Movie Reviews
Movie Reviews

Mister Organ movie review & film summary (2023)

After the antique store closes for good, Farrier makes a big mistake and takes the broken, discarded sign from the shop as a souvenir. He’s then sued by Michael and Jillian, and before he can appear in court and give it back, the sign is stolen from under his house. Farrier goes to court six hours away, is

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Movie Reviews

She Came to Me movie review & film summary (2023)

Peter Dinklage is brilliant as Steven, imperious and vulnerable. He is a once-successful opera composer struggling with a massive writer’s block as his deadline looms and his librettist quits in frustration. Steven is married to Patricia (Anne Hathaway), a therapist whose favorite activity is intensive house cleaning and who likes to imagine, in sessions with patients, scrubbing

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Movie Reviews

Appendage movie review & film summary (2023)

Hannah (Hadley Robinson) is a fashion designer speeding toward burn-out, thanks in part to the toxic environment of her snooty boss, Cristean (Desmin Borges), and his unquenchable standards. She works with her friend Esther (Kausar Mohammed), and they both have tattoos of a pulse, a succinct, meaningful image of how dedicated they are to each

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Movie Reviews

Mami Wata movie review & film summary (2023)

“Mami Wata” is populated by men and women who dress and act as if they’re still in a previous century, resisting modernity. The title refers to the Nigerian goddess of water, wealth, and health, who watches over individual lives. This is a matriarchal society. The anointed priestess and interpreter of Mami Wata, as well as the arbiter and problem-solver for

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Movie Reviews

Reptile movie review & film summary (2023)

Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) is a Scarborough real estate mogul dating an agent named Summer (Matilda Lutz). They flip foreclosures on expensive homes in the area under the watchful eye of Will’s mom, Camille (Frances Fisher), and there seems to be some brewing tension in the relationship. One day, Will meets Summer at a house

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Movie Reviews

Savior Complex movie review & film summary (2023)

“Savior Complex” gets even richer when one considers the flaws of No White Saviors, an organization with a vocal, outspoken leader who just happens to be a white American woman. Seriously. She jokes it away, but the idea that Kelsey Nielsen doesn’t understand that she too is kind of a white savior saving Ugandans from

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Movie Reviews

TIFF 2023 Video: Festival Highlights Including Spike Lee Receiving the TIFF Ebert Director Award | Festivals & Awards

The Toronto International Film Festival 2023 had a very strong lineup. We are all mindful and supportive of the ongoing actor and writer strikes. Still, there was plenty to see and talk about. However, as you can see, I’m still in my Barbenheimer mode. Congratulations to Greta Gerwig for being the first woman director to bring

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Movie Reviews

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas movie review (2023)

Cousins’ narration gets a bit MFA fiction workshop at certain points, but that’s a feature of his work, not a bug (in another life, he might’ve been a novelist, possibly in a Beat writer mode). The film is organized around storms and divided into numbered chapters with titles like “Sex” and “Death.” It gets a bit fanboyish when delving

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Movie Reviews

My Sailor, My Love movie review (2023)

Grace is at least given a much richer personal history, which is slowly teased out. At first, it seems she is just overprotective and controlling of her father’s life. Then, she appears jealous, as she reacts poorly to Howard’s relationship with Annie and the joy he seems to take in becoming part of Annie’s large,

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Movie Reviews

Superpower movie review & film summary (2023)

That last film is by far the most interesting of the ones that Penn gives us in this grab-bag of a movie. And it’s a shame because the few relatively brief sections of “Superpower” that scrutinize Zelensky as a self-created political icon (in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Donald Trump) are

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