Leninhawk

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A ★½ review of The Bride! (2026) Maggie Gyllenhaal makes a lot of big, creative swings with "The Bride!", her second film as writer/director after the quite good "The Lost Daughter". Unfortunately for her, and ESPECIALLY unfortunatel...

#TheBrideMovie - An "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards" screenplay. An attempted Me Too-spin on Frankenstein so obvious the main character screams "me too" twice in its climax. A big creative swing that misses.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

A ★★★ review of Dolly (2025) "Dolly" is proof positive that almost any horror film is immensely improved in quality when it is shot on 16mm. If this film had been shot on digital, I'd probably feel similarly to how I felt about t...

#Dolly - Proof positive that any horror film is immensely improved when it is shot on 16mm. Plot is a little overly familiar, but I like the throwback vibe to grindhouse films of the "Mother's Day" or "Just Before Dawn" variety.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★½ review of Scream 7 (2026) This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

My massively spoiler-filled review of #Scream7. Bottom line, I liked it more than I expected to, while still having major issues with certain aspects.

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A ★★½ review of Psycho Killer (2026) This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

#PsychoKiller is baffling, odd, and inexplicable. I will not for a second tell you it is a good film. However, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the experience of watching it. You will not guess where the film goes in the climax!

My spoiler review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★★½ review of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) This was a lot darker than I was anticipating, and I am here for it. In my lifetime, the three arguably biggest narratives warning against AI have been the first two "Terminator" films, "The Matrix", ...

Had to slum it at Regal for #GoodLuckHaveFunDontDie since it wasn't playing at Alamo. As soon as I got home they put up showtimes for this coming weekend though, lol. Glad I didn't wait to see it anyway since I absolutely loved it.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

A ★★★ review of How to Make a Killing (2026) "Marge, I'm confused. Is this a happy ending or a sad ending?" "It's an ending. That's enough." I'd be lying if I said quotes from "The Simpsons" weren't constantly floating inside my brain, but that ...

#HowtoMakeaKilling - Mixture of tones hinders the film to where logic issues in the plot become bothersome and overall thematic aims suffer. Main character is perhaps too sympathetic when he should have been more like a Safdie protagonist.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

A ★★★ review of Crime 101 (2026) "Crime 101" is a down-the-middle good movie, no more and no less. If you want an entertaining crime thriller with an unusually stacked cast, the film will deliver that, and only that. Films like this ...

#Crime101 - A down-the-middle good movie, no more and no less. Narrative is unnecessarily busy and relies far too much on coincidence, while also merely introducing loftier themes without truly exploring them. A good "coworker movie".

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★ review of Twisted (2026) So will this be the last film to ever have the Twisted Pictures logo in front of it, since those two producers had a falling out and sold their share of the "Saw" film rights? Was that part of the rea...

#Twisted - Final (?) film from Twisted Pictures, by "Saw" series director Darren Lynn Bousman, is 30 minutes of a good idea pulling a cart that's 60 minutes of poorly executed cliches. Bousman's directorial flourishes can't save the script.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

A ★★★½ review of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025) I have never seen "Nirvanna the Band the Show" before, and I really only heard about it by way of this film, since it premiered at a few film festivals last year and I slowly started hearing positive ...

Alamo Mystery Machine Movie was #NirvannatheBandtheShowtheMovie. Very funny, with maybe 3 gags that are gut-bustingly hilarious. Very accessible since I've never seen the webseries or TV show. Plus I'm a sucker for time travel movies.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★ review of Send Help (2026) "Send Help" is Sam Raimi's first R-rated theatrical release in almost 26 years, and while it's not an out-and-out horror movie it's clear that his fanbase has been clamoring for him to return to this ...

#SendHelp - Mostly a comedy mixed with thriller. Raimi's style elevates the material, and it's quite funny. Rachel McAdams is stellar. Feels like it pulls its punches too much, and leans into some problematic tropes about women undercutting its themes.

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My 10 Best Films of 2025 - Leninhawk YouTube video by Leninhawk

My 10 Best Films of 2025 video is up:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NG...

Hey, when you don't live in NYC or LA and don't get critic screeners, it takes a while to see all the films you want to before making the list. That's why I'm later than...everyone.

A ★★★½ review of The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) What I like about "The Testament of Ann Lee", among many things, is its approach to its protagonist. A lot of films about people of deep religious faith ("Silence", for instance) seem to endorse the f...

#TheTestamentofAnnLee - A film about the relationship between religion and sex, how people extend their personal preferences to be divine edicts, and how feminism does and doesn't challenge inherently patriarchal systems like religion.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★ review of The Rip (2026) "The Rip" is a perfectly serviceable police thriller. I suppose for a Netflix Original being dropped onto the service in mid-January that it's better you might expect, but it never rises above a decen...

#TheRip #TheRipOnNetflix #TheRipNetflix - A perfectly serviceable police thriller, and not much else. It'll probably wind up one of the most forgotten films among the projects Damon & Affleck have appeared on screen together for.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★½ review of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Finally, a movie that knows the simple pleasure of dancing to Duran Duran with your dong out! Six months ago we got "28 Years Later", a belated sequel to "28 Days Later" (sort of) that all but ignored...

#28YearsLaterTheBoneTemple - Improves upon its predecessor in every way in an installment much more MY speed. More brutal and intense, at times reminding me of early 00s Torture Horror. Also knows it's cool to listen to Duran Duran with your dong out!

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A ★★★½ review of Pillion (2025) Someone more attuned to the kink community than I am should write an essay about why we've been getting more BDSM narratives in film lately, and why despite their ostensibly transgressive sexuality th...

#Pillion - A film about self-discovery of wants, needs, and limitations, and how that trek of self-discovery can be painful, even if the final destination winds up a tad better than where you started out from.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

Not even once. Why rely on a plagiarized, probably inaccurate and incomplete summary of a bunch of different people's ideas, when you can go to a primary source?

A ★½ review of One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 (2026) “One Last Adventure” is mostly a boring, self-congratulatory puff piece that never rises above the level of a mediocre Blu-ray extra. That on its own is amusing since Netflix has thus far only release...

#OneLastAdventure - A glorified Blu-ray extra, mediocre and self-congratulatory. Often boring, even if it showcases the impressive work from below-the-line crew. Most interesting when showcasing incompetence of Duffers as writers/directors.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

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A ★★★★½ review of No Other Choice (2025) The source material for "No Other Choice" was previously made into a French film by Costa-Gavras called "The Ax", and this film is dedicated to Costa-Gavras, who owned the rights to the source novel a...

#NoOtherChoice - Hilarious, but the humor never dulls the edge of the satire or the messaging, nor undercuts the genuine and touching emotion and pathos throughout. Incredibly visually impressive in shot composition as well.

My review: letterboxd.com/leninhawk/fi...

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

This is the ICE agent who murdered a woman by shooting her multiple times in the face.