Lyrae Anderson Archives -

FALLOUT SEASON 2 REVIEW Who needs a nuclear armageddon to turn America into a barren wasteland when water-hungry AI data centers belonging to Amazon and other tech giants can do the job just as well? It’s an irony befitting the world of Fallout, the long running video games series and now critically acclaimed TV show… […]

PLUR1BUS SEASON 1 REVIEW From a single room in your house to the neighborhood grid of your city. All the way up to the panoramic satellite view of the state, then the country, up passed the atmosphere and finally the home we call Earth. The existence of life is both small and vast. What kind […]

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB MOVIE REVIEW When four retirees (Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie) trade in bingo night for cold-case crime solving, they get more than they bargained for after stumbling into a very real murder. Suddenly, the cozy English village is buzzing with secrets, suspects, and amateur detective work that’s […]

HIGHEST 2 LOWEST MOVIE REVIEW Rick Rubin once said “There’s a tremendous power in using the least amount of information to get a point across” and Spike Lee once said “I think it is very important that films make people look at what they’ve forgotten”. Apple Plus presents Highest 2 Lowest a film directed by […]

MURDERBOT MOVIE REVIEW They Might be Giants once rocked out to the lyrics “Robot parade, robot parade, wave the flags that the robots made”. As any Sci-Fi fanatic knows, the overthrow of man by the cold steel hands of a robot all begins with that first step into the land of free will. Adapted from […]

THE OLD GUARD 2 MOVIE REVIEW “And here we are, we’re the princes of the universe. Here we belong, fighting for survival. We’ve come to be the rulers of you all”-Freddie Mercury. Who knew that this one lyric would best describe the long awaited sequel to the smash hit The Old Guard on Netflix? Andy […]

HEADS OF STATE MOVIE REVIEW There have been some great entries into the action-comedy road trip genre, with films like Tango & Cash, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Nice Guys, Midnight Run, and recently Deadpool & Wolverine. Now, Idris Elba and John Cena are using their combined charisma and endless charm in the genre. This […]

THE STUDIO SERIES REVIEW What goes into making a cinematic classic? According to the Fablemens. It’s facing your fears, dealing with your parents divorce with courage and empathy, and understanding the importance of a horizon line. The credits at the end of a film suggest that not one visionary with a dream but rather 1,500 […]

HAVOC MOVIE REVIEW A good house is built on a solid foundation with primo materials and a foreman that knows that hard work and honest labor with no cut corners will create not just a home for one generation but a domicile for future generations. What if that foreman was a crooked, backstabbing politician whose […]

THE ELECTRIC STATE MOVIE REVIEW Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Those Avengers Endgame fellas) and their frequent screenwriting collaborators, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (those other two Avengers Endgame fellas) continue their Netflix contract obligations by delivering one of the most expensive movies ever made (none of it going to Chris Pratt’s wigs) with an […]

AGATHA ALL ALONG SERIES REVIEW Disney Plus would like to M See U this fall for the WandaVision follow-up, Agatha Coven of Chaos! Wait, was that it? Hold on, let me get Feige on the phone: Mr. Feige, was that Agatha the Darkhold Diaries or Agatha the Lying Witch and the Wardrobe? He has just […]

BROTHERS MOVIE REVIEW Israel Zangwill once said “It takes two men to make one brother”. Step aside Gyllenhaal and Maguire. Retire and move on Devito and Schwarzenegger. This time around the actors playing siblings are Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage in a film directed by Max Barbakow and written by Etan Cohen and Macon Blair, […]

THE PLATFORM 2 MOVIE REVIEW “Hunger can explain many acts. It can be said that all vile acts are done to satisfy hunger” – Maxim Gorky. Netflix presents The Platform 2. Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and starring Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian. The Platform 2 is a pre-re-Sequel that further explores the atrocities people are […]

GOODRICH MOVIE REVIEW What if you were so into your life’s work that the life you were living happened as if you were on the outside looking in? What if you were SO into your work that you’d often step away from the outside looking in completely? Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, Goodrich is […]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 REVIEW Tensions are quite high in Westeros. House of the Dragon is back with its second season and picks up right where we left off when Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) killed Prince Luke and left the relationship between Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) in utter […]

THE BEAR SEASON 3 REVIEW Dial up the Emmy voters and get the best ensemble SAG award ready. The Bear on FX and Hulu is back with season 3. We last left Chef Carmey (Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White) locked in the freezer. The beef wasn’t the only thing needing a thaw within that icey […]

WHAT REMAINS MOVIE REVIEW Writer/Director Ran Huang and Co-Writer Megan Everett-Skarsgård presents What Remains, based on a true story mystery of a man confessing to multiple murders that he may have not committed. The film begins with a chance at a new life as Mads Lake (Gustaf Skarsgård) is released on a probationary period but […]

ATLAS MOVIE REVIEW Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), is an analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence. She has committed her life to Blade Runn-er-um-searching for fugitive AI terrorists, specifically Harlan (Simu Liu), the AI who gained sentience 28 years ago and led a robot rebellion that left 3 million Earthlings dead before military forces […]

REBEL MOON PART 2: THE SCARGIVER REVIEW Round 2! Zack Snyder is back with the second part of his sci-fi “epic”, Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver. We last left Kora (Sofia Boutella) and her band of mighty warriors on the titular rebel moon, Veldt. They are welcomed by the thankful villages saving them from […]

DAMSEL MOVIE REVIEW Once upon a time, the Screener Squad gathered in the high tower of the castle Of Us to sing the glorious tales of Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown), the adolescent daughter of Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone) in a land struggling to survive. The adventurous young lady receives a proposal from Queen Isabelle (Robin […]

REACHER SEASON 2 REVIEW If you go to the page for Reacher Season 2 on Amazon Prime, you will find the following synopsis: “When members of Reacher’s old military unit start turning up dead, Reacher has just one thing on his mind – revenge.” While there is nothing inaccurate about that synopsis, there is so […]

FARGO SEASON 5 REVIEW It’s cold outside, murder and mayhem are afoot, and everybody is “Minnesota nice”…must be a new season of Fargo. Noah Hawley’s highly acclaimed anthology series returns in the highly problematic year of 2019, where we find Dot Lyon (Juno Temple) in a bit of a pickle. In the midst of a […]

REBEL MOON PART ONE: CHILD OF FIRE A village in need. Slow-motion action. A team of heroes. Space horses. Glowy swords. A robot named Jimmy. Even more slow-motion action. Zack Snyder’s latest film, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, dropped on Netflix a couple of weeks ago and drew A LOT of […]

CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET MOVIE REVIEW It’s been 23 years since Chicken Run came into our cinematic lives one stop motion frame at a time. And like all sequels that come decades later, the bar and expectations have been set higher than the electric fence surrounding Mrs. Tweedy’s farm. Since Ginger, Rocky, and […]

HEELS SEASON 2 REVIEW From September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001 Vince McMahon of the WWF waged a ratings battle with WCW’s Eric Bischof. Shady deals, empty hand shakes, and underhanded tactics were used by both companies in an all out brawl to be the world’s number one league in wrestling entertainment. The ongoing […]

THE INVENTOR MOVIE REVIEW Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most enigmatic historical figures to ever live. He is credited as the founder of the High Renaissance. And despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major pieces, he created some of the most influential paintings in Western art, notably the Mona […]

THE BEAR SEASON 2 REVIEW Add 1 cup of found fortune, a tablespoon of ambition with a pinch of character motivation. Stir in famous character actor cameos. Be sure to use talented thespian and not major summer blockbuster cameos (see MCU casting clickbait articles for reference). Set tensions to boiling point, really push that powder […]

THE MUPPETS MAYHEM SERIES REVIEW It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet the rock band that debuted back in 1975 on a sketch comedy show called The Muppet Show. After the series finale of The Muppet Show back in 1981, Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem […]

DEAD RINGERS SERIES REVIEW Which statement makes you more uneasy? “My gynecologist called and they want me to come in” or “David Cronenberg is filming a new body horror character study”. What if I told you that those two statements are one and the same in the amazon Cronenberg remake mini series Dead Ringers. Elliot […]

QUASI MOVIE REVIEW Oh boy, Broken Lizard is back, emphasis on the “broken” with Hulu’s new movie Quasi, starring said comedy troupe. Depending on who you talk to, it’s literally the most disappointing film ever, or just average. It seems Broken Lizard is stuck in a time warp, where the comedy really hasn’t evolved with […]

A LITTLE WHITE LIE MOVIE REVIEW Toni Morrison once said the ability of the writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power. Michael Shannon plays a handyman living in New York city who’s mistaken for a very famous, private, and reclusive […]

WE HAVE A GHOST MOVIE REVIEW Due to Frank Presley (Anthony Mackie) constantly trying and failing at get rich quick schemes, the Presleys find themselves moving into a cheap, old ass, house in the Chicago ‘burbs. One thing they didn’t count on was “Ernest,” the ghost that lives in the attic (David Harbour). Frank’s younger […]

THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN MOVIE REVIEW Let’s face it everyone… and I’m including both parents and people without children… kids are f**king creepy. They’re like 1/3 the size of an adult and have high pitched voices. You think that would be adorable, but it’s not. There’s Something Wrong With The Children doesn’t bury […]

THE PALE BLUE EYE MOVIE REVIEW There will always be a willing and vivacious audience for the bloody twists and turns of crime dramas. Netflix could indeed indulge in presenting an offshoot streaming service with their abundance of murder serials, documentaries of men with malicious intent, and motion pictures of scandal and treachery. However when […]

THE STRANGER MOVIE REVIEW Who doesn’t love a good true crime story? Grizzly encounters with sociopaths or serial killers. Dark, slow, suspenseful, and based on true events. Netflix has so many murder shows and movies, those of you who fall asleep to Forensic Files or whatever the new cult docuseries is, will never have a […]

MR. HARRIGAN’S PHONE MOVIE REVIEW If you don’t know by now, October is the time for spooky things. “What’s spookier than burying a phone with your very old, very dead, mentor?” Ummm… Spiders… Running out of ice during a Halloween party… reminiscing about the time I lost my virginity to both Freddy and Jason… Huh, […]

SURFACE SERIES REVIEW Netflix may have it’s Knives Out but Apple TV steps up to the murder mystery streaming competition with an eight episode psychological thriller Surface from acclaimed writer/producer Veronica West (High Fidelity, Dexter: New Blood).  Since Sophie’s (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) accident where she fell overboard on a ferry, every face is a blurry memory. […]

SAMARITAN MOVIE REVIEW Twin brothers, both born with strength beyond human ability, trying to simply live their lives in a world that sees them as freaks, and fears them as gods. Escaping a deliberate house fire that kills their parents, the boys find themselves on opposite sides, one compassionate towards humanity, and one consumed with […]

DAY SHIFT MOVIE REVIEW Vampires. A movie monster that has seen hundreds of films, TV shows, and productions in the century plus of cinema and television. Dracula himself is one of the most adapted fictional characters of all time, second only to Sherlock Holmes. But it’s been some time since we’ve had a major vampire […]

THE SANDMAN SERIES REVIEW It’s that time again for ambitious actors with mad directors and masters of the written word attempting to adapt unadaptable beloved classics. Netflix presents their take on Neil Gaiman’s award winning comic series The Sandman. The excellent ensemble cast includes Patton Oswalt, Boyd Holbrook, Vivienne Acheampong, Gwendoline Christie, David Thewlis, Jenna […]

THE GREY MAN MOVIE REVIEW When the Russo Brothers, the directors of the second and fifth highest grossing movies of all-time, come to you with a new movie they’d like to make, you say, “Yes.” You give them $200 million, and you let them do whatever they want. And sure, it’s not another superhero IP. […]

THE PRINCESS MOVIE REVIEW It’s a tale as old as time. You’ve got your kingdom far, far away. You’ve got your once upon a time. You’ve got a strong-willed princess locked away in the tallest tower of the castle. She’s been placed there against her will after refusing to wed a cruel, sociopathic Prince. She […]

THE LONG NIGHT MOVIE REVIEW A lot of things can ruin a romantic couple’s getaway weekend: Anxiety from the deep seclusion, personal injury through your own awkward clumsiness, or having the same old fight with your guy or gal. The worst though would have to be a cult gathering in the front lawn in the […]

REVEALER MOVIE REVIEW It’s going to be a Hell of a day for peep show exotic dancer Angie (Caito Aase) and it begins with having to get past a scrum of religious protestors outside her job. The door to her booth sticks, the clients are the same old creeps, the boss doesn’t give her the […]

CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH MOVIE REVIEW It’s impressive to watch a film from a first timer and see the potential that will surely be unlocked over the years to come in better movies. Down the road, sometimes a decade later, you can say, “I remember when they kicked things off with that rough around the […]

UNHUMAN MOVIE REVIEW Blumhouse has created a brand known mainly for producing horror films, and their degree of quality goes from Paranormal Activity to Get Out to The Invisible Man. And then, they have their more, shall we call them, “Asylum Level” features. And Rae, Tessa, Marcos, and TC signed up for Unhuman hoping for something […]

ESCAPE THE FIELD MOVIE REVIEW We’ve all been there right? One moment you’re in bed, reading a John Grisham novel, only to wake up in the middle of a corn field with nothing but your wits, a knife, and dressed down in your best lingerie… No you say? That’s never happened to you? Well you’re […]

WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR MOVIE REVIEW You may not ever achieve mega stardom in the dope show but The World’s Fair challenge is open to all those with the courage to sit through the sponsored ads! We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, is about a […]

METAL LORDS MOVIE REVIEW What’s up shredders? Today on the Screener Squad we have Marcos, Rae, Ryan, and Chad reviewing the new movie Metal Lords, available to stream on Netflix. The film follows a group of misfits just trying to find their place in life, while trying to sound hardcore in the process. Tempers flare, […]