Top TV of 2025
Or at least the shows I especially liked By Zach HagadoneReader Staff Putting together these end-of-year summary articles is always a somewhat fraught exercise. When it comes to something like “TV shows of the...
Tagged: film analysis
Top 10 movies of 2025
By Willie WittezehlerReader Contributor Editor’s note: Willie was press-ganged into providing this “top 10” list of 2025 films during a chance meeting in the alley next to the Reader office. Despite being an all-around...
Wake Up Dead Man is the best Knives Out since the original
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff Rian Johnson’s mini-franchise Knives Out has been billed as breathing new life into “the British drawing room murder mystery,” with its titular first installment in 2019, followed by Glass Onion...
New FX-Hulu series Alien: Earth is already a must-watch after four episodes
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff The Panida Theater just screened director Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien as part of its $5 movie series; and, while there is an entire dark constellation of other films...
The Phoenician Scheme delivers on sincere devotion to family and flim-flam
By Zach HagadoneReader Staff Among the many constants in Wes Anderson’s movies is that they reward repeat viewings. Anderson loads every scene and interaction with so many visual and aural details that screenings often...
Emily Articulated: Superman
By Emily EricksonReader Columnist This weekend, I found myself in line at the Sandpoint Cinemas, joining a surprisingly full (for Sandpoint) crowd eager to see the new Superman movie. James Gunn’s take on the...
‘Anderson fatigue’ be damned, I’m excited for The Phoenician Scheme
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff If we didn’t have Wes Anderson, we’d have to create him. And every entry from the auteur director is a “creation” in the fullest sense. Anderson’s milieu is among...
Mickey 17 is another stellar satire from Bong Joon-ho, despite what some critics say
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Apparent simplicity belies deep meaning in the best stories, and the 2025 film Mickey 17, from writer-director Bong Joon-ho, is a puckish masterclass in the art of dramedy-sci fi-satire....
The Substance features a lot of substance, but without the need to overthink it
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff A lot of reviews of The Substance are filled with thinky references to an uncommonly large number of other films, from Carrie to The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey,...
Stop calling Nosferatu ‘Gothic’
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff Warning: This article contains spoilers. Horror movies aren’t especially known for their delicate themes and social commentary, but fans had high hopes for Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, which promised to...
