Categories
5 Stars

Wildwood (2026)

Hopefully you won’t find this too vulgar of me, but when I think of the Laika film studios, the word that keeps coming to mind is “ballsy”.

With five feature films already under their belt (two of which, The Boxtrolls and Missing Link, I still need to see), they have been walking to the beat of their own drum since Coraline came out in 2009. I was a little late to the party, having only discovered them a decade ago with Kubo & the Two Strings (which I called the best film of 2016); it did not take long to realize they make films that are a darker alternative to the films of Disney, Pixar, Illumination, and the other studios around.

Categories
3 1/2 Stars

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

It is feasible to believe that no other MCU film to date has had a bigger emotional mountain to climb than Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The first film was such a mammoth success (financially, critically, and even Oscar wise) that a sequel was inevitable from the get go. Then, of course, tragedy struck when the world lost Chadwick Boseman in August of 2020, leaving the sequel in serious jeopardy. Also add in the fact that this would be the final film in Phase 4 of the MCU, and you can see why this film had a lot to accomplish. 

Categories
4 1/2 Stars Movies

Black Panther (2018)

Note: This review was originally written in February of 2018. I decided to bring it back (with some added content) in memory of the late Chadwick Boseman.