“Eddington” Review

Year: 2025, Director: Ari Aster

OP-ROB RATING: BUST

“Eddington” is a waste of talent. The film is scatterbrained, narratively manic, and whatever political themes the movie seeks to explore get lost in the muck. Add to all that a deep sense of unpleasantness; and not the kind of supreme dread that director Ari Aster is famous for. This one slogs. “Eddington” would have benefitted by focusing on the COVID-19 showdown between a Sheriff and a Mayor, but gets pulled in so many directions that we’re only left with just one complete-game performance from Joaquin Phoenix and some incomplete innings from Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler.

“Train Dreams” Review

Year: 2025, Director: Clint Bentley

OP-ROB RATING: STARTER

“Train Dreams” is a beautifully shot period drama that takes place in Idaho during the early 1900s; the time of railroads and logging and a last gasp of true frontier living. The main character is a quiet, gentle man named Robert Grainier, who is portrayed by Joel Edgerton. Every bit of praise I gave Edgerton in “The Stranger” applies here too. We follow his life, with narrator notes, over the course of 80 years. The story is a meditation on tragedy and hardship, followed by coping and acceptance. It's a slow-burn, with rich, yet melancholy returns.

“The Rip” Review

Year: 2026, Director: Joe Carnahan

OP-ROB RATING: BUST

It seems that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have figured out the modern movie landscape, which hums along on our insatiable desire for new content, no matter the creative and artistic sacrifice. “The Rip” is a straight-to-DVD style crime thriller that has a bit more polish and some big name actors. The plot is ludicrous. It feels like a full season of pork-chop network police television squeezed into a feature film. Better off rewatching real movies like “The Departed” or “The Town” than burning almost two hours on a film you’ll forget overnight.

“Zootopia 2” Review

Year: 2025, Director(s): Jared Bush, Byron Howard

OP-ROB RATING: BENCH

Re-treading familiar themes from its predecessor, “Zootopia 2” is a step down in the evolutionary chain. The plot, involving the marginalization of reptiles within Zootopia and cultural cleansing of snakes, somehow feels far-fetched compared to the political conspiracy that drove the first installment. The moral messaging feels finger-waggy. A greater crime is the uneven development of Judy Hopps as a character. She is unlikeable for much of the movie, for which the audience suffers. To add insult to injury, “Zoo” doesn’t hold a candle to “Try Everything”.

“Following” Review

Year: 1998, Director: Christopher Nolan

OP-ROB RATING: STARTER

The feature debut of a now ultra-famous director! Low-budget, yet well-edited and distinct in style, “Following” makes effective use of its minimalist 70-minute runtime to build suspense and execute the follow-through. The concept: a struggling writer that makes a habit of following random people across London. The film is indicative of what makes Nolan special; both the good and the bad. A strong point being an engrossing non-linear structure, and a weak point being the fact that if you take a step back and really consider the plot, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.