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Review by Steve Barton II  Will the world of cinema ever be done with its fascination with war movies? While they can be extremely expensive to produce, they are also known to be fantastic for return on investment. War movies are successful both domestically and internationally in theaters and a few of those are regarded as classics by many. After 80+ years since the events of World War II, one may assume that we’ve covered everything worth showing by now, but writer Marc Frydman and director Rod Laurie had other plans. Lucky Strike follows Castle (Scott Eastwood) as an American soldier in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. After Castle loses his battalion, his solo mission to find his way back to the rendezvous point may prove futile. Attempting to create a war film without major studio money backing it is a feat in itself. Everything from period-accurate costuming, props, sets and many more departments are horribly expensive to acquire or recreate. If Frydman and Laurie had aspirations to create the same magic that Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List did, they unfortunately missed the entire target. With a rumored $10 million dollars for a production budget, sacrifices were certainly made whether it was the cast size, VFX budget or script changes. The end product breaks the cardinal “show, don’t tell” filmmaking rule on multiple occasions and it unfortunately is from necessity. Rod Laurie attempts to give it some visual flair right away with the opening sequence being monochromatic and setting us in 1940s Nazi-occupied Germany, but we never get this effort again. We see war activities happening, but the sound effects and minimal visual effects trick your brain into thinking you’re seeing something intense. In reality, there's a few solid blood/guts moments, but it’s mostly guys awkwardly shaking prop guns and firing fake beams made by an overworked VFX artist. The scene with Eastwood taking the German tank for a “spin” and a few others almost made this dramatic war thriller into a comedic nightmare.  While the story is minimal and not unlike other “lone survivor” stories, Scott Eastwood does his best with what he’s got. To many older audience members, seeing Scott in an old school styled movie like this may make them double take thinking Clint has de-aged himself. You can’t say he’s doing an impression or impersonation of his father, but Clint’s genetics can’t help but overstate themselves. His facial expressions and speech patterns could be put next to one of Clint’s similar projects like 1968’s Where Eagle’s Dare and it may be difficult to decipher who is who. Lucky Strike is mostly a solo mission, but the additional cast featuring fellow nepo-baby Colin Hanks filled their roles tremendously. The German soldiers and the family that hides Castle under their floor (in a nearly identical scene to Inglorious Basterds) outshined everyone in their emotional delivery and intensity.
Overall, Lucky Strike has some interesting moments and decent performances but it’s lacking depth and reasoning. There is a scene where a character says a line like “In 80 years, will we learn from these mistakes or will we keep making them?” and the character may as well have been looking directly down the barrel of the camera. With multiple wars ongoing across the world, the filmmakers attempted to cut some modern commentary into this period piece and (similar to most of this movie) it doesn’t work. Adding on the song in the end credits with lyrics that come across as pro-war makes the messages from this movie come out hollow and weak. Rod Laurie can't decide if he actually despises the horrors of war or has wet dreams about them, but we can certainly make up our minds about his art. When the credits roll, the first words we see is a tribute that says “FOR THE BOYS” and it serves as a perfect punchline for whatever Lucky Strike is. Lucky Strike hits theaters starting June 26th! Rating: 1.5/5
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Review by Steve Barton II  Did you ever go off to camp as a kid growing up? Was it forced upon you as a punishment or did you actually desire to leave home and escape your reality for a few weeks? The word “camp” can strike an entirely unique emotion in every individual that hears it uttered. Some folks will have fond memories of swimming with friends and goofing off or hitting a major life milestone like a first kiss. Others will remember being left out of games and wishing desperately to go back home where you have peace from your evil classmates. For writer/director/editor Avalon Fast, it seems to be a mixed bag of complex emotions and memories. CAMP follows Emily (Zola Grimmer) in the aftermath of being directly involved in two separate tragedies and feeling like she’s cursed and worthless. At the behest of her father, Emily attends a summer camp for troubled youth to put her energy into helping them and (hopefully) herself simultaneously. Going into CAMP, if you’re expecting a traditional horror movie in the same vein as Friday the 13th or Sleepaway Camp, you’ve entered the wrong cabin. Avalon Fast has coined her own genre titled “girl horror” which focuses on the creepy and unknown horrors that you encounter growing up as a young lady. In CAMP, Avalon explores these themes using Emily’s character to show how complicated and difficult growing up is. She does this by throwing some of the worst possible obstacles in her life path like multiple deaths and feeling in complete despair at the thought of moving on. Avalon also explores womanhood and young women taking control over their sexualization with Emily’s fellow camp counselors. While Emily is much more conservative in her outward displays of affection, Nev is open about her sex life and is almost shown as a succubus in this Christian camp. In many ways, CAMP isn’t as much of a horror movie as it is a movie showing the horrors of being an adult.  CAMP’s visual style is its boldest and most compelling aspect of the whole feature. From the first-person POV shots walking through the woods with unusual editing in the opening credits, the audience is uncomfortable and expecting a new experience. In Fast’s previous work like Honeycomb from 2022, she explored the subgenres of psychological and folk horror and those influences bleed into CAMP. While the themes of the film don’t necessarily go too far into folklore territory, the look changes with our main character’s development. The dreamy, psychedelic visuals and a striking color palette during the dream sequences will stick in the minds of every viewer for days after.
In conclusion, CAMP isn’t treading new water with its story about overcoming tragedy and dealing with a new environment. It is an interesting visual art piece that can be interpreted in several different ways and will inevitably be divisive among its audience. The performances of the campers and counselors all did well. They covered the many different types of people you’d encounter in a Christian camp setting, including the saints and sinners. While the setting is at a Christian camp, criticisms of religion are more of a subtext here. The slow burn of CAMP will be rewarding for you if you enjoy a weird, witchy story of a young woman trying to work through her trauma to find a reason to live again. CAMP will be in select theaters starting June 26th! Rating: 3/5 Review by Adam Donato  A new female led superhero movie is coming out. Surely audiences will be reasonable about this one. Supergirl is the second movie in James Gunn’s DCU following last year’s hit, Superman. The title character is played by budding House of Dragon star, Milly Alcock. James Gunn promised that this new universe’s superhero movies will not be rushed into production without a solid script. Since Gunn can’t direct all of them, he turned over directing duties to Craig Gillespie with a script by Ana Nogueira. There was a Supergirl show about a decade ago, but the last time Supergirl had her own movie was in the mid 80’s and everyone hated it. Can audiences continue to carry the goodwill from last year’s Superman in this crowded summer box office landscape? While James Gunn didn’t direct, his fingerprints are all over this one. It feels like last year’s Superman meets Guardians of the Galaxy. Both are beloved movies. You get the Superman Esq. hero who can fly around with super strength while wearing a bright red and blue costume. You also get the swashbuckling space adventure with an edgy hero set to a fun soundtrack. The Supergirl movie is strikingly similar to 2019’s Captain Marvel. A superhero of red and blue with her super powered pet. She flies around space with her bad attitude. Captain Marvel made a billion dollars, but was met with middling reviews. The superhero genre has reached peak levels of over saturation for cinephiles during the past decade. Luckily, Supergirl has some clear differences to these movies. The popular claim against Captain Marvel would be that she isn’t very likable. The difference is that Supergirl is likable and is clearly having lots of fun during this movie. Unlike Captain Marvel, Supergirl actually remembers her tragic backstory so it’s easier to forgive her character flaws and sympathize with her. She cracks jokes that are actually funny and has plenty of personality. To calm toxic male nerds, Supergirl isn’t some hyper feminist actively trying to alienate male audiences. Surely that crowd will still find something to complain about as they always do. Female audiences are sure to connect more with the cool Supergirl over the likes of wooden Wonder Woman and psycho Harley Quinn. This being the second movie in the establishment of a new cinematic universe and being a very similar concept to the first movie means there’s a lot of pressure on this one. While this does expand the universe literally as we’re off on an adventure to distant worlds and in space, the movie isn’t preoccupied with setting up Easter eggs for future films. The movie stands on its own in a way that most other superhero movies don’t these days. The stakes aren’t this big world ending disaster. The fate of the world isn’t at stake, the fate of Supergirl’s world is at stake. Can Supergirl stop the bad guys to save her dog? She’s like a superpowered John Wick in space. Who can’t relate to doing everything you can to protect your baby?  Superman does have a presence in the film, but he’s confined to short video calls. Every time he shows up in the film, it’s a delight. We’re in the same universe and are building upon the foundation, but still being our own thing. Supergirl has such a distinct personality that contrasts Superman’s. So while they may have a similar past, powers and look, they complement each other in an interesting way. He’s an optimistic dork boy. She’s a pessimistic cool degenerate. Their opposing worldviews are explored in this film. The contrast in each character’s arcs in their own movies and just the overall contrasting approach to both of these movies is fascinating.
Joining Supergirl on her odyssey is a teenage girl who seeks vengeance played by Eve Ridley. They certainly have a dynamic that is frequent in movies like these. Our hero is accompanied by a small child they have to protect. It does somewhat feel unique in that it’s not an old man paired with a little girl. Here it’s more of a big sister relationship. Her arc works really well with Supergirl’s arc. She’s not overpowered, but is able to prove useful on the mission. It’s known nerd lore that Jason Momoa has desperately wanted to play Lobo for over a decade now. It’s very clear through his performance that he is on cloud nine getting to play this character. The look is spot on to the comic book character. He’s such a vain douchebag, but in a very fun way. His priorities somewhat align with our hero’s, which gives him the opportunity to periodically show up throughout this adventure. He was a fun interpretation of Aquaman, but it’s clear Lobo is the character he was born to play. The villain is arguably the weakest part of the film. Krem, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, is an alien who bullies the weak for his own evil purposes. While he does some things that give strong personal beef for our heroes, his transgressions aren’t personal to him. He faces off with our heroes throughout, but there’s nothing to talk about. The performance is filled with odd, silly choices, but he’s this very serious character. The look isn’t very interesting either as he’s just a dude with a bunch of tiny balls stuck to his face. Big whiff. Speaking of aliens, there’s so many practical aliens in this movie. There’s a couple moments that are reminiscent of the cantina scene from Star Wars. While there’s no fun alien music, it’s still so exciting to explore the different types of alien goons. It really helps to flesh out the universe and make this space world seem distinct from other science fiction franchises. If you’re tired of superhero movies or just plain hate women, then this movie is not for you. For everyone else, Supergirl is a fun ride with some heart. It’s a crowded box office for female centric blockbusters as Toy Story 5 is an absolute hit and the Moana live action remake is only two weeks away. Supergirl stands tall with the best of the female led superhero movies of the past. It’s sure to ruffle some feathers, but that’s very much so her M.O.. Supergirl flies into theaters June 26th! Rating: 4/5 Review by Steve Barton II  Have you ever known a movie that’s been made inspired by a hit song? There have been several over the years from Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler and Julie Brown’s Earth Girls Are Easy that became popular movies in the 1980s. When you ask the question “Have any of those songwriters wrote or directed the film adaptations of their song?” and that population pool shrinks in size. Former child actress Hayley Kiyoko began her music career in 2013 and in 2015 wrote the song Girls Like Girls for her second EP The Side of Paradise. Girls Like Girls was released as a single in June of 2015 and a hit for the queer community. In 2023, Kiyoko adapted this song into a young adult novel and a music video that acts as a continuation of the story from the song. After creating those adaptations successfully, Hayley made the decision (with the encouragement of many fans) to create a feature film around Girls Like Girls and in 2026, it’s finally coming out! Girls Like Girls follows Coley (Maya de Costa) as a teenager trying to navigate life after the tragic loss of her mother. During the beautiful Oregon summer, she meets the mysterious and secretive Sonya (Myra Molloy) and quickly develops feelings for her. With both of them struggling with their own feelings of self-doubt and fear of being ostracized, their complex relationship is a rollercoaster. With Hayley Kiyoko having prior experience on sets as an actress, she made finding the director’s chair an easy task. Unlike many other projects, pre-production for Girls Like Girls has technically been in the works for several years over all its individual adaptations. With the project always being in her hands, she was able to carefully craft a deeply personal story that many queer people will see themselves in. Everything from her music as the instrumental score backing the emotional scenes to how the teens speak to one another using AIM on their old desktop computers all felt like personal touches from her life. Putting so much of herself into this project gives the feeling that the audience is a fly on the wall watching her diary play out for our entertainment.  Girls Like Girls has a wonderful cast of young actors and actresses, but the two leading ladies are bright stars to watch out for. Maya da Costa as Coley plays the character with such a shy and guarded girl perfectly while Myra Molloy plays Sonya as the perfect “girl next door” who everyone pines after but harbors her true feelings, in fear of judgement from her peers. This dynamic between the girls feels so real with how it began as a crush and blossomed from a loving friendship into a secret love affair. Many young queer people exploring their feelings will see the relationship displayed in Girls Like Girls and see that they aren’t so lonely in their life story that looks nothing like most of the previous coming-of-age dramas that preceded it.
In the end, Girls Like Girls is a beautiful coming-of-age story dealing with grief and feelings of inadequacy that many queer people will celebrate for years to come! Both Maya and Myra show vulnerability and emotional intelligence with their performances and that’s incredibly rare to find in such young talent. Rounding out the cast with a seasoned veteran like Zach Braff to play Coley’s father really elevates the material even higher than previously imagined. His scenes with Coley and breaking down their own relationship will have anyone with daddy issues reflecting on their past and probably shedding a tear or seven. If you’re a fan of coming-of-age stories or a fan of Hayley Kiyoko’s iconic song, run out and see Girls Like Girls! Girls Like Girls is in theaters starting June 19th! Rating: 4/5 Review by Steve Barton II  How do you feel about the indie horror surprise hit from 2014, It Follows? When it first came onto the scene, everyone was gushing about how spooky it was and how the “sex kills” concept was bizarre, but good for pushing abstinence. In the years since, critics of It Follows have turned sour on it and saw that it's low effort, boring and silly. The scarier aspect of It Follows is the sense of paranoia and not being able to trust your own eyes. Leviticus plays with that idea in a new lens. Leviticus is the feature debut of Australian writer/director Adrian Chiarella and follows two teenage boys who are in the midst of a blossoming relationship when they are cursed by religious zealots who are trying to “cure” their homosexuality. The violent entity that manifests itself from this curse haunts these boys as the person they desire the most, one another. Leviticus has many strengths, most notably the chemistry between the two leading boys. Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen hadn’t met before they began their work together, but you’d never be able to guess that from what they put on screen. In a community where their love isn’t accepted by the masses, Naim and Ryan are forced to share their love in secret, but their raw chemistry makes it obvious to everyone. Even when they have no dialogue and just purely looking into one another’s eyes, the love is oozing from the screen and you can’t help but root for them against this evil oppression. The love story makes the horror elements hit even deeper, but it would’ve been stronger had they pushed the envelope just a bit further and darker. The oppressive culture around their love story is rooted in religious beliefs and is an allegory for conversion therapy. The demonic presence that’s haunting these boys is quite similar to the pain and suffering that many closeted or openly queer people can relate to their own experiences.  For Adrian Chiarella’s writing and directing feature debut, there is some expert horror filmmaking at work in Leviticus. The sound design and how eerily quiet some of the scenes get to drive up the tension and emotion and the impact is huge. The way the film is shot also resembles It Follows with its small town setting and dark, industrial buildings that create the dark atmosphere that these characters feel inside and out. The “possession” scenes where Naim can’t tell if the Ryan he sees is truly the real one and it is crafted so well that even the audience will be unsure every time. With Chiarella showing he has all of these skills in his toolbelt, it’s exciting to see where his career goes from here.
In the end, Leviticus is a solid addition to the already wonderful year of horror movies of 2026. While it may not be the scariest or darkest film this year, it is an incredibly impactful love story in the middle of a horrible situation. Joe Bird is an incredible leading man for this story and his chemistry with Stacy Clausen will be looked at as an example for future productions about love. Mia Wasikowska was a surprise addition as Naim’s mother who seemed to genuinely love her son, but has succumbed to the religious pressures and brainwashing from her surroundings. Her performance is balanced of being likable in some aspects and absolutely despicable when it comes to being accepting of her son’s sexuality. Many queer people or anyone who has ever had a “forbidden love” will find deep connections to Leviticus and hopefully find solace in not feeling alone. Leviticus is in theaters starting June 19th! Rating: 3.5/5 |