Is There Ever Enough Room for a ‘Lurker’?

September 12, 2025

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This is How you Lurker (CREDIT: Mubi)

Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Wale Onayemi, Daniel Zolghadri, Sunny Suljic

Director: Alex Russell

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: August 22, 2025 (Theaters)

Lurker is a grainy warning about allowing someone into your inner circle with minimal vetting, as pop star Oliver (Archie Madekwe) hires clothing store employee Matty Morning (Théodore Pellerin) as his personal documentarian after a seemingly chance encounter. Soon enough, Matty is trying to control Oliver’s entire artistic direction, and pity anyone who stands in his way. That insinuation is definitely something to be on the lookout for if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, but I want to talk about Oliver’s living situation, i.e., a modern mansion that he shares with the tightest members of his entourage.

It’s quite the platonic fantasy, isn’t it? I know I wasn’t the only one who thought it would be the ultimate dream to live together in a big house with my closest buds in my twenties. And now it’s a reality for plenty of people – have you seen those influencer houses? But they could really use some adult supervision. I’m not against living arrangements that go beyond the traditional setup of parents and kids; if you’ve got the space, extra residents are a solid way to split the costs and share the memories. But instead of a surplus of young adults, I’d recommend something more multigenerational, and the lessons of Lurker only serve to underscore that.

Grade: 5 DV Camcorders out of 7 DSLRs

I’m Not Afraid to Say That I Have Some Thoughts About ‘AfrAId’

September 6, 2024

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To Be AfrAID, or to be very AfrAId? (CREDIT: Glen Wilson/Columbia Pictures)

Starring: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, Ashley Romans, Wyatt Lindner, Isaac Bae, Bennett Curran, Greg Hill, Riki Lindhome, Todd Waring

Director: Chris Weitz

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 30, 2024 (Theaters)

I ain’t afraid of no A.I. And AfrAId didn’t convince me that I should be! First of all, it’s just a movie, so we should really just relax. Second of all, it takes a much-less apocalyptic approach than it could have. Whereas horror movie monsters are typically defeated or merely just escaped from by their story’s end, in AfrAID, AIA the A.I. ultimately brokers a compromise with its human keepers. In that way, it offers a similarly uneasy (but possibly hopeful) solution as that of The Babadook. So yeah, that’s something different than what we usually get from this genre. If that sounds kind of enticing to you, then I would go ahead and encourage you to check out AfrAId!

Grade: A.I. Don’t Love You, But A.I. Do Tolerate You

‘Bottoms’ is a Queer, Bloody, and Fantastical Journey Through High School

August 24, 2023

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Bottoms on top? (CREDIT: ORION Pictures)

Starring: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Dagmara Domińczyk, Marshawn Lynch, Ruby Cruz

Director: Emma Seligman

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: R for A Fair Bit of Sexuality and Some Absurd Violence

Release Date: August 25, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: There’s no way around it: PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are the outcasts of all outcasts at Huntington High School. You might call them bottoms even. (The title of their movie certainly does.) They’re both gay, but that’s not the problem. Their classmates are pretty enlightened when it comes to sexual orientation, but they’re a little less so when it comes to people who are untalented and don’t care much about football. So PJ and Josie try to reverse their fortunes by starting a fight club/self-defense class/feminine support group as a front to hook up with the hottest girls in school. Will their secret be found out? Or will everyone else be more focused on the looming big game with the rival school?

What Made an Impression?: The Point is Beside the Point: The queerness that’s central to Bottoms‘ premise is always front and center, but it’s not the most fundamental aspect. At its core, this is a story about acceptance. Josie and PJ could just as easily be scheming on a plot to land some platonic friends, and you would hardly have to change any aspect of the script to make that happen. That’s a win for both representation and storytelling. This is a movie that is perfectly comfortable being matter-of-fact and upfront about its identity and then simply moving on to the rest of the good stuff.
Queer in Other Ways: Of course, there’s another definition of “queer” besides the LGBTQ+ sense. It’s a synonym for “weird” and “bizarre,” or even “outlandish.” And let’s be clear: Bottoms is strange-queer even more than it is gay-queer. If you get a bunch of funny people together, of course things are going to be off-kilter. But if you were expecting a somewhat realistic depiction of the high school experience, then you need to reset your expectations ASAP. This is a romp that is campy, gratuitous, and absurd aplenty. Every character feels like a facsimile of a human being, rather than an actual person, and the rules of life are accordingly askew.
Seriously, I Don’t Know What the Hell I Just Watched: I’m hesitant to recommend Bottoms with my full soul, because while I admire its bravado, I could never quite figure out its base reality. Random and outlandish behavior is the status quo, so I found myself thinking “OMG WTF” much more often than I was cracking up. That’s a better state of mind than nothing at all, but not as pleasurable as possible. If you want to get kooky, Bottoms has plenty of kooky. And maybe it’s just best not to ask why.

Bottoms is Recommended If You Like: Heathers, Assassination Nation, MacGruber, Cocaine Bear, The fight scenes from Anchorman and Anchorman 2

Grade: 3 out of 5 Golden Ferrets