JOEL.MOBI

I went into Drummer Boy without really knowing what to expect. Angel Studios has developed an interesting business model, distributing independently produced films alongside its own productions, and its releases can vary considerably in subject matter and ambition. so I…

If you enjoy Jason Statham movies, particularly The Beekeeper, you should get out and see Ghost Soldier. Jim Caviezel essentially plays the same kind of character Statham frequently portrays: an extraordinarily dangerous man with a mysterious background who unleashes an…

Victorian Psycho is pretty much exactly what the title suggests. A young woman is hired as a governess by a wealthy Victorian family, which doesn’t realize that she’s a psychopath who enjoys killing people. I guess they were thinking American…

I’ve now seen Godzilla Minus Zero twice, and I thoroughly enjoyed it both times. The action sequences are absolutely spectacular. The monsters look fantastic, and the scale and visual execution of the destruction sequences are among the film’s greatest strengths.…

Jimmy is basically a hagiography of Jimmy Stewart. That sounds like I'm opening with a criticism, but I'm not. If this movie taught me anything, it's that if anybody deserves a hagiography, Jimmy Stewart does. This is a pleasant, very…

The action in this movie is phenomenal. Every major action sequence is beautifully done, with tremendous tension, spectacle, and drama. When the monsters are on screen, this film is just a joy to watch. The story involves a new monster…

Wild Horse Nine is hilarious. I loved this movie from beginning to end. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play two CIA agents with a long history together, much of it involving the sort of ugly things the American government has…

I loved La Bola Negra. It's a grand, ambitious film, and I can certainly understand why it got so much attention on the festival circuit. The movie is essentially a triptych, with three stories unfolding across different periods. One takes…

Fjord follows a religiously conservative Romanian family living in Sweden. At first, they're just a rather sweet family going about their lives. But they're living in a society with very different ideas about religion, parenting, bodily autonomy, and the state's…

Terrestrial is a wild film. It starts with a man welcoming his friends to a mansion and explaining that he's sold a screenplay he hasn't even written yet. He's apparently living the life he's always dreamed of. His friends are…

I really enjoyed Clayface. He's one of those second-tier Gotham villains who has always had a more interesting backstory than you might expect, and I thought this was a great way to tell it. The film follows an actor whose…

This is bad. I won't review it further. I don't get paid by the word. Maybe just be grateful that I took this bullet for you. That's it. It's over. Go away.

Travis Knight, Hollywood's favorite nepo baby, has made another really good movie. Wildwood is a beautiful piece of stop-motion animation, and if you enjoy LAIKA's other films, I recommend it. The story follows Prue, a girl living in Portland whose…

I was skeptical about Whalefall going in. A guy gets swallowed by a whale and engages in a gory fight to survive. That didn't sound like something I particularly wanted to watch, since I'm not a fan of the body…

Samuel L. Jackson is the president of the United States, somebody is trying to overthrow the government, and the presidential limousine protecting him turns out to be a ridiculously overpowered tank on wheels. That's the movie. Jackson and his Secret…

This is an amusing dark comedy about two orphaned siblings who have spent decades living on a remote Scottish island, defending it against anybody who turns up. Their parents died when they were young, and they've largely raised themselves. Their…

I wanted A Talent for Murder to be more fun than it was. Helen Mirren plays Patricia Highsmith, the author of the Tom Ripley novels, as an unpleasant recluse who knows a great deal about murder and enjoys making her…

Jenna Ortega plays Klara, an android waiting in a store to be purchased as a companion for a child. She eventually goes home with a girl dealing with a mysterious illness, and much of the movie follows Klara as she…

I saw Wicker with friends, a group of mostly women, and enjoyed the experience more than I expected. Olivia Colman plays an unmarried fisherwoman in an old-fashioned village where everybody seems to have something to say about her lack of…

I went into You Can See Everything knowing relatively little about Elizabeth Holmes beyond the headlines. I hadn’t watched The Dropout, and I wasn’t particularly invested in the case. I came out of this nearly three-hour movie wondering whether she…

I have mixed feelings about parts of Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, but I really liked the movie. It’s gorgeously shot, consistently interesting and long enough that you’re going to feel the length. It also contains plenty…

Misty Green is a really solid film about a talented actress who can’t seem to get her career, or much of anything else in her life, back on track. She’s had enough success to know what she’s capable of, but…

California Schemin’ follows two aspiring Scottish rappers who discover that the music industry is considerably more interested in them when they stop being Scottish. After getting dismissed as a pair of guys from Dundee, they reinvent themselves as Californians, adopt…

I caught Sense and Sensibility by myself during an afternoon when I didn’t have much else going on. I thought it was well made and well acted, and I was really, really bored. I didn’t enjoy much of anything about…