Review: ‘The Starling’ Means Well, But Just Can’t Fly

A lot of modern “dramedys” get the genre-blending done right. The Starling, set in our native Seattle, is not like that in any way, and can be held up to the microscope as a good example of why Netflix needs to have standards when passing various projects. The streaming giant probably saw the reel, said “hey, Melissa McCarthy and that tall dude from The IT Crowd aren’t bad!,” and thought it was a sure bet. But like the awful CGI bird that gave the movie its title, it really isn’t.

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Review: ‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ Serves Up a Copycat Meal

Netflix’s newest action-comedy-thriller-John Wick knockoff known as Gunpowder Milkshake can best be described like this: what if that one female-superheroes-assemble scene from Avengers: Endgame was expanded into a full 90-minute-long movie, starring one of the actors from that specific scene, incorporating plenty of A24-style lighting and featuring a cute kid for good measure? The simplicity and superficiality of this kind of “girlboss” energy is the fuel that drives this unnuanced, ungraceful, often uninteresting film. While there are brief delights and satisfying action sequences, numbness sets in like you’re actually drinking a milkshake.

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Review: ‘Reminiscence’ is a Compelling Sci-Fi Thriller That Ultimately Falls Flat

If there’s one thing that we can rely on these days, it’s the past. In these so-called “unprecedented times” we find ourselves looking back more and more, as the future is less and less something that we can rely upon. The past, unlike the future, is static and certain.

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Review: ‘The Kissing Booth 3’ is Thankfully the Last One

As I said in my review of the second film, I do not like the Kissing Booth trilogy despite my unashamed love for teen comedy films. What I’ve really disliked about Vince Marcello’s first two attempts at “filmmaking” (a term I have always used very lightly with regards to him) is how shallowly Marcello portrays everything – both the actual relationships between characters and the so-called “deeper meanings” behind the plot, characters, and actions. What the first two films did have was viewership: the Netflix user data (obtained via totally legal methods) shows that audiences wanted more.

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Review: ‘Free Guy’ is 2021’s Most Fun Film Yet, But it’s Close to Being a Cautionary Tale

Free Guy, the newest film from director Shawn Levy, is the first of its kind: a movie about video games that runs on video game logic, unlike the others that blend games into reality. Starring Ryan Reynolds as a NPC (for the non-gamers here, that’s “non-player character”) in an open-world video game akin to Grand Theft Auto, this sci-fi action comedy runs on references, and feels like a combination of Ready Player One, The Lego Movie, They Live, and The Truman Show all at once. It’s a digitally aware love story, where Guy meets Girl, Guy falls for Girl, and finally, Guy discovers that reality is a lie and God is a troll. Yet despite this implied disparity, the film holds itself together throughout it all. It’s a very entertaining comedy about video games (and a whole lot of other stuff) that, unlike so many blockbusters of the moment, does not collapse under the weight pop-culture references and forget to make actual jokes.

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Review: ‘No Sudden Move’ Takes You for a Ride

Before the main caper in No Sudden Move even begins, we’re given narrative elements that imply a crime film of truly epic proportions: two rival gangs, a desperate gangster looking for a way out, a shady job from a mysterious benefactor, and a codebook full of secrets that threatens to bring the criminal underworld of Detroit crumbling down. The movie’s pace matches these expectations as Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) and Ronald Russo (Benicio del Toro) race against the clock, unraveling a conspiracy while trying to net an even bigger score. By the film’s end,however, once all is revealed, their score is cast in a different, less renegaded light, forcing these criminals—as well as the audience—to reevaluate their expectations.

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Review: ‘In the Heights’ is a Nice Musical Tale of Hopes and Dreams

Broadway musical blockbusters are always a hit-or-miss despite their catchy songs, but In the Heights is definitely a hit to me. The play version of In the Heights is mostly famous for being the musical that helped catapult Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda into the public sphere. And the 2021 film version, helmed by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu, is a triumphant adaptation, confidently reworking the stage show into a gorgeous, vibrant film that captures both the bigness of musical theater and the intimacy that comes with telling a story about a specific culture. In its joyous excess, In the Heights makes a case for adapting Broadway musicals into Hollywood cinema. The musical numbers are freed from the boundaries of the stage, and they don’t waste that freedom. The dance routines feel like gorgeous action-movie set-pieces, thanks to Alice Brooks’ cinematography, and the cast is a constellation of Latinx legends and up-and-comers alike. Every summer should have a movie like this one.

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Review: ‘Together Together’ Tells Powerful Stories We Need to Hear

Some of the best films aren’t necessarily smart, but they’re “sneaky-smart.” You go into them thinking you know what you’re getting into, and feeling impatient as a result, because the movie conspicuously makes choices that seem intended to announce which boxes it’s about to check off. Nicole Beckwith’s Together Together is exactly like this. The inquiries that open the film – “have you ever stolen anything?” “Are you religious?” “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” – don’t spring from a painfully intrusive first date at all. Rather, as protagonist Anna (Patti Harrison) spills her proclivity for thieving pens to the perplexed Matt (Ed Helms), she’s interviewing to become his surrogate. While previously briefly covered in the club’s SIFF 2021 escapade, this delightful indie comedy has now hit streaming services this week, and upon watching it a second time I am proud to both give Together Together a proper review and call it one of my favorite films of 2021 so far.

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Review: ‘The Tomorrow War’ is Just Style Over Substance

The science fiction genre has always been partial to telling stories about ordinary, blue-collar men in new situations and new worlds. But unlike Chris McKay’s The Tomorrow War, they all contained a unique flair or a unique story: Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers was a subtle satire about the dangers of war aside from its gaudy visuals, Independence Day drew people in for its promise of aliens and guns, but people loved the heartwarming performance from Will Smith, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie perfectly captured Douglas Adams’ story with agreeable campiness. The Tomorrow War, where Chris Pratt plays an ex-military high school teacher who travels through time to fight aliens, tries to play out like all of these films, but ultimately fails.

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Review: ‘Cruella’ Doesn’t Disappoint, Surprisingly

Live-action reboots of animated classics have been all the rage lately. Disney in particular found its sweet spot with them, a cash cow that produces a comical amount of box office gold with a simple flick of the wrist. Reimagining these well-loved properties appeals to both new generations of kids who have easy access to streaming content, as well as to the older crowd who place ridiculous sentimental worth on the stories and their characters. But the blueprint is stale. These films typically follow the source material to a T to not offend the fans who aren’t always agreeable to change.

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