Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is neither very mad nor very multiversal, but it’s likely the most the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever allowed a filmmaker to reach out from its steel cage house style. Despite its bloat, inelegance, and sheer refusal to do anything interesting with the multiverse concept, this is as close as the MCU is going to get to pure horror and an auteur’s vision. Sam Raimi’s influence is invigorating and his winking verve is a balm: Multiverse of Madness brings the splatstick terror and a surprising brutality to its unwieldy superhero story. Minor spoilers ahead…

Following The Witch and The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers completes his cinematic hat trick by stamping his stylish verve upon a violent, metal as hell revenge odyssey. Breathing new life into sword and sorcery, The Northman returns Hamlet back to its Nordic roots with an epic scope, a bigger budget, and a thirstier bloodlust. Powerful visuals and searing performances combine with atavistic, otherworldly details for one of the best films of 2022 so far. Minor spoilers ahead…

Everyone is yelling, everything is exploding, and nothing makes any sense in Michael Bay’s breakneck heist actioner, Ambulance. And that’s exactly why it’s delightful. Detonating what should be a crackling thriller into a deranged, maximalist odyssey, Bay’s latest exercise in spectacle finds a stolen ambulance full of cash careening through Los Angeles. Blockbuster filmmaking where every decision is extra for no reason other than to pull some more exhilaration from your lungs, Ambulance hits with the force of a hundred exploding suns, eventually leaving you sated — and exhausted. Minor spoilers ahead…

Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage in Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Plumbing the shallower end of the “meta” pool for an irreverent, sweet-natured action comedy, the film explores the multitudes within the celebrated actor’s storied career. Cage delivers crowd-pleasing laughs — working best when sharing the screen with Pedro Pascal — that reminds audiences that he’s always been a movie star. Minor spoilers ahead…

Moon Knight brings a pulpy, globe-trotting spirit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Breathing life into the little-known Marc Spector, the Fist of Khonshu, Oscar Isaac commits wholeheartedly to dual roles defined by instability, British cheek, and bloody fisticuffs. A standalone six-episode series, Moon Knight is stuffed to the brim with fascinating possibilities, but only time will tell if it can traverse its tricky tightrope stretched between superheroics and mental illness. Four episodes watched for review. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s SXSW Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of great films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for SXSW: The Lost City, Deadstream, Jethica, and The Cellar. Minor spoilers ahead…

Combining familiar, 70s grindhouse terror with modern sensibilities, X is director Ti West’s best film since 2009’s House of the Devil. With bloody slasher mayhem unspooling on a porn set, West’s latest slice of brutality brings the nudity and gore, but underneath its vintage horror pastiche lies a sex-positive, beating heart that examines the cutting power of jealousy and the unforgiving cruelty of time. Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, and Jenna Ortega form a new Scream Queen triumvirate. Minor spoilers ahead…

Exploding intimate family drama into a multiverse-jumping, martial arts, sci-fi epic, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a blast of inventive genre fiction. Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively and affectionately known as just Daniels, follow up their feature debut of Swiss Army Man with lunatic glee, stretching the limits of visual and kinetic storytelling to its absolute breaking point. Steadied with the incredible - and very game - cast of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and James Hong, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the most fun you’ll have at the movies this year. Minor spoilers ahead…

Breathing cinematic life into Min Jin Lee’s sweeping Pachinko is the new Apple TV series of the same name, which faithfully touches upon the novel’s themes of identity, acceptance, and survival: the story of a family tree shaken by the capricious hands of fate and the wounds of intergenerational trauma. It’s also one of the best new shows of 2022. Read my full review for The Playlist here.

Welcome to my coverage of 2022’s SXSW Film Festival! This year, I’ll actually be in Austin, Texas in-person to cover the festival for four days. This year’s festival sees a variety of exciting offerings, with highlights including the new Daniels sci-fi mind-bender Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ti West’s new horror flick X, and Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, plus much more. Below, you’ll find my entire coverage, including a dispatch of capsule reviews. All reviews in viewing order…

Within the glut of modern superhero fiction on the big screen, Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a stylish, revitalizing tonic. A coming-of-age story grafted onto a pitch-black noir, the film plants the seeds for The World’s Greatest Detective and strikes at the beating hearts of Batman, the Waynes, and Gotham City. Under a slowly unspooling mystery and a bevy of comic book influences, Reeves launches the Caped Crusader back into the limelight of his own franchise, delivering a new, definitive Batman mythos. Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz shine. Minor spoilers ahead…

With his latest film Kimi, Steven Soderbergh appropriates the inelegance of pandemic dramas and tech gimmicks to craft a crackling paranoid thriller. With potency in the metaphors between the lines of its fleet predictability, Kimi bubbles with rage, teems with Soderbergh’s meticulous craft, and soars with a great Zoë Kravitz performance. Minor spoilers ahead…

Another year. Another glorious mashup edit. This is A Year in Film 2021. Over 60 films in three-and-a-half minutes, this video mashup pays tribute to the movies of last year. From big franchise hits to indie gems, 2021 proved that not even the pandemic can stop the progress of great filmmaking. Before we dive into 2022, grab a seat and some popcorn and celebrate the cinema of 2021 one last time.

Rebecca Hall continues her streak of blistering performances in Andrew Semans’ harrowing Sundance psychodrama. A tale about motherhood, hidden pasts, and the limits of control, Resurrection unspools a single mother’s crushing secret in a steely structure that belies its brazen, outrageous horror. Every Sundance has that one Midnight film that lays worms in your brain, and Resurrection is this year’s culprit: a bloody, twisted ride with shocking revelations. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my first dispatch from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of great films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for Sundance’s cavalcade of one-word titles: The Princess, Fresh, Master, Dual, and Watcher. Minor spoilers ahead…

My 2022 Sundance Film Festival coverage begins here. In 2017, the pseudonymous Kogonada made waves at Sundance with his intimate character drama, Columbus. Five years later, the prominent video essayist and filmmaker has returned with After Yang, a meditative sci-fi stunner no less affecting than his beautifully-wrought debut. A deeply emotional examination of identity, purpose, and the memory of all things, After Yang tackles its themes — and its surprising thread on what it means to be Asian and Asian American — with grace and craft. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my coverage of 2022’s Sundance Film Festival! Once again, Sundance has gone all-virtual usual, this time due to a resurgent COVID variant. This year’s festival sees a variety of exciting offerings, including a harrowing Midnight slate. Other highlights include Joachim Trier’s conclusion to his “Oslo Trilogy” The Worst Person in the World, a new sci-fi tale from Kogonada, and a twisted thriller starring Rebecca Hall. Below, you’ll find my entire coverage, including a dispatch of capsule reviews. All reviews in viewing order…

Ghostface is back and meaner than ever. The first entry in the franchise without Wes Craven at the helm, Scream combines a fresh cast with legacy characters for a bloody, ruthless whodunnit. Its winking genre-savviness isn’t quite as skewering or clever as it thinks it is, but Scream’s latest stewards of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett carve out a new brand of brutality while paying humble respect to the spirit of Wes Craven. It feels good to be back in Woodsboro. Minor spoilers ahead…