Commentary Track

Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery has not gone according to plan. It’s been a bumpy ride from the start, as they had to outbid Netflix just to take the pole position, and then David Ellison assumed he and his father’s positive relationship with Donald Trump would lead to a speedy approval. This always seemed somewhat foolhardy, as it’s not only the DOJ that has to weigh in on a deal of this size.

movies — 7 min read Sadie Sink attends the Photo Call for Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man: Brand New Day at Edge at Hudson Yards | Photo via Christopher Polk/@polkimaging [Marvel and Sony have endeavored to hide who Sadie Sink is playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. They even did a little video about it. Since the movie is now in theaters, I wanted to write about her character and why I think it’s the film’s biggest weakness despite Sink’s performance.

My pal, the talented Mike Ryan, wrote in his newsletter about how Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige noted that audiences were cool on Thanos until they saw him in Avengers: Infinity War, so he’s not worried about the lack of set-up for Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Here’s what Feige told Brandon Davis via IGN: The Thanos buildup has built up in people’s heads over the years,” he said in a carpet interview with Brandon Davis. “He sat on a chair at the end.

Watching A Toxic Love Story, Alexandra Lacey’s new true crime documentary for Netflix, I started to worry about its resemblance to Maternal Instinct. Released a little over a month ago, Maternal Instinct explored the lengths a woman would go to in order to deceive everyone in her life and remain the center of attention. In its first two acts, I wondered if this was where Netflix was headed this summer with its true crime releases: those ladies are crazy.

The world of Homer’s epics resembles ours, but it is not ours. There are men and wars and family and regrets and hopes, but there are also gods, fate, and magic. Furthermore, it is a world defined by particular values, and in The Odyssey, the rules of hospitality are some of the most ironclad. The greatest departure in Christopher Nolan’s opulent rendering is breaking those rules and showing a civilization in decline as neither host nor guest has any reverence for each other.

movies — 4 min read Sam Neill as John Trent in In the Mouth of Madness | Image via New Line Cinema Sam Neill passed away today at the age of 78. Most headlines about his passing lead with his work in Jurassic Park, and that’s to be expected. It was his biggest movie; he was in the lead role, and given that Jurassic Park is an ongoing franchise (in which Neill appeared in two of the sequels), you cite his performance as paleontologist Alan Grant.

Part of the appeal of nostalgia is how it insists on returning to a time that never fully existed. Its nuances are lost, and all you can see are the outlines of what was. We see this clearly in economic decline, where booming hamlets are now ghost towns, built by prosperity that has receded into the mists. Writer-director Mark Jenkin cleverly turns this approach upside down with his patient and tense Rose of Nevada.

movies — 4 min read John (John Slattery), Caleb (Ben Wang), Otto (Miles Guiterrez-Riley), Gail (Zoey Deutch), and Vincent (Ken Marino) in Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass | Image via Sony Pictures Classics As comedies fade from view in the cinematic landscape, we sometimes forget that certain directors have a vision and voice as firm as any acclaimed auteur. Just as you would know Martin Scorsese movie from a Christopher Nolan feature, you would know Mel Brooks compared to Judd Apatow.

I find myself constantly fighting against despair because of the state of the country. It feels like there are two stories happening where the U.S. is in decline while the rest of the world moves on. But these past few weeks have been a reminder of why it’s important to find joy where we can, and not fall into the idea that America is only one thing. The U.S. is playing host this year to the 2026 World Cup along with Canada and Mexico. FIFA, the organization behind the World Cup, is deeply corrupt.

We’re about to enter the second half of the year, and there have been quite a few good movies already. Granted, studios tend to save their heavy hitters for awards season, and I’m certainly looking forward to new works from Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Brad Bird, Martin McDonagh, and more. But before those films arrive, don’t sleep on some terrific movies that have already made their way to theaters.