Review by Camden Ferrell

Love, Death & Robots is an anthology show for adults that premiere on Netflix in 2019. It had its second season in 2021 and is about the release their third season. While David Fincher has been a producer from the start, this season sees him sitting in the director’s chair for the first time on the series among other creators. This season features another batch of enjoyable shorts of differing quality, and it’s clear that there are some episodes that are significantly better than the others this season.
 
In this season, there are 9 episodes, and I was able to watch four of them: Three Robots: Exit Strategies, Bad Traveling, Night of the Mini Dead, and Jibaro. Fans of the show will recognize the first title, which is a continuation of those same robots we met in season 1. The rest of them are about radically different things like the open sea, zombies, and a reimagining of a folktale. Like previous seasons, these ideas are really unique, diverse, and interesting on paper, but the show has also had some problems with developing and properly executing their exciting and original premises.
 
The writing in the four episodes I watched are decent. The writing has never been the strong suit of the show, and these episodes let other aspects take the reins. I will say that Bad Traveling was particularly well written more so than the other episodes and tackled some really interesting themes and ideas as well. I will say that while this season isn’t perfect in this regard, there is a noticeably reduction in the amount of casual and subtle misogyny that was so prevalent throughout the first two seasons.

As always, the actors they cast are above average, but the real star of the show is the innovative animation. This is a show that experiments with different styles and types of animations more than anything else streaming today. I particularly liked the animation of Bad Traveling and Jibaro as they both aimed for realism in their animation and achieved it with great results.
 
As mentioned before, Fincher made his animation directorial debut with his short Bad Traveling, and it’s easily one of the best episodes the series has put out thus far even if it still has some minor flaws. I also enjoyed some of the execution in Night of the Mini Dead and Jibaro even if they weren’t as memorable as Fincher’s episode. While I enjoyed all of the episodes so far to some extent, it doesn’t seem like a big step up in quality for the series, and it remains a show full of beautifully animated and average to great anthology shorts.
 
Love, Death & Robots will please its fans in its third season but for those who had a hard time getting into the show previously, this one will still probably not satisfy you. It’s worth watching for Fincher’s episode alone, but as always there’s always at least one thing to enjoy in each episode.
 
Love, Death & Robots season 3 will be available on Netflix May 20.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review by Adam Donato

Review by Camden Ferrell

Eugenio Derbez is one of the most well-known Mexican comedy actors today, and he most recently starred in the Best Picture winning movie CODA. His newest movie is The Valet, a comedy that is the remake of a 2006 French movie of the same name. This movie is a very standard and relatively enjoyable romantic comedy that hits all of the typical beats without aiming to do anything particularly fresh.
 
Antonio is a valet, living life with his big family and looking for love after his wife breaks up with him. One night, he finds himself accidentally photographed with Olivia, a famous actress, and the married man with whom she’s having an affair. In an effort to preserve her image, Oliva and Antonio begin a relationship to not implicate her with her married fling. The fake relationship premise and story have been done before, and this movie is fine but opts to follow the formula for this story closely.
 
The movie is directed by Richard Wong whose previous movie, Come As You Are, was also enjoyable despite its flaws. Wong is perfectly adequate as a director, simply telling this story with no frills or risks, and it works for better or worse. The movie desperately needs to feel surprising and original, but his execution is far too safe to achieve such a goal. 

The cast is mostly decent throughout. Derbez is the heart of this film, and while he doesn’t give his usual over the top performance, he still brings a lot of humor to the role. Samara Weaving co-stars as Olivia, and she’s usually a very talented actress, but her performance in this movie is passable at best. The movie also stars Max Greenfield and Betsy Brandt who give decent performances despite being forgettable.
 
One of the smaller details that I enjoyed was how Derbez’s on screen family spoke just as much Spanish as English. It’s a minor detail that really means a lot in terms of representation. Despite not being surprising or original, this is still a nice touch. Overall, the movie feels far too long, clocking in at nearly two hours, and its story is incredibly predictable. It’s a comedy that one can watch and mildly enjoy without too much effort, but it’s not something to actively seek out among all of the other new releases available.
 
The Valet will definitely please fans of Derbez, but many may still find this remake to be predictable and far too safe for a comedy film. There are a few good gimmicks and funny moments, but it could have easily been thirty minutes shorter.
 
The Valet will be available on Hulu May 20.
 
Rating: 3/5

Review by Sean Boelman

If there is one thing Hollywood can’t get enough of, it is milking once-valuable IPs past their prime in an attempt to cash in on nostalgia and create a new franchise. And despite the efforts of Lonely Island members Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is one of the most corporate nonsense kids movies to come out in a while.

The film follows Chip and Dale decades after their television show (the one that this is a reboot… er… comeback of) has ended and they have drifted apart as they must come back together to solve a mystery involving an old friend. For a movie that so desperately wants to be edgy, it’s disappointingly subdued in its plotting.

Granted, there are a few gags in the film that will leave viewers shocked that the filmmakers got the permission from Disney to include them — not that they aren’t family friendly, but that they are so weird and cynical compared to the type of humor that fills a lot of Disney movies. However, that is where the positive comparisons to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? stop.

This movie desperately wants to live up to its similarly Disney-produced predecessor’s image so much, but it misses the things that made that one work. Yes, it’s chock full of references, and there are a few funny moments, but what is missing here is a compelling mystery. The twist isn’t bad, but it is also nowhere near as fresh as it seems to think it is.

The dynamic works if you have a fondness for the characters of Chip and Dale from your childhood, but the fact of the matter is that it’s shallow and derivative. It feels more like Andy Samberg and John Mulaney playing themselves than them playing their respective characters, and it’s disappointing.

There are some other good voice performances in the cast playing new roles, like J.K. Simmons and Seth Rogen, but the thing that the film is missing is a strong live-action presence. Kiki Layne is the main actress with a live-action role, and while she’s obviously talented, she feels wasted here.

Apart from not really taking advantage of the medium as well as it could have, the visuals of the movie look very good. The way in which the animation was blended into the real world looks fantastic, even if more should have been done with it. It’s a pretty cool mix of 2D animation and 3D animation that works quite well. 

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers was a major disappointment, especially given all of the talent and potential that was involved. It’s sure to have its fair share of fans, but many of those are going to be too blinded by nostalgia to see that this isn’t as smart as it appears.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers streams on Disney+ beginning May 20.

​Rating: 2.5/5

Review by Camden Ferrell

With his two previous directorial efforts, Ex Machina and Annihilation, Alex Garland has established himself as one of the most exciting directors working today. His new movie, Men, is a horror movie that sees him expanding his cinematic horizons for better or worse. The movie features a masterful lead performance from Jessie Buckley and some gorgeous cinematography, but it can feel the slightest bit uneven at times.
 
After a traumatic incident, Harper decides to go on a vacation to the countryside of England to clear her mind and heal. Upon arrival, ominous happenings with the locals proves things are not as they seem. This premise is simple on paper, but Garland has a special way of weaving emotionally complex characters into these stories to make it feel fresh and original.
 
While its writing is above average, it pales in comparison to Garland’s previous films. This movie tackles universal and complex themes with grace, and it creates a memorable lead character. However, it sometimes doesn’t balance the horror, drama, and emotion the way it needs to. His previous movie, Annihilation, is a complex and beautifully written movie, but this movie fails to be as consistent as his previous efforts.

The most outstanding aspect of this film is Jessie Buckley’s lead performance. She has consistently proven that she is one of the most talented actresses in recent years, and this is another masterful performance under her belt. She plays the pain, fear, and sorrow with such breathtaking emotion, and it still makes the movie worth watching even in some of its duller moments. Rory Kinnear is also fittingly creepy in his unique performance alongside Buckley.
 
Another great thing about this movie is its gorgeous cinematography. From the start, the movie is meticulously crafted from a visual standpoint, and it’s gorgeous and haunting. While the scares and thrills don’t always land and it can take a while for it to build up momentum, Garland once again shows that he knows how to make an unforgettable final act. It’s gruesome, shocking, and emotional, and it should still captivate even the film’s harshest critics.
 
Men is ambitious, and it’s bound to be a divisive outing from Garland. Buckley is astonishingly profound in this role, and it’s a visual treat. The slow pacing and uneven execution in the first half tend to bog down the overall product. Regardless of its flaws, this is a movie that’s definitely worth viewing as it’s sure to inspire many discussions upon release.
 
Men is in theaters May 20.
 
Rating: 3.5/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Actress-turned-filmmaker Brea Grant has established herself as an up-and-coming voice in the horror genre, and her newest movie Torn Hearts, is her would-be breakout from niche territory. A Blumhouse-produced horror flick set in the world of country music, there are some interesting things going on here, but Grant can’t make much out of a lackluster script.

The film follows a country music duo who seek out their idol by tracking down her residence, only to learn the hard way that sometimes you shouldn’t meet your heroes. It’s a premise that shows a lot of potential, but unfortunately, it lacks the narrative momentum to compensate for its many flaws.

Like so many horror movies these days, this suffers from pretty substantial pacing issues. The first hour offers a slow build to a final act that is entirely overwhelming. A few truly wild moments deliver on the promise that the movie makes for gory, campy fun, but for the most part, it’s rather dull and hard to get into.

The film explores the same themes of fame being a corrupting force that literally every showbiz movie has done in the past fifty years. Granted, it does so in a tongue-in-cheek, almost devilish manner, but this isn’t the type of cautionary tale that is necessary because it has been done so many times before.

One of the things that keeps the movie from working as well as it should is that the dynamic between the three central characters is off. It’s clear that something is meant to feel askew, but not to the point of feeling unrealistic, which is what ends up happening. And as a result, the motivations in the film are weak and ineffective.

Perhaps part of the issue is that it often feels like the actresses are all trying to compete against each other. Katey Segal goes big, and is the only one of the trio that works. She’s earned the right to play the larger-than-life country music diva. Abby Quinn and Alexxis Lemire play the main characters and don’t particularly shine.

The technical elements of the movie definitely leave something to be desired. The film has a mansion for its setting and it makes nothing of it. There are some gory moments, but they come mostly in the back half of the movie, and by that point, they aren’t effective enough to make much of a lingering impact.

Torn Hearts has an intriguing premise but it doesn’t live up to it by any means. Brea Grant is certainly an interesting filmmaker even if her films don’t seem to be as thoroughly developed as they should be.

Torn Hearts hits VOD on May 20.

​Rating: 2/5

Review by Dan Skip Allen

Sci-fi shows have been popping up on a lot of streaming services and cable outlets. Prime Video has just dropped a sci-fi western Outer Range. Netflix has released too many to mention here. Prime is up again with Night Sky. It's better than Outer Range, but not by much. These sci-fi shows' creators have great ideas, but they have difficulty executing their master plan.

J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek play an elderly couple who, at first glance, seem happy and content with their lives in rural Illinois... until they decide to take a look at the stars. They have a secret they haven't told anyone about. A secret bunker in their shed takes them to a room where they can look out at the stars and a planet from what looks like another planet. It's a portal to a far-off world in the stars.

This show has some other things going on with it that are hard to describe involving Argentina and a secret society of people sworn to protect and hide various other portals around the globe. The story has some fascinating plot points. The characters throughout the series are interesting to follow along with, but some of their storylines are wasted. A lost drifter with amnesia in the show had some potential.  ​

Review by Paris Jade

The best explanation for the film Senior Year is an R-rated version of 17 Again featuring Rebel Wilson. However, it's barely R-rated and probably could have been toned down to a PG-13 rating by dropping fewer F-bombs. During her senior year, Stephanie Conway (Rebel Wilson) is on top. She's cheer captain, on her way to prom queen, and one of the most popular girls in school with the top jock on her arm. However, during an accident while cheering, Conway ends up in a coma, having her wake up 20 years later. Now she must navigate her way into this new environment and finish her senior year of high school while trying to bring back her popular status and get her life on track. 
​
This is a very cliché film filled with a popularity-driven main character. There's nothing particularly special about this film other than the fact that Wilson is the main protagonist. She should stick to being a supporting character rather than the front lines. However, the supporting cast in this film was greatly appreciated and made Wilson a better performer. The plot itself was nothing different from other films similar to this one. Still, the culture shock that Wilson's character goes through in the movie is appreciated. From 2002 to 2022, she had a lot of catching up to do, and they pulled it off well. The antagonist, her high school enemy, brought great flavor to the mix and made the whole ordeal for the race to prom queen a bit more exciting. ​

Review by Sean Boelman

Sometimes, a filmmaker takes a long time between their efforts, but more often than not, it’s worth the wait. It’s been over a decade since Michelangelo Frammartino’s last critically-acclaimed feature, Le Quattro Volte, and his newest movie, Il Buco, does not disappoint.

The film tells the story of a group of spelunkers who explore one of the deepest caves in the world while on an expedition in the south of Italy. While this may seem like a concept destined to make a thriller a la The Abyss or even an Indiana Jones-style adventure, Frammartino opts to do something much more restrained.

There isn’t much dialogue in the movie, and when there is dialogue, you can’t expect it to be particularly obvious or revealing. This is a film about mood and emotion, with a narrative created almost exclusively through the juxtaposition of its images. It’s a style that is certain to lose some people’s attention, but others will vibe with its restrained poeticism.

The themes of the movie are hard to pinpoint at first, and if you are looking for Frammartino to be making anything resembling a clear statement, you are certainly looking in the wrong place. However, there are some interesting threads here about the unknown and how small we are as individuals in the big picture of things.

Because of the largely dialogue-free nature of the film, there admittedly isn’t a whole lot of character development for any one person. Indeed, the characters are all billed as “Speleologist” or “Shepherd”, except for one who is a “Speleologist and drawer.” It’s far more about the collective experience of exploration than any one person.

In a similar way, none of the actors really shine in the movie, but they all do a solid job. Frammartino used nonprofessional actors — opting to compose the cast of real-life speleologists — and it works all the better for it. Not only does it give it an added sense of realism, they also do an exceptional job of communicating the power of this world through their mannerisms.

Of course, the film is just as gorgeous as one would expect. The movie is full of long shots of the eponymous cave, and it would be hard not to be in awe of the beauty of one of the deepest parts of our world. Renato Berta’s cinematography is fantastic and will undoubtedly go down as some of the year’s best.

Il Buco certainly isn’t going to be for everyone with its slow pacing and general lack of narrative, but those who are willing to let it almost roll over your body and experience it in a profound way will be quietly impressed. This is the type of movie that seems small at first, but is really much bigger when you look at it differently.

Il Buco is now playing in theaters.

​Rating: 4/5

Review by Camden Ferrell

​The last few years have been eventful to say the least for Wall Street. One such eventful occurrence was what occurred with the company GameStop that made global news and shocked Wall Street. Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets is a new documentary about this very event, and it had its premiere earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival. This documentary is mostly entertaining even if it does succumb to its inherent internet cringe humor at times.
 
In January of 2021, a short squeeze of GameStop’s stock among others occurred. Without getting into the particulars, this event had significant financial consequences for Wall Street, specifically for hedge funds that were short selling these stocks. The strangest part about this is the short squeeze was organized by a group of people on r/WallStreetBets on Reddit. This is an event that everyone heard about in one way or another when it happened, and it’s a really interesting story that could make for a really entertaining movie.
 
While many people are familiar with the specifics of this event, the movie does a great job of trying to explain the nuances of the markets in this movie. They don’t spoon feed you information to the point of boredom, but it ensures that audiences with all levels of familiarity with the jargon will be able to follow. Much like the movie The Big Short, this documentary understands that making the movie accessible to as many people as possible is paramount to success.

The movie includes many people who participated in the short squeeze, and they’re decent for the most part. They’re not boring individuals, and their insight into their decisions and history with WallStreetBets is enjoyable, but there’s also a lot of inside jokes that doesn’t translate particularly well when described. Being part of that community and the short squeeze, the humor works within that community, but it becomes quite cringe outside of that context, and this ultimately undermines the film.
 
Another thing the movie seems to lack is the deeper sentiment of those on WallStreetBets. It touches briefly on the subtle pent up generational rage that motivated some people in this middle finger to hedge funds, but it feels underdeveloped. In my experience with the community, there was a lot of ire that culminated in the short squeeze that the movie fails to capture in a profound way. This was a big part of the short squeeze, and the movie rarely goes beyond explaining it at a superficial level.
 
Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets is entertaining and adequately explains the financial concepts and context behind the short squeeze of GameStop and its consequences. It is accessible for a wide variety of audiences, and it may be quite educational for those unfamiliar with the events. However, some might be let down by how it doesn’t dive deep into the sentiments and motivations of the WallStreetBets community as a whole.
 
Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets will premiere on MSNBC May 15 and will be streaming on Peacock May 16.

Rating: 3.5/5