The Carol From the Black Lagoon: The Shape of Water, reviewed.

Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer play janitors at a secret government facility. (Fox Searchlight)

Good news: Guillermo Del Toro's new movie is the best one he's made in English! Even if it doesn't kick quite as much undead ass as Blade II. Here's my NPR review.

I'm on The Canon Debating His Girl Friday v The Philadelphia Story with my pal Amy Nicholson!

"Your assignment will be Spy magazine's greatest achievement: Tracy Lord. Big game hunting in Africa, fox hunting in Pennsylvania. Married on impulse. Divorced in a rage. And always unapproachable by the press. The unapproachable Miss Lord... The Philadelphia Story!"

I was so certain that recording an episode of The Canon with my friend Amy Nicholson, pitting one Problematic 1940 Divorced Cary Grant movie against another, would require me to perform an impression of Henry Daniell as Spy publisher Sidney Kidd that I might've ripped the audio of the scene into my iPhone and rehearsed it during my drive to Earwolf HQ in Hollywood a few weeks ago. In the end, I forgot to break out the imitation I'd practiced to carefully, because Amy is just as brilliant in conversation as she is in prose. So the fact that she spared you all my, um, acting is not the best reason to be grateful for her insight and eloquence, but it's a reason.

You can listen to our debate right here!

You Got to Have a Mother Box For Me: Justice League, reviewed.

How Green Was My Screen: JK Simmons, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Ben Affleck, and Ezra Miller (Warner Bros.).

Early in Justice League, while director Zack Snyder abuses yet another Leonard Cohen song, we see a glimpse of a Metropolis Post front page with a headline about vanished heroes that puts Kal-El in the middle of a triptych with Prince and David Bowie. It feels like a joke from Men in Black (another comic book-derived movie) 20 years ago. Anyway, it's good to see that Metropolis is still a two-paper town.

Here's my review of Justice League, where I did not really have room to complain that J.K. Simmons, the J. Jonah Jameson of Sam Raimi's no-longer-canonical Spider-Man trilogy, is now Commissioner Gordon, which feels like double-dipping, or that Gordon has once again been demoted to empty trenchcoat after being a vibrant, fully-developed character in Christopher Nolan's no-longer-canonical Dark Knight trilogy. These movies, man.

Fargo Fuck Yourself: Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, reviewed.

Woody Harrelson and Frances McDormand in writer/director Martin McDonagh's finest film.

Up until now, Martin McDonagh's best plays and movies have all been set in rural Ireland, or in an unnamed fictional totalitarian state, or In Bruges. That changes with the superb Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, his first U.S.-set story that doesn't feel like the work of a tourist. Here's my NPR review.

Ragna-roll With It: Thor: Ragnarok, reviewed.

It's way more fun than this photo would suggest. (Disney/Marvel)

Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor movie by an Asgardian mile, but don't let that backhanded compliment keep you away. With dual villains played by Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum plus a Mark Mothersbaugh score, it's a stealth The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou reunion. Lo, here's my NPR review.

Film Blanc: Suburbicon, reviewed.

Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac exchange unpleasantries. (Paramount)

I'm an admirer of all the principals involved, so it brings me no joy to report to you that Suburbicon—cowriter/director George Clooney's deeply misguided retread of a Coen Bros. script from 30 years ago—is the biggest embarrassment to Hollywood's liberal piety since Crash. At least Oscar Issac is having a good time.

We Need to Talk About Keoghan: The Killing of a Sacred Deer, reviewed.

Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan in Yorgos Lanthimos' latest puzzler.

Writing a review the same day I see a film or a play will never be my favorite way to work, but the results aren't always bad. It's trickier when the subject is as provocative and original as Yorgos Lanthimos' movies tend to be. His latest, a mix of Greek myth and The Shining-era Stantley Kubrick, is well worth seeing even if it's not quite as strong as The Lobster.