Comrade Courant Culture Critic

The Parenting (2025): A Wasted Cast in a Toothless Horror-Comedy "A stacked cast meets a script that’s neither scary nor funny enough to matter." — 2/5 Stars The Parenting (2025) review: With a cast that reads like a who’s who of prestige television—Lisa Kudrow ( Friends ), Brian Cox ( Succession ), Edie Falco ( The Sopranos ), Dean Norris ( Breaking Bad ), Parker Posey ( The White Lotus ), plus rising stars Nik Dodani and Brandon Flynn—you’d expect something sharp, subversive, or at least entertaining. Instead, Craig Johnson’s horror-comedy delivers a toothless, predictable farce that fails to land as either comedy or horror. The premise has potential: a young gay couple, Rohan (Dodani) and Josh (Flynn), invite their parents to a countryside house for a weekend meet-and-greet. But when a 400-year-old evil entity awakens, chaos ensues. In theory, this setup could yield sharp ...

  'The Monkey': A Delightfully Twisted Take on Stephen King’s Cursed Toy "Osgood Perkins delivers a darkly comic, surprisingly heartfelt horror that defies expectations—and makes a killer toy feel fresh again." — 4/5 Stars For fans of Stephen King’s stranger tales and those who appreciate horror with a wicked sense of humor, The Monkey is a rare adaptation that not only honors its source but elevates it. I went into The Monkey with cautious curiosity—after all, how do you turn a wind-up toy that claps cymbals into a credible engine of terror? Yet Osgood Perkins pulls off the near-impossible: a horror film that masterfully blends pitch-black comedy with genuinely gruesome set pieces, all anchored by emotional depth and razor-sharp direction. Far from a gimmick, this cursed monkey becomes the beating (and clapping) heart of one of the most inventive King adaptations in year...