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HeadStuff

HeadStuff is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Stephen Porzio.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Nightride (2021) Stephen Porzio Not just a gimmick to separate Nightride from its contemporaries, the single-take approach makes the film feel more visceral.
Posted Mar 04, 2022  Edit critic review
Crisis (2021) Stephen Porzio Crisis is gripping throughout thanks to the sheer level of talent onscreen and its important subject matter.
Posted Apr 25, 2021  Edit critic review
Black Bear (2020) Stephen Porzio There's a lot to love in this playful, possibly future cult flick.
Posted Apr 25, 2021  Edit critic review
Dave Made a Maze (2017) Stephen Porzio The maze is a wondrous creation, somehow coming across very makeshift and tangible, yet also wondrous and vast
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Monsoon (2019) Stephen Porzio Monsoon is a film that lingers in viewers' minds after the credits roll
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Relic (2020) Stephen Porzio When it feels like every type of horror has been done, something like Relic is a breath of fresh air
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Stephen Porzio Chicago 7 is a movie where the pleasures are less in the filmmaking and more in its screenplay and the cast assembled to deliver it
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
A Girl Missing (2020) Stephen Porzio A blend of thriller and character drama, fans of other East Asian classics like Burning or Secret Sunshine should adore this
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Unhinged (2020) Stephen Porzio It's just a shame the end product feels so middle of the road, something fun to watch in the moment but ultimately forgettable
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Nocturnal (2019) Stephen Porzio As well as being a great little calling card for its stars, Nocturnal signals more interesting work is to come from first-time fiction filmmaker Biancheri
Posted Jan 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Sea Fever (2019) Stephen Porzio While feeling somewhat over familiar, within the framework of this type of story Hardiman makes some subtle changes and tackles a few unique themes.
Posted Mar 15, 2020  Edit critic review
Broken Law (2020) Stephen Porzio Broken Law has everything one wants in a thriller. It feels contemporary to Ireland now. It has characters and a narrative hook audiences can invest in. It alternates between humour and tension effectively, with a dash of romance as a garnish.
Posted Mar 05, 2020  Edit critic review
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Stephen Porzio Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a romantic gothic drama that will make viewers hearts sing and break in almost equal measure.
Posted Feb 29, 2020  Edit critic review
Vivarium (2020) Stephen Porzio It's not the most subtle overall metaphor. Yet, Finnegan and his screenwriting partner Garret Shanley do make it compelling, through striking little details and a strain of offbeat dark humour.
Posted Feb 26, 2020  Edit critic review
The Staggering Girl (2019) Stephen Porzio There's a few images and moments in The Staggering Girl that will evoke memories of Guadagnino's better work, most notably its final minutes ... That said, it's the script by Michael Mitnick (The Current War) that's the real problem with this short.
Posted Feb 18, 2020  Edit critic review
The Garden Left Behind (2019) Stephen Porzio While the truly ground-breaking trans movie will be the one where joy outweighs suffering, The Garden Left Behind is an undoubtedly well-intentioned, gripping depiction of the trials and tribulations trans women of colour can face in America.
Posted Feb 03, 2020  Edit critic review
Queen & Slim (2019) Stephen Porzio The electricity between Kaluuya and Turner-Smith is enough to convince audiences in their transformation from people who are stuck together to lovers destined for one another.
Posted Feb 01, 2020  Edit critic review
High Flying Bird (2019) Stephen Porzio Soderbergh and his writer take what could be a solid sports drama and restructure it as an exciting con movie.
Posted Dec 11, 2019  Edit critic review
The Last Right (2019) Stephen Porzio It's frustrating to see in new Irish dramedy The Last Right a potentially very moving story about the complexities of familial and human connection be diluted into a flimsy farce.
Posted Dec 06, 2019  Edit critic review
The Nightingale (2018) Stephen Porzio It's to Kent's great credit that she finds so much humanity in such a grim story.
Posted Dec 06, 2019  Edit critic review
The Report (2019) Stephen Porzio Just in terms of the sheer information it covers and delivers effectively, The Report is the defining movie about the War on Terror.
Posted Nov 23, 2019  Edit critic review
By the Grace of God (2018) Stephen Porzio Ozon dials down his extreme, transgressive kinks but not his ability to grip with By the Grace of God, a traditional yet still stirring drama.
Posted Nov 04, 2019  Edit critic review
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019) Stephen Porzio A dark sinister plot as labyrinthine and far reaching as anything Thomas Pynchon ever cooked up.
Posted Nov 04, 2019  Edit critic review
God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija (2019) Stephen Porzio Petrunya with its easy-to-root for protagonist and comedic premise is the type of accessible foreign language film that could be a break-out success. Yet, within its mainstream trappings are sharp examinations on gender inequality in contemporary society.
Posted Nov 04, 2019  Edit critic review
The Realm (2018) Stephen Porzio A whip-smart, razor-sharp and fiercely contemporary political thriller, shot cinematically with gripping urgency.
Posted Nov 04, 2019  Edit critic review
The Curse of La Llorona (2019) Stephen Porzio It would have been fresh to set this film in Mexico, centred on a Mexican family and have it steeped in an entirely different landscape and culture. Instead, it's the same story seen many times before - an innocent American family targeted by ghouls.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Stephen Porzio The real reason to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters is its gargantuan monster brawls - the biggest put on screen maybe ever.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Birds of Passage (2018) Stephen Porzio Birds of Passage is a gangster film. Yet, by being set in a culture unfamiliar to many Western viewers, it expands the scope of what movies of the genre can do.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Child's Play (2019) Stephen Porzio Despite how impressive the new Chucky looks - rendered with a blend of practical on-set puppet work and digital enhancements - he is never scary.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Annabelle Comes Home (2019) Stephen Porzio Annabelle Comes Home is the Captain America: Civil War of The Conjuring Universe - the stakeless if very fun roller-coaster ride of a movie given extra heft by taking the main characters of the franchise over to its spin-off.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Adam (2019) Stephen Porzio Arriving following the backlash transgender drama Girl received upon general release earlier in the year, Adam is a great argument for letting trans people tell their stories.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Midsommar (2019) Stephen Porzio Throughout most of Midsommar, you won't know whether to laugh or cry. Instead, you'll erupt into a giddy mania, exactly like what Christian and Dani do.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
ANIMA (2019) Stephen Porzio The minute the credits roll, you'll just want to rewind to the beginning.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Blinded by the Light (2019) Stephen Porzio Blinded by the Light will either have you cringing at its mawkish sentimentality or grinning for the same reason. I did a bit of both.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Hustlers (2019) Stephen Porzio Hustlers is nestled in the higher echelon of Scorsese-esque 'I can't believe this actually happened' stories somewhere between I, Tonya, American Made and American Hustle.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
The Laundromat (2019) Stephen Porzio As a story about the Panama Papers itself, The Laundromat is deeply flawed. Yet, as a film about how society is so corrupt that the Panama Papers scandal only really scratches the surface of what is going on all around us, it does succeed.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
Ad Astra (2019) Stephen Porzio Battling moon pirates and genetic experiments gone wrong is hard. Perhaps, more difficult though is facing your flaws head-on and working to be better. Ad Astra understands this.
Posted Sep 27, 2019  Edit critic review
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