Movie review by Greg Carlson “Forbidden Fruits” practically begs for the grammarian’s old “which witch is which” query, given that Meredith Alloway’s wildly uneven feature directorial debut bounces from one genre to another and never quite finds a consistent tone or gear. The filmmaker’s game cast members, channeling the sensibilities of inspirations from “Heathers” to […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Filmmaker Julia Ducournau’s third feature, a mashup of body horror, family melodrama, and AIDS allegory set in a grim and gray dystopia, fails to live up to the promise of wild debut “Raw” and Palme d’Or winner “Titane.” “Alpha” premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and now makes its […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A number of critics and media outlets have already noted the variety of cinematic antecedents that have influenced writer-director Amy Wang’s movie “Slanted,” pointing out how the story of a frustrated teenager mashes “Mean Girls” with “The Substance” in a body horror package that misses the bullseye. Wang borrows peak […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Before she takes the stage of the Dolby Theatre on March 15 to collect her Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in “Hamnet,” Jessie Buckley will find a few new fans as she transforms into the title monster in writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” Buckley’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson The great documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras had to work diligently to convince Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh to be the subject of one of her films. Most accounts and reviews of “Cover-Up,” the movie that would eventually be born from a collaboration between Poitras and co-director Mark Obenhaus, describe the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson In what turns out to be a safe, sedate, and fairly dusty two-hander, novelist Bernard MacLaverty adapts his own 2017 book “Midwinter Break” with co-screenwriter Nick Payne. Experienced theatre director and first-time feature filmmaker Polly Findlay guides veteran talents Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville in their roles as Gerry and […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Literature purists who will judge Emerald Fennell’s decadent, gorgeous, horny, and high-calorie interpretation of “Wuthering Heights” on the basis of its fidelity to the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë are certainly not the principal demographic sought by the new movie’s exhibitor. And anyone who admired the audacity of the Academy […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson For the Generation X members obsessed with the incredible 90s music scene that gave us everything from the DIY exuberance of riot grrrl founding mothers Bikini Kill to the noisy NYC no wave of Sonic Youth to the evolutionary enlightenment transforming the Beastie Boys from bratty hip-hop pranksters to socially […]