REVIEW: Fall [2022]

If you’re scared of dying, don’t be afraid to live. It’s been a year since Dan Connor (Mason Gooding) fell to his death while rock climbing with his wife Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and her best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner). The latter was free-climbing and mocking the other two for being slow as they detached and reattached their ropes with every maneuver to create a semblance of safety. Rather than be ironic that Dan is the one who dies, however, the choice is purely driven by narrative and suspense. Whereas…

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REVIEW: Booksmart [2019]

‘Your ugly’ what? Does Olivia Wilde‘s directorial debut Booksmart call to mind Superbad? You bet. Not only is it about two nerd best friends trying to punch above their weight class and party hard before graduating, but it also stars that film’s co-lead Jonah Hill‘s sister in a very similar mode. She (Beanie Feldstein‘s Molly) has just discovered (due to a ham-fisted loop-hole in plotting where students can’t reveal their collegiate destinations) that her slacker classmates somehow got accepted into Ivy League universities like her and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever). While…

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