Toronto 2025: 'Hamnet' Review

The consensus best film out of fall festival season? That would be Hamnet, Chloe Zhao's delicate love story. I reviewed the movie for Screen International.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Previewing Fall Festival Season and 'Paris, Texas'

Greetings from Venice. Before I left for the festival, Will and I recorded an episode looking at the movies we're most intrigued by that will be premiering here, Telluride or Toronto. Lots of good stuff there. Then, we go back to 1984's Paris, Texas, which I now really need to see on the big screen. Check out our conversation down below. 

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Wicked' vs. 'Gladiator II'

On this week's podcast, we look at the two big movies that opened over last weekend. (Turns out, we disagree on both of them.) And then we spend a little time with The Piano Lesson. Check out the show down below.

'Press Play With Madeleine Brand': Oz, Rome and 'The Piano Lesson'

It's a big movie weekend. Should you see Wicked? Gladiator II? What about The Piano Lesson? Christy Lemire and I were on KCRW today to offer our thoughts. Check out the segment down below.

'Gladiator II' Review

Gladiator II doesn't have Russell Crowe, but it does have Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal. Is that an upgrade? My review is up at Screen International.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Covering a Lot of Movies in a Short Amount of Time

In mid-December, we always do a lightning-round episode where we review a bunch of holiday/award-season movies, spending about 10 minutes on each. This year, we tackled seven: American Fiction, All of Us Strangers, Origin, Wonka, The Boy and the Heron, Ferrari and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. We disagreed on three of them. Check it out down below.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Our Big Fall Film Festival Preview and 'Dr. Strangelove'

On this week's episode, we select the films playing in Venice, Telluride and Toronto that we're most excited about. Then, we go back to 1964 to discuss Dr. Strangelove. Where does it rank among my favorites of Stanley Kubrick? Listen here:

The Big 2022 Movie Draft on 'The Extra Credits'

This was fun: The hosts of The Extra Credits had Will and me on to participate in a draft of last year's best movies. The rules were that we'd each get five picks, and then we'd let the listeners choose whose slate was the best. You can hear our draft and deliberations down below. If you wanted a decent overview of the 20 most worthwhile/noteworthy movies of 2022, this is a good place to start.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: The Best Films of 2022

It's that time of year again. Will and I each count down our Top 10 films of 2022 on this week's episode. Hope you enjoy.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Raving About 'The Eternal Daughter' and 'Aftersun'

Three new movies to review this week, and they're all good. One is Violent Night, but the other two are the stunning The Eternal Daughter and Aftersun. Lots to dig into, which we do down below.

My Interview With Paul Mescal and Charlotte Wells

Aftersun is one of the year's best films. For the Los Angeles Times, I spoke to its star and its writer-director to try to unravel some of the mysteries of their delicate stunner. I was really pleased with how this turned out. Hope you enjoy.

'Normal People' Review

For MEL, I reviewed Hulu's highly anticipated adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel Normal People. (Spoiler: I found it pretty lovely.)