After the Hunt (2025)

A college student accuses her professor of inappropriate conduct. What kind of inappropriate conduct? The fuck if I know. I found this movie completely insufferable and infuriating, especially how everybody intellectualizes and talks circles around the issues without ever saying anything of value. The whole thing seems poised to generate controversy, yet I still have no idea what point it was trying to make. That everybody is a piece of shit? That was my general takeaway. I could have told you that without wasting two hours.

2 ulcers out of 5

Queer (2024)

Based on the unfinished novel by Naked Lunch author William S. Burroughs, Queer tells the tale of Lee (Daniel Craig), an American expatriate who putters about Mexico looking to get laid. He becomes infatuated by a much younger man and begins a lopsided, emotionally distant arrangement. As deeply uncomfortable as the material is, the fun comes in the final third of the film via hallucinatory imagery brought on by an ayahuasca trip. Kind of makes me wish I could have fast-forwarded past the first 90 minutes to get there quicker.

3 centipedes out of 5

Challengers (2024)

Challengers, aka "that tennis threesome movie," tells the story of a tennis prodigy (Zendaya) and her back-and-forth relationship between two competitive players who volley for her affections over the course of a 13-year period. The material is directed with kinetic style and grace by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) along a thumping techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This film is certainly competent and an entertaining piece of escapism, but it fails to elicit the kind of response from me that it seems to have had on the culture at large. It's good, but let's not get too crazy.

3 wild cards out of 5