the @popcollin reviews

Director Ron Howard’s dramatization of the incredible 2018 Thai cave rescue comes hot on the heels of last fall’s superb documentary ‘The Rescue’. Here, Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton star as the rescue divers, and it remains a harrowing, edge-of-your-seat thriller…which is quite the testament, since the whole […]

Jordan Peele’s latest (he wrote, directed, and produced) is a head-spinning mash-up of sci-fi, horror, and suspense designed to creep you the hell out while also making you wonder what the heck is going on. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as sibling Hollywood horse wranglers whose ranch is pestered […]

This harrowing documentary from French filmmaker Christophe Cognet chronicles life (and, more importantly, death) in several German concentration camps through the lens of the prisoners who secretly took photos themselves. Cognet exquisitely presents them as literal snapshots in time—a startling and eye-opening gut-punch reminder of the atrocities perpetuated at the […]

What started as a trilogy of clever, under-5-minute YouTube shorts a decade ago has quietly (and diligently) become one of the best and most surprising films of the year. Yes, it’s largely a stop-motion animated movie about a precocious, eloquent little shell with a googly eye and sneakers, but darn […]

Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio directed this two-part, all-encompassing documentary about the life and times of arguably America’s greatest stand-up comic. Folks who only know about the Hippy Dippy Weatherman or ‘Jammin’ in New York’ will get quite the education, and life-long fans will get a heavy dose of context. […]

I’m still not (and may never be) sure how Julian Fellowes can deftly balance 137 different characters and almost as many storylines over the course of two hours, but dammit if the second ‘Downton’ feature doesn’t top even the first film (and maybe the series as a whole). It’s a […]

Nicolas Cage is Nicolas Cage in this ultra-meta action-comedy about a burned-out actor, a Spanish superfan, and a kidnapped teen being held by arms traffickers. Credit to co-writer and director Tom Gormican for somehow pulling all the madness together in a ridiculously fun, tongue-in-cheek helluva good time. Cage is all […]

Sit down, strap in, and brace yourself for an acid-trip thrill ride like you’ve never seen before. Written and directed by Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert), the film defies explanation or description—so let’s just go with… “Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) discovers she has superpowers and ventures into a multi-verse to battle evil.” […]

Jim Broadbent is flat-out stellar in this brilliant, supremely entertaining retelling of the famous 1961 case of the elderly British man who stole Goya’s ‘Portrait of the Duke of Wellington’ from the National Museum in order to raise money for charity. Directed by the late Roger Michell (‘Notting Hill’) and […]

Pixar’s 25th film keeps its incredible streak going, following up ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ with a magical story of a young Asian-American girl who’s cursed to become a giant red panda every time her emotions get the better of her. What could have been a silly, slapstick comedy instead fills the […]