The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 17: The Batman SPOILER Discussion

The Batman is the first superhero film of 2022, but it’s been a long time coming, so can it live up to expectations? Rowan assembles a team to give you the answer. Returning guests Alice Ginevra-Micheli and Heath Lynch are joined by Shane Conto, the Wasteland Reviewer, as they break down DC’s monster-sized, three-hour Batman experiment, discussing subtle themes, the cast, the bombastic score and much more. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

“Turning Red” Begins a New Era of Pixar (Review)

I always appreciate when animated movies are willing to get a little more adult, while still staying true to their values and producing films that can be enjoyed by everyone. Cars was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and now thousands of young Pixar fans, myself included, have passed into adulthood. I have been able to understand a lot of the adult-oriented jokes for years, but 2022, sixteen years since Cars, is the first time I’ve seen an entire Pixar movie that centers itself around a theme that may not be entirely kid-friendly — and I am absolutely here for it.

Image courtesy of Pixar

From the director of Bao, one of the best Pixar shorts ever made, comes Turning Red. Set in 2002, the film follows Mei (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a young Chinese-Canadian girl whose puberty takes on an interesting form — whenever she experiences strong emotions, including excitement or anger, she transforms into a giant red panda.

The metaphor isn’t exactly subtle — “my panda, my choice!” — but it doesn’t need to be. Like any good Pixar coming-of-age film, it’s brutally honest (in a PG way) about children growing up. They’re going to be mean to their parents, they’re going to drift away from what they used to enjoy doing, and they’re going to be awkward as hell — in fact, I’m pretty sure a lot of the excuses that Mei gives to her parents are word-for-word what I’ve said to mine. As someone who’s still not very far from that point in my life, I appreciated the sincerity of its portrayal here.

“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” Examines its Subject Matter with Care and Respect (Review)

There's something perversely odd about Samuel L. Jackson playing a character much closer to his age, as opposed to effortlessly pulling off the look and feel of a man thirty years his junior. Actually, we get both from Jackson in Apple TV+’s new series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, based on a novel by Walter Mosley. Jackson plays (you guessed it!) Ptolemy Grey, an aging man with crippling Alzheimer’s, in the present of 2021 and in some flashbacks — and if there’s anyone who makes 93 look stunning, it’s him. In a flashback, all they have to do is slap a mustache on his face, and he can play 46 just as easily.

Image courtesy of Apple TV+

But I digress. Last Days centers around Ptolemy, picking up shortly before a tragic event forces him to not only take on a new caretaker, but also leads him to be a trial patient for a new drug that gives him the lucidity he’s been lacking for many years. With the limited time he has with a clear head, Ptolemy decides to track down the man responsible for his nephew’s death, all while dealing with exploitative family members, unwelcome childhood memories, and perhaps even a new love interest.

There’s a certain universal emotional resonance in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey that I thought was absolutely fascinating — the fear of Ptolemy’s condition, losing most of your treasured memories and knowledge, is something many have at some point in their lives. And while Last Days is optimistic about the future of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, I couldn’t shake the feeling of impermanence — but perhaps that’s just me projecting and pondering my own mortality, as I’m wont to do.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 16: Cyrano, The Batman, Fresh

Image courtesy of Hulu

Is Fresh as good as its title promises? Rowan thinks so, and so does our NEW GUEST this week, Ian Whittington (Behind the Sins, Captain’s Pod). Together, they discuss Fresh, Cyrano, and the coveted new superhero epic The Batman, which everybody (except one particular podcast guest) seems to absolutely love. Plus, their top five loosely-defined superhero solo movies, and what they’ve been watching lately. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

Future-Focused “The Adam Project” is a Love Letter to the Past and the Present (Review)

With Netflix, it’s hard to know what exactly qualifies as a “hit,” but what’s undeniable is that Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy are proving to be quite the dynamic duo. Free Guy was a bona fide hit, and if they can follow that up with another hit, they can do anything!

Image courtesy of Netflix

That follow-up is The Adam Project, a science-fiction comedy all about daddy issues. Well, sort of. In 2022, Adam Reed (Walker Scobell), a twelve-year-old constantly bullied in school, is still dealing with the death of his father only a year before. Ryan Reynolds plays Adam’s future self, who arrives from 2050 with a mission that could either save or destroy the fabric of reality.

The casting is picture perfect. Scobell is a miniature Ryan Reynolds, which makes scenes between the two especially fun. Sure, Reynolds is playing into type, but that’s far from a bad thing — like most of his movies, he is able to make The Adam Project effortlessly charming, and I don’t see this movie working quite as well with anyone else in the lead. Mark Ruffalo plays Adam’s father Louis in a more sizable role than you might expect, and the interactions he has with other characters are a true delight. Jennifer Garner plays Adam’s mother, and Zoe Saldaña is Laura, his girlfriend from the future. Casting name actors can be a crutch, but for The Adam Project it’s a strength.

In “Studio 666,” Blood and Gore Make a Memorable Foo Fighters Experience (Review)

A few weeks ago, if you asked me to name one Foo Fighters song, I wouldn’t have been able to — in fact, I still can’t. But the release of Studio 666, the first non-documentary film to feature the Foo Fighters, certainly increased my appreciation for them. There’s just no way watching a band have a good time while making a ridiculous horror/comedy can’t be a ton of fun.

To make their tenth album, the Foo Fighters (all playing themselves) move into an abandoned mansion, the site of a grisly massacre almost thirty years beforehand. Supernatural forces begin to interfere with the album, and the band begins to suspect that one of them might be possessed.

It’s an inspired, if very surface-level story, essentially leaving the door open to any silly (and some genuinely terrifying) scares. For a small-budgeted film, it looks absolutely fantastic, and Studio 666 makes full use of both its location and cast (which includes Whitney Cummings, Will Forte, Jeff Garlin and Leslie Grossman, alongside a host of weird and unpredictable cameos).

“Winning Time” Shows us the Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Through Adam McKay’s Eyes (Review)

I’ve never been much of a sports person, so the world of basketball is almost completely foreign to me. I can explain some of the basic rules, and I could name a few players. It just so happens that most of them have roles in HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

Image courtesy of HBO

Taking place in the 1980s, Winning Time is an unfiltered dramatization of the highs and lows of what I am told is an absolutely legendary basketball lineup. Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Norm Nixon and Larry Bird (some of the only players I could name off the top of my head) are all a part of this story, with the first episode heavily featuring Magic’s decision to go pro and his heavy negotiation to join the Lakers.

Outback Western “The Tourist” is the Perfect Jamie Dornan Vehicle (Review)

There will be a certain point where we’re going to have to stop identifying some actors purely by one of their past projects which may not have been received very well. It doesn’t typify their strong suits, and it’s not fair to their future careers. Just like Robert Pattinson has proved everyone wrong with his Batman turn, Jamie Dornan is no longer the “Fifty Shades guy,” and has continued his Belfast and Barb and Star streak with the internationally co-produced miniseries The Tourist.

Image courtesy of the BBC

Dornan plays an Irish man who, while visiting Australia, is run off the road by a pickup truck seemingly without reason. When he wakes up in the hospital, he’s unable to remember his own name or any details about his life. What becomes abundantly clear is that someone is after The Man, trying to get revenge for something The Man did in his mysterious past.

Modern Horror Continues to Stay “Fresh” (Review)

There are certain movies that are best when you go in completely blind. I managed to do that with classics like Get Out and The Godfather, and they were all the better because of it. Fresh, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is one such film. Immediately beforehand, it was picked up for distribution by Hulu, and I’m glad we’re all able to see it so soon. This isn’t one that deserves to be shuttered and stored for years before an eventual release.

Image courtesy of Hulu

Our lead is Noa (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones), who’s trying to make it on the dating scene. A supermarket meet-cute leads her to start seeing Steve (Captain America’s Sebastian Stan), who seems almost too good to be true. The relationship doesn’t prove to be what she’s looking for, though…in quite a dangerous way. I’ll just leave it there.

First of all, the two central performers should be enough to sell this movie on their own. Edgar-Jones and Stan are incredible, and seeing as we spend nearly eighty percent of the movie’s runtime with them, they’re appropriately charismatic and both dominate the screen non-aggressively. It helps that they’re immaculately shot in brilliantly edited and extremely purposeful scenes — everyone, in front of and behind the camera, gave it their all, and it definitely shows.

“The Batman” Brings the Bat Back to the Basics (Review)

The Batman. Now there’s a powerful title if I’ve ever seen one. Just like its story, it brings the Caped Crusader back to his detective roots, with a clean slate that doesn’t have to live up to the standards of an already-established cinematic universe. Directed by the impeccable Matt Reeves, The Batman reinvents the DC film universe once again, bringing in an entirely new cast and managing to differentiate itself by telling a story completely its own.

Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) isn’t doing much for Gotham City, but his alter ego The Batman is, fighting crime by night and day alongside police officer Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). A web of political conspiracy, reaching from the lowest depths to the highest offices of Gotham, comes to light when the Riddler (Paul Dano) begins to cause chaos by targeting government officials.

What separates The Batman from the rest is the fact that it doesn’t feel the need to be a straight action movie all through its nearly three-hour runtime. Batman stands still and untangles the mystery more than he beats up bad guys (though there’s plenty of that), but The Batman isn’t afraid of taking its time establishing tension and hinting at future twists, which is, honestly, why it’s three hours long. But that’s less of a problem and more of an attribute — I absolutely loved its commitment to setting the tone and making sure all of the puzzle pieces are put into place before the story really gets going.

Taika Waititi’s “Our Flag Means Death” Takes No Prisoners (Review)

If we’re talking about once-in-a-generation talents, Taika Waititi absolutely deserves to be in the conversation. From semi-dramatic works like Hunt for the Wilderpeople to straight comedies like What We Do in the Shadows and Thor: Ragnarok, there isn’t anything the man can’t pull off. It’s no surprise that his latest venture, the HBO Max period pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, is another winner.

Waititi didn’t technically spearhead Our Flag Means Death — it was created by David Jenkins, he of the TBS sci-fi comedy People of Earth — but Waititi serves as executive producer, and stars as legendary and feared pirate Blackbeard. The series is very much in tune with Waititi’s comedic sensibilities, so this should tide over his fans before Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters this summer.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 14: Death on the Nile, Uncharted, Marry Me, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Does Death on the Nile guarantee continued success with Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot fixation? Rowan seems to think so, and so does this week’s returning guest Heath Lynch! Together, they will discuss Death on the Nile, Uncharted (desperately vying for the title of BEST VIDEO GAME MOVIE), Marry Me (one of the most paint-by-numbers romcoms you will see in the 21st century), and Netflix’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Plus, their top five straight-to-streaming films, and more of what they’ve been watching lately. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

With Romance and Music, “Cyrano” is Optimistically Transformative (Review)

I love Urban Dictionary. Aside from including fantastically inappropriate terms that would never make it into the actual dictionary, there are words made into verbs and adjectives for no conceivable reason. One of those words is ‘Cyrano,’ for which the top definition is:

“...a situation when a nerdy guy helps a handsome guy date the girl that he loves by telling him what to say and what to do.”

The adjoining example (for how to use the word) is:

“Our boss asked us to meet him here and he is not here yet, he just tried to put us together, he cyrano’d us. Let’s make him win, kiss me.”

After my inevitable Urban Dictionary rabbit hole, I was able to laugh at the total absurdity of the word “Cyrano” being used in that context. I would be willing to bet money that no one has ever used the word like that in the entire history of the world — and how would we know? Let’s just say that I win.

Jokes aside, the definition is the bare basics of the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, a real-life poet whose life was dramatized by Edmond Rostand in 1897. The play was subsequently adapted into a musical in 2018 by Erica Schmidt, which led to the creation of the movie musical starring Peter Dinklage.

The Urban Dictionary definition is surprisingly accurate. Commonly taunted soldier Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) is in love with his childhood friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett), and uses the man that Roxanne loves, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) to communicate his own love with her through letters. Christian himself is not very romantic, and seeks Cyrano’s help, and as events become more complicated, Cyrano must decide whether to reveal his own feelings for Roxanne.

“Family Squares” Confronts the Reality of Virtual Living (Review)

At this point, it’s a cliché to say that COVID-19 has impacted our lives in ways we never thought possible two years ago. Now, it’s the new normal, and Family Squares proves it.

Written and directed by Stephanie Laing (director of HBO Max’s Made for Love), Family Squares is set almost entirely over various Zoom and FaceTime calls, chronicling a family’s process of grief and acceptance after their nearest and dearest, Grandma Mabel (June Squibb) passes away live on a video call, leaving behind a series of clues that could reveal one of the family members is not who they claim to be.

The main selling point here is the cast — the Zoom-oriented premise means that barely any of the actors have to film together, and seemingly anyone is fair game. Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Judy Greer (13 Going on 30), Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods), Scott MacArthur (The Mick), Ann Dowd (Mass) and Henry Winkler (Happy Days) are among the family members, with Sam Richardson (currently starring in Apple TV+’s The Afterparty) appearing as Grandma Mabel’s attorney. It’s one of the best non-murder mystery casts I’ve seen in a while, and it may not have been possible had this been filmed anywhere but virtually.

Review: Scarily Effective “The Cursed” Brings Back Werewolf Horror

Writer/director Sean Ellis’s werewolf movie The Cursed, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival under the (far superior) title Eight for Silver, begins rather unassumingly for a period horror movie: we’re thrown into the trenches of the First World War, as a cloud of mustard gas descends upon a crowd of French troops. One of the soldiers is taken to a field hospital where his wounds are attended to, and a bullet is pulled from his chest curiously not of German make or model.

We’re left to puzzle this out-of-context question as we’re taken back twenty-five years to rural France, as the property of land baron Seamus Laurent (Alistair Petrie) is occupied by a non-threatening Romani clan who purports to have a claim to the land as well. Laurent mercilessly slaughters them, unknowingly unleashing a curse on his family and their village.

Review: Violent, Gory and Exciting “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is a Legacy Sequel Done Right

Modern horror’s oldest franchise is back, and this time it falls victim to what is rapidly becoming a progressive problem in long-running horror series — it copies another franchise’s story approach. This seems like a bad omen, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre somehow defies all odds and makes it work.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Forgoing decent set-up or too much explanation, Texas Chainsaw Massacre really goes for it. Our main characters, and future corpses, are moneymaker Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) and her partner Dante (Jacob Latimore). They travel to a small Texas town on a business trip, ignoring all omens of doom along the way, and find only violence and blood waiting for them in the form of unhinged cannibal Leatherface (Mark Burnham).

Review: “Uncharted” Fails to Break the Video Game Movie Curse

At a certain point, it feels like if you’ve seen one action movie, you’ve seen ’em all. Occasionally, there are exceptions that give me hope for the action genre, and prove that the market is still alive for original material. Uncharted, adapted from the PlayStation video game series, is unfortunately not one of those.

It’s not for a lack of trying. There are some decent enough set pieces, and the action is well-shot by director Reuben Fleischer (Zombieland, Venom), but there’s just not enough that I haven’t seen before to make me invested.

Tom Holland plays Nate Drake, a fortune hunter (and future adventurer) who is recruited by Victor “Sully” Sullivan — played by a miscast Mark Wahlberg — to track down the lost treasure of the Magellan expedition. They are racing against Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), so their mission does have a ticking clock. It’s just a shame that the stakes are virtually nonexistent.

Review: “Death on the Nile” Continues Branagh’s Streak

The ending of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express had one of the most obvious and needy set-ups for a sequel that I’ve ever seen. After solving the titular crime, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) travels to Egypt for, and it becomes increasingly apparent that another mystery will soon be on his hands.

Five years (and a whole host of COVID-related delays) later, in 2022’s first murder mystery set on a boat in an exotic location (I have a sneaking suspicion the sequel to Knives Out will eclipse Death on the Nile this fall), Poirot is back, and it turns out the case from the end of Murder was just, shall we say, a red herring. The real case comes about two months later, when Poirot is invited to a Nile cruise on the honeymoon of a wealthy heiress (Gal Gadot) and her husband (Armie Hammer). Little do they know that soon enough, murder will strike again!

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 12: Moonfall, The Worst Person in the World, The Fallout

Is Moonfall any good? Roland Emmerich’s recent track record may say otherwise, but Foster Harlfinger is here to help give the definitive Lenient Critic review and rating! Foster and Rowan also discuss The Worst Person in the World, a strong contender for Best International Feature Film, and The Fallout, an under-the-radar streaming original about tragedy and emotional trauma. Plus, their top five alliteratively-titled films, and more of the films they’ve been watching.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

2022 Oscar Nominations Breakdown

Note from 3/29: The Academy Awards have now come and gone, and many of the following predictions are embarrassingly wrong. Please direct all ridicule to the comments. Now on to the original article!

The time is upon us again! Film Twitter has been engaged in some civil (and some uncouth) discourse throughout the day, as the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards were announced today!

The ceremony is being held later than usual this year so as to avoid attention conflicts with the Olympics, which end February 20. The Oscars ceremony will be held March 27, which will make it one of the latest Oscars shows (behind last year’s, held April 25). I will be watching live, but we have a little under two months before the actual show — so let’s make our predictions now, shall we! In this article, I’ll also discuss what I believe should have been nominated that wasn’t (and vice versa), with some commentary in between!

Review: “Moonfall” Misses Every Mark

Let's all be honest here…was this anything less than we expected?

Moonfall is the latest from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, and if his recent track record was any indication, we were in for a wild ride. Maybe not a fun ride, or a rewarding ride, but a crazy one nonetheless.

John Bradley (Game of Thrones) stars as K.C. Houseman, a conspiracy theorist who discovers that the moon is slowly edging out of its orbit, bound for a collision course with planet Earth. Former NASA astronauts Jo Fowler (Halle Berry) and Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) team up with Houseman to figure out exactly what is wrong with the moon as disasters on Earth get worse and worse (and more Emmerich-friendly).

Review: “The Worst Person in the World” Examines Life, Love and Everything Else

Occasionally a film comes along that is so simple in its premise, yet so intelligent in its execution that it manages to stand by itself in the pantheon of genre films. The Worst Person in the World, a Norwegian film directed by Joachim Trier, is one of those movies that has broken through and made itself notable among the countless romantic comedy-dramas out there.

Divided into twelve chapters (bookended by a prologue and an epilogue), Worst Person follows Julie (Renate Reinsve), a medical student-turned-writer who is finding her own way in the complex world of relationships, conflicting feelings, and the brutality of the real world. It’s more a series of interconnected vignettes, further punctuated by the use of chapter titles, showing us what may be the most important four years of Julie’s life.

I’ll just say it right out of the gate — if I had seen this last year, my rankings for 2021 would definitely be different. Reinsve is giving one of the year’s best performances, and the film is genius in its depiction of the feeling of being in love, side-by-side with the practicality of reality, which can sometimes be unfortunate and disappointing.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 10: The Most Anticipated in Film and Television of 2022

2022 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years EVER for film and television. Alice-Ginevra Micheli is here to discuss with Rowan what we’re looking forward to this year! 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

A Selection of Sundance Film Festival 2022 Reviews

With Omicron rapidly spreading this January, Robert Redford’s historic Sundance Film Festival once again had virtual screenings of new (and mostly never-before-seen) independent films. This was the first opportunity I had to attend a film festival, so I definitely jumped at the chance and ended up seeing six films, solely on the basis of basic interest.

Some films were shown that ended up generating a lot of buzz, including After Yang, Cha Cha Real Smooth and Emily the Criminal, but unfortunately those showings were sold out before I had the chance to buy tickets. I’m sure they will eventually get distributions and I will be able to review them fully! Until then, here are a selection of my reviews from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 9: Scream, Brazen, The King’s Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth

See, January isn’t all bad! Bernard Ozarowski, founder of The Invention of Dreams and co-host of Final Review, joins Rowan to discuss Scream, the latest in one of the best horror franchises; Brazen, a paint-by-numbers new Netflix film; The King’s Daughter, a movie filmed 8 (eight!!!) years ago; and, finally, The Tragedy of Macbeth, the Coen Brother movie that you definitely know the plot of! They’ll also preview some upcoming releases, chat major horror franchises, and talk about what they’ve been watching in the last month. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

Review: “Flee” is an Extremely Unique Refugee Doc

“I’m glad you’re finally ready to tell this story.”

The first semester of my time at college, I took a film history course about Experimental Documentaries, and one of the takeaways from that class is that documentaries can be presented in any form. They are art, like any other film, and unorthodox documentaries can be as effective, if not even more impactful, than traditional documentaries.

Flee is one of the most unique documentaries I’ve ever seen. Beautifully animated using a fresh variety of styles, it is the story of Amin Nawabi, a man who had to leave his home in Afghanistan, and charts his path to eventual safety in Denmark. Scenes of Nawabi telling his story are intercut with vivid and surreal pictures of his home, including live-action footage of the world events happening at the time. It paints a complete picture, all while focusing on what Nawabi and his family endured.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 8: The Best Film and Television of 2021

2021 was a big year, and a wide span of releases requires more than one cinephile. Foster Harlfinger and Chris Bakker join Rowan this week to break down their favorite film and TV (and the best performances) of last year!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

“Scream” Review: Ghostface is back. Hope all is well. 🙂

Amidst a whole host of “legacy sequels,” the horror genre is catching up and, as usual, it’s subverting any trope it can find. The latest sequel-that’s-not-really-a-sequel is Scream — yes, with the same title as the first film — as the Ghostface Killer returns to Woodsboro once again for another murder spree. The final murder spree, perhaps? With the inevitable success of 2022’s Scream, not bloody likely.

Series mainstays Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette are back in action for Scream, but unlike the previous four films, they’re not the focal points. Melissa Barrera takes the reins as our “final girl,” Sam Carpenter, who returns to Woodsboro with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) after her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) is attacked and gravely wounded. True to form, a new killer has donned the by-now trademarked Ghostface mask and black robes, and seems to be targeting victims connected to the original massacre, depicted in the original 1996 Scream.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 7: The 355, C’mon C’mon

And, thus, we have entered January, the first of the winter months that sees a string of likely-disappointing film releases. The first is The 355, a movie that has been pushed back multiple times, and for good reason. Then, we try to catch up on missed 2021 releases with C’mon C’mon, a philosophically-minded film from Mike Mills that is in black and white for some reason. Heath Lynch is Rowan’s guest this week, bringing a new perspective to the week’s films, as well as some of the best spy movies out there and a certain horror franchise which has a much-anticipated installment coming up.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!

Review: “The 355” Keeps the Bar Low for 2022

January is a well-known “dump month” for movies that studios just aren’t that confident in. Sometimes, that can work to a film’s advantage (like the upcoming Scream, which has been getting plenty of positive buzz and with little to no solid box office competition), but for every one of those there’s The 355, a big-budget studio flick destined to fail.

From the producer of the (somewhat) critically-acclaimed X-Men franchise and the director of the (definitely not) critically-acclaimed Dark Phoenix, Simon Kinberg, The 355 features a rather stellar cast in Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger and Sebastian Stan, and still somehow manages to be boring and uninteresting.

Expanding the Universe is Moving to Letterboxd!

As another year comes to a close, I find myself extremely satisfied with 2021 (aside from, you know, the COVID-sized elephant in the room). The Lenient Critic was revived, and quite effectively, with a number of new segments and a podcast now in its roster! But you know me, with hardly time to catch a break, I’ve been hard at work watching as many films and series as I could.

However, with the new year comes a change: the monthly Expanding the Universe segments will be moving to Letterboxd, and each review for every film and miniseries I see will be published there. As for episodic series, those will be reviewed on the blog (for the most part) as separate articles.

As a farewell to the regularly published article, here are some highlights of new releases I watched in December 2021. For a full list, see my Letterboxd diary, and from now on, my reviews will be published as Letterboxd reviews.

The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

Viewed from: November 25-December 2

Read and/or listen to my full review here.

Dune (2021)

Rewatched on: December 3

Read my full review here.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021)

Viewed on: December 4

Read my full review here and listen to the podcast review here.

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Viewed on: December 8

Listen to the podcast review here.

West Side Story (2021)

Viewed on: December 9

Read my full review here and listen to the podcast review here.

Don’t Look Up (2021)

Viewed on: December 10

Read my full review here and listen to the podcast review here.

Encounter (2021)

Viewed on: December 11

Listen to the podcast review as well as some spoiler thoughts here.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Viewed on: December 16/18

Read my full review here and listen to the podcast review here.

The King’s Man (2021)

Viewed on: December 21

Read my full review here.

Matrix: Resurrections (2021)

Viewed on: December 22

Read my full review here and listen to the podcast review here.

Hawkeye (2021)

Viewed on: November 24-December 22

Listen to the podcast review here.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Viewed on: December 26

Listen to the podcast review here.

The Lenient Critic Podcast Episode 6: The Matrix Resurrections, Nightmare Alley, Hawkeye, Being the Ricardos

 

There’s a lot of pressure on this week’s films for a variety of reasons. We have legacy sequel The Matrix Resurrections, intending to resurrect the entire franchise; Guillermo del Toro’s new film Nightmare Alley, his first since 2017; a Disney+ series about the only Avenger who had not yet received a solo project; and Being the Ricardos, a fictional film covering a true event from one of the greatest living screenwriters. Rowan is once again joined by his father to break down these three films and one series, and preview some that we will see (which some have already seen!) in the coming weeks!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts!