There’s a scene early in It Comes at Night where a man is blindfolded, led through the woods, and interrogated in a grim, post-apocalyptic whisper. It’s tense, atmospheric, and drenched in dread. You lean forward, heart racing, ready for the nightmare to begin. And then… it never really does. Because in Trey Edward Shults’s high-minded … Read More ““It Comes at Night” (2017) – And By ‘It,’ We Mean ‘Disappointment’” »
Trey Edward Shults’ Waves is not so much a film as it is a cinematic anxiety disorder. It opens with the camera spinning like it’s on bath salts, then spends two hours slamming your head into a locker of generational trauma, teenage hormones, and emotional manipulation—all wrapped in enough Instagram filters to make even Terrence … Read More “Waves (2019): A Two-Hour Panic Attack Drenched in Neon and Pretension” »
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Krisha was originally released in 2015. But in the year 2025, A24 decided to re-release it in gloriously remastered HD—because nothing says “celebrating cinema” like forcing a new generation to relive the emotional equivalent of being trapped in a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a recovering hurricane in … Read More “Krisha (2025 Re-Release): A Family Dinner So Tense It Deserves a Warning Label” »
Alex Garland’s Civil War is a jarring, propulsive, uncomfortable gut-punch of a film masquerading as an action movie but really functioning as a grimly poetic obituary for whatever scraps of unity America had left. It’s the kind of film that doesn’t just want to entertain you—it wants to run a drone strike through your naiveté, … Read More ““Civil War” (2024) – Apocalypse Now, with Selfies” »
Alex Garland’s Annihilation is a film about transformation, self-destruction, and the kind of science fiction that’s supposed to be “deep,” but mostly feels like being stuck in a philosophy major’s fever dream after they’ve watched Stalker, The Tree of Life, and an episode of Planet Earth—all while microdosing mushrooms. It wants to be cerebral, mysterious, … Read More ““Annihilation” (2018) – A Slow, Moody, Shimmering Nap” »
Alex Garland’s Men is one of those films that walks into the room with its collar popped, smoking an unfiltered cigarette labeled “METAPHOR,” and mutters, “You probably won’t get this.” It’s the kind of horror movie that wants to be deep, provocative, and symbolic—but ends up feeling like a drunk art student screaming “THE PATRIARCHY!” … Read More “Men (2022): Alex Garland’s Misfire of Biblical Proportions” »
Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is what happens when 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner have a minimalist, British baby who grew up reading Philip K. Dick while listening to Aphex Twin. It’s sleek. It’s terrifying. It’s smarter than you. And by the time the credits roll, it’s already halfway through writing its own graduate … Read More “Ex Machina (2014): Come for the AI, Stay for the Existential Dread and Abs of Doom” »
Noah Baumbach’s White Noise is the cinematic equivalent of being stuck on hold with an insurance company while an existential philosophy professor whispers Don DeLillo quotes into your other ear. Adapted from DeLillo’s “unfilmable” 1985 novel—a label Baumbach boldly accepted as a challenge, then promptly proved accurate—White Noise is a surrealist black comedy that thinks … Read More “White Noise (2022): An Apocalyptic Art Film That Drowns in Its Own Static” »
Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) sounds like a book you’d buy at an airport Hudson News because it had a Pulitzer finalist sticker on it and then abandon in the seat-back pocket by page 12. Unfortunately, it’s a film—one that plays like an emotionally constipated dinner party where everyone has a liberal … Read More “The Meyerowitz Stories (2017): A Dysfunctional Family Portrait Best Left in the Attic” »
Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America is a film that tries to be a screwball comedy for the modern age—but forgets to bring the comedy, the screwball, or even a functioning plot. Co-written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig (who also stars), this 2015 indie calamity is like watching someone try to recreate Bringing Up Baby after downing … Read More “Mistress America (2015): A Screwball Comedy That Screws Up Everything Except the Budget” »