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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 One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

A Minecraft Movie April 2, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Every generation needs its bloated big-screen extravaganzas that box the human cast within mammoth green screen walls that will eventually become uncanny CGI environments. Late Millennials and early Gen Z had Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl . The latter generation received the tail-end of the 3D craze with Alice in Wonderland , Avatar , and all those Disney live-action remakes. Now it’s time for Generation Alpha to get their dose with A Minecraft Movie . Based on what list you consult, Minecraft is the highest-selling video game of all time (it’s hard to define the dozens of versions of Tetris and decide if they should be counted together). Released in 2011 by Mojang Studios, the game is a 3D sandbox-style made of procedurally generated blocks. There are no goals, missions, or objectives, just a virtually infinite space to cater to any “What if” question that pops into your head. I intermittently played the game for a few years when it first came out and loved its casual and inviting nature. There’s a great deal of fulfillment when you are the master of your own destiny. Unfortunately, that level of full-fledged freedom cannot be replicated on the silver screen. There must be story beats to follow, characters to root for, and trinkets to market. So, the six credited screenwriters have come up with the usual “band of lonely misfits find themselves in a strange land and discover the power of family” storyline. Hey, it worked for The Goonies and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, so why mess with a good formula? Things start in Idaho, which gets the kind of glowing endorsement one would usually expect from a Hollywood blockbuster. In the small potato chip-fueled town, we find the recently orphaned brother-sister duo Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), washed-up arcade game champion Garrett Garrison (Jason Momoa), and side hustle extraordinaire Dawn (Danielle Brooks). Henry is your typical misunderstood gifted kid, with Natalie being the older sibling who had to grow up too fast and be the adult in this situation (just don’t ask how she was able to buy a house when she looks as if she just graduated high school). This perfunctory opening act is just to set the table and let us know that everyone is down on their luck and in need of a change of scenery. That comes both literally and figuratively when they all go through a portal into the Overworld, the setting for the video game. In this cube-based world is Steve (Jack Black), who left the real world behind years ago and has been thriving off his creativity ever since. It’s hard to determine if the special effects are successful or not. On one hand, the replication of the video game is pretty spot-on. On the other hand, seeing a semi-realistic rendering of animated characters and landscapes on an IMAX screen is inherently offputting, kind of like all those AI-generated images of characters from The Simpsons as real people. The live-action aspect was a flawed idea from the beginning, trapping the actors into black box theater style of performances that certainly didn’t suit them. Black makes it out okay, his lovably braggadocious swagger helping him accomplish his sole task of explaining every facet of this world in the most juvenile way possible. You get as much mileage here out of Momoa as you did with his Aquaman films, of which I was no fan. Like most of the leads in the Disney live-action films, the kids have decent faces for reactions, but not any skills when it comes to delivering lines. There’s some semblance of a plot involving a sky beam and the world ending, but I didn’t care enough to remember. Children and more hardcore players of the game will be able to put it all up on a whiteboard for you, highlighting why that random pig was wearing a crown and the importance of that random blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background actor. The promotional material blatantly tells everyone to turn off their brains and just enjoy the ride, so you might as well just do that. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Shadow Strays October 20, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark The Shadow Strays was a quiet addition to the TIFF Midnight Madness lineup this year. Continuing the theme of raucous action, director Timo Tjahjanto, known for his visceral action and horror films, brings his signature intensity. Visually, it’s a knockout. Tjahjanto has a great eye for detail, and the world he creates has a fittingly grim atmosphere, with rugged and harsh cinematography that casts gloomy shadows that mirror the inner torment of 13, an agent of a ninjalike task force called The Shadows. Tjahjanto’s distinct style is evident, and while he delivers suspense and violence, the film doesn’t fully capitalize on its more profound themes. Simply put, The Shadow Strays met expectations, but it doesn’t go for anything more than surface-level substance. In true Tjahjanto fashion, the fight scenes are brutal and expertly choreographed, giving the film a raw, kinetic energy. Constant tension is in the air as 13 tries to fend off anyone who will stop her from rescuing a young boy from a crime syndicate. Masked with brutal kills and cheeky dialogue, Tjahjanto made The Shadow Strays the way people would expect it to be narratively. The film’s premise is basic, blending clichéd action plot points and character developments that either feel forced or insufficient. The story often feels disjointed, jumping between flashbacks of 13’s past and her current mission. While this provides insight into her backstory and eventually connects the dots to other characters in the movie, it sometimes disrupts the flow and makes the plot convoluted. There are moments where the story feels like it’s holding back, as if there are more layers to explore, but the film chooses action over introspection. Character development is another area where The Shadow Strays could have pushed further. Yet, apart from 14, played with quiet intensity by Aurora Ribero, the other characters don’t feel as fully realized. Their motivations are hinted at but not explored in depth. From the helpless kid to the hardnose instructor and the mysterious handler to the tall, muscular henchman, The Shadow Strays finds every action movie cliché and throws it at the wall. Some may argue that characters such as these need no development, but it’s hard to understand or relate to them in some capacity when the movie gives them no room to breathe. That said, the film excels in its execution of tone and action. Tjahjanto effectively uses silence and slow-build tension, and when the action does hit, it’s relentless. This blend gives the film a unique edge, and fans of Tjahjanto’s previous work will find plenty to enjoy in his signature blend of brutality and style. Every punch, jab, and creative kill brings the movie its wow factor that never lets up. There are also tiny moments that speak loudly, like the finale finding a needle drop in M83’s “My Tears Are Becoming a Sea.” 2024 has been a year chock full of chaotic action movies worldwide. South Africa and Germany had Boy Kills World , India contributed with Kill and Monkey Ma n , and now Indonesia added themselves to the list here with The Shadow Strays . It’s a film that hints at greatness but ultimately stays within the confines of being a well-executed genre piece, and for fans of brutal action, it’s a journey worth taking—even if it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Action and Tjahjanto fans will eat the movie up, but regular cinephiles and moviegoers won’t be in as much of a chokehold. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Captain America: Brave New World February 12, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen In an age where every new property in the neverending Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is either going to restore or destroy the franchise, Captain America: Brave New World is a semi-comforting reminder that it’s okay for a movie to be just fine and forgettable. The keyboard warriors on either side of the fence will find little ammunition here, ushering in a brief period where comic-book movies are met with a collective shrug rather than an onslaught of verbal skirmishes. This all might be faint praise for a mega studio blockbuster with a rumored budget of anywhere between $250-300 million, but the bar was never that high to begin with. It’s not like all those extra tens of millions were put to good use anyway. The cutting room floor of the editor’s suite might be worth more than several other studio blockbusters combined, the 118-minute final runtime here clearly being a patchwork of several rounds of reshoots and reedits. Luckily, the generic sets and CGI backdrops were always available, but not the high-quality VFX technicians to work their magic and make it all seem remotely believable. They're probably all busy putting in overtime on The Fantastic Four: First Steps anyway. For the one fan out there who has 2008’s The Incredible Hulk , The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , and Eternals high on their MCU rankings, Brave New World is the sequel they’ve been dreaming of. Audiences need to be well-versed in both the film and television fronts of the MCU to fully grasp what’s going on here. General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (previously played by the late William Hurt, now played by Harrison Ford) has become President Ross in one of “the most important elections in American history.” But unlike the outcome of our most recent real-life election, this president preaches togetherness amidst overcoming the horrors that have besieged the nation in the absence of the Avengers. His most important task is to unite the developed nations of the world in harnessing the potential of the Celestial Island, located in the Indian Ocean after the events of Eternals . But like all political plans, they got mucked up by intrigue and people working in the shadows. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the new Captain America and former Falcon, finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the conspiracy, which is headed by a returning character from The Incredible Hulk . But fret not any of you who don’t remember the specific details of a seventeen-year-old movie whose connection to the MCU is mostly just a trivia question, director Julius Onah and his four credited co-writers make sure to spell it all out in bold letters at every turn. Much of the dialogue is spent writing and erasing the whiteboard that is the film’s plot, which includes a copious amount of convenient newsreel interjections. It all coalesces into something that feels much more tailored for Disney+ rather than the big screen. Even if the character of Sam Wilson is small potatoes when compared to what’s been going on in the entire MCU, his personal dilemmas are interesting. The appeal of the icon that is Captain America lies in the fact that he is just an ordinary person who represents the best qualities of those who resist evil. Sure, he may have been injected with a super serum, but that’s nothing when compared to Hulk, Iron Man, and villains like Thanos and Ultron. The successes of Steve Rogers against all those disadvantages create a nearly impossible barrier for Sam to overcome. The bond between him and his new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) is endearing as they both forge a new path together in a world that they’re not quite sure wants to embrace them. That sentiment goes double for Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), the forgotten Captain America from the Korean War who was betrayed by his government. The sum of these pieces isn’t as attractive as their individual values, making this more of a filler episode biding time until we get the next seismic shift in the MCU. Nuggets of what that will be are dropped here and there, giving us all just enough optimism to keep getting back on this ride. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 May 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a James Gunn film through and through, which is what automatically makes it the best MCU film since Avengers: Endgame (I know that’s an overused statement, but it’s completely true in this case, even if the bar has been continually lowered since 2019). With this supposed swan song, Gunn joins the “illustrious” ranks of Jon Watts ( Spider-Man ) and Peyton Reed (Ant-Man ) as the only directors to see their respective trilogies to till the end (the Russo brothers are also unofficial members for their continuation of the Captain America storyline into the latter Avengers movies). Gunn sits above those mentioned simply because he also solely fulfills the role of writer, allowing a sense of a distinct personality into these over-wielding blockbusters. The Guardians have settled on Knowhere after the events of Endgame , with Peter Quill / Star-Lord still being heartbroken over his breakup with Gamora after she was resurrected after being killed by Thanos (there are a lot more details, but we don’t have enough margin space for all that). Continuing their streak of the worst luck in the universe, the peaceful times are immediately interrupted by Adam Warlock, a shinier version of Superman with the mind of a child. But his brawn overpowers his mental deficiency, as he mortally injures Rocket. The raccoon’s altered anatomy prevents him from being operated on, forcing the Guardians to track down his creator, the all-powerful High Evolutionary. Because Gunn has spent the two initial entries in this trilogy building a sense of camaraderie and a deep emotional connection within this makeshift family, he’s partly excused from the sin of having this movie essentially a series of fetch quests. We go to a place to grab a thing, only for that plan to fail, meaning we have to go to another place for another thing. But unlike the other MCU movies, the stakes here center around just one person we dearly care about, which grossly trounces a universe filled with nobodies. Hell, I would gladly let Arishem from Eternals consume the Earth (with me included) if it meant Rocket would immediately recover from his wounds. That deep affection for Rocket also fuels the horror and sadness of his backstory, which includes cruel experimentation upon hapless animals (Gunn cheats a bit by giving these furry creatures the wettest and cutest eyes he possibly could). The unsettling imagery heavily leans upon Gunn’s horror roots, a refreshing sight in this clean-cut universe. Another nice sight is proper visual effects and production values. There’s a night and day difference between this and Quantumania , with Rocket rivaling the work of the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy in terms of giving expressiveness to a fully visual character. While he’s never once been on-screen in person, Bradley Cooper has been the MVP of this group thanks to his impressive voice work. Gunn made the right choice focusing a substantial portion of the story on Rocket. Still, there’s a bit too much restraint in allowing this story to go further down the route it seems to want to explore. Whether it be because of super-producer Kevin Feige’s demands or Gunn’s inability to push himself, the swings are never followed through, resulting in a respectable double instead of a home run. It also doesn’t help that the High Evolutionary is a highly watered-down version of Kang, complete with Shakespearean soliloquies about death and a generic purpose for his villainy. He’ll likely place near the lower end of the middle in all future MCU villain rankings. With Gunn now off to run DC Studios (maybe he’ll be the first person to make a good Superman movie?) and Marvel shifting focus to their newer/younger characters, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a welcome and proper sendoff for the cast and crew of this successful franchise. It’s a distillation of what the MCU aims to deliver: heart, humor, and an all-around entertaining time. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Megalopolis May 30, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Megalopolis had its World Premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Lionsgate will release it in theaters on September 27. Megalopolis is the most fascinating film I’ve ever watched, a glorious triumph of the creative spirit and a catastrophic failure in the execution of it. It’s a Jenga tower forty years in the making, each block brimming with an idea that’s been born, reshaped, killed, and reborn several times over to the tune of $120 million of its creator’s personal fortune. Make no mistake, there is not a minute where this tower isn’t dangerously teetering or in complete free fall. But how glorious it is to watch it all crash to the ground! That same verve for the fate of the film itself can be applied to writer/director/producer Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the Roman Empire, which has found a new life in an America lost in time and space. This retro-future New York is decorated head to toe in Roman regalia, with Madison Square Garden transformed into a coliseum and everyone flashing their favorite togas and olive branch crowns. But the skyline (a hideous amalgamation of matte paintings and the digital backdrop technology pioneered by The Mandalorian ) is still littered with the skyscrapers of the past, and Cadillac Escalades remain the vehicle of choice. How and why the world got to this point is not fully explained, or even that important. What is important is what it all represents… which is also often a mystery. For Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), this version of New York is all wrong. His mantra is shaped by the words of Kylo Ren from The Last Jedi : “You’re still holding on! Let go!” His dream project is the titular city of Megalopolis, a utopian urban space to be built upon the crumbling infrastructure of the old world. His designs are fueled through Megalon, a new element he has created that functions similarly to Wakanda’s Vibranium. It’s stronger than any metal, heals wounds, and plugs whatever holes the plot deems necessary to fill. Considering Coppola conceived this project in the late ‘70s and actively started developing it in the ‘80s, a tumultuous period that saw him reach his creative apex with Apocalypse Now and financial ruin with One from the Heart , it’s not hard to visualize the director creating Catalina as his stand-in, Megalopolis as American Zoetrope, and New Rome as the studio system at the tail end of the New Hollywood movement. Coppola has always had a disdain for the corporatization of filmmaking, and so does Catalina for how Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) perpetually puts a stop to his plans. Cicero decries Catalina’s vision as merely idealistic daydreaming, badmouthing his name in the media and passing legislation to maintain the old ways of thinking, including plans for a casino that will most certainly funnel all its profits to its already rich benefactors. Caught in the middle of these two warring titans is Cicero’s devoted daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who quickly becomes a star-crossed lover of Catalina. To give Coppola the highest amount of credit, his ideas of a new way of thinking are not limited solely to the pages of his script. Megalopolis is not a movie that can be defined by normal filmmaking grammar, which allows it to maintain a rambunctious energy that is just as infectious as it sickening. Frames crash into one another in triptych fashion, the camera feverishly swirls around as it captures the debauchery, and the music can never decide if it's backing up an opera or a circus. To break the mold of reality and fiction even further, Coppola integrates a live element into the film as a man walks toward the screen and interacts with Catalina in real time, asking him questions and receiving answers. The merit of that moment and its viability once the film reaches a wide release remain a mystery, but its sheer existence is what pushes the giddy “what the fuck am I watching?” energy of the whole thing to an entirely new level. But even if the studios are meant to be the ultimate bad guy in this fable, Coppola’s mishandling of his production inadvertently makes a case for their existence. We may decry their reckless spending and inability to take risks, but there’s no denying that any studio could have spent $120 million more efficiently than it is here. The sets and costumes look hideously gawdy, with the actors populating them speaking in unintelligible Shakespearean dialects. The cinematography is reminiscent of a perfume ad, the backdrops always in a magic hour mode and overstuffed with more visual effects than George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels. That badness does become part of the charm at a certain point, an almost inadvertent way for the director of The Godfather trilogy to tear down your preconceptions of what a master filmmaker concocts once the guard rails have been fully removed. Almost all of the actors are just as off the chain as Coppola, with Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf matching the chaos to perfection. She plays Wow Platinum, a TV personality who enacts a gold-digging strategy to marry Catalina’s decrepit banker uncle Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), and he plays Crassus’ degenerate cross-dressing grandson who tries to steal the empire through Trumpian tactics. Everyone else, most notably Dustin Hoffman and Talia Shire, can barely figure out where they are and what they’re doing, leaving the whole ensemble feeling like a mishmash of high school theater kids yearning for an adult to tell them what to do. Going into Megalopolis determined to make heads or tails of whether it was worth all the time, energy, and resources isn’t the correct attitude. Just as Coppola’s past risk-taking endeavors have furthered the evolution of cinema long after their initial birth, so might this maddening behemoth in the decades that follow. Do I want its influence to reach beyond this moment and shape the future? I don’t know, but I’m absolutely ecstatic that the question has been raised in such a memorable way. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Americana August 17, 2025 By: Button Tyler Banark Some movies collapse under the weight of their ambition, while others barely get off the ground because there was never much to hold them up in the first place. Americana , Tony Tost’s much-hyped directorial debut ensemble piece starring Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser, somehow manages to do both. It struts onto the screen like a swaggering outlaw with a stolen six-shooter, only to trip over its boots before it can fire a single meaningful shot. The result is a hollow exercise in wannabe coolness: a movie so desperate to look like it belongs in the realism of Tarantino or the Coens that it forgets to tell a coherent story worth caring about. The film’s premise is ripe with possibilities. A stolen Lakota Ghost Shirt—a sacred relic with historical and spiritual weight—sets off a violent chain of events in rural South Dakota. On paper, that’s a potent setup. In execution, it’s a tonal mess. Instead of treating the material with care or edge, the film reduces everything to quirk and coincidence, as if cultural exploitation, grief, and bloodshed could all be softened by a few smirking chapter breaks and some thrift-store outfits. At the center is Sydney Sweeney as Penny Jo Poplin, a waitress with a stutter and a dream of singing country music. The stutter is supposed to lend her vulnerability, but it feels pasted on, a screenwriter’s shorthand for “fragile dreamer” rather than an authentic trait. Sweeney is better than this, but the character is underwritten, little more than a pile of quirks masquerading as depth. It’s less a role than a branding exercise, one of which I wasn’t a fan of. Paul Walter Hauser fares only slightly better as Lefty Ledbetter, Penny Jo’s overeager suitor whose solution to every problem seems to be proposing marriage. Hauser has a gift for making pathetic characters oddly likable, but here the script leaves him stranded. Lefty isn’t sympathetic or tragic—he’s just an annoying yet timid man in a movie full of cartoonish characters. By the time he staggers into the blood-soaked finale, you’re not invested in his fate so much as waiting for the credits to roll. The supporting cast—Halsey, Zahn McClarnon, and Eric Dane—have brief flashes of hopeful energy, but they’re all swallowed by the film’s incoherence. McClarnon, in particular, is wasted, his gravitas smothered by the film’s refusal to let any storyline breathe. Visually, Americana does its best to trick you into thinking it’s a better film than it is. The cinematography is slick, the lighting moody, the costumes dusty. For a moment or two, it looks like a country-noir worth settling into, but the polish only highlights the emptiness beneath. Beautifully shot nonsense is still nonsense, and no amount of golden-hour sunsets or headlights shining in the dark can disguise the fact that this is a movie without a pulse. Worst of all, Americana is tonally confused as to what it wants to be. Tost wants to juggle weighty themes—colonial trauma, the emptiness of the American dream, the commodification of culture—while still indulging in ironic flourishes and forced eccentricity. The whimsy undercuts the seriousness, and the seriousness drains the whimsy. Scenes that should sting collapse into awkward comedy, while moments meant to be funny die on the vine. By the time the film lurches into its bloody climax, it feels more like a director throwing up his hands and saying, “Well, at least people will remember the third act” (I know that’s what it was for me). The truth is, they won’t. What people will remember is Sydney Sweeney, straining to sell a character built on clichés. They’ll remember Paul Walter Hauser, gamely mugging his way through another scene where his desperation is supposed to read as charm. They’ll remember the empty gestures toward something profound. And then they’ll forget the movie entirely. Americana could have been something—a tense small-town crime saga, a sharp cultural critique, a star vehicle that allowed its cast to do something meaningful. Instead, it’s a patchwork of borrowed ideas, cheap quirks, and wasted potential. It may have eccentric noise from its premiere at South by Southwest…in 2023. Aside from that, there’s not much to Americana, and it doesn’t help that a film starring an actress such as Sweeney isn’t getting much fanfare. For all its dusty vistas and bloody showdowns, it leaves behind nothing but the faint scent of ambition gone sour. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Phoenician Scheme May 28, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen For his review of the 2005 Steven Spielberg film, Munich , film critic for The New York Times , A.O. Scott, began with the title: “An Action Film About the Need to Talk.” It’s a succinct way to describe the main theme of Spielberg’s underseen docudrama masterpiece that recounts Israeli operatives hunting down the people responsible for the Black September capture and massacre of their athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Were the retaliation measures justifiable, or were they just blind vengeance? And even if they could be justified, wouldn’t the cycle of violence just be perpetuated by the other side until they each go blind? Although it substitutes slapstick and levity for the blood and bullets of Spielberg’s film, Wes Anderson’s newest work, The Phoenician Scheme , goes about those ideas in a pretty identical manner. And although the lack of dialogue between the warring factions was part of the problem in Munich , too much talking on the part of this film’s main character, Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), sets everything in motion here. Middle school history students would describe him as a “robber baron” or a “tycoon” on account of his shrewd business practices. Famines? He’s started them. Slavery? He’s indulged in it. Hand grenades? He has enough lying around that he offers them to all guests like cookies. Fiddling with deals and going back on his word is largely why he’s amassed his fortune, and probably why so many attempts have been made on his life. That’s exactly where we meet Korda in this story: surviving his sixth recorded airplane crash. At some point, the house is going to win, which is why he’s made the precautionary move to have his estranged novitiate daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), returned home so that she can assume possession of his estate should the unthinkable happen. But before he can defy his enemies by retiring, he must tighten the final screws on a massive infrastructure project in the fictional Middle Eastern territory of Phoenicia that will bring him and several future generations enough passive income to stay atop the throne. On this journey, we stop to meet each of the members who comprise this wall-to-wall A-list cast. Many of them have previously featured in Anderson’s films, such as Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston returning from their live-action debut in Asteroid City to play American train tycoon brothers who prefer to settle disputes over a game of H-O-R-S-E. I will jump the gun here and say that the scene where they challenge Zsa-zsa and the prince of Phoenicia (Riz Ahmed) to said game might be the funniest moment Anderson has ever created. There are also multi-film veterans like Mathieu Amalric (coincidentally, also in Munich) , Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Rupert Friend. “The story of a family and a family business” is the plot summary provided. It’s apt, as a full explanation of all the machinations that go on here would require many more paragraphs. I was never quite sure who everyone was, why they were important, and what needed to happen between them for the conflict to be resolved. But I also don’t think Anderson wants us to pay that much attention to the nitty gritty details. I suppose you could if you really wanted to, as there’s plenty of information doled out through the trademarked sumptuous production. What’s really important here is not the 5 Ws, but the 1 H. Spurred on by a combination of Liesl’s objections to his malpractices and the gradual melting of his cold, Grinch-like heart, Zsa-zsa begins to see the error of his ways. “Let’s communicate,” is a punchline he says in each encounter, all caused by everyone’s instinctual failure to bring their best intentions to the table. In a time when the terms “trade war” and “tariffs” have become shorthand for an outdated and backward way of conducting business, here’s a story that preaches the value of being simultaneously kind and successful. Del Toro is quite excellent, making Zsa-zsa a thornily interesting character. There are a lot of laughs to be had from his line deliveries, and his command of the scenery Anderson places him in. Except for cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman, who’s been discreetly replaced by the equally fantastic Bruno Delbonnel, all the usual craftspeople align the credits. Anderson continues to prove that he has total dominion over a world that only he can create and perfect. So many have tried and failed to replicate, but there can only be one. Anderson is a lot like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At this point, you’re either in or you’re out. I’m so deep in the bag that it might as well be the one from Mary Poppins . I’ve seen a lot of films, and the majority of them all follow the same pattern. Anderson’s films certainly aren’t an exception, but there is always something magical about their sameness. And like Nicole Kidman always says: We come to this place [the cinema] for magic . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

F1: The Movie June 17, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is the kind of driver they don’t make anymore. He races on instinct and adrenaline, pushing aside the fancy gadgets and gizmos. He doesn’t care about fame or money; just the thrill of the ride and where it will take him next. He’s also crashed every kind of car there is, doesn’t play well with authority, and is just a general pain in the ass. He’s a has-been, or, depending on who you’re asking… a never-was. That combination of salt and pepper makes him the perfect Hail Mary pass for the fledgling Apex Grand Prix team, owned by his friend and former racing buddy Ruben (Javier Bardem). He’s got a raw talent in Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), who needs a bit of mentoring before he can start thinking about being the best of the best. The familiarity of that plot doesn’t just stem from its similarities to several other films in the sports subgenre, but also from that of Top Gun: Maverick , also directed by Joseph Kosinski. Sonny is Maverick, Joshua is Rooster, the race team is the other pilots, and the F1 season is the battlefield. It’s as simple as that. One could claim that Kosinski is just playing the same notes, almost becoming a cover version of himself. Others will say that he knows his strengths and what his audience wants. Both sentiments are true on a spectrum, with me leaning closer to the former. There’s plenty of spectacle to go around, all bought and paid for through the combined war chests of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, studios Apple and Warner Bros. Pictures, and the International Automobile Federation. The reported $250-300 million budget is lavishly presented in every crisp image and roaring piece of sound. If Top Gun: Maverick was a not-so-subtle commercial for U.S. Navy aviation, then this is an unabashed love fest for F1 racing. Characters make speeches about growing up with dreams of being here, and real-life famous drivers like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (also a producer) make appearances. Just as they did in Top Gun: Maverick , Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda combine practical driving with convincing visual effects. They avoid the clichéd mantra of “just drive faster,” opting to really dig into the nuts and bolts of racing strategy. When are you going to make a pit stop? What tires are you going to use? When are you going to switch them out? What positioning are you hoping to grab on this next turn? These are the decisions that the drivers have to make in a split second, all while strapped to a glorified 200 mph rocket. It’s thrilling, even if it all follows a pretty similar pattern as we travel across the globe as the team competes just to stay afloat. All that spectacular showing is what makes the telling especially grating. Kosinski and co-writer Ehren Kruger can’t be faulted for wanting to hold the hands of audience members unfamiliar with this world. But having the announcers commentate on every single move was several steps too far. I’m either being told what’s about to happen or what just happened, neither of which I wanted or needed. What’s the point of building suspense through the intricate visual language when you’re just going to tell me everything right before the big reveal? This might sound like just a nitpick, but it’s one of those game-breaking bugs that would infinitely enhance the experience with its removal. There’s also not as much humility to grapple onto either. Those supposedly thorny but lovable characters are just a bit annoying, never fully earning our respect and admiration. Every character talks about how they just want to hear it straight, which just means they want to hear whatever the plot needs them to. Pitt is still at his most assured coolness, the movie star magic never fading even as he’s fully immersing into the “I’m gettin’ too old for this shit” phase of his career (see last year’s Wolfs ). Kerry Condon gets the blockbuster she deserves after The Banshees of Inisherin , although her interesting individuality gets sidelined for a traditional only-in-the-movies romance with Pitt. Without a thoroughly compelling story and racing scenes that needlessly keep themselves on cruise control, F1: The Movie can only be met with a polite shrug. It’s good enough to be summer escapism, and will likely have you driving home with a bit more lead in your foot. Let’s just hope that doesn’t cause as many crashes as there were in the film. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Dìdi August 23, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark Looking back on the 2000s from the perspective of two decades ago feels strange. I get that that’s part of getting old, but it still feels like they weren’t at least 15 years ago, or that me being a fifth grader wasn’t isn’t further away from now than 2038 is. Yet, watching Dìdi , the most prominent film to come out of Sundance this year, felt like opening a 2000s time capsule too soon. It’s great to revisit all the little intricacies that made the decade special, but the nostalgia wave would hit harder if you wait a couple more years. This is not just for myself but also for the film as it proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, even if said influences are less than ten years old (A24’s Eighth Grade, Lady Bird, and Minari ). Dìdi is a compelling dramedy that profoundly explores the intricacies of family obligations, personal dreams, and the struggle to balance the two. The film introduces us to Chris (Izaac Wang from 2019’s Good Boys and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon ), an adolescent Chinese-American boy living in Fremont, California, who struggles with living with his mother Chungsing, sister Vivian, and paternal grandmother, all while beginning to adjust to high school life. He spends his free time hanging out with his friends Fahad and Soup but finds a knack for shooting skateboarding videos with a group of older teens. He’s at an age where social media is new, as he uses YouTube, Facebook, and AOL Instant Messenger vigorously with his friends and to chat with his crush, Madi. As he finds himself doom-scrolling on these sites, his familial struggles cloud him. He has a complicated relationship with Vivian and Chungsing while trying to bridge the generational gap with his grandmother. One of the film's standout qualities is its strong lead performance. Izaac Wang shines as Chris, delivering a performance that is both heartfelt and relatable. Audiences follow him through the turbulent time that was the transition from adolescence to a high school freshman. We see Chris go through all of the trials and tribulations, such as everyone his age being awkward, such as braces being a big deal. The character’s internal conflicts are portrayed with such sincerity that it’s easy for the audience to empathize with his struggles. He’s a bottled-up character that doesn’t open up until the film’s climax, where he and Chungsing argue about him not being a “bragging right” for her. Joan Chen, who plays Chungsing, is just as moving, even if her character falls into the troupe of struggling Mom trying to keep her head above water. Aside from her, the supporting cast, particularly Chang Li Hua as Chris’ grandmother, adds layers to the narrative, depicting the generational and cultural pressures that shape the story's emotional core. We see her not only hard on Chris and Vivian but also on Chungsing, showing that the generational pressures link beyond the two youngsters. Where Dìdi excels in performance and visuals, it slightly stumbles in its execution. The film leans a lot into the 2000s aesthetic, not just in the forms of social media, but also in the use of handheld cameras, flip phones, and Superbad playing at a party Chris attends. The reliance on nostalgia gradually descends into a weakness that the movie could’ve fixed if it had a longer runtime than ninety minutes. Furthermore, while Izaac Wang does what he can as Chris, the character does come off as one-dimensionally written. The character goes through development, but when he’s written to be the same pesky early teen boy who only emotes when he’s around friends, it’s hard to connect to him. The story also occasionally dips into melodrama, which can feel heavy-handed for some viewers. Luckily, this fallback only happens within the film’s final twenty minutes, so the whole experience isn’t drowned. Despite these minor shortcomings, Dìdi is a film with much heart. It deftly navigates themes of adolescence, teen angst, and the quest for personal fulfillment, leaving viewers with much to ponder long after the credits roll. The film's emotional resonance and the strength of its performances make it a worthwhile watch, even if it doesn’t hit every mark perfectly. Sean Wang does make a noteworthy effort following his Oscar-nominated documentary short Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó . If anything, this will fly under the radar and become a hidden gem in time, much like the Microsoft tubes screensaver and iconic Windows XP background. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Decision to Leave May 26, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Decision to Leave had its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Mubi will release it in theaters on October 14. Phantom Thread meets Vertigo in Park Chan-wook’s deliciously twisted Decision to Leave . For many directors, that combination would come together as well as oil and water. But for the famed South Korean auteur, whose previous works of Oldboy and The Handmaiden (both awarded at Cannes. I predict this one will be as well) have exemplified his unparalleled ability to combine the traditional with the gonzo, it’s a heavenly pair that you immediately want more of. As the new hotshot detective within the Busan police force, Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is brought in to solve a mysterious new murder case. A climber has fallen from the top of the local mountain, and a strangely coincidental set of clues hints that it may not have been an accident. The victim’s Chinese immigrant wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), is brought in for questioning, a move that jeopardizes everything as Hae-jun develops a sort-of crush on her. Seo-rae seems to know more than she lets on, but Hae-jun’s judgment is clouded by love, putting him at odds with the mounting evidence against her and the rest of the detectives. What ensues is a dangerous game of cat and mouse where the intentions of the players are often hidden, but the danger is always present. Just like every film in Chan-wook’s filmography, the direction, especially the camerawork and editing, is first-rate. It’s not uncommon for 360-degree twists, reversals, re-reversals, and smooth pans to take place in one continuous movement. One scene, in particular, is an entertainingly surreal set piece where the camera peers through the detective’s binoculars as he spies on a suspect, only for him to be transported to that location next to the person of interest. DP Kim Ji-yong (replacing regular cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung after he made the jump to Hollywood) loads each of his images with double (and sometimes triple) meanings, most notably present during a conversation scene in a stairwell. Though it always wears its film noir influences prominently on its sleeve, Decision to Leave is not merely a slave to the past. Chan-wook and frequent collaborator/co-writer Seo-kyeong Jeong inject the film with modern sensibilities. Smartphones, often the hindrance of many mystery films, are brilliantly employed. A language translating app is relied upon to bridge the gap between the two Hae-jun and Seo-rae, with subtle details sometimes being lost in translation. There are also delayed text messages and warped video/audio recordings that endlessly twist and turn the facts. You can sometimes feel lost while watching the film, as if you missed some important revelation that brings everything together. These are the moments where Chan-wook leans more on his Phantom Thread inspirations than his Hitchcockian ones. Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, the characters within Decision to Leave can’t be tied down with simple explanations. Manipulation and intrigue are the names of the game, with the unspoken sexual tension tinging the edges of every scene. As the playfully dangerous duo, Hae-il and Wei are more than up to the task, with their unmatched chemistry doing wonders for the film’s emotional themes. Decision to Leave is often a paradox in itself. It’s classical, yet modern. Cold, yet sexy. Unsatisfying, yet enthralling. Luckily, it finds the near-perfect balance between all of those things, creating a wondrous genre exercise that must be seen to be wholly believed. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Ticket to Paradise October 19, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Over the past decade, writer/director Ol Parker has crafted his own genre of “vacation cinema,” where he takes A-list stars (generally white and older) and whisks them away to exotic places that teach them about what truly matters in life. The two The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again are some recent examples of this, all of which made a killing at the pre-pandemic box office. And with nearly $70 million to its name after launching overseas this past month before it finally reaches stateside, Ticket to Paradise looks likely to join that money-making club. The beautiful A-listers at the center of this film are George Clooney and Julia Roberts, marking their fifth collaboration together and first since 2016’s Money Monster (anyone remember that?). The stars play divorcées David and Georgia, who are unable to stand each other for more than a few minutes each time they briefly meet. Fortunately for them, those moments of contact only occur when it comes to their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), who is just graduating from law school. After an awkward ceremony where the two feuding parents attempt to one-up each other with their displays of affection, Lily is off to Bali for the summer with her fun-loving roommate Wren (Billie Lourd in a Booksmart reunion with Dever, although she’s given a fraction of the material). Within only a few weeks, Lily is swiftly engaged to a handsome local by the name of Gede. David and Georgia disapprove as they think she is making the same mistake they did by marrying too young. They embark on the wedding location, deciding to team up to take down their mutual enemy of young love. Of course, you already know where this story is going before you’ve even finished the trailer. In their attempts to break up their daughter’s relationship, the two lovelorn adults will rekindle that passion that brought them together all those years ago. Before those romantic sparks start to fly, much of the humor between the pair is just them bickering back and forth with bitchy one-liners, which gets quite tiring after a while. But Clooney and Roberts make it work thanks to their undeniable chemistry. They get to be full-on movie stars here, something we all needed a reminder of as Clooney continues his fledgling directorial career and Roberts pivots towards television. There’s a hilarious scene (featured in the trailer) where the older couple team up in a game of beer pong that gets them drunk enough to lead a dance-off featuring “Jump Around.” The rest of the movie may be a bit one-note and forgettable, but a moment like that is worth the price of admission. If you miss the days of movies playing bloopers during the credits, which they do here, Ticket to Paradise will be right up your wheelhouse. There’s no shortage of shoreline, sun, and stars in this romantic comedy. So, grab your mom and aunts for some escapist fun, because you know they deserve that from time to time. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen