A Murder Between Friends (2026) Review: Poor Joan Collins
For a very brief moment in time, I thought I might enjoy A Murder Between Friends. It was clearly terrible,
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Film Reviews
Read Matthew Jones’s reviews of new releases, independent films, cult cinema, and overlooked works from across film history. Each review looks beyond whether a film succeeds or fails to examine what it reveals about identity, morality, politics, society, and the human experience.
Shell (2024) Review: A Cheap Imitation of The Substance
Shell takes aim at Hollywood’s beauty standards and the wellness industry, but its contrived twists and uneven performances turn horror into unintended comedy. Elisabeth Moss’s casting adds a striking Scientology parallel to a film that struggles to escape The Substance’s shadow.
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The Death of Robin Hood (2026) Review: Brutal but Strangely Dull
Spoilers for the ending of The Death of Robin Hood and The Uprising follow. I was ready for The Death
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The Uprising (2026) Review: A Rebellion Afraid of Itself
This review contains some spoilers of the film’s ending. I wanted to follow The Uprising into a dangerous, rebellious space.
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The Ugly Stepsister (2025) Review: Beauty Has a Body Count
There’s a particular cruelty in calling someone an ugly stepsister by default. We already know whom to love, whom to
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Clara’s Heart (1988) Review: A Bizarre Sentimental Mess
Whoopi Goldberg and a young Neil Patrick Harris lead a grief drama whose wild tonal shifts, racial shortcuts, and manipulative sentimentality make it more fascinating as a curiosity than successful as a film.
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The End of Oak Street (2026) Review: A Corny Dinosaur Disaster
A suburban street full of dinosaurs should be easy entertainment. The End of Oak Street buries that premise beneath failed comedy, cheap-looking effects, bad logic, and painfully sentimental family drama.
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Resident Evil (2026) Review: When the Player Gets Stuck in the Game
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil puts an ordinary courier through the games’ most frightening—and frustrating—survival rules. It’s the best adaptation yet, though the final act goes too big.
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Mārama (2025) Review: Beautiful Yet Blunt Gothic Reckoning
Taratoa Stappard’s Mārama brings Māori history into a beautifully designed Victorian Gothic manor, but slow pacing and overly obvious symbolism weaken its colonial reckoning.
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Shoplifters (2018) Review: A Family Made From Stolen Time
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters finds beauty, love, and lasting memories inside a makeshift family whose reckless and sometimes criminal life together was always destined to end.
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Black Box (2026) Review: Aliens on a Plane Can’t Escape the Formula
Black Box has a convincing airplane set and one energetic alien attack, but its stock passengers, awkward writing, inconsistent creature rules, and overreaching effects leave the high-concept premise grounded.
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Hysteria (2025) Review: Representation, Suspense, and Self-Interest
Hysteria is at its best when everyone has a defensible version of the truth and a selfish reason for insisting
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Sweetheart (2019) Review: A Lean, Mean Island Monster
Sweetheart (2019) gets a lot of mileage out of a simple fear: the ocean is scary as hell. J. D.
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Opus (2025) Review: Celebrity Worship as Religion
Opus works best before it explains anything. For much of writer-director Mark Anthony Green’s feature debut, the film traps its
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Oddity (2024) Review: Grief as a Spooky Weapon
There is something deeply unpleasant about watching an inanimate “object” suddenly appearing in a different spot. Oddity works with this kind
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Never Let Go (2024): When Abuse Becomes a Monster
There is a compelling idea at the center of Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go (2024): abuse reproduces itself. Trauma doesn’t remain sealed
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The Scandalous Lady W (2015), A Beautiful but Shallow Scandal
I’m surprised that The Scandalous Lady W didn’t attract more attention. It has Natalie Dormer at the height of her Game
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