To understand One Battle After Another, I want you to think about a garden. If you put time and effort into a garden, it will look nice. If you ignore the garden, then slowly and inevitably other ...

Eddington has so much going on that it’s easy to feel lost. Thankfully, our First Rule of Film Analysis holds true: if you compare the beginning to the end, narrative and thematic intention becomes ...

Melancholia has two layers. One is more obvious and familiar and shouldn’t surprise you in any way. The other is a bit more abstract and you’ll have to bear with me. The good news is, you’ll come away ...

If you want a quick explanation of A Complete Unknown, here it is. A Complete Unknown has two levels. The first is Bob Dylan’s journey into and out of the folk scene. Initially, it’s something he ...

Bishop Robert Barron had quite the response to Conclave. He said: If you are interested in a film about the Catholic Church that could have been written by the editorial board of the New York Times, ...

I found Emilia Pérez difficult to write about. Why? Jacques Audiard is not part of either the trans or Mexican communities. And both groups have had some very serious criticisms over Audiard’s often ...

Man, Naomi Scott gave everything she had to Smile 2 to convey Skye Riley’s grief, trauma, and struggle. One of the most memorable horror performances in recent memory. And Skye feels very much of the ...

The end of Possession can leave you at a complete loss, asking yourself, “What did I just watch?” But don’t give up hope! Possession provides inroads that give us the context necessary to piece ...

The ending of Terrifier 3 is brutal. Like…really brutal. Seemingly, Sienna is left with nothing. So it’s easy to think of the ending as a complete downer, as a pessimistic look at how life is ...

When trying to figure out a movie’s theme, the first thing I usually do is look at the very beginning. Many writers like to crystallize the story’s point in an image or via foreshadowing through ...

As big and seemingly confounding as Synecdoche, New York seems, it’s actually quite simple. The broader message is that we don’t have much time and we’re prone to waste time. Caden’s life has three ...

The Substance is an immediate cult classic. It’s arguably the best body horror movie of the 21st century. But also has meaningful, necessary things to say about our relationship with aging and modern ...