Poché Pictures

🎬 1. Premise That Promised Quirk, Delivered Disinterest At its core, Starlet offers a deceptively sweet setup: Jane (Dree Hemingway), a not-quite Hollywood hopeful working at a kitschy vintage store in Lancaster, California, befriends elderly Sadie (Besedka Johnson) after accidentally taking the wrong purse home. We expect an unconventional road trip of emotional growth, generational … Read More ““Starlet” (2012) – A Texas Tale of Friendship That Doesn’t Sparkle (But Does Smell Like Cheap Perfume)” »

🥡 1. Premise That Promised Grit but Served Static Take Out follows Ming, an undocumented Chinese-American day laborer, on a tense night shift delivering take-out in New York City to make enough cash to pay back loan sharks. The film is shot on the cheap with a stripped-down aesthetic—sometimes handheld, often dimly lit—ostensibly to reflect … Read More ““Take Out” (2004) – A Delivery of Grit That Tastes Like Cold Coffee and Regret” »

🪁 1. Premise That Promised Adventure, Delivered PowerPoint Summary The new Disney live-action Peter Pan & Wendy pitches as a reimagining of Tinker Bell glitter and childhood rebellion. Instead it feels like playing a kid’s bedtime story narrated by a bored librarian. The plot beats are all there—Wendy’s wish, Hook’s menace, the Lost Boys, crocodile … Read More ““Peter Pan & Wendy” (2023) – A Fairy Tale That Forgot to Fly (and Crashed into a Hallmark Channel Promo)” »

🕵️ 1. A Legendary Crook with All the Thrill of a Sleepy Budget Seminar The Old Man & the Gun is marketed as a mellow celebration of legendary robber Forrest Tucker—charming, silver-haired, and oddly endearing. But what it delivers is more akin to attending a TED Talk about etiquette mid-heist. Redford’s Tucker is virtually unkillable … Read More ““The Old Man & the Gun” (2018) – A Bank Heist Cuddle Blanket That Shoots Blanks” »

🐲 1. Premise That Aims for Magic, Settles for Soft Serve In Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, we meet Pete (Oakes Fegley), a feral kid who lives with Elliott—the kind-hearted forest dragon—after a car accident. When Pete is found by the kindly forest ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), the story shifts from “adventure with mythical creature” to … Read More ““Pete’s Dragon” (2016) – A Fairy Tale That Forgets to Sparkle (And Smells Like Smoking Wood Chips)” »

Let’s not kid ourselves: The Green Knight is not a movie. It’s a screensaver. A $15-million tone poem that somehow makes beheading, giants, ghosts, talking foxes, and ancient pagan sex cults feel like watching someone read a Latin dictionary by candlelight. Written and directed by David Lowery (who also made A Ghost Story, aka “The … Read More “The Green Knight (2021): A Medieval Quest for Meaning, Pacing, and a Working Flashlight” »

If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to die, become a ghost, and then be condemned to silently watch people cry in wide shots for eternity, A Ghost Story is here to give you that exact experience—without the courtesy of actual death. Directed by David Lowery and starring Casey Affleck as a literal bedsheet, … Read More “A Ghost Story (2017): Boo! Just Kidding. It’s a Pie-Fueled Existential Nap” »

“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” is the kind of film that wears its influences like a thrift-store coat two sizes too big—trying to look vintage but tripping over its own hemline. Directed by David Lowery, who must’ve wandered into a Terrence Malick screening one day and said, “Yes, but what if it were slower?”, this 2013 … Read More “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013): The Art of Staring Quietly at Dust” »

Let me begin with a confession: I wanted to like C’mon C’mon. I really did. Black-and-white indie film? Check. Joaquin Phoenix with a sad beard? Double check. A road movie about human connection and the fragility of modern parenthood? Triple check with a side of therapy. But then I watched it—and what I got was … Read More “C’mon C’mon (2021): A Meditation on Parenthood, Loneliness, and Why Nothing Ever Happens” »

Let’s get this out of the way: Beginners isn’t terrible in the way a Uwe Boll movie is terrible. No, Beginners is the kind of movie that believes it’s curing your soul while slowly making your brain leak out your ears in a gentle, aesthetically pleasing drizzle. Written and directed by Mike Mills, this 2010 … Read More “Beginners (2010): A Movie About Feelings That Forgot to Have Any” »