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Dominic Griffin
Tomatometer-approved critic
Dominic Griffin is a pop culture polymath who lives on the internet. He is the host and producer of The Armchair Auteur, a YouTube series of film criticism. He writes about film, music, television, comics, and professional wrestling at any publication that will support his unhealthy obsessions with Drake, Michael Mann and the X-Men. You can find him on Twitter and Letterboxd (@allnewdom) probably talking about Carly Rae Jepsen or maybe Mamet.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Longlegs (2024) |
But on the first watch, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that we’re watching both a celebratory coming-out party for Perkins as a director and empirical proof that his screenwriting requires more polish - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jul 31, 2024
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Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) |
"Deadpool and Wolverine' seems to exist only as Kevin Feige’s desperate attempt to clutch some much needed “we’re so back” from the jaws of “it’s so over” defeat. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Jul 23, 2024
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Twisters (2024) |
"Twisters" can't quite recapture the magic of its predecessor, but setting aside the Herculean task of clearing that high bar, it is nonetheless an entertaining and heartfelt attempt... - Looper.com
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| Posted Jul 17, 2024
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MaXXXine (2024) |
“MaXXXine” is a film whose metatextual, cinematic preoccupations hold it back from greatness. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jul 17, 2024
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Despicable Me 4 (2024) |
As a fun way to kill 95 minutes with your family, "Despicable Me 4" is an unassailable success, even if anyone hoping for more than clearing that low bar may be left wanting. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jul 02, 2024
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Hit Man (2023) |
“Hit Man” ascends into something special - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jun 19, 2024
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I Saw the TV Glow (2024) |
“I Saw the TV Glow” is a heavy rumination on an element of being trans that ought to speak to plenty of cis folks, too: having the sense that something about your life is very wrong, but being trapped at the precipice of doing anything about it. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jun 05, 2024
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Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) |
"Bad Boys: Ride or Die" may be short on actual ambition, but it's long on ticking all the necessary boxes for moviegoers. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jun 04, 2024
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Challengers (2024) |
“Challengers” feels like a time machine back to an era where seeing a handful of talented and photogenic actors unravel interpersonal relationships was enough to get butts in seats at the multiplex. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted May 21, 2024
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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) |
145 minutes is too long to spend retreading the recent past. If this is to be a new trilogy, the next two chapters need to cover some serious ground to get more distance from Caesar. - Looper.com
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| Posted May 08, 2024
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The Fall Guy (2024) |
David Leitch, a former stuntman himself, couches these serious labor concerns about the lack of recognition for some of Hollywood's hardest-working creatives in one of the most buoyant, crowd-pleasing popcorn flicks in recent memory. - Looper.com
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| Posted May 02, 2024
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Shirley (2024) |
“Shirley” is a watchable-enough affair. But it doesn’t feel like anybody involved quite realized how sad and bittersweet a tale they were telling. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Apr 10, 2024
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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) |
If this franchise is going to keep trying to get bigger, badder, and more smashmouth with the monsters, it's either going to need to level up the quiet moments amid the bombast or find a way to reduce them entirely. - Looper.com
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| Posted Mar 28, 2024
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Mea Culpa (2024) |
No matter what new low Tyler Perry sinks to, an audience will always be willing to give it a shot for exactly the same reason we crane our necks when driving past car wrecks. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Mar 13, 2024
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Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) |
Luckily, even four films in, Po and his adventures don't feel as though they've overstayed their welcome. "Kung Fu Panda 4" offers enough hilarity, heart, and colorful, choreographed combat to keep the series alive. - Looper.com
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| Posted Mar 07, 2024
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Bob Marley: One Love (2024) |
“One Love” is fine if you want to pay for an infomercial advertising Marley’s music, but it is an absolute waste of time for anyone hungering for much more. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Feb 28, 2024
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Dune: Part Two (2024) |
Villenueve has put forth considerable effort to mitigate potential issues with the novel's 'white savior' material, but in the end, has made a movie that is entirely too rad and 'dudes rock' for those efforts to matter or be particularly effective. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Feb 22, 2024
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A Thousand and One (2023) |
...through Taylor’s excellent screen work, it functions so potently as a portrait of the real people left by the wayside by institutions designed to catch them when they fall. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Feb 13, 2024
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Argylle (2024) |
"Argylle" isn't funny enough to succeed as a comedy. Its action is too plasticine and ugly to be as stylish as it hopes. And the game of cat and mouse surrounding its mysteries proves more and more groan-worthy the longer the film runs. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jan 31, 2024
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Origin (2023) |
Wilkerson’s book has 496 pages to map the connection between racism in America, Nazi Germany, and the caste system in India. DuVernay’s film only has 145 minutes to do the same... - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jan 31, 2024
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American Fiction (2023) |
“American Fiction” is a film that fails to balance its satiric origins with the tragicomic story it seems far more interested in telling. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jan 17, 2024
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The Color Purple (2023) |
It's a triumph for a lauded Black story to be brought to life by Black storytellers with this level of scale and artistry. But as lively and entertaining as this difficult tale becomes in execution, the musical side of the equation feels out of balance. - Looper.com
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| Posted Dec 20, 2023
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The Marvels (2023) |
The Marvels feels like two distinct films conjoined together. One, a heartwarming, charming picture that takes some light risks and succeeds on the strength of its three leads considerable chemistry. The other, a barely functional actioner. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Nov 08, 2023
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The Killer (2023) |
Though the film's neo-noir nature allows Fincher to indulge in some sinfully entertaining displays of violence, much of its actual power lies in using the protagonist's chosen vocation as an entry point into commentary on the nature of the gig economy. - Looper.com
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| Posted Nov 07, 2023
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The Burial (2023) |
But perhaps not since their 1990s heyday has an example of the form been as entertaining as “The Burial,” the latest directorial effort from “Novitiate” director Maggie Betts. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Nov 03, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
Dramatizes the horrors and the graft and the hatred at the heart of the American experiment in a way that is truly damning. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Oct 19, 2023
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Cassandro (2023) |
An endearing and engaging portrait of otherness and the way the things about ourselves that hold us back in life can be what propels us forward to the life we’ve always wanted. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Oct 06, 2023
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Outlaw Johnny Black (2023) |
There’s an earnestness on display and an unmistakable passion that carries through even the toughest, least entertaining of its passages. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Sep 20, 2023
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) |
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" is sweet enough to enjoy and harmless enough not to offend, but it's a bit of a tragedy it isn't anything else. - Looper.com
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| Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Miguel Wants To Fight (2023) |
The film’s movie-referencing, self-aware sheen betrays a heartfelt core that makes it an instant classic about the travails of youth.
- The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Sep 06, 2023
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Biosphere (2022) |
“Biosphere” seemed like it was going to be a feature-length game of “will they or won’t they,” similar to the Duplass vehicle “Hump Day." But instead, it transcends into something a little headier, a lot more ambitious, and more tender. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Blue Beetle (2023) |
It's a minor miracle that this film survived the leap from "throwaway streaming vehicle" to "bonafide blockbuster release." - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Aug 16, 2023
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They Cloned Tyrone (2023) |
“Tyrone” appears to be saying something very broad and belabored about the plight of the Black community. It, unintentionally or not, paints a picture of a monolithic culture warped by outside influences. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jul 26, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
Nolan returns to his roots but keeps the scale he's been working at for a decade, forging a new chapter in his oeuvre. Murphy is astonishing. A biopic for people who hate biopics. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Jul 19, 2023
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Barbie (2023) |
Gerwig artfully outwits the eventual think pieces and potential backlash by making her "Barbie" a rumination on the ineffable mysteries of life and the Kobayashi Maru that is being a woman. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jul 19, 2023
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The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023) |
Story shows a lot of promise as a filmmaker, even if “Angry Black Girl” lacks in some of the typical areas for films on this end of the budget spectrum... - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jul 12, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) |
McQuarrie and Cruise lean even further into blurring Cruise's real-life status as a film crusader with his character's bid to become a better, more complete hero than any of the guys with capes on either side of the MCU/DCU brand war. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jul 07, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) |
...an ambitious and loving character portrait that honors the franchise’s past while never quite matching its majesty, verve, or charm.
- The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Jul 01, 2023
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The Blackening (2022) |
It's a sharp comedy, driven largely by acute cultural observations, but provides much less insight into the genre it's designed to send up. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jun 14, 2023
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) |
But while Steven Caple Jr. does an admirable job steering the ship, it's hard not to miss Bay's acumen for spectacle, even if it's undeniably refreshing to have lost all the other baggage his vulgar auteurism brought to the finished product.
Read More: - Looper.com
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| Posted Jun 09, 2023
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The Flash (2023) |
What ought to have been a proper send-off to the DCEU as we've come to know it and should have just been a standalone Flash tale instead is a misbegotten grab bag of "remember when"s. - Looper.com
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| Posted Jun 09, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
An ambitious and sumptuous sequel that bites off a little more than it can chew. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted May 31, 2023
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Master Gardener (2022) |
Schrader doesn’t seem particularly interested in the complex specifics or logistics of accountability here. But the fact that he’s finally embraced the idea of proper redemption being possible on a long enough curve feels revelatory. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted May 31, 2023
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The Little Mermaid (2023) |
"The Little Mermaid" — a beloved 83-minute fairy tale transformed into a strained 135-minute pale imitation where the titular sea nymph doesn't get her Faustian legs until a full hour into the proceedings. - Looper.com
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| Posted May 22, 2023
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Fast X (2023) |
The film is disappointing enough that the idea of adding an extra feature film into the mix feels not only ill-advised, but borderline insulting. - Looper.com
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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Chevalier (2022) |
A continent away and centuries removed, this myth of Black excellence is still foisted upon unsuspecting Black youths, with a harsh lesson they all must learn the hard way. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted May 17, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) |
The first time a saga has come to a genuine, satisfying and earned conclusion in the history of the MCU. - The Armchair Auteur
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| Posted Apr 28, 2023
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Evil Dead Rise (2023) |
As impressive as Cronin's unique mixture of franchise fealty and indulgent diversion prove, if the trappings of what came before it is stripped away, how much is really left in its wake? - Looper.com
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| Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Air (2023) |
...once the tone and time settle, the story’s comedic charm gives way to a more nuanced exploration of the nature of myth and its unenviable position at the intersection of commerce and legacy. - The Baltimore Beat
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| Posted Apr 19, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
It's not exactly reinventing the wheel stylistically, or rife with soul-quaking drama, but it is the kind of crowd-pleasing, larger-than-life spectacle studios desperately need to get filmgoers off their couches and into the multiplex. - Looper.com
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| Posted Mar 31, 2023
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