An Almost Christmas Story (2024)

This current year, as well as the past several, has seen a slowly building increase in something the horror genre has required for quite a while in this critic's opinion...originality. I've stated before that I am very hard to please when it comes to this vein of the film industry's offerings, always leaning more towards that which sends chills through my very being in lieu of buckets of blood and gore.

Fire Island is Hulu's most recent romantic comedy and the latest spin on the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice.

With The Father, writer-director Florian Zeller- who wrote and developed the play upon which the film is based- pulls no punches as he confidently makes every effort to put the audience in the mind of someone whose grip on reality has all but vanished. It’s a dazzling testament to Zeller’s abilities as a director as he makes his first transition from stage to film appear as if he’s been working behind a camera his entire career. The dialogue he fashions with co-writer Christopher Hampton, along with the work of production designers Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone, collectively makes the downward spiral of dementia startlingly tangible, doing so in a way that can be comprehended by everyone except the person it directly affects.

Hutch just wanted a family vacation, but chaos follows him everywhere. Nobody 2 is violent, stylish, and over-the-top in the best way possible.

Sinister and suffocating, 2022's The Black Phone delivered more than just scares - it brought atmosphere, depth, and a villain audiences won't soon forget.