Sean Patrick
Bio
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
Stories (1677/0)
Movie Review '55 Steps'
55 Steps is unquestionably a tearjerker—it just happens to be a high calibur tearjerker. This is a superb film that features a pair of lead performances that just work. Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank are given all the room in the world to emote and overact and instead both actresses find near perfect tones for their performances that bridge a perfect gap between the broad strokes of drama and the authenticity of a based-on-a-true story movie.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Geeks
Child's Play: Chucky at 30
How did our culture come to allow Chucky from Child’s Play become a thing? Thirty years after the film debuted Chucky remains in the darkest corners of our popular culture appealing to those with a bizarre, macabre sense of humor and a deep tolerance for stupid. Personally, I’ve never had any interest in this silly horror doll nonsense. I’ve never understood the appeal.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
30 Years of Almodovar's 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'
Pedro Almodovar is a wonderful director. His talent for insight and his strange sensibilities consistently surprise. This could not be more true of his 1988 farce, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which cobbles together elements of 50s rom-coms with the overheated dramatics of a telenovela to wonderful comic effect.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Geeks
How Marketing Undermines Suspense in 'The Girl in the Spider's Web'
Two trailers for the new Sony action movie The Girl in the Spider’s Web illustrate something about modern Hollywood marketing that should make you more wary of movie trailers. These two trailers go a long way toward spoiling almost everything about this twisty thriller that thrives on creating suspense—suspense that is drained away almost completely if you watch the trailers.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review 'Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda'
For years, for me, the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto was some throwaway music reference. In the movie High Fidelity, Ialways intended to look up but never did. I took note of his work recently when I saw The Last Emperor, for the first time in more than a decade, but it wasn’t until this week when I saw the remarkable documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda that I finally came to understand his genius.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Beat
Movie Review 'Love, Gilda'
I was concerned going to into Love, Gilda that the movie wouldn't have much to tell me about Gilda Radner that I didn't already know. As a devotee of Radner for years and years, I felt I had her down pretty well. I admired her deeply and I have read her biography, It's Always Something, more than once. What could a documentary possibly tell me?
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Geeks
Pointless Scene Reveals Fatal Falsehood of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
There are many, many, many things wrong with Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody from the joyless portrayal of Freddie Mercury's life to the script which features Mercury spouting music producer jargon to explain the creative magic of Queen, to Mike Myers being, well, Mike Myers in a role that amounts to little more than a dimwitted meta gag.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Beat
Tyler Perry and the Failed Film Language of a Good Scene in 'Nobody's Fool'
Well, time to do that thing that everyone tells me I am not supposed to do and think about and film language. Even though I am film critic and my job calls upon me to think about movies in a way that most don't, one thing that I am told, when I am not being told how much I "hate movies" is that I think about movies too much.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review 'Shirkers'
You have likely never seen a documentary quite like Shirkers. Part mystery part fiction movie, part character study and part in-depth personal examination, Shirkers contains multitudes of filmic fascinations. This Netflix production is ambitious, ingenious and a wonderful work of self-reflective art.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Lucha VaVoom Inside America's Most Outrageous Show'
Lucha VaVoom is a wild and crazy show filled with wild action and wilder women. This strange and wonderful combination of pro wrestling and burlesque is like a wacky milkshake of a carnival crossed with old school Vaudeville. If they allowed animals at Lucha VaVoom, you could travel back to Mexico in the 1920s or perhaps the Moulin Rouge crossed with the WWE.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'The Fog' - 4K Restoration
John Carpenter had a tough act to follow when he set out to followup his 1978 slasher flick Halloween. I may not be a fan of Halloween, but even I can recognize the impact the film had, becoming a big grossing genre flick and an influential piece of pop genre work. Carpenter became a cult hero overnight, and following that kind of success the first time out was a challenge.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Hurricane Heist'
The Hurricane Heist stars Maggie Grace as Casey: A wild child, ace treasury agent tasked with protecting a bunch of retired U.S. currency as it is sent to a facility to be incinerated. This task is complicated by an incoming hurricane which has the roads clogged by people on the run from the very Carolina coastal town that she is headed for.
By Sean Patrick6 years ago in Geeks