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 (1969)
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Documentary Review: 'The Sound of Scars' Charts the Emotional Career of Life of Agony
The Sound of Scars is an incredibly emotional documentary. The story behind the band, Life of Agony, The Sound of Scars details the trauma, the heartache, the tragedy and the triumph that created this legendary heavy metal band. I’d never heard of Life of Agony before this documentary, it’s not my kind of music, but after seeing The Sound of Scars, you can count me in as a fan.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Beat
Movie Review: 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is Haunting and Tense
The Yellow Wallpaper opens on a shocking sight. A family of three is in a carriage on their way to a country home for the summer. A mother, a father, and a small baby that will not stop crying. After the husband demands that the wife do something about the crying baby, she picks up the child and hurls it out of the window of the movie carriage. It’s a striking scene, one deeply symbolic of the rest of the movie which takes on postpartum depression through the lens of a horror movie.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Godforsaken' is a Wild Ride of a Horror Movie
Godforsaken looks as if it was made on cellphone cameras on a budget of maybe two bucks. And yet, despite the low budget aesthetic, it’s as bracing and terrifying as any horror movie released in the last several years. This extremely DIY zombie movie crosses horror subgenres and aesthetics and through ingenuity and gusto manages to craft some of the most genuine scares that I have experienced since I became a cynical, seen-it-all before film critic.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Classic Movie Review: 'Eight Men Out' is the Most Underappreciated Baseball Movie of All Time
With Baseball out of its 2022 Lock Out and getting ready to return for a full 162 game season in April of 2022, I'm looking at some of the greatest Baseball movies ever made. Recently, I made my declaration that Bull Durham is the Greatest Baseball Movie of All Time, check out that review, linked here. Now, I want to talk about a baseball movie that is deeply underappreciated. 1988's Eight Men Out is one of the best sports movies of all time and, in terms of baseball movies, easily the most underappreciated in the sub-genre.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Unbalanced
Movie Review: Heartbreaking 'Topside' Brings Homelessness into a Modern Perspective
Topside is a harrowing story set in the deepest depths of poverty in New York City. In Topside, a mother struggles to raise a young daughter while managing addiction and work as a sex worker. It’s a day to day existence unimaginable to most but real for far too many people whom society has left behind. Topside has a bracing reality to it that adds urgency to the storytelling and admittedly, a pushiness to its drama. That said, the acting goes a long way to make you forget the cajoling nature of the drama.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Humans
Movie Review: 'Umma' Underwhelms Despite Sandra Oh
Umma stars Sandra Oh as Amanda, a single mother living off the grid somewhere in the southwest of America with her daughter, Chris (Fivel Stewart). Amanda has a desperate aversion to electricity and refuses to power their home. Amanda goes so far as to advise everyone not to even bring cars or cellphones on to her property. This is related to a childhood trauma in which her mother tortured her physically with the frayed cord of an ornate lamp.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Geeks
Movie Review: 'X' is One of the Best of 2022 So Far
X takes the idea of aesthetic homage to its best possible place by evoking the look and feel of the best of 1970s horror while not forgetting to tell its own story. X is the story of a group of low level hustlers trying their hand at making low budget pornography. The success of Debbie Does Dallas inspired hundreds of copycats and the characters of X feel that they have a terrific chance for success with their sexy strippers and a ‘talented’ male star.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Classic Movie Review: 'The House of the Devil'
Merely emulating the style of another era of film is not an idea, it’s an aesthetic. The 2009 horror movie, The House of the Devil, a breakout for director Ti West impressed a lot of people with its aesthetic. The film’s grainy cinematography evoked the early 1980s and the horror aesthetic of that time. Indeed, in style alone, The House of the Devil is quite impressive. Every last retro touch from the clothes right down to the heroine’s walkman looks perfectly of the period.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Classic Movie Review: 'Bull Durham' is the Greatest Baseball Movie of All Time
Bull Durham is the best baseball movie ever made, bar none. You can have your Field of Dreams or your A League of their Own or The Babe Ruth Story, for those of you with terrible taste, but for me, there is no contest, Bull Durham is THE BEST. Funny, smart, romantic, sexy and quotable, Bull Durham goes even beyond baseball and into the realm of simply being a great movie.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Unbalanced
Movie Review: 'Alice' Starring Keke Palmer
Alice stars Keke Palmer as a woman named Alice who has been raised as a slave. Alice is a captive on a Georgia plantation so deep in the woods that word of the end of the Civil War never reached the people held captive there. We know this because we’ve seen the trailer and therein lies a fatal flaw in the film-making concept behind Alice. The movie drags on for nearly 40 minutes crafting an air of mystery and secrets while illustrating life on the plantation as if setting us up for a shocking reveal that we're already fully aware of.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Geeks
Classic Movie Review: 'Brokeback Mountain' Opened the World to New Western Stories
With The Power of the Dog exploring themes of sexuality and masculinity in the context of the mythic American west as it transitioned to modernity and civilization, I was reminded of how Brokeback Mountain explored similar ideas in an even more modern version of the West. With The Power of the Dog nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and rankling the elderly members of the Academy with its modern themes, it seems that now is as good a time as ever to reflect on Brokeback Mountain.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Pride
Classic Movie Review: David Cronenberg's 'Eastern Promises'
Kino Lorber is releasing a 4K Ultra HD and Blu Ray Release for David Cronenberg's exceptional, 2007 crime thriller, Eastern Promises starring Viggo Mortenson and Naomi Watts. This new release of Eastern Promises was approved and graded by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and features a new round of bonus features talking about the making of Eastern Promises. The 4K Ultra HD and Blu Ray release of Eastern Promises will be available on March 22nd, 2022. With that, here is a look back at Eastern Promises.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Geeks
