The Take-Up

Independent online film criticism. Thoughtful. Engaging. Creator-owned. Based in the Heartland but traveling the world through cinema.

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

A billion-dollar blockbuster and a Coen Brother comedy, both covered on @KMOV for your viewing pleasure!

📺 Watch Joshua Ray talk #NeZha2 and #HoneyDont here: https://t.co/zWo7xV798I

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“The devastating impact of everyday violence on the affected communities is the focus of Ben Scholle’s moving and angering documentary CATCHING BULLETS (2025).”

✍️ Critic Cliff Froehlich on #CatchingBullets, now streaming: https://t.co/feOG5F7qUc

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

🏆 THANK YOU to everyone who helped make The Take-Up a Reader's Choice Finalist in @stlmag's 2025 A-List Awards!

Sincerely,
Founders Andrew Wyatt, Joshua Ray, and Kayla McCulloch

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“In an era when so many horror films tend to overexplain themselves, WEAPONS (2025) respects the audience’s ability to get from Point A to B without unnecessary handholding.”

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on #Weapons: https://t.co/bVNWcbKV47

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

Yesterday on @KMOV, Joshua Ray reviewed CATCHING BULLETS (2025) — a doc about efforts to stop gun violence in STL: https://t.co/16Jp2lL8TP

🗓️ The film will be available to stream Aug. 15th following a special screening at 24:1 Cinema on the 14th: https://t.co/bXZCx4jMT6

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“Zombie media has always been pessimistic, sometimes to a fault. … 28 YEARS LATER shows an apocalypse where a positive outcome is still possible. Not everything exists to destroy us.”

✍️ Ethan Tarantella on 28 YEARS LATER (2025), now available digitally: https://t.co/ek7idzdiYE

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“‘Break a leg’ is a common expression in show business. But how often is it a very real possibility?”

✍️ Kayla McCulloch on Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary #AfternoonsOfSolitude, playing this weekend at @wufilmseries: https://t.co/4Lv9CH31Ld

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

Yesterday on @KMOV, Joshua Ray covered not one… not two… but THREE new releases out this weekend (only one of which features Rihanna as Smurfette).

📺 Watch his reviews of #Smurfs, #Eddington, and #IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer here: https://t.co/UDzwzsnqcJ

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

"Aster’s feature feels less like a hyper-specific period piece and more like a microcosm in continuity with our current crapsack timeline."

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on #Eddington, in theaters tomorrow: https://t.co/fuqwfBcMb9

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

Had a chance to uncover #ThePhoenicianScheme yet?

📺 Joshua Ray reviewed Wes Anderson’s latest on @KMOV the other day: https://t.co/s55zBXiGmq

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

"It’s the closest that Anderson has come to fashioning an international thriller since THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, although THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is bloodier, goofier, and less melancholy."

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on #ThePhoenicianScheme, in theaters tomorrow: https://t.co/ZtPyAIffhf

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

"In embracing its identity as an unabashed genre film rather than following in the footsteps of other art-horror influences, the movie . . . aims to disturb its viewers viscerally rather than thematically."

✍️ Ethan Tarantella on #BringHerBack: https://t.co/2tzRCkbEr3

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“In McQuarrie, Cruise found his artistic soulmate . . . . He’s also a director who understands that the franchise’s most indelible moving image is simply its leading man sprinting like a bat out of hell.”

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on #TheFinalReckoning: https://t.co/Fv75ufbzZk

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

The @wufilmseries's Frederick Wiseman retrospective continues! See CENTRAL PARK on 5/8 at 7 PM and ASPEN on 5/15 at 7 PM.

✍️ In part four of “These American Lives: The United States of Frederick Wiseman,” Kayla McCulloch talks the director’s sharp wit: https://t.co/aqQiqNIRup

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

"Almost 50 years later, the film endures as a self-evident masterpiece, lyrically expressing the ineffable character and contradictions of the American soul."

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on the 4K restoration of #KillerOfSheep, playing this weekend at @wufilmseries: https://t.co/o3cZdgv4p3

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“A pleasantly preposterous dollop of pulpy thrills, DROP (2025) is the sort of artistically trifling but calorically dense two-bite snack that seems designed for a quick, low-effort date night.”

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on #Drop, in theaters this weekend: https://t.co/xH0Wz4zt5z

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

The @wufilmseries's Wiseman program continues with *two* films this weekend: WELFARE (1975) on 4/11 at 7 PM w/intro by Andrew Wyatt, then DEAF (1986) plays 4/12 at 7 PM.

✍️ Pt. III of Kayla McCulloch’s companion series considers the BLIND & DEAF films: https://t.co/msnhcvg6Yh

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

“SHADOWS (2025) ... feels like a critical refinement to the series, one that digests the lessons of the past eight years and adjusts the much-maligned ‘Ubisoft formula’ accordingly.”

✍️ Andrew Wyatt on the video game #AssassinsCreedShadows: https://t.co/7wWszQyQJG

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

"These three films exemplify the power of genuine connection — a valuable lesson for the supposed staunch individualists in our increasingly fragmented society."

✍️ Kayla McCulloch on three features playing this weekend at @WashU's African Film Festival: https://t.co/MdYk07zwbo

[The Take-Up @thetakeupstl]

On Friday, Joshua Ray stopped by @KMOV to talk Steven Soderbergh’s #BlackBag and #TheDayTheEarthBlewUp: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE 🐷 🦆

📺 Watch here: https://t.co/cPirAG6wPf