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The Brutalist September 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Brutalist had its North American Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on December 20. The more that The Brutalist progresses along its 215-minute track, the more it becomes evident that co-writer/director Brady Corbet sees himself in his protagonist, László Toth (Adrien Brody), the overlooked genius who seeks to reform modern architecture away from its ugly preconceptions and must put himself through the wringer to prove the doubters. A later scene sees Toth introducing the design for his wildly ambitious project, a sort of shrine to a capitalist’s deceased mother. It’s going to house a worship center, gymnasium, library, auditorium, and several pathways lined with marble and concrete. There’s never been anything like it, which is why, while curious and attracted to the ambition, the investors are trepidatious about its feasibility. One could imagine Corbet employing the persuasiveness of Toth’s design and vision in the pitch meetings for the film as a whole. With a runtime eclipsing that of any American feature in decades, photography in VistaVision that is projected in some combination of 70mm (Note: The projection I saw at the press and industry screening at the Toronto International Film Festival was in 35mm), an overture, an intermission, and an epilogue, nothing about The Brutalist screams commerciality. But like Toth and his monument, every dollar that Corbet’s behemoth sacrifices at the box office will be used to better the art form. The only currency that matters in cinema is the experience you carry with you long after the viewing. Such a grandiose production must also house a grandiose story, with Corbet and his often co-writer and partner Mona Fastvold saddling themselves with nothing less than weaving a rich tapestry of the modern American experience. In a nearly identical vein to what has made Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films filled with eternal beauty, Corbet identifies that the truest Americans were those carried by steamship through Ellis Island. Toth snakes his way through the bowels of the ship, the foreboding score and canted angle of the Statue of Liberty signifying the joys and dangers of what’s to come in his new life. Loneliness is his most potent quality, as his wife (Felicity Jones) and niece (Raffey Cassidy) are still trapped in post-WWII Eastern Europe. The American Dream is more about the freedom to assimilate than the freedom to be yourself, which is why Toth’s successful Philadpehian cousin (Alessandro Nivola) has westernized his last name to Miller, married a Catholic girl, and reluctantly talks about their upbringing in the Old World. Toth can’t blend in so easily, with his features (an in-joke is made about Toth’s nose being broken) and accent too recognizable. Collaboration, conflict, and compromise are the tools to his success, each made all the more possible with the financial backing of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). It doesn’t matter if his interest in Toth’s work is genuine or just a temporary distraction to amuse himself with. His money is very real , and so are his ambitions for Toth. He parades him around his socialite friends at his swanky gatherings, using Toth’s struggles as conversation starters. With his previous two features, Corbet has trained his sights on the costs of being someone and creating something. While the deal Toth makes is not as literally Faustian as it is in Vox Lux , he does have to tear pieces of himself away for the project. Brody is tremendous, reaching a new dramatic height after years of only gaining notice within the whimsically stacked casts of Wes Anderson. The comparisons to his work in The Pianist , both in terms of what’s on the screen and how it be rewarded, are appropriate. He buries himself within his work, with his creation destined to become his salvation. What Corbet is crafting is just as alluring, with Lol Crawley’s cinematography ranging from hauntingly claustrophobic to sweepingly beautiful. Even in the gloomy Pennsylvania countryside, a place where the frost tinges the corners of the frame, he and production designer Judy Becker make those slabs of steel and concrete pour out with Toth’s soul. With the added time, each scene flows with more freedom and weight, all of them simultaneously epic and intimate as the camera glacially passes through the years. This is a full-course cinema meal, requiring an afternoon to consume and much longer to digest. It’s easy to savor every moment of it in real-time because of its boundless beauty, and just as easy over time thanks to its long lingering themes on the ideals that modern America convinced itself it was built upon. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Asteroid City June 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Asteroid City had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on June 13. By far the strangest movie in his eclectic filmography, Asteroid City is Wes Anderson’s return to America in over a decade, having spent time in fictional Eastern Europe for The Grand Budapest Hotel , Japan for Isle of Dogs , and well… France for The French Dispatch . The fanciful writer/director takes us into the scenic deserts of the 1950s American southwest, specifically the titular sleepy tourist town that serves as the meeting point for all of the eccentric characters. The half-built town, complete with the stereotypical bar-stool diner and motel, is the destination for those attending the annual Junior Stargazer / Space Cadet convention. It’s a place where the best, brightest, and most awkward kids in America show off their new inventions, including a jetpack, raygun, and overhead projector for the moon, which, in one of many hilarious throwaway lines, is said to have huge potential in the future of interstellar advertising. Arriving in a putter under the beaming sun is Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer with a genius son and young triplet girls. This event is only a brief stop on his way to see his father-in-law (Tom Hanks, proving as always to be a wonderful addition to any cast), who’s the only other person that knows of Augie’s wife’s recent demise. Also in attendance is a group of other precocious children and their host of parents (Scarlett Johannson, Liev Schreiber, Steve Park, Hope Davis, etc.) Eventually, this event designed to look up at the stars comes in contact with something from there, which reshapes how our characters interact with each other and themselves. As I said in the opening sentence, this is Anderson’s weirdest movie to date, always keeping your eyebrow in a raised position. To avoid spoiling events beyond what is shown in the trailer, I’ll only mention that Anderson’s screenplay (written in conjunction with his usual partner Roman Coppola) emulates a certain Christopher Nolan movie that has to do with dreams. How else are you going to be able to fit in all the names within this all-star cast, including regular players Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum? The term “this is the most Wes Anderson movie Wes Anderon has ever made” has been used to describe nearly every new entry in his filmography. That cycle doesn’t stop with Asteroid City , as the traits you’ve come to love (or hate) are all here: symmetrical framing, varying aspect ratios, color and black & white cinematography, and steady camera movements. Anderson’s usual designer Adam Stockhausen once again creates a doll-house world filled with too many sights and sounds to be absorbed in one viewing. Sure, there may now be umpteen TikTok and A.I. generated videos replicating Anderon’s distinct style, but all of them contain just the window dressing of a Wes Anderson movie, and not the emotion. Just as his box of tricks has constantly evolved, so has Anderson’s ability to find the heart in his richly defined characters. While on their methodically placed tracks, each character veers off in different directions, exploring the fear of death, finding connections in a barren land, cutting through the messiness of life, and paying homage to those kitschy B-movies you grew up watching late at night on the public access channel. At this point in his filmography, you’ve probably made up your mind about Wes Anderson. I’m somewhat of an apologist, with those instantly recognizable production qualities and whimsical tones being music to my ears (and eyes). Asteroid City is another healthy dose of what I’m come to love, with the bonus of seeing an auteur continue to find new ways to channel what they do best. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Deadpool & Wolverine July 23, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Deadpool & Wolverine may be the most Marvel thing Marvel has ever produced, which is saying a lot considering they have a whole character who carries that moniker. And considering just how long and intensive this machine has been going, that’s also a statement you already know how to interpret for yourself. This isn’t going to win over any outsiders, nor does it serve as the self-dubbed “Marvel Jesus” that will offer a hearty course correction that the passengers on this increasingly derailing train so desperately need. But even if it can’t turn water into wine, it can easily turn two hours into a solidly entertaining time, something that has become a valuable currency at this stage in the game. Director Shawn Levy, the biggest rival to Hugh Jackman and Mint Mobile for the role of Ryan Reynold’s best friend, takes a page out of his namesake brother Sean Baker’s playbook for how to energetically open a movie about a motor-mouthed scumbag. NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” kicks us into music video mode as Deadpool spills more literal blood in thirty seconds than the MCU has done in its past thirty features. It’s a cheap trick akin to using “I Need a Hero” during a training montage, but clichés are only born because they work, and the sight of dismembered limbs and the Merc with a Mouth sensually dancing did put a somewhat sadistic smile on my face. That grin stayed in a fixed position throughout the next two hours, although my eyebrows were raised a few times, the majority occurring during the timey wimey exposition dumps where the two seasons of Loki become a prerequisite. Just as the MCU is in critical condition, so is Deadpool’s timeline after the death of Logan in his 2017 titular movie. He was one of those figures whose universe lives and dies with them, so his departure gives the TVA the authority to speed up the deterioration process by pruning it off the tree of time. But for what the multiverse takes away, it also gives back in the form of countless iterations of our favorite heroes. Wade thinks that any Wolverine can fill the shoes of his Logan, which he unintentionally puts to the test when he pulls the worst one from another universe. Hugh Jackman reprising his most famous character after beautifully concluding that chapter in his career sounds sacrilegious by itself, but it’s less offensive once you start factoring in that Wolverine has only ever been the lead of large ensembles or solo features. It’s refreshing to see him equally billed with someone so different, and the real-life friendship of Jackman and Reynolds adds that extra bit of oomph to the expletive-laden one-liners. Another treat comes from the comic-accurate yellow jumpsuit that he gets to don. It also wouldn’t be too far-fetched to theorize that a few dump trucks of money helped sway Jackman’s decision to return. It’s money well spent, which can’t be said for the other hundreds of millions that went into securing such scenic locations as a drab wasteland, a nondescript forest, and your usual New York subway station. You can feel the layers of irony coming together as this initially scrappy franchise has become the megaton freighter it points and laughs at. A Honda Odyssey serves as an equally deflating vehicle of choice, although it gets a few bonus points for serving as the setting for an amusing action setpiece. Just as there’s no problem in the MCU that can’t be solved with cash and gratuitous quips, there’s also no moment that can’t be an opportunity to crack open the vault and play with the toys. The writers have read all the Reddit threads and think pieces, watched all the hours-long YouTube rants, and listened to all the podcasts about the state of comic-book movies. But more importantly, they saw how successful Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were at creating viral moments through cameos and winks. No movie has been higher on its own supply than this one, with nearly a dozen slow-motion reveals and pauses for applause that will be immediately spoiled after the Thursday afternoon previews. It also means that the actual supporting characters like Emma Corrin’s villainous Cassandra Nova and Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox are continually sidestepped in favor of further digs at Fox. Fan service can only take you so far, which is why Deadpool & Wolverine stops plenty short of being the MCU’s redeemer. There was a clear opportunity for this to be much more than just the thirty-fourth entry in this universe: a true game-changer that recontextualizes the past, revamps the present, and paves a new road for the future. Oh well, fun is fun, and this is summer after all, so it’s best not to overthink things. That’s the biggest benefit of this neverending story, as all our hopes and fears can be punted onto the next chapter. Good luck, Captain America: Brave New World ! You’re going to need it! More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

We Live in Time September 8, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark We Live in Time had its World Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on October 11. Emotional cinema has become a form that isn’t discussed enough. Movies in this body, like 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars and 2016’s Manchester By the Sea , are defined by how sad their story is, and it can either make or break the movie. Audiences usually talk about how much they cried while watching a film of that scale. A movie in this subcategory often finds itself in conversations as a potential awards season contender. This subject has been the big selling point of John Crowley’s latest romantic dramedy, We Live in Time . He and the marketing team have been playing big into this being a potential Oscar contender and one helluva tear-jerker. Crowley enlists the help of Oscar nominees Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh to bring We Live in Time to life. Both can do no wrong with the material and are often cute together. In fact, the movie overall seems good on paper. After awkwardly meeting in a car accident, Tobias and Almut (Garfield and Pugh, respectively) fall in love and start a life together. Despite never being married, they share a three-year-old daughter and live a quiet life in the UK countryside. Suddenly, Almut becomes diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and the two learn how to live their lives to the fullest given the circumstances. It’s a straightforward plot, but its big twist is that it’s told nonlinearly. There’s no harm or foul in a synopsis like this, but the movie offensively tries to play itself as a tear-jerker with humorous moments. There’s a moment when Almut and Tobias are trying to tell their daughter about Almut’s diagnosis, and a magician attempts to perform a trick for them. Almut and Tobias try to ask him to leave, but he refuses until Tobias raises his voice. While Crowley intended for moments like this to bring some lightheartedness to the movie, it felt forced. The only occasion this wasn’t the case was when Almut gave birth to their daughter, and everything unfolded, resulting in baffling hilarity. Both Garfield and Pugh can bring humor into any scene, and it works, but in the case of this movie, it feels wrong for them. They’re not responsible, however, as Nick Payne’s script and Crowley’s direction call for this, and it feels out of place. Garfield and Pugh have won audiences over in their years of being in the spotlight individually. Their chemistry was a big thing to anticipate for fans going into this movie, as their behind-the-scenes photos together looked nothing but adorable. Although it didn’t speculate dating rumors like Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney did for Anyone But You , it sure did get people talking. The trailer also hyped it up vastly with how enigmatic and hearty there the two were. The end result of all this? They were simply fine together. They knew how to play off each other and bring tonal balance to whatever was happening on screen, but they weren’t anything irresistible compared to a couple like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Most audiences, especially die-hard fans of the two, will go wild for them being together on screen and eat up every second of each scene. I just won’t be counted in that statistic. We Live in Time is a sour melodrama trying to pawn itself off as a dramedy. Failing to strike each and every chord that comes with a supposed tear-jerker film, it’s without a doubt one of the biggest letdowns of the year. To think that it came from the director who made Brooklyn , a movie that knew exactly how to balance drama and humor, shocks me that that method didn’t apply here. Call it a fall from grace or a one-hit wonder, but John Crowley couldn’t redeem himself here. Garfield and Pugh try to pick up the slack for him, and although their efforts are close to courageous, they aren’t enough to get the movie back on its feet. A misfire for A24 and everyone involved, We Live in Time will likely live to see itself as a failed Oscar bait movie whose relevance will be…let’s say, on borrowed time. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Dumb Money September 9, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Dumb Money had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures will release it in limited theaters on September 15, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 06. The Big Short , Vice , and Don’t Look Up writer/director Adam McKay has been accused by his detractors of thinking his audience is stupid, talking down to them through flashy celebrity cameos and on-the-nose dialogue. It’s not an incorrect opinion, but McKay has still always provided a compelling argument within his theses, with The Big Short offering a sobering retelling of the housing crisis. Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money , premiering at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, REALLY wants to be The Big Short for Gen-Z, taking down the 1%ers who run Wall Street and rig it against the little guy. But this David vs. Goliath story doesn’t have the necessary charm or smarts to be as deadly as it thinks it is. “Hold the line!,” “Diamond hands!,” “Apes together strong,” and “I just like the stock,” were phrases that became popularized during the pandemic as the GameStop short squeeze rocked not just the financial industry, but the psyche of the American public. It all started on r/wallstreetbets, an internet forum famous for its memes and overly passionate members. Their prophet was Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a mild-mannered Massachusetts financial advisor who goes by “Roaring Kitty” because of his penchant use of cats in his live streams. He’s bullish on the GameStop (GME) stock, thinking that’s it undervalued and that all the hedge fund managers are fools to be in a short position. He seems crazy, but he has the numbers and quirkiness to attract other followers, including debt-ridden nurse Jenny (America Ferrera), GameStop employee Marcus (Anthony Ramos), and college students Riri (Myha'la Herrold) and Harmony (Talia Ryder). “If he’s in, I’m in” is what they all say, creating a surge in the stock price as more and more people jump on. Most of these traders were referred to as “dumb money” by the hedge funds and media. They’re just retail traders who always think they can beat the market but end up giving their money away to the big fish. Writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, adapting the novel “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, have compassion for these small fries. They’ve all been pushed down their whole lives, and the time is now to stand together. Unfortunately, none of these characters are that compelling outside of Keith, which largely stems from Dano’s charismatic commitment to playing the intellectual fool. They end up being a generic group, with little to separate themselves. The same goes for the villainous billionaires played by Seth Roge, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Offerman. They’re caricatures of unearned wealth, another in a quickly tiring line found in Triangle of Sadness and Glass Onion last year. Gillespie continues his high-energy antics from I, Tonya (also premiering in Toronto in 2017) and Cruella , zipping the editing around this overstuffed cast. It keeps the film on its toes and the 100-minute runtime breezy, but it also keeps the details to a minimum. The exact (or even simplified) machinations of the short squeeze are given little attention, replaced by bright lights and a flurry of newsreel clips. Just like the memes that inspired the movement, Dumb Money is fun in the moment, but has little to no substance underneath the surface. If you’re looking for entertainment, you get just enough of it to make this worthwhile. If you’re looking to be educated on this event, I’d recommend literally anything else. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 3: The Festival Mainstays April 8, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen As one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, the Cannes Film Festival always attracts the attention of cinephiles and industry professionals alike. Each year, the festival presents a diverse lineup of films that represent the best of international cinema, including both established and emerging filmmakers. With the 76th edition of the festival set to take place in May, film enthusiasts around the world are eagerly anticipating the announcement of the official selection on April 13th. While the festival organizers keep their cards close to their chest, there are already some strong players emerging as likely contenders for the coveted Cannes spotlights. In this four-part series, I’ll take a closer look at some of the films that are generating buzz and predict which ones are likely to make it to the Croisette this year. Each part will represent a category of films, which are: The Festival Masters Hollywood Makes a Splash The Festival Mainstays The Irregulars and Up-and-Comers The third part of my series reaches a little further down the pecking order. The filmmakers listed here may not have the pedigree of those from the first part, nor do their films command the headlines like the blockbusters. But many of them are in the process of being established as festival darlings and have projects that deserve attention on account of their immense potential. Which of these films are you most interested in? I'll be keeping you all posted on my adventures and sharing my thoughts on the films that I see. Stay tuned for more updates! Coup de Chance With a legendary career that now spans fifty works as a director, it would seem fitting to bid farewell to filmmaking in the country that has always adored him. Allen has brought several films to the festival, all of them playing out of competition. His latest work will be entirely in French with a local all-star cast. Of course, any mention of Allen brings along controversy, so Fremeaux will have a hard decision to make about what to do. La Chimera Alice Rohrwacher’s film made waves at last year’s festival when Neon picked up the project’s North American distribution rights. The company had a great run last with Triangle of Sadness taking the Palme d’Or, so it seems likely they’ll be gunning for a repeat. The film stars Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini in a story about 1980s tomb robbers set in Italy. The Beast Bertrand Bonello has premiered nearly all of his films at the festival, so there’s no reason not to predict him to do the same this time around. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay lead the cast of this sci-fi romance revolving around a troubled young woman who decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will take her on a journey across a series of past lives. Jeanne du Barry Never one to shy away from controversy, writer/director Maïwenn has doubled down by casting Johnny Depp as King Louis XV in her palace drama. The casting itself will bring headlines, but not the kind the festival may want, especially with films by Woody Allen and Roman Polanski also in the mix. If selected, it’ll likely be placed in one of the sidebars. *UPDATE: CONFIRMED FOR OPENING SELECTION* Daaaaaali! Along with Gaspar Noe, surrealist filmmaker Quentin Dupieux often is the provider of the strange and wild, which he did last year with the wacky Smoking Causes Coughing . His new movie will certainly be a more fun story about Salvador Dalí than Mary Harron’s Dalíland at last year's TIFF. The logline is as follows: “A French journalist meets the iconic surrealist artist Salvador Dalí on several occasions for a documentary project that never came to be.” The Book of Solutions Michel Gondry has always kept himself incredibly busy between feature films, music videos, television shows, and short films. He’s done a tour of the festival sidecars throughout his career, so there’s little doubt he’ll be invited back if he decides to premiere his new film on the Croisette. The premise sounds Charlie Kaufman-esque as it follows a director who tries to vanquish his demons which are oppressing his creativity. Limonov While the Cannes leadership has ruled that they will not welcome any members of the Russian delegation or those linked to the government, that rule does not apply to Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov, who has had his problem with Putin’s government. Serebrennikov recently left the country after a three-year travel ban, which forced him to miss the premiere of Petrov's Flu in 2021. His next film will continue the biopic streak from Tchaikovsky’s Wife , this time in the English language and focusing on the life of Soviet poet Eduard Limonov. Serebrennikov co-wrote the screenplay with Cold War director Pawel Pawlikowski and Ben Hopkins, and Ben Whishaw will play the titular character. Promised Land While he doesn’t make as many regular appearances as Ken Loach, fellow Englishman Michael Winterbottom did make a name for himself at the turn of the millennium with a slew of rough-around-the-edges peeks into British life. His new film sounds like it might fit that description quite well, as it follows two Brit police officers in their hunt for charismatic poet and Zionist freedom fighter Avraham Stern, who was plotting to evict British authorities. Last Summer French provocateur Catherine Breillat looks to be coming out of her self-imposed retirement with her first film in almost a decade. The sexually charged auteur's new film may be her most squirm-inducing yet, as it follows the consequences on a family when a woman gets attracted to her underage stepson. The first image was released in December just as production wrapped. Given her pedigree within the French film industry and that this may be her last film, it seems highly likely Breillat makes her way into the competition. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Kraven the Hunter December 11, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen After three Venom movies that made us ask “Are they supposed to be bad?” and the likes of Morbius and Madame Web that had us saying “Wow, this is embarrassing,” Kraven the Hunter is here to shut us all up. True to what it set out to do, nary a word was spoken during the 127 minutes that Sony’s latest adventure to circumvent their contractual restrictions with Marvel glistened upon the silver screen, all of that precious light dissipating as it bounced back to our collective eyeballs. Even if it was for all the wrong reasons, I remember so much about Morbius and Madame Web . That’s because all publicity is good publicity, and Kraven the Hunter has nothing to offer. The one thing Kraven wore so proudly during its years-long marketing campaign was its R-rating for bloody and gruesome violence, something that all the other Marvel superhero films have shied away from. But all that air was let out of the balloon once the film was repeatedly kicked all the way down from its original January 2023 release, eventually being beaten to the punch by Deadpool & Wolverine . But even if the stars aligned for Kraven to keep its original release date, the overediting and bland stuntwork so closely fit the PG-13 mold that it wouldn’t have made a difference. The hacking of celluloid never ceases throughout the entirety of the runtime, with several scenes featuring throwaway lines of dialogue referring to events that never happened. The magic of ADR comes to the rescue on a few occasions, with poor Christopher Abbott having several scenes where we never see his lips move throughout a full conversation. He plays The Foreigner, a character whose importance and motivation are still a mystery to me, as are his weird powers where he counts down from three and places people in a hypnotic trance. Kraven’s powers are a little more straightforward, his animalistic super strength and agility originating from the blood of a lion mixing with his own (PSA: You will not gain feline or canine superpowers if you attempt this at home). The blending of those two fluids came after Kraven’s father (Russell Crowe) took him and his brother Dmitri on an African hunting expedition to mold them into tough men. Kraven at least got the long end of the stick with his washboard abs, the flowing hair of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and feet with the same durability and traction as the tires on a Formula One car. Dmitri had to settle with becoming scrawny Fred Hechinger, perpetually caught in a cycle of self-doubt and violence. With his powers, Kraven hunts the hunters, specifically those who poach in his nondescript sanctuary in Siberia. While INTERPOL seems to have no problem with the bodies piling up and the press in a frenzy over who this mysterious hunter is, someone like Aleksei Sytsevich aka 'The Rhino' (Alessandro Nivola, nearly reprising his character from Face/Off ) doesn’t like seeing another apex predator. Between Kraven’s constant flexing and Rhino’s severe case of Greyscale, every muscle is intensely clenched. Director J.C. Chandor is a good filmmaker, proving himself as both a writer/director on personal projects ( Margin Call , A Most Violent Year ) and as a hired hand on studio features ( Triple Frontier ). The years he’s spent on this project will be seen as a waste of talent and opportunities, a sentiment that can be extended to the entire concept of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. A solar system without a sun just results in every planet suffering a cold, painful death. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bad Times at the El Royale October 25, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen A priest, a singer, a vacuum salesman, and a drifter walk into a hotel. They all have a story and need a room for a specific reason, but only one of them is telling the truth. Each one is untrusting of the other and plans out how to survive the night as a severe storm moves in. Then enters a crazy cult leader who wants to exact revenge on the one who wronged him. With five seedy characters and a suspicious bellhop, a one night stay at the El Royale may come with a fatal price. Bad Times is directed by Drew Goddard, who previously directed and wrote the comedy/horror The Cabin in the Woods and wrote the screenplay for The Martian . Goddard does well at directing this film. He does make some mistakes from time to time, but they aren’t too severe. The first of his mistakes come from the pacing and overall length of the film. The 141-minute runtime is weird as the film felt like it could easily have been cut to two hours or justifiably stretched to three hours. This is due to some areas of the story being dragged on more than need be and some areas getting not as much as attention. The first act of the film slowly builds up each separate character with their backstory and motives. Then the second wizzes by and the third needlessly slows everything back down again. Goddard does do good work with the camera as he gives the film a dark washed overtone to match the 60s era feel. He also uses a wide array of camera techniques to tell the layered story. Some scenes are played out multiple times from different angles to convey each character's viewpoint. There also is a hefty amount of symbolism and thematic imagery within each frame that pushes the narrative along without the use of words. One scene that really stands out is a seven-minute tracking shot where the camera follows one character as they go room by room and spy on the others. It’s a suspenseful sequence that gives a good amount of insight into each character in a short span of time. Along with directing, Goddard also serves as the sole writer for the original story. He divides the film into chapters based around the room a certain character is staying in. The technique works well to distribute time to develop each character. Not everyone gets equal time, but everyone gets enough to make them important to the overall narrative. The intersection of many different character’s stories leads to the script being filled with lots of fun twists and surprises that continually come out of nowhere. Some of them are predictable once revealed, but many aren’t and keep you on the edge of your seat. There are some plot holes and untidy loose ends that are quite obvious near the end. However, they really don't harm the quality of the story and are more of an afterthought. Bad Times boasts a sizeable and star-studded cast. Most of the actors fare well with some doing better than others. Jeff Bridges does pretty well as the elderly priest looking for a little vacation. Bridges is able to make his character be believably evil as well as have a sympathetic heart. It’s not his best work, but nowhere near his worst. Cynthia Erivo is the best out of the cast as she plays the singer making her way to a gig in Reno. She provides her own voice to the role and confidently takes charge of each scene. Dakota Johnson and Jon Hamm kind of just skate through and don’t provide any real defining moments. They’re not bad, but it feels like anyone could have filled the roles. Lastly, Chris Hemsworth does good work as the Jesus-like cult leader who likes to preach with his shirt open. Hemsworth brings both his comedic and dramatic skills together and creates an uneasy character that keeps the suspense high throughout. Bad Times at the El Royale is a fun thriller that tells a complex story in an enjoyable fashion. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but minor mistakes aren’t enough to ruin the overall product. In a fall season full of heavy films trying to send a message it feels good to have a film that only wants its audience to sit down and have a good time. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga May 21, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Since the relative conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been an increasing urge to claim that a certain film “needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible.” While it is true that no television can match the sharpness and brightness of a theatrical projection (if handled well, which is becoming more of a rarity these days), the notion that every movie with a budget over $100 million needs to be seen in the cinema does water down the uniqueness of the ones that truly push the medium forward. I can tell you for a fact that Argylle wouldn’t have been harmed had it bypassed its theatrical release and gone straight to Apple TV+. I can also say the inverse of that towards Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , and that anyone who chooses to experience George Miller’s newest extravaganza outside of the cinema deserves the same amount of ire that David Lynch has for phones . The screen pops and the sound system roars with each successive introduction to a motorcycle. But it’s not done as an act of fetishization for the aesthetic of the machinery, it’s about the newfound importance of bikes in the wasteland. Along with bullets, they are just as much a part of the hierarchy of needs as food and water. The world is now a desolate desert of nothingness, with none of its inhabitants possessing the survival skills of Arrakis’ Fremen population from Dune . Murder and thievery is the new name of the game. But hidden away from all the destruction amongst the sand is an oasis of abundance called “The Green Place.” Furiosa and her family escaped the ravaged land to live there, but their paradise is encroached on by a biker gang who kidnap Furiosa to take her back to their leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth donning a wild set of fake teeth and nose prosthetics). A relentless chase across the desert ensues, one whose consequences will shape Furiosa’s outlook on the world. But from there, things slow down. True to the subtitle, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris treat Furiosa’s journey as a saga, complete with chapters. Each contains its own set piece and three-act structure, but this is not the non-stop onslaught of action that Fury Road was. This is a prequel, after all, so time is well spent on introducing (and reintroducing) the elements and characters of this universe. Gas Town, Bullet Town, and the Citadel are back; and so is Immortan Joe (now played by Lachy Hulme) and his War Boys. Even with all its operativeness, Miller still indulges in the silliness of the world and concepts, such as Joe’s sons Rictus Erectus and Scrotus. And let’s not forget Pissboy, whose weapon of choice is exactly what you think it is. It’s that combination of grit and goofy that has marked the high points of Miller’s nearly five-decade-long career. You only have to look for a few seconds on his IMDb page to notice that Happy Feet Two and Mad Max: Fury Road are squished right next to each other on the timeline. The carnage is gruesome and the body count is quite high as Miller takes an almost Biblical approach akin to the world just before God’s flood. There’s still a popcorn-munching delight in the carnage, not out of guilt, but out of the pleasure of seeing the process executed by masters of their craft. Margaret Sixel’s (and co-editor Eliot Knapman's) editing is just as propulsive as it was before, with the rhythms of the action likely to be matched by your heartbeat. Junkie XL’s booming score beckons closely to his work on Fury Road (not a bad thing!), most noticeable during the show-stopping “Stairway to Nowhere” sequence. If there is to be one complaint - a minor one nonetheless - it is the price of a bigger scale in the form of a slight overreliance on visual effects. A few backdrops and ragdoll effects look a little questionable, although never to the extent the first trailer led us to believe. It’s also hard to be too overly critical, as Miller’s flawless mixture of practicality and technicals on Fury Road raised the bar so high that no one might be able to clear it going forward. Simon Duggan’s photography isn’t as sweeping as John Seale’s on Fury Road , but he gets across the finish line with some angles and movements. Anya Taylor-Joy solidifies her blockbuster chops in the titular role, her eyes even more striking when surrounded by grease paint. Miller takes a similar stance on dialogue as Denis Villeneuve, opting for his actor’s expressions and camera to do much of the talking. However, that strategy doesn’t apply to Hemsworth, who chews up the scenery each chance he gets. The pristine IMAX visuals do make his prosthetics quite glaring, but that phoniness is one of the leading characteristics of his messianic figure. While they don’t have their names on the poster, Alyla Browne and Tom Burke are exceptional as Young Furiosa and Praetorian Jack, respectively. Furiosa may not surpass Fury Road , but I don’t think that was ever the intention, at least not directly. At the very least, it’ll be regarded as the best pure action film of the year, and be another be another notch for Miller’s claim to be the best to ever do it. So, what does the 79-year-old Australian do now that he’s conquered the desert twice? Go and do it again, of course! More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bugonia October 29, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Oh, when will they ever learn? It's a question that director Yorgos Lanthimos continually asks of his characters, and, by extension, the human species as a whole. His distinctly macabre filmography is filled with disturbing tales of morality, each finding ways to twist the knife on our preconceived notions. The off-kilter performances and absurd concepts—such as being turned into an animal if you don't find a companion in The Lobster , or Barry Keoghan omnisciently terrorizing Colin Farrell's family in The Killing of a Sacred Deer —are never so disconnected from reality that they can be excused as pure fantasy. It's just another way of looking at things; once you take a step back, the error of our own ways is exposed in a deservedly uncomfortable light. Depending on your relationship with Lanthimos, you may either cheer or jeer at the fact that Bugonia is his most straightforward film to date… although you have to understand that we're very much grading on a curve. The weirder and more hostile the better, I say as one of the few fans of last year's mean-spirited Kinds of Kindness . Much of that might have to do with screenwriter Will Tracy subbing out the black heart of Efthimis Filippou and the sardonic wit of Tony McNamara for something a little more directly addressed to our modern times. The first half of the famous lyric to the leading question of this review is “Where have all the flowers gone?” For Teddy (Jesse Plemons), they’ve all but disappeared, both literally and figuratively. Living in his dilapidated bee farmhouse with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), the pair have fallen on hard times over the years through family tragedies. Part of that responsibility falls upon the local biochemical company, which has poisoned the local bee population and put Teddy’s mom (Alicia Silverstone) into a coma after a failed trial of an opioid drug. Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of the company, and is the type of boss to passive-aggressively claim that employees can go home whenever they want and that diversity is what makes us special… so long as it all leads to a healthier bottom line. Teddy wonders how humanity can be so cruel to one another, how he and Don can have so little, while the Michelles of the world can exact their will without consequence. At least in bee colonies, the worker bees have a sense of purpose for their queen, and everything in nature is perfectly balanced. Teddy’s narration mentions that there’s no sex when bees pollinate, so no one gets hurt. The odd unprovoked specificity of that line, along with a local police officer’s (Stavros Halkias) persistent apologizing for vague acts he inflicted on Teddy many years ago, hints at the darkness lying at the forefront of Teddy’s heart. Working from that mixture of long-buried PTSD and an avalanche of interest conspiracy theories, Teddy comes to the conclusion that Michelle must be an alien from the Andromedan galaxy, sent to Earth to push the human species deeper into the mud. He and Don kidnap and hold her in their basement, waiting for the lunar eclipse in four days so that she can call her mothership and they can negotiate a truce between the two species. Of course, Michelle isn’t on that same wavelength, especially when she wakes up and discovers that all her hair has been shaved off (Teddy claims that Andromedans use their hair as tracking devices). Stone, working with Lanthimos on their fourth consecutive feature, is more than up to the task of working within a limited setting. In contrast to the revolving door of elaborately lush sets of Poor Things , most of the runtime in Bugonia is devoted to her being chained to a bed in a dingy farm cellar. She’s like a boxer, studying her opponent over several rounds, eventually using their weapons against them. Teddy’s biggest weapon is his confidence in his findings and his initial absolute refusal to be dissuaded by Michelle’s pleas of how ludicrous this all sounds. Without being overly specific to demographics, Lanthimos and Tracy highlight the societal divides we face based on our inability to close our mouths and open our ears. Every contradiction is a personal attack and an opportunity to dig your heels in even more. It should be noted that Ari Aster is a producer on this project, with his film this year as a writer/director, Eddington (also starring Stone), tackling these same topics through a much more confrontational lens. Lanthimos hasn’t lost his confrontational attitude towards his audience, dialing up the tension through Jerskin Fendrix’s bombastic score and some harshly precise editing. This chamber piece eventually becomes a torture chamber as DP Robbie Ryan goes back and forth between keeping a distance from the squirming and pushing it right in front of our faces. Despite being small-scale, this is still a gloriously cinematic project, one that stretches its dollars to their fullest potential. A few dips into Teddy’s nightmarish past are rendered in washed-out black-and-white, almost out of a gothic tragedy. This is a two-hander with an unfortunate third wheel in Don, who is neurodivergent and forcefully taken along on Teddy’s crazy train. He perfectly fits the mold of the innocent lackey to the evil boss, someone who is eventually made to realize the error of their ways by the compassion of the hero. That obviousness is evident from start to finish, covering this story in a layer of predictability. Some acts of cruelty come off as cheap provocation, something that Lanthimos has skillfully been able to circumvent throughout his career. Oh, when will they ever learn? According to Bugonia , it seems that we’re well aware of the problem, but lack the will to fight for the cure. Indifference is a much more pathetic reason for our downfall than ignorance, although it does have an ironic ring to it. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Maestro November 23, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.” This quote by Leonard Bernstein flashes before Maestro commences. It’s a mission statement for writer/director/producer/star Bradley Cooper, who’s made it his life’s work to bring this story to the silver screen. It’s a warning to any Bernstein acolytes who come to this seeking untold answers about the famed conductor’s artistry. And it’s also a blessing to anyone bemoaning another musician biopic, the likes of which have haunted our multiplexes the past few years with their cookie-cutter rise-and-fall stories. There is nothing cookie-cutter about Maestro , which is its absolute greatest strength… and occasional weakness. Cooper is like a high school theater kid who’s just landed the role he’s always dreamed of, so giddy and overstimulated that he’s almost leaping off the screen. It’s almost too showy, making the Old Hollywood aesthetic and mountains of makeup and prosthetics feel like even more of an illusion than it already is. Of course, the creative talent being too passionate about their work is near the bottom of the list of problems a film can have. It’s also how Cooper sees himself tethered to Bernstein: two geniuses who often became overwhelmed with passionate joy in their craft. Lenny is just an upstart assistant conductor at the beginning of the movie, but his legend becomes born when he’s summoned at the last minute to replace the sickly guest conductor. Hearing his name during the loudspeaker announcements is what gives him the most pleasure, a small sign of how highly this man viewed himself. It’s hard to blame someone for seeing himself next to God when he has been blessed with such talent. A wide variety of music constantly pours out of him: musical theater (at one point it’s mentioned he’s working on a Romeo and Juliet story with Jerry Robbins, I wonder what that could be?), film scores, classical pieces, and everything in between. Cooper’s filmmaking is just as confident and classical as Bernstein’s musical arrangements. It possesses great power to evoke a film made during the 1940s, complete with stark black-and-white and technicolor-infused Academy ratio cinematography. Reteaming after A Star Is Born , DP Matthew Libatique is in lockstep with Cooper’s direction, creating sweeping scenes through long takes and impeccable framing. It all crescendos at the Ely Cathedral in 1973 when Bernstein famously conducted Mahler’s second symphony, “Resurrection.” It’s spiritually transcendent, the camera capturing every enrapturing moment as it weaves its way through the choir and orchestra. The inescapable mantra during the film’s press tour is that Cooper prepped for this scene for six years, which is quite evident in the final product. Fortunately for him (and us), Netflix is committed to a substantial theatrical rollout (at least to their standards), offering audiences the chance to see this moment in the proper setting. This moment isn’t all about Bernstein though, as the final camera movement during the impressive long take pans to reveal his wife Felicia Montealerge (Carey Mulligan) standing off to the side, ready for Lenny to walk over and embrace her after his performance. It’s emblematic of how Cooper frames this entire biopic, the music and their relationship always intertwined. The pair are magnificent together at every turn; with a jovial banter during the early stages, and a more mature understanding during the middle periods of their marriage. While Felicia is sidelined later in life as Lenny continues his affairs with younger men, Mulligan maintains her placement front and center through sheer emotion and her ability to elevate past the typical “tortured wife of a great man” role. For something that has and will continue to be labeled as “Oscar bait,” Maestro is, more than anything, a confidently unique entry in a well-worn genre. It makes A Star Is Born seem like only the appetizer, and this is the main course. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to label Cooper as this generation’s Warren Beatty: a movie star interested in grown-up stories whose oversized ambition is matched by their incredible skill both in front and behind the camera. If there’s anything modern cinema needs more of right now, it’s someone like that. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

MSPIFF 2024 Preview April 11, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen When you think of the oldest film festivals in the world, you tend to gravitate toward the European monoliths such as Venice, Berlin, and Cannes. And even when you shift your gaze over to North America, we stay eastward with New York (NYFF) and Toronto (TIFF). But there’s a little festival tucked in the midwest that has been going on for almost as long as the giants: The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Abbreviated as MSPIFF (pronounced EM-spiff by the locals), the festival will be in its 43rd year this April, once again a hotspot for international cinema. Over 200 films from around the world will be screened at The Main cinema during the two-week-long event, with cinephiles such as myself cautioned to have their mail forwarded to the theater on account of the multitude of hours spent watching great films. Many of the highlights within the lineup boast laurels from many of the other festivals listed above. Case in point, the opening night film of Sing Sing , starring recent Oscar-nominee Colman Domingo as an incarcerated man finding solace in the prison’s theatre group. It premiered in Toronto last fall as part of the Special Presentations category and quickly became one of the buzziest under-the-radar titles. A24 picked up distribution rights and introduced it to American audiences a few weeks ago at SXSW. Minnesota audiences will be able to catch the film a few months early before the summer general release. That’ll be just one of several titles that A24 will be bringing over. The pair of Janet Planet and Tuesday premiered at Telluride last fall, finally reemerging ahead of their spring/summer releases. Also from SXSW is the Anne Hathaway-led The Idea of You by director Michael Showalter. And then there’s a smattering of TIFF titles such as The Convert , Days of Happiness , Shoshana , and In Our Day . Green Border and Evil Does Not Exist were both prize winners at last year’s Venice Film Festival. They’ll be screening here along with fellow Venice title The Beast . Both Evil Does Not Exist and The Beast were two of my favorite films I saw at TIFF , and I’ve been dying to revisit them in the six months since. A new Cannes may be on the horizon (and you can join in my anticipation by checking out my predictions article), but there are still plenty of titles from last year’s edition to celebrate. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses has been pleasantly lingering in my mind since I saw it on the Croisette almost nine months ago. I won’t be rewatching it because of its daunting 197-minute runtime, but I might revisit the much shorter (87 minutes) Banel & Adama . I’ll hopefully be able to see Kidnapped and Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell for the first time after missing them at both Cannes and TIFF, with the latter winning the Camera d’Or and receiving rave reviews. But the fun doesn’t stop with just the films! The festival has graciously awarded Roger Deakins, the legendary cinematographer of several films from Minnesota’s Coen brothers as well as a two-time Oscar winner for Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 , with the Milgrom Award. He and his wife/collaborator James will be in attendance for the final two days of the festivals give an in-person conversation, book signing, and introduce a screening of Fargo . Also screening on the final day will be The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , which netted Deakins an Oscar nomination. I’ll be publishing full reviews for select titles, with others being condensed into dispatches. You can take a look at the full slate of festival titles at the MSP Film Society website . More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen