Witney Seibold

Schoenbrun's new film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is also a profound and emotional work of media analysis, this time targeting the corny, sexist, transphobic slasher movies that Gen-X grew up watching in the 1980s.

It's fodder. Content. Colorful, and somehow drab. Full of incident, and somehow inert. Full of familiar, beloved songs that, in live-action, are obfuscated by visual and aural noise. Despite being a story of ancient people righting the previously imbalanced balance of nature, it looks flat and artificial. 

A solid 20 minutes of this film is nothing but disconnected vignettes and freestyle spoofery that can, even when not especially funny, be admired for its directionless chaos.

Is God Is is an amazing piece of work. One of those "bolt from the blue" movies that is coming from a new artist with a new voice that audiences and critics alike will look forward to hearing again. This is Harris' first feature film, and I am eager to see more.

"Michael" emerges as whatever the opposite of a warts-and-all biography is. This is a polished, flavorless, cracks-free paean to Jackson, celebrating his highs and only sometimes looking at the lows, as if they were mere dust-bunnies under the couch.

In terms of cheap, late-night, exploitation flick fun, it satisfies.

If you hand Paul Feig a good script, he becomes a better director. With "The Housemaid," he doesn't just explore his characters well, but wisely delves into themes of class. The dishonesty of the rich dangles over "The Housemaid," pointing out how wealth is a moral trap. It's alluring and dangerous. Wealth is practically a living creature. It seems to be dazzling and charming and seductive, but hides its true intentions, fangs secretly in its otherwise perfect smile.

Jared Leto also proves to be a less-than-stellar leading man.

It's not that big, it's hardly bold, and it's only beautiful on its surface. It could have been a journey.

Will Nobody 2 set hearts aflame? No. If this had been the first "Nobody," no one would have been clamoring for a sequel. But it is a glorious Saturday matinée, a brisk trifle for the waning days of summer. It's the kind of movie that you'll remember better for the friends you saw it with than the movie itself. And that can be one of cinema's most important functions.