Yes! Fumbling through the dark; ears twitching at every unidentified sound; scanning the environment for weapons, ammo, keys, exits, and most importantly, threats; hoping upon hope you’re prepared to face whatever misbegotten grotesquerie comes next in this spiraling nightmare. This movie gets it, making little reference to specific Resident Evil lore but still feeling very much like a Resident Evil game, without forgetting to be cinema in the process. And its quest-based plot is an… See more →

Of all the villains I’ve encountered in fiction, I’m struggling to think of one more loathsome than Strangers on a Train’s Charles Bruno. I don’t feel great about it, because any mid-century, gay-coded character deserves at least some empathy, but this spoiled momma’s boy is simply the worst. I don’t begrudge the movie version’s drastic simplification of Strangers, but Robert Walker’s portrayal of Bruno is so spot-on, I kind of wish Hitchcock could have… See more →

Indy the dog is indeed a very good boy. But everything else about the movie is pretty meh.

The many hours I spent with the first two Resident Evil games didn’t do my college GPA any favors, but the sweet spot they found between the immersive dread of a good zombie movie and the adrenaline rush of a good action/adventure game was a revelation. Two great tastes that taste great together, and they even threw in some fun puzzles while they were at it.

The series lost me when it veered into convoluted… See more →

In my dream, MAGA went manga in a new season of House of Cards. New administration officials’ hairdos looked like something out of a sloppified, live-action Dragon Ball Z. One guy grew out and gelled his nose hair.

My long overdue first visit to Lightbox Film Center’s new location in the Bok building after UArts’s untimely demise two years ago. I’m glad Bok’s massive old high school auditorium is available to them, and if they decide someday to do less esoteric programming, the room can hold a lot of people. Hopefully those people will be prepared for some discomfort, because the uncushioned wooden seats are not great! By now it seems like a… See more →

I waited almost 30 years for this and it was basically perfect. Shudder to Think sounded amazing and was clearly having a blast, including Clint Walsh and Jherek Bischoff, the energetic new additions on rhythm guitar and bass. There were a few flubs here and there since this was the band’s first show of the year, all handled with grace and good humor. A 19-song set list drawn largely from Pony Express Record, as is… See more →

Fire Museum Presents started putting on events for adventurous arts lovers in Philly in 2007, but between my departure the following year and my return during Covid, I only just discovered them earlier this year, and I finally made it out to a show tonight. It was also my first visit to the Maas Building, a former brewery, which has carved out a charming upstairs event space among its artist studios. It was a perfect… See more →

I’ve never really had any interest in John Grisham’s work, but for some reason we’ve been watching the film adaptations the last few Sundays, and this one might be my favorite so far! Sometimes a stacked cast giving its all to a twisty potboiler premise lands just right. Its supersaturated assembly feels very of its time, and while early-aughts pop culture isn’t a source of much nostalgia for me, I’m not entirely immune to the… See more →