Review by Andrew Swafford

Ready or Not functions well as agitprop for working-class folks who harbor resentment for the ultra-wealthy already, but it rarely points the finger at what exactly the rich get up to that is violent in nature.

Review by Andrew Swafford

The easiest thing to say definitively about Rick Alverson’s The Mountain is that it’s a film about lobotomies that makes you feel as though you’ve been lobotomized yourself.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Throughout the marketing campaign leading up to the release of Detective Pikachu, I found myself bracing for the trainwreck that I imagined might be made of my beloved franchise. Now having seen the movie, I’m neither wholly mad nor impressed, but am rather left with a tangled thread of thoughts and associations ultimately leading me to the realization that it doesn’t matter what I think about this movie.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Starfish is not really a horror film. It’s something else – and that something is kind of beautiful.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Knight seems to be bringing Laika’s humanistic sensibility to a franchise heretofore so concerned with militaristic hardware and mechanics.

Review by Andrew Swafford

As a teacher, I’ve had countless conversations with colleagues fretting about how much tougher adolescence must be in the age of social media, and I’ve always found myself nodding in agreement. However, Eighth Grade reframes the conversation, asking us to empathetically consider why kids love being plugged in.

Review by Andrew Swafford

I’m fascinated by the fact that A Quiet Place is maybe the first ever mainstream horror film created by someone whose appreciation for the genre is informed almost exclusively by horror from the last few years--the new wave of “elevated horror,” to use Krasinski’s unfortunate phrasing. With these specific movies in mind, how does their influence play out in the film?

Review by Andrew Swafford

I like the Fifty Shades films. They aren’t perfectly constructed movies by any means, but seeing the evolution of the series’ central relationship between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey has been often delightful and always fascinating, even in its shortcomings. I want to attempt, in good faith, to present an exhaustive case for why the Fifty Shades series does not deserve its current status as a cultural punching bag.

Review by Andrew Swafford

The idea that a challenging film is an interesting film seems, to me, to be a common assumption among movie fans. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a joyless and abrasive film, with a sense of nihilistic sadism. That statement of truth, I imagine, will be enough to convince many to watch it.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Mischietti’s film undoubtedly improves upon the last iteration in countless ways, but its inherited flaws run deep.

Review by Andrew Swafford

As far as ensembles go, Rough Night has a good one: Jillian Bell, Zoë Kravitz, Ilana Glazer, and Kate McKinnon all end up outshining Johansson, who plays it straight against their farcical spectrum. And it’s not just that they’re funnier than Johansson, but they’re more important by design.

Review by Andrew Swafford

I am here to tell you, reader, that not only is It Comes at Night not a horror movie, it is hardly a movie. It is a non-movie. It is three dogs on each other’s shoulders in a trenchcoat instead of a movie.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Your Name. is doing the unthinkable: finding extraordinary success solely due to its quality as a good story, expertly told by a visionary filmmaker.  Am I dreaming?

Review by Andrew Swafford

Before I Fall stylishly explores the repetitive nature of routine adolescent life in a way that isn’t being appreciated enough.

Review by Andrew Swafford

Can we talk about violence in the John Wick series?  Seriously, can we?  Only three years old, this franchise has already become a strange sacred cow for cinephiles who dig genre fiction.  Yes, these movies are balletic and immaculately captured on film, but they’re also fascinating--if imperfect--from just about every other angle.

Review by Andrew Swafford

I still like the originality of Passengers overall, but the tone of the film always stays on this side of “safe,” gutting the film of its potential to be a gutsy, interesting, original studio genre effort.

Review by Andrew Swafford

La La Land is more ambitious than Whiplash in every conceivable way: it is longer, it has a more complicated plot, it doubles the number of artist-protagonists, it upgrades musical performance to musical theater, and it poses significantly more ethical dilemmas about art to wrestle with.  I’m going to ignore the film’s obvious cinematic qualities in order to focus on the ethical side—because I’m not sure Chazelle has much to say this time around.