Challengers was one of the most anticipated films of 2023, but it was postponed to the following year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, the enormous anticipation for Luca Guadagnino’s new movie (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, Bones and All) never faded, especially considering it stars one of Hollywood’s biggest young celebrities of today, Zendaya (Dune: …
It is likely that 99% of the audience for Manhunt will push play on the first episode knowing roughly how the events play out. Monica Beletsky’s seven-part adaptation uses James L. Swanson’s book of the same name as a rough starting point to chronicle the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators after the …
Who doesn’t love a good revenge movie? Throughout the years, we’ve seen John Wick take out people for killing his dog, Robert McCall takes out people for an old friend, and Cassandra Thomas hunts down the men who sexually assaulted her best friend. The latest comes in the form of …
Dev Patel exploded into global consciousness in Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 British smash hit that opened the Western world’s eyes to the cinematic possibilities within India. Since then, Mr. Patel’s roles have largely been in Western films with an Indian setting – the two Marigold Hotel movies, the biopic Lion, and a few thrillers. But even in …
In 2023, we saw a movie based on the Holocaust taking the world by storm. Yes, we are talking about Jonathan Glazer’s haunting masterpiece, The Zone of Interest. It gave a very different perspective about an event that changed the world. Now, months later, we have another project revolving around the Holocaust. James Hawes’ One …
In 2020, Ray Yeung’s film Suk Suk (Twilight’s Kiss) was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards, with lead actor Tai-Bo taking home Best Actor. However, due to the pandemic, the film never found international audiences. Now, four years later, Yeung hopes to bring his next feature, All Shall Be Well, to more audiences this time around. The film …
Specific true-life stories demand the big-screen cinematic treatment. In some cases, those true stories can go on to earn Academy awards (Braveheart, Schindlers List). In other cases, some films can dishonor those stories’ legacies. Adapting those stories can be some of the most challenging films to make. The story of the …
Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer dominated the 96th Academy Awards, securing victory in seven categories. The film claimed the coveted title of Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan earned the Best Director award. Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor, and Robert Downey Jr. received the accolade for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, Oppenheimer triumphed in technical categories, winning trophies for Cinematography, Film …
Isaac Asimov was a Russian science fiction writer who died in the early 1990s. He wrote extensively about the future and discussed AI and robots in many of his stories. Much of his work was written before our modern world of robot vacuum cleaners and self-driving cars, but much of Asimov’s …
Content warning: How to Have Sex and this review touches on the subjects of sexual assault. Please approach both with caution if this topic is triggering for you. I heard very little about Molly Manning Walker’s debut film, How to Have Sex, so I went into it without many preconceptions. What I got …
Most of us can remember what it was like to be in grade school. There was always some Tommy likes Sally type of drama between pubescent boys and girls, but rarely were there incidents of any note that got the whole school on high alert. Most of those types of …
Mia McKenna-Bruce Gives a star-making performance in this quietly devastating drama. The first thirty minutes or so of Molly Manning Walker’s feature directorial debut, How to Have Sex, is highly disorienting. Walker zips through one scene after the next at a breakneck pace as she posits the story as a coming-of-age tale where a group …
Shoplifters is a 2018 Japanese language film directed, written, and edited by the amazing Hirokazu Kore-eda. The movie tells the story of a found family that relies on shoplifting to survive a life of poverty. One thing I love the most about Shoplifters is how it focuses on found families. This family is built …
When it comes to paintings and art, I’m not a huge connoisseur. I can walk through an art gallery and appreciate most pieces from a technical level, but as far as anything I would purchase and own for my own enjoyment, I’m pretty indifferent to most things. A new animated …
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been a force to be reckoned with in Turkish cinema. In 2008, the filmmaker stunned everyone with his film Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun), for which he won the Best Director accolade at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da) made everyone …
It’s not every day that you walk away from a movie feeling moved in ways you weren’t expecting when you started it. At least, that’s been the experience for me. However, 2023 was filled with movies that impacted me in ways that I can only begin to describe, which is …
The original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory movie from 1971 was a bit of an anomaly. Sometimes, when a film’s elements come together in just the right time and place, it is something akin to lightning striking. This process cannot be predicted, duplicated, or repeated, at least not easily. The …
For some time, popular toys and games from kids’ childhoods from the 1970s and 80s have become popular movie topics. From Transformers and G.I Joe to Battleship and The Lego Movie, movie studios have been on their heels to find source material for new movie projects for the past few decades. While the Barbie doll had appeared …
If you were to do a Family Feud-style survey and ask a hundred people who the greatest movie director of all time is, you undoubtedly would get Alfred Hitchcock’s name on the board. Steven Spielberg would be up there, possibly even Stanley Kubrick as well. I cannot say where he would place, but without much doubt, Martin …
The Lobster, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou, is the most interesting film regarding modern relationships. It takes a look at dating and gives it a dystopian twist. The film is an absurdist dry comedy set in an alternative world where single people go to a place called The Hotel. …