Despite a prolific career with his short films, the Brazilian director Allan Deberton made a splash with his Pacarrete in 2019, a well-received debut that audiences and critics admired during its release rollout throughout the pandemic. The film explored a dreamer who bothers her neighborhood over her failed dream of …
The language – and structure – of animated films needs to be reinvented within Hollywood. Stale stories are unfortunately plaguing our screens, despite formal inventiveness at almost every turn. Hollywood has released plenty of great animated offerings this year, but has any given the audience something truly different? Hoppers was …
While the Girl Scouts of America do plenty to build up young women, they are best known for their cookies. Which makes sense, given that they are an $800 million industry. In her documentary Cookie Queens, currently in theaters, Alysa Nahmias examines this business through the eyes of four young …
In the festival circuit, with each announcement of a major festival, there is a name that people expect to hear: Hong Sang-soo. In February, he premiered The Day She Returns , which played at the Berlinale’s Panorama. Six months later, the Korean master is back with his latest, Nowhere to …
Who knew 2026 would involve so many family movies about flocks of British sheep solving crimes? If this is a trend I hope it lasts forever because The Sheep Detectives was adorable and Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is even more so. A stop-motion animated film with …
For a movie designed around a teenage pregnancy it’s a surprise that We Are All Strangers focuses on the baby’s father. What writer-director Anthony Chen is exploring here is how family responsibilities force young men to grow up. The assumption seems to be that women have achieved maturity already, regardless …
Joe doesn’t know what’s wrong with his parents. Why would they move him to this creepy movie straight out of a horror movie? There are tombstones in the basement, strange noises everywhere, and he knows the doll he found in his room has been the star of a few horror …
Whenever a new project from Sony Pictures Animation hits theaters, I’ll admit my heart rate picks up just a bit. Whether it’s the visual revolution started by the Spider-Verse franchise or the emotionally resonant storytelling in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, my expectations for any animation from this studio have …
Children under age seven, in Japanese culture, are considered “of the gods,” which means they have the purest connection with the divine, until they inevitably transition into the mortal realm, taking their first few steps into adulthood. Such is the case for the titular protagonist of Little Amélie or the …
The Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason is one of the most fascinating voices in the current European cinema. Known for his 2022 film Godland (Vanskabte land), a project about a young Danish priest traveling to the remote parts of Iceland. It premiered at that year’s Un Certain Regard of the Cannes …
When the film adaptation of the Broadway megahit Wicked finally hit theaters, a fascinating element got highlighted by critics and fans: the original score by Stephen Schwartz and John Powell. Despite the well-known songs from the musical, with both the music and lyrics by Schwartz, the film had a thrilling …
Although multiple actors attempted to land the role, Ariana Grande got one of the most coveted roles in Hollywood: Galinda/Glinda in Wicked. Eternalized on Broadway by Kristin Chenoweth, the actor got a Tony Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, but most importantly, she is the version that the …
Wicked: For Good is one of the most anticipated films of the year. It is the conclusion of the musical saga adapted from the 2003 stage show by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, which became a massive success at Broadway, and in various local adaptations of the story of Glinda …
I walked into the theater to see Zootopia 2 in a state of almost blessed ignorance. I religiously avoided every trailer, looked away from every promotional image, and stayed far away from the social media buzz. I knew nothing about the critical reception or the general audience sentiment. My only …
After one year of waiting with bated breath to view the powerhouses of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo respectively reprising their roles as Glinda and Elphaba on the big screen, it almost seemed unbearable for fans and converted audiences alike. Audiences need not have feared as the Wicked: For Good immersed …
In November 2024, the film version of the 2003 Broadway musical Wicked finally hit theaters. The Broadway musical from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman is an adaptation of the book of the same title by Gregory Maguire. The film by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians & In the Heights) …
Starting with Toy Story 2 in 1999, each new entry in the franchise was accompanied by a teaser trailer that had little to do with the actual movie. Toy Story 2’s teaser was released in June of 1999, featuring Little Green Men staring at a crane, revealing the film’s logo, …
This November, Pixar’s Toy Story turns 30. That number feels impossible to me. Released on November 22, 1995, just twelve days before I was born, the film became a fixture of my childhood, then my adolescence, and, honestly, my entire life. For years, I watched it nearly every day. It …
There are only so many ways a film like Sweetheart, originally titled Gioia Mia, pans out. Special Jury Prize winner at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present competition, Margherita Spampinato’s debut feature is a predictably compelling take on the coming-of-age genre: a schmaltzy drama about grief and …
Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon has been one of the most fascinating workshops for the medium since their 2009 feature debut, The Secret of Kells. Wolfwalkers by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart is only their fifth feature since Kells. Nearly every work of theirs went on to get an Academy …