For sportswriter Mack (Gina Rodriguez) and her tight knit group of friends, the best way to unwind after a long day working in a struggling industry is to hit the bars and run various “plays” on patrons in the hopes of securing a one night stand. When one such conquest ends with her developing feelings, she sets out to orchestrate […]
Suncoast deftly juggles the story of a teenager’s burgeoning friendships and social drama with her single mother’s harried behavior at the hospice center where her son is approaching the end of his battle with brain cancer. Set in 2005 against the backdrop of the high profile Terri Shiavo case, a lot of Suncoast takes place in and around the eponymous […]
Molly McGlynn’s Fitting In is a teen coming of age film with a lot of heart and a unique perspective. When 16 year old Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) is diagnosed with a reproductive disorder called MRKH, which essentially means she was born with an underdeveloped vagina, her life spirals out of her control. In Lindy’s particular medical case, her uterus is […]
Argylle, Matthew Vaughn’s latest espionage centered action film, doesn’t match the heights of his Kingsman franchise and is hampered by a plot that’s not engaging enough to warrant the numerous twists within it. Bryce Dallas Howard stars as homebody reclusive author Elly Conway whose popular spy novels (based around a spy named Argylle) are a massive hit. She’s just completed […]
Premise: Follows Orion, a young boy who is afraid of heights, pets, and rendered nearly catatonic by the worst of all perils: the dark. The Dark takes Orion on a nighttime trip to prove to the youngster that the only thing to fear is fear itself. The opening scene of Orion and the Dark is one of the clearest depictions […]
Premise: Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling, the US and Russian astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary. Aboard the International Space Station, three American astronauts share politically neutral ground with three Russian cosmonauts. When the group witnesses nuclear […]
Premise: Struggling prog-rock musician William Brown finds himself in a living nightmare when he accidentally kills Vlad, the neighbor from hell. In Destroy All Neighbors, prog-rock musician William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues) is struggling to finish his masterpiece. As his writer’s block and pressure in his day job mounts, he finds himself becoming more and more aggravated with various nuisances […]
As 2023 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on the past year and share my thoughts on the best films of the year and some stand out moviegoing experiences. Below are my honorable mentions and my top ten movies of the year, along with links to the coverage I provided on the title.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (2023) Premise: When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, a mysterious stranger living among its villagers becomes their best hope for survival. Director: Zack Snyder Writers: Shay Hatten, Kurt Johnstad, and Zack Snyder Cast: […]
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is an intense meditation on the impact of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work on the Manhattan Project and the immense weight he carried following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film naturally incorporates several tried and true trademarks of Nolan’s filmmaking toolkit such as a nonlinear structure, practical effects, IMAX film, and an absorbing sound design. With Oppenheimer, these staples of Nolan’s filmography yield some of the most visceral images he has ever put to film in a movie that is jaw dropping in its profound look at the burden cast upon the man who created the atomic bomb.
In Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The Miracle Club, four women from a small community in Ireland make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, each in search of their own miraculous spiritual and physical cure. While on their trip, they gain much needed perspective while also hashing out their differences and confronting longstanding grudges among themselves.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is not only a near perfect culmination to the MCU’s most heartfelt group of characters. It’s also the best Marvel movie since 2019’s Endgame (with Spider-Man: No Way Home being a very close second). The heart and emotion on display in this film will stick with audiences for a while and will likely leave many weeping in the theater.
Despite a couple choices that don’t particularly gel with the overall franchise, the majority of Scream VI works well to deliver the fun slasher frights for which the franchise is known. Though it’s not the franchise love letter that Scream ’22 was, Radio Silence is still breaking new ground in one of the genre’s most beloved and entertaining franchises.
As a sub-franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant-Man is a strange anomaly. Initially the many years long passion project of Edgar Wright, Ant-Man was handed off to Peyton Reed in 2014 when Wright exited due to creative differences. The trajectory of the MCUs “little guy” from his humble and heist-driven first film through one sequel, one Civil War, and one saga-concluding Endgame is substantial. But it’s the humor and extreme likability of Paul Rudd’s work in the franchise that makes it all make sense within its greater placement within the MCU. Now Reed is at the helm of his 3rd Ant-Man film and charged with bringing the Multiverse Saga’s big bad, Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conquerer, to the big screen.
Well, 2022 is coming to a close and we’re about to usher in a new year. I have no doubt 2023 will be a big year for movies but it will especially big for The Obsessive Viewer since this little corner of the internet will be turning 10 years old in February (with the podcast turning 10 in June). So before I send off 2022 with a bunch of words about stuff I watched and enjoyed, I want to take this moment to thank anyone and everyone reading this for taking the time to read what I write and/or listen to what I record. It’s much appreciated and I’m looking forward to doing this through 2023 and beyond.