GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE is a titanically fun team up
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
If King of the Monsters is “Stairway to Heaven,” The New Empire is “Running With The Devil.”
DUNE: PART TWO is a beautiful book report
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
The spice expands consciousness–I wish Denis Villeneuve had at least experimented with it before he decided to navigate the spaceways of this science fiction epic.
IO CAPITANO has familiar pieces but puts them together for a unique and moving whole
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Io Capitano is getting deserved attention for being a nominee for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars, and rightly so.
Romance Week: Let's Do the Time Loop (Again)
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor
Some of the more effective “enemies to lovers” romances in cinema use the science fiction trope of the time loop to great effect.
FERRARI is a haunted, obsessive relationship drama powered by beautiful engines
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
What are the things we desire, and how do we measure that want against the pain and damage they can cause?
Ryan's Top 15 Movies of 2023
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Trying to pick 15 films I wanted to highlight as the best of the year is an impossible task. But the important thing to remember is that you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.
Ryan’s Top 15 Discoveries of 2023
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
This is my favorite list to put together every year. I watched a ton of “new to me” movies this year, and so many of them brought me joy that it was hard to even narrow down to just 15,
WISH is a heartwarming fairy tale and tribute to Disney’s past
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Wish is a heartwarming and celebratory confection bursting with deftly handled easter eggs to the studio’s past work.
MAESTRO allows for only a simplistic portrait of a complicated man
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Leonard Bernstein worried about classical music fading out of the culture within his own lifetime, and sadly, Maestro will not even register as any sort of corrective about why his works are important.
NAPOLEON balances the epic and intimate while showing the absurdity of tyrants
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
History is not moved by the vision of great men but by the pettiness of small ones.
THE MARVELS shines whenever it escapes the gravity of the larger MCU
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
The Marvels is a movie that loves its characters, flaws and all, and wants to share that love with the audience.
How To Start Watching: Invisible Funny Assholes
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor
If there is one thing that unites all of these invisible people is that they tend to be assholes. The best kind, as we will see, are funny assholes, using invisibility in a playful way, at least until they lose their minds.
Here there Be Dragons: 6 Favorite Sea Monsters
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Here are six of my favorite beasts from beneath the sea!
We the Undead: American Vampires on Screen
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
American vampires retain an outsider status, but more expressly tied to youthful dissatisfaction or minority/queer identities.
THE CREATOR is a new kind of science fiction blockbuster
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
The Creator feels like a miracle of a movie. An original science fiction blockbuster not based on any preexisting work with legitimate movie stars, with an auteur director left to his own devices feels like a rare occurrence.
STOP MAKING SENSE remains perfect, no notes
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Stop Making Sense is the ultimate concert movie, and remains an essential text for the form as well as a perfect document of the joy to be found in the Talking Heads music.
Printing the Legend: Loosing an ARROW or two at the “white man’s burden”
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
These films–released seven years apart–demonstrate how it comes down to a movie-by-move basis for how indigenous peoples are treated on screen.
Printing the Legend: Do not forsake me, O my darling – HIGH NOON and HUAC
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
High Noon isn’t a paranoid thriller, with walls closing in around Kane thanks to some mysterious conspiracy, this is a Frank Capra hero living in Pottersville.
Flop and Fizzle #4: All hail David Bowie, the Goblin King of LABYRINTH
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
Growing up as a fan of The Muppets (especially The Great Muppet Caper and the 90s literary adaptations) spurred me to seek out other works by Jim Henson, namely The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.
OPPENHEIMER is a grandiose, hyperverbal meditation on scientific and political power
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
We've grown up in the shadow of the ultimate destructive knowledge.