REVIEW: The Novice [2021]

Why are you here? There’s a difference between being the best and being the hardest worker. If you’re the best, you don’t always need to work. It’s natural. Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman) describes the phenomenon perfectly about midway through Lauren Hadaway‘s feature debut The Novice while shooting pool with potential love interest Dani (Dilone). She explains how she’s driven to beat the best rather than be the best. How she’s accepted the idea that she’ll always have to struggle and that she’ll never achieve the pinnacle of whatever career, hobby,…

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REVIEW: CODA [2021]

Do you have something to say? It’s a coming-of-age film like any other. Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is a bullied senior in high school ready to choose her elective when the boy she has a crush on (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo‘s Miles) is overheard picking choir. On a whim—and to her best friend’s (Amy Forsyth‘s Gertie) shock—Ruby states the same. It’s not as though singing is something she dislikes. She loves to sing. The problem, as her choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez‘s Mr. V.) is about to discover, stems from her lack of confidence…

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REVIEW: We Summon the Darkness [2020]

Let the madness begin. A rash of 1980s-era satanic ritual killings puts Pastor John Henry Butler (Johnny Knoxville) front and center in rural America’s consciousness because his church is doing its very best to combat the disintegration of society with the word of God. Just as his increased television appearances rally the Bible Belt to his cause (treating rock music and other not quite “demonic” practices as sinful weapons destroying their children’s souls), however, they also work to embolden those he is forsaking. More than calling out the as yet…

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