the @popcollin reviews

In the history of baseball, only 29 hitters have ever cracked a home run off the very first pitch they saw in the Major Leagues. With his debut feature The Vast of Night (now streaming free on Amazon Prime), director Andrew Patterson has accomplished an equivalent feat in the film world—walking confidently […]

By now, the secret (if it ever qualified as one) is out. Director Sam Mendes’ World War I epic 1917 is made to appear as though it is (for the most part) one, long continuous shot. What could, though, be simply tossed aside as a gimmick included solely to get people talking […]

If the Academy Awards are your Super Bowl, then GoldDerby.com is the Sports Book at Caesar’s Palace. Tables outlining the odds and predictions for all the major film categories (as gleaned from dozens of industry experts) give cinephiles a solid look at each year’s films to beat. In the first […]

Quentin Tarantino has always worn his love for vintage Hollywood on his sleeve, and his penultimate film is his ultimate postcard. From the opening shots of a PanAm 747 landing at LAX in 1969 to the individual authentic props that dot the film from start to finish, Once Upon a Time […]

If we’re lucky (and we usually are), any given year will provide two or three truly outstanding films that transcend all others and remind us why we go to the movies—why we pony up ten, fifteen bucks, munch grease-lubed popcorn, and tolerate the tool behind us whanging our seatback all […]

Who else but Pixar could extend a trilogy many agreed had concluded with its best installment nine years ago? And not only extend it but improve on what is already among the highest-rated franchises of all time? And center it on a literal piece of trash—a super-endearing, crudely cobbled-together kids’ […]

In my recent review of DC superhero flick Shazam!, I labeled it “the cocktail weenies appetizer” before Avengers: Endgame’s “super-loaded, mile-high platter of nachos.” Little did I know Endgame would actually arrive at my table more closely resembling a sterling cut of prime rib with a side of potatoes au gratin, green beans, a salad, […]

It’s extremely rare for a rock climber to make international headlines, but 31-year-old Alex Honnold did just that when, on June 3, 2017, he scaled the 3,300-foot-tall vertical granite wall of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park. It’s an impressive enough feat with ropes and pitons (which Honnold had […]

Those of us who lived through the Cold War remember it as a time dominated by the ever-present fear of mutually assured destruction between two superpowers. In Pawel Pawlikowski’s brilliant, engrossing film, it’s two people whose assured mutual destruction drives the narrative, and their story of love, betrayal, and twisted devotion is […]

Twenty-five years ago, we first heard of the Farrelly Brothers when they gifted us with Dumb and Dumber, which, in turn, launched a string of raunchy, juvenile comedies from the siblings, including Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, and Me, Myself & Irene. While their movies generally involve a bit of genuine heart mixed in […]