Sean P. Means

a man is standing on the side of the road in front of a police car with a license plate that starts with the letter t. ALT: a man is standing on the side of the road in front of a police car with a license plate that starts with the letter t.

I'll be talking movies on "Radio From Hell" (@radiofromhell.bsky.social), Friday at 7 a.m. Mountain time on X96.

We're one weekend away from the 98th Academy Awards, so get your homework done and watch some of the contenders. "One Battle After Another" is a good one to catch up on.
4/4

Review: Oscar-nominated documentary shorts deliver half-hour looks at big issues — and one beautifully strange walk around an observatory — The Movie Cricket Four of the five nominees for the 98th Academy Awards in the documentary short categories are more than 30 minutes long and take oblique looks at some of the thorniest issues of our time — school shoo...

Four of this year's Oscar-nominated documentary shorts present unusual angles to long-simmering problems, like school shootings, abortion access and wars in Ukraine and Gaza. So why does a wordless look at donkeys appeal like it does?
3/4
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Review: 'The Bride!' nearly falls to pieces, but Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley create monsters with beating hearts — The Movie Cricket After proving her directing skills with the tricky material of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter,” writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal takes on one of the classics of literature and film — the bride o...

"The Bride!" should have everything going for it: An unhinged take on "The Bride of Frankenstein" by a hot director (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and solid casting with Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley as the monsters. But the pieces never really come together.
2/4
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Review: 'Hoppers' is Pixar's delightful return to form, a glorious mix of strong animation and lots of humor in the animal kingdom — The Movie Cricket Whew. Pixar, you had us worried there for a little while, with a string of not-so-amazing movies — “Elio,” “Inside Out 2,” “Elemental” and “Lightyear” — and some great movies, like “Turning Red,” “Luc...

Pixar's back in form with "Hoppers," a funny and heartwarming story of an animal lover (voiced by Piper Curda) who gets her brain put into a robot beaver to communicate with animals. Great jokes, and a nice message about looking out for other critters.
1/4
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a man in a white suit is singing into a microphone on stage ALT: a man in a white suit is singing into a microphone on stage

I'll be back talking movies on "Radio From Hell" (@radiofromhell.bsky.social), Friday at 7 a.m. Mountain time on X96.

One thing opening this week that I didn't see is "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert," which resurrects a long-buried film archive of The King. I can't wait to see it.
3/3

Review: This year's Oscar-nominated animated and live-action shorts are 10 solid stories, with a couple of standouts — The Movie Cricket This year’s Academy Award nominees in the animated short and live-action short categories are uniformly good, and in some cases great. It’s a relief to say there’s not a clunker in the bunch. The dis...

The Oscars are a few weeks away, and a good way to celebrate is to watch the nominees in the short-film categories. The Broadway has the live-action and animated shorts this week, and they are all quite good. (The documentary shorts play next week.)
2/3
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Review: 'Scream 7' brings back Neve Campbell to the 'final girl' role that made her a star, but this time nostalgia's the real killer — The Movie Cricket Thirty years after Wes Craven’s thriller “Scream” launched a meta-slasher series, the new installment “Scream 7” has become what the franchise always despised — a by-the-numbers bloodbath. The one up...

The big new movie this week is "Scream 7," which brings Neve Campbell back to the meta-horror franchise that made her a star 30 years ago. She's the only good thing in this one, which is a bigger nostalgia cash grab than most legacy sequels.
1/3
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Son of ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ star Mary Cosby dies at 23 Robert Cosby Jr., the son of "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Mary Cosby, has died at 23. His candid struggles with substance misuse were highlighted on the Utah reality show.

Robert Cosby Jr., the son of "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Mary Cosby, has died at 23. His candid struggles with substance misuse were highlighted on the Utah reality show.

a close up of a woman 's face with the words scream 7 behind her ALT: a close up of a woman 's face with the words scream 7 behind her

I won't be doing my weekly appearance on @radiofromhell.bsky.social on Friday. Listen to them on X96 anyway.

Next week, we'll get the return of Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott to the "Scream" franchise with "Scream 7." We'll see how that goes.
2/2

Review: 'Pillion' presents the sexual dynamics between a studly biker and his young submissive with an unflinching eye, and finds tender romance beneath the leather surface. — The Movie Cricket If you’ve heard anything about writer-director Harry Lighton’s bondage-themed drama “Pillion,” you may already know that it’s unflinching in its portrayal of a young man’s sexual exploits as a submiss...

I took a week off from the movie game. My one review is for "Pillion," a drama with Alexander Skarsgård as a motorcycle club leader training a new submissive (Harry Melling). It's got a narrow audience, but that group may find it surprisingly romantic.
1/2
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Frederick Wiseman changed the way we see the world.

From the classrooms of High School to the corridors of Hospital, he turned his camera on the institutions that shape us — inviting us to look closer, sit longer & confront truth with empathy. 

May his memory be a blessing.

Tom Noonan, Star of Michael Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ and ‘Heat,’ Dies at 74 The actor died on Valentine's Day, according to 'The Monster Squad' director Fred Dekker: "The world has lost a great talent."

Tom Noonan was a nice guy who played a lot of bad people, in "Manhunter," "Heat" and "Last Action Hero." I met him at Sundance in 1994, when he directed a movie adaptation of his two-person play, "What Happened Was…", which won the Grand Jury Prize.
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

I'll be talking movies on "Radio From Hell" (@radiofromhell.bsky.social), Friday at 7 a.m. Mountain time on X96.

Next week brings us "Pillion," in case you want to see Alexander Skarsgard and Henry Melling (the guy who played Dudley Dursley) in some motorcycle-based BDSM.
4/4

Review: 'Scarlet' is a boldly realized trip through an animated underworld, from the wild imagination of 'Mirai' director Mamoru Hosoda — The Movie Cricket The Japanese animated wonder “Scarlet” is an eye-popping and fiercely colorful work from director Mamoru Hosoda — and it stands shoulder to shoulder with his previous films, like “Mirai” or “Belle,” i...

Another animated treat is "Scarlet." The creator of "Mirai" and "Belle," Mamuro Hosoda, repitches "Hamlet" with a female protagonist venturing through the underworld. The digitally enhanced line animation is stunning, as is the imaginative animation.
3/4
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Review: "Wuthering Heights" is a delirious, delicious mess of a romance, with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi steaming up Emily Brontë's classic — The Movie Cricket Some people consider Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel “Wuthering Heights” not just a great romance novel but THE great romance novel, against which every love story is measured. So director-writer Emerald Fe...

This week's other big release is "Wuthering Heights," director Emerald Fennell's rain-drenched adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic romance. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi — Barbie and hot Frankenstein — are pretty steamy as Cathy and Heathcliff.
2/4
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Review: 'Goat' puts a vibrant spin on classic sports-movie tropes, with an underdog goat trying to prove he can play with the big animals — The Movie Cricket Animated movies about animals are fun, and so are underdog sports stories — so getting both tropes at once, as the sports-minded animal movie “Goat” does, turns out to be more enjoyable than the trail...

The likely box office champ this weekend is "Goat," a vivid and fast-moving animated sports tale – about a goat who wants to play Roarball, a game usually reserved for the bigger animals. It's a lot of fun, even if you've seen this story before.
1/4
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Go Hawks! #Seahawks

a woman in a black dress is sitting on a couch with #wutheringheights written on the bottom right ALT: a woman in a black dress is sitting on a couch with #wutheringheights written on the bottom right

I'll be talking about "The Moment," and maybe some other movies, on "Radio From Hell" (@radiofromhell.bsky.social), Friday at 7 a.m. Mountain time, on X96.

Next week, the selections are topped by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi (aka Barbie and hot Frankenstein) in "Wuthering Heights."
2/2

Review: 'The Moment' gives Charli XCX a star vehicle, and a platform to mock the machinery behind 'brat summer' — The Movie Cricket Not since The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” has a real pop star satirized themselves as thoroughly and as smartly as Charli XCX does in “The Moment,” a mock-documentary from director Aidan Zamiri th...

A slow week for me, post-Sundance. The only movie opening this week that I reviewed is "The Moment," a mock-documentary in which Charli XCX takes a satirical hatchet to the machinery trying to keep her "brat" phenomenon alive. Smart, acidic and funny.
1/2
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Sean P. Means: What I’ll miss about the Sundance Film Festival, and what I won’t With the Sundance Film Festival ending its four-decade-plus run in Utah, The Salt Lake Tribune's Sean P. Means contemplates what he will (and won't) miss about it.

Of course I had some final thoughts about the Sundance Film Festival's leaving Utah.
www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

U.S. Dramatic, Grand Jury Prize:
“Josephine,” about a girl trying to make sense of a horrific incident she’s witnessed. (Also won the Audience Award.)
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Dramatic, Directing Award:
Josef Kubota Wladkya, “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”, starring Rinko Kikuchi as a widow who returns to ballroom dance to get her groove back.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Dramatic, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award:
Liz Sargent, “Take Me Home,” a tender drama about two sisters — one of them cognitively disabled (and played by Sargent’s sister, Anna).
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Dramatic competition, special Jury Award for Debut Feature:
Stephanie Ahn, “Bedford Park,” romance in New Jersey’s Korean American community.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Dramatic competition, Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast:
The cast of “The Friend’s House Is Here,” a story of women in Tehran’s underground arts community.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Documentary, Grand Jury Prize:
“Nuisance Bear,” a climate-change documentary, looking at the encroachment of polar bears on a Manitoba town.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Documentary, Directing Award:
J.M. Harper, “Soul Patrol,” a look at Black soldiers in Vietnam.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Documentary, Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award:
Matt Hixon, “Barbara Forever,” director Brydie O’Connor’s biography of pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer, using Hammer’s extensive archives.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Documentary competition, Special Jury Prize, Impact for Change:
“The Lake,” director Abby Ellis’s look at the people in Utah trying to save the Great Salt Lake from environmental catastrophe.
#Sundance2026Awards

U.S. Documentary competition, Special Jury Prize for Journalistic Excellence:
“Who Killed Alex Odeh?”, a murder-mystery of a Palestinian advocate killed in 1985 in Southern California.
#Sundance2026Awards