Movie reviews of Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen

The thing about Avatar is that even though it is a great film in so many aspects, some of the criticisms that people have of it are perfectly valid. None of this stops it from being a great film, but it does prevent its archetypical story from sitting with you as being uniquely its own thing. Review

I know that it is a tough ask for an animated film with as dark and real a backdrop as this one to be accepted by families, but this is one of the most impressive stop-motion animated films that I have ever seen and it packs an emotional and earned wallop that will sit with you. Review

It is full of beautiful colors, great imagination, gorgeous costumes, and eye-opening visuals. It is a marvelously ambitious fantasy-fairy tale film that gets so close to being a true all-timer. Review

Eiza Gonzalez is credible as the paramedic, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II makes for a solid lead struggling with how his life is blowing up all around him, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is unhinged in a way that is really entertaining. Review

Transfixing and sometimes startling, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All is a genre-bending coming-of-age road romance film with pinches of horror and gore that, to me, is all about rejection, abandonment, loneliness, and the need to feel seen. Review

Packed with nostalgia, heart, humor, and his lovable Marvel misfits, James Gunn’s The Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special is precisely the kind of thing I needed to get back in the holiday spirit. Review

Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love is a fantastic and, in moments, beautiful documentary about the fires between two people burning hot and the extraordinary external hotspots bringing them together. It absolutely is one of the best documentaries of the year also because it in moments emphasizes how it is of paramount importance to listen to scientists... Review

It is a great documentary that showcases an individual risking his life for the good of the world knowing that his outcome is up in the air. Review

Mark Mylod’s The Menu is a darkly comedic thriller and a scrumptious and sizzling satire of the often-wealthy takers in society. Review

Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder is an absorbing period drama about the transformative power of stories. Review

Down the line, I’m sure we’ll get a third Hardy-led Venom film. Let’s hope it’s much better than these two have been. But I will admit that this sequel is a slight improvement. Review

It is a different experience, but it’s also one of the more interesting of the latest entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because of this permeating soulfulness, the tribute that the film is to its late titular character, and the epic and complex anti-hero that is introduced here through epic world-building. Review

It is a mostly unremarkable but generally decent true crime drama that ultimately gives you the idea that reading the Wikipedia entry on the story might be more interesting, even though Chastain and Redmayne deliver fine performances. Review

It is a deeply moving and staggering anti-war film that both in an auditory manner and visually rivals the most well-made war films of the previous decade. Review

Zach Cregger’s Barbarian is one of the most surprising, and most original new horror films that I have frankly seen in years. It is a horror film that constantly stays a step ahead of you and which manages to be both genuinely scary and surprisingly genuinely funny. Review

Black Adam is a moderately entertaining but, ultimately, quite generic and underdeveloped superhero origin story that fails to elevate the titular character to be anything more than just the next hero in line. Review

It’s too messy and the writing is too all over the place for me to be able to call it a good movie, but I will say that I kind of enjoyed it and that it is a marked improvement over Halloween Kills. Review

The score is sometimes overdramatic in moments that because of it now play unintentionally awkward, the editing and the direction are subpar, and the acting is often over-the-top and almost always unconvincing. Review

Werewolf By Night is a brisk and slight but very fun and entertaining hour of Marvel horror comedy. Review

It is a pretty great Stephen King premise, but in failing to add anything meaningful to it, or in failing to add some bold horror developments to it, I think writer-director John Lee Hancock fails the story. Review

It is very bleak, though, which makes it a little bit difficult to recommend to your average moviegoer. Still, I think Abbasi has done a really good job with this one. Review

It is an excellent satire of privilege that exposes faux-equality and individual worth, and, in moments, it is absolutely hysterical. Review

While missed potential is frustrating, a competently made ambitious mess is much more interesting than a forgettable safe film. Unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes drama ended up being much more interesting than what the film had in store for its audience. Review

It has some notable British stars, but the story is predictable, underwhelming, at times poorly executed, and ultimately the film is quite forgettable. Review