In this review, I discuss the purely joyful experience that was seeing  Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in theaters during its limited  release. From the themes, symbols, and metaphors brought together  through the script, to excellent technical displays and marvelous  performances, there is a ton to appreciate about this movie. Rian Johnson once again delivers a massively entertaining, incredibly fun  experience that I cannot recommend enough. This is the sort of movie  that makes the medium as a whole feel special. Watch this review along with relevant clips from the film on my YouTube here. And find all my other links here.

In this entry into my Halloween Hoedown series, I take a look at several movies instead of one, analyzing one scene from each of them that I feel illustrates the elements that dictate success in the horror genre. These are the elements that make scares stick with us long after the credits roll, and are often far more impactful than the usual jump scare. Find this episode here on my YouTube, along with clips from the relevant films and their scenes. Find all my other links here.

In this entry into my very-tenuously-Halloween-related anthology, I take a look at Barbarian and She-Hulk, both productions I had recently viewed. I examine them through the lens of how they rely on what audiences know about the genre they are a part of, as well as what audiences anticipate out of the films themselves, to keep viewers engaged in their stories and drive their narratives forward. They do this on a scene level, as well as using the tool of audience knowledge to craft the overarching themes that are found in the works. However, one feels like it does this more successfully than the other. Watch this review along with relevant scenes and clips from both productions here on my YouTube. And find all my other relevant links here.

In this rendition of my critically-acclaimed Halloween series, I discuss what fun, campy, corny, yet enjoyable films mean to me. I do this by talking about the second Scooby Doo live action film, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. I feel this film, while not excellent by any means, manages to stay entertaining and earnest throughout, using its absurdity to its advantage. Watch the review and relevant movie scenes on my YouTube here. And find all my other links here.

For the second installment of my Halloween videos, I take a look at Mean Girls, an inspiration for many a costume, a meme, and even a me. I talk about how the movie manages to be so entertaining while having such an effective story. Mostly, this is due to the great script-writing on display by Tina Fey. Very fetch. Check out this review and clips from the film on my YouTube channel here. And find all my other links here.

In the first of many spooky season serials in this series, I forage into the realm of D-List "horror", watching the Hulu original Crawlers, which came out in 2020. Unfortunately, it is not the sort of bad horror that is "so bad it's good". It would be more apt to say it's so bad I wanted these 90 minutes of my life back. Hope you enjoy this commentary on the movie more than I did the film. Feel free to watch the review with bonus gameplay footage of the hit game Among Us here on my YouTube channel. And check out the rest of my links here.

In this review, I take a look back at Coco, perhaps my favorite entry in Pixar's filmography. I discuss how its earnestness and purity allow for it to quickly endear itself to viewers. I also spend some time discussing how music is used in various parts of the film to drive the story forward as well as accent the arcs of the characters and themes of the story. But, most importantly, I discuss the main ideas of Coco that make it such a powerful film to me. Watch the review here on YouTube with added visuals to accompany my discussion. And find all my other links here.

Last week I watched Prey, the new Predator film streaming on Hulu. I found it to be exactly what it should have been: entertaining, engaging, and effective. Despite not having lofty goals or overly complex ideas in the vein that some Oscar-contender film might, Prey is perfectly successful in my opinion. I talk about what that means, and how I believe we should engage with blockbuster cinema. Watch my review with relevant clips and reference footage here on YouTube. And find all my other links here.

Thor Love and Thunder ultimately didn't deliver for me. It has consistent shortcomings that anyone familiar with Ragnarok could have seen coming, but this time those issues are dialed up to 11 while the standout parts of the previous entry feel entirely absent. Rushed, half-baked, and seemingly self-conscious, it's a very weak entry into the MCU, and not much beyond a way to kill two hours. Watch the review along with relevant clips from the film on YouTube here.  And find all my other links here.

And be sure to comment on the YouTube video about how horrendous you imagine my Thor 4 script from 2019 is!

In this review, I discuss Stranger Things' latest season and what I believe it does so well that helps it stand out from other pop-culture heavy hitters of the late 2010s / early 2020s. Things like character moments and divisions of the group are staples of each season of this show, and this allows for some genuineness that I think other media doesn't bring to the table as frequently. Here is a link to the ScriptNotes podcast, where the idea of "Dividing The Party" is discussed really well. Highly recommend this to anyone interested in writing films, television shows, or just the inner workings of Hollywood in general.  Watch this review with accompanying video explanation here on YouTube. And find all my other links here.