Benji (2018)

'Tuca and Bertie' (2019) is an animated series centering around best friends of the same name as they traverse the challenges of their thirties. 

A short film that begins with the language of romance but slowly reveals something far more unsettling beneath the surface.

Episode 3, entitled “Now in Color,” brings us to the 1970s — a decade full of vibrancy, color, and total mayhem.

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.

In all honesty, “Black and Blue” is a satisfying experience, complete with solid craftsmanship. With the help of cinematographer Dante Spinotti, Deon Taylor (the director) creates a murky, lived in atmosphere.

Him is visually stunning—all concrete cathedrals and bone-rattling impact shots that look like a nightmare highlight reel. Marlon Wayans is magnetic as this legendary quarterback who's basically selling salvation with a smile that never quite reaches his eyes. But the story keeps running in circles: more tests, more cryptic pep talks, more ritualistic drills. The sports-as-religion metaphor beats you over the head when subtlety would've been more effective. The middle drags, and that finale chooses spectacle over substance. It's undeniably stylish, but left me cold. Also worth noting: despite the Monkeypaw connection, this isn't actually a Jordan Peele film—he didn't write or direct.