Robot Dreams movie review: sighs of the machines
Immerse yourself in pure unalloyed joy with a sweet, deceptively simple carbon-silicon platonic romance. Even the poignant bittersweetness of this emotional roller coaster is affirming and uplifting.
2023 releases
Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve) movie review: cold hard crash
A stark, haunting adventure, viscerally terrifying, full of despair, informed by the moral and philosophical quandaries of what it takes to sustain oneself in body and spirit in impossible conditions.
Maestro movie review: changing the tune, masterfully (London Film Festival 2023)
Oh, frabjous film! Bradley Cooper’s astonishing high-wire act feels classic and modern at the same time: immersive and impressionistic, breathtakingly bold. A kick in the pants to mainstream cinema.
Godzilla Minus One movie review: the horrors of the past, reconsidered
The king of all monsters gets a period-piece reboot, and it’s the closest the series has gotten since to the sincere, unironic horrors of the 1954 original. No comfy escape from terrible reality here.
Dream Scenario movie review: (un)likely boogeyman
Nicolas Cage is comedic in a dry, subtle, nakedly painful way, playing with his “Cage rage” persona; his performance is profoundly moving. I only wish the film was more deserving of what he’s doing.
Trolls Band Together movie review: cheerful kindness, weirdified
There is gentle nonstop chaos in the trippy candy-colored assault. Genuinely good-natured, sweet without being sappy, more strange (in a good way) than kids’ movies usually are, and hard to dislike.
When Evil Lurks (Cuando acecha la maldad) movie review: what rough beast…
The visceral meatiness of this demonic-possession–infectious-zombie combo hits like a blow. The social and political context for the grotesquerie is even more appalling, and so very pertinent.
Killers of the Flower Moon movie review: blood for oil (London Film Festival 2023)
A great American filmmaker on a memory-holed chapter of American history at the intersection of colonialism and toxic masculinity. Massive, epic, and essential. Scorches the earth of our complacency.
Foe movie review: scenes from an apocalyptic marriage (London Film Festival 2023)
The young cast is mesmerizing, but all this dusty dystopia has is vibes and vague metaphors. It only just barely touches on the potential of its science-fiction ideas to explore the human condition.
Cat Person movie review: her too
The cringe of modern relationships stinks up this antiromance. Its bald truths, all but ignored in pop culture, about how women navigate romantic and sexual relationships with men, demand to be heard.
