The Skolney Blog

In theaters: SHELTER The latest Jason Staham movie is generic even by his standards (this is half Safe, half Beekeeper), but it's an okay watch.  SEND HELP Sam Raimi's super entertaining dark comedic thriller where mousy office worker Rachel McAdams and her douchebag boss Dylan O'Brien crash land on a deserted island. The comedy is very funny, led by McAdams in the kind of full bloom, going for it movie star performance she has been so rarely afforded.  GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE My favorite film of the year to this point, a super creative, weird, wacky time travel sci-fi comedy. A well cast Sam Rockwell leads a cool ensemble that also has Zazie Beetz and the always terrific Haley Lu Richardson. This thing is like 12 Monkeys if it was made by the Rick and Morty team. Shockingly, it was directed by Gore Verbinski, a filmmaker who has been doing big projects for over 20 years, but few I have liked at all.  CRIME 101 We used to get these big star-driven crime movies a ...

2026 marks 30 years since the original Scream movie came out. The first two in particular are core texts for me as a film fan. I can not imagine the late 90s without them. The franchise has mostly had ups. Scream 3, not so good, but also not unwatchable. Figured that was the end of things, but then Scream 4 came a decade or so later. It was very good, but it wasn't that successful, so you figured maybe that was the end of the line for the franchise. But then another decade passed (as did Wes Craven), and we got a new creative team who delivered a pair of really good new sequels, mixing old and new cast. Scream 6 even managed without Neve Campbell. It's been a few years again, but now we get Scream 7, and boy has it arrived with people mad at it. The team behind 5 and 6 mostly bailed, and breakout star, the magnificent Melissa Barrera, was fired due to social media posts. Even with Campbell back as Sidney, and original franchise creator Kevin Williamson also back as co-writer, a...

My 25th anniversary post Not much to add. Just another layer of "I can't believe X movie is this old" We're now seeing 30 year anniversaries of movies that came out when I was in the 2nd half of high school. It's sometimes hard to accept that I have gotten this far out from those years and gotten this damn old. Which, I guess, makes me relate to the characters in this movie that much more. 

In theaters: ANACONDA I'm not sure if this is a reboot or a sequel or what. What I do know is that it's an odd artifact, a comedy so self-referential that it reveals a much better movie that was sitting right there. Why not just have Jack Black and Paul Rudd play themselves?  WE BURY THE DEAD Presented as a zombie movie but far more of a drama with zombie stuff in it. I found it somewhat boring, but when Daisy Ridley is your lead, your movie can never be unwatchable.  SONG SUNG BLUE Liked this a whole lot more than I expected. The true-ish story jukebox musical about a Neil Diamond tribute band, with the typically good Hugh Jackman and the borderline revelatory (and now Oscar nominated) Kate Hudson. Where the hell was THIS Kate Hudson the last 20 years? The parts of the film centered on the music are across the board fun (even if I hate the people who do the "SO GOOD SO GOOD" thing). The critical event that happens halfway through (and which did happen in real life) t...

1996: For many of us burgeoning film fanatics in the 90s, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction was a core text. It made him our idol.  But there was another movie, one not directed by Tarantino, that was almost as big a deal to me, and that was From Dusk Til Dawn. This movie was a collaboration between Tarantino and fellow up and coming director Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino had just appeared in Rodriguez's Desperado, and done a little script work, too. Desperado was cool, so it was clear Rodriguez was on his way, too. FDTD was a very highly anticipated movie for me. I actually saw this twice in theaters. First, I convinced my mom to take me. That, uh, got a little awkward. Then I saw it with a couple similarly film geeky friends. I technically wasn't even 17 yet, so I don't know how I got in. This is a film that any 16 or 17 year old is certain to be intoxicated by. Violence, gore, nudity, it's all there.  The trailer made no secret that this becomes a vampir...

The Top 20 Best Films: 1. One Battle After Another The overwhelming frontrunner to win Best Picture, and deservedly so. Paul Thomas Anderson's best film since Magnolia. A funny, tense, passionate film with bravura filmmaking and an incredible cast.  2. Bob Trevino Likes It I watched this on streaming again just to make sure. Yep, cried again. An unbelievably sweet, empathetic film that nobody saw (but I kinda like that the film feels mine). Wonderful performances by the inimitable Barbie Ferreira and the never better John Leguizamo. 3. Thunderbolts One of the best MCU films this decade. Great ensemble, led by the peerless Florence Pugh, and touching on issues that you never see in a comic book film.  4. Sinners Ryan Coogler cashes in on his franchise successes with a massively entertaining and richly detailed drama that then turns into a fantastic vampire movie.  5. Predator: Badlands My favorite film in the series, which I never would have expected.  6. Mission Impo...