When ‘The Wedding Banquet’ Lasted ‘Until Dawn’

April 29, 2025

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TFW it’s April at the movies (CREDIT: Sony Pictures/Screenshot; BleeckerStreet/ShivHansPictures)

The Wedding Banquet (2025)

Starring: Han Gi-Chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-jung

Director: Andrew Ahn

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

Until Dawn

Starring: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, Belmont Cameli, Maia Mitchell, Peter Stormare

Director: David F. Sandberg

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 25, 2025 (Theaters)

Let me be absolutely clear about one thing: I would NOT want The Wedding Banquet to last Until Dawn.

Fortunately, these are two separate movies that I’m talking about right now. And further fortunately, you don’t have to attend a matrimonial event to watch The Wedding Banquet, nor do you have to stay up all night to watch Until Dawn. (Although actually a wedding-themed movie marathon during my own nuptials sounds like a pretty grand idea. I’ll have to store that away for future reference, thank you.)

Anyway, to quickly sum up my most essential takeaways from this pair of flicks: The Wedding Banquet lovingly underscores the value of interlocking the intricacies of friends, family, and lovers no matter how queer you are, while Until Dawn is quite possibly the most exciting sandbox Peter Stormare has ever been given to play around in (give or take a Gorb).

Grades:
The Wedding Banquet: 333 Grandmas out of 444 Ruses
Until Dawn: It Was a Darky and Occcasionally Stormare Night

‘The Accountant 2’ Review: Keep It in the Family

April 24, 2025

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Accounting for the Accountant (and His Brother) (CREDIT: Amazon MGM Studios © Amazon Content Services LLC)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, J.K. Simmons, Robert Morgan, Grant Harvey, Andrew Howard

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Running Time: 132 Minutes

Rating: R for Big Guns and Joint Twisting

Release Date: April 25, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Autistic accountant Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) thought he could spend his time hacking the algorithm at a speed dating event, but it turns out that his unique talents are required by the Treasury Department once again. Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is a little wary about working with him, considering his extra-legal methods of enforcement. But it does seem like he’s the only one who can connect the dots between a mysterious woman (Daniella Pineda) and an immigrant couple whose son has been missing for years. Meanwhile, Christian calls up his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for some added muscle and to inject some odd couple levity into the proceedings.

What Made an Impression?: My History with The Accountant: Longtime readers of my reviews are probably already familiar with my deeply held belief that you don’t need to catch the original before you see any of the sequels. So I’m not ashamed to admit that I have not seen the first Accountant. But I am a little surprised to report that I felt a little lost without that background info. While The Accountant 2 offers a pretty self-contained story, more character-defining context would have been welcomed had it been offered.
Does It Make Perfect Sense or Am I Perfectly Confused?: The investigation mostly revolves around Pineda’s character, who basically became a superhuman assassin after suffering a traumatic brain injury. Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s a spoiler or part of the premise. Anyway, she’s somehow linked to a wider conspiracy involving kidnapping and human trafficking. It’s a criminal labyrinth that I was able to follow along with until the very end, when I found myself wondering, “Wait a minute, what’s the story here?” Each individual scene justifies and explains itself well enough, but the strings between them feel pretty loose. (Unless you’re Christian Wolff, perhaps?)
Just Two Dudes: Anyway, I’m not sure I really want to understand the parts of The Accountant 2 that left me squinty-eyed. By the climax, it mostly devolves into a macho burst of relentless artillery that I really didn’t care for, but along the way, Affleck and Bernthal’s oil-and-water fraternal chemistry makes for a decent hang. I understand why these two get on each other’s nerves, and I’d much rather watch them get up to trouble in a honky-tonk bar rather than save the country or whatever.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Acquired Savants

‘The Legend of Ochi’ Unfolds with Big-Eyed Wonder

April 23, 2025

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Which one’s the Ochi and which one’s the Human? (CREDIT: A24)

Starring: Helena Zengel, Willem Dafoe, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson

Director: Isaiah Saxon

Running Time: 96 Minutes11

Rating: PG for Weird Parental Energy and Some Cuts, Scrapes, and Bruises

Release Date: April 18, 2025 (Limited Theaters)/April 25, 2025 (Expands Wide)

What’s It About?: On a secluded island village in the Black Sea, a girl named Yuri (Helena Zengel) lives under the iron will of her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe). Along with Yuri’s older adoptive brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard) and the rest of Maxim’s army of young boys, their lives are almost entirely dedicated to hunting a supposedly monstrous species of orange-furred, blue-faced primates known as ochi. But Yuri is more than a little bit skeptical of this arrangement. Sure enough, she soon forges a deep connection with an adorable baby ochi, and they then commence on a journey back home that will undoubtedly reveal the truth about the ochi and Yuri’s family history.

What Made an Impression?: It’s Not Easy Being…: It’s not just the ochi’s faces that are blue. Their eyes are deep and icy as well, as are Yuri’s. (Helena Zengel is pretty much an ochi in human form.) There’s also an unforgettable blue caterpillar. I was certainly feeling blue by the end of it (in the Miles Davis Kind of sense). Hopefully you will as well.
Throwback Vibes: Chances are pretty high that The Legend of Ochi will have you asking, “Is it the 80s again?” Specifically the puppetry-based creature features that dominated the decade like E.T., The NeverEnding Story, and Labyrinth. Ochi is just as painstaking and otherworldly as all of those with its own mix of puppets, animatronics, and computer animation. The plot is fairly standard-issue, but the level of craft is off the charts.
Communication Studies: Yuri eventually reunites with her long-lost mother Dasha (Emily Watson), who is basically the polar opposite of her estranged husband, insofar as she’s dedicated her years to studying the singular wonders of the ochi. Her most powerful insight is that they talk not with words, but with sensation. Accordingly, I’m finding it a little lacking to verbalize my reaction to this movie. So maybe it’ll be better if I just conclude with a list of emotions that I felt while watching: awe, curiosity, compassion, hope, gratefulness, tingles, frustration, triumph, relief.

The Legend of Ochi is Recommended If You Like: Throwbacks that aren’t too beholden to their forerunners

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Pigtails

Is ‘Sacramento’ a Treat?

April 18, 2025

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The Sacramento boys (CREDIT: Vertical)

Starring: Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Maya Erskine, Kristen Stewart, AJ Mendez, Iman Karram, Rosalind Chao

Director: Michael Angarano

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

Whenever I think about the capital of California, my mind inevitably goes to that episode of Full House when Joey is a substitute teacher for Michelle’s class, and during a geography lesson, he says, “starts with Sac and ends with ramento.” So now you know where my head was at while I was watching a movie called Sacramento directed by Michael Angarano and also starring Angarano and other people now in their 30s who have been entertaining us since they were kids.

So now the question of course is: would I ever like to visit Sacramento? It’s an especially pressing matter, considering that the hook of this movie is that Angarano plays a guy who tricks an old friend (Michael Cera) into a road trip to Sac-Town. He says he’s going there to spread his dad’s ashes, but really he’s working up the courage to visit an old hookup (played by Angarano’s real-life wife Maya Erskine) for the first time since she gave birth to their kid. As far as I can tell from the evidence provided, there’s nothing particularly flashy about the titular city, especially compared to its in-state competition. But it does appear to provide decent space for chillaxing and coming to grips with your hangups, so this was a worthwhile trip in that regard.

Grade: 3 Babies out of 5 Daddies

‘Sinners’ is a Hell of a Time at the Movies

April 16, 2025

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Sinners! (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Delroy Lindo, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, Yao, Lola Kirke, Helena Hu, Peter Dreimanis, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, David Maldonado, Buddy Guy

Director: Ryan Coogler

Running Time: 137 Minutes

Rating: R for Guns, Nightlife Vices, and Supernatural Mayhem

Release Date: April 18, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: The boys are back in town! Those boys in question are twin brothers Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (also Jordan), while the town is in rural 1930s Mississippi. They were previously sojourning in Chicago, but now they’ve returned with millions in hand (quite possibly attained through criminal pursuits) and plans to open the hoppingest juke joint in town. Joining them in this venture are their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a budding blues guitarist virtuoso; Smoke’s old flame Annie (Wunmi Mosaku); Stack’s old flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld); and seemingly everyone else they grew up with. Their dream quickly comes together, but lurking just outside are a few party crashers with a thirst for blood who are here to ensure that opening night will be even more unforgettable than anybody bargained for.

What Made an Impression?: Get Yourself Excited: A quick note before I really dig into the meat of this review: you all should know that I say this movie’s title with the same cadence that Superintendent Mario Chalmers refers to Principal Seymour Skinner on The Simpsons. (It’s also how I say the last name of a certain Italian tennis player.) That didn’t really affect my enjoyment one way or the other, but I do like to be transparent.
The Bloodiest Good Time: I’ll just go right ahead and get this off my chest: Sinners might just be my favorite vampire movie of all time! That’s not a huge huge surprise, as I’m not a major aficionado of Dracula and the like, so the bar wasn’t particularly high. But there are still plenty of fine examples that now must give up the throne. Perhaps you’re surprised to hear this, considering that the trailers play a little coy with the premise’s true nature. But that patient approach in which writer-director Ryan Coogler waits a little while to show off his full hand is a big reason why it’s so successful.
A Sense of Time and Place: Sinners nails every temptation that’s so tantalizingly cool about its era, but in a way that also makes you realize that America is and also has been like this. The outfits and diction might change, but working folks and the discriminated classes have always been trying to scheme and break free and find their families. There’s a lot more to what makes Sinners cook than that, but that’s a good starting point to let you know why it’s so exhilarating.
Play It Again: There’s a magnificent set piece about halfway through in which Sammie’s singing and strumming is so magical that it summons the spirits of multi-genre past and future musicians into the party. (That power is a big reason why those supernatural baddies have found their way here.) Speaking of music, the rest of the film is soundtracked by frequent Coogler collaborator Ludwig Göransson, who blends an intoxicating stew that both honors and transcends its Delta trappings.
It’s a Beaut!: Sinners‘ cinematographer is Autumn Durald Arkapaw, a name I’m not too familiar with, although she did shoot the second Black Panther and a few other flicks I’ve seen. But man oh man, she outdid herself here. Every frame just pops off the screen and irons itself into your brainstem. I’m sure costume designer Ruth E. Carter (another Coogler regular) appreciated the fine lens work, since it made it undeniably clear how her duds were in no way duds.
Get Comfy: Don’t bolt out of your seat after the credits start rolling, because there’s more to come! If Marvel blockbusters have you feeling cynical about mid-credits and post-credits scenes, well, forget all that, because Sinners offers a couple of codas that deliver a few new flavors while deepening everything that it’s all about.

Sinners is Recommended If You Like: Only Lovers Left Alive, the American blues songbook, BlacKkKlansman

Grade: 5 out of 5 Smokestacks

‘The Shrouds’ Review: What Happens When David Cronenberg Takes Us Six Feet Under

April 15, 2025

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Til death do they part? (CREDIT: Sideshow and Janus Films)

Starring: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt

Director: David Cronenberg

Running Time: 119 Minutes

Rating: R for Sex and Nudity in Both the Here and Now and the Beyond, and a Little Bit of Violence

Release Date: April 18, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Have you ever wanted to peek at your dead loved ones while they’re resting underground? Well, if you lived in the world of The Shrouds, you’d be in luck! That’s because this is a movie about a businessman named Karsh Relikh (Vincent Cassel) who has invented GraveTech, which allows people to keep an eye on the decaying corpses of their dearly departed. This mission is pretty personal for him, considering his desire to be buried alongside his late wife Becca (Diane Kruger) following her untimely death from cancer. But his focus on the hereafter might be keeping him blind to the strange developments on this earthly plane, as he finds himself getting dangerously closer to Becca’s sister Terry (also Kruger) while his brother-in-law Maury (Guy Pearce) rants and raves about some sort of conspiracy.

What Made an Impression?: The Cronenberg of It All: The Shrouds is more psychological horror than body horror, or rather, I should say, that ratio leans more psychological than usual by David Cronenberg Standards. There’s definitely plenty of corporeal shenanigans, though, particularly when Karsh keeps seeing a vision of a gradually more and more surgically reduced Becca.
Guy Pearces a Bullseye: Maury is one of those characters that makes you go, “Should we just ignore this guy, or should we instead be listening very closely to every single thing that he says?” Pearce understands the assignment and is compellingly confusing.
Why, Why, Why?: Is GraveTech a good idea? Cronenberg certainly doesn’t seem to be endorsing it. And based on what we can glean from Karsh’s experience, I can’t say I recommend it. But maybe there’s a way to handle this breakthrough more sensitively? I don’t think it has to make your day-to-day so woozy and surreal. We all grieve in our own ways.
Losing the Plot: The action is driven by an act of vandalism at the GraveTech graves and an attempt to locate the guilty parties. But I got the feeling that Karsh and by extension Cronenberg weren’t really all that interested in finding the answer to that question. Instead, The Shrouds is much more concerned about the director’s continued interest in reflecting upon what happens when we give our bodies and minds over to emerging technologies.
It’s Complicated: In conclusion, if you hear the hook of GraveTech and wonder, “How will this make everyone’s relationships messier?”, then The Shrouds has been designed to cater to you.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Corpses

‘The Luckiest Man in America’ Spreads His Winnings to All of Us

April 14, 2025

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The Face of Luck (CREDIT: IFC Films)

Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, David Straithairn, Brian Geraghty, Patti Harrison, Maisie Williams, Shamier Anderson, Haley Bennett, Damian Young, Lilli Kay, James Wolk, Shaunette Renée Wilson, David Rysdahl, Ricky Russert, Johnny Knoxville

Director: Samir Oliveros

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 4, 2025 (Theaters)

Are ya feeling lucky? Well if you’re watching The Luckiest Man in America, you should be! It tells the story of Michael Larson, the air conditioner repairman and ice cream truck driver who broke the bank when he cracked the pattern on the seemingly random game show Press Your Luck in 1984. In the process, he earned what was at the time the highest single-day winning total on a game show. He’s played by Paul Walter Hauser, who was seemingly made in a lab to bring this sort of huckster to life. Walton Goggins is also pretty damn unforgettable as PYL host Peter Tomarken. The whole cast is unbelievably stacked, in fact. (Even a certain jackass shows up at one point.) By the time the credits roll, you’ll be thinking, “I’m the luckiest person in the movie theater!”

Grade: Absolutely NO Whammies!

It’s Time to Accept a Message Request From ‘Drop’

April 10, 2025

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They certainly dropped Drop like it’s hot (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan Spring, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson

Director: Christopher Landon

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Chekhov’s Poison (and Gun and Knife) and Flashbacks of Abuse

Release Date: April 11, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Widowed mother Violet (Meghann Fahy) is finally ready to start dating again a few years after the dissolution of her abusive marriage. So she calls up her sister Jen (Violett Beane) to babysit her 5-year-old son Toby (Jacob Robinson) so that she can finally meet up with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), the hunky, sensitive photographer that she’s been messaging with. They settle in for dinner at a fancy high-rise spot, and the vibes are totally right… until someone starts anonymously sending Violet messages demanding that she kill Henry if she doesn’t want her son to die instead. As she desperately seeks an escape from this entrapment, she starts playing detective to identify the criminal puppetmaster: could it be the seemingly sweet bartender (Gabrielle Ryan Spring), the older gentleman getting back out there on a blind date (Reed Diamond), the totally extra waiter (Jeffery Self), the skeevy piano player (Ed Weeks), the rando she keeps bumping into (Travis Nelson), or maybe even one of the teenagers on a post-prom excursion?

What Made an Impression?: It’s So Much Fun Watching Someone in Danger!: Drop is the sort of propulsive, dread-inducing thriller that never lets up long enough for you to get hung up on how much it strains credulity. Although, now that I’ve watched it and I’m writing my review, I’m more than happy to raise some questions! Most pressingly, does the AirDrop feature really allow you to be this intrusive into someone who’s not in your contacts? I’ve never been an iPhone user, although to be fair to Drop, Violet’s tormentor is actually using an AirDrop stand-in called “DigiDrop.” I could go on to nitpick even further, but here’s the thing: I didn’t care about any of that! This movie establishes its rules of play and never cheats, so its twists and zooms feel earned, no matter how ridiculous they may be rendered upon forensic examination.
Escaping the Grip of the Past: As Violet constantly flits around and makes odd requests to the waitstaff, Henry can’t help but assume that she really isn’t quite yet in the right frame of mind for romance. He suggests that they try this another time, but since she really needs him to say, she tries the gambit of explaining that she’s been distracted because her abusive ex still has her in her grip. It may not be the immediate reason that her mind is elsewhere, but it’s not like it’s not true. What follows is a genuine, thoughtful conversation about how abuse warps our sense of reality. I wasn’t expecting Drop to be so astutely therapeutic, but I certainly appreciate it. It all adds up to a simple trick for effective storytelling: clearly establish your main characters’ backstories, and then treat their psychology with respect.

Drop is Recommended If You Like: Red Eye probably (I’ve never seen it in its entirety, but based on chatter I’ve heard, the comparison fits), Hitchcock thrillers about protagonists who suddenly find themselves in over their heads (Rear Window, North by Northwest, etc.), The Invisible Man

Grade: 4 out of 5 Threats

‘One to One: John & Yoko’ Captures a Moment

April 9, 2025

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Documentary for the Benefit of John & Yoko (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)

Starring: John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Directors: Kevin MacDonald and Sam Rice-Edwards

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: R for Graphic Non-Sexual Nudity and Some Drug Use

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (IMAX Theaters)

What’s It About?: In August 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed the “One to One” concert at the world-famous Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was a benefit show for the Willowbrook institution for children with intellectual disabilities, which was notorious for its inhumane conditions. The documentary One to One: John & Yoko tracks the buildup to that show, while also painting a portrait of the couple’s stay in a Greenwich apartment, which they lived in for 18 months from 1971 to 1973. During that time, when they weren’t preparing for the show, the musical couple liked to stay in bed and watch a lot of TV, while also advocating for the freedom of activist John Sinclair, among other activities.

What Made an Impression?: A Reality-Altering Adventure: One to One does not unfold strictly linearly, both in terms of chronology and geometry. Instead, it bounces around from fragment to fragment, often with scratches of static to mark the transitions. In other words, it operates much like human memory, or at least my human memory. No worries if your mind is a little chaotic, though. If you’re someone who’s been alive in the modern world during any of the last several decades, I suspect that you’ll still be able to intuit directors Kevin MacDonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ style of mediation within mediation pretty naturally, even if doesn’t follow the typical syntax of documentary cinema language.
A Peek Inside: With its mix of archival TV clips and behind-the-scenes footage, One to One also aims to capture the fleeting essence of what it was like to live as John and Yoko during this era. Perhaps the mind-bending style sounds a little too niche or maybe even off-putting to you. But if you have any affection for these people, you’ll surely find yourself touched by the access and vulnerability. And thankfully it doesn’t feel invasive, but instead like a gift to the world of a little piece of their souls.

One to One: John & Yoko is Recommended If You Like: Experimental documentaries, Intimate documentaries, 1970s talk shows

Grade: 4 out of 5 Benefit Concerts

I Encountered ‘Snow White’ and ‘A Minecraft Movie’: What Comes Next?

April 8, 2025

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When it Snows, it blocks (CREDIT: Disney/Screenshot; Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Snow White

Starring: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, Andrew Burnap, Ansu Kabia, Patrick Page, Jeremy Swift, Tituss Burgess, Andrew Barth Feldman, Martin Klebba, Jason Kravits, George Salazar, Andy Grotelueschen

Director: Marc Webb

Running Time: 109 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: March 21, 2025 (Theaters)

A Minecraft Movie

Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Jared Hess

Director: Jared Hess

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: April 4, 2025 (Theaters)

A few days ago, I saw Snow White (the version where Rachel Zegler plays the Friend of Grumpy). Then the very next day, I saw A Minecraft Movie (the one released in 2025, in case you’re reading this in the future). And I couldn’t help but ask myself: would I like to live in either of these magical realms?

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