Pop Culture Maniacs
The Rule of Jenny Pen
My whole life I've been bored. I look back and see an empty bin.
New Releases
All my reviews of new releases
New Releases
Black Bag
"When it's so easy to lie about everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?"
New Releases
Warfare
How do you review a dramatic re-enactment? Accuracy isn't an option, as the story being told is based on co-director Ray Mendoza's experience as a Navy SEAL during the Iraq War. I've no reason to doubt his recollection, but I can't comment
New Releases
Mickey 17
"Have a nice death! See you tomorrow!"
New Releases
Eephus
"Why do they care so much? Don't they have anything better to do?" This comment from a young girl to her brother echoes throughout the film, a call for you to meditate on that very topic yourself. On the surface, we're watching a recreational
New Releases
The Monkey
"Everybody dies."
Pop Culture Maniacs
Cleaner
Cleaner feels like a relic from a bygone era. The many comparisons it's received to Die Hard are debatable, although the marketing is certainly inviting them. To be fair, their cores are the same: an action-thriller in the style of an airport novel about an unassuming person thrust
Pop Culture Maniacs
Armand
A new Renate Reinsve movie is always a reason to celebrate, especially one like this which lets her fully utilize her wonderful range.
New Releases
Captain America: Brave New World
Julius Onah throws The Winter Soldier into the microwave a decade later, and expects us to applaud.
Pop Culture Maniacs
Bring Them Down
"Y'know what they say. Where there's livestock, there's dead stock."
New Releases
Heart Eyes
"You can be so Clueless sometimes. It's one of the 10 Things I Hate About You, honestly. You can't let him go to his Best Friend's Wedding and hook up with a bunch of Bridesmaids and move to Notting Hill."
Pop Culture Maniacs
Love Me
The core theme of Love Me destined it to be labeled a pandemic-era movie. While Americans had already been experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness in the late 2010s, the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns highlighted what was already there while deepening that isolation. We were drowning in a preponderance