Movie Reviews

Cosmic Circus has been covering movies and TV/streaming series for over five years now. Please take some time to read through some of our movie reviews below to find out what the writers think of past and new films.

Refer to the Stellar Picks archive to find some of our top-rated movies, shows, books, games, and more!


 

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Review: ‘Alienoid: Return to the Future’ Changes the Game of Time Travel Movies

Choi Dong-hoon reinvents the language of time travel cinema through his Alienoid series. With its sequel, Alienoid: Return to the Future, now in theaters, the director takes even bigger storytelling, and aesthetic, risks to enthrall viewers.  “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” is the core tenet Christopher Nolan attempted to introduce its audiences within his time-travel sci-fi drama Tenet. But

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‘Freaky Tales’ Review: Genre Extravaganza Pays Tribute To 1987 Oakland

When an independent director is swallowed up into the blockbuster machine, there’s usually two paths for them. Either they stay in the machine or are never heard from again. It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Mississippi Grind directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck seemed destined for the latter after directing Captain Marvel when they didn’t return for the sequel or immediately

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Review: Claustrophobia Meets the Cosmos in Thrilling New Film ‘I.S.S.’

Picture this: You’ve dedicated your life to the pursuit of science and advancing mankind after you’ve had some pretty tragic things happen in your past. Your intelligence and work ethic take you through the Marine Corps and astronaut training to eventually get assigned to work on the International Space Station, 254 miles above the Earth. This frame is our way into

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Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ is a Masterclass in Grief and Purpose

In a world that is inundated with film and television, some names in Hollywood stand out. From the moment you see their name attached to the project, you know exactly what you’re going to get. Ava DuVernay is one of those names. Her directorial debut might have been I Will Follow but it was with her work on Middle of Nowhere

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‘All of Us Strangers’ is a Haunting Ode to Love, Family, and Queerness

A few weeks ago, when I did the Films of 2023 Cosmic Circle podcast, there were a few films from the year that I was excited to see, but because of either time restraints or lack of showings in my area, I couldn’t before recording. At the top of that list was Searchlight Pictures’ All of Us Strangers. This film captured

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Cosmic Psychologist: ‘Wonka’ and Personal Motivations

With my day job as a psychologist, it can sometimes be difficult to switch off that part of the brain when I’m off the clock. I try my best to separate my career from my personal life, however, when reading books, watching television, or taking in a film, there’s a part of me that analyzes what is going through the therapeutic

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‘The Beekeeper’ Review: Honey-Sweet Actioner Delivers

The January movie dead zone doesn’t appear so dead. Night Swim‘s already made its budget back, Mean Girls is getting a mostly positive reception, and movies like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Anything But You are gaining new box office legs. It’s an uncommonly decent January, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that something like The Beekeeper is exceeding critical expectations. The Jason Statham action movie, directed

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Review: ‘Mean Girls’ Musical Falls Flat

The original Mean Girls is an iconic film, remaining a high school comedy favorite to this day. After spinning the franchise off into a Broadway musical, Tina Fey has adapted the stage show for the big screen once again. 2024’s Mean Girls remake tries to add a unique flair thanks to its musical trappings, but it fails to capture the magic

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‘Night Swim’ Review: A Shallow January Horror

Few months in the year are as scary to moviegoers as January. After the rush of awards season and holiday blockbusters, audiences spend far less time at the movies. Therefore, the studios dump the films they don’t expect to do very well at the beginning of the new year. Especially horror. The release of Night Swim, however, still feels a bit

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