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, January 30th, 2026. 1) SEND HELP I get to say something I haven't been able to say in a long time with this level of enthusiasm: Sam Raimi is back. Like really back. Bloody, twisted, funny, unhinged, fully himself back. And Send Help  is the proof. Sam Raimi has been one of my favorite filmmakers for a very lo

Rebecca Ferguson is one of those rare actors who immediately commands the screen the moment she appears, and once you notice her, you really can’t stop noticing her. She’s got that elusive combination of intelligence, danger, humor, vulnerability, strength, sexuality, and mystery that you just don’t see very often anymore. With the release of the new science-fiction thriller Mercy , which co-stars Chris Pratt and features Ferguson front and center, it felt like the perfect

Well, here we go again. It’s that special time of year when I complain, celebrate, yell at my television, and generally lose my mind over the Academy Award nominations. The annual ritual continues. This is the 98th Annual Academy Awards, coming up on March 15th, with Conan O’Brien returning as host, which is actually one of the things I’m genuinely excited about. He did a terrific job last year. He was funny, smart, self-aware, and the broadcast actually moved. That alone p

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, January 23rd, 2026. 1) MERCY Mercy  is the first truly terrible movie of 2026, and that’s saying something because January is traditionally the dumping ground. Every year, studios shovel their weakest projects into theaters right after the holidays, hoping no one notices while audiences are still catching up on

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are one of those rare Hollywood stories that actually lives up to the mythology. Childhood friends. Two kids from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two guys who grew up two blocks apart, obsessed with movies, obsessed with acting, obsessed with the idea that somehow, against all odds, they were going to break into this impossible business together. And somehow, they did. Not just together, but by betting on each other when nobody else really would. They m

Jim Jarmusch is one of those filmmakers where, the second the movie starts, you know exactly who made it. Before a plot even kicks in, before anyone says a word, you can feel the temperature of it. The rhythm. The deadpan. The space between the lines. The way he lets a moment sit there until it becomes funny, or sad, or strangely profound, or all three at once. And I love that. I love that kind of confidence. I love that kind of stubborn, beautiful refusal to hurry up and “g

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, January 16th, 2026. 1) 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE Here’s the thing right up front: it is not often that a fourth film in a long-running series turns out to be the best one, especially when that series already has a genuine modern classic sitting at its foundation. But 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple  is ex

If you love movies... and I mean really love movies, the kind that get under your skin, stick in your brain, and sometimes completely rearrange your emotional wiring, then I’ve got something special coming up that I’d love for you to be a part of. After four decades of watching, reviewing, arguing about, defending, tearing apart, and occasionally falling head-over-heels in love with movies, I finally put it all down on paper in my new book from Eckhartz Press , 40 Years, 40 F

I should probably just get this out of the way right up front, because there’s no point pretending otherwise: the Golden Globes are a pretty stupid award show. They always have been. They probably always will be. The Hollywood Foreign Press was, for years, a punchline, a punchline with free dinners and celebrity selfies attached, and even now, after rebrands, restructures, and a lot of PR gymnastics, the Globes remain a weird, messy, kind of meaningless circus. They hand ou

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, January 9th, 2026. 1) DEAD MAN'S WIRE It’s always interesting when a new Gus Van Sant movie comes along, because for decades now he has been one of the most wildly unpredictable filmmakers working. He is capable of absolute greatness and absolute misfires, sometimes back to back, sometimes within the same decad