Category: Reviews
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is way better than Splash Mountain probably deserved
Photo: Olga Thompson/Disney The new Princess and the Frog ride, opening June 28 at Walt Disney World, is the glow-up of the decade In 2020, Disney announced plans to reboot Splash Mountain, the beloved but controversial log-flume ride found in three of its theme parks. The decision sparked plenty of griping from curmudgeonly fans, largely […]
A Quiet Place: Day One lives up to the first movie by doing something radically different
Photo: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection Pig director Michael Sarnoski finds a real purpose for a prequel: exploring uncharted emotional territory A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t so much a spinoff and prequel of John Krasinski’s 2018 horror movie as it is a riveting drama that plays in the series’ sandbox. You can spot […]
The first American Girl comic book, Julie and the Blue Guitar, is a worthy installment in the franchise
Image: Felia Hanakata/IDW Publishing But it raises questions about the diversity of the dolls themselves My memories of American Girl literature are strong. The chapter books painted backstories for my favorite dolls, giving me a taste for historical fiction and nonfiction that I still have today, and books like Hair: Styling Tips and Tricks for […]
The Riven remake transforms a tricky classic into a modern masterpiece
Image: Cyan Worlds via Polygon Ah, my friend, you’ve returned… Back in the early 1990s, the creators of Myst had a problem with their testers. Players would wander around the initial island, poking at the rocket ship, flipping the levers on the podiums up and down, and watching as none of it did anything. The […]
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is like an origin story for Guy Ritchie’s whole thing
Photo: Dan Smith/Lionsgate via Everett Collection Now available on digital release and 4K, the Henry Cavill movie takes Ritchie’s gentleman thugs back to basics British movie director Guy Ritchie loves nothing more than the collision of class and thuggery. It’s like catnip to him. In movies like Snatch and 2019’s The Gentlemen, he thrives on […]
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit is a better, faster version of the lo-fi life sim
Image: Spry Fox/Netflix via Polygon The sequel is only on mobile and exclusive to Netflix When Spry Fox co-founder and studio director David Edery and his team set out to make a second Cozy Grove game, they wanted to mirror the first game, but “bigger and better.” The concept of the original game and its […]
Still Wakes the Deep is a horror gem that won’t get out of my head
Image: The Chinese Room/Secret Mode Corporate greed meets an ancient entity The best horror games stick around long after credits have rolled, squirming in and tickling the back of your brain. Still Wakes the Deep has stuck around in my noggin, provoking questions that I know I will never have the answers to. There are […]
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness is three movies — and two directors — in one
Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures The director of Poor Things and The Lobster is up to his old tricks in this weird anthology What happens to auteur theory when a film director appears to be two markedly different auteurs at the same time? If you were working on a unified theory of surrealist director Yorgos Lanthimos […]
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a gift for the faithful
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco FromSoftware’s Elden Ring expansion provides a next-level challenge with a meaty side story Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a humbling experience, one that will remind you of your early days — and early defeats — in Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s expansion to its 2022 open-world RPG will hit you harder and […]
Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary may be the closest we get to a Calvin and Hobbes movie
Image: Studio Ponoc/Netflix Studio Ghibli’s successor finally returns, with an anime movie about imaginary friends This review of The Imaginary is timed to the film’s festival premiere at France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The film will stream on Netflix in America starting on July 5. When Studio Ponoc’s first anime feature, Mary and the […]
