Anyone who was alive on New Year’s Eve in 1999 remembers that the world was supposed to end, and there was a lot of panic about it. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but there’s a universe in which things could have played out differently, which is vividly imagined in the directorial …
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 …
The G, from writer-director Karl R. Hearne, is an unusual crime thriller in that its central character is a woman in her sixties and the insults of aging are central to the crimes at its core. But the unusual intelligence of The G is that it knows that physical weakness means little if …
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 …
Punctuation can speak volumes. The latest feature from writer-director duo Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman – Coup! – joins the ranks of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! and Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! in adding an exclamation point to a punch title, immediately suggesting a zany, irreverent take on social paranoia during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. As the world recovers from war …
oudCryptocurrency has been on the rise in the past few years. With the introduction of Bitcoin and Ethereum, many people are turning to this interesting new currency to get rich quickly. However, with the latest trends and technology, whether AI or cryptocurrency, there’s always a gray area regarding moral standards …
Some of film history’s most iconic works take place across one eventful day or night. Tummy Monster easily fits this model, taking place in one location over a night that goes from ordinary to extraordinary with alarming speed. Tattoo artist Tales (Lorn Macdonald) is just about to close up shop …
In 2019, director Lulu Wang stunned the world with a poignant family drama, The Farewell. The movie showed her directing prowess and gave viewers an idea of how hard-hitting stories can be told with so much elegance. The film won Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards and earned Wang all the praise she deserved. People …
Twenty-four hours in one lawyer’s chaotic personal and professional life comes to a head in Selman Nacar’s sophomore feature. Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi) clocks in under 90 minutes, but the fullness of its action and the richness of its moral dilemmas, characterizations, and performances gives it the weight of many longer features. Canan …
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the latest animated property to get the live-action treatment from Netflix. There has been some success with this trend, such as Netflix’s adaptation of the anime One Piece, but reimaginings such as this have to work hard to justify their existence, as their animated counterparts are already …
Accidental Texan is the second feature film directed by the award-winning Mark Bristol. It stars Thomas Haden Church, Rudy Pankow, Bruce Dern, and Carrie-Anne Moss in a classic and heartwarming tale of small-town America. After a phone ringer triggers an accident of explosive proportions on a New Orleans film set, Harvard-educated Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow) loses his first …
Amelia’s Children is the latest movie from writer and director Gabriel Abrantes. Starring Carloto Cotta (as twins!), Brigette Lundy-Paine, Anabela Moreira, and Alba Baptista, this is a horror movie about mothers and sons and well, a whole lot of creepy. Edward, our main character, is adopted. His search for his origins takes him to Portugal where …
Animated sequels can be a challenge; sometimes, the sequel isn’t as good as the original (Shrek the Third is a perfect example). Other times, the sequels can be better than the original (Shrek 2). In DreamWorks Animation’s case, they now have two franchises that have maintained their quality throughout their sequels …
James Nunn’s One Shot had the biggest potential out of any direct-to-video actioner Scott Adkins led in so long: an action film staged like a one-take in which Adkins would topple as many baddies as possible as if the audience were playing a video game. And while it certainly contained its moments of pure spectacle, …
The year is 2041, and death before one’s time does not necessarily mean the end of one’s life in Robert Hloz’s sleek sci-fi thriller. Restore Point takes its title from this new technology, managed in a central database in a nondescript metropolis of tarnished chrome (perhaps Prague in the future, though signs of its …
5Lbs of Pressure, the newest film from writer and director Phil Allocco, showcases a dangerous world where people live between the cracks of society. Starring Luke Evans, Rory Culkin, Alex Pettyfer, Stephanie Leonidas and Rudy Pankow, the film is 15 years in the making and is so worth the wait. In the movie, …
Love stories often rely on two characters being in the right place at the right time. Falling Into Place – a melancholic slow-burn love story from writer/director Aylin Tezel – follows in the timeless vein of the recent phenomena Normal People and One Day: the meeting of its characters may feel like destiny, but trials of time, …
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 …
Road trip films have always been a staple of American cinema, and Emma Westenberg’s new feature sets out in this nostalgic vein as she tackles the highs and lows of family bonds. In Bleeding Love, which had its Scottish premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival after an earlier 2023 South by Southwest world premiere, …
If you’ve ever had the chance to make a movie, chances are your mind will be tormented during the development, production, and post-production stages. While watching the rushes or beginning to edit your film, your mind may not enjoy what’s unfolding and will quasi-force you to come up with new …