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 (1972)
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Movie Review: 'Love Beats Rhymes'
Love Beats Rhymes is the kind of movie that just doesn’t get made enough. This is a sweet, sensitive, and smart movie about a young, ambitious black woman who decides that she can have all that she wants, school, career, a good man, and that all it takes is a little hard work and desire. I wish more movies had the courage to tell young women that you don’t have to compromise all the time and that you can demand all that you want and work toward getting it.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'I, Tonya'
It’s hard to pin down director Craig Gillespie. On one hand, he directed the wonderfully warm and quirky Lars and the Real Girl in 2007 but also directed the awful, unfunny "comedy" Mr. Woodcock that same year. Gillespie has since directed the remarkably dull sports flick Million Dollar Arm, the forgettable and unnecessary horror remake Fright Night and the wildly underrated and too quickly forgotten The Finest Hours. So, is Gillespie a great director or a hack? Is he an auteur or a Hollywood carpenter, cobbling together studio products?
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stars Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, a mother whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered. The crime has not been solved after eight months and a frustrated Mildred is at her wit's end when she sees three empty billboards on a lonely street side outside of the town of Ebbing. Hoping to light a fire under the local Chief of Police, Jim Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), Mildred books all three billboards with a message directed at the chief.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
For Your Consideration: James McAvoy for Best Actor in Split
In a year in which Gary Oldman brilliantly embodied Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour, it’s easy to forget that other actors have been just as good as or better than the longtime favorite character. For instance, Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out or James Franco’s incredible comic performance as Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist, or the subject of this article, James McAvoy in Split. Horror movie performances rarely get awards buzz, especially when they came out so long ago, January, that they feel like they should have been considered last year. But McAvoy was so indelible, so remarkable in Split that I feel compelled to remind everyone.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'The Man Who Invented Christmas'
The Man Who Invented Christmas is a remarkably dull movie. Regardless of the good intentions and the good ideas at the heart of the film, the story and specifically the character of Charles Dickens, never get going. The story about how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol likely wasn’t all that dramatic; most writing isn’t particularly dramatic, in and of itself. But where The Man Who Invented Christmas fails is in finding some aspect of Dickens that was interestingly dramatic while he wrote his masterpiece. Instead, we have an almost insufferable lead character on a predictable journey toward a well-known outcome.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Coco'
It’s hard for me to look at a Pixar movie as just another movie. The computer animation company has built such a remarkable run of quality work that it feels like something more than just a string of hit cartoons. Pixar movies combine heart, humor, pathos and great art unlike any other company on the planet. Toy Story, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and the like aren’t just any other kids movie, they are highly regarded works of art.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'The Square'
The Square, the 2017 winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honor, the Palme D’or, is a provocative and strange film. At times, the film defies description in its oddity and yet its points and purposes regarding political correctness as an excuse for the rich to ignore the poor are relatively obvious and on the nose. Directed by Ruben Ostlund, whose Force Majeure was far more interestingly provocative than The Square, the film has beautiful cinematography and a handful of the most interesting scenes in any movie in 2017.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'
I fell in love with Gloria Grahame, as so many movie fans did, in her pitch perfect performance in In a Lonely Place, one of my all-time favorite films. Grahame plays one of those self-possessed, take-no-crap dames that always seemed to play opposite Bogart. He loved strong women, breaking down their defenses was what made him a screen icon, and them the envy of women everywhere. Grahame stood out, however, as she allowed herself just a little more vulnerability than the others, a note of extra sadness to go with the sass.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Roman J. Israel Esq'
There is just something off about Roman J. Israel Esq. The pieces are all there for a good movie but something intangible is lacking. That is strange considering we are talking about a Denzel Washington movie that is part character piece and part legal thriller. These commercial and artistic elements should work well together, especially considering that Denzel Washington is one of our finest actors, but it just doesn’t come together as I am assuming it was intended.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Lady Bird'
Lady Bird is a remarkably emotional experience, even if you’re not a teenage girl from Sacramento. Writer-director Greta Gerwig has, in her first directorial effort, relayed a masterpiece of the coming-of-age genre. Lady Bird is a wonderfully human, sympathetic, and smart movie, more in touch with real human emotion than most films of its kind. The film ranks next to my other favorite movie of 2017, The Big Sick, as that all too rare humane masterpiece.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Thelma'
Thelma is a fascinating and immersive supernatural drama that never fails to surprise. Director Joachim Trier, on his third feature following the remarkable duo of Reprise and Louder than Bombs, has crafted the most unlikely and unusual coming of age story that I have ever seen. Bristling with the awkward tension of newly discovered sexuality and a dangerous supernatural awakening, Thelma is among the most refreshing takes on the coming of age tale you could possibly imagine.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'Wonder'
Wonder is a real, well, wonder. Rarely do tear-jerkers work as well as what director Stephen Chbosky assembles here. Everything in Wonder seems set to be a clichéd way of sucking out tears. A child with a facial deformity, a pair of goodhearted parents, a sick dog, these are all elements that under the guidance of a lesser director, would be used to physically assault audiences in the search for tears. Stephen Chbosky is, quite thankfully, a terrific director and he employs these elements in the way a good director does.
By Sean Patrick8 years ago in Geeks
