One-Line Review: The Purge (2013), starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey

The Purge is violence trying to be clever social commentary, rather than clever social commentary communicated through violence.

One-Line Review: Curvature (2017) starring Lyndsy Fonseca and Zach Avery

Curvature is a middle-of-the-road time travel plot, acting from passable to decent, and very, very white.

One-Line Review: Singularity (2017) starring Julian Schaffner and (kind of) John Cusack

Singularity tells you everything three times: once in narration, once when John Cusack explains it to a character who exists only to be told these things, and once when the protagonist learns it from the supporting actress (who exists only to be told these things).

One-Line Review: Braven (2018) starring Jason Momoa

Braven is a a movie about Jason Momoa beating up villainous drug runners and dodging the difficult task of deciding what to do with his increasingly-demented father.

One-Line Review: The Foreigner (2017) starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan

The Foreigner used neither Old Jackie Chan nor Old Pierce Brosnan to their best effect, and especially miscast Brosnan's Irish accent.

One-Line Review: Black Panther (2018) starring Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Michael B. Jordan

Black Panther ably demonstrates the shortcomings of a modern nation selecting its autocratic monarch through trial by combat.

One-Line Review: Ordinary People (1980) starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton, and Judd Hirsch

This rare film made me cry not once, but twice, thanks to honest, emotional performances that make Ordinary People better than good—they make it true.