Vampires Anonymous (2003)

I write for a diversity-focused film review blog, so I’ll be honest: I really wanted to like Pretty Lethal. Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds, Amazon Prime’s new thriller seemed like it would be a girl power movie about dancers with a horror action twist. Sort of a Suspiria for teens. But with shallow and unlikeable characters, a confusing plot, an overreliance on violence, and cringey dialogue, any fun the movie started out with was quickly lost. What was left was a faint echo of greater horror movies about dancers made before. 

The clever but socially-awkward Tetê joins a new school, and she'll do anything to fit in.

'The Mad Woman and the Feminist': This Spanish entry for the MiamisFF directed by Sandra Gallego handles a difficult conversation in a smart, memorable way.

The history of Hollywood is as ugly as it is beautiful. Most notably absent from Hollywood history are Black-produced films. “They’ve Gotta Have Us” explores the rise of Black cinema.

The [SPOILER-Free] story of Jurassic World: Dominion is that the humans never learned from their mistakes from the previous films, science is still running amok, and the world is paying the price.