I found myself considerably moved by filmmaker Kate Tsang’s directorial debut, Marvelous and the Black Hole. On paper, the film appears like a simple and familiar tale of a mentor/mentee relationship; a feel-good movie with a predictable trajectory. In the wrong hands, something like this could come across as overly childish or just plain boring. But Tsang imbues her work with a distinctive visual flair and an honesty that appeals to a younger audience without ever talking down to them or taking them for granted. As a result, her film joins a growing list of emotionally intelligent stories that do more than just convey the intense feelings that children experience – think Inside Out – but offer positive and healthy conduits for them.

John and the Hole is one of those movies that refuses to spoon-feed the audience, leaving any and all scenes open for interpretation. This will certainly frustrate or bore some, but the ambiguity that Spanish filmmaker Pascual Sisto goes for in his directorial debut is the film’s greatest strength. The slow, methodical yet offbeat pace that editor Sara Shaw crafts goes hand in the hand with the distant and cold shots of cinematographer Paul Ozgur to create an unnerving tale of adolescent angst, existential dread, and what exactly it means to be independent.

Censor certainly remains worth a watch for any horror fan, and to be quite frank, the level at which lead actress Niamh Algar is playing at is fucking insane. It’s an impressive and exceptionally intelligent debut for Prano Bailey-Bond.

The Little Things treads familiar psychological thriller territory, but its strong cast that includes Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto keeps it intriguing.

Shudder’s latest horror, ‘The Queen of Black Magic’ lacks a layered script underneath all the extreme gore and violence.

The potential for the film to be even just a bit more interesting is lost to the wayside among the fire and destruction, and any chance for it to be particularly memorable gets snuffed out.

Hunted may just be the first great horror film of the year.

Interesting ideas that never play out in an interesting way and dull as dull can be action. Anthony Mackie is cool though.

In my first piece for Geeks of Color, I talked about Robert Rodriguez’s latest film and its family friendly approach to the superhero genre.

White Lie is a tense story with strong performances about a girl faking a cancer diagnosis.

It was inevitable that Hollywood would try to cash in on the COVID pandemic, but ‘Songbird’ is even lower than you expected.

Farewell Amor is a quiet and personal story of an immigrant family attempting to rebuild what they lost.

Shudder’s latest exclusive, ‘Anything for Jackson’ is a shocking surprise that comes right in time for starving horror fans.

Mommy was very bad.

‘His House’ is one of the strongest horror films to ever come from Netflix. Superb and pretty damn scary in almost every way.

Borrows plenty of storytelling techniques from the tried and true Disney formula.

Borat 2 is consistently hilarious and still manages to provide one or two legitimately jaw-dropping moments. Thumbs up approval from me and mah wife.