[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, May 29th, 2026. 1) BACKROOMS I didn’t know much about the Backrooms web series before seeing this movie. I had heard about it in passing. I knew it was a YouTube thing, a Creepypasta thing, part of this whole Li

So with the release of the new Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu, I thought I would finally talk a little bit about the Star Wars franchise and rank all of the theatrical films that exist inside that universe. And yes, I know, for a lot of people this is sacred territory. This is religion. This is childhood. This is obsession. This is action figures and conventions and cosplay and sleeping bags and waiting in line for three days outside a movie theater and arguing onl

Hitchhiking is one of those things that feels incredibly tied to a very specific kind of freedom. It’s romantic in theory, terrifying in reality, and absolutely perfect for movies. The idea itself is simple: stick your thumb out, stand by the side of the road, and trust a complete stranger to take you somewhere. Sometimes it’s across town. Sometimes it’s across the country. Sometimes it’s across Europe with a backpack and twenty bucks in your pocket and nowhere to sleep. And

[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 four new movies in this week's capsule (short) movie reviews for Friday, May 22nd, 2026. 1) THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU Well, I should probably start this review by saying something that, depending on who’s reading this, may immediately get me kicked out of the nerd community forever:

You know, sometimes the weirdest ideas for movie lists come from the strangest places. That’s one of the reasons I love movies so much. You can go down these bizarre little rabbit holes and suddenly realize there’s an entire cinematic subgenre devoted to something you never even thought about before. In this particular case: sheep. Lambs. Movies featuring sheep and lambs. And honestly, the reason this even crossed my mind is because one of the absolute biggest surprises of 20

Who doesn’t love Sally Field? Seriously. Who doesn’t? I mean, if you grew up anytime from the mid-1960s on (and especially if you’re around my age, I'm 60) Sally Field has basically always been there. Television, movies, sitcoms, prestige dramas, goofy comedies, soap opera satires, giant blockbuster superhero movies, Oscar-winning performances, Emmy-winning performances…she’s one of those rare performers who somehow became both a massive star and completely relatable at the s

[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, May 15th, 2026. 1) IN THE GREY I am not a Guy Ritchie fan. I have never been a Guy Ritchie fan. I missed the boat completely when everybody lost their minds over Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch b

The new animated film adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm (directed by Andy Serkis and featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Glenn Close and Kieran Culkin) is an absolute train wreck and should be avoided at all costs, especially if you're a true fan of Orwell's...like I am. Okay, so here’s the thing about George Orwell (and yeah, I know, everybody throws that name around like they’ve actually read him, like they didn’t just pick up Nineteen Eighty-Four i

Alright, this one is special. This one is really special. If you know me at all (and I mean at all) you know two things: I love John Carpenter, and I love the drive-in. And when those two things come together? That’s not just an event. That’s heaven. So I am beyond thrilled, honored, and honestly a little giddy to be hosting Carpenter Fest 2: Dusk-to-Dawn at the legendary Midway Drive-In in Dixon, Illinois on Saturday, May 16th. This is a full-on, all-night celebration of Joh

[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, May 8th, 2026. 1) MORTAL KOMBAT II With every review I do of a movie based on a video game, I feel compelled to repeat the same disclaimer over and over again: I do not play video games. I’m not a gamer. Never