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Review by Steve Barton II  Mental health is a topic that’s often mishandled in the world of film and television. You have some cases where a mental illness is seen as a death sentence or a detrimental character flaw or it’s almost offensively celebrated like a superpower. While the ends of the spectrum aren’t equal, both are wrong. Fantasy Life takes a fresh look at how the average person deals with mental illness in their day-to-day life and the struggles that come with it. Fantasy Life follows Sam (Matthew Shear) as a mentally ill, failed law student who obtains a babysitting job from his therapist to babysit their grandchildren. While caring for the children, Sam also falls for their married mother, Dianne (Amanda Peet) who is going through her own mental health struggles and they find solace in one another. The biggest compliment to give Fantasy Life is its handling of mental health and its healthy depiction. Unlike blockbuster movies like Joker, Matthew Shear shows anxiety and depression from a realistic perspective. With his own character, he shows the debilitating effects of panic attacks and while they may look funny to onlookers, the individual is suffering. Sam’s struggles are relatable to many young adults who feel lost while comparing themselves to their peers and the life benchmarks that they’re miles behind. From Amanda Peet’s character, we see her struggling with being middle-aged as an actor and being aged out of her profession. This role for Amanda may serve as her comeback role because her career has played out similar to Dianne’s and her extra effort is seen on the screen. The co-dependency that blossoms into a romance that these two lost characters find one another is cute, but ultimately unhealthy and wrong.  While it is a nice portrayal of mental illness, its visual style leaves much to be desired. Fantasy Life doesn’t make much of an effort to do anything special or memorable with the camera and the sets are mostly just New York City and suburbs. Rom-coms like When Harry Went Sally and countless others have done more with the beautiful city, but the lower budget must be considered here too. The romance plot does pull away the focus on mental health, but their relationship also shows just how delusional they can become.
In the end, Fantasy Life is a nice story about a lost man who is desperate to find his place in this giant world. Matthew Shear shows some promise in the director’s chair and wrote a personal tale that many people will find compelling and relatable. He and Amanda Peet are incredible as the leads and the supporting cast with Andrea Martin, Holland Taylor, Bob Balaban and the iconic Judd Hirsch rounded it out completely. If you feel lost and alone on your mental health journey and need a movie to comfort you, take a chance on Fantasy Life. Fantasy Life is playing in theaters starting April 3rd. Rating: 3.5/5
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Review by Steve Barton II  Steven Soderbergh is a name that’s always near the surface of the vast ocean of iconic directors over the last 30+ years. Since his feature debut with Sex, Lies, and Videotapes (which earned him honor of youngest winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival), Steven’s career has been a mix both critically and financially. One thing that is always a constant with Soderbergh’s work is his ability to make the camera a character itself and engrosses the audience into this world he’s created. In the Oceans films or Logan Lucky, the dynamic camera makes you feel nervous and thrilled during the heists. With The Christophers, Steven makes the audience a fly on the wall seeing an artist wrestle with his impending departure from the world and the complicated emotions that come with it. The Christophers follows Lori (Michaela Coel), an artist who is hired to forge the unfinished works of a once regarded artist, Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) by his children. As Lori begins to pull back the layers of Julian’s rough outer canvas, she uncovers the true artist behind his once iconic work.  The Christophers isn’t telling a brand new story and it plays out in a predictable fashion, but that’s not what makes the movie so special. As previously mentioned, the cinematography and the way the camera moves with the characters throughout scenes makes this a movie and not a stage play. Even in moments where Sir Ian McKellen is delivering a piercing monologue seated in his chair, the camera aids the audience and keeps it from dragging. Praise is due for both the lead performances from Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, giving two brilliantly opposite sides of an artist. Even at the advanced age of 87, Sir Ian is able to deliver paragraphs of poetic dialogue about the struggles of an artist and what it truly means when you’ve left this world behind. Michaela plays Lori as a quiet, reserved young woman who has lost all inspiration to create art but still uses her skills to earn a paycheck. While she mostly plays Lori as subdued and silent, Michaela’s power is in her eyes and that speaks even more than written word on a script. Her character displays how harsh criticism (especially from an idol) can truly incinerate the creative drive. Julian’s character is more understandable once you meet his support system which are his two ungrateful children, Sallie and Barnaby. Jessica Gunning is able to bring the fake, convincing charm like she had in Baby Reindeer and Corden proves once again that he can do the same. With this being the first time James Corden and Sir Ian McKellen have shared the big screen since Cats, the extra effort from both parties was quite apparent. The struggles from Julian’s children can be relatable to children of artists not feeling compensated by their parent’s love and attention, but to others it feels selfish and inappropriate while their father is on his deathbed.
In the end, The Christophers is a personal story that will have many artists reflecting on their portfolios and how they’ve balanced life and their legacies. Soderbergh seems to reflect on his own career through McKellen and practically uses him as a self-insert character, reflecting on his own 30+ years career and how his art will be looked at after he’s gone. Sir Ian is able to bring his years of experience as one of the greatest actors to bring this character to life and creates the perfect foil for Lori. The back and forth between Julian and Lori about art and how paintings, words or any kind of art can have a lasting impact or impression on a person forever. The supporting cast of Julian’s children played by Jessica Gunning and James Corden help fill out the movie by portraying spoiled children who value their father’s work more than the man himself. In an otherwise predictable story, The Christophers delivers a beautiful movie that will help Sir Ian McKellen live on forever! The Christophers releases in limited theaters starting April 10th! Rating: 4/5 Review by Steve Barton II  In the year of 2026, is it possible to make an original stoner comedy? Most folks would probably say no and when you see the title of a movie called Pizza Movie, it may confirm that hesitation. Luckily, Pizza Movie hits the audience with laughs right away and dispels any doubts that this movie will be anything but fun! Pizza Movie follows Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone) as college students who are struggling to fit in and decide to take some random drugs they found in their dorm room and immediately begin to trip. With the only item to bring their high down being pizza, Jack and Montgomery must make the epic trek downstairs and retrieve the all-powerful pie! With both our stars in Pizza Movie being former child stars (Gaten with Stranger Things and Sean with The Goldbergs), this serves as a great opportunity for them to break out of their childhood careers. While hearing Adam F. Goldberg and Dustin dropping F-bombs and sex jokes was jarring, it also made the experience even more memorable and hilarious. Their chemistry as childhood friends works very well and the dialogue they have between them is very realistic and authentic to the college experience. Other students that rounded out the cast did great too like Lulu Wilson, Marcus Scribner from Black-ish and an incredible voice cameo that movie fans will love! While they are all fantastic, the surprise scene thief was Caleb Hearon as Sidney. He fills the role of an abnormally aged college sophomore who is desperate to fit in perfectly and his scene with just the main cast is the best in the film!  Pizza Movie does have similar qualities to the many other high school/college films that came before, but it stands out with its style and editing! The plot itself is quite similar to Superbad and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, but the visuals can only be compared to something like Everything Everywhere All At Once. Capturing the visual and psychological representation of tripping on psychedelics is no easy feat, but Pizza Movie passes with flying colors! A few of these scenes could even be cut into an anti-drug PSA and they’d get the job done, because the insane nightmares these two characters experience is one that only seasoned space rangers would actually enjoy.
In the end, Pizza Movie is an incredible comedy that is also a visual roller coaster! While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel with its overall plot structure, the writing shines with its dialogue and the incredibly original and memorable moments inside the confines of the simple plot. While this should be a walk-off home run for Hulu (especially with the 4/20 holiday around the corner), Pizza Movie could also become a huge cult classic in coming years because its humor and style fits perfectly among the greats in that category. Pizza Movie could become this generation’s Superbad, but with a kickass butterfly! If you’re having a night with the buddies or just chilling at home alone and need some laughs, grab your substance of choice and some pizza (obviously) and fire up Pizza Movie! Pizza Movie arrives on Hulu starting April 3rd! Rating: 4.5/5 Review by Steve Barton II  If you were told to think of the first word that comes to mind when you hear “Ballerina”, what would you say? Beautiful tutus, classical music, tiny shoes that strike horror into any size 13 foot and several other characteristics of these artists and their craft. Pretty Lethal has all of these elements plus an unexpected twist of being extremely violent! Pretty Lethal follows a group of ballerinas as they travel across Hungary on their way to a competition in Budapest. After their bus breaks down, they are taken in by the people of the Teremok Inn and the girls quickly realize that these nice people are actually a gang of criminals who only want to cause them harm. Pretty Lethal was a complete surprise with how much fun the watching experience was! It began like many similar movies with a simple setup to introduce the characters and get them to the uniquely designed Teremok Inn. Once the major inciting incident happens, the girls are forced to take action and the insanity levels begin to rise to levels previously thought impossible for a ballerina film! The shock to the system with its tone can only be compared to 2015’s Green Room and the insanely violent battle for survival. Pretty Lethal still has its unique look with its dynamic camera that sweeps through the incredibly choreographed dances and fights. The editing also amplifies those scenes with perfectly placed music to add wordless punchlines to moments that will make anyone giggle. The precision of how these scenes were carefully crafted have a similar feel to Edgar Wright’s style in the bar scene from Shaun of the Dead.  While Uma Thurman does provide the star power for Pretty Lethal and delivers a powerful performance, the group of young women really steal the show. The whole group filled their roles perfectly and their commitment to the dance and fight choreography should be recognized and praised. Major props to Millicent Simmonds for her performance and how her on-screen presence has grown so much since we first met her in A Quiet Place back in 2018. Maddie Ziegler came from a dancing background (even being on Lifetime's Dance Moms as a child), so she was able to bring a level of authenticity for the main protagonist and made it believable when she ultimately rose up to become the hero.
Ultimately, Pretty Lethal is a stylized action/thriller that will satisfy most genre fans. With incredible action sequences, buckets of blood, colorful characters and unpredictable moments it’s hard to imagine not having fun while watching this film. Some of the dialogue might be considered “cringe” with how obvious and cheesy it sounds, but it also felt like it was intended to make the audience wince and be in on the joke itself. There was even a moment where an adversary reacted to one of those lines how the audience would and if Pretty Lethal had been released in theaters, it would’ve been a roar-inducing moment among the crowd! If movie night is approaching and you’re scanning the streamers to find a 90-minute thrill ride, look no further than Pretty Lethal! Pretty Lethal is now available on Prime Video! Rating: 4/5 THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST - - If This Is The Future, Where’s The Exit?3/28/2026 Review by Steve Barton II  The explosion of artificial intelligence and its swift grip on the entire world is absolutely terrifying and no one seems to have an answer for how to slow it down. You could poll a room of 20 people and more than likely every single individual would have a different reaction or understanding of A.I. and its impact on the environment/society as a whole. In The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, the main director, Daniel Roher is bringing new life into this chaotic new world of artificial intelligence and is searching for the answers to all of these huge questions around it and the future of the world for his son. Daniel interviews several individuals from around the spectrum of AI, from the pessimistic perspective of letting it grow without stricter safeguards, the folks who blissfully believe in a coexistence future with robots utopia and a few of the CEOs of the companies themselves to shed more light upon their intentions and overall goals. The AI Doc is well-crafted by being shot crisp and professionally. It's edited brilliantly with engaging B-roll and awesome scene transitions. The narrator being Daniel’s wife and having their back and forth certainly aided in the emotional connection to the film itself and you feel their concern for their unborn child and his future because of the artificial intelligence boom. Daniel including the bit about his father’s cancer and how AI could help find a cure for him was one of the few times where the argument could almost flip even the biggest AI skeptic.  The AI Doc’s biggest mark against itself is how Daniel conducts and takes in the interviews themselves. When you have someone on the level of Sam Altman sitting in front of you and you claim to have the desire to answer the big questions, why come out with such softballs? It hardly felt like there was any pressure or contention on him, and it was more of an advertisement and PR moment for these CEOs. These are the folks signing off on huge data centers that are depleting natural resources, yet Daniel asks them about growth in technology. There are several moments where Daniel should’ve just shaved his head bald and jumped in an ice bath, because he fully embodied Joe Rogan and his chameleon interview style. If you truly don’t think you know the right questions or would rather be liked by these people and not ask the “real” questions, don’t make this documentary. Wasting everyone's time with such surface level questioning was embarrassing and often induced involuntary eyerolls.
Overall, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a well-intentioned documentary that missed the mark. The film has a fun style and moves well in the edit, but the information itself doesn’t present anything all that new. Providing the opposing sides and their arguments was good, but Daniel never went far enough in either direction to get anything new or interesting. Someone with no knowledge of artificial intelligence can walk away from this and feel fulfilled, but others will find it shallow and lacking the punch it desperately needed. Daniel poses the question to interviewee on if now is a good time to have a child and while most people said it was, the film itself doesn’t even believe that. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is available in theaters starting March 27th! Rating: 2/5 |