Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos need each other. Through Ms. Stone, Mr. Lanthimos has an entry into Hollywood and the chance for his work to go mainstream worldwide, and through Mr. Lanthimos, Ms. Stone gets the art-house credibility usually denied to actresses whose careers began in teenage sex comedies. But just because they make quite a pair, that doesn’t mean the work …
Other reviews compare Anora to Pretty Woman, but this is a bad mistake. The world has moved on considerably since 1990, and these days, capitalism is now second to oligarchy. Oligarchs are people for whom life is to be lived without consequences because their incredible wealth means anything, or anyone, can be bought. …
It’s been a long time since Cate Blanchett got weird. She’s played unlikeable, she’s played dark, she’s played strange, but not since Heaven in 2002, in which German director Tom Tykwer got her to shave her head and bomb the Italian police, has Cate Blanchett got weird. But Cate Blanchett is also one of the very rare actors in …
Screenwriter Peter Harness enters the world of space in the Apple TV+ original series Constellation. The eight-episode series stars Noomi Rapace in the lead role of Jo, an astronaut who returns to Earth after a failed space mission. James D’Arcy, Jonathan Banks, and twins Rosie and Davina Coleman also star alongside Rapace. Constellation follows the story of the International Space Station’s troubles after an …
For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard that artificial intelligence would one day rule the world. As technology advances at an exponential rate, the fear that stems from that sentiment seems to be increasing as well. Will one day machines and A.I. completely take over our world, resulting …
Netflix has a reputation. There’s no getting around it at this point. They make three things: a bunch of good-to-great TV shows, one or two prestige movies every year, and a boatload of cheap-looking action movies made up of bits and pieces from other, better movies that somehow star A-list actors. Atlas belongs in …
Calling a TV show “underrated” can feel like simplistic praise. With the cavalcade of streaming content, viewers will always have what they call “underrated” favorites. These favorites can still lead to numerous Emmy nominations and critical praise. MAX’s television show Hacks has had thirty-two Emmy nominations and six wins. Seasons one and …
Director James Cullen Bressack’s new film, Darkness of Man, is now out on digital. It’s an action thriller that stars Jean-Claude Van Damme along with Kristanna Loken, Emerson Min, and Sticky Fingaz. Darkness of Man is the story of a a washed-up former Interpol operative named Russell Hatch (played by …
The Girl with the Needle (Pigen med Nålen) is based on such a well-known criminal case in Denmark that mentioning the name of one of the characters is a local spoiler. For the rest of us, the horror must unspool the old-fashioned way as we watch a young woman’s truly desperate …
Google a definition of the word reality, and you’ll get #1 – “the world or state of things as they actually exist” and #2 – “the state or quality of having existence or substance.” But what makes something real? What actually exists? What percentage of people have to agree something is reality for it to be so? …
The Atypical Family is a South Korean TV series that is streaming weekly on Netflix. It’s a fantasy romance and tells the story of Bok Gwi-ju (Jang Ki-yong) and his family. They used to have incredible superpowers; however, due to chronic diseases brought about by the modern world, they are starting …
Have you ever been sitting in your home, watching a nature documentary, and thought, “What this majestic vista needs is a little more murder?” Then you are A) weird and B) in luck. Writer and director Chris Nash apparently also feels that way, and he has given us In A Violent Nature, a new horror film …
Kristanna Lokken is no stranger to the silver screen, having made a name for herself opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villainess T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Darkness of Man, the latest film from James Cullen Bressack, has the talented actress playing a role opposite another action star …
There’s no doubt that Bridgerton is one of Netflix’s most successful shows and keeps on getting better with each season. The first two seasons captivated audiences with engaging storylines, richly developed characters, and sizzling physical chemistry. Both seasons garnered supremely positive audience and critical reactions and became two of the most-watched shows …
Back in the early 2000s, when Russell T Davies revived Doctor Who for a new generation, he became well-known for his intricately placed narrative threads. If you are an avid fan of his original era, Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Vote Saxon, and the planets disappearing will be ingrained in your memory. Little hints that, once …
There’s nothing like a sudden death to bring a community together, and there’s nothing like a tragedy to make people realize what’s truly important. This Icelandic movie, When the Light Breaks (Ljósbrot), is about the worst 24 hours in the lives of a group of young friends because, in the course …
Bad horror movies are a dime a dozen, with their formulaic narratives and low, often limiting, budgets. 2024 alone has seen the bizarre Night Swim, an interesting idea poorly executed in Imaginary, and, more recently, Tarot, a daft concept that was more banal than spooky. To give those pictures’ credit, though, at least …
In the horrible post-apocalyptic future depicted in the Mad Max movies, where people have names like The Octoboss and Toast the Knowing, it was downright revolutionary of Mad Max’s mother to name him Max. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, two of the evil sidekicks are named Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) and, what …
Ryusuke Hamaguchi has never made the same film twice and has always approached each project he takes on with a different lens and perspective on what he did previously. It’s highly apparent just by watching his Oscar-winning feature, Drive My Car, a nearly three-hour-long, slow, and meditative drama, and his latest project, Evil …
The sun-soaked seediness of LA is immediately apparent in Sugar, Mark Protosevich’s neo-noir crime drama. Sugar follows Colin Farrell’s eponymous private detective hired for one case, which quickly spirals into a wider network of rich girls gone wrong, drugs, questionable law enforcement, polaroids, self-destruction, and other such Hollywood crime and its visual signifiers. John Sugar: A Golden-Hearted Detective …