Lovers and Other Strangers (Blu-ray) <small>by Justin Remer</small><hr /> The Movie: Weddings are inherently multi-layered affairs, invested with sentiment, bedeviled by chaos, and informed by dozens of ongoing small- and large-scale dramas. It's no surprise then that weddings are frequent inspirations for stories of wildly different stripes, from Robert Altman's A Wedding to Game of Thrones to Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates (and far beyond). One of the thing...Read the entire review »

Creed II (Blu-ray) <small>by Oktay Ege Kozak</small><hr /> The Movie: Creed II is essentially Rocky II to Creed's Rocky. It's not as groundbreaking and rousing as the first film, and pretty much follows in the footsteps of the same story structure, but expertly delivers on the tone and energy we would expect from a solid sequel. Let's hope that this parallel stops here, so we won't get an 80s talking robot falling in love with Tessa Thompson's character by the time we get to Creed IV. I remain astonished that the worst film in the Rocky franchise, the Reagan wet dream feature length music video known as Rocky IV, has produced two good spin-off flicks that not only kept the franchise alive, but veered it to an exciting new generation of fans. In Rocky IV, Carl Weathers' Apollo Creed's death at the hands of Dolph Lundgren's Russian supermachine Ivan Drago was used as a desperate attempt to give Sylvester...Read the entire review »

Willard (Blu-ray) <small>by Oktay Ege Kozak</small><hr /> The Movie: Despite all of its shortcomings, Willard has two major advantages going for it: One, it has a killer premise that melds elements from moody, psychological horror and gothic creature feature. Two, it finally recognizes Crispin Glover as a leading man for the genre. Let's dive into the first one. Writer/Director Glen Morgan, with some clout from writing the first Final Destination (Unintentional oxymoron) and multiple X-Files episodes, was able to put together an unconventional horror tragedy that could both be emotionally relatable and stylistically, for lack of a better word, embellished. In order to pull off this tonal tightrope act, he needed a lead who could carry the moral duality of old Universal monsters. Boris Karloff could come across as menacing and scary, but he could also convey the downtrodden and outcast part of humanity. Crispin Glover...Read the entire review »

Sesame Street: Celebrate Family <small>by Ryan Keefer</small><hr /> The Movie: I learned early on as the father of a newborn that the magic of Sesame Street is real. Look, everyone tells you that you should limit your child's exposure to television and we do that in our home, but sometime you've got to do meal prep for said child and be focused on it, and showing your little one how Big Bird, Bert, Ernie and Oscar roll. "Celebrate Family" shows the young one in your house five separate stories that highlight families in various contexts; new (or at least recent) character Abby has dinner at Elmo's house and watches his family work to make dinner, and we see Elmo's Dad. Cookie Monster and his mother have some time as the former tries to figure out a last-minute Mother's Day gift, and Abby meets her new stepbrother. Perhaps one of the things that makes Sesame Street such a long-standing tool in the family toolbox is that it doesn't...Read the entire review »