Julia Roberts gives one of her best performances in "After the Hunt," as a Yale professor whose protege (Ayo Edebiri) accuses another professor (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. Strong drama, designed to provoke conversation and get folks angry. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/10...

Never in doubt.

And there it is. #GoMariners I have rooted for the Mariners since I was 12, when they played their first season in the Kingdome. And I can’t remember a night this nerve-wracking.

The big new movie this week is "Tron: Ares," sequel to the 1982 Disney movie. A program (Jared Leto) gets to our world and disobeys his programming to help a tech CEO (Greta Lee) threatened by a rival (Evan Peters). The Nine Inch Nails score rules. 1/5 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/10...

Utah's own Jared Hess will be directing a second "Minecraft" movie. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Hey, Salt Lake City! Did you turn on your radio yesterday and hear Christmas music? In October?!? There's an explanation for that. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

On "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" this week, the cast members talk a lot about each other's business ventures. Here's a breakdown on what each member of the cast does in business. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

The big title this week stars Dwayne Johnson, and it's not an action movie. "The Smashing Machine" stars The Rock as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, dealing with ring defeat and a volatile girlfriend (Emily Blunt). Good performance in a pedestrian sports film. 1/3 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/10...

NYFF opens today. First, a moment of tribute to the incomparable Robert Redford…

Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" is one of the year's best movies — a bold mix of genres, but first a drama about a former radical (Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to protect his daughter (Chase Infiniti) when the Feds some sniffing around. 1/3 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/9/...

FanX starts today at the Salt Palace Convention Center. After several years of not speaking at the convention, I'm back in the panelist chair — not once, but five times. Come listen to me opine.

Not the best movie week. There's "Him," a horror movie about a draft-bound quarterback (Tyriq Withers) who starts training with the best QB in the pros (Marlon Wayans), and things take a turn to the dark — then a turn toward the absurdly ridiculous. 1/3 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/9/...

How will the promise of "no tax on tips" work practically? The Tribune's Kolbie Peterson talked to a tax expert — and to a bartender and a restaurant server to get the on-the-ground experience. www.sltrib.com/news/2025/09...

Our visuals editor Chris Samuels gets credit for making me appear like I know what I’m talking about.

It’s weird to think of Bob as an icon. He is and was, certainly, but he didn’t wear it like it was a crown. It was a tool he used to make the things he thought people needed, like room for artistic expression. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

I had lunch recently with Britani Bateman, and found her to be quite lovely to talk to. Like all the people from “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” I have interviewed, she was everything you see on TV - and also a lot more.

The weekend brings one of the year's best movies: "The Long Walk," a dystopian drama set in an authoritarian near-future where young men enter a contest where they walk or die. Strong young cast, and Mark Hamill has never been more menacing. 1/3 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/9/...

The "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" beat never ends. This time, it's also got a dance beat. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

The old song goes "Our state fair is a great state fair." An Ohio man has made it his mission to visit state fairs in all 50 states. The Tribune's Brock Marchant met him at the Utah State Fair. Here's how he rates our fair. www.sltrib.com/news/2025/09...

The best new movie this week is "Splitsville," in which writers-actors Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin ("The Climb") poke comedic holes in the bro-code. Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona add spice as the women they're married to. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/9/...

In July, a rumor was going around the internet that Buc-ee's, the Texas-based chain of stores and gas stations, would be opening in Spanish Fork. Tuesday night, we learned the rumor was only off by a few miles. www.sltrib.com/news/2025/09...

One of the first movies I saw at Sundance was "Clearcut," where Graham Greene played an Indigenous man — more of a trickster character — who kidnaps an environmental lawyer and a logging company boss. Greene, of course, was compelling in every frame. RIP. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Labor Day Weekend is rarely promising for new movies. "Caught Stealing" is pretty good — a crime caper with Austin Butler as a former baseball phenom now tending bar, and getting bounced around by rival mobsters. Butler shows he can carry small movies, too. 1/3 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/8/...

Kai Beckstrand, a 19-year-old from St. George, conquered the obstacle course and his opponents to win the season championship of "American Ninja Warrior." He told me his next goal: To be a full-time firefighter. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

Lois Lane always made journalism look so glamorous. It's usually not, but still important. I watched my colleagues sit in the newsroom, working while they waited for this ruling to come down well after business hours. Enjoy the fruits of that waiting. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

And with that, I've made it through the entire list of characters in this project. It's certainly bittersweet to know it's over, but I had tons of fun with it, and I'm glad so many of you seemed to enjoy following along too. I do have a finale of sorts planned for this, so look forward to that!

In this article, Tom linked to a 2019 story I wrote about the Provo painter Jon McNaughton - who makes flattering portraits of Donald Trump and unflattering ones of Democrats.

The animated Chinese fantasy "Ne Zha II" has made $2B globally, and an English dub is arriving in the U.S. It's visually stunning, but so narratively dense that it may leave viewers confused — like seeing "Avengers: Endgame" as your first Marvel movie. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/8/...

I know @mrmichaelphillips.bsky.social‬ will thrive in this repotting, because he's wicked smart, funny and insightful in any venue. Not sure how the city of Siskel & Ebert will get along without a full-time movie critic at either of its papers.

A happy 89th birthday to actor, director, producer, activist and Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. Today, I'm sharing my 2019 interview with Redford, talking about the movie that made him a star, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

Utah's most famous bar owner (hint: He's also a well-known TV dad) has joined the campaign to raise money to help bar and restaurant workers who lost their jobs in this week's Main Street fire. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/f...

There's a new Spike Lee joint, "Highest 2 Lowest," and it has all the majestic glory and artistic excess for which Spike is legendary. It also has Denzel Washington as a music mogul risking his fortune to a ransom demand, which makes it worth a watch. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/8/...

Testimony began today in the Salt Lake County rape trial of Nicholas Rossi. The woman who accused him of raping her testified. The things that made him infamous — allegedly faking his death, changing his identity, moving to Scotland — aren't being discussed. www.sltrib.com/news/2025/08...

The most fascinating new movie is "Weapons," in which "Barbarian" writer-director Zach Cregger takes us into a small town reeling from the mysterious disappearance of 17 kids from a second-grade class. Sharp horror laced with drama and gallows humor. 1/5 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/8/...

Something else I'm going to miss after this year: Indie filmmakers telling local reporters IN AUGUST that they hope to make it into the Sundance Film Festival. www.masslive.com/news/2025/08...

August's movie calendar starts with "The Naked Gun," a reboot of the farcical police-procedural spoof, with Liam Neeson as the straight-arrow cop. It's more hit-and-miss than it should be, though Pamela Anderson shows she's a comedy genius. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/7/...

As a kid, I watched “The Electric Company,” where Tom Lehrer wrote songs like “Silent E.” Later, someone (probably my older brother) introduced me to Lehrer’s work as a satirist - the funniest lessons in 1950s-1960s history, and an inspiration for my humor. www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

The second night of the Bicknell International Film Festival — dedicated to B-movies, this year with an Elvis theme — gave us a much better movie: "King Creole" (1958). Elvis plays an up-and-coming singer in New Orleans, contending with a disappointing dad (Dean Jagger) and the allure of crime. 1/5

The head of the Sundance Film Festival talks about preparing for the 2026 festival — the last to be held in Utah. He also tries to reassure Utahns that the Sundance Institute will maintain ties to the Beehive State, where many of the institute's staff live and work. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

If your pick for the worst Elvis movie isn’t “Stay Away, Joe,” you’re wrong. Elvis as a half-Indigenous guy helping his parents’ cattle ranch, and stealing his pals’ girlfriends. Racist, sexist, lazily written and directed, and wacky sound effects. Bicknell International Film Festival rules!

This wonderful human is marking another trip around the sun today. We are celebrating with movies, pie and enjoying ourselves. Happy birthday to my world, my friend, my love, my Leslie.

"The Fantastic 4: First Steps" is the last big blockbuster of the summer, and it's quite fun — introducing "Marvel's First Family" to the MCU. The retro-futurist world-building is better than the plot. Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby are terrific. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/7/...

In the Granite Library, in South Salt Lake, I found — very prominently placed — “Cinema Her Way” by Marya E. Gates (@oldfilmsflicker.bsky.social), Chicago film critic and Triviaspotting friend.

Ari Aster's "Eddington" follows a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and a small-town mayor (Pedro Pascal) at odds during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a horror show turned into a satire, and says a lot about our current national madness. 1/4 moviecricket.net/blog/2025/7/...

Parents who love their children will steer clear of "Smurfs," a chaotic and humorless attempt to squeeze another movie out of the classic blue cartoon characters. moviecricket.net/blog/2025/7/...

The filmed-in-Utah billionaire comedy-drama "Mountainhead" received just one Emmy nomination, for outstanding TV movie. No acting noms, or anything for writer-director Jesse Armstrong. I talked to the cast of "Mountainhead" when it debuted on HBO in May. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

On a hot July day, why not think about Christmas? The Eccles Theater has announced its lineup of holiday concerts. Tickets go on sale Friday. Here are the details: www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

Poet Andrea Gibson died today at 49, after a battle with ovarian cancer that was shown in the documentary "Come See Me in the Good Light" — which won the Festival Favorite at Sundance. (Screens Saturday at The Broadway, in Sundance's Local Lens series.) www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

The Sundance Film Festival unveiled an outline of its plans for 2026 — the last festival to be held in Utah. One notable surprise: One of Park City's iconic venues won't be in use next year. www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2...

My heart is broken. I worked here for a few life-changing months in my youth. Glad I got to show it to my kids a few years ago. This is a true loss