Sunday, December 7, 2025

Single on the 25th: Movie Review



A movie obsessed with being single but still needing a traditional rom-com.

With Single on the 25th, Hallmark is trying to get more of the single world. After all, younger generations are staying single more and more, so there is probably a bigger market here to reach. However, turning a singles movie into a romance is odd, and there is a fundamental problem here. In general, all Hallmark romances boil down to two single people who meet each other and fall in love. That’s also the same movie here, just with less of a plot.   2025

Directed by: Jonathan Wright

Screenplay by: Joie Botkin

Starring: Lyndsy Fonseca, Daniel Lissing

Thursday, December 4, 2025

A Christmas Murder Mystery: Movie Review



A Christmas Murder Mystery is a poor man’s version of Lifetime murder-of-the-week movie. Most people don’t think that there is a lower production of a movie but this is it. Lighting and filming are soap opera level, editing is worse, and dialogue and acting which naturally go hand-in-hand are atrociously bad and unnatural. This could have been directed by a computer in addition to being written by one.   2025

Directed by: Peter Sullivan

Screenplay by: Jeffrey Schenck, Peter Sullivan

Starring: Morgan Bradley, Vivica A. Fox

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

My Secret Santa: Movie Review




Utterly charming in the silliest of ways.
My Secret Santa plays up the finding love at a Christmas ski resort by combining it with a She’s the Man type of gender swap. The plot of a single mom pretending to be a man to get a job as Santa Claus may sound implausible or even stupid, and yet there’s a genuineness to Alexandra Breckenridge’s performance and the heart shining beneath all of it that makes this silly movie utterly charming.   2025

Directed by: Mike Rohl

Screenplay by: Ron Oliver, Carly Smale

Starring: Alexandra Breckenridge, Ryan Eggold

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Oh. What. Fun.: Movie Review




A family of chaos without the comedy.
Oh. What. Fun. is for the unsung moms as stated in the opening scene highlighting all the many classic Christmas movies led by men with barely a mention of the wife/mother. But what undermines this point is that this is directed by a man, and they conveniently left out the (admittedly) few female-led Christmas movies like The Family Stone or the more recent The Best Christmas Pageant Ever both of which are better than this.   2025

Directed by: Michael Showalter

Screenplay by: Chandler Baker, Michael Showalter

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Denis Leary

Sunday, November 30, 2025

Christmas at the Catnip Cafe: Movie Review



Cats and a good romance make a perfect pairing.

Christmas at the Catnip CafĂ© is as adorable as you would expect. Cats everywhere, mostly. While Hallmark surrounds the cats with the usual big city girl meets the good-natured small town boy typical rom-com plot, it also needs such a story. Keeps things simplistic while viewers can just watch cats and the occasional rare dog as the romance unfolds.   2025

Directed by: Lucie Guest

Screenplay by: Tracy Andreen, Elena Valdez

Starring: Erin Cahill, Paul Campbell

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Eternity: Movie Review




A clever, inventive and funny version of a romantic comedy.
Who do you want to spend the rest of your life with? That’s a hard question for some, an easy question for others. But what if it wasn’t just for the rest of your life, but for eternity and you cannot change your mind? That’s part of the basic question posed by Eternity. A romantic comedy which changes the formula up by pitting a current husband vs a deceased husband in the afterlife.   2025

Directed by: David Freyne

Screenplay by: Pat Cunnane, David Freyne

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, John Early

Friday, November 28, 2025

The More the Merrier: Movie Review



Finding love and community in the hospital.

The More the Merrier is all about community. A movie about finding the silver lining, using positivity and human connection to get through emergencies. Criticizing a movie that’s trying to do good or make the world a better place feels wrong, but part of the problem is this is often too far from reality to feel a real connection here. It’s a sweet and nice idea, but doesn’t have any real weight to it (save one scene).   2025

Directed by: Peter Benson

Screenplay by: Caroline Farah, Zac Hug

Starring: Rachel Boston, Brendan Penny

Stone Creek Killer: Movie Review




Slow, interesting, atmospheric thriller.
Stone Creek Killer is a slow-burn, indie thriller about Karl (Clayne Crawford), an alcoholic police chief with a shady past, pursuing a potential serial killer in the small town of Stone Creek, Minnesota. This is just such an all-around, well produced movie that it keeps you watching even when parts of it look familiar or not headed anywhere good.   2025

Directed by: Robert Enriquez

Screenplay by: Clint Elliott

Starring: Clayne Crawford, Britney Young

Tinsel Town: Movie Review




Funny and heartfelt all thanks to Kiefer Sutherland.
Tinsel Town is a fun, funny, joyous surprise. Making fun of Hollywood action stars isn’t a new formula for comedies, but it is when it comes to Christmas movies and pairing it with British pantomime. Bradley Mac (Kiefer Sutherland) is a Hollywood action star of the “Killing Time” franchise currently onto its 7th instalment. Until Hollywood has had enough of these films and more specifically his agent has had enough of him, and he’s tricked into doing theater in England.   2025

Directed by: Chris Foggin

Screenplay by: Frazer Flintham & Adam Brown
and Piers Ashworth

Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Rebel Wilson

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Sidelined 2: Intercepted: Movie Review




Relationship growth: More simplicity, less predictability.
Good relationships deserve sequels. There is certainly a simplicity and predictability to the first Sidelined: The QB and Me, but there’s also strong chemistry so it’s easy to see why the movie and Dallas and Drayton are so well liked. The plot of Sidelined 2: Intercepted sounds eerily similar to The Kissing Booth 2 in all the wrong ways, but it sidestepped so many easy mistakes that it’s surprisingly better even though its simplicity is more of a downfall this time.   Year

Directed by: Justin Wu

Screenplay by: Crystal Ferreiro
Based on the story by Tay Marley

Starring: Siena Agudong, Noah Beck, and Charlie Gillespie

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Jingle Bell Heist: Movie Review




A different rom-com crime caper.
Jingle Bell Heist a rom-com crime caper, deftly combines the two genres to deliver something a little different. It’s not a traditional rom-com by any means and incorporates the romance seamlessly into the heist plot. It’s also not a traditional crime caper since it’s a lot slower with a lot less action than heist movies are known for.   2025

Directed by: Michael Fimognari

Screenplay by: Abby McDonald, Amy Reed

Starring: Olivia Holt, Connor Swindells,
Peter Serafinowicz and Lucy Punch

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Melt My Heart This Christmas: Movie Review



Generic romance, insufferable character.

It’s always hit or miss when Hallmark takes on a niche subject and turns it into their typical romance. Melt My Heart This Christmas is an unfortunate miss when they take the world of glass blowing and set a romance around an awful caricature of an evil boss. Ruining a movie with just one character is hard to do, and not helped by having no real details.   2025

Directed by: Amy Force

Screenplay by: Ansley Gordon

Starring: Laura Vandervoort, Stephen Huszar

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story: Movie Review



An adorable romance but not the best production.

Last year, Hallmark had a Kansas City Chiefs holiday love story. I didn’t see it, but I’ve learned that it was extremely successful and was their most-watched movie of the Christmas season by a lot. Unsurprisingly, they’ve added a new movie to that series with Buffalo up this year. Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story just pours on the holiday romance with special guests: past and present Buffalo Bills players, and the city of Buffalo.   2025

Directed by: Dustin Rikert

Screenplay by: Vanessa Marano, Danielle Morrow

Starring: Holland Roden, Matthew Daddario

Friday, November 21, 2025

The Christmas Writer: Movie Review




Christmas-y, queer, and uneven around the edges.
As gay Christmas romances start to become more common, it also means we can probably start to become a little more critical. The Christmas Writer is unpolished. It hits on many of the traditional Christmas rom-com beats but does so from a new angle and a fresh voice, but also with unflattering lighting, bad acting, and choppy editing.   2025

Directed by: Christin Baker

Screenplay by: Christin Baker, Katie I. Williams

Starring: Shelby Allison Brown, Callie Bussell

Blue Eyed Girl: Movie Review




Tender, warm-hearted and real.
A drama about life -- real life for real adults. Blue Eyed Girl is a sweet, tender, charming portrait of a 40-year-old woman hitting a mid-life crisis and re-examining her life when she has to go take care of her ailing father, stay with her two feuding and polar opposite sisters, all while reconnecting with a childhood flame and the one that got away.   2025

Directed by: J. Mills Goodloe

Screenplay by: Marisa Coughlin

Starring: Marisa Coughlin, Eliza Coupe, Beau Bridges and Sam Trammell

Thursday, November 20, 2025

The Christmas Ticket: Movie Review




Sweet and cute and hokey.
The Christmas Ticket is a sweet, feel-good, classic Christmas rom-com even if it is a bit hokey and slow. Alana (Violet Bennett) grew up poor with a constantly moving father after her mother died, gradually losing touch with her grandfather. Years later as an adult, Alana might be a bit more settled in New York City but she’s still broke and jobless and then she finds out she’s the benefactor of her recently departed grandfather’s cabin.   2025

Directed by: Vincenzo Conrorio

Screenplay by: Vincenzo Conrorio

Starring: Violet Bennet, Travis Laughlin

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Champagne Problems: Movie Review




A bland Christmas romance showing off how little they know about anything.
Marketed as a Christmas rom-com, the Netflix movie Champagne Problems is a bland romantic drama set during the Christmas holidays but with a plot that could (and arguably should) take place any other time of the year. It takes so many things that romances love: vague business executives, wine, Paris, and… sons who don’t connect with their fathers? It’s hard to tell if it’s trying to be different but falls into formulaic traps, or if it’s trying to be formulaic and accidentally includes non-clichĂ© elements.   2025

Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson

Screenplay by: Mark Steven Johnson

Starring: Minka Kelly, Tom Wozniczka

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Christmas in Mistletoe: Movie Review



Making a worse version of the typical Christmas rom-com.

A Christmas movie about making the clichĂ© Christmas movie is starting to become more common than the actual clichĂ© Christmas movies. Making fun of a movie to then make a worse version of that movie, isn’t all that funny or clever. Hallmark has satirized themselves a few times to better effect than whatever this is.   2025

Directed by: Collins Abbott White

Screenplay by: Brian S. Tedeschi, Vicki Vass

Starring: Kabby Borders, Tom Gipson

Saturday, November 15, 2025

Murder at the Embassy: Movie Review




A murder mystery with no intrigue.
Murder at the Embassy is a sequel to 2023’s Invitation to a Murder, a movie that has stayed with me over the years despite its many flaws due to the strength of the lead character. You don’t often see indies get sequels, but I’m glad this one did. Mischa Barton’s Miranda Green deserves more screen time. If Daniel Craig can keep solving more murders in the 2020s, why can’t she in the 1930s?   2025

Directed by: Stephen Shimek

Screenplay by: Mark Brennan, Alex Davison,
Douglas Beauvois

Starring: Mischa Barton

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

A Merry Little Ex-Mas: Movie Review




Formulaic rom-com with maturity and gen-X humour.
Kate (Alicia Silverstone) and Everett (Oliver Hudson) are getting divorced. Except it's going to be a friendly, amicable divorce; a "conscious uncoupling" even though all the townspeople make fun of them for using that phrase. They're still going to have Christmas together, a separation isn't going to change the fact that they're still a family (Kate has 'custody' of Everett's two dads). It's their last Christmas with their youngest son still at home before he goes off to college.   2025

Directed by: Steve Carr

Screenplay by: Holly Hester

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Oliver Hudson

Monday, November 10, 2025

A Keller Christmas Vacation: Movie Review



Europe without any of the adventure.

A Keller Christmas Vacation doesn’t quite fit any of the typical Hallmark modes. It has a simplistic premise, but does not have a simplistic setting, which kind of makes for an odd mix. A family with three adult siblings are spending Christmas on a river cruise on the Danube. Filmed on location in Christmas markets across Germany and Austria, Hallmark usually saves their more expensive and elaborate productions for a grander story.   2025

Directed by: Maclain Nelson

Screenplay by: Maclain Nelson

Starring: Jonathan Bennett, Brandon Routh, Eden Sher

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper!: Movie Review



An enjoyable and cute movie thanks to the charming and lovable lead character.

Ted Cooper is a great character. A relentlessly positive and optimistic man who greets every day with a smile and every little disaster with a laugh. It’s a bold move naming the movie after the fictional lead, but Robert Buckley makes this work. Ted never comes across as annoying but rather the friend that everyone wants in their life.   2025

Directed by: Jason Bourque

Screenplay by: Russell Hainline

Starring: Robert Buckley, Kimberley Sustad

Friday, October 24, 2025

Where the Wind Blows: Movie Review




Western drama with romance, an implausible story, and inconsistent characters.
Where the Wind Blows is western romance with an undefined setting (presumably 19th century, somewhere out west), and a unique story, but unable to get the pieces or characters necessary to fill out that story into something plausible, or even interesting or entertaining. Trevor Donovan stars as a single, untethered cowboy named Chase Logan.   2025

Directed by: John Schimke

Screenplay by: Caroline Fyffe, Mike Maden, John Schimke

Starring: Trevor Donovan, Ashley Elaine

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Maintenance Required: Movie Review




A simplistic rom-com that can’t maintain interest.
You’ve Got Mail has become its own subgenre within the romantic comedy, to the point that some movies will just take that loose concept but present it very differently (like Hallmark’s surprising anti-AI rom-com Return to Office) or take the exact same plot pretty much verbatim but just the industry it’s set in, which is what Amazon’s Maintenance Required has done.   2025

Directed by: Lacey Uhlemeyer

Screenplay by: Erin Falconer & Lacey Uhlemeyer, and Roo Berry

Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Jacob Scipio

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Home Turf: Movie Review



A cookie-cutter rom-com with no personality.

There is usually a maturity even if simplistic to most Hallmark romances, but that is nowhere to be found in their back-to-school / football-themed Home Turf. The movie, which I believe is supposed to be funny, features football players moving in with the uptight school’s president after their dorm floor is flooded. It falls to the handsome coach to smooth things over.   2025

Directed by: MacIain Nelson

Screenplay by: Gregg Rossen, Brian Sawyer

Starring: Nikki Deloach, Warren Christie

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Adventures in Love & Birding: Movie Review



A genuine appreciation for birding with Hallmark’s typical romance.

Adventures in Love & Birding merges the perfect hobby with Hallmark’s romance and fall theme. While I’m not a birder myself, I appreciate birding, and I suspect many of Hallmark’s audience is either an avid birder themselves or at least an enjoyer from afar. Complete with some bird photography, bird puns and trivia, it’s a whole-hearted push on the hobby.   2025

Directed by: Michael Robison

Screenplay by: Nicole Baxter, Sarah T. Dubb

Starring: Andrew Walker, Rachel Boston

Saturday, September 27, 2025

One Battle After Another: Movie Review




Today’s politics but in a purely entertaining, hilarious and exhilarating thrill ride.
There’s a line from one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s earlier movies, Revolutionary Road, that I love and was reminded of during this movie. “I can never remember, are you the young Wheelers on Revolutionary Road, or the young revolutionaries on Wheeler Road?” And for the sake of One Battle After Another, it is indeed the young revolutionaries. Revolutionaries who fought the man, committed crimes, had a baby and grew up.   2025

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Infiniti Chase, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn

Saturday, September 13, 2025

California Schemin: Movie Review



An amusing and fun story of Scottish rappers.

James McAvoy is making his directorial debut with a based on a true story that I would love to say is too crazy to be true, but instead, it’s the exact right level to be believable. Two rappers from Dundee, Scotland who are desperate to be famous with many cold calls going unanswered finally land an audition for a talent scout from London (or as Billy says “London, England? Where the English people are?”).   2025

Directed by: James McAvoy

Screenplay by: Elaine Gracie, Archie Thomson
Based on the story by Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd

Starring: Seamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley

Thursday, September 11, 2025

The Fence: Movie Review



One fence, one conversation and very little of anything else.

The one thing that is instantly clear about The Fence is that it is based on a play. It takes place in one location with a limited number of characters. The whole movie is a conversation between Alboury (Isaach de BankolĂ©), a brother of an African man killed on site of a British construction company, and on the other side of the fence, Horn (Matt Dillon), the supervisor of the British construction company.   2025

Directed by: Claire Denis

Screenplay by: Claire Denis, Suzanne Lindon, Andrew Litvack

Starring: Matt Dillon, Isaach de Bankolé

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

It Would Be Night in Caracas: Movie Review




A unique and powerful film about identity and the war in Venezuela.
The power of It Would Be Night in Caracas sneaks up on you. A story so important and universal, you very slowly get more and more enraptured until you’re left shaking marvelling at what you have just watched. It’s a story that affects approximately 8 million Venezuelans living in exile that the rest of the world might not realize the depths of the horror because it is not actually considered war, even though that is exactly what it is.   2025

Directed by: Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas

Screenplay by: Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas, and Karina Sainz Borgo

Starring: Natalia Reyes, Edgar Ramirez

Mile End Kicks: Movie Review



A sweet and genuine rom-com that becomes tiring instead of funny.

Grace (Barbie Ferreira) is a young, idealistic music critic who is moving from Toronto to Montreal to make it big and because Montreal is cool and Toronto is not cool. That’s me paraphrasing the main character who is as immature and self-absorbed as coming-of-age rom-com heroines are. There’s a reason this type of low-confidence but high-selfishness protagonist is popular – because they’re funny.   2025

Directed by: Chandler Levack

Screenplay by: Chandler Levack

Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Stanley Simons

Monday, September 8, 2025

Ghost School: Movie Review



A wonderfully engaging story which pairs the supernatural belief with real-life corruption.

10-year-old Rabia (Nazualiya Arsalan) is getting ready for school and remarks that her uniform is too short. They don’t have money for a new one, so just rip out the bottom hem stitches and it will appear longer, her mother suggests. That works for Rabia, a very sweet, courteous and inquisitive young girl who loves school. When she arrives at school, it’s closed, an official is telling everyone that the teacher has fallen ill because the school is haunted so it has to shut down.   2025

Directed by: Seemab Gul

Screenplay by: Seemab Gul

Starring: Nazualiya Arsalan

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Noviembre: Movie Review



Historical chaos.

For Colombians or for anybody with a personal connection to the November 6, 1985 Palace of Justice siege, Noviembre is likely a very powerful movie. However for the rest of us, this is just a chaotic capture of one moment in history with a lot of screaming and crying for an hour and a half. I would love to paint you a clearer picture, but there really isn’t one – both on purpose and to the detriment of the film.   2025

Directed by: Tomás Corredor

Screenplay by: Tomás Corredor, Jorge Goldenberg, Xenia Rivery

Starring: Santiago AlarcĂłn, Natalia Reyes

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Freakier Friday: Movie Review




A fun sequel with more chaos.
One of the hardest parts of creating a sequel 20-plus years later is recognizing who the target audience is. Is it for the same audience who are now 40-ish or is it for a new audience who does not know the original? Unsurprisingly, Freakier Friday tries to balance the two, satisfying both audiences without being wholly for either one. The original succeeded because of the cast and getting the exact same cast is a win for elder millennials.   2025

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra

Screenplay by: Jordan Weiss, Elyse Hollander and Mary Rodgers

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Magnetosphere: Movie Review




A good character with no plot.
A story of a 13-year-old girl growing up in a new town, with new friends, a first crush, a head full of insecurities and realizing she has synesthesia. Thirteen is probably one of the hardest ages to center a movie around, primarily because it’s the hardest age to get natural acting from; they’re old enough to be self-aware but not experienced enough to know how to turn that into playing a character in front of a camera.   2024

Directed by: Nicola Rose

Screenplay by: Nicola Rose

Starring: Shayelin Martin, Patrick McKenna

Friday, July 18, 2025

Follow (AKA: Juegos de SeducciĂłn): Movie Review




Staid, unoriginal and uninteresting.
Diego Boneta has returned to his native Mexico in this Spanish-language seduction thriller. Titled Follow in English, the Spanish title Juegos de SeducciĂłn translates to “Seduction Games” which at least makes sense in addition to being a much better title. But this movie also doesn’t concern itself with what is good, or better, or makes sense. The plotline of a handsome con artist who scams wealthy women but may have found his match is about as lazy as they come.   2025

Directed by: Gonzalo Tobal

Screenplay by: Hipatia ArgĂĽero Mendoza, and Adriana Pelusi

Starring: Diego Boneta, Martha Higareda

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Don't Log Off: Movie Review




Mystery, tension and humour all used to great effect in this pandemic horror.
Don’t Log Off is a COVID-set horror/thriller, and we’re talking early pandemic. Five years ago can seem like such a long time ago right now, so this can feel a little dated. The setting is arguably an easy excuse for the virtual set-up and why the whole group of friends who live in the same city are on-line and not in-person. But whether you consider this gimmicky or not, it works.   2025

Directed by: Brandon Baer, Garrett Baer

Screenplay by: Brandon Baer, Garrett Baer

Starring: Kara Royster, Khylin Rambo, Luke Benward, Ariel Winter

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Singing in My Sleep: Movie Review




An enjoyable journey through song and complicated emotions.
A sweet, thoughtful and tender portrait of a young woman struggling to make it as a musician in the shadow of her famous father. Charlotte Lakes (Jessica Belkin) is the daughter of Jack Lakes, a successful rock star with one album who would have just faded away into obscurity but instead he died at the height of his fame, so now eight years later he’s a cult icon and Charlotte cannot escape his presence.   2025

Directed by: Nick Wilson

Screenplay by: Nick Wilson

Starring: Jessica Belkin, Jacob Brand, Malin Akerman and Gavin Leatherwood

Friday, July 11, 2025

Nuked: Movie Review




A chaotic comedy that fizzles away its potential.
Let’s start with the cast, headlined by a dark-haired Anna Camp wearing electric blue eyeshadow playing a sex podcast host who’s turning 40 and married to her husband for 20 years. If you didn’t realize how long ago Pitch Perfect was, that sentence should clear that up. The Hangover alum Justin Bartha plays husband Jack, a quieter unassuming schoolteacher. They are joined by six friends for their birthday party which may or may not be their last night on Earth.   2024

Directed by: Deena Kashper

Screenplay by: Danny Kashper, Deena Kashper

Starring: Justin Bartha, Anna Camp, Lucy Punch, Tawny Newsome and Ignacio Serricchio

Forgive Us All: Movie Review




Western-horror with intriguing set-up but minimal story.
Forgive Us All is a New Zealand made western-horror drama set in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has wiped out mankind turning humans into cannibalistic zombies. It’s interesting at times but also strange and has a hard time turning its theme into something compelling. Rory (Lily Sullivan) is bloody, sweaty and shaking with anger, fear and grief after just burying a family member.   2025

Directed by: Jordana Stott

Screenplay by: Lance Giles, Alex Makauskas, Jordana Stott

Starring: Lily Sullivan, Lance Giles

Almost Cops: Movie Review




An Americanized, bastardized version of the buddy copy action comedy with bad writing, bad acting and bad jokes..
In the Netherlands, the tile is “Bad BOA’s” where BOA is an acronym from the Dutch for a type of law enforcement officer. It is meant to make you think of Bad Boys even though Netflix changed the English title to Almost Cops. Whether they change the title or not, this movie is still a lazy knock-off of a mix between Bad Boys and 21 Jump Street.   2025

Directed by: Gonzalo Fernandez Carmona

Screenplay by: Kenneth Asporaat, Michel Bonset, Murth Mossel

Starring: Werner Kolf, Jandino Asporaat

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Brick: Movie Review




Smart and engaging thriller that lets in too much nonsense.
The German Netflix thriller Brick takes a smart, simple premise, builds something unique and engaging, and then temporarily goes insane before getting back to the only possible ending. What I love about movies like this is how unique and universal it is at the same time; it’s original and can appeal to anyone around the world. And it starts very strong with two characters fully defined within minutes and then suddenly locked in with no explanation.   2025

Directed by: Philip Koch

Screenplay by: Philip Koch

Starring: Matthias Schweighöfer, Ruby O. Fee

Friday, July 4, 2025

Pretty Thing: Movie Review




Illogical trash dressed up as artistic.
Movies where an older woman has an affair with a younger man that turns into an obsession is not a new genre. There are dozens of movies literally named "Obsession" that are exactly this. I am concerned though that Babygirl’s recent success both at the box office and with critics, will spurn more terrible movies like Pretty Thing that attempt to elevate the genre in ways that just don’t work.   2025

Directed by: Justin Kelly

Screenplay by: Jack Donnelly

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Karl Glusman

Saturday, June 28, 2025

A Machu Picchu Proposal: Movie Review



Poorly written characters thrown together in beautiful Peru.

A Machu Picchu Proposal features some poorly written characters and a lot beautiful Peruvian landmarks and landscapes. Katie (Rhiannon Fish) is a no-nonsense, everything is planned, type of girl, a very prototypical Hallmark heroine, but here she is joined by twin brother Dan (Christopher Vieira), who is exactly the same. There are two characters whose entire personalities are that they like plans and schedules and hates impulsiveness.   2025

Directed by: Colin Theys

Screenplay by: Juliana Wimbles

Starring: Rhiannon Fish, Alec Santos