Year: 2024

Reviews

Spin on a familiar story makes Twisters a stellar summer movie

by Morgen Schuler

A young and wild group of storm chasers lead by the enigmatic Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is on the hunt for a tornado in the famous tornado alley of Oklahoma. They aren’t just in it for the thrill, but to find a way of deconstructing the storms and in turn saving untold numbers of lives. On one of these ventures, they underestimate the power of the cyclone and Kate loses three of her best friends. Leap forward 5 years and she’s living comfortably at a desk job in NYC when the other survivor of her past life, Javi (Anthony Ramos) tries to pull her back in with the promise of taking up her mantel of saving lives once again.

Reviews

Longlegs climbs high, stumbles precipitously

by Josh

Structured into three acts with a tantalizingly withholding amuse bouche of a prologue, the vibes are immaculate. Frustratingly, the whole thing self-immolates in its final chapter and destroyed all the goodwill that it worked so hard to build. Early reactions seem far more forgiving than mine.

Reviews

Desperation and luck drive the story in Escape

by Morgen Schuler

From the moment we meet him, Sergeant Lim Gyu-nam (Lee Jee-hoon) is desperate to find a way out of North Korea and into a seemingly promised land to the South. Planning for what seemed like years, he has his route mapped and a thought-out plan to escape while he’s still in the military with familiar surroundings and path out, but on the cusp of action things fell apart.

Reviews

Copa 71, or how to memory hole an entire World Cup for 50 years

by Chris Burlingame

There’s something remarkable about the opening scene of Copa 71. Brandi Chastain, hero of the winning American team of the 1991 Women’s World Cup, is given a tablet and shown footage of the 1971 Copa tournament, a massive women’s soccer competition in Mexico City two decades earlier than the first official FIFA Women’s World Cup. She had no idea it even existed. I suspect many other diehard women’s sports fans didn’t either (I certainly didn’t).

Festivals Reviews

June Squibb is an unlikely action star in Thelma

by Josh

This caper starring June Squibb as a 93-year-old granny on a Cruise-inspired impossible mission to avenge her honor after being phone scammed & Fred Hechinger as underemployed Grandson of the Year might be the Most Sundance Movie of the fest: impeccably made, note-perfect, heartwarming comedy.