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 …
Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover arrives as Frankenstein tales are having a real cultural moment. With Guillermo del Toro’s film released last autumn (and picking up three Oscars) and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride currently in cinemas, Glowicki’s picture as director, co-writer (with Ben Petrie, who also stars) and star may not …
Like a large portion of the audience, I walked into the theater without any familiarity with the literary work by Andy Weir that the film attempts to adapt — yes, the majority of viewers have never read, played, or known the source material on the vast majority of these occasions. …
On a spaceship where human fertility has been artificially halted, nobody is expecting to find a human baby left on their doorstep. But that is exactly what happens in Olvia Waite’s Nobody’s Baby. Now it’s up to Dorothy Gentleman to find out who this baby is, who his parents are, …
Whenever a filmmaker with the pedigree of Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) ventures into the realm of live-action, my attention levels are immediately raised. Stanton is one of the foundational architects of Pixar, a master at finding the soul in inanimate objects. Approaching In the Blink of an Eye, my expectations …
Dan Fogelman’s political thriller returns for a second season, reimagining itself as a post-apocalyptic drama more akin to The Last Of Us. It’s a season full of twists that even the most avid TV watcher won’t expect, as the writers continue to take risks that mostly pay off. In season …
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die takes the worst nightmares of the current moment and turns them into comedy, but the kind of comedy where if you didn’t laugh you’d cry. This is done in the lighthearted comic blockbuster style best described as a mash-up where 1990s French horror-comedy Delicatessen …
Entering a movie theater with low expectations is a dangerous yet necessary exercise. Two weeks after its release, I finally sat down to watch Mercy, and I couldn’t escape the wave of negative reception that’s been flooding the internet. That said, I’ll confess I held onto a sliver of hope. …
It wouldn’t be a lie to say it’s been a fairly tumultuous year for one of the BBC’s flagship franchises Doctor Who. Not only was the second series of Russell T Davies’ soft reboot of the show met with low ratings, both critically and in viewership, but Ncuti Gatwa the …
Most people in the West probably never saw A Step Into the Past, a one-season Hong Kong TV show from 2001 about a modern scientist who ends up back in the Qin dynasty. Therefore the major draw of Back to the Past, which finishes the plotlines of that TV show, …
The young Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan is already a well-loved personality in the arthouse community. Despite his brief filmography, the director has already produced remarkable works in his career, such as Kaili Blues, Long Day’s Journey into Night, and his short film, A Short Story. Employing a poetic approach to …
I was 40 before I got my first tattoo. Since then, I have added to my collection, but I have avoided many pop culture references because I have seen too many of my favorites fall over the years. But the one that I have is of the Vince Gilligan show, Breaking …