Reviews of the Bosch

There are few horror movies in recent years that ended on a more exhilarating note than Ready or Not , a relatively cheap film combining violent tension and humour and just generally punching way above its weight. That image of Samara Weaving, drenched in blood after the Satanic family she almost married into exploded in validation of their cultish beliefs, sitting on the steps of their mansion coldly smoking a cigarette has to be one of the great moments of modern horror. The punch-line she delivers to arriving officers is a perfect punctuation as well. But because Ready or Not  was such an unexpected hit, eventually we arrive at the obligatory sequel, odiously titled Ready or Not 2: Here I Come . Seven years later, it brings back the original directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett -who in the interim revived the Scream  franchise for two movies and made a good vampire film equivalent of Ready or Not  called Abigail . Additionally Fox Searchlight more than dou...

Andy Weir is very respected for his detailed hard science-fiction storytelling -as in the concepts and technology and general science of his stories holds up to scrutiny and authenticity with regards to his premises. And it is actually a very compelling method of relating the high concepts he explores. The Martian  is enthralling because of this -what would it realistically take to survive on Mars? Add in a bit of tension and humour, and a device with which to essentially educate the audience and it becomes something like a fun theoretical experiment in a science class. There is less of that in Project Hail Mary , which does at times veer more into the implausible than The Martian  -perhaps due to it dealing with the subject of aliens. But it is still intriguing via Drew Goddard’s adaptation, and what it loses in some of the ingenuity to its technical character it makes up for in a significant strength of psychological character. This is a movie about a lonely, insecure man -s...

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is exactly what I expected, which is to say, not at all what I would anticipate for a person’s first feature. Stewart has a very singular personality and perspective, and I figured that would translate into a very distinct directorial style -but I didn’t know exactly how it would manifest. As it turns out, it is a perfect distillation of her character and instincts in cinematic form -uncompromising, organic, a little bit eerie, experimental, and beautiful; a fairly enrapturing movie that speaks to a vivid talent with an incredibly promising future behind the camera. The Chronology of Water  is not, as I assumed, the biopic of an Olympic swimmer. It’s not my fault, the title and imagery associated with this movie since its debut at Cannes last year has fostered that supposition. It is about a person who aspires to that, but the dream is dashed relatively early on -and unlike in conventional biographic films- is never picked up again as some grand ...

As I stated more than a month ago , 2025 was a particularly good year for movies, producing multiple films destined to become classics. The Academy Awards celebrating those films was perhaps not quite reflective of the bombast that might deserve, but that was okay. The Oscars are meant to be a ceremony not a spectacle, and it feels like it has taken some time for them to fully understand that. The spectacle is certainly still there in some respects -hello, grand elaborate performances of “I Lied to You” and “Golden”- but it does feel more earnestly about the honouring of artists itself, if maybe reluctantly so. A few times through the night where the music was cutting off a winner’s speech it soon cut back to them to let them finish. I wonder if the stigma against the show’s producers from the artistic community and the Oscars’ chief viewership might have spooked them? Or maybe it was just Conan O’Brien refusing to play along. Conan proved a fantastic host at last years’ Oscars -a nat...