Limited series are becoming a new favorite medium for streaming. They last between six and eight hours and feel like an extended film. Such length allows the story to carry a deep emotional complexity. This complexity has attracted prominent actors to this limited series format. Netflix has championed this medium …
The Acolyte is the latest Star Wars show to arrive on the back of something of a mixed reception for the franchise of late, with underwhelming ventures for Ahsoka and the latest season of The Mandalorian, but with stellar outings for Andor. Thankfully, The Acolyte is more in the Andor …
Any description of The Shameless could make it sound like the most exploitative trash, so it’s stunning to realize that despite the grim setting, the exceptionally troubled characters, and the hopelessness of their situation, that it isn’t. This is a testament to the skill of writer-director (and Bulgarian-American) Konstantin Bojanov, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Image of You is a deliciously tense psychological thriller from director Jeff Fisher and screenwriter Chris Sivertson, based on a massively popular book by the same name by Adele Parks. The film features a romance gone sideways, along with nail-biting unease. Actress Sasha Pieterse takes on the dual role of identical twins Anna and Zoe in the movie, …
The Image of You is a twisty psychological thriller from director Jeff Fisher. It stars Sasha Pieterse as twins Anna and Zoe and Parker Young as Nick. Nestor Carbonell and Mira Sorvino are Anna and Zoe’s parents. In the story, Anna’s head over heels for her new guy, Nick, but her twin sister Zoe’s not so sure. Zoe’s picking …
It doesn’t take much to convince cinephiles like me to visit the film theater. In fact, it’s more the opposite: it takes very strong reasons to keep me away. My personal methodology of trying to watch movies without any prior knowledge remains extremely strict, so for Boy Kills World, the presence of Bill Skarsgård (It) was more than enough to spark interest in a basic …
There are times when we get to watch a film that makes us realize what our future might look like and paints a very dark picture in front of us. In Alex Garland’s Civil War, viewers find themselves in the middle of a gruesome fight between the people and the state. Throughout …
Alex Garland has a penchant for mutually assured destruction. His writing and, in recent years, his directing revolve around this theme; the Danny Boyle sci-fi masterpiece and Garland written Sunshine (2006) consists of characters debating the moral repercussions of saving another spaceship at risk of losing humanity; Garland’s Annihilation (2018) climaxes with a symbiotic reflection of …
Kristi Shimek is Arcadian’s editor and one of the people responsible for helping to create the post-apocalyptic tension in director Ben Brewer’s horror thriller. Arcadian is a story of survival, where ferocious creatures that go bump in the night are after a father and his twin boys. The film stars Nicholas Cage as the dad, Paul, with Jaeden Martell and Maxwell …
Who doesn’t love a good revenge movie? Throughout the years, we’ve seen John Wick take out people for killing his dog, Robert McCall takes out people for an old friend, and Cassandra Thomas hunts down the men who sexually assaulted her best friend. The latest comes in the form of …
Dev Patel exploded into global consciousness in Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 British smash hit that opened the Western world’s eyes to the cinematic possibilities within India. Since then, Mr. Patel’s roles have largely been in Western films with an Indian setting – the two Marigold Hotel movies, the biopic Lion, and a few thrillers. But even in …
In Aesop’s Fables, a set of tales told to children to imbue them with socially correct morals, exists the story of “The North Wind and The Sun.” The iconic fable describes how the anthropomorphic entities of the Wind and the Sun argued between themselves on the best method in getting someone …
Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Drive-Away Dolls – directed by Coen, written by the pair, and edited by Cooke – has been a long time in the making but arrives at a strange juncture in the Coen extended family’s careers. When Joel and Ethan Coen announced a temporary split and solo projects after decades of operating as the Coen Brothers, all eyes …
Certain movies make a splashy entrance into prestigious film festivals, and while making a grand entrance, those films take time to appear in cinemas. In some cases, that can be a good thing. Recent examples include Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon, which earned ten Academy Award nominations. Whereas other films from …
Liam Neeson might have one of Hollywood’s most exciting career trajectories. From his Oscar-winning work in the 1990s (Schindler’s List), his career pivoted in 2008. Neeson’s hit action film Taken turned him into a different kind of actor. Flash forward twenty-two years, and he has morphed into an action star. That delivered universally enjoyable cinema …
Road House, from director Doug Liman and starring Jake Gyllenhaal is now streaming. Should we compare remakes to the original? This central question guides most film critics when they compare a modernized version of a popular film made decades ago. Some say we shouldn’t hold the original as the only …
With a compelling story centered around self-discovery, season 1 of The Tourist is the next thing you should put on your watchlist. The Tourist is an Australian thriller series centered around a man (played by Jamie Dornan) who wakes up in the hospital with amnesia. It made the licensing rounds, first premiering on the BBC, …