A Mosquito In The Ear sounds like one of those indie titles where you think, that’s original, that’s memorable, whoever came up with that should get a raise. Considering how many films we have named after super basic things, like Memory, brand identity right off the bat is a win.. Yet within the context of the film itself, the meaning lands with surprising weight. Adapted from Andrea Ferraris’ graphic novel Una Zanzara nell’Orecchio and directed by Nicola Rinciari, the film finds surprising depth in a deceptively simple premise. A little Indian girl explains to a nun at her orphanage what … Continue reading Going In Blind: A Mosquito In The Ear

This one has its heart in the right place. Dana Larson is putting himself on the line in a battle to help those with drug addiction problems, and not in the abstinence market, but in harm reduction. He runs a hotly contested store in Canada, where their rules are slightly different, but as we learn through Searching For Drug Peace, Karen’s are not simply an American problem. The feeling deep inside for someone to get involved in things, indignantly, believing that they have an innate right to maintain morality as they see fit, has bled into Canada, and Dana has … Continue reading Going In Blind: Searching For Drug Peace

I pushed this out, since Daniel Roher co-directed this as well as one of my new obsessions in theaters right now, Tuner. He’s also the director of Navalny, the Oscar winning feature about the Russian opposition leader, who has since tragically passed. And now, we just casually let Russia occupy a chunk of a sovereign nation. But by all means, Chat GBT is going to end us. Not our indifference to totalitarianism, but generative AI. Roher also directed Blink, the documentary about the family of kids who were diagnosed with progressive vision loss, so their parents took them on a … Continue reading The AI Doc Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist

The only truly good thing that came out of Greenland 2: Migration is the fact it prompted me to finally watch the first one, which was surprisingly much better than I expected. So, I went into the sequel with pretty high hopes, only for those hopes to get obliterated almost immediately. Greenland 2 feels like a sequel made by people who didn’t really understand why the first film worked, but assumed audiences wanted “more”, because Hollywood has confused bigger with better for so long you’d think they were in Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas, but not in California, and … Continue reading Greenland 2: Migration

There’s a version of this review where I spend half the time complaining that Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War isn’t trying to be Mission: Impossible, but honestly, that says more about modern criticism than it does about the film itself. This weekend features two films based on television shows, but the difference is one of them is making a giant leap to the big screen, while the other understands exactly what it is. Ghost War is not trying to reinvent espionage cinema, launch a billion dollar franchise reboot, or convince audiences that John Krasinski should be hanging off airplanes … Continue reading Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War

Normally, I have to weigh these celebrity centric documentaries, these career retrospectives, as how truthful, honest, open, or journalistic in nature they are.But also, sometimes, it is just OK to like something. Sometimes, the project itself almost erases the extra checkboxes it doesn’t check, because it accomplishes something else. What Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) has achieved here is the understanding that his good friend, Martin Short, is possibly the most well respected and liked person in Hollywood.This film is absolutely a simple, lovely, career retrospective for MArtin Short, and very much content creation for Netflix, who will likely launch … Continue reading Marty: Life Is Short

Just to be clear, this is the review of the film Greenland, not a treatise on American foreign relations with Greenland. I remember thinking that January 2026 was either the best or worst time to open Greenland 2, and it turned out to be the latter of the two options. However, I know there’s a deep amount of lore, and I did not want to feel like I was missing out. Gerard Butler films are known for the intricacies in their screenplays, worlds built carefully and slowly over time. So, join me as I step foot into the pandemic success … Continue reading Greenland

Truthfully, nature documentaries are not my most favorite thing in the world. Every year, around Earth Day, the streamers all start circling each other like they’ve entered some kind of Planet Earth Thunderdome. This year, Netflix rolled out A Gorilla Story at nearly the exact same time Disney Plus launched their annual “look how beautiful and terrifying nature is” feature, and much like two alpha silverbacks crashing into each other over territory, only one really walked away with my attention. Sorry Josh Gad. Not everything is better in summer. Slight edge to A Gorilla Story. The documentary follows a clan … Continue reading A Gorilla Story (2026)

I have certainly reviewed films and been the first to do so for Rotten Tomatoes, asking them to create a page for the film. However,in every instance, there’s always been an IMDb page to link to. This is the first time I’ve watched a film with apparently no IMDb page, or one the algorithm can find. So weird. Heavy Healing, which like every other doc at Reel Abilities, landed with audio description. It is largely about how music you wouldn’t naturally find soothing, actually is for so many people. This manages to get a lot of musicians involved from various … Continue reading Reel Abilities Film Festival 2026: Heavy Healing

What an appropriate title, even though I’m not entirely sure it fits the film, or tells you anything about this coming of age tale, but it definitely is appropriate for a subset of reasons. One of my readers looped me in a conversation on the lack of nuance anymore about being average, or being (as the kids say) “mid”. If someone asks me “How was it?”, I feel like “It was OK” gets dissected into my tone, body language, inflection, and beaten to death until the person who asked has the binary answer they are looking for, which is “should … Continue reading Going In Blind: The Midway Point

I’m finally getting around to Dream Touch Believe, with hesitancy, because while I did like the documentary, it also was my least favorite. I’ve tried marinating on why. Structurally, it is a sound, heartfelt work. A daughter is directing a film following her father’s life. Michael Araagelo, a fine art creator, who hasn’t let blindness or missing limbs lost in Vietnam stop him from creating art. I’m blind, so this should hit me hard, which at times, i related. he talks about early on, how people would try to show him things, and he kept thinking how unnecessary since he … Continue reading Reel Abilities Film Festival 2026: Dream Touch Believe

DollI feel like I trudge through Shudder titles every year hoping to land the Late Night With The Devil, Oddity, Birth/Rebirth, or Good Boy, the films that transcend the typical horror slop that seems to traverse to Shudder on a regular basis. I’ve done some films a kindness, and not reviewed them, partially because they didn’t have audio description, and partially because I just don’t have the time to review hundreds of films without audio description.However, Dolly does have audio description, and it is even readily available on the AMC Plus platform. How about them apples? Dolly is like if … Continue reading Dolly

Admittedly, if I had been accosted prior to screening this with the need for an immediate answer to the question “Who is Linda Perry, and what is she known for?” I would have struggled. I know she’s a musician, unquestionably, but attaching her to a song? A band? I couldn’t have done it. That isn’t a deal breaker for me, as last year I fell in love with Janis Ian through her documentary, and I truthfully didn’t know she existed. I’m not a music critic, it is less weird for me to have gaps in my knowledge of musicians than … Continue reading Going In Blind: Linda Perry: Let It Die Here