Mike Tyrkus

Even though it may be the most anticipated theatrical opening of the past year, especially given that we are ourselves caught in a bewildering pandemic reality wherein each one of us we may tend to question what exactly is reality these days, the fact that writer/director Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited Tenet is both equally remarkable and utterly confounding, yet somehow entirely forgettable, ma...[Read More]

Director Julie Taymor’s often entertaining, yet occasionally whimsical, biography of the feminist icon Gloria Steinem, The Glorias, covers over eighty years of Steinem’s amazing and remarkable life. A feat that is achieved by the portrayal of the subject by no less than four distinctly original actresses at four disparate periods of Steinem’s story. Crafted from Steinem’s memoir, My Life on the Ro...[Read More]

At first glance, writer/director Miranda July’s film Kajillionaire may seem like a stark commentary on the times as well as a sardonic look at the familial dynamic in the twenty-first century, but there is a lot more to unpack in the filmmaker’s third theatrical offering. Aided by a stellar performance from Evan Rachel Wood, Kajillionaire manages to create a snapshot of a specific moment in histor...[Read More]

With Enola Holmes, Netflix seems hopeful to establish a franchise based on the teenaged sister of super detective Sherlock Holmes, as portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown. The fact that she herself is a similarly gifted, if not more so, detective in her own right as her sibling only adds to the charm and likability of the character, and the film as a whole. Enola Holmes (Brown) sets out on her sixteent...[Read More]

The captivating new documentary, The Way I See It, chronicles the years that photographer Pete Souza spent as the White House Staff Photographer—first, briefly under Ronald Reagan, and then Barack Obama (though it mostly focuses on the Obama years)—and then on a tour promoting his bestselling book from 2018, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents. Following the Obama presidency, Souza became a celebrity ...[Read More]

The provocative and timely thriller/pseudo horror film Antebellum arrives at a particularly divisive time in American history that, perhaps mirrors the period it depicts so splendidly onscreen. As the country struggles to finds its moral way amidst a tide of social change that seems to be pushing the ideals of the Constitution aside for those of individuals, this film serves as a reminder of exact...[Read More]

Although the new thriller, Rent-A-Pal, is an occasionally encouraging debut feature from director Jon Stevenson, it fails to succeed fully on enough levels that it leaves less on the table for this particular outing than it does setting the table for the director’s next endeavor, whatever that may be. Set in a dreary Denver, Colorado in the early 1990s, Rent-A-Pal follows David (Brian Landis Folki...[Read More]

There is a certain cinematic gravitas associated with the name Charlie Kaufman when it appears in the credits either before or after the title of a film. He has, after all, delivered some of the more stunning screenplays of the past couple decades (films like Being John Malkovich [1999], Adaptation [2002], and Anomalisa [2015] are particular highlights). So, it is a bit disappointing then that his...[Read More]

Even though the new thriller, Centigrade, is beset by a few issues that prevent it from being a truly great entry to the genre, it is still a tremendously effective exploration of the effects a fight for survival has on a relationship that perhaps is not as strong as was initially thought. The scene is set somewhat simplistically as a young American couple, Matthew (Vincent Piazza) and pregnant Na...[Read More]

While the resting image from the new film Tesla may not have been intended to be the sight of Ethan Hawke as the titular iconic inventor singing—on what appears to be an open mic stage setting (and in character)—the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” it is, in fact, rather difficult to wrest that performance out of one’s psyche when ultimately evaluating the entirety of the ...[Read More]

The intense, often nerve-wracking, yet thoroughly enjoyable genre film Sputnik is also the debut for Russian director Egor Abramenko. This is a film that sports echoes of other classics of the horror/science fiction ilk like Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), or even John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing (1982). Abramenko, however, displays a singular style with an impressive first feature that portends ...[Read More]

Apparently even potential politicians have their own summer camps where, over the course of a week each summer, participants are gathered in various capitols across the country to discuss politics, hold elections, compete with each other in mock legislatures, and have frequent and very authentic arguments. One such camp, held in Austin, Texas in 2018, is the subject of Boys State, an enthralling d...[Read More]