Film Reviews and Analysis
Film Reviews and Analysis
Joe MooreJules & Jim, the 1962 French New Wave film from Francois Truffaut, is one of the most influential pieces in cinema history. The movie centers around a love triangle of…
Joe MooreRobert Bresson’s 1959 film Pickpocket is a masterpiece of subtle storytelling. The film centers on Michel, played by Martin LaSalle, and his slow rise into a life of crime. This…
Joe MooreThe 1955 Charles Laughton film The Night of the Hunter is a spectacular piece of art and one of the most influential films of all time. Looking at the Criterion…
Joe MooreThe Electric State, a 320 million dollar Netflix exclusive Russo brothers film, hit streaming on March 14th. Much to the chagrin of movie lovers everywhere. I’ve seen a lot of…
Joe MooreEdward Yang’s 2000 film Yi Yi is an epic, almost three-hour family drama following three generations of one Taiwanese family. Yi Yi opens with a wedding and ends with a…
Joe MooreFew directors have been more influential on cinema than Jean-Luc Godard. And few films have been more influential than his 1967 black comedy Week-end. Week-end is a film with little…
Joe MooreAlex Scharfman’s directorial debut, Death of a Unicorn, is a funny and fantastical dissent against big pharma. The framing and marketing materials make the film seem like just another monster…
Joe MooreAsh, The new horror sci-fi film from director Flying Lotus has all the makings of a great mystery thriller. We have an interesting setting, a cool group of characters, and…
Joe MooreOpus is a visual feast driven by incredible performances and deep-seated themes. This movie is going for it in every sense of the word. John Malkovich chews the scenery every…
Joe MooreMikey 17, like all of Bong Joon-ho’s movies, is playing with a great number of big ideas. There’s the idea of expendable humans and the value of life. He touches…
Joe MooreHal Ashby’s 1979 film Being There is a hilarious satire of white privilege and political theater. It’s a film that is even more relevant today than it was in the…
Joe MooreEvery year the Academy Awards chooses ten (sometimes less) movies to honor as potential best film of the year. The number has varied throughout the history of The Academy, but…
Joe MooreOsgood Perkins’ newest movie The Monkey comes only a few months after his huge 2024 horror hit Longlegs. It’s surprising to see this film less than a year after his…
Joe MooreJules and Jim is a 1962 French New Wave film about the life and love of three people around the time of World War 1. Francois Truffaut directed this film,…
Joe MooreCaptain America Brave New World is an apt title for the 35th entry in the MCU franchise. This film stars Anthony Mackie as the titular Captain America, after receiving the…
Joe MooreMike Leigh’s 1993 film Naked is one of the more modern films in the Criterion 40 collection. And also one of the least approachable. The film is darkly bleak, bitingly…
Joe MooreFinally, after looking at three foreign black-and-white films, we get a real killer movie. Alex Cox’s 1984 Repo Man. A movie about space aliens, car chases, and punk rock music.…
Joe MooreHeart Eyes slashes into theaters just in time for Valentine’s Day. This film from Josh Ruben leans hard into romantic comedy but maybe a little too sincere for its own…
Joe MooreThe Room Next Door is an odd film by all accounts. It boasts big names like Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. It also comes from one of Spain’s most perplexing…
Joe MooreOver the years, many films have offered the same dystopian vision of the future as Companion. A totally subservient and incredibly gorgeous humanoid robot available solely for the user’s pleasure…
Joe MooreHalina Reijn’s Babygirl aims to be a smart sexy erotic drama. The film succeeds in making its leads look sexy but fails to be the erotic thriller of the season…
Joe MooreNickel Boys, RaMell Ross’s directorial debut, is based on a Colson Whitehead book of the same name. RaMell Ross has been behind the camera before, but never for a feature…
Joe MooreThe 1948 film Bicycle Thieves is a dark and sad tale of a man losing all that he holds dear. It hearkens back to other classic tales like It’s A…
Joe MoorePresence takes the classic ghost story movie and turns it on its head. Rather than following a family getting spooked by an afterlife entity, we follow the action from the…
Joe MooreMel Gibson’s newest film Flight Risk is a far cry from some of the actor/director’s greatest hits. While polarizing, there are some truly great films in Gibson’s directorial filmography. From…
Joe MooreBy the time All That Jazz released in 1979, Bob Fossee was already a legend of the film and play industry. He had made a name for himself acting and…
Joe MooreA lot of superlatives have been thrown around when describing Brady Corbet’s newest film The Brutalist. But one word has come to define and surmise both the film and the…
Joe MooreLeigh Whannell’s newest film Wolf Man is both a technical achievement and a narrative bore. This pseudo-remake of the well-known lycanthrope legend starts off strong before diving into too many…
Joe MooreGia Coppola’s latest film The Last Showgirl is a fascinating look at life in the arts. Well, not exactly the arts. But maybe arts adjacent? Unlike Paul Verhoeven’s inscrutable Showgirls,…
Joe MooreTokyo Story was not a success on its initial release, especially with international audiences. The film is highly specific to Japanese culture and is slowly paced. It’s not until about…
Joe MooreChristian Gudegast returns to the Den of Thieves world with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. Where the first film was a smaller contained Los Angeles-based crime story, this one is…
Joe MooreJames Mangold’s A Complete Unknown is barely a movie. There is very little conflict through the first two acts. The main conflict of whether Dylan will go electric is softened…
Joe MooreFederico Fellini’s 8 1/2 is a masterpiece in cinema and narrative expression. 8 1/2 is a film about film. More specifically, it’s a film about art and the artists who…
Joe MooreA new year can only mean one thing. Numerous lists spouting the best films of the previous twelve months. 2024 was a bit of a mixed bag when it came…
Joe MooreRobert Eggers has struck magic with his Christmas day release Nosferatu. This remake of a 1922 silent film of the same name bears the same general plot but creates a…
Joe MooreLuca Guadignino’s adaptation of Queer, a 1985 William S. Burrough novella, is a dreamy, drug-induced, sex-filled, fever dream. Queer stars Daniel Craig as William Lee. A heroin junkie living in…
Joe MooreParamount’s Sonic 3 feels like an ending and a new beginning all at once. Videogame film adaptions have a tumultuous past but Jeff Fowler has been able to capture the…
Joe MooreWith Kraven The Hunter having an abysmal opening weekend, the Sony Spiderman Villian Universe is all but assuredly dead. This ill-conceived cinematic universe began with a fairly promising Venom and…
Joe MooreAfter three writers and two years of delays, Kraven The Hunter is finally in theaters. And boy, is it bad. It seems even the stacked cast and extra time in…
Joe MooreTim Fehlbaum’s new film September 5 tells the true story of the Munich massacre through the eyes of the ABC sports film crew who covered it. The true-life story of…
Joe MooreAdult Swim Yule Log, also known as The Fireplace, was a surprise 2022 film. The film is part absurdist Adult Swim comedy, part horror, and part meta-narrative fire-crackling Yule Log…
Joe MooreKyle Mooney’s directorial debut Y2K feels a lot like a rejected SNL pitch. The film begins as a standard run-of-the-mill teen buddy comedy set against the backdrop of the turn…
Joe MooreThe Order follows the true story of the white supremacist group The Order and the FBI agents who brought them down. Justin Kurzel’s new film takes inspiration from blockbuster cat-and-mouse…
Joe MooreThe Ringer’s new Max DOCKumentary Yacht Rock shines a light on a made-up genre of music. Yacht Rock is the easy listening songs of the late 70s and early 80s.…
Joe MooreI’ve recently become obsessed with the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. It’s a podcast about, well, Seth Meyers and The Lonely Island going through all of the digital shorts…
Joe MooreWicked is the second big-screen musical that serves as an origin story for one of the media’s greatest villains. That isn’t a lot, but it’s weird we’ve gotten two this…
Joe MooreCall of Duty Black Ops 6 is the first Call of Duty in years with a truly stellar campaign. After some lackluster attempts to revitalize the Modern Warfare series and…
Joe MooreJohn McTiernan’s classic 1988 film Die Hard has become a staple of the action movie genre. Based on a 1979 novel titled Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard is a borderline…
Joe MooreFrequent Dwayne The Rock Johnson collaborator Jake Kasdan is back with a new Christmas film. Red One follows a smarmy Chris Evans as Jack O’Malley. A level four naughty lister…
Joe MooreJuror #2, the new film from acclaimed writer and director Clint Eastwood, is currently in 38 theaters. Warner Bros is distributing the new film and despite an Oscars campaign, and…
Joe MooreSean Baker’s newest film Anora shares a lot of DNA with his previous works. The film stars Mikey Madison as the titular Anora-who goes by Ani in the film-and her…
Joe MooreSaoirse Ronan stars in another Oscar-contending film this year with Steve McQueens Blitz. Blitz is an Apple original film and is continuing the studio’s work of excellent film releases. The…
Joe MooreHeretic is the latest subversive horror flick from A24. But unlike this year’s earlier outing with Brandy, Heretic is actually a horror movie. This thriller from Scott Beck and Bryan…
Joe MooreA copy of Mouthwashing was provided to the Create-Context team for review purposes. A link to our ethics policy can be found below. Mouthwashing, the new psychological horror game from…
Joe MooreThe VHS Movie franchise began in 2012 as a coupling of two specific horror genres. Found footage and anthology films. The two fit together like peanut butter and chocolate. Found…
Joe MooreVenom The Last Dance is the best movie in Sony’s Spiderman-less Spiderman film universe. It’s still a bad movie. The plot is borderline illogical, there are no meaningful stakes, and…
Joe MooreCaroline Lindy’s new film Your Monster opens with an ominous title card. It reads based on a true-ish story. The next two hours of the film are packed to the…
Joe MooreRumours is at times the dryest and others the most absurd comedy movie of the year. The film centers around seven world leaders from powerful countries convening in Germany for…
Joe MooreParker Finn is back with another with Smile 2. The follow-up to his wildly successful first film. The series began as a creepy short screened at SXSW and is quickly…
Joe MooreCopies of RetroRealms Halloween & Ash vs Evil Dead were provided to Create-Context by Boss Team Games. The opinions below solely reflect those of the author. A review of both…
Joe MooreArt the Clown returns in Terrifier 3, Damien Leone’s third film in his Terrifier franchise. Terrifier 3 contains just as much of Art the Clowns antics as you’d expect from…
Joe MooreTerrifer 3 bested Joker Folie a Deux after only one weekend in theaters, proving that there can only be one clown king in October. Art the Clown made his debut…
Joe MooreSaturday Night is the true-ish story of the iconic TV show’s opening night. A real-time drama, the film painstakingly recreates iconic moments from the show while playing fast and loose…
Joe MooreThe Outrun follows all the familiar tropes of an addiction story, but that doesn’t meet it’s not worth your time. Saoirse Ronan puts on a masterclass of acting in what…
Joe MooreTobe Hooper’s seminal 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre turns fifty this year. The film has gone on to spawn numerous sequels, several reboots, and even video game franchises. The…
Joe MooreTodd Phillip’s 2019 film Joker was not a film that needed to be made. It was a standalone movie with no continuity to the larger-then-ongoing DCEU that featured one of…
Joe MooreAfter a tumultuous production, the Sky Original film Lee has finally received a wide release. It’s odd that this film, based on the life of Lee Miller, comes the same…
Joe MooreFew films have such a history and legend around them as Francis Ford Coppola’s fable Megalopolis. Coincidentally, few directors have as storied and polarizing history as Francis himself. Megalopolis is…
Joe MooreAlexandre Aja’s new film Never Let Go tells a bold story and is the filmmaker’s best work yet. Never Let Go stars Halle Berry as a mother struggling to save…
Joe MooreAzrael, the newest movie from IFC and Shudder, takes some big swings. The movie is set in a dystopian post-rapture world where a strange cult cuts out their vocal cords…
Joe MooreThe first time I watched I Saw The TV Glow I left the theater a bit disappointed. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but there was a nagging…
Joe MooreWe’re only past the premier of both Agatha All Along and The Penguin and already each show is learning from their franchise counterparts. The Penguin is shaping up to be…
Joe MooreCoralie Fargeat’s sophomore film The Substance is a tour de force of glam, glitz, and gross-out horror. The Substance is jam-packed with beautiful sets, incredible colors, and phenomenal acting. After…
Joe MooreThe Critic is a twisty period piece set in 1934 London. The film follows Sir Ian McKellen as a theater critic for one of the largest newspapers in the paper.…
Joe MooreThe Killers Game, adapted from the Jay Bonansinga novel of the same name, is a wildly fun and entertaining premise. When the film finally decides to get there. Everything about…
Joe MooreBlumhouses’ remake of a 2022 psychological horror released on Friday the 13th and is garnering praise for James McAvoy’s stellar performance. The original film, Speak No Evil 2022, is a…
Joe MooreSpeak No Evil, the most advertised film ever, is finally out in the world. And it’s surprisingly quite good. This Blumhouse-produced film is a slow-burning tense weekend getaway that’s fully…
Joe MooreJason X is the tenth and final proper entry in the Friday the 13th series. Jason would go on to later fight Freddy Kruger and get a reboot, but Jason…
Joe MooreAfter seven films in the woods, one in Manhattan, and eight with Paramount Pictures, Jason finally goes somewhere he’s never been before. Jason goes to Hell and New Line Cinema.…
Joe MooreFriday the 13th Part 8 Jason Takes Manhattan is the last film in the series to come from Paramount Pictures before the series headed to New Line Cinema. Part 8…
Joe MooreMy Old Ass is a high-concept breath of fresh air coming-of-age tale from writer and director Megan Park. The film stars Maisy Stella as Elliot, a teenage girl on the…
Joe MooreChimp Crazy, the new HBO documentary series helmed by Eric Goode, is a wild tale of a woman and her chimpanzees. What starts as the story of one woman fighting…
Joe MooreFriday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood is a misunderstood film in the Friday the 13th series. The film was released two years after the franchise’s previous installment and…
Joe MooreA24 continues its trend of pumping out weird flicks that don’t neatly fit into one genre with the new Brandy-led film The Front Room. The Front Room was written and…
Joe MooreFriday the 13th Jason Lives is the sixth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise and the last to feature Tommy Jarvis. This is Tommy’s third appearance in the series…
Joe MooreBeetlejuice Beetlejuice is the long-awaited sequel to Tim Burtons thirty six year old cult classic. There have been numerous starts and stops for Keaton’s exterminator, with a working script for…
Joe MooreAriel Vromen’s new film 1992 is interested in telling the story of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Until it isn’t. 1992 boasts a stellar cast including Ray Liotta’s final performance…
Joe MooreFriday the 13th A New Beginning is the fifth film in the franchise and one of the worst of the bunch. The series can easily be broken down into trilogies.…
Joe MooreTim Burton’s cult classic Beetlejuice is getting a sequel 36 years after his original film. Beetlejuice is a strange dark comedy that has surprisingly endured for all these years. This…
Joe MooreFriday the 13th the final chapter, despite its name’s implication, is only the fourth film in the twelve-film series. The Final Chapter introduces Tommy Jarvis to the series. Tommy is…
Joe MooreSean Cunninghams’ original Friday the 13th film started with nothing more than a poster. The director took out an ad in Variety before he had even penned a script claiming…
Joe MooreSlingshot is the newest film from Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom. Hafstrom has helmed a handful of mid-budget films like 2011’s The Rite and the Stephen King adaptation 1408. This time…
Joe MooreAfraid is a smart and easily digestible summer horror movie from Blumhouse and Sony Pictures. The premise is pretty thin, and the dialogue is stale at times, but for a…
Joe MooreThe Alien movie franchise is one of the rare franchises that has few bad movies. Alien began in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s excellent Alien and has continued on to this…
Joe MoorePulp Fiction is a masterpiece. Very few people would deny that. It’s one of those films you can return to time and time again and always unlock some new meaning.…
Joe MooreMilk and Serial is a new found footage horror flick made by YouTuber Curry Barker. Curry is best known for his comedic YouTube and TikTok videos he produces with friends…
Joe MooreJohn Woo’s 2024 film The Killer is an odd flick. On its own, it’s a standard hitman action flick. There are super cool set pieces, stylish action scenes, and narrative…
Joe MooreIncoming is the new straight-to-Netflix teen sex comedy directed by John and David Chernin. The film relies on tropes made famous in various classic teen sex movies but fails to…
Joe MooreRupert Sanders is the latest director to take on The Crow franchise. While his film isn’t the worst in the series, it fails to live up to the original revenge…
Joe MooreForgetting is a gift. Blink Twice is the directorial debut from perpetually cool starlet Zoe Kravitz. And it is quite a strong first outing. Blink Twice centers on two young…
