Documentary Review My Husband, The Cyborg

My Husband, The Cyborg 

Directed by Susanna Cappellaro

Written by Susanna Cappellaro

Starring Susanna Cappellaro, Scott Cohen

Release Date February 3rd, 2025 

Published February 4th, 2025

My Husband, The Cyborg is a terrific documentary in that it is so very inviting. By that I mean, the film invites you into a conversation with it. Your mind can’t help but argue or challenge the movie, unless you agree with what’s happening, but then you are probably thinking of the possibilities it demonstrates for your own life, in a different conversation with the film. For me, it was a running argument with the protagonist of My Husband, The Cyborg, Scott Cohen, a frustrating human being who, though he is probably a fine person in general, drove me up a wall. 

My Husband, The Cyborg proceeds on the premise of filmmaker, Susanna Cappellaro documenting her husband Scott’s transformation into a ‘Cyborg.’ Scott is starting the process of enhancing his body for the future. The first step is getting a series of bolts in his chest, essentially piercings, which will be in place to hold a small microchip. This microchip has one function, it vibrates when Scott is facing magnetic north. It’s a vibrating compass. That’s it. According to Scott, he will now always know when he’s facing north, which I am sure is valuable information… somehow.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review A.I Artificial Intelligence

A.I Artificial Intelligence 

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Brian Aldis, Ian Watson, Steven Spielberg 

Starring Haley Joel Osment, Frances O’Connor, Jude Law, William Hurt 

Release Date June 29th, 2001

Published February 5th, 2025 

Movies don’t change, you do. A few years back I wrote about the 30th anniversary of Dirty Dancing. I had always been dismissive of Dirty Dancing, foolishly viewing it as a movie for girls who wanted to ogle Patrick Swayze’s swiveling hips. Today, I understand how shallow that reading is, while also being old enough and mature enough to understand that there is nothing wrong with having feelings about an attractive person’s swiveling hips and ripply muscles. The erotic appeal of Dirty Dancing is an asset, not a liability. But that's a topic for another Dirty Dancing essay that I should write. 

The sweaty, sexy, heavy breathing aspects of Dirty Dancing are the inviting surface covering the simmering politics and polemical deconstruction of 80s era America, stealthily hiding in the heart of Dirty Dancing. Director Emile Ardolino uses pop culture signifiers to deconstruct the myth of Reagan’s notion of America, one of repression and a pining for the good old days of the 1950s when women and minorities had fewer rights and weren’t trying to forcefully change the patriarchal society. It’s all there in the detailed and ingenious subtext of Dirty Dancing. And it took me 30 years to see it.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Clone Cops

Clone Cops 

Directed by Danny Dones

Written by Phillip Cordell, Danny Dones

Starring Quinnlan Ashe, Ravi Patel, Steve Byrne, Laura Holloway, Henry Haggard 

Release Date January 31st, 2025

Published February 6th, 2025 

Clone Cops is a deeply confused movie. On one hand, the film is a broad violent comedy satire of gaming culture. On the other hand, the film features an earnest portrayal of a group of people fighting for their lives and not finding this situation remotely funny. The tonal disconnect is, I assume, intended to create a dark comic vibe but the performances never match up. Some characters are in a broad dark comedy and others don’t know what movie they are in and come off confused and perturbed. 

Co-screenwriter Phillip Cordell takes a prominent role in Clone Cops as the titular, Clone Cop. All of the cops in this future world are based on one super-cop, who may or may not have just been a guy playing a cop in a popular gaming or TV series? Regardless, he’s now been cloned hundreds of times as part of a popular internet gaming series where his clones, wearing bizarre Lego head style masks and engage in combat with a group of terrorists, all for the amusement of an audience watching live on the internet.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Heart Eyes

Heart Eyes 

Directed by Josh Ruben 

Written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, Michael Kennedy

Starring Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, Gigi Zumbado

Release Date February 7th, 2025 

Published February 7th, 2025 

Horror comedy is tricky business. You don’t want to make the movie so funny that people don’t take the horror elements seriously. On the other hand, you don’t want to make the horror so graphic and terrifying that laughing feels awkward or inappropriate. The recent film Companionstarring Sophie Thatcher threaded the horror comedy needle by having the comedy arise from the absurdity of the premise and several clever needle drops. 

Another great example of the horror comedy balancing act at its best is Happy Death Day where the dynamic duo of star Jessica Rothe and writer-director Christopher Landon managed to bring horror and comedy together via a clever reimagining of the premise of the comedy classic Groundhog Day crossed with a slasher movie. But the main reason Happy Death Day worked so well was star Jessica Rothe and her boundless charisma and comic timing. Not to take anything away from Christopher Landon whose script was very smart and his direction was crisp.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Hitch

Hitch (2005) 

Directed by Andy Tennant

Written by Kevin Bisch

Starring Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James, Amber Valetta, Michael Rappaport, Adam Arkin

Release Date February 11th, 2005

Published February 8th 2025 

With his wit, style and natural charisma it was a wonder in 2005 why Will Smith had not attempted to master the romantic comedy genre. By the time Smith made Hitch, it had been a solid five years since Smith had done a film without a weapon in his hand and an explosion at his back. Not since his breakthrough on TV's Fresh Prince Of Bel Air had Smith done anything close to comedy that wasn’t a one liner amid a hail of bullets.

In New York City there is an urban legend about a guy so charming that he has taken to teaching other men to emulate his charms. This legend is known as the Date Doctor and while most don't believe he exists, he does, in fact, exist in the form of Alex Hitchens, known as Hitch to his clients. The Date Doctor guarantees he can help any guy get any girl in three dates or less. Don't get the wrong idea though, he's not some alpha make pick up artist, Hitch won't help a guy with a one night stand, nor will he teach men to lie to women. He's all about helping them find true love in a long term relationship.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Fandango

Fandango (1985)

Directed by Kevin Reynolds 

Written by Kevin Reynolds 

Starring Kevin Costner, Sam Robards, Judd Nelson

Release Date January 25th, 1985

Published February 9th, 2025

On January 24th,1985 Kevin Costner took his first leading man role in the mostly forgotten road comedy Fandango. Co-starring Sam Robards, Chuck Bush and Judd Nelson, Fandango follows friends from the University of Texas on one, final, epic road trip before each head off to Vietnam or maybe Mexico.

The year is 1971 and it's the day before Kenneth’s (Sam Robards) wedding and his graduation day from the University of Texas and the day he finds out he’s been drafted. So has his best friend, Gardner (Costner), while their roommate Hicks (Nelson) has already volunteered to go. With their future’s uncertain the friends pile into a generic movie road trip car and head for the border with plans to dig up a relic of their earlier college years.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Kinda Pregnant

Kinda Pregnant 

Directed by Tyler Spindel 

Written by Julie Palva, Amy Schumer

Starring Amy Schumer, Brianna Howey, Jillian Bell, Will Forte, Damon Wayans Jr. 

Release Date February 5th, 2025 

Published February 11th, 2025

Because it has become quite fashionable for men to hate Amy Schumer ever since she rocketed to fame on Comedy Central and in the movie, Trainwreck, I need to say that I’ve always liked her. Despite the accusations of joke theft and a couple of movies that didn’t play to her best assets comedically, I’ve always found her style of comedy appealing. She’s irreverent, she never held back on stage, and as an actor, she had an offbeat style that made her unique from the typical movie star. 

I am mentioning all of this to head off any notion that I am an Amy Schumer hater. It’s not me trying to be part of the cool crowd when I say that Schumer’s new Netflix comedy, Kinda Pregnant is a deeply odd and wildly unpleasant film. The movie, co-written by Schumer, stars the comedian and actress as a deeply unlikable and unreal caricature of a human being. She has traits that are intended to be broadly comic but come off as unformed ideas tossed off in a pitch meeting that accidentally ended up in a completed script.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Love Hurts

Love Hurts

Directed by Jonathan Eusebio 

Written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, Luke Passmore

Starring Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose 

Release Date February 7th, 2025

Published February 12th, 2025

Love Hurts stars Academy Award winner Ke Hui Quan as Marvin, a mild mannered real estate agent who is secretly a killing machine. Years earlier, Marvin left behind the life of an enforcer for his gangster brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu), for the quiet life of a sweet, good natured, real estate agent that everyone quickly comes to like. It’s a strange transition but one that Marvin is incredibly proud of. His new life may appear dull and his persona, milquetoast, but at least he doesn’t break bones and end lives anymore. 

Naturally, the new status quo of Marvin’s life is about to be upended. Rose (Arianna DeBose), has returned after a lengthy absence. Rose happens to have been key to Marvin getting out from under his brother’s thumb. Marvin had promised to kill Rose in exchange for being able to leave his old life behind. With Rose back in town, Marvin’s lie about killing her is exposed, leading Knuckles to send killers after his little brother to find out why Rose is still alive and where she may be hiding while taunting the people who planned to have her killed.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review The Gorge

The Gorge 

Directed by Scott Derrickson

Written by Zach Dean

Starring Anya Taylor Joy, Miles Teller 

Release Date February 14th, 2025 

Published February 13th, 2025 

A woman awakes in a makeshift bed in a wooded area. She marks off a day on a makeshift calendar and begins to listen for a specific sound. That sound is the arrival of a small aircraft on a tiny airstrip far from the rest of the world, and a good deal of distance from where this woman is. The unknown woman then pulls out a long range weapon with a precision scope and trains it on the door of the plane, some distance away. When a man emerges from the plane, the gun is fired, the man falls dead, and the scene comes to an end. 

Editing and visual context are all you have to go on. It’s disorienting but with purpose. The film intends to cause a little confusion and chaos because part of the journey of the movie is clearing up the confusion surrounding a bizarre new assignment for a pair of well trained killers. Our heroine, Drasa, and her opposite number, Levi (Miles Teller), have been given a bizarre new assignment filled with mystery and intrigue that they will have to clear up if they are to survive it. Naturally, clearing up the confusion will require just the kind of skills Drasa demonstrates in this opening scene, patience, intelligence, skill, and stealth.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Captain America Brave New World

Captain America Brave New World 

Directed by Julius Onah 

Written by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalon Musson, Julius Onah, Peter Glanz 

Starring Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Carl Lumbly 

Release Date February 14th, 2025

Published February 14th, 2025 

Captain America Brave New World continues the slow death march of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The decline in quality and storytelling from when we were introduced to Tony Stark in 2008 to today is shocking. It reveals the faddish nature of the Superhero movie. It is simply a concept that has run its course. Today, we dutifully attend the next superhero movie in vain hope that things will improve but all the while knowing that things will never be the same. Our collective dedication to superhero movies feels as hollow as the movies themselves have come to feel in the latest phase of the MCU. 

Captain America Brave New World picks up in the wake of the TV show Falcon and the Winter Soldier wherein Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) finally came to accept the mantle of Captain America. Of course, this is merely implied in the movie, having not seen the TV series, I simply accepted that since Sam has the shield and people call him Cap, that he must have become the official Captain America in that show. One of the grave flaws of Captain America Brave New World is acting like a blockbuster movie while playing like a serialized TV show.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy 

Directed by Michael Morris

Written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazar, Abi Morgan

Starring Renee Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Hugh Grant, Leo Woodall 

Release Date February 13th, 2025

Published February 15th, 2025 

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy is shockingly good. Admittedly, I had extremely low expectations for this late period sequel about Bridget as a single mom, several years into grieving the loss of her beloved husband, Mark Darcy. What a wonderful surprise then to find that the film felt remarkably authentic, warm hearted, and highly reminiscent of the charming first chapter of this film series. Renee Zellweger has such a remarkable handle on this character today that even two decades later, instead of feeling like a perfunctory attempt to further capitalize a well known property, Zellweger's performance in Mad About the Boy is one I can’t help but fall in love with. 

Five years ago as this story begins, Mark Darcy died while on a humanitarian trip in Africa. He leaves behind Bridget and their two lovely children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). As a trio, they are doing okay. Bridget may rarely get out of her PJ’s but she is a wonderful, supportive, and loving mom. But, it has been five years, perhaps it is time for Bridget to get back into the world. Perhaps she needs to go back to work? Perhaps it’s time for her to start dating again.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review You, Me & Her

You, Me, and Her 

Directed by Dan Levy Degerman

Written by Selina Ringel 

Starring Selina Ringel, Graham Sibley, Sydney Park 

Release Date February 14th, 2025 

Published February 16th, 2025 

You, Me and Her stars Selina Ringel and Ritesh Rajan as a married couple, Mags and Ash. Mags is the breadwinner, working a high powered job for her demanding father. Ash meanwhile is a stay at home dad and budding marijuana entrepreneur. The couple is struggling with Mags having to carry most of the load while Ash plays video games and shirks what few responsibilities he has. He’s a good dad but for Mags, he’s often like having another kid to raise as he is often hiding from his long term, unsuccessful attempts to get his business off the ground.

After a series of scenes demonstrate the various ways that Mags and Ash aren’t communicating and the ways their marriage is suffering, Ash hatches a plan. Ash has booked them a vacation at a Mexican resort where Mags’ parents had taken her as a child. It’s a costly trip and Mags is quite curious how Ash is able to afford it, but she really needs to get away for a bit, so she tries her best to go with the flow. Once in Mexico, their problems communicating follow them with Ash distracted by trying to find weed to buy and Mags growing further frustrated by his inattention to her.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Heavyweights

Heavyweights 

Directed by Steven Brill 

Written by Judd Apatow, Steven Brill

Starring Ben Stiller, Paul Feig, Tom McGowan

Release Date February 17th, 1995 

Published February 17th, 2025 

Heavyweights is an oft-forgotten entry in the canon of live action Disney features. The film was made possible by the surprise success of The Mighty Ducks and used members of the cast of that film, already under contract to Disney, as a way to further capitalize on that success. The film centers on a camp for overweight kids who will have to overcome a needless obstacle on the way to a simpleminded conclusion that involves learning to ‘be yourself’ or some other such nonsense platitude. 

Despite seeing names like Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow, and Paul Feig involved in Heavyweights, I was skeptical of the film. The 90s weren’t exactly known for being sensitive and jokes about overweight children were not off limits by any stretch. Thus, I set the bar pretty low at just hoping the young actors in Heavyweights would not be repeatedly humiliated, shamed, or otherwise bullied for comic effect. What a surprise then to find a film that was genuinely sensitive, cared deeply for these young characters and their struggle, and was not simply a series of humiliations intended as comedy.

Click here for my full length review. 

Movie Review Little Miss Sociopath

Little Miss Sociopath 

Directed by Miv Evans 

Written by Miv Evans 

Starring Jenny Tran, Brendan Michael Coughlin, Pamela Shaw, Lisa Scott

Release Date March 15th, 2025 

Published February 19th, 2025 

Little Miss Sociopath is a scrappy little indie dark comedy about a meek young woman who discovers her inner sociopath as she copes with the death of her father and suffers under the tyrannical demands of her ailing stepmother. Jenny Tran stars as the title character, better known as Clementine or Clem in the movie. Clem works at a shady pharmacy in the Valley in California and is generally overlooked by the world. A new co-worker however, Adam, played by Brendan Michael Coughlin, takes an immediate notice of her, though Clem is too anxious to act on the attention. 

The sudden death of Clem’s father is the catalyst for the story. Clem lives with her dad and his new wife, Bella (Victoria Goodhart). Bella has been a source of Clem’s anxiety for some time now when we join the story and after Clem;’s father dies, things get even worse when Bella falls ill and becomes dependent on Clem. Bella seems to make it her mission to make Clem’s life a living hell, running off one caretaker after another while demanding that Clem stay home and take care of her.

Click here for my full length review. 

Classic Movie Review Meet the Parents

Meet the Parents 

Directed by Jay Roach 

Written by Jim Herzfeld, John Hamburg

Starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Tier Polo, Blythe Danner

Release Date October 6th, 2000 

Published February 20th, 2025 

2025 marks a quarter century since the release of the blockbuster comedy Meet the Parents, a film that showed audiences an entirely new comedic side to legendary tough guy actor Robert De Niro while solidifying the blockbuster stardom of Ben Stiller as a leading man. 25 years later, both De Niro and Stiller remain high profile and beloved stars with major projects still making waves. In 2025 Stiller has mostly moved behind the scenes where he’s got a hit Apple TV series, Severance. As for Mr. De Niro, he’s also gone to television with the new Netflix series, Zero Day. Thus, now seems a good time to reflect on the movie that changed both of their careers 25 years ago. 

The 2000 comedy  Meet the Parents was directed by Jay Roach and stars Ben Stiller as Gaylord "Greg" Focker, a nurse who is eager to propose to his girlfriend, Pam Byrnes, played by Teri Polo. However, before he can pop the question, he must first navigate the formidable obstacle of gaining the approval of Pam's father, Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Jack, a retired CIA operative, harbors a deep-seated suspicion of anyone outside the family circle, and begins using his CIA training to investigate his daughter’s new boyfriend.

Click here for my full length review 

Classic Movie Review Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor

Directed by Sydney Pollack

Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., David Rayfiel

Starring Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow

Release Date September 25th, 1975

Published February 18th, 2025 

Three Days of the Condor was released 50 years ago as I write this and yet it feels as alive, relevant, and prescient as ever. This spy thriller from the brilliant director Sydney Pollack posits a form of espionage based solely on wits and guts rather than bullets and explosions and it’s so much stronger for that. Centering the story around the mind of a savvy genius with a knack for code breaking, Three Days of the Condor uses the best traits of star Robert Redford, his wise eyes and movie star looks, and combines that with a premise that was straight out of a real life American thought experiment to create a spy thriller that remains a trenchant critique of American geo-politics to this day. 

Robert Redford stars in Three Days of the Condor as Joe Turner, a normal enough guy who happens to work for an agency that is a cover for a CIA outpost. Turner is not a spy however, he’s just a genius who is capable of seeing patterns where others cannot. His job is to read books, articles, everything really, and look for potential plots that could affect global politics. His most recent discovery appears to be an ingenious way to destabilize a Middle Eastern government while stealing its valuable resources, specifically oil.

Click here for my full length review.