The Upside is predictable and formulaic to a fault, but thanks to the clear chemistry of its leads, it manages to coast by with some considerable charm nonetheless.

Director Neil Burger doesn’t add much style or flair to the proceedings, and the pacing is sometimes off as the film suffers from being overlong (and not fully resolving all plot lines/character arcs). Nevertheless, Jon Hartmere’s screenplay is simplistic yet sweet, allowing for some honest and humorous interactions between Hart’s Dell and…

Searching is a gripping, inventive mystery thriller that takes full advantage of its seemingly gimmick-y structure and features an engaging emotional core buoyed by John Cho’s impressive lead performance.

Searching caught me off-guard right off the bat with an incredibly affecting prologue that delivered quite the emotional wallop. An opening montage had not captured my attention and brought me to tears like this since the “Married Life” segment from Up. It effectively established both David and Margot as characters and…

Eighth Grade is a raw and authentic emotional experience that tackles complex, societal struggles on such an intimate, personal level. I’m *technically* on vacation right now, so I don’t have enough time to rave about this film as I would like to. But here’s what I can say thus far:

1. Elsie Fisher is an absolute revelation. She conveys a plethora of emotions with a simple sigh, and the verisimilitude of her performance is beyond compare. She blended perfectly with…

The Meg is a big, loud, lumbering beast of a movie that certainly lacks in intelligence and novelty, but is able to (mostly) atone for these deficiencies in sheer dumb fun entertainment value.

Although there is an expected lack of character development (aside from a fairly engaging arc for Statham’s protagonist Jonas), most of the actors bring a certain sense of personality to their roles that add to the liveliness of the proceedings. The aforementioned Statham perfectly balances his rugged…

Christopher Robin is a simple-minded yet sweet adventure with an endearing turn from Ewan McGregor as the titular protagonist and some delightful doses of Disney wisdom delivered through the winning voice cast of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood.

The story of this film is nothing new; it’s a very basic, paint-by-numbers “overworked father alienated family and rediscovers the meaning of life” plot. However, it is elevated by the enchanting nature of the plentiful, stunningly rendered CGI co-stars and…

While Crazy Rich Asians doesn’t dramatically reinvent the romcom genre or subvert many expectations, it is nevertheless a thoroughly engaging and heartwarming story with enough charm and humor to spare. 

When I first saw trailers for Crazy Rich Asians, I was worried that the film would merely be yet another generic romantic comedy, refreshingly livened up with a minority-led cast. And yes, the film does feature its fair share of cliches, and it hits the typical beats of a movie…

I went into Dog Days fairly skeptical of how this ensemble romcom would fare, since the promotional materials reeked of Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve vibes. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how winsome and charming this turned out to be! It’s extremely predictable for the most part, and it embraces a variety of cliches from the genre, but everyone seems to be having a lot of fun here, and there are quite a few decent laughs to be…

A.X.L. isn’t the mess some may assume from its lackluster marketing campaign, but it’s also no more than an unremarkable, cliche, kid-centric action adventure fable. Alex Neustaedter, who plays protagonist Miles, is a pretty uncharismatic lead, and there isn’t much depth provided to his character whatsoever. Co-star Becky G fares a bit better with a few decent scenes of ferocity and charm, even if the movie similarly cuts her character development short and hampers her with a predictably bland romantic…