Her REEL Review - 'Cause Girls Watch Movies, Too

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...

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...