A.A. Dowd

Culture Editor at Chron. Formerly: The A.V. Club, Time Out Chicago.

Favorite films

  • Before Sunrise
  • Before Sunset
  • Before Midnight
  • Dawn of the Dead

Recent activity

All
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    ★★★★

  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

    ★★★★

  • The Boogeyman

    ★★

  • Before Midnight

    ★★★★½

Recent reviews

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  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    ★★★★

    Full Chron review. Would love to dock this mostly delightful sequel points for turning, briefly, into another cameo parade, but the joke at the expense of a certain misjudged '90s story arc hit me just right. I guess we all have our point of exploitable reference.

  • The Boogeyman

    The Boogeyman

    ★★

    Full Chron review. Would not have expected a movie from the director of Dashcam, the screenwriters of A Quiet Place, and the mind of Stephen King to be this devoid of anything singular. Just a pileup of recycled tropes.

Popular reviews

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  • ParaNorman

    ParaNorman

    ★★★★

    "What do you think you're doing firing on civilians? That's for the police to do!"

  • The Matrix Resurrections

    The Matrix Resurrections

    ★★½

    Pivotal scene is the bluntly confessional conversation where the movie just comes right out and tells us that Warner Bros. was going to make more Matrix with or without everyone involved, so Lana and Keanu and company signed on to protect the franchise best they could. Afraid I don't find that daring so much as just depressingly revealing: a kind of apology for the film's very existence—and one that betrays the animating inspiration of the whole endeavor as a begrudged,…