If you have children of a certain age, you’ve probably heard of the Zombies franchise. The newest installment in the series was out last week on streaming, having premiered on the Disney Channel the day before. Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is entertaining, with catchy music and a positive …
From the first few frames of director Masahiro Shinohara’s anime film Trapezium, we are introduced to the hazy and glitzy fever-dream world of J-pop idol fame. This opening is a rush of purple and green and glitter, with some fantastic vocals too. As the movie progresses, we learn that it’s …
It’s all too easy to get swept up in the exaggerated hype surrounding a highly anticipated blockbuster, especially these days when initial reactions to such films often take on a clickbait tone and are packed with buzzwords studios love to plaster on posters, trailers, and more. Directed by Jon M. …
I learned about the Norwegian film Spermageddon through a friend of mine. While discussing films we’d recently watched and giving each other recommendations, she exclaimed, “I watched this animated movie about sperm!” As she went on to describe the film as a comedy-musical my interest peaked, and I immediately sought it out …
In an unprecedented move, the Cannes Film Festival jury awarded the Best Actress prize this year to the four actresses of Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. This is almost as startling as French writer-director Jacques Audiard making a primarily Spanish-language musical about …
The Indigo Girls are having a bit of a moment right now. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when they weren’t having a moment, but between “Closer to Fine” appearing in Barbie and the documentary It’s Only Life After All that also released last year, the pair has been in the …
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 …
At the beginning of last year’s holiday season, I was lucky enough to see Waitress: The Musical in theaters. This movie is the big screen version of the Broadway production. It features music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and was adapted for Broadway (and thus the movie screen) by Jessie Nelson. The musical is based on …
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 …
Who would’ve thought a January-released musical remake of Mark Waters’ Mean Girls would actually be so fetch? Definitely not me, but here we are. Moreover, it’s a far better film than the 2004 original, with energy in front and behind the camera, making it a special piece of consumerist entertainment. There’s no denying the …
The new musical comedy from A24 and director Larry Charles called Dicks: The Musical is a spectacular success of ridiculous raunchiness and plays out like the most twisted version of The Parent Trap you can imagine. When it comes to movie genres, musicals is one of the trickiest to pull off, successfully. The art of …