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The Movie Sleuth

The Movie Sleuth is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Michelle Kisner, Nate Adams.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
C.H.U.D. (1984) Michelle Kisner The special effects and creature designs by John Caglione, Jr are fantastic with just the right amount of campiness.
Posted May 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Sinners (2025) Michelle Kisner Sinners is a sexy, raw, occasionally funny, visceral gut punch of a flick that masterfully juggles various genres and tones.
Posted Apr 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Ash (2025) Michelle Kisner Ash is a dose of body horror, fractal weirdness, and little touches of humor that are ultimately entertaining and thrilling despite the script's lack of character motivations and backstory.
Posted Mar 24, 2025  Edit critic review
Anora (2024) Michelle Kisner With Anora, intentionally or not, Sean Baker has made an anti-Pretty Woman which is more grounded and realistic, yet not wholly devoid of empathy and compassion.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Nosferatu (2024) Michelle Kisner Eggers has captured what makes Nosferatu a classic tale, imbuing the story with his own touches while keeping the theme intact.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Gladiator II (2024) Michelle Kisner Sadly, Gladiator II fails to recapture what made the first film special. While it isn't egregiously terrible, it's forgettable and dull, which is arguably worse.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Brutalist (2024) Michelle Kisner The Brutalist is a sweeping film that encompasses everything great about cinema, and it feels simultaneously classic and modern.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Girl With the Needle (2024) Michelle Kisner The Girl with the Needle is an attempt to understand what kind of environment would facilitate heinous acts of cruelty and what would make an individual see those acts as the ultimate kindness
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Companion (2025) Michelle Kisner While Companion flirts with more profound themes about love and objectification, it ultimately settles for thrills and entertainment.
Posted Feb 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Substance (2024) Michelle Kisner The Substance is an incredible film that works on many levels. It's a scathing commentary on aging and an excellent old-fashioned splatter gore freak-out for the ages.
Posted Oct 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) Michelle Kisner An amazing idea on paper, however Phillips can’t help but continually call back to the stylized imagery of the first film, which somewhat undermines his thesis and ultimately rings hollow.
Posted Oct 05, 2024  Edit critic review
B+
Emilia Pérez (2024) Nate Adams Sometimes the most unconventional movies (even if they aren’t masterpieces) are the ones that stand-out the most and "Emilia Pérez" is one I’m going to be sitting with for a long time.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B+
Friendship (2024) Nate Adams I was firmly in the bag for this silly, irreverent comedy that puts an extreme twist on the basic human instinct of wanting to be accepted by your peers. I laughed harder and louder at this quirky little comedy than just about anything at TIFF.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
C
K-Pops (2024) Nate Adams To its credit, the movie isn’t mean or condescending on the world of pop music, but it’s too broad and choppy to be anything other than a below-average father/son comedy.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B-
Relay (2024) Nate Adams Makes for a nifty thriller whose ambitions actually get in its own way down the final stretch, where a last second twist produces more eye rolls than satisfaction.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B
The Fire Inside (2024) Nate Adams Hits all the right moments to deliver an enjoyable sports drama that wears its heart right on its sleeve.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B+
All of You (2024) Nate Adams A futuristic "When Harry Met Sally," by way of "Sleepless by Seattle."
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B
The Luckiest Man in America (2024) Nate Adams Hauser turns in some career best work as the hapless schmuck who figured out a way to game the system and send CBS executives spiraling.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
D+
Nutcrackers (2024) Nate Adams Green and screenwriter Leland Douglas never let the characters breathe and deal with their trauma and “Nutcrackers” succumbs to a series of predictable, cliche and formulaic plot beats that doesn’t have a single authentic bone in its body.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
C-
William Tell (2024) Nate Adams There is one thrilling sequence, and it’s the pivotal one where Tell has to take the shot at his son's head, but it’s not enough to sustain the rest of the film. Let alone a sequel that the movie hilariously tee’s up at the tail end. (TIFF Dispatch).
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B
Presence (2024) Nate Adams It's always fun watching Soderbergh cook and “Presence” is never boring. (TIFF Dispatch).
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
C+
The Life of Chuck (2024) Nate Adams Fans of the source material are likely to be enamored with the touching, down-to-earth vibes, while others might be still trying to pick up the pieces. (TIFF Dispatch).
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
D+
The Last Showgirl (2024) Nate Adams Unfortunately doesn’t have the dramatic or emotional weight to elevate it beyond the limitations of its uneven lead performance. (TIFF Dispatch).
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
B+
The Brutalist (2024) Nate Adams Formatted in VistaVision and shot on 70mm by Lol Crawly, "The Brutalist" is propelled by Daniel Blumberg’s magnetic score and Corbet’s assured, steady hand. This is a movie that won’t easily be digested, but will certainly be admired. (TIFF Dispatch).
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
Kinds of Kindness (2024) Michelle Kisner Lanthimos is the God of these stories, an ultimately cruel master who creates these characters and puts them through the wringer.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
Aggro Dr1ft (2023) Michelle Kisner While AGGRO DR1FT doesn't work as a film, it takes such a big provocative swing that it demands at least one viewing, at the very least, just for the experience.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
Kill Craft (2024) Michelle Kisner Kill Craft is an entertaining throwback to the plethora of direct-to-video action films that lined the shelves of video stores back in the '90s.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
Luminous Woman (1987) Michelle Kisner Although this film can sometimes feel unfocused, it never wavers in its affection for humanity and how we simultaneously love and hurt each other.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
Longlegs (2024) Michelle Kisner It's admirable that director Osgood Perkins doesn't let genre expectations pigeonhole his creativity, and at no point is his film boring.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
Trap (2024) Michelle Kisner Overall, though Trap is somewhat messily constructed and often unbelievable, Josh Hartnett's intense performance and commitment to the character saves it from diving too far into ridiculousness.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
The Crow (2024) Michelle Kisner This is a mediocre attempt to reintroduce The Crow to a new generation, but it lacks the soul of the original work, which has endured over the past thirty-five years.
Posted Aug 25, 2024  Edit critic review
In a Violent Nature (2024) Michelle Kisner In a Violent Nature is a solid execution of a high-concept idea that brings a fresh perspective to slashers.
Posted May 31, 2024  Edit critic review
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Michelle Kisner One of Miller's strengths as a director is his range and ability to work in vastly different genres, and he isn't afraid to change things up and experiment.
Posted May 31, 2024  Edit critic review
I Saw the TV Glow (2024) Michelle Kisner I Saw the TV Glow channels a surreal and nightmarish mid-nineties Nickelodeon with a dash of coming-of-age. It's incredibly earnest, high-concept, and personal and is a singular and occasionally impenetrable work of art.
Posted May 14, 2024  Edit critic review
Southern Comfort (1981) Michelle Kisner Southern Comfort is about how a single weak link can bring down an entire operation and that even good people can be pressed to do terrible things when backed into a corner.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Monkey Man (2024) Michelle Kisner Monkey Man is definitely Patel's singular vision; because of that, it's scrappy, occasionally confounding, messy, and ultimately compelling.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) Michelle Kisner Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has many aspects that sound good on paper but don't work in execution.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Civil War (2024) Michelle Kisner This is not a film that pulls punches. But ultimately it’s not a film about war, it’s a film about who records the war.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Sasquatch Sunset (2024) Michelle Kisner Sasquatch Sunset isn't for everyone, but it deserves respect for fully committing to an outlandish concept and going with it.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Singapore Sling (1990) Michelle Kisner The film equivalent of a leather harness worn underneath a frilly party dress.
Posted May 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Twilight (1990) Michelle Kisner Twilight veers into existential horror instead of a mystery, one man's war with the yawning void and one he cannot ultimately win.
Posted Mar 11, 2024  Edit critic review
Stopmotion (2023) Michelle Kisner Real art is created with blood, sweat, and tears, and while the latter two are often literal, the former is usually meant figuratively. Not in this film, however, the actual creation of life is made with a pound of flesh, or rather, a pound of clay.
Posted Mar 11, 2024  Edit critic review
28 Days Later (2002) Michelle Kisner Many films since have used ideas from 28 Days Later, and it has entered the collective consciousness as one of the great horror classics of the early '00s.
Posted Mar 11, 2024  Edit critic review
Dune: Part Two (2024) Michelle Kisner Dune: Part Two ups the ante in every way compared to the first film, and both movies combined form an incredible story of power and tribulation.
Posted Feb 21, 2024  Edit critic review
River (2023) Michelle Kisner River is a heartfelt and ingenious take on time loops and makes an excellent companion piece to Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.
Posted Feb 12, 2024  Edit critic review
The Zone of Interest (2023) Michelle Kisner Artistically distinct and thoughtful.
Posted Feb 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Hundreds of Beavers (2022) Michelle Kisner Hundreds of Beavers is the greatest film ever made about anthropomorphic beavers.
Posted Feb 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Lion-Girl (2023) Michelle Kisner Lion-Girl is a fun and trashy throwback to the V-Cinema era and would have found an enormous cult following in the late '90s.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
It's a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point (2023) Michelle Kisner Director and film historian Daniel Kremer explores the connections between childhood and adulthood and the connective tissue of various films, tied together by location and thematic parallels.
Posted Jan 17, 2024  Edit critic review
Poor Things (2023) Michelle Kisner Yorgo's rejection of formalism and filmmaking traditions make his films impenetrable for many people, but once you get on his wavelength, it's exhilarating to see him work his magic.
Posted Dec 07, 2023  Edit critic review
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