'Crime 101' Review

There's nothing like an L.A. crime thriller. For Screen International, I reviewed Crime 101. 

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: We Answer Your Questions and Disagree About 'Rocky'

It's always fun to do a mailbag episode. This week, we talk about erasing movies from history, running our own theater, Siskel & Ebert and Carter Burwell. Then, we go back to 1976 and revisit Rocky. Has it held up? We don't agree on the answer. Check out the show down below.

'Wuthering Heights' Review

Emerald Fennell's third film takes on Emily Bronte's beloved novel. Here's my take on her take on Wuthering Heights. 

Best of 2025: The Top 10 Albums of the Year

Before I was a full-time film critic, I spent years reviewing albums and interviewing bands. I enjoyed it immensely, and while "music critic" is not my principal job now, I have never switched off that part of myself. 

Keeping up with new music isn't just good for the brain, it ensures you don't become one of those people who laments, "I don't know any of these acts on the Grammys/at Coachella." At the start of every January, I create a folder of notable albums that get released that year, adding to it as the months go by. (My 2025 playlist is here.) This becomes my go-to playlist, perfect for long drives across Los Angeles or time spent in my office writing. I like having music on all day, and I'd rather it be new music than songs I know by heart, no matter how much I love them.

It's been years since Pazz & Jop went away, although Uproxx did its best to keep the tradition alive in recent years. But now that Uproxx has stopped publishing its year-end critics poll, I have felt a little empty having nowhere to share my picks for the year's best albums. This is the advantage of having my own site: I can do it right here.

No matter how many years I put together a best-of album list, I always have to remind myself that you never really know a record until you listen to it from beginning to end. In our modern streaming age, the notion of the album as an artistic unit now feels terribly quaint. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't put in the effort to really understand a record by giving it your undivided attention. It's one thing to get obsessed with a song — it's something else to really live in the world of an artist's creative vision for 45-70 minutes. 

The 10 albums on my list all resonated more deeply when I devoted that uninterrupted time to them. As individual tracks, maybe they aren't the most dynamic. As a cumulative experience, though, they were undeniable.

Without further ado... 

10. Dijon, Baby 
The inner workings of Dijon Duenas' mind, set to jittery, sensual, exuberant tunes. Detailing his experiences with marriage and fatherhood with vulnerability and candor, Baby expresses love in all its forms: carnal, paternal, utter devotion, endless adoration. So many marriages don't work out. So many parents fail their children. But this album's beauty and anguish suggest a deep soul who's been thinking about commitment for a good long time. The more the music surges with doubt, the more resilient it simultaneously becomes. The results aren't just moving — they're downright inspirational.  

9. Backxwash, Only Dust Remains
Zambian-Canadian rapper Ashanti Mutinta's previous records contained more of a metal influence. She hardly went safe or mainstream with her most recent album: As Mutinta put it in May of last year, "instead of a slasher, this one is more like a weird A24 movie.” The abrasive, riveting Only Dust Remains acknowledges her struggles with suicidal ideation and the world's transphobia and bigotry, and the music is as explosive as her anger and insecurity. By the closing title track, she isn't yet out of the woods. But she's raising a "middle finger to these racists and idiots," refusing to let the bastards grind her down, including the ones in her head.

8. CMAT, Euro-Country
My favorite country album of 2025 came from Ireland. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson taps into the genre's just-folks relatability to create a collection of sad, funny songs about dumb guys, chasing your dreams and losing a friend. The lap steel guitar is as shiny as the pop hooks. And then there's the singer who puts those big feelings across. Actresses are often praised as having a "girl next door" energy: I have mixed feelings about that compliment, but CMAT's unassuming warmth certainly brings such cliches to mind. (That said, you don't have to be a woman to feel "Take a Sexy Picture of Me" in your bones.)
 
7. Sudan Archives, The BPM
I flipped for Brittney Denise Parks' last album, Natural Brown Prom Queen, and this new one might be even better. Edging further into full-on dance music, The BPM ripples with confidence, the tracks barely able to contain her creative ebullience. But the faster tempos belie the anxieties she sometimes feels about love and being herself. And she's still making room for that terrific violin of hers. "I'm the finest," she brags at one point. "Yeah, I said it." She can back up her swagger.

6. Turnstile, Never Enough
This Baltimore band had largely escaped my notice until Never Enough was everywhere in 2025. Hardcore punk is not a go-to genre for me, but Brendan Yates' yearning vocals got to me. Not self-absorbed, not overly ponderous, never boringly mopey, he strikes me as a decent guy wrestling with the agonies of the world with genuine sensitivity at a time when a lot of guys are good at faking it. And his band never stops stops bringing the noise, which can be exceedingly lovely when it's not just downright stirring. I've heard some longtime fans mock Turnstile for suddenly turning into the Police. I suppose that means they're just getting more tuneful with time.  

5. Apathy, Mom & Dad
As we suffer through the Trump years, Chad Bromley would like to remind us that Ronald Reagan was a pretty terrible president as well. Mom & Dad's title refers not to Bromley's birth parents, who had him when they were teenagers, but Nancy and Ronnie, whose smiling faces adorn the record's cover. Although not quite a concept album, Mom & Dad takes the listener back to the 1980s as Bromley recalls with no fondness the crack era and Reagan's war on drugs. (The rapper's parents battled drug addiction in his youth.) Turning 47 in March, Bromley grabs old-school samples and dusty pop-culture references to paint a portrait of an unhappy past that still casts a shadow on our shared horrible present. Mourning the death of the middle class, recalling the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, this album turns nostalgia into a poison pill, every line a killer.
 
4. Wednesday, Bleeds
Why does this Wednesday album work so well for me when their last, Rat Saw God, didn't? The answer couldn't be more rudimentary: Because it rocks harder. From the gathering storm of its opening track, "Reality TV Argument Bleeds," to the snarling destitution of "Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)" to the fire of "Wasp" into "Bitter Everyday," Karly Hartzman's band has attitude to burn and the guitars to back up their surliness. Sometimes Bleeds allows for a quieter interlude, but the focus never slips. And the Phish and Human Centipede joke in "Phish Pepsi" is a good one 
 
3. Blood Orange, Essex Honey
Beware albums made by brilliant songwriters/composers that are overstuffed with cameos from their famous friends. That is, unless it's Essex Honey, in which Devonté Hynes brings along so many buddies to enrich his already formidable soundscape, letting them blend into the mix rather than sticking out. The result is a glorious record whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Hynes' sumptuous voice on top of one incredible arrangement after another. (My god, the saxophones on this album.) Who else would pair the frontman of Turnstile with the dude from Everything but the Girl? Who else would find so many ways to express grief and explore his childhood memories, yet leave so few breadcrumbs, hiding those knotty feelings in endlessly emotional, dreamlike tunes? Recommended listening for your next nighttime drive.

2. Blondshell, If You Asked for a Picture
With all due respect to the more famous Sabrina (Carpenter), I preferred Sabrina Teitelbaum's follow-up to a successful breakthrough in which the artist is bummed to discover that a higher profile does nothing to improve the quality of men in her orbit. If You Asked for a Picture doesn't have Man's Best Friend's winning sense of humor, but its well-crafted indie-rock convincingly articulates the excruciating frustration of being in your late 20s, worried that your romantic life is never ever going to get any better. There's nothing self-pitying about Teitelbaum's observations, recognizing that she's as much at fault as the jerks she decides to date. "Why don't the good ones love me?," she asks with a clarity any heartsick soul will understand. And when she closes the album with "The problem is I don't know what I want anymore," her voice reaching for a falsetto, it crushes me every time. On her debut Blondshell, she toured with Liz Phair, which made sense. Here, she continues to honor that indie legend by further roto-rooting her psyche, finding plenty of hooks if not much in the way of solutions.

1. Craig Finn, Always Been 
The Hold Steady frontman always has stories to tell. But from top to bottom, I don't think he's ever crafted anything as uniformly terrific as what he achieves on his sixth solo album. Always Been mostly focuses on a former clergyman making sense of his life after leaving the church behind. But that's just one of the broken individuals whom Craig Finn embodies on this remarkable record, which musically doesn't shy away from his Springsteen-ian aspirations while also embracing a more colorful indie-rock palette. I've been making fun of the War on Drugs for years, but Adam Granduciel's production provides the perfect sonic framework for these emotional, dying-of-the-light songs.

"I told Adam that I wanted to make a direct record — I didn’t want it to be tricky," Finn said in April. "The music is very straightforward. Sometimes we’d try something and find it to be too much. It’s a storytelling record, so it was like, 'Is it getting in the way of the story? Is it supporting the story?' I think that’s a question that you just keep asking yourself."

Always Been's simplicity is its strongest asset and also the reason why listeners might overlook its greatness. Finn is the sort who's easy to take for granted: "Oh, he made another literary album about beautiful losers?!?" But the more you immerse in the record, the more its stories seem to speak to something deeper than these individual lives. It's an album about the loss of religious faith, but all different kinds of faith and hope are shed along the way on Always Been: the idea of the ideal version of who you might become, the belief that things will work out, the delusion that America was ever not rotten. The record has no hint of the momentous, and yet its unfussy directness feels plenty grand. Its landscape of depression, romantic disillusionment, crime, poverty and oblivion is as good a way of encapsulating this failed country as any album I heard in 2025. 

Bad Bunny - "DtMF"

Have a good weekend. Enjoy the Bad Bunny Bowl.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Sundance Recap, 'Send Help' and 'Sexy Beast'

I'm back from Sundance, so we have a new podcast episode for you. I talk about my time in Park City, and we both reflect on the Oscar nominations. After that, it's time for new reviews: We disagreed about Send Help while both praising Rachel McAdams. Lastly, we go back to the early Oughts to discuss Jonathan Glazer's stylish debut, Sexy Beast. Oh, and I worked in a reference to Zombo.com. Check out the whole thing down below.

'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' Review

In Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, Sam Rockwell plays a man from the future who recruits a bunch of folks from our time to help him save the world before AI enslaves us. Gore Verbinski's gonzo sci-fi satire exhausted me. My review is here.

Sundance 2026: 'Nuisance Bear' Review

 
One last review from this year's Sundance. Nuisance Bear won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. documentaries, and it chronicles a small, remote Canadian community that's known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. How do animals and humans coexist? You can read my thoughts on this nuanced, twisty story here. 

Sundance 2026: Ranking the Best and Worst of the Festival

 

I first attended Sundance in 2009. Over the nearly 20 years I went to Park City, I learned several things:

• Wear your snow boots on the plane. You're going to be wearing them the whole time anyway, so there's no point in packing them in your suitcase.
• Don't take a connecting flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. Just take a direct flight. You don't want to deal with possible issues in San Jose or Las Vegas or Phoenix on the way there.
• Yes, you'll want to bring long johns.
• The turkey chili at the Library is good. So are the spicy chicken sandwiches at Fresh Market. (You're always desperate to find reliable, quick food at Sundance when you're dashing from venue to venue.) 
• Drink a lot of water. Take a lot of Advil. Elevation headaches are real.
• Walk slower than you're used to, even if you're in a hurry. You have no idea when you might step on some black ice and take a nasty tumble. (Thankfully, it never happened to me. But I've had colleagues break collarbones at Sundance.)
• If your boots suddenly start falling apart, buy Gorilla Tape at Fresh Market. It works wonders.  

These sorts of lessons you acquire from years attending any festival. What will be strange is that, starting next year, this knowledge will largely be irrelevant. In 2027, Sundance moves to Boulder. I've never been, but even for those who have, it will be a unique festival experience. Normally, when you go to a new festival, there's someone older who's been there a bunch and can show you the ropes and fill you in on all the little pro-tips you need. In a sense, all of us will be going through our first Sundance next year. That will be incredibly disorienting, and I'm curious how we collectively process this new place that the festival will call home. 

I knew the final Park City Sundance would be bittersweet. My friends and colleagues took tons of pictures. There were final stops at Grub Steak -- I always got the meatloaf and the wild rice and mushroom soup -- and one last movie at the Eccles. But I found the overall mood more resigned and pragmatic than emotional. Two different people said to me, "Park City doesn't want us here anymore. It feels like the city has already moved on." Adding to that feeling was that, as soon as the festival ended this year, the local Holiday Village theater, which was used for press & industry screenings, was scheduled to be bulldozed. (The theater had actually been closed for a while.) 

Journalists and film critics may have a lot of memories of coming to Sundance, but Park City as a whole seemed ready to be rid of us. And maybe the feeling was mutual: A fellow critic told me, in no uncertain terms, "I love Sundance, but I hate Park City," an acknowledgment, among other things, of the city and the state's conservative politics. Ironically, it turned out to be one of the warmest Sundances in memory: It was as if the city couldn't even be bothered to give visitors the obligatory snow and freezing temperatures. And then there were the horrors going on in America while we were at the festival. It was hard not to feel a little down in the mouth, despite the pleasure of being around so many people I enjoy so much.

As I've mentioned before, Sundance was my first film festival, so I have a fondness for the place. But Sundance's move creates an interesting question: Is a festival a location or something else? (I realize that Sundance actually started in Salt Lake City in the late 1970s, but I think it's fair to say most attendees associate Park City with Sundance.) A festival's ethos is woven into its location. True/False is Columbia, Missouri. Cannes is a tourist town in the south of France. If those festivals up and left, how would a new setting affect the movies I saw? It's something I've never thought about. Next year, I will a lot in Boulder.

* * * * *     

But how were the actual movies at the final Sundance in Park City? Pretty darn good. Below is a ranking of everything I saw before, after or during the festival. (Sundance's decision to continue to offer a streaming portal during the festival's final weekend is a great way to play catch-up.) Links lead to individual reviews. 

28. The Gallerist
27. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
26. See You When I See You
25. Run Amok
24. I Want Your Sex
23. Zi
22. Chasing Summer
21. Union County
20. The Invite
19. Time and Water
18. Sentient 
17. Buddy
16. Broken English
15. The Shitheads
14. The Oldest Person in the World
13. Leviticus 
12. Filipinana
11. One in a Million
10. The History of Concrete
9. Nuisance Bear
8. The Weight
7. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
6. Closure
5. Carousel
4. If I Go Will They Miss Me
3. Josephine
2. The Friend’s House Is Here
1. Once Upon a Time in Harlem

I am not the first person to note that the best film at this year's Sundance was made in 1972. David Greaves' Once Upon a Time in Harlem, built from footage shot by his father William 54 years ago, immediately joins the ranks of other recent documentaries like Summer of Soul and Amazing Grace that were believed to be lost to time. It's a revelation, narrowly edging out Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz's graceful, slyly subversive Tehran-set drama The Friend's House Is Here. I'm pretty high on my Top Five in particular, and look forward to seeing how they're received in the wider world. (Even in Park City, writer-director Rachel Lambert's prickly romantic drama Carousel was divisive. I expect a similar response going forward, although I contend it's a gem.)

Thanks for reading. If you'd like to hear me talking about the festival, I appeared on the Film Comment podcast not once but twice. I returned to Nicolas Rapold's The Last Thing I Saw. And before the festival started, I was invited to join Screen Rant senior film critic Gregory Nussen to discuss what Sundance film is the greatest ever. (I'm very happy with my choice.) On to the next one. 

The Film Comment Podcast: Wrapping Up Sundance 2026

On the last night I will probably ever spend in Park City, I hung out with Bilge Ebiri, Maddie Whittle and Devika Girish to discuss some of the films we saw at the tail end of Sundance. Those include The Weight, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, Chasing Summer and more. It was an epic conversation, which you can listen to below.

Catherine O'Hara, 1954-2026

What a shock: Catherine O'Hara is gone. For Rolling Stone, Jon Blistein and I pay tribute to a very funny woman. 

Marlene Dietrich - "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

I wasn't intending to feature Pete Seeger in back-to-back Friday Videos. But then I rewatched Bugonia.

'The Last Thing I Saw': Reviewing 'The Invite,' 'The Weight' and 'The Friend's House Is Here'

While at Sundance, I was back on Nicolas Rapold's superb podcast The Last Thing I Saw talking about festival films. Nic and I discussed The Invite, while I raved about The Weight and The Friend's House Is Here. And Nic put in a good word for the documentary All About the Money, which I have yet to see. You can hear our conversation down below.

Sundance 2026: 'Run Amok' Review

One of the sad, understandable trends in recent movies is films about school shootings. Add to the list Run Amok, in which a teenager decides to stage a musical to commemorate a fatal shooting that took place at her school 10 years ago. The film is audacious, but it's also very flawed. I reviewed Run Amok for Screen International. 

Sundance 2026: 'See You When I See You' Review

One of the bigger disappointments of this year's Sundance is See You When I See You, which is based on the true story of a comedian wrestling with his sister's suicide. I found the film surprisingly phony. I get into why in my Screen International review. 

Sundance 2026: 'The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist' Review

Navalny director Daniel Roher is starting a family, but in the age of AI he worries that maybe this is a terrible time to raise children. The AI Doc, which he co-directed, finds him talking to experts on both sides of the debate to learn more about what the future might look like. I was unpersuaded. My review is live at Screen International.

Sundance 2026: 'The Only Living Pickpocket in New York' Review

John Turturro rarely gets to be the lead in a movie. So there's plenty of reason to rejoice at the existence of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, in which he plays an expert thief who gets into a bind. Even better, though, is that the film is so darn entertaining. You can read my review here. 

Sundance 2026: 'Union County' Review

In Union County, Will Poulter plays an Ohio man trying to beat his opioid addiction after a stint in prison. The film includes a cast filled with real people in treatment, which lends the story an undeniable ring of authenticity. But is that enough? I reviewed the movie for Screen International.

Sundance 2026: 'Zi' Review

So, filmmaker Kogonada essentially made a movie in secret last year in Hong Kong. That movie is Zi, and it stars Michelle Mao as a woman diagnosed with a brain tumor who has an eventful 24 hours. My review is up at Screen International. 

Sundance 2026: 'The Weight' Review

Ethan Hawke has been on a roll lately. That continues with The Weight, a wonderfully old-fashioned action-drama about convicts in the 1930s having to transport gold, on foot, through the Oregon forest. My review is here. 

What Is the Best Sundance Movie of All Time?

Before I left for Park City, Screen Rant invited me to join their senior film critic Gregory Nussen for a podcast episode in which we each made our choice for the greatest Sundance movie ever. What did "greatest" mean? That was left to us to determine. Gregory went with Sex, Lies, and Videotape. I went with Hoop Dreams. Below, we talk about our picks. Hope you enjoy.

The Film Comment Podcast: 'The Gallerist,' 'I Want Your Sex' and 'The Invite'

 

I was very happy to be back on Film Comment's podcast, where I joined host Devika Girish and my pals Monica Castillo and Robert Daniels here in Park City. We eviscerated one film and debated another, and I then went solo on The Invite. Check out our lively conversation down below. 

 

Sundance 2026: 'The Shitheads' Review

Macon Blair was the big winner at Sundance 2017 with his film I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore. He returns with The Shitheads, about two losers (O'Shea Jackson Jr., Dave Franco) who are hired to drive a spoiled rich teen (Mason Thames) to rehab. Things go wrong quickly. My review is live over at Screen International. 

Sundance 2026: 'Once Upon a Time in Harlem' Review

Coming into this year's Sundance, the most anticipated film was actually shot in 1972. All those years ago, filmmaker William Greaves assembled the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance to reflect on the movement's legacy. That footage has finally been put together by his son. The result is extraordinary. Here's my review of Once Upon a Time in Harlem. 

Sundance 2026: 'The Invite' Review

In The Invite, Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen play an unhappy, sexless married couple. Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton play the couple who live upstairs. (They have a lot of sex.) What happens when they all hang out together one night? I reviewed this relationship film for Screen International. 

Sundance 2026: 'The Friend's House Is Here' Review

One of the best films I've seen at this year's Sundance is The Friend's House Is Here, about two young Iranian women who are happily living their lives. Things eventually get complicated, however. You can read my review here. 

Sundance 2026: 'Buddy' Review

Remember Too Many Cooks? The mastermind behind that viral sensation, Casper Kelly, has just made his first feature. Here's my review of the horror-comedy Buddy. 

Sundance 2026: 'I Want Your Sex' Review

Gregg Araki hasn't made a movie in more than a decade. He's back with a sex comedy about a pretentious artist (Olivia Wilde) who hires a new assistant (Cooper Hoffman) to be her sexual muse. For Screen International, I reviewed I Want Your Sex. 

'Sound of Falling' Review

Sound of Falling made the Oscar shortlist for both International Feature and Cinematography. Sadly, it failed to get a nomination in either category. I have been raving about this movie since I saw it at Cannes. I was very happy to extol its brilliance over at the Los Angeles Times.

Sundance 2026: 'Josephine' Review

In Josephine, the unimaginable happens: An eight-year-old girl witnesses a brutal rape in the middle of Golden Gate Park. How does the child process such a terrible event? My review is live over at Screen International. 

Sundance 2026: 'The History of Concrete' Review

Let the final Sundance at Park City begin. For Screen International, I reviewed The History of Concrete, a very enjoyable continuation of How to With John Wilson. You can read my thoughts here. 

Pete Seeger - "We Shall Overcome"

Every little bit helps.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' and Our Oscar Nomination Predictions

I leave for Sundance tomorrow. Thursday, the Oscar nominations are announced. But first, let's do a podcast. Will and I reviewed The Rip and the latest installment in the 28 Days Later franchise. And then we make some guesses about which people will and won't hear their names called on Thursday morning. Enjoy!

'Young Mothers' Review

When I started going to Cannes more than a decade ago, I realized, "Oh my god, I'm going to be able to see the Dardenne brothers' movies when they premiere!" They have been fixtures of the festival for decades, winning the Palme d'Or twice. I saw their latest, Young Mothers, last year at Cannes, and now it's out in the U.S. For the Los Angeles Times, I reviewed another solid effort from Jean-Pierre and Luc. 

A$AP Rocky (featuring Rod Stewart, Miguel and Mark Ronson) - "Everyday"

A$AP Rocky had a good 2025 on the big-screen, nailing key roles in both If I Had Legs I'd Kick You and Highest 2 Lowest. But let's not forget what a good rapper he is.

The 101 Best Los Angeles Movies

This has been in the works for a little while, so I'm glad it's finally out there in the world. The Los Angeles Times has put together a list of the all-time best L.A. movies. I didn't have a say in the final rankings, although I contributed a ballot alongside my fellow critics and journalists, but I did write several of the capsules. I was very happy to heap praise on Barton Fink, Devil in a Blue Dress, Die Hard, Inherent Vice, Killer of Sheep, Safe and A Woman Under the Influence. Check the whole list out here. 

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Sundance 2026 Preview, 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'

We are back! And we're finally getting around to discussing the new Avatar. Plus, I offer my take on five Sundance movies that look really promising, including John Wilson's The History of Concrete. Check out the conversation down below.

'A Private Life' Review

Jodie Foster in a French-language whodunit that's also a romantic drama? Sign me up, although I do wish I liked A Private Life a little more than I did. My tempered recommendation is over at the A.V. Club. 

My Interview With Gus Van Sant and Austin Kolodney, the Team Behind 'Dead Man's Wire'

Dead Man's Wire is one of Gus Van Sant's strongest films in years. And it's writer Austin Kolodney's first big-screen credit. For Screen International, I talked to each of them about this long-in-the-works real-life thriller ... and how a comment made by Werner Herzog helped influence the final product. You can read our conversation here. 

'Press Play With Madeleine Brand': 'Greenland 2: Migration,' 'Dead Man's Wire' and a Mad Monkey

Plenty to discuss on Press Play, where Witney Seibold and I reviewed disaster movies, horror flicks, 1970s dramas and All That's Left of You. Check out our segment down below.

'All That's Left of You' Review

All That's Left of You is on the shortlist for the Best International Feature Oscar. Over at the Los Angeles Times, I reviewed Cherien Dabis' heartfelt, dutiful portrait of 70 years of Palestinian history told through the prism of one family. You can read my thoughts here.

'Primate' Review

It's the new year! My first review of 2026 is for a very dumb, very gory, very effective horror film about a chimpanzee who goes berserk. You can read my thoughts on Primate here. 

Hayley Williams - "Parachute"

Paramore never did much for me, but I know they are beloved in some music circles. Ditto the band's frontwoman. To which I'll say I enjoy this song off her 2025 solo album well enough, and leave it at that.

'No Other Choice' Review

Job market getting you down? Maybe you should consider killing the competition, literally. For the Los Angeles Times, I reviewed Park Chan-wook's dark comedic thriller No Other Choice. 

My Interview With Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Star of 'Sentimental Value'

When people heard that Worst Person in the World filmmaker Joachim Trier was reuniting with his star Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value, most weren't familiar with the actor who would be playing Reinsve's sister, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. Well, she's now probably going to get an Oscar nomination for her role, so it seems like a good time to learn a little about her. 

That's where I come in: I hung out with Lilleaas on a rainy November afternoon to talk about the film, her career and what comes next. A delightful conversation, which you can read here. 

(Photo by Evelyn Freja.) 

Bela Tarr, 1955-2026

A couple years ago, I had the immense pleasure of moderating a Q&A with Bela Tarr after a screening of his final film, The Turin Horse. He was great. Today for Rolling Stone, I pay tribute to an iconic filmmaker. You can read my piece here. 

Cesar Lopez - "Memoria"

Here's a little instrumental beauty for your first Friday of 2026.