Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.

I’ve been watching science fiction since before most of it was called science fiction. I’ve read Dune more times than I can count. I have opinions about the theatrical cut of Blade Runner that will make certain people angry. I think the ending of A.I. is a betrayal and the ending of Westworld (1973) is nearly perfect. These reviews come from that kind of attention — the kind that notices when a film earns its ending and when it doesn’t.

Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the rating scale?

It runs from -1,000,000,000 to 10+++. Most films land between 1 and 9. Films that get the job done without distinction sit around 6-7. Films that do something genuinely hard well earn 8-9. 10 means close to perfect. 10+ means it created something that didn’t exist before. Negative ratings are reserved for films that fail at scale — not just bad but actively wasteful of their resources and platform. Battlefield Earth earned its -1,000,000,000. Avatar earned its -100.

Why include craft notes for writers?

Because the best way to understand how storytelling works is to watch it succeed and fail at the highest level of production value. A Hollywood film costs $50 million to $300 million and involves thousands of skilled decisions. When it fails anyway, the failure is instructive. When it succeeds, the specific mechanism of the success is worth identifying. The craft notes extract those mechanisms in terms you can apply to prose.

Why review both film and television together?

Because the distinction matters less than the quality of the storytelling. The Expanse did things in its first three seasons that most feature films couldn’t achieve. The Pitt did things in its first season that most television won’t attempt. The medium is secondary to whether the story is told well. Reviews cover both without treating one as inherently more serious than the other.

What makes a film earn a high rating?

Doing hard things well. Any story can be competent. The films that rate 8 and above are doing something difficult — an original visual vocabulary, a structural ambition that pays off, a character arc that costs something real, an ending that honors the premise. The rating reflects how much the film achieved relative to what it was attempting, not just whether it was entertaining.

What’s the “woke” rating criterion?

Social commentary that’s unnecessary for the plot and added purely for the sake of commentary. Commentary that’s load-bearing — that the story actually needs — doesn’t count. The problem is when a film stops to deliver a message that has nothing to do with the story it’s telling. That’s not politics. That’s bad craft. The reviews call it out when it applies.