Tag: audio description

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Not Suitable For Work: Season 1

John Stark

I enjoy Mindy Kaling. I like the things she’s produced so far. I like her as a talent. So whenever I hear she has a new show, I do admittedly have a piqued interest. Not Suitable for Work immediately hit a snag with advocates for people with allergies, since one of the episodes has a rather unfortunate take on someone having an allergic reaction, which admittedly is not the way I think anyone should present something like that. Granted, this isn’t a children’s television series, which would make it even worse if they were trying to sell that kind of … Continue reading Not Suitable For Work: Season 1

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Avatar: Fire And Ash

John Stark

I suppose I should start this by admitting that I didn’t experience Avatar: Fire and Ash the way James Cameron probably intended. I didn’t see it on the biggest screen imaginable. I waited until it arrived on Disney+, and then I watched it on my phone. Well, “watched” is a strong word for a blind film critic. I can’t see the screen anyway, so the size of it doesn’t really matter to me. What did matter was finally getting to experience it with the absolutely tremendous audio description track produced by Deluxe and narrated by William Michael Redman. This is … Continue reading Avatar: Fire And Ash

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Scrubs: Season 10

John Stark

A lot of time has passed since the premiere of Scrubs, and yet still no one has taken Zach Braff up on the offer to be Superman, to bleed the irony from his role as J.D. in a show whose theme song is recognized for repeating, “I’m No Superman.” Zach Braff, of course, has gone on to have quite a career because of Scrubs, both in front of and behind the camera. And the show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, has also found tremendous success, most recently with the Emmy darling Shrinking. The rest of the returning cast includes Donald Faison, Sarah … Continue reading Scrubs: Season 10

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Obsession

John Stark

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but YouTube has arrived. It took a while, but all of a sudden it seems like YouTube is front and center this year, thanks to a couple of directors sending their creative goods into cinemas, including Kane Parsons, who leapt from YouTube into Backrooms, as well as Markiplier, who self-distributed his Iron Lung film earlier this year. While these directors are not the first to make the leap from YouTube, last year Chris Stuckmann finally released Shelby Oaks, and the RackaRacka duo has already broken through with Talk to Me and Bring Her Back. … Continue reading Obsession

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The Wonderfully Weird World Of Gumball: Season 1

John Stark

When I first sat down to see what Hulu and Disney+ were doing with The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, I honestly didn’t expect to watch all 20 episodes of the first season. But I did. Every single one of them. I can’t say I remember every episode perfectly because I watched them over a stretch of time instead of binging the whole thing in one sitting, but next season I’ll probably do exactly that. At only about 11 minutes per episode, you’re really looking at around three and a half to four hours for the entire season, which makes … Continue reading The Wonderfully Weird World Of Gumball: Season 1

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Dead Calm (1989)

John Stark

I chose Dead Calm randomly this year because of the passing of Sam Neill. While looking through his filmography to rank my favorite performances, I realized the biggest omission on my part was Dead Calm. Of all the films I hadn’t seen, this was the one that stood out as the most essential. So in honor of Sam Neill, I’m finally reviewing the 1989 psychological thriller Dead Calm, directed by Phillip Noyce, who would later go on to direct Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Bone Collector, and Salt. That’s a pretty solid résumé. Dead Calm is … Continue reading Dead Calm (1989)

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Sisu: Road To Revenge

John Stark

The first Sisu ended up being one of my top ten films of the year it came out because it felt like a breath of fresh air. Sure, it’s a movie that borrows heavily from the John Wick style of filmmaking. One unstoppable man on a path of revenge who will do whatever it takes to make the people who wronged him pay for their crimes. It’s a formula that’s worked incredibly well for John Wick, giving us four Keanu Reeves films and a spinoff starring Ana de Armas. So it makes sense that Finland would want to keep this … Continue reading Sisu: Road To Revenge

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Undertone

John Stark

We need to have a conversation about elevated horror and what that term even means anymore. Especially now, at a point where horror isn’t just getting critical acclaim, it’s actually becoming part of the Academy Awards conversation. Last year alone we saw horror films earning major nominations, Amy Madigan winning an Oscar for a horror performance, Jacob Elordi landing a nomination for playing Frankenstein’s monster, and even Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, an unapologetically grotesque body horror film, breaking through for Best Picture. This year, there’s already a serious conversation around Obsession and Backrooms, with Obsession looking like a legitimate Best … Continue reading Undertone

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Matlock: Season 2

John Stark

When we first heard CBS was rebooting Matlock with Kathy Bates, I think most of us assumed it was just going to be another gender-swapped remake. We figured it would play out a lot like the old Andy Griffith classic, with Bates simply stepping into the role of a kindly Southern lawyer who just happened to be extraordinarily good at practicing law. That’s partly true, except somebody had the genuinely brilliant idea of capitalizing on the Matlock name and all of its brand recognition while creating an entirely new series around it. I’m actually surprised more studios haven’t tried this … Continue reading Matlock: Season 2

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Solo Mio

John Stark

I’m not entirely sure what about Solo Mio makes it a faith-based film, but Angel Studios has backed the Kevin James Italian romp for whatever reason. Regardless of who is backing it, though, I’m glad it got made, because Kevin James rarely gets decent material to work with. A lot of his films, especially the Happy Madison productions, consistently use him as a punchline. James is rarely asked to emote or play an actual human being. He’s almost always either the joke, in on the joke or the butt of the joke, sometimes all three at once. Solo Mio gives … Continue reading Solo Mio

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Young Sherlock: Season 1

John Stark

I remember when I first saw that Prime Video had a hot new series called Young Sherlock, and I rolled my eyes. Do we really need one more Sherlock Holmes adaptation? Is that what the world has been asking for? One more person’s take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective? Apparently the answer is yes, because Young Sherlock is far better than it has any right to be. A big part of that comes down to Guy Ritchie. I don’t say that nearly as often as I used to. Back when he burst onto the scene with Lock, Stock … Continue reading Young Sherlock: Season 1

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Summer Sparks

John Stark

Did you know Roku makes movies? They do. Over Christmas, I reviewed the disappointing Jordin Sparks Christmas film they put out, and earlier this year, I tried to sit through some ill-fated road trip comedy with Sophia Bush and Lauren Holly. My heart and soul just weren’t in it, so I passed on reviewing that one. I can’t even remember what the movie was called or anything else about it, except that it involved a mother-daughter road trip. I remember being shocked that Lauren Holly’s career is still somehow chugging along, and I’m always a little sad when I see … Continue reading Summer Sparks

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The Madison: Season 1

John Stark

Taylor Sheridan has always had an interesting relationship with critics. He seems to delight in thumbing his nose at the people who insist they just don’t understand what he’s doing, and to a certain extent, I get it. I enjoy most of his shows. At the same time, enjoying something and believing it belongs in the conversation for the year’s best television are two different things. Awards are about narrowing the field to the very best, and that inevitably leaves a lot of good, even great, television on the outside looking in. Sheridan doesn’t always clear that bar for me, … Continue reading The Madison: Season 1

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They Will Kill You

John Stark

There’s certainly an element of They Will Kill You that feels like someone was watching Only Murders in the Building and thought to themselves, “Hold my beer. I’ve got this.” Then they decided the film should be only in the building and that the murders should take full advantage of an R rating. Because They Will Kill You does basically take place in one building, just like the hit comedy series, and yes, people die. I know that’s shocking for a movie called They Will Kill You. There might be a death or two in here. And I’m sure you’re … Continue reading They Will Kill You

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Amadeus: Series Review

John Stark

I can’t really remember how many times I’ve seen the Academy Award-winning Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman. It was used so frequently throughout my education, sometimes in fragments and sometimes in whole, depending on how old I was at the time. For years, I think I just assumed it was a fairly strong historical account of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of course, Amadeus is based on the play by Peter Shaffer, which was adapted into the 1984 film, and now that play has been adapted again into a five-episode limited series starring Paul Bettany and Will Sharpe, stepping into … Continue reading Amadeus: Series Review

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The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 4

John Stark

I’m more than happy to finally jump in and add my thoughts on The Lincoln Lawyer now that I’m on the Tomatometer. It’s a show I’ve enjoyed watching for four seasons now, and even though it’s heading into its fifth and final season, it’s remained one of Netflix’s most consistently entertaining dramas. Season 4 picks up immediately after the cliffhanger ending of Season 3, with Mickey Haller becoming the prime suspect in a murder after a body is found in the trunk of his Lincoln. That storyline dominates the entire season, forcing Mickey to defend himself against all odds, first … Continue reading The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 4

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Power Ballad

John Stark

I can’t believe it’s been as long as it has since we learned to fall slowly, but John Carney has since made a career out of films using music as their core. The director of Once transitioned from that Academy Award-winning film into the popular Sing Street, my personal favorite Begin Again, the complicated Flora and Son, and now Power Ballad, the newest music-centric film starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas. This one centers around Rick, an older musician who gave up his rock star years when he met a girl, settled down, and became a dad. Now he works … Continue reading Power Ballad

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Toy Story 5

John Stark

I can’t believe we’ve been making Toy Story movies for 31 years. I remember being in a theater as a kid in 1995, watching Toy Story for the first time. I was at that age where I was starting to segue away from playing with toys and into life, or video games, or whatever else you start doing when you get into your teens. But, admittedly, I had a robust childhood. I watched a lot of kids programming, loved my daily intake of cartoons, and yes, I had a bunch of toys and action figures. So, I remember going home … Continue reading Toy Story 5

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Saw X

John Stark

I watched all of the Saw films this year because a friend asked me to. This marathon was made possible by the sad truth that, finally, all of the Saw films were available with audio description on Netflix. Mind you, this franchise has been going on for quite a while. The fact that this was somehow a momentous occasion in 2026 is just another reminder of the entertainment industry’s lackadaisical approach to accessibility. Saw X, being the most recent entry in the franchise, had audio description for its theatrical release. But as someone who had previously only seen the first … Continue reading Saw X

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Little Brother

John Stark

Dysfunctional family comedies have always had an anchor in cinema. They’re practically comfort food because almost everyone has some kind of dysfunction somewhere in the family tree. Maybe it’s an eccentric uncle, an odd cousin, or a grandparent who makes every holiday unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Those little pockets of chaos make these movies relatable because, at the end of the day, we’re all at least a little kooky. This is why we love revisiting the Griswolds and Fockers, why the road trip in Little Miss Sunshine works, or why we’d even entertain the possibility that it is … Continue reading Little Brother

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Half Man: Series Review

John Stark

It would be hypocritical of me not to recommend Half Man because for all six episodes, I felt deeply uncomfortable. As of the writing of this review, my favorite film of 2026 is Blue Film, another project that made me feel deeply uncomfortable. I don’t know what it is about 2026 and this sudden excellence in making audiences squirm, but it seems to be a trend because Half Man is a weirdly exceptional series that I genuinely never want to watch again. That’s not a criticism. It’s also a difficult show to recommend because it is so bleak, so disturbing, … Continue reading Half Man: Series Review

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The Bride

John Stark

I maintain that if I’m going to end up watching a bad film, I would much prefer to watch a film that took risks, made bold choices, and shot the moon, as opposed to something that feels like a thousand other movies, and even in its benign state, still somehow managed to be an utter failure. If you can’t follow a formula, get out of the game. And, no, pandemic era War Of The Worlds was not taking risks. Locking Ice Cube in a room is the opposite of risk taking. What is taking a risk is whatever the hell … Continue reading The Bride

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Mr Holland’s Opus

John Stark

I often find myself tackling new releases, and I rarely ever have the time to come back around to a classic, or a favorite of mine. So, for my birthday, as a gift to myself, as the first birthday being on the TomatoMeter, I wanted to review a film I love. I think all critics have a few films that fall off the beaten path of typical classic fare, which are films that just hit them in the right way, and maybe not the same for everyone. I often cut to the chase nowadays and say my favorite film is … Continue reading Mr Holland’s Opus

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In The Hand of Dante

John Stark

I’d heard about In the Hand of Dante coming out of the Venice Film Festival and knew it hadn’t been especially well received. At the time, though, a lot of the conversation seemed to revolve around the cast and the controversy surrounding their positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict rather than the movie itself. Now that it’s on Netflix, complete with an excellent audio description track from International Digital Center written by Stephen Christopher and narrated by Jamie Lemchek, I finally had the chance to check out Julian Schnabel’s latest film. On paper, this thing should be incredible. It’s produced by … Continue reading In The Hand of Dante

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Never Change

John Stark

Many of us have probably imagined what a high school do-over might look like. Maybe we’d make better choices. Maybe we’d get better grades. Maybe we’d finally talk to the person we spent four years quietly admiring from across the cafeteria. Maybe we’d avoid the mistakes that still occasionally pop into our heads decades later. High school occupies a strange place in our memories. As adults, I’m sure there are things you learned in high school you realize you have yet to use on your own, but there are also skills and knowledge you found missing after you graduated. Why … Continue reading Never Change

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Voicemails For Isabelle

John Stark

I’ve always had a soft spot for a good melodrama. Not necessarily a feel-good movie, but the kind that mixes romance, grief, humor, and heartbreak into a story that asks audiences to spend a couple of hours with characters navigating extraordinary circumstances. Netflix’s Voicemails for Isabel absolutely fits that mold, and more importantly, it understands something that a lot of modern romance dramas seem to have forgotten. In recent years, we’ve seen a wave of adaptations from authors like Colleen Hoover. Films like It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him often begin with tragedy and then build … Continue reading Voicemails For Isabelle

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Hoppers

John Stark

At least as of this review, I’ve seen every single Pixar film, which is an achievement in and of itself. Seeing the complete works of any studio is impressive, even if it’s “just” an animation studio like Pixar. And I don’t think anyone is making the argument that Hoppers belongs at the very top of Pixar’s catalog. I also hope nobody is making the argument that it belongs at the very bottom. Realistically, it’s somewhere in the middle, probably almost smack dab in the center. Pixar has struggled in recent years to create the kind of transcendent works that defined … Continue reading Hoppers

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Imperfect Women: Series Review

John Stark

I wasn’t really sure what to make of Imperfect Women at first. I knew it was adapted from a novel, but then again, that doesn’t mean much nowadays. It seems like every novel is getting adapted because a screenwriter can always change the aspects they don’t like. For example, the original novel takes place in England. This series takes place in California. So the change of location is already central to what was considered necessary to make the series work. Then again, if it had stayed in England, we probably wouldn’t have Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Corey Stoll, all … Continue reading Imperfect Women: Series Review

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Spiral: From The Book Of Saw

John Stark

After a long stretch, there is finally a film in the Saw franchise that climbs back into fresh territory for me, and surprisingly, that film is Spiral. It’s admittedly an odd choice, considering Jigsaw isn’t even in the movie. It’s more of a side story, a departure from the main saga, and I completely understand why some fans don’t connect with it because of that. The movie itself is borderline at times. It’s somewhat predictable, retreads a few familiar ideas, and doesn’t completely escape the shadow of what came before. It might even be a little reductive to point at … Continue reading Spiral: From The Book Of Saw

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Finnegan’s Foursome

John Stark

Edward Burns has spent much of his career exploring family dynamics, Irish heritage, and the baggage people carry from one generation to the next. Finnegan’s Foursome certainly checks all of those boxes. What I didn’t realize until watching it is just how much Burns seems to love golf. And I mean really love golf. Finnegan’s Foursome contains so much golf that it ranks alongside actual golf movies like The Greatest Game Ever Played or Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. The difference is that those films are about golfers. This one isn’t. The story follows the sons and grandkids of a … Continue reading Finnegan’s Foursome

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Chum

John Stark

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to movies about going back into the water, Australia unleashes Chum upon the world. It’s a low-budget, schlocky attempt at a shark horror movie, notably being released by IFC without the cooperation of Shudder, the branch of the company that specifically handles this sort of thing. They didn’t even want it. Shudder probably heard this thing was coming down the pipeline and dodged it, which says a lot considering some of the highly questionable content they’ve already released. Even then, most of their catalog is better than this. Reasonably, most … Continue reading Chum

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No Other Choice

John Stark

Some films arrive at exactly the right moment, and No Other Choice benefits enormously from the period in which it was released. People are struggling to find meaningful employment. They’re struggling to keep up with rising costs. They’re struggling to maintain the basic financial stability that previous generations often took for granted. I recently read a BuzzFeed article collecting comments from shoppers, and one person joked that they knew someone was rich if they could afford to buy cherries at the grocery store. It’s a small observation, but it captures something real about the current moment. Everywhere you look, people … Continue reading No Other Choice

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Jigsaw

John Stark

Jigsaw marks a welcome change of pace for the Saw franchise. More importantly, thank God the tales of Hoffman are finally behind us. I know plenty of critics would argue there was never much value in any of the first seven Saw films, but it’s hard to deny the impact the original movie had when it arrived in 2004. If nothing else, it shocked audiences with one of the most memorable twist endings of its era. It also became the poster child for the crudely named “torture porn” subgenre, paving the way for films like Hostel and The Collector, movies … Continue reading Jigsaw

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Goat

John Stark

We deserve better. Kids deserve better. Animation has evolved to the point where audiences can reasonably expect more than films like Goat. This is essentially Zootopia by way of basketball, another entry in the ever-growing pile of animated movies built around anthropomorphic animals doing familiar things. It’s not an inherently bad concept, but it’s also not a particularly original one. And while Goat boasts a talented voice cast, that’s hardly a selling point these days. Most animated features have talented voice casts. What separates memorable animated films from disposable ones is what they leave behind once the credits roll. Goat … Continue reading Goat

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Movies With Pride: Boy Erased

John Stark

Watching Boy Erased during Pride Month feels a little ironic. This isn’t a film about celebrating LGBTQ identity so much as it is a film about the expectations society places upon people and the damage that can be done when someone is told they are not allowed to be who they are. Written and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also appears in a supporting role, Boy Erased focuses on the controversial practice of conversion therapy. What is most alarming about revisiting the film today is realizing how relevant it remains. When it was released in 2018, it felt like the … Continue reading Movies With Pride: Boy Erased

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Movies With Pride: Pillion

John Stark

I first watched this back in December as part of A24’s awards consideration package. While I did get a few screeners from A24 last year, Pillion sadly wasn’t one of them,and there was clearly a lot happening. I really wanted to wait to review it until I got the audio description, and now in time for Pride month, Pillion: Unrated is on HBO MAX with audio description! If any of this made it into the R rated cut, we’ve come a long way from This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick’s exploration of the MPAA and its bizarre ratings … Continue reading Movies With Pride: Pillion

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Miss You, Love You

John Stark

Jim Rash, best known for playing the Dean on Community,along with his years spent at the Groundlings, and that time he won an Oscar with Nat Faxon for writing the screenplay to The Descendants, is making his solo feature directorial debut. He and Faxon broke out and made the excellent The Way Way Back, and followed that up with the not so excellent Downhill.But, Rash proves he still has a lot to give in this film he wrote and directed, which is not adapted from anything. It does feel so much like a play, like Rash was trying tow rite … Continue reading Miss You, Love You

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Office Romance

John Stark

Little known fact. Lady Gaga was this close to titling her song Office Romance instead of Bad Romance. Don’t fact check me. But, the fairly generic title found its way into Jennifer Lopez’s pantheon of equally vague titles like The Back Up Plan, Marry Me, and Unstoppable (a title so generic Denzel also has a film called Unstoppable). Regardless of the premise, Jennifer Lopez remains a queen of romantic comedies, and her sex appeal at 56 has allowed her to be able to pull off being desirable enough to carry films like this. Jennifer Lopez is not the problem here. … Continue reading Office Romance

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Saw: The Final Chapter

John Stark

I don’t immediately want to kick off a review with a spoiler, but thank God, it’s over. I mean, it’s not, because they made three more after this, but Saw: The Final Chapter finally decided it was time to jettison Hoffman from the franchise, something they toyed with in the previous film and sadly chickened out on. So in the final installment of what had basically become Saw: Hoffman Boogaloo, we get our least interesting Jigsaw targeting Jill for revenge. Not that this series has ever cared much about anyone’s fate, or saving the good ones, but considering Jill actually … Continue reading Saw: The Final Chapter

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The Strangers: Chapter 3

John Stark

I never thought I’d be reviewing a film like The Strangers: Chapter 3, a film that exists only because a studio apparently had too much money and decided to fund an entire trilogy at the same time. They didn’t do it with the promise of a hot new horror filmmaker behind the camera either. They handed the keys to Renny Harlin. Now, has Harlin directed films I like? Absolutely. But not recently. The last film of his I genuinely enjoyed was Deep Blue Sea, and when you pair that with Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight, you’ve got a small … Continue reading The Strangers: Chapter 3

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Saw 4

John Stark

As I continue working my way through the Saw franchise, we’ve officially arrived at what I like to call the Tales of Hoffman era. If there has ever been a less inspired replacement killer in horror history, I’m struggling to think of one. One thing the Saw sequels absolutely love doing is circling back to previous films and pretending there were major revelations hiding in plain sight the entire time. Every sequel seems determined to convince us that events from earlier movies were secretly much more important than we realized. Saw IV leans heavily into that approach, but it does … Continue reading Saw 4

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Send Help

John Stark

Sam Raimi certainly has a voice and a style, and even if he’s not fully embracing his gory Evil Dead beginnings these days, there’s still a campy charm to his films. He understands what his audience expects and what they want from a Sam Raimi movie. Too many people weren’t fans of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but I enjoyed it largely because Raimi brought so much of his own flavor to the film. It felt like Marvel was dabbling in horror, and that willingness to lean into the strange helped it stand out. Of course, it wasn’t … Continue reading Send Help

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Saw 3

John Stark

And now we’ve come to Saw III, which had so much promise to it, but also starts to show the cracks that would eventually split the Saw franchise wide open. Weirdly enough, this is the only one of the first seven films not done by Descriptive Video Works, so even the narrator changes. It’s strange how noticeable that is once you’ve settled into a rhythm with these movies. I’m not sure the writing itself suffered because of it, but the film definitely feels heavier. More cluttered. Like the franchise is starting to collapse under the weight of its own mythology. … Continue reading Saw 3

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The Testaments: Season 1

John Stark

When I first caught wind of The Testaments, it was a bag of mixed emotions. Part of me was excited that The Handmaid’s Tale would continue in some form, but the other part knew it couldn’t possibly hope to live up to the original. Then I got to the series finale of The Handmaid’s Tale, where they had the audacity not to reunite June with Hannah, and suddenly this sequel series became less of an option and more of a necessity. What a casting boon it turned out to be when someone picked Chase Infinity to play Agnes MacKenzie, aka … Continue reading The Testaments: Season 1

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Wake Up Dead Man

John Stark

Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. If you build it, he will come. In Rian Johnson’s third outing in what is called the Knives Out series (for no other reason than it being the title of the first Benoit Blanc outing), we are asked to have a little faith. or, perhaps it is better to have a lack thereof. Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man may center in a church, but this is no Murder In the Cathedral. If you dress it up with simplicity, it could be seen as a modern day version of that, but woven in Johnson’s narrative … Continue reading Wake Up Dead Man

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Thoughts And Prayers

John Stark

The benefit of being on my own is being able to write whatever I want. is this a review? I don’t know. as long as I can remember, i wanted to be a Dad, likely due to my own Dad being around but not present. I remember having dreams about having kids before I was even ten, or anyone had a birds and bees conversation.when Columbine happened in April of 1999, I was wrapping up my Sophomore year in High School. I came from a small town, and we did fire and tornado drills. I’ve never participated in an active … Continue reading Thoughts And Prayers

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The Choral

John Stark

I’ve already gone to the “they don’t make them like they used to” well this year with Nuremberg, a courtroom drama that seems pulled from somewhere between 1995 and 2005. Here, The Choral reminds me of the kind of uplifting war-adjacent stories we got like Mrs Henderson Presents, or other “movies for grown ups” like Calendar Girls or Waking Ned Devine. Somehow a film like this now comes around and festival audiences react like they’ve just seen some schmaltzy drivel. the reality is, we’re living in an everything Everywhere Saw The TV Glow kind of world, and the kinds of … Continue reading The Choral

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Hamnet

John Stark

Was Shakespeare ever really in love? Considering how fractured our knowledge of William Shakespeare is, we certainly seem enamored with his romantic life. This year, I’d be shocked if Jessie Buckley didn’t become yet another actress to win an Oscar for their fictional romance with Shakespeare. The difference between this and the Best picture winning Shakespeare In love is that this film is not a comedy. Not in the slightest. Releasing at thanksgiving is a bold move for a film that is not really a warm and inviting experience. this is a film where tissues will clog cupholders, and people … Continue reading Hamnet

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Christy

John Stark

I’ve been watching and reviewing a few things recently based on people I had no idea existed. I’m really starting to question my pop culture knowledge, but is knowing a roster of female boxers really pop culture? Should I have known who Christy Martin was? If Stop The Insanity is a cautionary tale on contract law, Christy is a cautionary tale for homophobic parents who just keep hoping their lesbian daughters will marry a man. Bee careful what you wish for. Christy is a biopic about one of the most successful female boxers, who also struggled with her sexuality, and … Continue reading Christy

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Frankenstein (2025)

John Stark

Sometimes the interesting thing about film is watching the growth of an auteur. Depending on when you were born, you might have gotten to see the rise of certain artists honing their craft, but the exciting part is that first film, and feeling like you just witnessed the birth of something. I’d consider myself a big fan of Del toro, who even when he doesn’t top himself as a director, certainly is never boring. he has such a love for film, and for the celebration of monsters, that it really does carry through all the themes. Even his stop-motion animated … Continue reading Frankenstein (2025)