A.A. Dowd
Writer
A.A. Dowd, or Alex to his friends, is a writer and editor based in Chicago. He has held staff positions at The A.V. Club and Time Out Chicago, and is a member of the National Society of Film Critics.
Before Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve made 2 unnerving Jake Gyllenhaal thrillers
Premiering in the fall of 2013, two Jake Gyllenhaal movies, Prisoners and Enemy, set director Denis Villeneuve on the path to Arrival, Dune, and Dune: Part Two.
All the 2024 Best Picture Oscar nominees, ranked
From Barbenheimer to Poor Things, these are the 2024 nominees for Best Picture, ranked from worst to best.
Dune: Part Two review: a beautifully numbing sci-fi epic
Denis Villeneuve completes his two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic novel with Dune: Part Two, another amazing looking, but plodding sci-fi epic.
You probably haven’t seen this underrated 2004 thriller. Here’s why you should watch it now
Nicole Kidman plays a woman with a very strange dilemma in an oddball 2004 mystery that deserves a second look.
Is Christopher Nolan’s Tenet the misunderstood masterpiece some claim it to be?
Christopher Nolan's only box-office disappointment, Tenet, returns to IMAX theaters this weekend. Is it the misunderstood masterpiece some fans claim it to be?
Drive-Away Dolls review: a wacky Coens caper, minus a Coen
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan take a madcap road trip in Drive-Away Dolls , the first comedy Ethan Coen has made without his brother, Joel.
With Madame Web bombing, it’s time to ask: Who wants a Spider-Verse without Spider-Man?
Madame Web is the latest Sony superhero movie to flop — and further proof that building a Spider-Movie movie universe without Spider-Man was a mistake.
Madame Web review: the worst movie of 2024 so far
Dakota Johnson does not say your favorite line in the remarkably lousy Spider-Man offshoot Madame Web, which should be avoided at all costs.
This 2023 thriller has been criminally overlooked. Here’s why you need to watch it in 2024
Ignored by audiences and critics, this underrated 2023 thriller set in an Australian dive bar from Hell is better than most of this year's Oscar nominees.
At 70, is Godzilla more popular (and better) than ever?
As other franchises falter, the radioactive reptile enjoys new popularity, thanks to Godzilla Minus One and his forthcoming reunion with King Kong.
The Beekeeper review: an awful, hilarious Jason Statham action movie
Jason Statham is hilariously nonchalant in the dreadful but sometimes funny John Wick wannabe The Beekeeper.
Society of the Snow review: Alive gets a dreary Netflix makeover
Though less hokey than the 1993 film Alive, this new Netflix movie similarly fails to get big drama out of the harrowing true of the Andes flight disaster.
Are movie franchises dead, or are we just seeing the start of new ones?
Some of Hollywood's biggest franchises like Indiana Jones, Transformers, DC, and Marvel flopped this year, but are new ones coming to take their place?
Rebel Moon review: A glum Star Wars ripoff from Zack Snyder
Zack Snyder realizes his vision of 'Seven Samurai with Jedis' with Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, a glum, unsatisfying sci-fi epic on Netflix.
The 10 most underrated movies of 2023, ranked
From the latest Exorcist and Scream sequels to the blockbuster flop The Creator, these were the 2023 movies that deserved a better reception than they got.
Oppenheimer was the movie of 2023. Here’s why
By almost any major metric, Christopher Nolan's grand historical epic Oppenheimer was the movie of 2023 — and that goes far beyond the whole Barbenheimer thing.
Poor Things review: Emma Stone shines in a Frankensteinian sex comedy
Emma Stone reunites with the director of The Favourite for an even stranger comedy, the captivating feminist Frankenstein story Poor Things.
Godzilla without Godzilla? Stop turning blockbusters into streaming soap operas
Why do the small-screen adaptations The Last of Us, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and John Wick: The Continental all fail to live up to their source material?
The Marvels review: the MCU’s shortest film is its biggest mess
Captain Marvel teams up with two Disney+ B-listers for the surprisingly shoddy MCU adventure The Marvels.
The Killer review: David Fincher stylishly roasts himself
Michael Fassbender plays a dispassionate assassin in The Killer, an ultra-stylish and sneakily funny new thriller from David Fincher.
Is Thor: The Dark World really the worst Marvel movie?
Ten years later, the second Thor movie looks less like a low point for the MCU than a concerning harbinger of what the superhero franchise would become.
Priscilla review: The anti-Elvis by Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola peers into the gilded cage again with her Priscilla Presley biopic, starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi.
Platinum Dunes polished horror’s grimy past for a new generation
Twenty years ago, Platinum Dunes remade almost every major horror classic from the '70s and '80s. Are the Michael Bay horror remakes as terrible as fans say?
Is Final Destination the best horror franchise we have right now?
With five movies and counting, the Final Destination series remains as ghoulishly entertaining as ever.
Killers of the Flower Moon review: Scorsese’s monumental new epic
Martin Scorsese reunites with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for a devastating adaptation of the David Grann bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon.
20 years ago, Quentin Tarantino geeked out with Kill Bill
Twenty years ago, Quentin Tarantino returned with the wildly entertaining East-meets-West revenge epic Kill Bill.
From Godzilla to The Creator, Gareth Edwards makes beautiful doomsday blockbusters like no one else
The Creator joins Rogue One and Godzilla on the list of beautiful blockbusters by director Gareth Edwards, the poet of downbeat multiplex movies.
20 years later, The Rundown is still The Rock’s best action-hero role
Dwayne The Rock Johnson delivered his most likable star turn in The Rundown, which turns 20 this week.
The Continental review: John Wick is less fun without John Wick
Keanu Reeves is sorely missed in Peacock's unsatisfactory TV prequel to John Wick, The Continental.
20 years ago, Spider-Man swung onto MTV and changed the Marvel superhero forever
MTV's Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker, deserved better than the single 13-episode season it got.
With just a few episodes, writer Darin Morgan changed The X-Files forever
Chris Carter's classic TV show The X-Files, which turned 30 this week, hit new peaks of tragicomic brilliance in the six episodes written by Darin Morgan.
Video game adaptations are huge, but will we ever see a great one?
With The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Gran Turismo, video game adaptations came of age in 2023, but they didn't transcend the genre.
Superhero movies aren’t events anymore
From Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to The Flash, superheroes have underperformed in 2023. Will Blue Beetle and other comic book movies suffer the same fate?
The Halloween franchise should have ended 25 years ago with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Twenty-five years ago, Halloween H20 did the legacy sequel thing long before, and better than, the recent trilogy by David Gordon Green.