Sundance can always be an interesting start to the cinematic year. The festival’s films thrive on teasing audiences about the potential of great movies. In some cases, those films can even lead to prestigious Oscar winners like Coda. That does not mean every Sundance film has to have aspirations for awards. …
You know how people will watch a movie solely because their favorite actor is in it? That is how I fell into the trap of watching He Went That Way, the 2023 crime drama film directed by Jeffrey Darling and written by Evan M. Wiener. It stars Jacob Elordi and Zachary Quinto, so of course, you would assume that this …
The DCEU world has been filled with incredible highs and hellish lows. What began as a strong contender in a battle to compete with the MCU, the DCEU rose quickly before crashing and burning just as fast. Some films, such as Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, and Birds of Prey, stand as testaments …
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 …
The Brothers Sun is Netflix’s newest binge-worthy original series. Led by the formidable Michelle Yeoh, and also starring Justin Chien and Sam Song Li, this eight-episode dramedy starts with an expertly coordinated fight scene with Great British Bake Off playing in the background. That’s the perfect way to set the tone and start the series. …
I need to stop watching movies where there is a significant age gap in a “couple” because it is always upsetting to me. There are enough lecherous people in the real world, preying on the admiration of young people, that I don’t need to see that behavior on screen. But …
Director Jesse Eisenberg returned to Sundance this year with his sophomore directorial effort, A Real Pain. The film has already made waves in the industry, with the worldwide rights acquired by Searchlight Pictures for $10 million. This news has made the film hotly anticipated in the movie world, as fans are eager to see …
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 …
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024) is a mix of danger, action, and romance that packs a punch. It’s a unique take on the genre, the spy version of a group project from hell with your crush, and is a ton of fun to watch. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is billed …
All Percy Jackson and the Olympians episodes, starring Walker Scobell, Leah Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri, are now streaming on Disney+. Connor looks at the merits of one-to-one book adaptations and finds that the series lacks some of the books’ magic. When the Chris Columbus-directed movie Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief was released in 2010, young, avid …
Argylle sees Matthew Vaughn return with another silly, over-the-top spy movie. Mercifully, it’s not the Kingsman characters for once and a brand new story for the Kick-Ass filmmaker (Well, kind of). The film has a lot of derivative qualities, but for the most part, Argylle excels in its enjoyable casting and sequences, which are willing to go for …
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 …
Heartbreak High is returning to Netflix for season 2 in April, so I wanted to catch up with everything in season 1 before I watched the new episodes. This sexy, hilarious, and positively amazing Netflix reboot of the 1994 original Aussie series stole the hearts of adoring fans (including me) who …
The Boy and the Heron is the latest animated film from Studio Ghibli and writer and director Hayao Miyazaki. Mahito is a 12-year-old who is dealing with the death of his mother. His father remarries Mahito’s aunt, and they return to her childhood home. There, Mahito has to learn to adjust to …
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 …
Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) opened the doors for many short but effective action scenes where its protagonist had a set amount of time to get from point A to point B, only for them to be stuck in innumerable (and preposterous) situations that would slow them down. That’s also …
Night Swim, a horror movie from director Bryce McGuire starring Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, and Amélie Hoeferle, is the newest release from Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Based on a four-minute short film, the film is about when “everything you fear is under the surface.” When a movie begins, and the production company logos pop up …
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 …
In 2019, Lulu Wang took the world by storm by capturing the complicated dynamics of a family in The Farewell. The poignant story about love, sentiments, and culture went on to touch everyone’s hearts and made Wang a household name. Although the filmmaker showcased her impeccable directing skills with the title above, her latest venture, Expats, is …