Quick Hits: August 2026
Summer blockbuster season draws to a close, and festival season is about to begin.
Latest
Cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood
If you turned off the adaptation of Cocoon - One Summer of Girlhood before reaching the halfway point of its short, sixty minute runtime, you'd likely mistake it for Japanese military propaganda, which is unmistakably curdled by what comes after. Although the location, time period, and details of the
Buddy
"Of course I'm scared. You have to be scared to be brave."
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
"You talk about it so academically. Camp Miasma wasn't about cultural depictions of monstrosity or gender trauma or any of that stuff. It was about two very simple things: flesh…and fluids."
Coyote vs. Acme
"That's what we do. We settle."
The Wrong Girls
"We'll be vagrants. Sea urchins. Maybe even orphans!"
The Rivals of Amziah King
"I've met a whole lot of smart people not patient enough to wait for something to grow. Yeah, I'd rather be patient than smart."
Tony
"I feel like God's finally noticed me. That means I'm a prophet."
The End of Oak Street
"Is that a fucking dinosaur?!"
Ice Cream Man
Having popularized the "torture porn" genre in the mid-00s, a layering of American sensibilities onto the depravity of the then-thriving New French Extremity movement, writer/director Eli Roth will always loom large in the history of horror. This despite his frankly terrible track record. With the
One Night Only
"If I could fall / Into the sky / My vagina / Would be just fine"
Quick Hits: July 2026
Despite The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day dominating the local multiplex, I was able to keep up my regular pace, both of catching new releases and of writing. And that's even before you consider the three films for which I caught an early screening, whose reviews
New Releases
Her Private Hell
"Say it with me: I am a wholly unique consciousness."
New Releases
Couture
"Last night, I gave a special party to myself, with everything I love. I told myself I deserve it. I must make the most of life, no?...We are going to be just fine."
New Releases
The Odyssey
"The song told of all my broken promises, and it said I don't want to return home."
New Releases
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
The best way I can spin the fundamental flaw in Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is to talk about a sweater. The titular Gail (Zoey Deutch) travels to LA with close friend and fellow hairdresser Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), whose cardigan is emblazoned with the pattern from the
Pop Culture Maniacs
Night Nurse
"Everything I did before today wasn’t me. It was somebody else."
New Releases
The Invite
"People forget that they deserve more. Somewhere along the way, they start living on crumbs."
New Releases
Minions & Monsters
"Baby! Piñata, carbonara, lasagna."
usaw
You Should Also Watch - 2026
My mid-year check-in post.
Quick Hits
Quick Hits: June 2026
A more productive month means fewer unreviewed releases.
New Releases
Supergirl
"You are not always nice, but you are kind. You are not always perfect, but you are good"
Pop Culture Maniacs
Leviticus
Although Jennifer Kent's debut film, The Babadook, brought international attention to the Australian horror scene, little would come of it until nearly a decade later. Talk to Me kicked off the wave we're currently riding, for better or for worse (mostly better). That's fortunate
New Releases
The Death of Robin Hood
"Knives cut bread as well as they do flesh. It's a question of balance."