ABOUT ME
Background
Film Critic for The Stranger and The Portland Mercury, September 2020-Present
Reviewed films such as Lamb, Dear Evan Hansen, Prisoners of the Ghostland, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Candyman, Demonic, Homeroom, The Suicide Squad, Old, The Green Knight, Pig, Godzilla vs. Kong, The Nest, Possessor, Collective, Feels Good Man, Minari, Identifying Features (Sin señas particulares), One Night in Miami, Wonder Woman 1984, Sound of Metal, Mank, Stray, The Vigil, The Reason I Jump, Mayor, Spiral, Alone, City Hall, The Donut King, Rent-A-Pal, and I Care a Lot.
Assisted in The Stranger's comprehensive coverage of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival which consisted of interviewing the head of the partner to the festival the Northwest Film Forum, previewing the release lineup, writing a feature about how many of the films tackled environmentalism, as well as reviewing the best films from the festival such as Censor and the soon to be released Wild Indian.
Contributed the piece 'An Oral History of How Pig, the Sublime Film Shot and Set in Portland, Found Its Heart' to the Portland Mercury's 2021 Fall Arts Guide: Art Is Political.
Did a deep dive on the origins of the science fiction epic Dune and how it was born out of author Frank Herbert's concerns about the environment in his home state of Washington.
Wrote a preview of the 26th Annual Seattle Queer Film Festival by picking some of the best films being shown.
Wrote features about local artists and creators. This included the locally made film All Sorts that showed in the Seattle International Film Festival, the film East of the Mountains starring local icon Tom Skerritt, the Robert Rodriguez produced documentary Hood River, the documentary about Dr. Anthony Fauci simply entitled Fauci, a documentary-fiction hybrid Hunting Bigfoot, and a new documentary about Tina Turner.
Conducted interviews with directors of exciting and interesting new films. This included Test Pattern, Sophie Jones, Lupe, The People vs. Agent Orange, MLK/FBI, and Little Fish.
Film Critic and Culture Reporter for The News Tribune, September 2016-August 2021
Reviewed a litany of releases over the years such as Kajillionaire, The Lie, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, 12 Hour Shift, The Glorias, Misbehaviour, Enola Holmes, Antebellum, The Devil All the Time, Cuties, I Am Woman, Mulan, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Get Duked!, Chemical Hearts, Tesla, Project Power, Boys State, She Dies Tomorrow, The Fight, Radioactive, The Rental, The Painted Bird, Flannery, Palm Springs, The Old Guard, The Truth, John Lewis: Good Trouble, Irresistible, 7500, Miss Juneteenth, Da 5 Bloods, The King of Staten Island, Becky, Shirley, The High Note, The Vast of Night, The Lovebirds, Capone, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Clementine, Driveways, Bull, Dangerous Lies, A Secret Love, Extraction, Fantastic Fungi, Selah and The Spades, Extra Ordinary, Trolls World Tour, Corpus Christi, Zombi Child, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, And Then We Danced, Balloon, The Platform, Bacurau, The Banker, The Hunt, Blow the Man Down, First Cow, Wendy, Greed, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Recorder, Emma, Downhill, The Photograph, The Assistant, Clemency, The Rhythm Section, Little Women, A Hidden Life, The Two Popes, and A White, White Day.
Wrote features uncovering the true stories behind some of the year's biggest releases such as Disney's The One and Only Ivan, The Dark Divide, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and the secret covid documentary Totally Under Control.
Covered the fallout of the pandemic's impact on the movie industry. This included how studios shifted to offer digital releases closer to their release date and eventually the simultaneous digital release schedule.
Covered film festival programming through in-depth interviews with directors, creators, editors etc. about their work. This included interviewing the outstanding director of First Cow, Kelly Reichardt.
Worked on a rigorous investigative piece over several weeks about former members of NXIVM, the subject of multiple documentaries.
Features writer for Collider, March 2021-Present
Wrote stories for the online publication that involved monitoring breaking news and writing engaging quick hit pieces as well as more long-form work that provided analysis to the day's events.
This included recent coverage of the historic Oscar recognition for Steven Yeun and Chloé Zhao announced for the Academy Awards, which I also participated in coverage of the aftermath of.
Also covered film production stories, including for big blockbusters such as Mission: Impossible, as well as upcoming films like Cruella 2 and a new A Quiet Place story.
Was given more opportunities to write longer features as well as analysis pieces about everything from film and tv to comedy and gaming. The most significant pieces included a tribute to actors such as Tony Todd in Candyman, Ryan Gosling in Drive for its anniversary, as well as a ranking of all the films of Anya Taylor-Joy, a ranking of all of director Denis Villeneuve's films (including Dune), and a ranking of every A24 Horror movie released thus far.
Film Critic for The SunBreak, February 2021-Present
Wrote reviews for the online movie magazine including Mass, Halloween Kills, The Last Duel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Cry Macho, Malignant, Small Engine Repair, Reminiscence , Free Guy, Joe Bell, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Forever Purge, The Tomorrow War, Zola, False Positive, Lansky, Werewolves Within, Les nôtres, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, In The Heights, The Amusement Park, Dream Horse, Voyagers, Come True, Nomadland, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Raya and the Last Dragon, Nobody, Mortal Kombat, Spiral, & The Conjuring 3.
Assisted in website design, publishing, and participated in a robust collaborative planning process for the coverage of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) 2021 and the North Bend Film Festival.
Film Critic for The Inlander, February 2021-Present
Recently began writing reviews and feature pieces for The Inlander, an alternative weekly in Spokane.