Her REEL Review - 'Cause Girls Watch Movies, Too

I promised myself I would not do it again. And then, because I love Black people and I want to see Black people win, I did it again. I watched a Tyler Perry film. So here we are. If you are unfamiliar with Tyler Perry, the short version is this: he got his start on the church play circuit in the late 1990s and early 2000s, building an audience out of working-class Black churchgoers who finally felt seen on a stage. I watched nearly every one of those plays in college. My church community gathered around them the way other communities gather around sporting events. There was solidarity in it. When Perry eventually made his transition to cinema, a lot of us were genuinely rooting for him, because he was the rare example of someone who had built something entirely from nothing, sleeping in his car, educating himself, pulling himself up without a roadmap. That goodwill has been wearing thin for a while now, but it has not entirely evaporated, which is probably why I keep coming back. Jo...

I have a confession to make: this is the movie that kicked off my I Love Horror challenge , and it took me a decade to get here. Crimson Peak came out in 2015, and I missed it entirely, because at the time I was still nursing a self-imposed horror ban after Eli Roth's Hostel left me traumatized in a way I clearly hadn't recovered from. It took a full-blown challenge, and a genuine love for Guillermo del Toro, to finally get me into this house. Directed by del Toro, whose Pan's Labyrinth sits comfortably in my top 100 films of all time, Crimson Peak follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), an aspiring writer with a taste for ghost stories, who falls for Sir Thomas Sharp (Tom Hiddleston), a charming but cash-strapped baronet trying to secure investors to unearth the red clay beneath his crumbling family estate. Edith marries him, leaves her father and her other suitor, Dr. McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), behind, and moves into Allerdale Hall: a house that is, quite literally, f...

I have a bone to pick with all of you. Somehow you let me go this long without watching The Black Phone , and I am genuinely disappointed in us both. But here we are, and I have since corrected that mistake, so let's get into it. I finally sat down with this one on a day off while nursing a sick kid, which tells you everything about my current season of life. What I expected was something I would have to turn off halfway through. What I got was one of the more quietly affecting horror films I have seen in a long time. Directed by Scott Derrickson and based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone follows Finney Blake, a young boy growing up in a small town already weighed down by bullying, an alcoholic and abusive father, and the grief of losing his mother. The town itself is living under a shadow: a child serial killer known as the Grabber has been snatching kids, and Finney eventually becomes one of his victims. What unfolds from there is part supernatural thriller, part...

Review Disclaimer: "The review is late but the thoughts are worth it, so let's get into it." (Watched & written in Jan 2026)  If you have been following horror in 2026, you have probably heard that Johannes Roberts, the director behind The Strangers: Prey at Night , has a new film out. Primate is not a film I sought out with any particular urgency. I was simply looking for something to catch at the theater, leaning further into my horror era, and figured this was as good a reason as any. I had seen maybe two trailers. That was enough. What I can tell you upfront is this: Primate is a fun moviegoing experience, but it is not a film that will ask much of you intellectually. If you go in expecting something in the vein of Get Out or Nope , you will leave disappointed. If you go in understanding that this is a creature feature paying loving homage to the horror films that came before it, you will likely walk out satisfied. The audience at my matinee showing seemed to ...

Strung (2026) Review Dir. Malcolm Lee 2/5 ⭐ I hate giving reviews like this to movies I genuinely wanted to love, but I have some real issues with this film, starting with the marketing. The trailers positioned this as a horror film, largely due to the little girl who's in the mask (it's giving Us or Them ) , but instead, the movie is more like an erotic, psychological thriller. That distinction matters, and the mismatch in expectations didn't help. Strung is a 2026 movie streaming on Peacock, directed by Malcolm Lee, who is probably most famous for his The Best Man franchise. It is a Blumhouse and Tyler Perry collaboration in production, and it was written by Alan McElroy. The film stars Chlöe Bailey as Layla, a promising young violinist who gets a job working as a musical tutor slash nanny for an affluent Black family led by matriarch Lynn Whitfield, and her cold and detached daughter, Imani, played by Anna Diop. The first scenes of the film are actually quite haunting...

Everyone is talking about A24's Backrooms, a new movie directed by Kane Parsons. If you have never heard of Kane Parsons, perhaps you have heard of Kane Pixels. That was the name the director went by on YouTube about four years ago when he released his short film Backrooms and then dived into several other shorts related to this concept of liminal spaces—spaces that exist in perhaps some parallel dimension and seem to go on forever. They are made up of things like abandoned department stores, office buildings, and warehouses that have been abandoned to time and memory, exploring the idea of what lies beneath these areas and what realms exist in our memory. He toyed with this idea four years ago and it went viral—so much so that he ended up getting a deal. There has been a whole lot of debate online as to whether or not this 20-year-old filmmaker actually directed this film. I think it revolves around the concept of whether he could really give acting direction to such acting jugge...

Picture of Review Thumbnail featuring the cast of the film.  Every once in a while, a franchise returns after years of silence and reminds you exactly why you enjoyed it in the first place—not because it reinvented cinema, but because it made you smile. Now You See Me Now You Don’t is that kind of movie. After nine long years, I took myself out on a movie date to see it, and honestly, it felt like stepping back into a familiar magic trick where you already know the setup, but you still enjoy watching it unfold. Before anyone asks: yes, the world is buzzing about Wicked for Good , and no, this isn’t that review. That one is coming later. But while everyone is distracted by flying houses and emerald-green lighting, this little heist-magic-film slipped into theaters—and I’m glad I didn’t miss it. One thing I appreciate about this series is the cast chemistry. We’ve had three different directors across the franchise, yet somehow it all still feels cohesive. That’s the cast. That’s ...

There is a certain generation—older millennials and boomers—who may find it unthinkable that someone has reached adulthood without seeing Planes, Trains, and Automobiles . I was one of those uninitiated viewers until this week, when I finally watched it with my high school film club. What surprised me most wasn’t that the film is beloved, but how instantly I understood why it earned that place. With a screenplay written, produced, and directed by John Hughes, and starring Steve Martin and John Candy, the film has all the makings of an American comedy classic. I simply don’t know how I let it pass me by for so long. I’ve always been a John Hughes fan— The Breakfast Club sits comfortably among my favorite films of all time—and even his lesser-discussed works like Curly Sue are staples in my home. Hughes had an unmistakable pen and an undeniable eye, and his collaborations with John Candy produced characters whose warmth and humor feel singular to 1980s cinema. Just days before watchi...

Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a film that somehow eluded me for decades. Despite being a lifelong movie lover—and someone who talks about films on the internet for a living—I had never sat down to watch this beloved 1982 classic from start to finish. I'd seen clips, cultural references, and iconic moments, but never the full emotional journey. That changed this week, and I’m honestly moved that it finally did. Released the year I was born, E.T. became the highest-grossing film of its time, dethroning Star Wars until Spielberg’s own Jurassic Park took the crown in 1993. It’s incredible to think this film was made for just $11 million and went on to gross over $700 million worldwide. The legacy it left behind speaks for itself, but watching it now, in 2025, reveals just how timeless its emotional core truly is. Written by Melissa Mathison and inspired by Spielberg’s own imaginary childhood friend following his parents' divorce, E.T. is often framed as a ...

  Madea’s Destination Wedding ★½ Review by Shaquanna Stevens I really didn’t want to be here again, talking about another Tyler Perry movie in a negative light. But here we are. Let’s talk about Madea’s Destination Wedding , the latest Netflix collaboration written, directed by, produced by, and starring Tyler Perry. I believe this is the 29th installment in the Madea Cinematic Universe—give or take a few wigs and stage plays. The plot (loosely) follows Brian, Madea’s nephew, as he’s guilted into paying for his daughter Tiffany’s destination wedding in the Bahamas. Tiffany’s mother—his ex-wife, who’s suddenly rich and slightly evil—pressures him into footing the bill, and next thing you know, the whole crew (Madea, Bam, Joe, Brown, and Cora) is on a plane, spending Brian’s money, and dragging chaos with them like carry-ons. Sounds like a good setup for a comedy, right? It could’ve been. But the film makes a critical error: it’s not about Madea. Despite the title, the protagoni...

In 2010, while on a trip to Atlantic City, I saw How to Train Your Dragon in IMAX with my husband. We were floored. The animation, the flight sequences, the story of Hiccup and Toothless—it was beautiful. DreamWorks had created something truly magical, and for me, it became an instant top-10 animated film. Maybe it's because I grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s loving Disney, but this was one of the first DreamWorks films that made me feel something real . It became even more special when my daughter fell in love with dragons. We went all in—bedroom sets, multiple rewatches, spin-offs. This franchise became a staple in our house. So when I got invited to an early IMAX screening—and got seats for my entire family (a rarity)—I was thrilled. But I was also nervous. Live-action adaptations of beloved animated films don’t always go well, and honestly, studios can sometimes treat them like easy money grabs. Still, I’ve always believed remakes can have value when done right—when they respect...

  courtesy Netflix By Shaquanna Stevens | Her Reel Review Tyler Perry’s latest Netflix release, Straw , starring Taraji P. Henson, Sherri Shepherd, and Teyana Taylor, arrives with high expectations given its talented cast and Perry’s established presence in contemporary Black cinema. However, while the film aims to tell a gritty story of loss, trauma, and maternal struggle, it ultimately falters in its execution, resulting in an emotionally exhausting experience that struggles to connect. A Promising Cast, A Confounding Story The film centers on Taraji P. Henson’s character, a mother grappling with life’s harsh realities and her young daughter’s wellbeing. Yet, despite Henson’s commanding screen presence and undeniable talent, the character’s development feels uneven and often unrelatable. Early scenes present her as harsh and confrontational in ways that make it difficult for the audience to empathize or understand her motivations. This lack of clear emotional grounding undermi...

poster for Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025) Recently, I saw Ryan Coogler’s Sinners for the third time in the theater, and at the end of the movie there’s a beautiful montage of the main character Sammy’s experiences on what he calls the best day of his life. He asks his cousin Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan, if he felt the same way. Stack replies, “Yes. That’s the last day I had my brother. It’s the last day I saw the sun.” As we dive into Sammy’s memories, and Stack’s memories of that day, the song “Last Time I Seen the Sun,” performed by Miles Caton and Alice Smith, plays. Now, I mention that this was the third time I’ve seen the movie because it was the first time I cried during it. Both the song and the images created such a beautiful, bittersweet montage of joy—and therefore loss—that I was completely overcome. And it dawned on me why this film has been resonating with me so much, and perhaps why it’s resonated with audiences. My hypothesis might also explain why some people...