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4 Stars

Armageddon Time (2022)

Anyone who has ever taken any form of creative writing class surely knows one of the first rules: write what you know.

Filmmakers  have been making films loosely based on their own childhoods for sometime now, going as far back as Truffaut’s 1959 masterpiece The 400 Blows. Yet ever since 2018’s Roma (based off of past experiences by it’s director,  Alfonso Cuarón), there has seem to be a slight uptick in these types of films: Lee Issac Chung’s Minari (2020), Kenneth Branaugh’s Belfast (2021), and Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans, which is soon to be released in a few weeks. Now the spotlight is on the childhood of director James Gray, with Armageddon Time.

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5 Stars

TÁR (2022)

Perhaps I should just state it from the get go here: If you are someone who wants as little ambiguity in a film as possible, then TÁR is not a film for you.

If you want to have a movie to tell people they need to seek out for the purpose of needing someone to talk to about what you just witnessed, you won’t find a better candidate on any sized screen this year. 

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2 1/2 Stars

Black Adam (2022)

There was this one moment in The Office when Dwight mentions the online game called “Second Life.” In it, he does everything he would do in his everyday life, except now he can fly.

As the titular character of Black Adam, one could say something along the same lines for Dwayne Johnson (and before you say “Wait, he doesn’t have electrical powers!”, keep in mind I grew up knowing him as the most “electrifying man in sports entertainment”.)

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1/2 Star

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (2022)

Note: Earlier this year, I was blessed to be a guest on the Game for a Movie Podcast, hosted by an old high school buddy of mine, Mike.

On his pod, he and his friends like to talk about random types of media consumption, including takes on bad movies. 

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1 1/2 Stars

Amsterdam (2022)

It’s been nine years since the last film I had seen of David O. Russell’s (American Hustle), and seven since his last film (Joy).

In that time, even more has been brought up being in the working atmosphere of David O. Russell (as well as at least one sexual misconduct allegation).

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1 1/2 Stars

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

Just under a year ago, I remember a hangout with some of my best friends. We decided to watch a movie in the backyard with the big screen. The movie chosen beforehand was Hocus Pocus, a movie familiar to many 90s children like myself. I had revisited the film at least once before as an adult, and was sadly underwhelmed, for the nostalgia did not hold up. Yet I care for my friends and wanted to have a good time, so I persisted.

As I looked back at Roger Ebert’s review of the original, he said it was “like attending a party you weren’t invited to, and where you don’t know anybody, and they’re all in on a joke but won’t explain it to you.” 

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3 1/2 Stars

The Woman King (2022)

57.

That is the number you should know going into seeing The Woman King, for that is the age of it’s star Viola Davis.

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1 Star Movies

Pinocchio (2022)

There is no way I can discuss the live action remake of Pinocchio without talking in depth about the 1940 animated masterpiece. 

Maybe I just can’t see past the end of my nose, but it is what it is.

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4 1/2 Stars

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022)

Sometimes, I really can walk into a movie with high expectations, but in the case of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, can you blame me?

Afterall, it isn’t easy getting a score of 98% on Rottentomatoes with over a hundred reviews (not to mention a 92% audience score with over 500 reviews), nor to be a film based off of a series of short films. Add in the fact that the film is literally about a living breathing Shell trying to find his family and it is no wonder one could consider this film nothing short of a long shot. 

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4 Stars Movies

Nope (2022)

Perhaps baseball is not the best of comparisons, but if director Jordan Peele were to have his next seven films be duds, he would still be batting .300. Of course, that would also mean that Shyamalan would have a decent batting record also, so…oh nevermind (well, maybe lower if we count just how horrible The Last Airbender was.

Anyhow, after his 2017 breakthrough Get Out (which I did not like at first and admit my mistake) and 2019’s breathtaking Us, Jordan Peele’s Nope is yet another piece of proof that the man has come much further than one would have thought of the old Comedy Central veteran. 

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