Reviews of the Bosch

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...

If you look deeply and between the lines, there is a profound sentiment at the heart of Pixar’s Hoppers . All nature, animals and humans, exist in symbiosis with each other, and the preservation of that natural contract depends on empathy and working together for the good of everyone and everything. It is a notion that we should all be able to get behind. But one person’s good is sadly not everybody’s. And though director and story architect Daniel Chong may disagree, not everyone can be compelled to do the right thing. Especially in the world of environmentalism and conservation, fights are rarely won (and then only pyrrhically) through compromise. He may understand this himself, his film openly notes the inconsistency of the laws that make up “Pond Rules”, but he is happy not to interrogate that for the sake of his broader theme. It’s a real shame because the film suffers for it. It’s not the only problem with this film, though it is rather blatant. Even in this very formless era...