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The Pitch

The Pitch is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Abby Olcese, Dan Lybarger, Eric Melin, Jon Niccum, Katey Stoetzel.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Anaconda (2025) Abby Olcese Anaconda isn’t doing anything especially deep or wildly noteworthy, but it is a better-than-usual take on recycled IP, with a perspective that actually does something new with existing material.
Posted Dec 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Wicked: For Good (2025) Abby Olcese It’s genuinely impressive that Wicked: For Good manages to justify its existence as a standalone film, considering that the back half of the stage musical is far from anyone’s favorite part.
Posted Dec 12, 2025  Edit critic review
The Running Man (2025) Abby Olcese It’s clear Powell wants to be Cruise or Brad Pitt-level. But what might that look like? The Running Man has the answer, and it’s pretty damn compelling.
Posted Nov 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Train Dreams (2025) Abby Olcese This isn’t a loud movie. It’s the kind of film that burrows its way into your heart and mind and invites you to have long conversations afterward.
Posted Nov 07, 2025  Edit critic review
Frankenstein (2025) Abby Olcese Simply put, it seems like del Toro loves this story too much to really do anything with it, and the whole production feels uneven and strangely uninteresting as a result.
Posted Oct 27, 2025  Edit critic review
Black Phone 2 (2025) Abby Olcese The idea of diminishing returns on a series that set a pretty low bar isn’t a terribly encouraging one.
Posted Oct 18, 2025  Edit critic review
The Smashing Machine (2025) Abby Olcese The Smashing Machine doesn’t give us enough of a reason to be invested over the long haul, because it never invests enough in any one thing. In trying to observe as much as possible, the film ends up giving us almost no insight at all.
Posted Oct 12, 2025  Edit critic review
Roofman (2025) Abby Olcese It could go deeper, but what it does it does pretty well. In terms of construction, it works. Here’s the problem, though: Roofman likes its main character a little too much.
Posted Oct 12, 2025  Edit critic review
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) Abby Olcese As much as the movie is really a pile of sentiment wrapped up in some nice cinematography, there are themes about pursuing happiness over contentment, grief and disappointment that do contain some striking universal truths.
Posted Sep 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Highest 2 Lowest (2025) Abby Olcese It’s a fine movie, but all the ways in which it’s not great come down to Lee refusing to get out of his own way.
Posted Aug 15, 2025  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun (2025) Abby Olcese The jokes may be dumb, but dammit, they’re funny and they encompass everything from props to action sequences to performances. This is a comedy you want to see with a lot of people, on a big screen, where you can catch every little joke.
Posted Aug 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) Abby Olcese For all its faults, "Rebirth" is still better than the other Jurassic World movies. It delivers enough thrills and spills to let you have fun over a holiday weekend. But in a week’s time, you’ll probably be hard-pressed to remember anything about it.
Posted Jul 03, 2025  Edit critic review
F1 The Movie (2025) Abby Olcese It’s not lasting art, and it’s not meant to be, but the people involved are committed enough to command your attention and sympathy throughout.
Posted Jun 27, 2025  Edit critic review
How to Train Your Dragon (2025) Abby Olcese I’m all for encouraging people to go see movies in theaters. In this case, though, if you need something to do with your kids this weekend, you can save a lot of money by staying home and watching the original How to Train Your Dragon together.
Posted Jun 20, 2025  Edit critic review
Ballerina (2025) Abby Olcese While Ballerina isn’t on the level of Wick proper, it’s got enough wild action and worldbuilding to be an enjoyable addition to the family.
Posted Jun 07, 2025  Edit critic review
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) Abby Olcese Unfortunately -- call it a crisis of confidence, call it misplaced ego -- the movie is so caught up in… well, the lore, that it takes too long to get to the good stuff. But rest assured, the good stuff is worth waiting for.
Posted May 22, 2025  Edit critic review
The Legend of Ochi (2025) Abby Olcese The Legend of Ochi’s storytelling is so disappointing because the rest of the movie is so impressive.
Posted May 01, 2025  Edit critic review
The Wedding Banquet (2025) Abby Olcese Ahn deepens and complicates the dynamics of his central quad of queer found family, and their relationships with their biological family, making his The Wedding Banquet a movie about many kinds of relationship -- communal, parental, romantic and more.
Posted Apr 21, 2025  Edit critic review
The Shrouds (2024) Abby Olcese Cronenberg has made a movie seemingly just for himself. While that can be interesting to watch, the vague, clinical nature of The Shrouds means it’s more a work for completists than casual viewers.
Posted Apr 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Touch Me (2025) Abby Olcese The kind of wildly original movie that takes a bowlful of ideas and influences and throws them at the wall like sexy spaghetti and somehow manages to make most of those things stick.
Posted Apr 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Marshmallow (2025) Abby Olcese Marshmallow announces DelPurgatorio as a filmmaker worth watching, and Greskoviak as a skilled writer. The solid script is the foundation for a movie so efficiently produced that wise studios should take note.
Posted Apr 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Hell of a Summer (2023) Abby Olcese The most important thing to know going into Hell of a Summer is that while it’s billed (correctly) as a horror-comedy, the vibe is more Superbad than Sleepaway Camp. If you go in with those expectations managed, you’ll have a good time.
Posted Apr 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Warfare (2025) Abby Olcese What Warfare presents is an artistic exercise in immersive filmmaking and performance. Whether it makes a lasting impact (and to what end) is another question entirely.
Posted Apr 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Deaf President Now! (2025) Abby Olcese Deaf President Now! ultimately leaves audiences (or at least left mine) inspired to go find a cause to stand for, and a community to stand with.
Posted Mar 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Teenage Wasteland (2025) Abby Olcese Middletown is a reminder of what’s possible when people who’ve been told their voices don’t matter are given the resources to change that narrative. It’s also a reminder of what’s at stake when those resources are taken away.
Posted Mar 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Zodiac Killer Project (2025) Abby Olcese It’s a true crime documentary for people who hate true crime, and for people who love it, and for people who hate that they love it. Whatever your position, Shackleton is right there with you.
Posted Mar 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Heart Eyes (2025) Abby Olcese “Fun” is the operative word here. Ruben’s films always seem like the performers are having the time of their lives letting loose, and Ruben himself exudes childlike glee in the cartoonish onscreen violence he depicts.
Posted Feb 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Wolf Man (2025) Abby Olcese What works really works. It’s just a shame that it’s surrounded by drama that’s never given the space it needs to make us care about these characters and their dynamic as a family.
Posted Jan 17, 2025  Edit critic review
A Complete Unknown (2024) Abby Olcese Mangold’s film coasts on vibes, and that covers a lot -- I found those vibes pretty enjoyable.
Posted Jan 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Queer (2024) Abby Olcese Queer isn’t a fun film, but it is a fascinating one.
Posted Dec 16, 2024  Edit critic review
Moana 2 (2024) Abby Olcese We deserve art that makes us stop and be present in our appreciation of it. Moana understood this. Moana 2 is just here to fill time.
Posted Dec 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Heretic (2024) Abby Olcese Beck and Woods are right to encourage us to question anything we hold as an unassailable truth. It’s lovely to see that they also know questioning faith doesn’t mean rejecting it.
Posted Nov 09, 2024  Edit critic review
Anora (2024) Abby Olcese In addition to clever writing and thoughtful performances, it’s a deeply empathetic movie teeming with keenly observed and barely controlled rage.
Posted Nov 04, 2024  Edit critic review
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) Abby Olcese In a series where messiness is encouraged, Venom: The Last Dance is unforgivably sloppy.
Posted Oct 24, 2024  Edit critic review
Will & Harper (2024) Abby Olcese This movie is going to help a lot of people start important conversations they may have been afraid to have, and it’s hard to think of a nobler achievement than that.
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
Megalopolis (2024) Abby Olcese It is a deeply indulgent work with a premise and perspective nobody was asking for. It also contains moments of staggering vision that you could probably only try if you self-financed a film for $120 million and nobody could tell you “no.”
Posted Sep 28, 2024  Edit critic review
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) Abby Olcese Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is entertaining... It’s loving enough that it escapes the craven cash-grab territory that plagues most legacy sequels. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to see how it could’ve been even better.
Posted Sep 12, 2024  Edit critic review
Blink Twice (2024) Abby Olcese As first films go, Kravitz’s head is in the right place and she and her co-writer have some nasty, unsparing tricks up their sleeves. It’s not the best version of the story it’s telling, but it’s also far from the worst.
Posted Aug 23, 2024  Edit critic review
Twisters (2024) Abby Olcese Twisters is fun, but Twisters is also a reminder of what’s changed in blockbuster filmmaking between the 90s and now.
Posted Jul 22, 2024  Edit critic review
Fly Me to the Moon (2024) Abby Olcese Fly Me to the Moon’s positives are so clearly telegraphed that its derailment feels like self-sabotage. The correct choices are obvious, yet Berlanti swerves away from them so sharply that it feels intentional.
Posted Jul 11, 2024  Edit critic review
The Vourdalak (2023) Abby Olcese It’s the kind of enjoyably weird movie you keep in your back pocket to whip out for unsuspecting friends who you know are already on its wavelength. In other words, it’s a ready-made cult classic.
Posted Jul 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Cora Bora (2023) Abby Olcese Cora Bora isn’t a terribly remarkable movie... However, it’s a great vehicle for Stalter, allowing her to be everything that’s made her a standout supporting player thus far, and giving her additional depth and room to stretch.
Posted Jul 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Janet Planet (2023) Abby Olcese Baker has created a tender pocket of time that’s both universal and hyper-specific, and it feels natural to want to protect everyone in it with your life.
Posted Jun 28, 2024  Edit critic review
Ghostlight (2024) Abby Olcese The story may look unremarkable from the outset, but its honest, empathetic approach makes it sing.
Posted Jun 21, 2024  Edit critic review
Tuesday (2023) Abby Olcese As a writer and director, Pusić has taste to spare, but Tuesday requires tight structure and intimate knowledge of characters, settings and context to really work that isn’t quite there.
Posted Jun 14, 2024  Edit critic review
Inside Out 2 (2024) Abby Olcese While Inside Out 2 wasn’t totally necessary, it makes a good case for feeling like a natural progression. This isn’t new territory, but it does further develop the first film’s central ideas in meaningful ways.
Posted Jun 14, 2024  Edit critic review
The Fall Guy (2024) Abby Olcese It’s a great introduction to the summer movie season, a proper fun blockbuster that’s here to put a smile on your face and help you forget your troubles.
Posted May 04, 2024  Edit critic review
Boy Kills World (2023) Abby Olcese Don’t come expecting all that ultra-violence and Adult Swim humor to actually comment on anything. As storytelling, though, it’s joyfully creative in a way that most studio films don’t get to be, and that’s worth championing.
Posted Apr 26, 2024  Edit critic review
Challengers (2024) Abby Olcese A director can only do so much. Kuritzkes’ script is the driving force of Challengers, and it’s never as sharp, hot, or insightful as it needs to be to make the movie sing.
Posted Apr 26, 2024  Edit critic review
Civil War (2024) Abby Olcese The best compliment you can pay a film is recognizing that future audiences will continue to embrace it, even if current ones don’t for fully understandable reasons. We may not be ready for Civil War now. In a few years, it will still be ready for us.
Posted Apr 12, 2024  Edit critic review
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