[Get the exclusive video version of these weekly reviews each Friday by becoming a paid subscriber!] My Film Critic pants are quite fetching; they are on, pressed, and ironed. I'm ready to review seven new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, August 28th, 2026. 1) COYOTE VS. ACME Like so many people, I grew up on Looney Tunes. I watched them constantly on television as a kid in the '70s, saw many of those cartoons in theaters, and those characters b

Conan O’Brien is one of my favorite comic voices of all time, and I think at this point we can safely stop referring to him simply as a late-night talk show host. He is certainly one of the greatest late-night hosts ever, but the guy has now been doing this for so long, in so many different forms, that he has become something much bigger than that: a genuine American comedy institution. And the wonderful thing is that he is still really, really funny. With the third season of

Sometimes I like to shine a spotlight on actors and actresses who have been around forever, have done consistently terrific work, and yet somehow don't get talked about nearly enough. They're the people who show up in a movie and you immediately think, "Oh, great! She's in this!" They may not always get top billing, they may not always get awards, and they may not be the person whose face is plastered across the poster, but they make everything they're in better. Lin Shaye is

[Get the exclusive video version of these weekly reviews each Friday by becoming a paid subscriber!] My Film Critic pants are quite fetching; they are on, pressed, and ironed. I'm ready to review five new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, August 21st, 2026. 1) INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER For about the past 15 years, we have been inundated with a particular kind of supernatural horror movie, many of them somehow connected to James Wan, Leigh Wha

I love Anthony Bourdain. I should probably just say that right up front. There are certain people you admire because they're talented, certain people whose work entertains you, and then occasionally there are people who genuinely change the way you look at the world. Anthony Bourdain was one of those people for me. I thought he was funny, brilliant, profane, adventurous, incredibly well-read, brutally honest and completely original. He was a chef, an author, a traveler, a tel

Stoner comedies are a very specific, very strange, and surprisingly durable little corner of movie history. They have their own rhythms, their own rules, their own kind of logic (or lack of logic) and they have somehow survived generation after generation while changing right along with the culture surrounding marijuana itself. And with the release of the new Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat comedy The Wrong Girls, I thought this would be a perfect time to celebrate one of th

[Get the exclusive video version of these weekly reviews each Friday by becoming a paid subscriber!] My Film Critic pants are quite fetching; they are on, pressed, and ironed. I'm ready to review six new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, August 14th, 2026. 1) TONY “I was — to be frank — a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” - Anthony Bourdain "Kitchen Confident

There are comedians who make you laugh, there are comedians who make you think, and then there are comedians who do both while simultaneously making a whole room of people incredibly uncomfortable. Ricky Gervais belongs in that last category, and that's one of the many reasons I love him. I happen to think he is one of the most important comedic voices of the last thirty years. Whether he's writing a sitcom, directing a movie, performing stand-up, hosting an awards show, doin

If you're a horror fan, you almost certainly have an opinion about Eli Roth. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground with the guy. People either think he's one of the most exciting genre filmmakers of the last quarter century, or they dismiss him as a provocateur who mistakes gallons of fake blood for actual storytelling. Even within the horror community (which is usually pretty welcoming of filmmakers who push boundaries) Roth remains one of the most divisive directors w

[Get the exclusive video version of these weekly reviews each Friday by becoming a paid subscriber!] My Film Critic pants are quite fetching; they are on, pressed, and ironed. I'm ready to review three new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, August 7th, 2026. 1) SUPER TROOPERS 3 The comedy troupe Broken Lizard has been around since the early ’90s, when the guys met at Colgate University, started performing together onstage, and eventually developed