ReelViews for R movies

Has the COVID-19 pandemic brought out the best in horror filmmakers? 2022 has not been a good year for cinema, but it has been a very good year for horror. Smile represents the latest in an impressive roster of horror films that have pushed the en...

In a bygone era, something like Bandit would have been a TV movie of the week. All these years later, it retains the look and feel of something not quite “theatrical” in its ambitions. If it has any future as a streaming rental, such hopes lik...

I have done my best to avoid spoilers and, although I’d love to get into specifics about what’s wrong with the movie, such an approach would require revealing plot twists. So, although I won’t go that far, some of the “comparison” movies...

For those enamored with Ti West’s extraordinarily entertaining 2022 horror film, X, his latest effort, Pearl, is required viewing, although it’s a much different kettle of fish. For those unfamiliar with X, however, Pearl may feel incomplete �...

The original Clerks was a trailblazing mid-1990s indie comedy whose love of profanity and pop culture references made it an unlikely art house success story while jump-starting the career of writer/director Kevin Smith. Although Clerks remains amu...

The passage of time has not been kind to the filmography of Kevin Smith. Most of his movies have a “stuck in amber” quality that makes them most interesting as a reflection of the era in which they were made. His two best efforts, Clerks ...

For roughly two-thirds of its 100-minute running length, Barbarian is a top-notch excursion into the dark, twisty tunnels and catacombs of a mystery-cum-monster movie. The film’s overreliance on horror movie clichés during the final half-hour w...

There are moments when True Things, a romantic melodrama about a toxic love affair, almost breaks through. But, in large part because it never coalesces the hazy vagueness surrounding the characters, it doesn't quite get there. The chemistry betwe...

Televangelism and those who practice the dubious form of money-driven religiosity represent low-hanging fruit when it comes to satire. A lot of the material – Jimmy Swaggert crying crocodile tears, the eyes of Tammy Faye, etc. – comes across a...

I’m not sure whether I can argue that Three Thousand Years of Longing is among the best movies to be released during the so-called “post-pandemic” era (a time period that began in late May 2021) but it is one of the most singular, memorable ...