Category: 2024
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Diane Warren: Relentless: Chasing the Oscar At All Costs
Diane Warren: Relentless (2024) Bess Kargman After a weekend of new releases, I got back on the Oscars Death Race grind, and I’m actually pretty close to the end already. Before tonight, I only had five feature films left, and now that number is just four! I wasn’t exactly looking forward to Diane Warren: Relentless, but of the three films that I could watch from home, it was the shortest, so…
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Viva Verdi!: One of These Noms is Not Like the Other
Viva Verdi! (2024) Yvonne Russo When the Oscar nominations came out last week, I was shocked to not see either original song from Wicked: For Good on there. I was even more shocked to see a song that I had never heard of from a film I had never heard of. I paid a pretty penny—1,500 of them, to be exact—to sit through Viva Verdi! today, and though I’m an admirer of Verdi (we…
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Shelby Oaks: Found Footage and Talent
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Shelby Oaks (2024) Chris Stuckmann I’ve been a big Chris Stuckmann fan for the last few years, so when he announced he was working on a movie—and when that movie eventually got picked up by Neon—I was stoked. Fortunately, I’ve broken my personal horror movie seal since then, so I headed to the theater excitedly today instead of begrudgingly. For a debut, Shelby Oaks was a valiant effort,…
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Sketch: Horror for Kids…and It Works!
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. Sketch (2024) Seth Worley Sketch was the first film of my whiplash-inducing double feature today, paired quite impeccably with Weapons. I’m sitting in the theater prior to Weapons right now writing this review, actually! My primary motivation to see Sketch was to hear Cody Fry’s first theatrical score, and while it was certainly one of the good qualities of this film, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the only good one.…
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The Assessment: Parents and Normalcy in Short Supply
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The Assessment (2024) Fleur Fortuné For the last night of the Estes Park trip, we wanted to end on a banger, so we sidestepped Happy Gilmore 2 for The Assessment, which was undoubtedly more memorable. The jury is still out on whether that’s a good thing; Sammy and Abby logged their displeasure on Letterboxd, I’m sure my parents would’ve done the same if they had the app, but Morgan…
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The Life of Chuck: Living in the Little Moments
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The Life of Chuck (2024) Mike Flanagan Though it wasn’t technically an entry into my Adaptation Appreciation list for this year, I did read The Life of Chuck ahead of seeing the film and absolutely loved it. I’m game for any sort of existential, “life-affirming” (as the reviews have said) story, and the trailers for this film got me super hyped. Thankfully, The Life of Chuck absolutely delivered, and…
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Friendship: Robinson and Rudd Go Off the Rails
Friendship (2024) Andrew DeYoung I’ve been waiting to see Friendship for a few weeks now—these dang limited releases keep getting my hopes up too early—and it delighted, being just as crazy as I expected it would be based on the trailers. This was a script and role made for Tim Robinson, and his offbeat, awkward humor worked so well in so many scenes. There were a ton of big laughs from our…
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Not Just a Goof: Not Just a Cult Classic Bootlicking
Not Just a Goof (2024) Eric Kimelton and Christopher Ninness Rarely do I chomp at the bit for a documentary—I have no idea how someone prefers a documentary over a fictional narrative—but I was itching to get home from school from my first class to watch Not Just a Goof. I had seen plenty of good things about it and I’m still on my A Goofy Movie high from yesterday, so thank God…
