list
-
The Underseen Gems of 2025
Knock on Wood presents: our favorite under-appreciated masterpieces from 2025. Continue reading
-
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
-
Horror for the Holidays (May’s Monthly Horror Recs)
Welcome to the fifth edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies! Continue reading
-
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
-
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
-
A Double Feature for Spooky Season (May’s Monthly Horror Recs)
Welcome to the third edition of May’s Monthly Horror Recs, where it’s always the time of year for scary movies! Continue reading
-
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
-
Predicting the 2025 Emmy Awards
It’s been an outstanding year of television so far. Television continues to increase in prestige with performances, pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and allowing audiences to get lost in its world for extended periods of time. Continue reading
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Every Best Picture Winner Ranked (Part One)
The Academy Award for Best Picture has been awarded for almost a century to the film deemed to represent not necessarily the most popular, but the most culturally relevant in that year’s cinematic lineup. Continue reading
-
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Neo-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
-
Remembering David Lynch
David Lynch, one of the most iconic and stylistically recognizable filmmakers of all time, passed away recently at the age of 78. Continue reading
-
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
-
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
-
The Underseen Gems of 2024
Knock on Wood presents: our favorite under-appreciated masterpieces from 2024. Continue reading
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Montage
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Mel Brooks
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
-
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
-
The Best Metal Albums of the Decade
We are in a true Metal golden age. There are so many styles, so many places it can come from, and the most diverse artists of any genre in modern music. Continue reading
-
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Symmetrical Composition
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Long Takes
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
-
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
-
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Horror
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Narration
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
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: The Coen Brothers
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
-
How To Win Your 2024 Office Oscar Pool
A time-honored office tradition is slinging money on the Oscars. Because, and let’s be honest, one of the most simple joys in life is upstaging your co-workers. And this year’s Oscars are right around the corner, set to air the… Continue reading
-
Our Most Anticipated Movies of 2024
It’s always too early to tell for the first few months, but 2024 is shaping up to be another great year for film. Apart from the return of several high-profile creative voices to the fold, there’s also a notable lack… Continue reading
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Science Fiction
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
-
If I Picked the Oscars: A Dream of 2024
If you had control over the Academy Awards…what would you nominate? It’s a question that’s almost certainly run through the minds of every cinephile, and instead of hopelessly dreaming this year, I decided to put them into words. Continue reading
-
The 10 Best Films of 2023
By all accounts, 2023 was an incredible year for film. Our contributors saw a cumulative hundreds of films from January to December, but there were some clear favorites. What follows is the combined Knock on Wood Top 10 of 2023. Continue reading
-
The Underseen Gems of 2023
While some films garner awards attention and spread rapidly across the zeitgeist through word-of-mouth, the majority find it difficult to break through the myriad of new releases. Each of our writers will take you on a journey through some of… Continue reading
-
Lessons from the Wasteland: Framed Narratives
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
Knock on Wood 