Joseph Beyer | Author
Film Review: Folktales
Aug. 16, 2025
Since the mid 19th century, immigrant settlers from the Scandinavian lands of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have been leaving their mark on Anishnaabek Aki, these spectacular lands of abundance connected by powerful waters we get to call home.
As modern Michiganders, we are s…
Read More >>
Film Review: The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Aug. 2, 2025
In a culture where AI can create spectacular visual effects at the tap of a button on our phones, at a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become as complex as our own galaxy, within a summer movie season already stockpiled with superheroes, The Fantastic Four: First Steps …
Read More >>
Film Review: Shark Whisperer
July 19, 2025
Launched in July of 1988 by Discovery Channel, Shark Week (mother-f’ers) quickly became a cultural phenomenon: combining our social fear and fascination for sharks into a primetime bingeable opportunity of shark content that went viral.
37 years later, Shark Week has turned in…
Read More >>
Film Review: F1
July 5, 2025
With an old-fashioned but satisfying plotline, dazzling modern camerawork, and a movie star that literally lights up the screen, the new drama F1 is sometimes so realistic you may find yourself smelling oil, grease, or ethanol and swearing it’s coming from the theater.
<… Read More >>Film Review: Pee-wee as Himself
June 21, 2025
Pee-wee Herman is his name, don’t wear it out! And if, like me, you grew up in the 1980s with the offbeat and mischievous comedian / performance-artist / television and movie star, I predict the experience of watching the new two-part documentary of his life on HBO will be a nostalgic…
Read More >>
Film Review: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
June 7, 2025
Without being macabre, can you close your eyes now, and picture the depth and breadth of accolades, debate, and intensity that will come someday when Tom Cruise is not singlehandedly holding up the entire theatrical motion picture industry? After four decades in the risky (show) business, t…
Read More >>
Film Review: The Surfer
May 24, 2025
In an ocean of mediocre and repetitive summer blockbusters, the new independent film The Surfer swims alone as an original and unexpected cinematic experience. I loved it. For fans of the enigmatic and sometimes deranged performances of actor Nicolas Cage, it provides another leadi…
Read More >>
Film Review: Thunderbolts*
May 17, 2025
With a notable asterisk in the title, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded this summer with the long-anticipated release of Thunderbolts*, the 36th film in the MCU, and for those passionate enough to keep following along, the final installment of Phase 5 of the ongoing narrat…
Read More >>
Film Review: Sinners
April 26, 2025
Writer and director Ryan Coogler is one of the more unlikely success stories there has ever been in film. And with his latest genuinely epic opus Sinners, he has, at age 38, already conquered the box office while staying wonderfully true to his unique style and voice.
This …
Read More >>
Film Review: Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series
April 12, 2025
As a former Angeleno who once spent lazy afternoons at Dodger Stadium watching the groundskeepers (in a time when you could still walk in on game days and sit in the stands with the sports reporters), I was immediately drawn to the new three-part documentary series Fight for Glory: 2024…
Read More >>
March 22, 2025 With a $320 million budget (the largest single content investment in Netflix history); the multi-hyphenated creative duo Joe and Anthony Russo behind it, alumni of directing four Marvel Cinematic Universe hits; a storyline with ROBOTS ROBOTS ROBOTS, and a cast with more stars than the Milky…
Read More >>
March 15, 2025 While the glitter and shine from the 97th annual Academy Awards is still hanging in the air, and with geopolitical unrest all around us, allow me to button up this awards season with one last recommendation before the curtain falls (on the film industry and/or America respectively). Feb. 22, 2025 There is something to be said for not knowing anything in advance about the fascinating new documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which knocked me out with its fresh and creative riffs and the depth of 20th-century history it brought back to life. Using found foota…
Read More >>
Feb. 15, 2025 With an elongated running time of 3 hours and 35 minutes (which doesn’t even include the mandated 15 minute theatrical intermission), director Brady Corbet’s epic drama The Brutalist is not for the faint of heart or time. Should you decide, after 10 recent Acade…
Read More >>
Jan. 25, 2025 You might be forgiven if, like me, you were suspicious about another independent film directed by yet another director with the last name Coppola. Of course there’s the patriarch Francis Ford (The Godfather), then his daughter Sofia (Lost in Translation), then his so…
Read More >>
Jan. 11, 2025 With lifetime record sales approaching over 150 million albums, writer and musician Bob Dylan is one of America’s greatest artistic exports. From the beginning, he wanted the music to be remembered even as he dodged the almost-instant fame and attention it brought. In 2016, he was awa…
Read More >>
Dec. 14, 2024 It’s been 15 years since actor Jesse Eisenberg broke onto the cinema scene: first in the cult classic Zombieland and then more famously portraying the founder of Facebook in The Social Network. The latter earned him nominations at the 2010 Golden Globes and Academy A…
Read More >>
Nov. 30, 2024 Ridley Scott is one of the most prolific Hollywood directors, with a whopping list of 60 iconic films notched into his career belt, including the cultural phenomenon Gladiator, which won Best Picture at the 2001 Academy Awards. It was a rare moment as the film wasn’t honored …
Read More >>
Nov. 16, 2024 While there aren’t many Lutheran or Presbyterian thrillers out there in the multiplexes, audiences can always count on the world of Catholicism to return to the big screen. Vatican City alone is so cinematic and intriguing there are over 40 films set there, according to Wikipedia. So …
Read More >>
Nov. 2, 2024 The most interesting and heartfelt “buddy film” of the year is also a true story. In Netflix’s Will & Harper, we find an intimate and vulnerable documentary about a longtime relationship that also becomes an intentional allegory for America’s reckoning w…
Read More >>
Film Review: The Electric State
Film Review: The Apprentice
Film Review: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Film Review: The Brutalist
Film Review: The Last Showgirl
Film Review: "A Complete Unknown"
Film Review: "A Real Pain"
Film Review: Gladiator II
Film Review: Conclave
Film Review: Will & Harper