Movie Review Sinners

Sinners 

Directed by Ryan Coogler 

Written by Ryan Coogler 

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld 

Release Date April 18th, 2025 

Published April 24th, 2025 

Sinners is my favorite movie of 2025 so far. Written and Directed by Ryan Coogler, this sex soaked, violent, primal scream of a movie is among the most technically accomplished and entertaining movies of this young century. Truly, Ryan Coogler can do anything behind a camera and Sinners is the proof of concept, if one was needed, that he is a top shelf auteur, a filmmaker with a distinct eye and voice. It's a voice of radical politics tinged with a showman’s natural instinct for enthralling an audience. 

Let’s get the basics, Michael B. Jordan stars in the dual role of twin brothers, Smoke and Stack Moore. Born in Mississippi, the two fought in World War 1 and then moved north to start what would become a legendary criminal career. Bits of dialogue drop the name Al Capone as an associate of Smoke and Stack and their stacks of cash are a testament to just how successful their trip north truly was. They learned and they earned in Chicago and now they are back in Mississippi to set up shop.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Drop

Drop 

Directed by Christopher Landon 

Written by Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach

Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Reed Diamond

Release Date April 11th, 2025 

Published April 11th, 2025 

Drop stars Meghann Fahy as Violet, a domestic abuse survivor and single mom, dipping her toe back into the dating pool. As you can imagine, this is not an easy decision but her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar) has proven to be such a nice and caring guy via their dating app messages, she’s willing to give it a try. They’re first date is set for a fancy restaurant at the top of a skyscraper with an awesome view of the Chicago skyline. Romantic right? 

Unfortunately, Violet is a character in a thriller so the romance is short lived. After arriving at the restaurant a little before her date, someone clones Violet’s cellphone. Whoever did this begins bombarding Violet with ‘Digi-Drops,’ meme messages that contain text asking her to play a game. After Henry arrives and the two are seated for their dinner, the messages become more insistent and frightening. Eventually a message tells Violet to check her home security cameras.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Friend

The Friend 

Directed by Scott McGehee, David Siegel 

Written by Scott McGehee, David Siegel 

Starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Carla Gugino, Sarah Pidgeon

Release Date April 4th, 2025 

Published April 8th, 2025 

How do you mess up a concept as simple as having Bill Murray and a Great Dane in a movie together? This should be the easiest movie in the world to make, you just put Bill and the dog together in a location and watch the comedy burst forth. Sadly, the boomer male fan-fic, The Friend can’t do something as simple as let a funny man and a cute dog be funny and cute. Instead, they need to make an utterly obnoxious movie in which Bill Murray’s character is a stand-in for every male boomer fantasy and all women spend all of their time talking about how great he was. Oh, and there is a dog, I guess. 

The actual central character of The Friend is played by Naomi Watts. Watts is Iris, a writer who happens to be best friends with Bill Murray’s Walter, a writer of prodigious talent and legend. When Walter takes his own life, Iris is left to care for Walter’s dog, Apollo, a massive Great Dane that his wife does not want and that his adult daughter (Sarah Pidgeon) is not capable of caring for. Iris, a writer herself, has nothing but time on her hands, what with her severe writer’s block, so she takes on the dog problem despite not being allowed to have a dog in her rent controlled New York City apartment.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review A Minecraft Movie

A Minecraft Movie 

Directed by Jared Hess 

Written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, Chris Galletta

Starring Jack Black, Jason Mamoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen

Release Date April 4th, 2025

Published April 4th, 2025

A Minecraft Movie stars Jack Black as Steve, a dreamer whose creativity is somehow linked to mines. Steve lives to be a miner but when he was young, they would not let him. As he grew up, he forgot about mining until daily life became too boring and he realized he was now old enough to become a miner. With his pick axe in hand, Steve enters a wacky looking mine and stumbles his way to find a portal to a new world. In this new world, Steve’s creativity allows him to create anything he can imagine and for the next 30 or so years, that’s all he does. 

Along the way, Steve tames a wolf and names him Dennis. Together, they have the best time until a group of pigs from another universe attempt to invade Steve’s mining paradise. In order to protect his utopia, Steve gives a square glowing orb, their word, not mine, to Dennis who secrets it away, back to Steve’s home in the real world where it will remain hidden for three decades before being found by Garrett ‘The Garbage Man’ Garrison, the 1989 World Video Game Champion.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Hell of a Summer

Hell of a Summer 

Directed by Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk 

Written by Finn Wolfhard, Billy Brylk 

Starring Fred Hechinger, Abby Quinn, Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard 

Release Date April 4th, 2025 

Published April 4th, 2025 

Hell of a Summer stars Fred Hechinger as Jason Hochberg, a 24 year old man in his eighth year as a camp counselor at Camp Pineway. As we are introduced to Jason, even his mother is dragging him for his unwillingness to move on from his beloved summer camp. This is not a theme and will not be important, but that’s okay, Hell of a Summer isn’t a deep movie, it’s merely an homage. Jason is not our main character, he’s part of an ensemble who are on hand to be fodder for a masked killer in a tribute to classic summer camp horror movies. 

Joining Jason at the camp are best friends, Bobby and Chris (Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard), Chris’ love interest, Shannon (Krista Nazaire), an influencer named Demi (Pardis Seremi), her boyfriend, Mike (D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai), a drama kid named Ezra (Matthew Finlan), a wiccan named Noelle (Julia Lalonde), a vegan named Miley (Julia Doyle), and a pretentious filmmaker named Ari (Daniel Gravelle). Oh, and I almost forgot, there is a love interest for Jason as well, Abby Quinn delivers my favorite performance as Claire, a sweet girl who can’t seem to get Jason to realize she likes him. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review A Working Man

A Working Man 

Directed by David Ayer 

Written by Sylvester Stallone, David Ayer

Starring Jason Statham, Michael Pena, David Harbour

Released March 28th, 2025 

Published April 1st, 2025 

A Working Man stars Jason Statham as Levon Cade, a construction worker who used to be an English Special Forces operative. When the daughter of his boss, Jenny, played by Arianna Rivas, is kidnapped by human traffickers, Levon’s boss, played by Michael Pena, asks Levon to use his Special Forces skills to get her back. He’s reluctant to jump in as he is in the middle of a custody battle for his daughter with her grandfather who cares for the child in the wake of her mother’s suicide. That said, the premise of the movie has Jason Statham brutally murdering human trafficking scum, his hemming and hawing won’t last long. 

Entering the bleak world of human trafficking, Levon needs all of his skills from torturing drug dealers to pretending to be a drug dealer. He’s a natural detective with the chameleonic abilities of an undercover cop and the physical gifts of a Navy Seal. It’s wish fulfillment male revenge fantasy nonsense that hand-wringers like myself cannot criticize for fear of being accused of siding with the human trafficking scum. Thus, populism bullies us into just pretending that A Working Man is good because human trafficking is bad. Working outside the law, subverting the justice system is good, and the rule of law is useless.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Death of a Unicorn

The Death of a Unicorn 

Directed by Alex Scharfman

Written by Alex Scharfman 

Starring Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Tea Leoni, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant 

Release Date March 28th, 2025 

Published March 28th, 2025 

Did you know that there is a website that will tell you whether or not a dog in a movie dies? DoesTheDogDie.com is a real thing. People love dogs so much that they cannot stand the idea of seeing a dog die in a movie. Thus, this website is a wonderful guide for dog lovers. Myself? I’m thinking of starting a similar website called DoesPaulRuddDie.com. Because, when you think about it, what actor is nearly as beloved as man’s best friend? Paul Rudd, of course. Who would want to see a movie where Paul Rudd dies? Not many people, I’m sure. And, since Paul Rudd is now starring in a horror comedy called The Death of a Unicorn, the value of my idea takes on an air of necessity. 

The Death of a Unicorn stars Paul Rudd as Elliott, a widower trying desperately to connect with his college aged daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), and failing miserably. The biggest issue is that he’s invited her on a trip as a prop to show off to potential new legal clients, the uber-rich Leopold family, including patriarch Odell (Richard E. Grant), Belinda (Tea Leoni) and their dopey son Shep (Will Poulter). Elliott believes that the family won’t hire him unless he can show them that he is also a thriving family man. Ridley goes along with this because it’s what her late mother would have wanted her to do.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Documentary Review Thank You Very Much

Thank You Very Much 

Directed by Alex Braverman

Written by Alex Braverman 

Starring Andy Kaufman 

Release Date March 28th, 2025 

Published March 26th, 2025 

One thing people don’t think about a lot is how many decisions are made out of a sense of insecurity. We also don’t tend to consider how a decision made by someone feeling insecure affects the rest of the world or, indeed, a nebulous future that introduces new people to that decision and the ways it changed the world. The ripple effect of Andy Kaufman’s feelings of insecurity from his childhood into adulthood is massive. 

As a child, Andy Kaufman’s parents chose not to tell him that his beloved grandfather had died. Instead, they told their young, impressionable boy that he was traveling for work. This led Andy to stay in his room and stare out the window for endless hours, hoping that his grandpa would return home. The passage of time led to a deep sadness that could only be sated when Andy was performing, first performing for a fake audience in his bedroom and then, in front of neighborhood kids at birthday parties.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Disney's Snow White

Disney’s Snow White 

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by Erin Cressida Wilson

Starring Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap 

Release Date March 21st, 2025 

Published March 21st, 2025 

Disney’s Snow White is exactly the movie we need at this moment. At a time when supposed leaders say things like ‘The fundamental weakness of Western Civilization is empathy,’ Disney’s Snow White takes a stand in favor of empathy. Indeed, the film boils down to a battle of good versus evil where a venal, greedy, oligarch is defeated by empathy, compassion, and courage. And not a single sword pierces flesh, no arrows fly, and no bodies pile up in the process. The triumph of good over evil is a victory of community over the selfishness of the few. 

Disney’s Snow White stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, the princess of a kingdom run with benevolence, honesty and compassion by her parents, played by Hadley Fraser and Lorena Andrea. When the Queen dies, the King falls under the spell of a newcomer who comes to be known as The Evil Queen (Gal Gadot). When the King goes to war and does not return, The Evil Queen locks Snow White away while she steals the wealth of the kingdom, starving the people, and enslaving the farmer as guards under her magic spell.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Black Bag

Black Bag 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by David Koepp 

Starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rege-Jean Page, Marisa Abela 

Release Date March 14th, 2025 

Published March 19th, 2025 

Black Bag stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as George and Kathryn Woodhouse, married British spies. George, we are told, is a human lie detector, his job is reading people and weeding out their lies. George’s latest task is locating a traitor within the spy ranks. Someone is trying to steal a dangerous weapon to sell it to terrorists targeting Russia. After a brief meeting with a fellow spy in the field, George is given a list of names of potential traitors. George’s wife, Kathryn, is on the list. 

In order to suss out the traitor, George has invited the people on the list to come to his and Kathryn’s home for dinner. He is going to play a game with them that will reveal their deep dark secrets. The dinner guests include Freddie (Tom Burke), George’s friend and immediate subordinate, Clarissa (Marisa Abela), a computer expert who happens to be dating Freddie, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), a psychiatrist who is treating everyone except for George, currently, and Col. Stokes, a rising star in the agency who happens to be dating Dr. Vaughan.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.

Movie Review The Electric State

The Electric State 

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo 

Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeeley 

Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan 

Release Date March 14th, 2025 

Published March 18th, 2025 

The Electric State stars Millie Bobby Brown as Michelle, a human exposition machine. Michelle’s job is to give us reams of backstory before we can finally get to some passable action scenes. Thus we get an opening movie monologue where a too touchy pair of brother and sister, Brown and Woody Norman as Michelle’s little brother Chris, having a most unnatural conversation introducing their backstory. Chris is a genius who is headed to college at a very young age. He doesn’t want to go, fearing being away from his big sister. 

Naturally, this is setting up a story where they will be separated, something you know just because you’ve experienced stories being told before. Chris is subsequently kidnapped though Michelle is told that Chris and her father have died in a car wreck. Cut to an unspecified amount of time later, Michelle is somehow still a teenager, still in High School. The film does little to let us know how old she’s supposed to be but one scene she’s fretting over her little brother getting to college before her and after a time jump, she’s somehow still in High School.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Opus

Opus 

Directed by Mark Anthony Green 

Written by Mark Anthony Green 

Starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis 

Release Date March 14th, 2025 

Published March 17th, 2025 

Opus is yet another in a growing sub genre of ‘Vibes’ movies. What is a ‘Vibes’ movie? It’s a film where atmosphere and oddity are as, or more, important than plot and character. A great example of a Vibes Movie is Mark Mylod’s 2022 film, The Menu. That film develops a menacing and confounding air, sending up thriller feels but preferring to keep the audience off balance more than terrified or breathless. Some also consider the work of Ari Aster in the genre of Vibes Movies. I get that, though I prefer to keep Aster in the horror genre, there is no denying the Vibes Movie feel of Beau is Afraid. 

Naturally, because our modern culture does not slow down, there are already critics who are talking about being tired of Vibes Movies, even as they haven’t been around all that long. But with many of these movies having been highly praised by critics, myself included, tropes in vibes movies are beginning to emerge and stagnate the sub genre, as always happens when a unique new way to approach a film story takes hold. Others have called this A24-Core, as A24 is the home to Ari Aster but Neon and other indie studios have been in the Vibes Movie Sub-Genre since it took hold in the later part of the previous decade.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Novocaine

Novocaine 

Directed by Dan Berk, Robert Olson 

Written by Lars Jacobson 

Starring Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Jacob Batalon, Ray Nicholson 

Release Date March 14th, 2025

Published March 14th, 2025 

Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nate Caine, aka Novocaine, a nickname given to him by childhood bullies. You see, Nate has a rare medical condition which causes him to not feel pain. When kids found out about his condition, they immediately wanted to test it and set about beating Nate up on a regular basis. All grown up, Nate takes great care not to get hurt. He is, of course, not afraid of pain but rather, if he were to get hurt, he would not know it. He could be bleeding out and he wouldn’t know it until he saw the blood. 

Nate works as an assistant manager at a bank where he has recently fallen in love with a newly hired bank teller, Sherry (Amber Midthunder). She doesn’t know he’s in love with her, but he very much is. When she asks him to lunch he trips all over himself before finally accepting. They flirt and chat and he opens up about his unique condition. The two end up spending the night together and it seems as if Jack’s dreams are coming true. That is until he gets to work the next day. While daydreaming about Sherry, bank robbers dressed as Santa Claus, yes, Novocaine is a Christmas movie, enter the bank and proceed to rob the place.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Damned

The Damned 

Directed by Thordur Paisson 

Written by Jamie Hannigan 

Starring Odessa Young, Siobhan Finneran 

Release Date January 3rd, 2025 

Published January 2nd, 2025 

The Damned stars Odessa Young as a 19th century era widow in charge of a small, Icelandic fishing outpost. It’s been a year since the death of her husband, Magnus, and she has surprised his crew of fishermen by continuing to man the fishing outpost. The harsh winter makes the job a sorrowful and punishing one but she does it to maintain his legacy. Struggling to provide food and supplies, the rowdy crew is still loyal to Young’s Eva, especially Daniel (Joe Cole), a loyal friend of her late husband. 

The plot of The Damned kicks in when a foreign ship is dashed against the rocks within seeing distance of the fishing outpost. The fisherman could attempt to rescue members of the foreign crew but, as the lead fisherman points out, it could be more than a dozen more mouths to feed on the limited supplies that they already have. Eva is left to make the difficult decision not to mount a rescue. However, when supplies from the dashed ship wash up on shore, including a barrel full of bait, Eva decides that rescuing the supplies might be worth the risk.

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media

Documentary Don't Die The man Who Wants to Live Forever

Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever 

Directed by Chris Smith 

Written by Chris Smith 

Starring Bryan Johnson 

Release Date January 1st, 2025 

Published January 3rd, 2025 

Does the reality of death make life more meaningful? Does the notion of an ending to life make what you do while living matter more? I thought about these questions a lot while watching the new Netflix documentary Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever. The documentary examines the story of former Tech CEO and multi-millionaire, Bryan Johnson. After spending years on the grind to build his company Braintree into a major player in online payment technology, Johnson sold the company and dedicated himself to trying to live forever. 

Bryan Johnson exists at the intersection of legitimate breakthroughs in aging science and being a con-man or grifter who takes advantage of vulnerable, frightened people desperate for the secret to not getting old. As the documentary tracks Johnson’s journey from deeply depressed grindset-mindset tech-bro to a man who claims to no longer use his ‘mind’ and is thus a functioning automaton guinea pig, we really cannot tell which side of the grifter-scientific pioneer fence Johnson falls on.

Find my full length review at Longevity.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Aladdin 3477-1 The Jinn of Wisdom

Aladdin 3477-1: The Jinn of Wisdom 

Directed by Matt Busch

Written by Matt Busch 

Starring Erik Steele, Lin Zy, Aaron Golematis

Release Date January 3rd, 2025 

Published January 5th, 2025 

Experimental artist Matt Busch has directed his first feature film, the strangely charming, low budget, Aladdin meets the future flick, Aladdin 3477-1: The Jinn of Wisdom. This unique take on the Aladdin legend takes the young thief and beggar into a far future where major cities now float in the sky over the slums that remain on the ground and robots keep the classes divided by acting as future law enforcement. In this bizarre mix is Aladdin, played by Erik Steele as a schemer with a heart of gold. 

The story follows Aladdin as he is recruited to steal a legendary Genie’s lamp from a dangerous and cursed cave. All the while, Aladdin is chased after and protected by Oomi (Lin Zy), a homeless martial arts expert who has, for reasons we are not privy to, dedicated her life to protecting Aladdin. We can tell that Oomie is desperately in love while Aladdin is both unaware of Oomie’s feelings, to a hostile degree, and unworthy of such loyalty. Oomie is the best character in the movie and the main reason to see Aladdin 3477-1: The Jinn of Wisdom.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.