How much are you actually supposed to care about a family being hunted by dinosaurs? Normally the answer is simple: just enough to root for them, not so much that a stray death throws the whole experience off balance. David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) spends most of The End of …
I confess I went into The Last House with a strange kind of curiosity that had nothing to do with horror and everything to do with career pivots. Louis Leterrier has spent the better part of two decades making things go fast and loud — muscle cars, magic tricks, superhero …
Seven years after the controversial The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars returns to the big screen with the faint whimper of a broken lightsaber. In the years since the conclusion of the Skywalker saga, Star Wars has continued largely through Disney+ streaming shows. The best of these is Andor by …
It’s wonderful when filmmakers decide they have nothing to lose. If you are going to make an outrageous quest through the kink scene of Paris you might as well hold nothing back. And indeed Jim Queen holds nothing, and I mean NOTHING, back. This is probably why the film is …
I’ll admit I walked into this one with my guard up. Every trailer drop for Spider-Man: Brand New Day — and I avoided them like the plague, though there’s only so much a person can dodge — kept adding another name to an already overstuffed-looking roster: Bruce Banner / Hulk …
Jordan Peele’s third feature film, Nope, was kept a mystery in its marketing and has been slotted into various categories since its release: supernatural horror, science fiction, modern Western, creature feature, and sardonic look at a society obsessed with getting the perfect money-making shot. Nope is all of these in …
Film festivals can be a little too intellectual sometimes. There is of course space in movies for people giving each other lectures on why capitalism is bad (something that featured in an awful lot of films at Cannes this year). But those movies are rarely a good time, and most …
Romantic movies told from the male point of view tend to focus on the guy, especially a guy able to recognise something in a woman – beauty, brains, talent – that she didn’t know she had. Through the guy’s actions the woman is able to get what she deserves, which …
When someone writes, directs and edits their own film, this can be a promising sign of an expert knowing exactly how to deliver the idea they have in their head. It can also be an exercise in the worst kind of self-indulgence, the kind that brooks no feedback and maintains …
One day Zahara’s twin sister Annica walked out the front door and vanished. Not in the “was kidnapped and never seen again” way but in the “walked right out of existence” way. After Annica left the house on April 16th, 1994, the only person in the world who remembers her …
Amara Jones hates angels. You would too if you’d watched them kill countless humans over the past five years without missing a beat. Demons are just as bad, but at least you expect it out of them; they’re from Hell. But Angels are supposed to be the guardians of humanity. …
Surrealism is not my favorite film genre, but I will make a massive exception if it’s in the hands of Boots Riley. Not unlike his debut, Riley’s latest feature, I Love Boosters, is a weird, vibrant, funny, thoughtful, hopeful thesis on collective action and workers’ rights. At a time when …
Everybody enjoys a good “what-if”. It’s a thriving genre of literature and movies alike. And of course, we all do this constantly in our own lives, “What if I hadn’t married him?” “What if I finished college?” “What if I never moved there?” The questions are enough to drive you …
In retrospect, it makes sense that EP Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy were always going to be the ones to bring Fallout to the screen – after all; what was HBO’s one-time flagship series Westworld if but a trail run? What was Person of Interest if not for a show …
Before the spread of the academia as a central form of producing and teaching knowledge, the indigenous communities already understand crucial learnings about the world. Historically, civilizations such as the Mayans and Aztecs produced immense amounts of information on mathematics and engineering. Human being tends to seek understanding of their …
I am a sucker for movies which involve the leads wandering around a city at night instead of sleeping together. The trouble that the concept is easy but making it interesting is tough. The leads must be personable enough and the obstacles in their way must be intriguing enough that …
Earth has a problem: the light from the sun is fading thanks to an alien microorganism Ryland Grace has dubbed “Astrophage”. The world’s best scientists estimate that Earth has about 30 years before true devastation, but not all hope is lost. The world has come together to create a spaceship …
What would you do if you knew the end was coming? Would you hunker down somewhere with your loved ones? Would you say “to hell with it” and run around doing whatever you want? Would you finish yourself before the world could do it? Or would you take the opportunity …
It’s so nice to see something uniting the entire world, especially when that thing is a hatred for artificial intelligence. Per Aspera Ad Astra is a Chinese kids’ movie, released for the lunar new year, with some very big Chinese stars at its core, all about the importance of our …
Imagine if you could be a character in your favorite movie franchise? Rub elbows with Spiderman, share a meal with Frodo and Sam, lead a revolution with Katniss, date a Cullen. That’s the premise behind Thomas Elrod’s debut novel, The Franchise. But here’s the kicker, you won’t just be acting …