fantasy
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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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The Underseen Gems of 2025
Knock on Wood presents: our favorite under-appreciated masterpieces from 2025. Continue reading
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Our Favorite Performances of 2025
The films of 2025 have been delightful and disappointing in their own right…today, we spotlight our favorite acting performances across the board. 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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November Blues (May’s Monthly Horror Recs)
Welcome to the fourth edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies! Continue reading
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In “Eternity,” Love Never Dies…It Just Gets Complicated (Review)
Pitting Larry and Luke against each other with their lived experiences is the kind of romantic rivalry you just can’t see anywhere else. Continue reading
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“Frankenstein” is the Fiery Culmination of Guillermo del Toro’s Career (Review)
If there’s anyone who can frame a tale about the true nature of monsters and the utter agony of being alive, it’s him. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Live Action Fantasy
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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Five Underseen Horror Films to Watch This July (May’s Monthly Recs)
Welcome to the second edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies! 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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Five Underseen Horror Films to Watch This June (May’s Monthly Recs)
Welcome to the first-ever edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies. Continue reading
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Every Mike Flanagan Film Ranked (including “The Life of Chuck”)
Flanagan doesn’t rely on jump scares, but he utilizes them well, and has been able to craft a perfectly eerie and unsettling atmosphere in his seven horror features, as well as a captivating, inspirational ambience in his latest release. Continue reading
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“The Life of Chuck” is an Inspiration for All Time (Review)
Like most of Flanagan’s work, it’s highly evocative, but this time of memory rather than fright. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Weird 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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Lessons from the Wasteland: Flashbacks
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: 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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“The Monkey” is a Terrifically Fatalistic Ode to Death Everlasting (Review)
Perkins’ wry personality shines through in this delightfully demented ode to the inescapable fate awaiting us all…after all, as long as we know it’s coming, there’s more than enough time to laugh about it. 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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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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“Nosferatu” is the Visceral Nightmare We Deserve (Review)
As far as I’m concerned, no director has better control over their vision than Robert Eggers. Continue reading
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The 25 Best Movie Musicals of the Last 25 Years
Musicals have certainly had their ups and downs over the years, but it’s quite clear that musicals are experiencing a high water mark in entertainment spectacle and audience engagement. 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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“Moana 2” Struggles with Structure (Review)
One song every quarter of an hour cements what I already knew (and this is the kicker) – I think this would have made a very good series. 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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“Look Back” on the Beauty of Art and the Everyday (Review)
“Look Back” is a compelling argument for the power of art to transcend space and time and connect with the deepest parts of ourselves. Continue reading
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Coppola’s “Megalopolis” is a Plea for the Future from the Past (Review)
Coppola is the singular creative visionary – a position that comes with an infinity of expectations and pressure, but if anyone can handle them, it’s the five-time Oscar winner who has delivered four of the greatest films ever made. Continue reading
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Pharrell Williams Takes Us Through his LEGO Life “Piece by Piece” (Review)
The story itself doesn’t matter. It all comes down to how it’s told. 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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“Omni Loop” Juggles Buddy Comedy, Black Holes, and Existential Regret (Review)
Despite biting off more than it can chew, I could see “Omni Loop” becoming an underground hit. Continue reading
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Lessons from the Wasteland: Martin Scorsese
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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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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“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
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The 10 Best Films of 2024, So Far: A Midyear Report
Whether or not 2024 will outlast 2023 in terms of beloved classics, there’s still plenty of time for the new releases to surprise us. Continue reading
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“The Watchers” is a Convincing Argument for a Career (Review)
Shyamalan’s debut is clearly inspired by her father’s thriller and horror work, but forges a path all its own by way of presentation. Continue reading
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Ro’s Colored Glasses: Revisiting the Time-Traveling Antics of “Mr. Peabody and Sherman”
Ro’s Colored Glasses is a series where I re-examine these films from my childhood with a more refined and educated perspective, and re-evaluate them as fairly and objectively as possible (if there even is such a method). Continue reading
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Every Star Wars Movie, Ranked
The Star Wars franchise is near and dear to the hearts of every single one of our contributing writers, and so to celebrate this special day, our rankings have been accumulated into a single list that reflects both unabashed love… Continue reading
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Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” Universe Hits Another Roadblock with “The Scargiver” (Review)
The way that Zack Snyder makes movies now is incredibly frustrating. Continue reading
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Off the Beaten Path: Discovering the Unforgettable Sisterhood of “Ginger Snaps”
As of writing, it has been exactly nine days since I watched the 2000 film “Ginger Snaps” for the first time. Of those nine days, I have been able to stop thinking about it for about zero of them. Continue reading
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Looking Ahead to the 2025 Oscars
Every year, when the Academy Awards are done and over with, the minds of curious cinephiles are always thinking ahead. It will be nearly a year before next year’s ceremony, but it’s never too early to start predicting – especially… Continue reading
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Editor Jonathan Alberts Discusses the Ending and Music of “All of Us Strangers”
In my interview with All of Us Strangers editor Jonathan Alberts, he discussed his process, editorial style, working relationship with writer/director Andrew Haigh, and more. We also discussed the ending of the film, an emotional gut punch that I would… Continue reading
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