By Cody Englander, Contributor [Universal Pictures; 2022]Rating: 4/10 The myth of Michael Myers lives on in the ‘final’ entry as this new Halloween trilogy comes to a conclusion. The movie follows mostly new characters, with Laurie and Michael taking a backseat to their own story. The marketing for Halloween Ends strays away from the main plotline…
Category: Movie Reviews
ACRN’s Top Movies of 2021
Pig, [Neon; 2021] By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig,” a meditative tale of learning to cope with loss, stands as one of the year’s best films. Nicholas Cage stars as Robin, a former chef who has transitioned out of city life and now lives with his truffle pig in the woods. When his…
Movie Review: The Card Counter
By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer
[Focus Features; 2021]
Rating: 5/10
Writer and director Paul Schrader, best known for writing Scorsese classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and the 2017 indie hit First Reformed, returns to the big screen with The Card Counter. In The Card Counter, former soldier William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is just getting out of prison. Haunted by his time in a cell, William spends all of his time playing blackjack, swindling the casinos out of money with the card counting skills he learned during his time in solitary. William prefers to be alone, but he ends up getting to know La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), the charming poker manager who wants to get William into bigger gambling rings and Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a young former soldier who brings William’s past back to him. William has to face his past and see if he can adapt back into the world.
Movie Review: Malcolm & Marie
By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer
[Little Lamb Productions; 2021]
Rating: 4/10
The first 10 minutes of Malcolm & Marie are pretty interesting. The two characters have a realistic argument with strong performances from Zendaya and John David Washington. The black and white cinematography is cool. The title card hits and I thought “maybe I’ll like this.” Then it was the same 10 minutes I had just watched over and over again for another hour and a half.
Movie Review: Zack Snyder’s Justice League
By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer
[Warner Bros.; 2021]
Rating: 8/10
The time has come. Zack Snyder’s behemoth, a 4-hour director’s cut of Justice League has arrived after over 3 years of calls from fans. After the immense hype and speculation, with the film being stitched together under the worst circumstances, Zack Snyder’s Justice League miraculously delivers a satisfying and engaging epic that is sure to be a hit for the fans who waited so long for it.
Movie Review: Soul
By RJ Martin, Contributor[Disney; 2020]Rating: 9/10 Over the last year, we’ve had our fair share of eyebrow-raises and eye-rolls at various media trying to make some sort of statement about society in the wake of the pandemic. Pixar’s Soul is a film that actually does it well without even trying to in the first place. …
Movie Review: Pieces of a Woman
By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer
[Bron Studios; 2020]
Rating: 9/10
Empathy is hard to generate in a movie. It requires a perfect tone, rock-solid performance and brilliant direction to really get the viewer into the characters’ shoes. Luckily, Pieces of a Woman checks all of those boxes to create a fantastically devastating character piece.
Movie Review: Nomadland
Sometimes, a movie feels like it’s yelling at you. It’s screaming “pay attention to me” because that’s all it can really do. Nomadland is the opposite. It’s never in your face, and instea,d it lets itself sort of pour over you and slowly be let in. Nomadland knows exactly what it needs to be and executes it well.
Movie Review: The Witches
By Maddie James, Contributor
[Warner Bros. Pictures; 2020]
Rating: 3/10
The last thing that some movies should have is a good cast, and The Witches is one such movie. With performances from Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway and Kristin Chenoweth, The Witches holds a lot of promise for people unfamiliar with the story, but falls short of its star cast. The Witches is a 2020 adaptation of the book of the same name by Roald Dahl, following the first adaptation in 1990. Aside from a more diverse cast and the updated graphics, the 2020 adaptation hasn’t grown much from the previous version, let alone the book.
Movie Review: Happiest Season
By Ben Lindner, Staff Writer
[Hulu; 2020]
Rating: 7/10
It is rare for a movie to be added into the holiday movie canon, or the kinds of movies you watch every year with your family during the winter. The movie has to capture the holiday spirit and remain accessible to everyone, and at least on that basis, Happiest Season deserves consideration to be added to this group of movies.
Movie Review: On the Rocks
I’m not sure I watched On the Rocks properly. I watched it on my couch on a Wednesday morning, but I feel like it was intended for middle-aged wine moms who, after finally putting their kids to bed, are just waiting to scream “OMG, that’s so true” every time the movie shows how hard marriage is. Outside of that lens, this movie, while functional, is not able to do anything particularly remarkable.
Movie Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
By Ben Lindner, Contributor
[Netflix; 2020]
Rating: 7/10
From the opening minutes of The Trial of the Chicago 7, a story of the aftermath of the riots at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, it is clear exactly what the film is trying to be: an acting showcase with a fast, exciting script. It’s a movie made for people, like myself, who enjoy pointing at the screen and saying, “Hey, isn’t that the guy from that thing?” In that sense, the movie works extremely well.
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