Picture winner for 1978), I picked certain films out rather than drowning in some of the me

The Old Guard is about a group of immortal warriors who take on black ops jobs that do good in the world. They've been doing it so long that they're very good at it, but not good enough not to get caught in an age of constant surveillance. A pharmaceutical company obtains the footage of their resurrection and hunts them down to unlock the secret of their power. All while the first new recruit in over two hundred years awakens after her "death." The film stars Charlize Theron,

"In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn't want to share... you know what they did?... They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever." - Mr. Chow In 2003 when I decided to dedicate my life to watching movies and maybe one day making them, I knew I had to see as many as possible. I decided that in 2004 I would see every film produced... It didn't h

"Shit, I cry so much sometimes I feel like I'm gonna turn into drops." - Chiron I was lucky enough to see Moonlight in its theatrical run. I loved the trailer and was more excited to see this film than any other in the fall of 2016. It's a memorable screening for me for two reasons. The first is that someone in that audience had a glass jar of something. How do I know? Part way through the film, there was a loud crash, then the sound of a hundred spherical objects cascading

"You?" - A Blind Girl I knew next to nothing about silent film. I knew that the first few decades of film was silence and I knew that the first sound films had a bit of a "tinny" quality to them. It of course made me want to avoid each of them because, "What's a movie without sound and what's sound without the incredible sound quality of now?" Then, in that same film studies class, I was introduced to City Lights. The sheer genius of silent filmmakers is not only in their ing

"No, sir, it's very unfair, especially to your wife." - C.C. Baxter I'm a crusher. I crush on people hard and often. I see someone interesting on the street or out in the world (pre-COVID-19 of course), I've already gone through the courtship, marriage, first fight, makeup, and anniversaries in my head in the 15 seconds of a glance. It's always worse when it's someone I work with because then I have to see them every time I work. If I actually tell them I'm crushing on them,

"Listen to me. We're... This kid on trial here... his type, well, don't you know about them? There's a, there's a danger here. These people are dangerous. They're wild. Listen to me. Listen." -Juror #10 I was a person who used to dismiss old movies, movies made before the glory of the '70s. I often thought them too out of touch, too backward in their thinking, too tame. In the film studies class I took in college, my eyes were opened to some great older films and I needed som