Dylan Roth Sep 14, 2022. 6 minute read
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Review: Do Worry, Actually
Don’t Worry Darling arrives in theaters this weekend with a ton of baggage, which is already drowning out coverage of the film itself. It’s had an absolutely cursed press tour, with star Florence Pugh being conspicuously absent from publicity events and all but silent on social media, director Olivia Wilde…
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Dylan Roth Aug 24, 2022. 6 minute read
‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ Review: Left Wanting
When I first saw the trailer for Three Thousand Years of Longing, I could not have been more excited. It promised a bombastic and colorful adult fairy tale “from the mad genius George Miller,” the rare filmmaker for whom such fanfare does not seem hyperbolic. Three Thousand Years of Longing…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Aug 8, 2022. 6 minute read
‘Prey’ Review: The Best Predator Movie Since, Well, Predator
2022 has been a remarkable year for maximalist filmmaking, for big, colorful visuals and loud, expressive sound design. Most of my favorite movies this year have been overstated, from the rip-roaring action and emotion of Everything Everywhere All at Once and RRR, to the IMAX spectacle of Top Gun: Maverick…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Aug 3, 2022. 5 minute read
‘Bullet Train’ Review: Hyperverbal and Hyperviolent
The best way to describe Bullet Train is that it’s extremely “from the director of Deadpool 2.” David Leitch is one of the founders of the 87North production company, itself an offshoot of 87Eleven Action Design, the collective of stunt performers and choreographers whose sensibilities have defined the past decade…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jul 26, 2022. 6 minute read
Harley Quinn is the Best Batman Animated Series Since the 90s
Harley Quinn is the DC Universe’s greatest underdog story. Created for a throwaway gag in a 1992 episode of the groundbreaking Batman: The Animated Series, Harley has grown into one of DC’s most popular and marketable characters, the lead of multiple comics series, three live-action feature films, and a host…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jul 25, 2022. 5 minute read
‘The Gray Man’ Review: Everything is Gray For Him
It’s natural to want to knock Anthony and Joe Russo down a peg. The duo shares directing credits on four smash hit blockbusters — including two of the ten highest-grossing films of all time — but all on the backs of the Marvel Studios brand. In film critics circles, they…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jul 8, 2022. 9 minute read
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ is a Fun but Predictable Ragnarok Followup
Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourth installment of the Norse Space Viking’s solo film series, and his eighth feature film appearance in eleven years. And yet, thanks to director Taika Waititi’s retooling of the character in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, this particular corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t feel…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jul 7, 2022. 9 minute read
Strange New Worlds Stumbles at the Finish Line With “A Quality of Mercy”
When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was first announced, my biggest fear was that it would feel like fan fiction. Fan fiction, of course, comes in myriad stripes and at all levels of craft, but by definition fan fiction is created by and for a pre-sold audience who is looking…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 30, 2022. 7 minute read
“All Those Who Wander” is Strange New Worlds at its Most Cinematic
In contrast to the two previous live-action Star Trek series, Discovery and Picard, Strange New Worlds has distinguished itself by maintaining an episodic format and restraining the scale and scope of its stories accordingly. It is deliberately not blockbuster, “anything can happen” television, and it’s all the better for it.…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 23, 2022. 8 minute read
Strange New Worlds Gets a Holodeck Episode in “The Elysian Kingdom”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has stood out from the current pack of space sci-fi television (and Trek shows in general) by embracing camp with open arms. In just the past four weeks, SNW has given us a screwball romcom, a goofy pirate adventure, and with its latest installment, a…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 20, 2022. 6 minute read
‘Lightyear’ Review: To Mid-finity and Beyond
From Disney and Pixar Animation Studios comes Lightyear, an animated action-adventure film based on the spaceman doll Buzz Lightyear from the 1995 movie Toy Story. (Or, rather, based on the human who that toy is based on, blah blah blah, we’re all tired of this joke already.) Despite its baggage…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 16, 2022. 7 minute read
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Review: Forget It Grant, It’s Dinotown
Of the five unnecessary sequels to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic Jurassic Park, Jurassic World Dominion arguably begins with the most potential. Each previous sequel basically starts with the same conflict: What are we gonna do about that island what got taken over by dinosaurs? The obvious answer, “Leave it the…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 16, 2022. 9 minute read
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ ‘The Serene Squall’ Has Won Me Over
Since Star Trek returned to television in 2017, I’ve been mostly enthusiastic about the new generation of shows. I’ve written extensively here on Fanbyte about my experience of watching Discovery, a show that I enjoy despite it being a frequently cringey experience, and I’ve warmed significantly to both Lower Decks…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 9, 2022. 7 minute read
Strange New Worlds Gets Tough in ‘Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach’
The Star Trek franchise is famously optimistic, set in a utopian future where anything is possible and no one is left behind. The aim of many Star Trek stories is to inspire us to do better, to be brave, compassionate, and curious. But it’s a compass, not a map, and…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth Jun 2, 2022. 8 minute read
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Goes Silly with ‘Spock Amok’
A few months ago, while reviewing the Star Trek: Discovery episode “All In,” I commented on how modern era Trek has isolated the many flavors that have made the franchise so rich for the past half-century and siloed them each into their own series. Discovery and Picard are tonally distinct…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth May 27, 2022. 8 minute read
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Review: Ride Into the Navy Zone
In 1986, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, director Tony Scott, and star Tom Cruise hit paydirt with the blockbuster success of Top Gun, a drama loosely based on the real-life magnet program for the US Navy’s most talented aviators. It was the highest-grossing film of the year and propelled…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth May 26, 2022. 6 minute read
With “Memento Mori,” Strange New Worlds Goes USS-571
Strange New Worlds is easily the most approachable new Star Trek series of its generation, so far requiring no previous experience with the franchise or even a linear viewing order. So, it’s funny that the most natural way for me to discuss the show has been in comparison to other…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth May 19, 2022. 7 minute read
In “Ghosts of Illyria,” Strange New Worlds Tackles Tolerance and Hypocrisy
Yesterday, the trailer debuted for a new studio romantic comedy called Bros, written by and starring comedian Billy Eichner. In the trailer, Eichner’s character describes being invited by a movie studio to create a “straight-friendly” gay romcom that demonstrates that gay relationships are really just like straight relationships. Except, he…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth May 12, 2022. 8 minute read
Strange New Worlds Proves That Classic 90s Star Trek Still Works
In 2017, when Star Trek: Discovery first launched, Star Trek’s fan community split nearly in half over the new show’s vastly different approach to the franchise. It was practically a rehearsal for what would happen to Star Wars fandom when The Last Jedi hit theaters a few months later, with…
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TV/FILM
Dylan Roth May 9, 2022. 8 minute read
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Review: Cool, I Guess
For the past few decades, major label superhero comics have made an annual tradition of the Big Summer Crossover Event. This usually takes the form of a core miniseries wherein you’ll find all the important plot beats and shocking reveals (this year it’s Dark Crisis at DC, Avengers vs. X-Men…
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TV/FILM