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Movie Fantasy League Week 13: Invite to the Super Jackass
This weekend’s domestic box office is down from last weekend about 30%, with “Toy Story” remaining in its top spot and “Obsession” clinging to #3 in its seventh weekend. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: John Ford
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 12: The Death of Girls and Toys
Whether or not “Toy Story 5” has legs remains to be seen – historically, the franchise does incredibly well in the months after release, but it’s not usually been up against other animation tentpoles in an extraordinarily crowded summer. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 11: Stop! That! Disclosure Day!
This weekend’s box office had the steepest drop in four weeks, but that should only be expected after a completely unforeseen run of miracles. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 10: Masters of the Scary Movie Universe
We went from Netflix executives loudly proclaiming that “theatrical is dead!” to two small-budget horror flicks savaging “Star Wars,” one of the most reliable pop culture properties, at the box office. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 9: Win the Backrooms Ballad, Liminally
“Obsession” is now the first non-Christmas release to grow in both its second and third weekends since 1982, when Steven Spielberg released a little ditty called “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.” Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 8: I Love the Mandalorian Passenger
While the highest grosser of the weekend was “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” the big winner was “Obsession,” which jumped up a spot in the domestic box office, added 40 theaters to its roster, and made 40% more than its opening… Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 7: Obsessed with the Draft
“Michael” won the box office again in its fourth week, a strong showing after dropping down to #3 last weekend. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 6: Sheep Kombat
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” continues to slay in the top spot, with new releases “Mortal Kombat II,” “The Sheep Detectives,” and Billie Eilish’s tour/concert doc “Hit Me Hard and Soft” trailing close behind. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 5: The Devil Wears Dollars
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael” are both formidable opponents and major successes for their respective studios. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Visual Effects
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 4: A Thriller Weekend
The domestic box office was up over sixty percent this week, and that is almost entirely thanks to “Michael,” the problematic musical biopic that moonwalked to almost $100 million in its first few days alone. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 3: Lee Cronin’s Mummy Mary
This weekend, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” continued its rampage across North American theaters, remaining at Number One, though its lead is not quite what it used to be. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 2: Faces of Tuscany Death
This is the first week in which we are taking into account the critical scores, including from aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd, and IMDb. Continue reading
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Movie Fantasy League Week 1: It Has Risen
This past weekend was Easter weekend, which tends to be one of the softer holiday weekends in the spring/summer season, but even more importantly, it continued to be “spring break season.” Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Anime
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Our Most Anticipated Movies of 2026
Bring on the new year! Iconic filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve, Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle, Sam Raimi, Gore Verbinski, and many other icons will be gracing our screens with epic new offerings, and though it looks to… Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Practical Effects
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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The 10 Best Films of 2025
Whether it’s the triumphant return of an iconic filmmaker with an indelible masterpiece or the start of a new cinematic movement, 2025 brought us a variety of entertaining features that we’ll be talking about for a long time. Continue reading
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Start the New Year with a Scream (May’s Monthly Horror Recs)
Welcome to the sixth edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies! Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Steven Spielberg
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Early Animation
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Close-Ups
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Paul Thomas Anderson’s Latest is One Banger After Another (Review)
It’s rare to sit down for a movie and realize in real time that you’re watching a masterpiece. You can see the future, and that what you’re witnessing is going to be cherished and discussed for many decades to come.… Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Akira Kurosawa
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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“The Smashing Machine” Crashes Its Way to Mediocrity (Review)
“The Smashing Machine” feels like just the first half of a larger piece of art — and it’s a pretty disappointing first half at that. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Non-Linear Storytelling
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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“Superman” is Ambitious, but Delightfully Authentic (Review)
There was only one place to start for a brand-new DC universe, and it was their most powerful and inspiring hero. Continue reading
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The 10 Best Films of 2025, So Far: A Midyear Report
Today marks the midway point of both an unusually painful year and the most tumultuous decade in recent memory. Today, we will be examining ten films released this year that our contributors connected with, and have so far taken their… Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Christopher Nolan
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is the Sum of Our Choices (Review)
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is both an exercise in patience and an extraordinarily cathartic release. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: John Carpenter
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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Captain America (and the United States) Enters a “Brave New World” (Review)
“Brave New World” is the 35th film in the MCU, a milestone that explains a lot about its own reception. Continue reading
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“The Gorge” is an Affectionate Genre Machine (Review)
“The Gorge” isn’t just a romance; it’s also a high-concept sci-fi action movie, with some horror (director Scott Derrickson’s specialty) thrown in there for good measure. Continue reading
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“Love Hurts,” But It Doesn’t Sting (Review)
“Love Hurts” has a unique earnestness to it, and a confidence that can be off-putting to those not expecting an unapologetically silly movie. Continue reading
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Our Most Anticipated Movies of 2025
There are plenty of films, whether they be original, adaptations, or sequels, that we’re looking forward to this year. Continue reading
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The 10 Best Films of 2024
Though it may not have reached the heights of years previous, 2024 has proven to be a fascinating year for cinema. Continue reading
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The Underseen Gems of 2024
Knock on Wood presents: our favorite under-appreciated masterpieces from 2024. Continue reading
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“The War of the Rohirrim” Bottles the Best of Middle-Earth (Review)
“The War of the Rohirrim” perfectly recreates Tolkien’s fully-realized world in a way we haven’t quite seen before. Continue reading
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Too Many Movies, Too Little Time: A Summary of the 2024 Fall Movie Season (Part Two)
To commemorate the conclusion of the season, we have reviewed every new release (that I have seen) that has not been previously covered on our site. Continue reading
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“Werewolves” is All Bark and No Bite (Review)
“Werewolves” is not a good movie, but it is a successful one. Continue reading
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Awards Season Ramps Up: A Summary of the 2024 Fall Movie Season (Part One)
To commemorate the conclusion of the season, we have reviewed every new release (that I have seen) that has not been previously covered on our site. Continue reading
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The Movies That Made Us – A One-Year Anniversary Celebration
Even if they weren’t the exact movie that made you a cinephile, every film fan has one (or many) that you can cite as one of the central inspirations for that passion. Continue reading
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“Gladiator II” is Too Focused on Legacy (Review)
Ridley Scott’s movies are typically visually and tonally excellent, creating memorable images and sequences, but he doesn’t really elevate material. Continue reading
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“Red One” is Not Bad…It’s Something Much Worse (Review)
It’s a movie designed to live as a Blu-ray in front of the checkout aisle at Target with a 30% off sticker slapped on the case. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Westerns
Welcome to class! Each film on this curated watchlist will highlight either a filmmaker, sub-genre, filmmaking technique, or significant topic in order to broaden your cinematic horizons. Continue reading
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The Most Exciting Film Festival Premieres of 2024
Film festivals happen throughout the year, but the premieres ramp up from the end of the summer through the beginning of fall. Continue reading
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Everything We Didn’t Review: A Summary of the 2024 Summer Movie Season
To commemorate the conclusion of the season, we have reviewed every new release (that I have seen) that has not been previously covered on our site. Continue reading
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“Alien: Romulus” Revives the Spacebound Terror (Review)
“Alien: Romulus” is at its best when Álvarez releases any inhibitions and lets loose: a slice of dismal future life, injected with a healthy dose of creature-driven terror. Continue reading
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“Borderlands” Spectacularly Reinforces the Video Game Movie Curse (Review)
“Borderlands” is a neutered-down experience that will disappoint fans, and dull would-be fans that don’t know what they’re missing. Continue reading
