FOLIO
Words by Wavery Loyd
Here are all the movies I watched in April.
Enjoy
The Alto Knights (2025)
A crime-drama set in New York City where Frank Costello and Veto Genovese (both played by Robert De Niro) are rival mafia bosses both vying for control of the streets. If I could describe this movie in one word it would be: geriatric. I swear they only let those 70 and up work on this film. I aged at least 15 years just watching this snooze fest.
This film is dialogue driven which can make for a thought-provoking movie and be very interesting. This, however, is not that. There was nothing interesting about this movie, and I somehow never understood what was going on — because nothing ever happens.
I fell asleep twice and literally had to put my phone two seats over, (there was hardly anyone in the theater,) just so I would stay off of it. I’m disappointed with how dull this movie was because the trailers made it seem like it would be awesome. Especially with De Niro playing the two main characters. Now I’m convinced they had him play both characters because they couldn’t afford to hire another actor.
Adolescence (2025)
Though not a movie, but a limited series on Netflix, this show was impactful enough that I had to write about it for this month’s issue. Watching this soon after “Alto Knights” and realizing early on this was going to be a dialogue-driven show, I almost turned it off. Thank GOD I didn’t. This show was phenomenal. It was powerful and raw and introspective. To watch a family’s love and loss. The ways in which they endure and fall apart. The despair of realizing a child who you raised and loved so much, could do something so terrible — and seeing it as a reflection of how much you failed. The depth of this show took days for me to fully process and is truly such an important statement about youth and social media and the damage it is doing.
Jamie is a 13-year-old boy accused of killing his classmate, and everyone wants to know why he did it. I think the scariest thing about this show is how realistic it is and how these things do happen. Social media is destroying the minds of children. Cyberbullying is something that is fairly new to our society and is something that we are learning how to deal with case by case. Older generations, who didn’t grow up with social media, see the “simple” solution of just closing the app. They really can’t empathize with how suffocating and intimate social media is for younger generations.
This show brings attention to the new label of incels (“involuntary celibate”) and how it is raising young boys to essentially hate women but also teaching young girls to hate men as well.
The acting… It is mind blowing to think that this is Owen Cooper’s first role. This kid has wOscars in his future without a doubt. To portray such a volatile and angry, psychopathic teen in such a raw way was stunning. Episode three still haunts me to think about. The conversations had between Jamie (Cooper) and his psychologist were some of the most chilling moments in the entire series.
Each episode was filmed all in one take, making the watching experience that much more intimate and tangible. Everything from the sound design, camera angles and impeccable acting truly made this show feel as authentic as possible. And the final scene with Jamie’s father (played by Eddie Miller) is agonizing to watch. Him tucking his son’s stuffed teddy into bed because he will never be able to tuck his son in again is heart-rending. Truly such a complex show with many important themes that are crucial to talk about.
Death of A Unicorn (2025)
Before I saw this, my friend called me after leaving the theater and said this was one of the worst movies she’s ever seen and that she needed me to go watch it and review it for “Folio.” So, that’s what I did.
And I f*cking LOVED this movie.
A father and daughter are on the way to stay on his billionaire boss’ estate with the hopes that he will be promoted, thus financially securing his daughter’s future. On the way to this up-scale nature preserve, they hit a unicorn. Thinking it’s dead, the father (played by Paul Rudd) decides to put the animal in the trunk of their car, and later that night after everyone has gone to sleep, he would go bury it. However, he is unaware of the healing properties of unicorns, and he and his daughter, as well as his boss’ family, will all soon discover how vengeful unicorns can be.
This movie is a mockery of classism and how the 1% might pose as humble people but when given the choice will only protect themselves. Once the boss discovers the unicorn horn can cure all illnesses, he and his family begin to plan on how to profit off this and how it is a limited resource that they will only share with their other rich friends.
This movie was so fun and wacky and ridiculous. With such an outrageous plot, definitely worth the watch.
Trap (2024)
A serial killer takes his teen daughter to see her dream idol in concert and realizes the entire event is a complex sting operation to catch him, and now he must figure out how to escape without being caught.
Is this movie an hour and a half-long concert of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter promoting her new album? Yes. But Josh Harnett gave a chilling and, I must confess, SEXY performance, that adds enough spice to keep the movie enjoyable.
Smile 2 (2024)
I love chainmail horror: “The Ring,” “Drag Me to Hell,” “It Follows.” Some of my favorite horror movie tropes. Bonus points if the character thinks they have finally defeated the cycle, and then abruptly dies and the screen cuts to black and ends. Top tier.
This was so good. It was scary and gory as well as smart and deceptive. “Smile 2” persistently blurs the lines between nightmare and reality that keep the viewer just as disoriented as our main character, Skye Riley. And the ending was freaking awesome; I do not care what anyone says.
John Wick (2014)
The most valid crash-out ever.
The Amateur (2025)
Heller, a CIA hacker, takes the law into his own hands when he finds out his wife was killed by a terrorist group, and his superiors don’t find her important enough to take action against her killers. Heller then begins his destructive and relentless pursuit to kill every man who was there the day of his wife’s murder.
This was clever and satisfying. Another of my favorite tropes is revenge. “Man On Fire,” “Law Abiding Citizen” and “John Wick,” just to name a few. This movie doesn’t quite stand as tall as those but was still a good watch, nonetheless.
Warfare (2025)
Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland took such a small space and made it feel infinite and suffocating, as if the world ended and began with this room, this house, this street.
Sound design is a crazy thing. The complex use of audio in this film creates an atmosphere that is as raw as it is overwhelming. While movie scores serve to enhance a scene, the removal of them, if done properly can produce something even more profound and gripping. And the directors nailed it. In scenes where bombs were going off and gunfire erupting all around, usually there would be some kind of musical score to emphasize the danger of the situation and instill more fear within the viewer. However, Mendoza and Garland managed to cause such a drastic audiovisual assault on the senses with gunfire and men screaming, and then the disorienting effects of temporary hearing loss from after shock.
This is a must-see in theaters so you can truly experience the intensity of it.
Aggro Dr1ft (2023)
Directed by Harmony Korine, we are taken through the underbelly of Miami as Bo, a hitman, is hunting down his next target.
This movie was shot entirely with infrared thermal imaging cameras which makes this movie feel more like playing Call of Duty.
The premise of this movie, and its original filming process create for an intriguing watch. That is, until the first 10 minutes pass and you are bored and tired of looking at scenes that look more like a Rorschach test than anything comprehensible. This is one of the more passionless films I’ve seen and goes to show that just because you have the money to do it, doesn’t mean you should. With the infrared cameras and AI overlays, as well as the synth music with rarely any dialogue, this movie is a waste of time. And Harmony is so high off his own crack that the only way to watch this is by purchasing it off of his website affectionately named Edglrd.
Like an hour and a half music video with no lyrics, just Travis Scott instrumentals and BBL baddies twerking.
Spree (2020)
A rideshare driver, Kurtis Kunkle, (played by Joe Keery) desperately seeks online fame. After spending months making content on various platforms and rarely reaching double- digit views, he begins live-streaming his rides where he begins to poison the people he picks up, at random. He finally starts getting more and more views and has discovered what will make him stand out amongst other content creators: murder. And he will take out anyone in his way. His murders become bolder and bolder, more personal.
Self-filmed, “vlog” style movies aren’t usually my cup of tea, and this wasn’t that great, but Keery played that incel-pewdiepie-wannabe-loser a little too well… Kurtis’ greasy hair and oily skin, coupled with mouth-breathing and a red ring Gatorade stain on his lip make him into one of the worst kind of guys imaginable. This movie is filmed as if the whole thing is multiple different live streams and vlogs. All shots are taken as if self-filmed or with GoPros or other various vlogging cameras. Even when it switches to a totally different character without Kurtis on screen, the shot is still filmed through someone else’s live stream. It was clearly making a joke of social media and influencers and was a decent funny gore horror.
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