Manuel São Bento 
I watched Dust Bunny without much baggage. I read the premise, knew this marked the feature directorial debut of Bryan Fuller, but I don’t carry with me a deep familiarity with his acclaimed television work. Thus, I was motivated solely by curiosity to see a film that attempts to balance …
Expectations were low. My relationship with this saga has been, I admit, troubled: mixed feelings regarding the original film and manifestly negative regarding the second chapter. Despite being aware that this third entry, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, has received the warmest reception of the entire franchise so …
I walked into the theater to see Zootopia 2 in a state of almost blessed ignorance. I religiously avoided every trailer, looked away from every promotional image, and stayed far away from the social media buzz. I knew nothing about the critical reception or the general audience sentiment. My only …
My viewing of The Running Man was, honestly, one of the “blindest” I’ve had all year. I wasn’t familiar with the original novel by Stephen King, nor the first 1987 film adaptation. I managed to completely avoid any images, clips, or even reactions to this new release. My expectations, however, …
I confess my expectations for a new entry in this saga were modest before Predator: Badlands, despite Dan Trachtenberg (Prey) returning. While Prey excelled at simplifying the formula and returning to basics, the ambition to completely shift the franchise’s point of view — transforming the antagonist into the protagonist — …
Cinema has the power to drag us into the depths of conflicts we’d rather ignore in real life. The driving force behind Anniversary started for me long before the movie itself: in its brilliant ensemble. Someone had the fantastic idea of bringing together some of the most promising and underrated …
The expectations surrounding A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s new and highly anticipated film, were understandably stratospheric. After military tension and psychological analysis masterworks like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, the prospect of Bigelow returning to a theme of war and existential crisis — dealing with the nuclear …
Following the intense and visceral rawness of All Quiet on the Western Front and the meticulous religious intrigue of Conclave — both of which are among my absolute favorites from their respective release years — the mere idea of Edward Berger tackling a psychological thriller focused on addiction and moral …
Before I even sat down to watch The Voice of Hind Rajab, its real-life story had already flooded my soul. Contrary to my personal tendency to go into screenings with little to no familiarity with the respective film, this time, my prior knowledge was complete. My curiosity and, frankly, my …
My expectations for Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt were, I confess, moderate, but they leaned toward cautious optimism. I like most of his films, with Challengers being my favorite, and I generally admire his work, even if I don’t consider myself an unconditional fan. However, the initial reception of this …
Curiosity and hope were my personal feelings going into the cinema to see Hamlet (2025). I knew beforehand this would be another transposition of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy into a contemporary context, an exercise that’s always risky in itself. However, the decisive factor in giving the film a chance was, without …
Of all the hype bubbles that form around the first reactions to a new release, One Battle After Another generated some of the most effusive of this century. And I mean that almost literally, since many of those reactions contained the pull-quote-ready taglines that marketing departments love so much — …
We live in a cinematic era fascinated by the origin stories of founders and their revolutionary creations, but not all of them seem as urgently relevant as that of Whitney Wolfe and Bumble. The promise of exploring the creation of a dating app designed as an antidote to the toxic …
In recent years, films that set out to explore non-traditional relationships or unconventional family dynamics have become more common, but they don’t always manage to do so with the necessary depth. Most fall into the trap of using the theme as a mere gimmick, without delving into the genuine emotions …
I wasn’t familiar with the work of James Sweeney (Straight Up), but there’s always something fascinating when a filmmaker decides to take on so many roles in a single project: writing, directing, producing, and, on top of that, playing one of the main characters. That kind of total exposure naturally …
Before watching a new Ron Howard film, I always carry with me a certain map of expectations. The filmmaker behind A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) has built a career marked by human stories with strong emotional appeal, coupled with a classical, assured direction that’s rarely devoid of …
Preparing to watch a contemporary western is always an exercise in expectation and curiosity. The genre, so often revisited, can be both fertile ground for reinvention and a minefield of clichés. Tony Tost, in his first feature as writer and director, takes on this risky premise with Americana, a hybrid …
When Night Always Comes opens with news reports and radio shows hammering the housing crisis – wages too low to cover rent and basic expenses, evictions looming – the promise is clear: a direct plunge into a reality that pushes people to the edge. As the protagonist heads out to …
When Nobody (2021) premiered, it was received as a sort of distant cousin to John Wick, but with its own identity rooted mainly in the unexpected charisma of Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and the spot-on balance between action, violence, and humor. Four years later, the sequel arrives under the …
There’s something curious – and even a bit uncomfortable – about seeing one of the names responsible for creating some of the most iconic Cartoon Network series – and, consequently, a big part of my childhood – heading down such an… adult path. Fixed, written by Genndy Tartakovsky (Hotel Transylvania) …