Category Archives: Reviews
MOVIE REVIEW: Disney’s RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON is fun throwback animation in the spirit of the Disney Afternoon
Posted by Victor Moreno
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON is a fun animated film for the family with lots of replay value for children. As a kid growing up in the 1990s, one of those great feelings I looked forward to every day was
MOVIE REVIEW: THE MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS feels like we’ve been there before.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Ian Samuels and writer Lev Grossman give us another spin on the Groundhog Day formula; this time focusing on a pair of teens on the cusp of adulthood focused on a future that may never come. In the past
MOVIE REVIEW: BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR delivers absurdist laughs in spades in this silly road-trip comedy.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s Barb & Star plays like the love-child of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Austin Powers with a healthy dose of Adult Swim-esque esoteric weirdness. It’s fair to say that BARB & STAR GO TO
[SUNDANCE 2021] MOVIE REVIEW: PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND is an anarchic post-apocalyptic melange of East meets West in Sion Sono’s English-language debut film
Posted by Victor Moreno
Nicholas Cage channels Mad Max and Snake Plissken by way of Death Race 2000’s Frankenstein in this genre-bending, destined to be midnight favorite. When one thinks of filmmaker Sion Sono, one is reminded of his debut film, 2001’s Suicide Club,
[SUNDANCE 2021] MOVIE REVIEW: A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX serves up the idea that the world is a giant simulation for a chosen few, but loses focus in its telling.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Rodney Ascher (Room 237) channels the work of science fiction author Phillip K. Dick in exploring the idea of simulation theory, but that gets muddied with sidetracks with Elon Musk, trenchcoat killers, and self-involved video gaming addicts. It was
[SUNDANCE 2021] MOVIE REVIEW: MASS is a devastating look at those left behind in the wake of a tragedy and the cross they bear in the aftermath.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/director Fran Kranz makes his feature debut with this stunning and heartbreaking portrayal of the parents of the victims of a school shooter meeting the parents of the shooter to try and find a way forward. In the Catholic tradition,
[SUNDANCE 2021] MOVIE REVIEW: CENSOR is a Lynchian character study on the depths to where obsession can lead us.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/Director Prano Bailey-Bond presents a mind-bending Giallo-tinged portrait of a repressed film censor on the edge of a nervous breakdown in Mary Whitehouse’s 1980s England. Film censor Enid (Niamh Algar) takes meticulous pride in her work as a film censor,
MOVIE REVIEW: John Lee Hancock’s THE LITTLE THINGS is a throwback to the 90’s neo-noir thriller genre.
Posted by Victor Moreno
THE LITTLE THINGS feels at home along 90’s procedurals like SEVEN, 8MM, and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but its lead performances by Rami Malek and Denzel Washington make it appointment viewing. One of my favorite genres back when I
MOVIE REVIEW: SAINT MAUD delivers a dark baptism in psychological horror
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/director Rose Glass makes her feature debut following a flawed nurse who might either be going mad or just might be experiencing the ecstasy of being chosen for a higher purpose. History is filled with stories of ordinary figures being
MOVIE REVIEW: PSYCHO GOREMAN is a hilarious send-up of the ’80s kids and an alien on the run’ film genre for the Rick and Morty Generation.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Steven Kostanski crafts a uniquely funny film that’s one part ALF/E.T./My Pet Monster meets Power Rangers on bath salts that somehow manages to be both nostalgic & a one-of-a-kind splatter gorefest One of my favorite feelings as a culture
TV REVIEW: WANDAVISION is a quirky and unique delight that sets an intriguing path forward for the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer Jac Schaeffer and director Matt Shakman have created an engaging and retro throwback to the vaudeville vibe of the classic TV shows of yesteryear; a show whose subtext promises an ominous beginning to the next stage of big-screen Marvel
REVIEW: WONDER WOMAN 1984 is a great throwback to the grandeur of the epic superhero film of the 1980s
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Patty Jenkins channels the Salkind-produced Christopher Reeve Superman films in this bombastic and bigger-than-life follow-up to 2017’s Wonder Woman The opening lines of Patty Jenkins’ WONDER WOMAN 1984 speak to the power of nostalgia and childhood, a time when
REVIEW: NEWS OF THE WORLD delivers an engaging journey of discovery in Tom Hanks’ first outing in a western.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Paul Greengrass transports us in this character piece to the recently post-Civil War United States and one man’s journey to find his place in it. The amazing thing about film and art is its ability to take what has
BLU-RAY REVIEW: THE GODFATHER CODA: THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE is a fitting close to the Godfather saga
Posted by Victor Moreno
Francis Ford Coppola’s restoration and re-edit of THE GODFATHER 3 yields a much better movie and a definitive epilogue for the effort on par with Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux. Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER is unabashedly one of my favorite
FILM REVIEW: THE CRAFT LEGACY doesn’t add much to the legacy of The Craft
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones’ follow-up to the 1996 cult classic The Craft runs short of the compelling characters & storylines of the original with a jumbled film that doesn’t really come together. It’d be very hard to argue that the 1996
BLU-RAY REVIEW: Roninflix delivers a great treat for Halloween with HAUNT Blu-Ray release.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Roninflix’s regular and deluxe releases of the 2019 extreme haunted house slasher film deliver a great package for hardcore fans of the cult favorite, as well as a great regular release to match. I was a big fan of Scott
FILM REVIEW: BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIE FILM works best when it exposes the raging id of America’s far right wing.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Despite the notoriety of Sasha Baron Cohen’s Borat & his political pranks in this sequel, Cohen’s latest really operates best in showing the rise of partisanship in the wake of the global pandemic. It’s hard to believe, but Sasha Baron
(NIGHTSTREAM 2020) FILM REVIEW: AN UNQUIET GRAVE is a haunting meditation of how unchecked grief can turn you into a monster.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Terence Krey’s film is built on two compelling standout performances that anchor this story of grief gone too far. Grief is one of the most powerful forces that one experiences in their lifetime. It can destroy the foundations of
FILM REVIEW: EVIL EYE embraces its cultural roots to tell a relatable tale with a strong Indian influence.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Elan and Rajeev Dassani direct this unique Hindi-influenced supernatural horror from playwright Madhuri Shekar It’s a very difficult struggle for filmmakers to make genre films about different cultures that will appeal to either the original culture the subject matter hails
FILM REVIEW: NOCTURNE is a welcome call-back to the madness of the performance artist horror subgenre.
Posted by Victor Moreno
NOCTURNE invokes films like Suspiria, The Perfection, and Black Swan in this tale of how far an ugly duckling pianist will go to outshine her gifted fraternal twin in this engaging horror film. I’m a big fan of the artist-driven
