50 Movie Reviews 2026

                   Rebuilding- 3.5 stars out of 4 It's been suggested by those who study such things that we have entered into a new "age." With the rise of AI making entire industries obsolete, one can't help but wonder what happens to those who are left behind by this "progress." Entire elections have been decided by emphasizing what happens to the "forgotten man." The wonderful movie Nomadland previously explored this idea as well. What if you were 60 years old and your entire career and even your entire town disappeared. Where would you go? What would you do? This movie explores similar themes by those affected by natural disasters. With a changing climate making these problems more and more common, this movie focuses on one such man and one such family. What would you do next if you lost everything you owned, including your home? The man is named Dusty, and he also has a young daughter named Callie-Rose he hasn't seen for a little w...

                                                                                                                          2.5 out of 4 stars Full disclosure, I read the book first before seeing the movie, and often this doesn't end well. I think you can just build worlds, tensions, and inner lives in a book in ways you just can't translate in two hours on the screen. The movie sticks to the story though. When the movie opens, Poppy is young, bursting with energy and full of life. Alex is 18 going on 40. They are driving back to their hometown together from Boston where they attend school, to Ohio, which Poppy hates and Alex loves. Through a series of misadventures, they go from enemies t...

                                                                    3 of 4 Stars   It's hard not to like Brendan Fraser's 2nd act. The guy went through a very rough couple of decades, and there is some elements of life imitating art in this little redemption story. Much like Lost in Translation, we have a fading actor and a Toyo backdrop here. Both of them are obvious outsiders in a massive city with traditions, customs, and norms they couldn't possibly understand. Brendan plays a man named Phillip who is forced to take an acting job at an agency that rents out people to step in where there is a void, (it's based on a real business in Japan.) His first moment of insight comes when he goes through a sham wedding with an attractive Japanese woman to appease her parents. He's not feeling good about this at all. And th...

3.5 Stars out of 4 I've always been fascinated by bands that imitate other bands. Some I have seen have been downright awful and a few have sounded better than the bands they were imitating.  Musicians often live on the margins, and only a select few get rich doing it. Sometimes, wildly talented people never get their break. Conversely, plenty of mediocre talents have also become superstars. Timing, nepotism, connections and just flat-out luck all play a part. But having dipped a toe in the show business world myself, I would say a combination of exceptional talent AND the exceptional ability to sell yourself would give you the best possible chance to succeed. That or the Nepotism thing.  But even then, there would be no guarantee.  Some musicians accept they will never get big playing their own songs and make a living playing cover songs. Some of my favorite people fit into this category. You can still bring a lot of joy to the world singing other people's songs.  I...