Author: Rob Dean

Why is “Michael” so inert? Putting aside the aggrandizing mythology and the so-shallow-it’s-flat psychology that also brings down this film for a moment, and I’m left wondering how this biopic of the King of Pop is so damn boring and lifeless? Director Antoine Fuqua, working from a script by John Logan and with approval from the Jackson family/estate, has crafted a limp movie devoid of emotional engagement and visual flourishes. “Michael” is bland, lionizing, and lacks any insight into the life of Michael Jackson—in short, it fails at basically every aspect of being a biopic. “Michael” begins in 1966 Gary,…

“Project Hail Mary” is a bold gambit. At least now, in 2026, it is. Because we live in a cynical age. Or rather—with our planet dying, government violence in the streets at home and abroad, images manipulated to lie to us, news shredded to control us, and so much more—we live in an age where cynicism may be the most pragmatic approach to the world around us. We all know it’s bad out there in ways we can’t even enumerate without collapsing into a quivering ball of fury and sorrow. And yet, what “Project Hail Mary” does is openly, defiantly,…

“The Bride!” isn’t for everyone. It starts off taking a big swing and doesn’t really stop until the end credits…actually even those, set to “The Monster Mash” (yes, seriously), are another anarchic act of ambition from writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal. This film is awkward and gangly in many ways, but it’s also beautiful and impressive in many more; it’s a true exquisite corpse of Mary Shelley’s creation filtered through 20th century pop culture in ways utterly surprising and delightfully amusing. If you told me you hated various aspects of the movie, I would probably totally understand why they put you off…

Sometimes, once you hear something so succinctly put, it’s hard to unring that rhetorical bell. In this case, once I heard someone say that “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” was like an assembly of three funny but lesser episodes of “Black Mirror,” it became hard for me to divorce my feelings from that take. Not that I’m easily influenced, but just that it is such an apt and pithy summation of director Gore Verbinski’s new movie. Make no mistake, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is original in many ways, bold, darkly hilarious…but it also does feel familiar in…

The Safdie Brothers love dreamers. Sure, their particular type of dreamers are also con-men, liars, and schemers…but ultimately “Heaven Knows What,” “Good Time,” and “Uncut Gems” all revolve around people who dream of a bigger and better life for themselves. But it’s the paths they take and their entitled ownership of that dream that ultimately derails them in various, and incredibly anxiety-causing, ways. Even after splitting up to direct their own films, the duo is still detailing the anxiogenic stories of dreamers, with Benny Safdie making “The Smashing Machine” and Josh Safdie making “Marty Supreme.” The latter is a triumphant…

“Stranger Things” was always a pastiche of tropes. It’s always been wrong to dismiss it as nostalgia-porn or waive it off like the only thing it had going for it was its ‘80s setting. Yes, that time period plays a role in the storytelling (especially the Cold War aspects as the series went on), but it was more about various narrative elements that blossomed in the 1980s than it was about New Coke or a Baltimora needle drop. At least, it was that way for most of the run. Starting with the fourth season and bleeding well into the fifth,…

“The Rip” is nothing new. That makes it sound bad, when it’s actually a very entertaining action-thriller. But the fact is that there’s nothing revolutionary or revelatory about writer/director Joe Carnahan’s latest film. A twisty, turny slice of dirty cops, with dashes of action and procedural, “The Rip” is incredibly solid built on excellent performances, engaging dialogue, and a strong command of atmosphere. Audiences won’t come away from it having discovered something previously unmined, but they will be satisfied they watched the propulsive movie as it’s done so well. A police captain (Lina Esco) has been murdered. FBI Agents (Scott…

“Wake Up Dead Man” pulls off a lot of difficult maneuvers for a film with aplomb. A clever whodunnit? A meditation on faith? A large ensemble picture with fully fleshed out characters? Writer/director Rian Johnson performs all these highwire acts excellently to deliver an outstanding movie that is wildly engaging in narrative, subtext, imagery, and more. It’s not just a thoroughly entertaining story, but “Wake Up Dead Man” also manages to have substance amidst the detective shenanigans. Taking place in a combative church environment with an atheist gumshoe at the fore, Johnson’s movie does a better job of showing the…

Full disclosure: I’m not the biggest fan of 2009’s “Avatar.” While I appreciated the (literal) worldbuilding and visuals, James Cameron’s film felt trite in its storytelling, characterization, and action, leaving me feeling pretty cold. And yet I loved 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water”—a lot of those same issues persisted, but some were improved upon. The spectacle was made grander and the action more engaging, while the family dynamic expanded the emotional bandwidth to be much more moving to viewers. Plus, who doesn’t love a badass whale serving up beatings to corporate colonizers? Heading into the third film, “Avatar: Fire…

I love the word “façade.” With its dangling cedilla hanging from the c, and just the way it effortlessly rolls off the tongue like so many other French words. It’s such an upgrade from the similar “face” while also denoting something hidden, something behind it. I kept thinking of this word I love while watching director Paul Feig’s “The Housemaid,” as it deals a lot with pleasant exteriors masking some things far more sinister and troubling behind them. Based on the novel by Freida McFadden (adapted into a screenplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine), the film has a twisty plot that is…