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 into a dangerous situation whose skills and […]
Author: Austin Noto-Moniz
Armand Review
With her astounding performance in 2021’s The Worst Person in the World, the cinema world fell in love with Renate Reinsve. Her ability to capture the duality of early adulthood was uncanny, infusing the chaos of self-discovery with the vulnerability of knowing you’re a mess. That kind of virtuosity had cinephiles eager for her next […]
Bring Them Down Review
As long as there have been tales of revenge, there have been warnings about its tendency to consume its practitioners. For every satisfying story of vanquishing one’s enemies, a counterpoint exists that focuses on the harm it does to the righteous, complicating their catharsis. But recently, we’ve seen more tales in which it goes so […]
Love Me Review
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 of think pieces and studies […]
Grand Theft Hamlet Review
There’s something quaint about trying to produce a play within a game designed to encourage depravity. The world of Grand Theft Auto Online is meant to be experienced surrounded by a persistent hail of gunfire, as you carry out heists with associates you’ll inevitably stab in the back before setting out on your own to […]