Dylan's Deep Dives

Thanksgiving Movie Review: An Undercooked Mess of a Meal By Dylan Barbee  Courtesy of IMDb Release Date: November 17, 2023 Thanksgiving is a sloppy, undercooked horror film. In the latest attempt at creating a classic seasonal slasher, Thanksgiving follows a letdown of a killing spree that occurs in Plymouth, Massachusetts a year after an abnormally gruesome Black Friday riot inside a store. The Eli Roth film relies too much on exaggerated gore in hopes to become a new horror cult favorite like John Carpenter’s Halloween or Wes Craven’s Scream instead of coming up with an enjoyable plot. The film functions on a noticeably poorly written script filled with embarrassing dialogue performed by a mediocre cast. The movie focuses on a group of ignorant and unlikeable teenagers more than it does on the actual slasher, making the tone of the film confusing. The face-palm jokes do not land and do not pair well with the gory sequences driven by the killer. I can’t tell if this movie is tak...

Heaven Knows Album Review: PinkPantheress is The Future of Pop   By: Dylan Barbee Courtesy of @pinkpantheress on Instagram  Release Date: November 10, 2023  PinkPantheress became a TikTok sensation when she started posting her songs “Just a Waste” and “Pain” on her personal account during the Covid-19 pandemic. Eventually, her fusion of bedroom and hyper-pop gained traction and she rose to fame. Since then, Pantheress has only grown in popularity, consistently dropping singles that put up numbers and collaborating with artists like Kaytranada on “Do You Miss Me?” and Destroy Lonely on the song “Turn Your Phone Off.” Her song “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” featuring Ice Spice is one of the most played songs of 2023, filling TikTok “For You Pages” and debuting at No.14 on Billboard. Pantheress’s debut album Heaven Knows is short and sweet, containing 13 songs that expand across an entertaining 34 minutes. It’s an album that portrays Pantheress’ intense feelings of obsession with...

Larger Than Life Review: Brent Faiyaz Proves His Presence In R&B Is Inescapable  By Dylan Barbee Photo Courtesy of @brentfaiyaz on Instagram Release Date: October 26, 2023  Brent Faiyaz has deservingly become one of most prominent voices in the current R&B scene. His addicting, melodic flows are flooded with his raunchy lyricism about toxic relationships while simultaneously boasting about his player lifestyle. In his newest album Larger Than Life , Faiyaz spends the whole album persuading a woman to be with him, convincing her that being with him is larger than life itself. He does this by mixing his familiar brutal transparency we’ve been hearing throughout his career on projects like F**k The World and his 2022 release Wasteland , with the r&b sounds of the late 90s and early 2000s.  Larger Than Life was a surprise drop and was announced the day of the album’s release on Oct. 26, 2023. The cohesive project has 14 songs that span across a very enjoyable 36-...