2024-03-09 22:43
There are people who devote their lives to predicting who will win at the Academy Awards. That’s not me. Here’s my completely unscientific but absolutely accurate list of who sho… Read More
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Movie reviews, news, movie trailers, film updates and random opinions on everything else.
2023-12-31 21:25
There were plenty of fantastic acting performances in 2023–certainly more than included on this list–but nonetheless, having watched hundreds of movies and thousands of performan… Read More
2023-12-18 05:31
Wow. For the first time in what feels like years, I had trouble reducing my list of favorite movies down to ten. Typically, I actually struggle to come up with a Top 10 I’m proud of&nd&hell…Read More
2022-12-23 23:23
I am a largely unemotional film critic. In college, one of my female friends asked me for relationship advice because I was “emotionally cold.” My wife may describe me as emotion… Read More
2022-05-15 23:02
The Amazon Prime series Bosch wrapped up last year, but most of the cast is back already for Bosch: Legacy, which airs on Freevee (formerly IMDb TV). Given that Bosch is one of the best cop… Read More
2022-02-13 05:31
Sure, everyone looks to the Academy Awards for the ultimate achievement in acting honors, but the in-crowd knows that FilmJabber tells it how it is. I normally publish this list right around… Read More
2022-01-24 05:49
Cirque du Soleil is back (in Washington), baby. After a
pandemic void and even a bankruptcy filing, the sensational circus act has
returned to Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA with Alegria, a sh… Read More
2021-12-27 22:42
Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, but mine is clearly the best.
2021 was a year of cautious rebound in the film world. It wasn’t at all normal, but several blockbusters that… Read More
2021-11-11 06:01
The Romanian Film Festival in Seattle kicks off Friday, and if you didn’t know there was such a thing as the Romanian Film Festival in Seattle, now you do. The festival spans nine days… Read More
2021-09-24 04:55
I don’t often review TV shows (I can’t even keep up with movies, so how could I possibly handle TV too?), but after Apple TV+ gave me early access to all 10 episodes of the Isaac… Read More
2021-06-25 09:29
One of the best, and also one of the most
overlooked, cop shows of the modern era comes to a close with another gripping
and immensely satisfying season.
Bosch, which wraps up after seven… Read More
2021-02-15 17:00
As a proud member of the Seattle Film Critics Society (I actually became president in 2020, an… interesting… year to become president of a film society), I’m pleased to s… Read More
2020-12-29 05:17
There was a pandemic this year. Maybe you noticed. Maybe you didn’t.
Needless to say, 2020 was a potentially revolutionary year for movies, with the sudden and forced shift to… Read More
2020-08-02 03:52
A new month means new movies on Netflix. Here are the 10 that caught my eye and are subsequently getting added to My List. Stat.
10. The Addams Family
Though I prefer Addams Family Val… Read More
2020-07-04 16:47
Sure, everyone is flocking to Disney+ to watch Hamilton,
but believe it or not, some people want to watch more than one thing in a
month. Here are 28 movies that have arrived on Netflix, Ama… Read More
2020-05-24 18:47
Even as some countries and states ease their restrictions on social distancing, and some individuals openly defy mandates to wear masks and stay away from people because they “can&rsqu&hell…Read More
2020-05-07 03:45
Though it veers into depression porn once or twice, I Know This Much is True, which debuts on HBO this Sunday, May 10, is an absorbing and superbly acted drama starring Mark Ruffalo and Mark… Read More
2020-04-29 20:02
Another month, another month in quarantine (if you live in a state governed by responsible individuals). And another month in quarantine likely means a lot of Netflix binge watching.
Here… Read More
2020-03-29 20:29
Another month, another part of the year beholden to the
whims of a methodical, unwavering virus. With theaters closed and many people
around the world all but literally trapped in their own… Read More
2020-03-23 03:43
You’re stuck at home, COVID-19 lurking somewhere in a neighbor’s house. Yes, you could watch that movie you love ever so much, or ignore the 112 films that have been on your My L… Read More
2020-03-08 20:35
With the recent re-release of The Hunt for Red October in a new Limited Edition Steelbook format—if
you already own the movie, you aren’t missing anything new, to be honest&mdash&hell…Read More
2020-01-12 22:04
2019 was a great year for movies—and for the actors within them. Rather than bore you with a long and unyielding introduction, here are the 20 best performances—regardless of g… Read More
2019-12-29 19:50
I wasn’t going to do a Best of the Decade piece… but then I changed my mind. Unlike many of my fellow movie critics, however, I didn’t spend all year preparing for this mo… Read More
2019-12-22 20:58
Wow, 2019 was a great year for movies. From massive spectacle (Avengers: Endgame) to a potential Oscar-nominated turn for Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems), to enthralling sci-fi fare such as the lo… Read More
2019-12-10 03:06
Sure, the Golden Globes were announced today, but who cares? The more important announcement came from the Seattle Film Critics Society in the form of their 2019 award nominations.
(I&rsq&hell…Read More
2019-10-05 17:25
“Now I have another reason to hate Christmas,” declares Kate, played by Phoebe Cates, in Gremlins, now 35 years old and available now in 4K, if seeing a bunch of stop-motion crea… Read More
2019-09-30 02:21
There’s a new Addams Family on the horizon–sadly it is, for some reason, an animated movie. Wouldn’t a limited live-action series on Netflix be better?
I digress… Read More
2019-09-18 03:40
The new, live-action Aladdin
recently flew onto home video, and with it came a re-release of the animated
classic, a stark reminder of just how much better the cartoon is in every way
and fo… Read More
2019-07-16 03:44
I met with filmmaker Riley Stearns when he was in town for the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and had a fantastic conversation—well, at least I think so, he may have told t… Read More
2019-07-10 03:51
Alexander Aja’s alligator/hurricane thriller Crawl seeks to take a bite out of theaters this weekend, so it seemed like a perfect time to look back at some of the best animal-centric h… Read More
2019-06-08 17:58
Warner Bros. has released the first four Batman movies on 4K for the first time (a 4-Film Collection arrives on September 17, 2019), which gave me a long overdue opportunity to revisit the h… Read More
2019-06-04 20:17
The director of Metal
Heart, Hugh O’Connor, has been an actor since age 9, and acted in both TV
and movies, but this is his first directorship.
He looks like one of Tolkien&rsquo&hell…Read More
2019-06-03 20:14
Grade: A
As a lover of animals, I chose to see documentaries at the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) such as Kifaru, about Sudan, the last northern white rhino, and The Wom… Read More
2019-06-02 17:32
Touted as a locked-room mystery á la Agatha Christie, I could
not resist watching The Invisible
Witness, murder mystery buff that I am.
The movie did not disappoint, but it did… Read More
2019-06-02 17:24
Rating: B
I am well-read in the field of natural history, so I was surprised that I had never heard of Anne Innis Dagg, giraffe specialist. And that is the point of The Woman Who Lo… Read More
2019-06-02 17:23
Rating: A-
Kifaru in Swahili means “rhinoceros” and this is a documentary film about one specific male rhino named Sudan and the men devoted to his care. This is directo… Read More
2019-06-02 17:18
My two favorite films this year at the 2019 Seattle
International Film Festival were family films.
Sune vs. Sune is a
Swedish/Danish film, brilliantly directed by Jon Holmberg, and The… Read More
2019-05-21 17:14
Rating: B
Miriam Lies, written and directed by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada, brings us an intriguing look at Dominican Republic society. I, for one, first think of a poor countr… Read More
2019-05-20 17:11
Rating: B
Orange Daysis a tense drama about Aban, a woman in Northern Iran who runs an all-woman orange-picking crew. She puts everything she owns on the line as she competes agains… Read More
2019-02-27 18:00
I last watched and reviewed The Little Mermaid six years ago when Disney last re-released their classic family film. My review, in which I called Ariel a “seashell-bikini-wearing vixen… Read More
2019-01-06 23:12
Most average moviegoers look to the Oscars and Golden Globes for a ranking of the best movies of the year—and which performances are must-sees. But what does the Academy, let alone the… Read More
2018-12-19 04:04
You shouldn’t be surprised by this list. As a loyal FilmJabber reader, I expect that you’ve absorbed every word of every review and article I’ve written this year, engrosse… Read More
2018-12-18 00:19
The Seattle Film Critics Society (“SFCS”) announced the winners in 19 categories for the 2018 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards on Monday, December 17, 2018.
Winning the top pr… Read More
2018-12-16 19:09
If you think you have a rough home life—or rough life in general—just watch Sharp Objects to make yourself feel better. From the mind of Gillian Flynn, the author best known for… Read More
2018-10-28 04:09
I’m about to have a baby. Like, seriously, I am sitting on my couch at home waiting for my wife to experience the most intense pain of her life, but more importantly waiting for her to… Read More
2018-09-16 17:21
In another time, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy headlined a Disney movie about evil witches, and despite spending only two weeks in the top ten—perhaps a mid-July… Read More
2018-09-14 15:47
Cirque du Soleil has returned to Seattle/Redmond once again with another experience—Volta—presumably conceived by a three-day drug bender in which twisted, nonsensical dreams wer… Read More
2018-08-19 05:13
Getting stuck in the ice for an entire winter sounds like the fucking worst, but when you’re being hunted by a mythical polar bear monster thing and your fellow sailors are going batsh… Read More
2018-08-15 06:00
This Ozark: Season Two review contains no spoilers for the second season, but does address plot points from Season One. In other words, if you haven’t watched the first season, hop on… Read More
2018-07-25 04:02
Mission: Impossible – Fallout debuts this Friday and promises plenty of spectacle (and legitimately good action). The franchise has been shockingly reliable—even #2 is better tha… Read More
2018-06-26 04:07
With Mission: Impossible – Fallout hitting theaters on July 27, 2018, Paramount has released the first five films on 4K Ultra HD.
AKA it was time to re-watch the first five films.
Jame… Read More
2018-06-10 22:29
Something Useful is a gorgeous film with the languid mood of The English Patient, character-driven, and beautifully co-scripted by the director Pelin Esmer and Baris Bicakci. There are… Read More
2018-06-10 22:24
B+
Sylvia Chang is director, writer, and actress in Love Education. She plays Qui Huiying, a take-charge woman who is an about-to-retire schoolteacher, domineering wife and mother, and… Read More
2018-06-10 22:20
B+
On Borrowed Time has a story that transcends cultures, or perhaps one could say it speaks of a global sub-culture of the elderly, the ones who are relegated to retirement homes to await t… Read More
2018-06-10 22:09
B+
Eight women directors came together in a workshop to design interactive shots around a central theme. The central theme was the rampant problem in New Zealand of child deaths, and i… Read More
2018-06-10 22:03
B
Like many of the Seattle Film Festival 2018 films, Nancy is woman-directed (by Christina Choe), partly produced by Executive Producer Barbara Broccoli, and made with a mostly female and pe… Read More
2018-06-10 21:54
B
In recent years, Scandinavian books and film have gained entrance into mainstream USA popularity. Many of these works are characterized by a gritty and somber presentation, a darknes… Read More
2018-05-28 00:47
A-
One of my favorite films of 2015–and not just favorite foreign films– was the Turkish film Mustang. Many others agreed since it was nominated and came ever so close to w… Read More
2018-05-28 00:36
B
To me the title Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts hints at a comedy and the film was touted as “a dark, wickedly funny feminist revenge western set in Indonesia.” For the… Read More
2018-05-28 00:31
This Australian film Hot Mess was billed as a “laugh-a-minute slacker comedy.” Because the Aussies are such a light-hearted, happy people on the whole, I did expect a laugh… Read More
2018-05-28 00:27
B+
In a North American movie a title like Killing Jesús would most likely lead us to assume it to be an anti-Christianity film or something of that sort. But in Spanish-speaking… Read More
2018-05-28 00:23
A young hotel clerk witnesses a sexual assault on two underage guests but hesitates coming forward out of fear for her own wellbeing in Angels Wear White, a well done if ultimately forgettab… Read More
2018-05-28 00:19
What happens to the children left behind by drug cartel violence in Mexico? Writer/director Issa López explores such a question with what is marketed as a “dark fairytale,&rdquo&hell…Read More
2018-05-28 00:15
C
A great concept flummoxed by bland execution, Ruin Me is a mildly entertaining but instantly forgettable horror flick about a group of young people who commit to an immersive horror experi… Read More
2018-05-28 00:10
B-
Nona is a film co-produced by Michael Polish and wife and actress Kate Bosworth. Bosworth also acts in this film near the end as American detective Klein. Bosworth recently re… Read More
2018-05-20 05:07
David Chen and I had a great time reviewing and discussing Deadpool 2, first remarking on what worked well and what didn’t (specifically, does it live up to the first one?), follo… Read More
2018-02-13 03:33
If you’re a science fiction fan, you have to be looking forward to Annihilation, which hits theaters on February 23, 2018 (you know, the highly anticipated thriller from the direc… Read More
2018-01-20 23:21
I receive near daily requests to promote third-party articles, write guest posts and other things primarily intended to improve another website’s search engine rankings. I usually igno… Read More
2018-01-01 03:42
Must-see movie lists are always a bit of a pipe’s dream. Hell, only four of my 33 movies to see in 2017 made my top ten list for the year (although several others came close). Inevi… Read More
2017-12-29 02:20
Each year, I select the top 20 performances of the year. Unlike the Academy Awards or just about any other award process, I don’t categorize by gender or supporting/leading roles.
This… Read More
2017-12-14 05:25
Movie critics live for two things: to vote for year-end awards and to put together these damned Top 10 lists. Oh, and to be a critic who has the power to destroy a film’s 100% rating o… Read More
2017-12-06 18:13
Adapting the movie Fargo into a multi-season television show is one of the stranger ideas that has come to pass in recent years. It’s also one of the most brilliant.
If you’… Read More
2017-10-18 17:00
With The Snowman throwing cool shade on theaters this weekend, it’s as good of time as any to take a look back at Michael Fassbender’s career. The Oscar-nominated actor is o… Read More
2017-10-14 22:47
It’s been 30 years since the theatrical debut of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which means of course Planes, Trains and Automobiles is being re-released on Blu-ray. I debat… Read More
2017-10-08 22:55
When I was approached over the summer to review FandangoNOW, my first reaction was: do we really need another video streaming site?
I have iTunes and AppleTV; I have Amazon Prime and a… Read More
2017-09-27 08:00
While my wife can’t stand Tom Cruise, I’m a big fan–even though he’s had a few more misses of late, he is still one of the most reliable actors working in Hollywood… Read More
2017-09-18 08:46
I’d heard of Phantasm, but didn’t know a damn thing about what it was or that it was popular enough to boast four sequels. The horror movie franchise is now in a single box… Read More
2017-07-26 08:18
Director Gillian Robespierre was in town to promote her new movie Landline, in which she reunites wither her Obvious Child star Jenny Slate for a comedy-drama when a family is thrown into up… Read More
2017-07-23 20:29
While Abby Quinn was in town with her co-star Jenny Slate and director Gillian Robespierre for the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) release of their new drama-comedy Landline (now… Read More
2017-07-23 20:16
Jenny Slate reunites with her Obvious Child director Gillian Robespierre for Landline, another drama-comedy set in New York that is now playing in limited theaters, and opens in Seattle this… Read More
2017-07-05 08:10
The Little Hours expands into more theaters this weekend, including those in the Seattle area. I had a chance to sit down for a discussion with star and producer Aubrey Plaza (“Parks a… Read More
2017-06-11 18:41
Of all the films I saw at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival, A Dragon Arrives! is the most haunting and question-raising. The film takes place in Iran of the ‘60s duri… Read More
2017-06-11 18:39
The Winter focuses on two main characters, that of the gruff silent old foreman of a Patagonian sheep ranch named Evans, played by Alejandro Sieveking, and the serious young man Jara who the… Read More
2017-06-11 18:36
Some of us are born athletes, others achieve that label through hard work, and then there are people like me who cannot honestly ascribe the adjective “athletic” to their person… Read More
2017-06-11 18:32
The Man is Simon, an icon of the modern Danish art scene, a bohème, and supreme egoist. His beautiful wife, played by Ane Dahl Torp, has subsumed her own self to “manage&r&hell…Read More
2017-06-11 18:25
Footnotes [Sur Quel Pied Danser], a French 2016 film by directors Kostia Testut and Paul Calori, and 7 Minutes [7 Minuti], an Italian/French/Swiss 2016 film by director Michele Placido, deal… Read More
2017-06-11 18:20
The last few years, food documentaries have become the rage. On TV, we now have a food channel, brutal TV cooking competitions like Iron Chef, and screaming chefs like the corrosive Go… Read More
2017-05-10 22:22
“Hey girl, I bet you a kiss I’m more flexible than you.”
If I were Alexey Goloborodko, that’s the line I’d use right before twisting into a humanly impossible (… Read More
2017-04-19 13:00
I don’t normally review television shows, because if I did my life would consist of nonstop criticism, praise, theorizing, and repeated attempts to kill myself. It may surprise people… Read More
2017-02-26 18:57
Who will win Oscar glory at this year’s Academy Awards? You’ll find FilmJabber’s official predictions below (sadly, the overrated La La Land is likely to clean up toni… Read More
2017-01-13 03:50
2017-01-02 20:26
Many critics like to do “worst movies of the year” lists, and I don’t blame them: they’re a lot of fun. But these lists rarely include the worst movies of the year; t… Read More
2017-01-02 06:24
A new year, a new batch of movies. Here are 33 movies I’m looking forward to in 2017:
33. The Mummy
Tom Cruise stars in this modern day “horror” film that looks more like… Read More
2016-12-27 03:10
Each year, I make a list of the movies you have to see in the coming year. And each year… well, I’m not perfect. So, now that 2016 has all but wrapped up, it only made sens… Read More
2016-12-26 05:00
Each year, FilmJabber selects the top 20 performances of the year. Unlike the Academy Awards or just about any other award process, we don’t categorize by gender or supporting/leadin… Read More
2016-12-22 03:52
Members of Seattle’s film and critical community have voted and nominations for the 2016 Seattle Film Awards, honoring the best in film for 2016, have been announced. Leading the field… Read More
2016-12-20 12:00
Every year, critics and pundits argue whether it was a “strong year for movies.” And every year, there is never consensus. I usually rate movies on three primary criteria:
Is the… Read More
2016-12-12 16:00
To celebrate local, national and international film, members of Seattle’s film and critical community have officially formed the Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS). The society’… Read More
2016-12-04 22:57
When I told my wife that I would soon be watching Mad Max: Fury Road, the Black & Chrome Edition (now on Blu-ray), her response was, “What’s the point?”
It’s… Read More
2016-10-30 18:37
With Halloween just around the corner, there is a notable lack of horror movies in theaters. Ouija: Origin of Evil is a legitimately good ghost story, but that’s about it–th… Read More
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