“Backrooms” Review

Year: 2026, Director: Kane Parsons

OP-ROB RATING: ALL-STAR

I’m not hip enough to fully explain how “Backrooms” came to be. I’ve never been on 4chan and don’t know what “creepypasta” means. What I do know is that this nifty, hugely imaginative little horror flick was born out of a new kind of creativity (director Kane Parsons is barely 20). It’s a movie that begs interpretation, led by a genuinely compelling lead performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor. There’s a terrifically disturbing scene at a dinner table near the end of the film that has bona Lynchian/Cronenbergian elements in the best possible way.

“The Christophers” Review

Year: 2025, Director: Steven Soderbergh

OP-ROB RATING: STARTER

The great Ian McKellan portrays Julian Sklar; an aged, once celebrated painter (now a sad curmudgeon), who is sitting on several unfinished canvases of a popular series named “The Christophers”. Sklar’s greedy kids contract Lori (Michaela Coel), a forgist, to deceive the old man, finish the canvases, with the plan of collecting a tidy sum. This nifty premise is taken in surprising directions, with the focus being far more directed towards lofty themes of identity, legacy, and the nature of high-brow art. Soderbergh goes for a reflection on a life well-lived, rather than the thrill of a heist.

“Falling Down” Review

Year: 1993, Director: Joel Schumacher

OP-ROB RATING: BENCH

While culturally prescient and helmed by excellent performances from Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, “Falling Down” is a miserable watch. Douglas portrays a recently laid-off military contractor having a very controlled mental breakdown, starting with the character in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a sweltering day in LA. He ends up leaving his car to walk home, having increasingly unhinged interactions with a diverse range of Angelinos along the way. Duvall is an LAPD sergeant on his trail. The film has earned “cult” status in today’s political environment; but with similar, depressing real-life stories in the news regularly, who needs this fantasy?

“Cop Land” Review

Year: 1997, Director: James Mangold

OP-ROB RATING: ALL-STAR

If “Rocky” and “First Blood”, are #1 and #2 of Sly’s finest, then “Cop Land” has to be #3. Stallone plays Freddy Heflin, the spineless local Sheriff of Garrison, NJ, on the Hudson Waterfront. Garrison is effectively governed by corrupt NYC cops (hence the title), led by the ruthless Lt. Donlan (Harvey Keitel). Fallout from a kerfuffle on the GW bridge forces Heflin to choose fighting for justice, or continuing to turn a blind eye to Donlan & Co’s dirt. A terrific cast includes prime Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro, plus a bunch of folks you’ll recognize from The Sopranos.

“Thelma & Louise” Review

Year: 1991, Director: Ridley Scott

OP-ROB RATING: BUST

A brilliantly acted, snappy, watershed moment of feminist cinema that giddily praises all the wrong things. Louise (Susan Sarandon) kicks off the adventure by justly killing a violent rapist, thereby avenging her friend Thelma (Geena Davis) and doing all of humanity a favor. The two then go on the run, and everything that follows is a celebration of selfishness and reckless abandon. Most damningly, the pair leave an innocent highway patrolman for dead by locking him in the trunk of a car… in the mid-day heat…in the rural desert. Would’ve been kinder to hurl him into the Grand Canyon.