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The Power of the Dog November 29, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Despite being the master of the gangster genre with such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull , and Goodfellas , Martin Scorsese cites The Age of Innocence as his most violent film. It’s a bizarre statement, considering the 1993 period piece features no sex, swearing, or physicality. Instead, the violence that the film harbors is purely emotional and under the surface, carrying far more damaging effects that linger longer than any external wound. Similarly, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is one of the most violent films of the year - and of the Western genre - all without a gun, knife, or fistfight. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers run one of the most successful ranches in Montana. Phil is handsome, calculating, and utterly brutal. He lives purely for the land, paying no mind to the feelings of those around him. George is pudgy and sensitive, and always on the receiving end of Phil’s torments. Together they represent Romulus and Remus, ruling over a vast empire that could topple at any moment. On one of their cattle drives, George becomes smitten by a widow, Rose. The couple swiftly marries and moves back to the mansion-sized ranch house. Disapproving of this union, Phil unleashes his cunning fury on Rose and her emasculated son, Peter. But there’s more to Peter than meets the eye, as his outward weakness may not be reflective of the inside. After some time, Phil begins to warm up to Peter and take him under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or another one of his mind games that will delve further into menace? As a director, Campion has often been able to communicate the unsayable and unspeakable. Her films often resemble a poem more than a narrative. Based on her past features of The Piano and Sweetie , it can be said that she isn’t concerned with only opening one door, or telling her audience exactly how to feel. This ambiguity brings out the power of interpretation, leaving the viewer with the film in their mind long after the runtime has passed. The Power of the Dog doesn’t stray from that trademark as Campion tightly wounds this surprise psychosexual drama. There’s a cutting edge to each frame, epically lensed by Ari Wegner with the vast prairies of New Zealand standing in for Montana plains. A shot of a knotted rope, the castration of a bull, or the movement of a cigarette tell as much of the story as any piece of dialogue. Every act becomes a piece of symbolism, carrying an intentional ritualistic weight. With plucked strings, Radiohead frontman Jonny Greenwood (often a collaborating partner with Paul Thomas Anderson), squeezes those last drops of tension out of every scene. But when the dialogue takes precedent, Campion, adapting the words of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, makes sure it still stings. Phil uses his words to cut someone while they’re down, with a sharpness that cannot be matched. It doesn’t help that his cowhands, who worship his every move, sneer and snicker along. In the lead role of Phil, Cumberbatch reaches new heights in his career. The British thespian has built himself on playing the smartest man in the room, such as Sherlock Holmes on television, Alan Turing in The Imitation Game , and Doctor Strange in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here, that supreme intelligence brings its faults, such as emotional weakness and detachment. Branding Phil as carrying “toxic masculinity” would be too much of an oversimplification as Campion takes that weakness and spins it into something less one-dimensional. While Phil may hate himself on the inside, George is more outward with his self-loathing, which inevitably gets passed on to Rose, as she deals with despair by turning towards the bottle. The real-life couple of Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst are great in their supporting roles, as they find solace in each other’s arms in the brief moments they have together. Acting as the yin to Phil’s yang (and also as the surprise actor showcase within the film) is Kodi Smit-McPhee as Rose’s son, Peter, whose external simplicity masks his internal strength and awareness. The battle between Phil and Peter is one of wits, with the outcome recontextualizing the film into something more than the sum of its parts. Jane Campion has made a grand return to feature films with The Power of the Dog . It’s an enigmatic modern take on the well-worn genre of the Western that leaves you with much more than you could ever bring in. Because of that, it’s one of the best films of the year, and should surely be checked out. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

West Side Story December 11, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Leave it to Steven Spielberg to make his first outing into the musical genre one that completely crushes the competition. Like The Mad Titan Thanos, Spielberg has seemingly made it his mission to collect the stones of nearly every genre known to cinema. Throughout his nearly fifty-year feature film career, he’s already conquered monster movies ( Jaws ), science-fiction ( E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ), adventure ( Indiana Jones ), war ( Saving Private Ryan ), and biopics ( Schindler’s List & Lincoln ). But before he takes on the Avengers-level threat of Netflix and other streaming services in the fight for the theatrical experience, Spielberg needs to claim the last stone that has eluded him: musicals. And after all these years (including a worldwide pandemic), The King of Entertainment can finally stake his claim with his remake of West Side Story . Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have made it clear that this West Side Story is not a remake of the 1961 film, which won ten Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture. Rather, this is a new adaptation of the 1957 stage musical. Many might be confused as to why Spielberg felt the need to readapt such a timeless piece of entertainment, especially with the 1961 film being heralded as one of the great screen musicals. The answer to that argument can be broken down into three parts. First, Spielberg may be humble, but like all great directors, he has a bit of hubris and isn’t afraid to remake sacred material, as he’s already done with 2005’s War of the Worlds . Second, Spielberg has cited the musical as a foundational piece of his childhood, so much so that it was one of his key inspirations for becoming a director. And third, while the 1961 version may be a monumental feat, it is far from perfect. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the original Broadway production's book, spoke to the New York Times in 2008 about his feelings towards the film version, which he thought was very flawed due to “bogus accents, bogus dialect, bogus costumes.” Laurents’ argument against the costumes may be puzzling, but he’s right on target with how the film whitewashed much of the characters. Spielberg’s West Side Story looks to right the wrongs of the past, as nearly all of his Puerto Rican characters are played by Puerto Rican or Hispanic performers. And to do this, Spielberg hasn’t committed the sin of nearly every modern musical adaptation where big movie stars are cast instead of the performers who brought the characters to life on the stage. Apart from Ansel Elgort (who, while still being the film’s wet blanket, is not as bad as one would expect), all of the cast members come from some sort of theater background. Ariana DeBose, who played a featured part in Hamilton both off and on Broadway, takes over the role of Anita with a fiery passion. Playing her overprotective partner Bernardo is David Alvarez, one of the original Billys in Billy Elliot . Mike Faist, who originated the role of Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen , harnesses a special jittery vulnerability as Riff. And then emerging as the star of this troupe is newcomer Rachel Zegler as María. The world may have already gotten a glimpse of Zegler’s singing talent through her YouTube channel, but this is a true showcase of what she has to offer. Since production wrapped in September 2019, Spielberg has claimed Zegler as the greatest María he’s witnessed. At the time, it sounded like the usual praise a director would heap on his own film. But now that the court of public opinion gets its say, it seems he was telling the truth. With so many stars in the making, Spielberg is able to harmonize the past and the present, making the remake feel like a Golden Age musical made with modern craftsmanship. Spielberg and his longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski keep the same desaturated, high-contrast look that they have maintained for nearly three decades. The camera swoons and cranes in extended takes, capturing the incredibly choreographed dance numbers conceived by famed ballet dancer and director Justin Peck. The “America” (which has been taken down to the streets instead of the rooftop) and “I Feel Pretty” set pieces contain some of Spielberg’s greatest directorial work, with Leonard Bernstein’s music and Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics proving once again why they have inspired so many. But all the technicals and performances mean nothing if the story doesn’t match their excellence. Thankfully, screenwriter Tony Kushner has taken the original material and given it a new life. For the most part, this is still the same Romeo and Juliet story of star-crossed lovers caught in a war between rival gangs. But then, every once in a while, something unexpected will happen, taking things in a different direction. The narrative about the immigrant experience has been made more profound, with the Spanish dialogue - accounting for nearly one-third of the total spoken lines - going unsubtitled in a move that Spielberg and Kushner described as an effort to respect the language. And the character of Doc has been reimagined as Valentina, allowing Rita Moreno (the 1961 Anita) to ground the film with a heartbreaking final number. All of these revisions don’t come off as gimmicks needed to justify the film’s existence, just different (and better) ways to tell a classic tale. With The Great Musical War of 2021 coming to a close, Steven Spielberg has emerged as the predictable winner. Perfectly melding the work of Bernstein and Sondheim with the newfound talents of DeBose, Faist, and Zegler, the new West Side Story makes the case for why some remakes should be allowed to happen. Because sometimes, they can meet or surpass the original, such as how this one does by bringing classic cinema into the modern world. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Sorry, Baby July 25, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen We’re just over halfway through the year, and Sorry, Baby has planted its lead flag in the race for the award for “best movie to be ruined by sound bleed in the multiplex.” It’s a prize that distributor A24 has been dominating over the past few years, with last year’s winner being Janet Planet , and the year before that being All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt . It’s the price one has to pay to experience a bit of counterprogramming during the height of summer blockbuster season, a reminder that the quantity of noise and flashing lights has little correlation to the overall cinematic experience. Sorry, Baby opens gently with Lia Ooyang Rusli’s piano over cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry’s soft image of light snow flurries against a rural New England house. Never mind that the roar of a dinosaur in Jurassic World: Rebirth and the thundering of Superman encroached on the walls of the small auditorium that housed this film; I was immediately locked into the world that writer/director/star Eva Victor was creating. The confidence of that frame continued throughout the rest of the runtime, with the fact that this is Victor’s debut making the whole feat even more astonishing. It’s a bit of a paradox in itself. It’s funny, yet not a comedy. It’s dramatic, yet not a drama. It’s unique, yet tells a painfully standard story. By that logic, I guess you could describe it as a semi-relatable dramedy. But that doesn’t feel correct either, with Victor striking a near-perfect balance between all those poles. I laughed, cried, and a little bit of everything else. The story is simply described as “Something bad happened to Agnes.” That bad thing is the focal point for the structure, with everything happening either before or after. Agnes was a promising grad student who was about to receive high marks for her thesis. That burgeoning cycle of evolution during the period before has been replaced by mere survival in the period after. Agnes is stuck in her place, which is where the second sentence in the description comes into play: “But life goes on - for everyone around her, at least.” Sorry, Baby is least concerned in the pivotal bad moment, and more interested in how everything changes, both in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. Authorities say, “We are also women,” as if that blanket statement solves everything. Agnes has been psychologically changed, with no escape from the multitude of mundane ways that the memory of said bad thing can reintroduce itself at any moment. Victor assembles a great cast, with theirself nailing the offbeat humor and deftly emotional moments. Lucas Hedges continues to be one of the smartest young actors working today, trusting directors like Victor in supporting roles rather than seeking the spotlight. He plays Agnes’ neighbor Gavin, a little aloof but completely charming in his own way. Naomi Ackie is great as Agnes’ best friend, Lydie. She has moved on from college and wants Agnes to do the same. This is a movie also about the power of friendship, how it lifts us out of the bad times and makes us into the best version of ourselves. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Rental Family had its World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on November 21. From its plucky opening strings by Jónsi and Alex Somers, and twinkling cinematography, Rental Family immediately announces its intentions to burrow deep into our hearts. Co-writer/director Hikari’s film is all about relationships, specifically how we blend reality and fiction to create the other person’s perception of ourselves. It’s also about the truths and lies we tell to shield ourselves from the harsh truth. While having lived there for seven years, Phillip Vanderploeug (Brendan Fraser) is still a gaijin, or “outsider,” to Japan. His dumb luck fame as the superhero star of a silly toothpaste commercial gave him the confidence to fully commit to breaking into the Japanese acting industry. Very few chances have come his way since, with the isolation and rejection further exposing his cracks. While wide, his smile displays no happiness, and he always seems sorry to be occupying any amount of space. One of his auditions is for “sad American,” which requires him to wear a suit and tie. But instead of showing up at a talent agency, he stumbles into a funeral for someone he’s never met before. It turns out that the majority of the attendees were paid actors, a gathering large enough to make the deceased seem more impressive to his family. This rental service is run by Shinji Tada (Takehiro Hada), who offers a surrogate person to help fill a gap in someone’s life. Phillip’s first assignment as a full-time employee for Shinji is to be fake married to a lesbian woman so she can use the marriage license to move out of the country with her girlfriend. Before you claim all of this to be far-fetched, I’d like to point out that it is a real practice in Japan. Filmmaker Werner Herzog made a documentary about the industry in 2019 titled Family Romance, LLC , centered on an actor hired to impersonate the missing father for a young girl. It’s an extreme and ethically dangerous line of work, with lying being a naturally needed skill. But some of these lies provide positive outcomes, such as Phillip being hired by the family of a lonely loser to help him regain his confidence. Plus, the pay is really good, and Phillip has a lovable foreign charm that makes people instantly trust him. Rental Family at least has the bravery to dive into the reason why such an industry exists. Mental health is stigmatized in Japan, with very few opportunities for therapy or life coaching. This is still a band-aid for a gunshot wound, but it’s probably better than nothing. Everything is transactional these days, so why can’t happiness? After those reasons, it’s best not to use the logical side of your brain anymore. Hikari leans towards the sentimental side of every decision, figuring that every problem can just be solved with a heart-to-heart conversation. Much of it is treacly, cloying at your heart at every turn. For each of the poor decisions that are made on paper, they’re excused by an apology and backed up by the universal message that humans are flawed creatures. It would be much more unbearable to constantly hear those answers if they weren’t delivered by a top-notch cast. Fraser is incapable of registering a false emotion, lending his sympathetic charm to a character that is unearthing just as much happiness for himself as he is for others. Takehiro Hira and Mari Yamamoto are his new co-workers, each of them slowly waking up to the realization that a career built on little white lies slowly permeates into their personal lives as well. A little more honesty goes a long way, both in Rental Family and reality. Those easier answers make for a comforting watch, yet not something that leaves a longer-lasting impression. Its heart is in the right place, and sometimes our hearts want what they want. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Magic Mike's Last Dance February 10, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are two camps of viewers who have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the trilogy finale that is Magic Mike’s Last Dance . The first are those responsible for the $40 million opening weekend haul for the original and accounted for 96% of the opening weekend ticket sales for the sequel: women. It’s not hard to see why the audience demographics broke down the way that they did, but it could also be a symptom of a more noticeable trend of movies being less “sexy” these days . The second group is far smaller and less enthusiastic, which is the cinephiles who are interested in seeing what’s next for Steven Soderbergh, who returns to the director’s chair after taking a backseat to his frequent collaborator Gregory Jacobs for the sequel. The Oscar-winning director has always been hard to label an “auteur” on account of his chameleonic nature, not just in genres but also in mediums and filming techniques (shooting Unsane and High Flying Bird on an iPhone before it was cool). He’s now directed more films than he did before announcing his retirement in 2013, providing high-quality content to streamers like Netflix and HBO Max with Let Them All Talk, No Sudden Move , and Kimi . Both of these groups likely won’t be fully satisfied with Magic Mike’s Last Dance , ending this unlikely franchise on a whimper instead of the sensual bang it deserved. Now almost forty (although you’d hardly be able to tell as Tatum looks nearly the same as he did in the 2012 original), former male stripper Mike Lane is in Miami trying to make ends meet while bartending. His compadres from the first two films are (sadly) gone, leaving Mike to walk down this lonely road by himself. That is until he meets the extremely wealthy and also equally lonely Max (Salma Hayek Pinault), who coaxes Mike into giving her one last private dance. Mike’s dance (shot and edited with pinpoint precision by Soderbergh under his usual Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard pseudonyms, respectively) unlocks something deep within Max, prompting her to invest in his talents by taking him to London to revive a stodgy play that’s been overplayed at the theater she owns. Just as he’s done with every entry, Tatum’s business partner Reid Carolin writes the script, instilling it with the usual big themes about having a purpose in life and how people react to the adult entertainment business. Carolin’s even added narration here about the psychological influences of dance, which sounds just fine as long as you cover your ears. Soderbergh seems to be more interested in the ideas than the physical acts themselves, as evidenced by his two chapters being much less fun than Jacob’s middle child. The dance sequences are of course competently shot and stitched together but are weighted down by what they’re supposed to mean on a thematic level. There’s less of a free spirit to them, keeping the true carnal passion just under the point where it’s too uncomfortable to watch with your parents. While the rest of the bros are sorely missed, Hayek makes a nice fold against Mike. Her confidence is mesmerizing, and so is the way she looks, attracting all the eyes in the room with her clothes and gravitas. The relationship between her and Tatum doesn’t hold up the eye test though, as the romantic sparks fizzle rather than fly. Their creative relationship is solid, with Soderbergh constructing some snazzy Ocean’s Eleven recruitment montages as they gather their troupe of dancers. Last Dance takes a mature approach to ending this story, which would be admirable if it didn’t sacrifice so much of the fun of its predecessors. What was originally mostly just Step Up for adults has been overthought and underserved, stripping (pun intended) almost all of the guilt and pleasure out of the term “guilty pleasure.” More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Oppenheimer July 19, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Last week, in preparation for Oppenheimer , I ranked all of the films within Christopher Nolan’s filmography . As per usual, The Dark Knight reigned supreme, followed by The Prestige and Dunkirk . Now after watching Oppenheimer , I feel that I prematurely released that list, as now the best entry of his entire career has been left off it. I admit, I am still a bit overstimulated as I type this out a mere hour after the credits “written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan” flashed upon the screen. But with each passing second since then, I have become more and more convinced that I’ve seen something extraordinary. Quantum mechanics is full of paradoxes and puzzles that continue to elude the best and brightest of mankind. It’s one of the main reasons it beckoned to J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a man who never met a challenge he couldn’t overcome with his mind. The boundlessness of theoretical physics was where he made his name, his brain wandering into the stars and unlocking the secrets of the universe. The paradoxical nature of his work also bled into his personality. He was precise and exacting within the lab, but a naive socializer and an unhealthy womanizer. “Brilliance makes up for a lot of that” is his excuse for why he continues to climb within the scientific community and was recruited to head the Manhattan Project. Nolan cited Oliver Stone’s 1991 masterpiece JFK as one of his main inspirations when adapting this material. He drops you into the middle of the action from frame one and keeps you there. Separate timelines begin to form, each folding into each other with increasing frequency. There’s the future besmirching of Oppenheimer’s legacy; the prideful past where we see his rise; and the roaring present where he must develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis. Similar to Dunkirk , Nolan, and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema define these periods through the imagery. Whether it’s in bright color or stark black-and-white, what you’re seeing is always a work of beauty. Never has IMAX been used to capture the small moments with as much gravitas as the climatic detonation. And never has Nolan commanded the pacing of his films as much as he does here. Time passes more quickly or slowly depending on when the narrative takes place, with editor Jennifer Lame crafting those drastic differences into an intellectual exercise. It can become quite challenging (to near impossible) to cling to all the details. But this is not like Tenet , which ditched its audience because of its incomprehensibility. This is more like a Wes Anderson film, where there’s just too much going on within the frame and on the page to be fully comprehended in real-time. Kenneth Branagh plays Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who gives a sturdy piece of advice to Oppenheimer early in his career: “It’s not important that you can read music, only that you can hear it.” Even if I couldn’t read all that was being presented right in front of me, I could definitely feel it. Ludwig Göransson’s tremendous score does a lot to convey the spectacle and terror within these moments of history. There are palpable feelings of anxiety and suspense, despite already knowing the outcome. You feel both a sense of patriotism in seeing this American achievement, and also a deep sense of guilt as a weapon without a defense was unleashed upon an untrustworthy world. There are just as many stars in this movie as there are in the sky. Robert Downey Jr. takes the reins in most of the later scenes as Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss. It’s the best work he’s done in years as he engages in a game of palace intrigue within a congressional hearing. There’s also Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Benny Safdie, and Jason Clarke standing out in decently sized supporting roles. And also Casey Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, and Gary Oldman in extended cameos. Of course, the bulk of the praise should go to Cillian Murphy as the titular character, who capitalizes on the opportunity to be at the forefront of a Nolan film rather than on its sidelines, which he’s done honorably on five previous occasions. There’s always a blankly haunted look in his eyes as if he’s both an all-seeing prophet and a blind fool. Oppenheimer is as entertaining as it is enlightening, emboldened by Nolan’s unparalleled vision and craftsmanship. It’s possibly his magnum opus, grabbing hold of history with fiery conviction, never letting you go until you’ve experienced all that cinema has to offer. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24 Dispatch #2 September 15, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark All of the films were screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Click here for additional full reviews and dispatches. Select films below will receive separate full-length reviews at a later date, most likely in connection to their public releases. Bird Hot off his polarizing and career-best turn in last year’s Saltburn , Barry Keoghan gives another all-timer performance in Andrea Arnold’s Cannes hit Bird . A coming-of-age tale that takes a turn no viewer will see coming, Bird follows 12-year-old Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams), who lives in a rundown high-rise with her deadbeat dad (Keoghan), soon-to-be stepmother, and sister. Things change for her when she meets an awkward man who calls himself Bird (Franz Rogowski). Overall, Bird is a good outing for Arnold that sees her struggle with what the aesthetic of the film should be (i.e., ever-changing aspect ratios, use of Lofi music that feels thrown in at the last minute, etc.). These three strong performances by Keoghan, Adams, and Rogowski counter these missteps and make the movie worthwhile. Bird may fly (no pun intended) under the radar altogether, but it at least justifies its means to an extent. (3.5/5) Harbin A historical Korean spy thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Woo Min-ho, Harbin follows a group of Korean soldiers looking to assassinate Japanese leader Itō Hirobumi. Suspicions rise when one is deemed to be a double agent, resulting in everyone questioning who they can trust. Woo Min-ho makes it clear that he knows how to make a film of this scale as it’s well-planned, but the story does falter in its pacing and predictability. To make up for this, Harbin sprinkles in an intense sequence once every few minutes to rope audiences back in. Ranging from action to suspense, each sequence would get audiences on their toes only to put them back in the dust. When the assassination attempt scene does come around, the movie is full throttle until the end. The cast wasn’t anything too special, but Harbin would’ve been more worthwhile if there was at least one noteworthy performance. (3/5) The Assessment Fleur Fortune’s sci-fi drama is also a thriller about a couple going through a week-long test to see if they can be parents. The leading trio of Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel, and Alicia Vikander stand out as the couple in question and the test assessor, respectively. Olsen and Patel capture the whirlwind their characters go through via Vikander’s assessor. The latter puts them through the wringer as she psychologically torments them through uncomfortable situations. She gives a very physical performance that should be discussed just as much as Emma Stone in last year’s Poor Things . Aside from the actors, nothing else within the film rises above being just average. By commenting on how chaotic parenting can be, The Assessment makes for a numbing display of this topic, even if it ties itself into knots to make it make sense to audiences. (3/5) The Order Gripping and shocking until the very end, Justin Kurzel’s The Order is an intense look at neo-nazism rampant in 1983 Pacific Northwest. Leading the cast is Jude Law, Tye Sheridan, and Nicholas Hoult in his darkest role yet as a leader of a neo-nazi group. He’s scary, manipulative, and flat-out the best aspect of this movie alongside the action sequences. Ranging from shootouts to bank robberies and car chases, Kurzel doesn’t waste a second crafting an action set piece that’ll keep viewers on their feet. It helps that Zach Baylin pens the script to adapt Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book The Silent Brotherhood , and makes everything just as straightforward. The Order is a film with an important message that’s story should be learned by viewers everywhere. (4.5/5) You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Cassavetes & Newman: Hollywood Stars, Art Cinema Auteurs March 11, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen As actors, John Cassavetes and Paul Newman worked within the Hollywood studio system. Cassavetes starred mostly in miliary movies, while Newman was one of the biggest stars in the world with hits such as Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . While both of them were prevalent on the multiplex screens, they were much different behind the camera. As directors, they veered into unfamiliar territory, creating films more in line with the auteur theory that wasn't present in the movies they starred in. Through the films Faces and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds , both Cassavetes and Newman created films one would consider part of the arthouse crowd. In his essay “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice," David Bordwell writes that arthouse films are “a distinct mode of film practice, possessing a definite historical existence, a set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures.” Hearing the word “convention” when describing arthouse cinema sounds like an oxymoron as everything within this specific industry is meant to be in contrast to the usual conventions within Hollywood. But every movement and genre has to have rules, whether written or unwritten. These rules can be seen in both Cassavettes’ and Newman’s films. Bordwell writes that the narratives within art cinema pride themselves on two things: realism and authorial expressivity. Life is to be shown as realistically as possible, with real locations and problems. In Faces , shot in grainy 16mm, Cassavetes makes it seem as if the viewer is a fly-on-the-wall as we watch a marriage decay. There is no gloss and the music doesn’t swell our emotions, instead, we are bombarded with closeups and technical inconsistencies. It’s the cinéma vérité style commonly found within Europe at the time. Cassavetes’ camera doesn’t glamorize American life, it shines a light on the reality of middle-class suburban life. Richard and Maria fight about their sexual desires and their discontent for one another. Instead of finding solace in each other, they find it in the bottle and strangers. It’s highly unconventional for the time and way ahead of anything that was coming shortly. Like Faces , Marigolds is filled with imperfect characters stuck in a realistically depressing situation. Beatrice has aspirations, but she doesn’t have the means to accomplish them. She’s also an embarrassment to her daughters and is an alcoholic. But the story isn’t about her, it’s actually about Matilda coming to terms with her downtrodden life. She and her mother are determined to push past their social convention offenses. Newman doesn’t treat the situation as misery porn, he simply follows the story. He’s connecting his audience, who most likely share the same circumstances, with the characters. Like Cassavetes, Newman’s visual style is pulled back, never reveling in the situation and the performances are also more reflective of the characters you would see on your street block. With both Faces and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds , John Cassavetes and Paul Newman pushed back against the Hollywood system they had inhabited for many years. Through technical and thematic intrusiveness, they were able to tell real stories for real people, something the big machine out in California simply didn’t want to do. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Gorge February 13, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Making a film straight-to-streaming is a low-risk-low-reward proposition for any filmmaker, especially when said streaming service is still in its relative infancy (i.e. they're not Netflix). If the film doesn't work, then it fails quietly, its only legacy being an inconspicuous credit on people's IMDb page. The same fate awaits a film that turns out to be good, all those months of blood and sweat not being met with a big box office haul, only a mention by the CFO at the next quarterly investor call covering subscription growth. While the television side of Apple TV+ has sporadically graduated from this level with hits like Ted Lasso , Severance , and Shrinking , its straight-to-streaming division remains firmly entrenched in the land of anonymity. The titles of Fingernails , Palmer , and Finch mean nothing to the average movie fan. Despite its exceptional quality, director Scott Derrickson's The Gorge is likely destined to repeat that same fate, falling down a cavernous catalog just as deep and mysterious as the one in the film itself. The location of this pit is a classified secret, even kept from the guards stationed in separate watchtowers on either side of it. One of them is Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy, sporting a moderately more believable accent compared to her work in The New Mutants ), your prototypical heartless Russian assassin who dons all black and pulls the trigger without hesitation. The American Levi (Miles Teller) was once like that, but the prolonged years of being in this business have made him care too much. What good is an assassin who's grown a conscience? A mysterious private military figure (Sigourney Weaver) figures that the absence of anything giving him a reason to keep living makes him the perfect expendable soldier. Both Levi and Drasa are essentially part of a suicide mission, standing guard over a cavern that possesses something so evil that the Eastern and Western superpowers have always put aside their Cold War differences and worked together to keep it contained. What the overlords didn't consider when they selected their representatives was what happens when you place two very attractive people in the wilderness with nothing to do but get to know each other. Teller and Taylor-Joy pull off the incredibly difficult task of developing a romantic relationship despite their physical distance initially preventing them from ever sharing the same frame. They communicate through telescopes and whiteboards and even exchange playful sniper fire in games of one-upmanship. Derrickson lends his skills well to this twisted meet-cute scenario, creating montages set to energizing needle-drops. None of the song choices could be considered original or fresh, but they're all incredibly likable and fit the mood. All this fun almost makes everyone forget that they're standing above a gateway to hell, that is until one day when the demons start getting a little too ambitious for their own good. Levi and Drasa are forcibly relocated to the bottom of the gorge, fending off waves of emaciated creatures that have waited for decades for a decent piece of meat to chew on. Derrickson is a filmmaker who's most well-known for his gnarly R-rated features like Deliver Us from Evil and The Black Phone . One would think that the PG-13 rating here would tie his hands behind his back, but the interesting creature design and expert overall craftsmanship never let that thought occur. I can't divulge specifics about what the creatures look like and how they came to be, as that's the central hook, something that the marketers equally valued when they surprisingly kept it a secret in the trailer. Cinematographer Dan Laustsen, a natural fit for this project considering his years-long relationship with creature feature aficionado Guillermo del Toro, creates an unsettling atmosphere through his colorful use of mist and Cold War aesthetics. The composer duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross accentuate Laustsen's imagery with their steel wire score. For those who have regularly played the Zombies game mode in the Call of Duty video game series and have longed for it to be brought to the silver screen, this is your dream come true. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Joker October 10, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen After the catastrophic failure of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) which had yet to produce a quality film, Warner Bros switched its game plan in favor of establishing single characters rather than a whole cinematic universe. The first of this new character-driven model is Joker , Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of how one man can go so far down the rabbit hole. The story follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man placed on this earth “to spread joy and laughter.” The downtrodden citizens of Gotham have got it bad right now, but Arthur seems to have it the worst. He’s a social outcast with mental health issues that cause uncontrollable fits of laughter, and he lives with his mother in a disgusting apartment. With the world getting crazier by the day, Arthur’s attempts to keep sane become more and more futile, leading him to the point of no return. Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker supplants itself into its grungy setting of 1980s Gotham (very much modeled after New York City), complete with overflowing garbage and “super rats.” The swooping cinematography by Lawrence Sher highlights the grimy claustrophobia, and the unrelenting score by Hildur Guðnadóttir never allows for a moment of levity. You’re fully immersed within the cesspool that the city has become. Besides brilliantly setting the scene, the technicals also lend their hand to the creation of suspenseful and terrifying sequences of shocking violence. These acts are incredibly tough to watch — even more so when you factor in Phoenix’s no-holds-barred performance. Phillips very blatantly takes some influence (that’s the polite way of saying it) from Martin Scorsese’s great works of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy . The structure of the story and a few key scenes look and feel ripped right out of those classics. While Scorsese is the master to take after, the whole thing here feels like a self-indulgent exercise by Phillips to make himself out to be a real auteur and not just the guy who made The Hangover trilogy. There’s an aura of artiness that is coated to imitate the feeling of thematic depth while offering little substance under the surface. Despite being about the most famous comic book villain of all time, Joker doesn’t follow the usual narrative track. There are some winks and nods that keep it connected to the Batman universe, but the story is solely focused on our central character and his mad descent. Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver stray away from the previous model that never allowed comic book movies to address societal issues. They plunge headfirst into dissecting the issues of mental health and class warfare. The pair deserve some praise for their efforts, but these attempts at making statements are handled with too little originality and nuance. Throughout the film, the only message that sticks out is that society and people are terrible and capable of bringing us down despite our best efforts. It’s a grand statement, but one that’s so over-simplistic and devoid of depth that it ends up meaning nothing. It’s merely a statement of fact that everyone has figured out throughout their life and seen in better movies before. T aking over the role following the character’s worst rendition by Jared Leto in Suicide Squad , Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant and downright terrifying as the clown prince of crime. From his maniacal laugh, contorted body movements, and rubbery facial expressions, Phoenix commands each scene and elevates some of the film’s follies. It reminds one of his equally brilliant performance as Freddy Quell in The Master , only this time, the crazy dial has been turned up to the max. You can never look away from him as he fills the entire frame. And you also never want to look away as he keeps you on the edge of your seat. In the reverse role from what he played in The King of Comedy , Robert De Niro does solid work as the comic - insulting late-night show host. It’s a role tailor-made for De Niro as he can poke fun and unintentionally spur Gotham’s societal struggles. Loud and abrasive, Joker is a film that makes a lot of noise but doesn’t say much of anything. But even with its mixed message falling flat, it still deserves praise for its boldness to go where others daren’t. Plus, it’s leagues better than anything the DCEU has and will ever offer, so there is some hope that DC characters will soon get their proper time in the spotlight. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Oliver Stone Films September 15, 2022 By: Hunter Friesen As one of the most controversial figures in American filmmaking, Oliver Stone has never been shy about wearing his politics on his sleeve, which were shaped by his experiences in the Vietnam War, and the American cultural turmoil of the 1960s. Films such as Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July , and JFK gave way to his meteoric rise as an outspoken voice against a country he loves so much. But even with all that success early on, Stone hasn’t been able to find a footing in the 21st Century, turning in subpar work that doesn’t contain the epic anger he once had. In honor of his 76th birthday today, here’s a look at Stone’s ten best films as a director, many of which remain American classics. 10. Salvador This biographical war drama went largely unnoticed in 1986 due to the fact it was released the same year as Platoon . In fact, Stone competed against himself at the 1987 Oscars as both Salvador and Platoon were nominated for Best Original Screenplay (both would lose to Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters ). Salvador falls right in line with Stone’s career ambitions as he critiques America’s involvement in Central American politics during the Reagan administration, which had been embroiled in controversy over the Iran-Contra Affairs. James Woods, who was Oscar-nominated for his leading role, doggedly carries the film as a burnt-out journalist who slowly begins to see the horrible truth the further he goes down the rabbit hole. 9. Talk Radio With Talk Radio , Stone had finally met his match with a protagonist that was as angry as he was. Eric Bogosian reprises his stage role from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play he created, delivering a grotesquely unlikeable character that you dare not look away from. In a similar vein to Paddy Chayefsky’s Network , Stone’s film is a scathing critique of our mass media culture, a subject he would tackle again with Natural Born Killers . With Robert Richardson’s dizzying circular camerawork and Bogosian’s never-ending tirade of insults towards his listeners, Talk Radio is in-your-face entertainment from beginning to end and has only gotten more and more relevant in our age of clickbait media. 8. The Doors Similar to the fate of Salvador , The Doors has often been pushed under the rug due to it being released a mere nine months before JFK . Following the larger-than-icon of Jim Morrison and the formation of the titular band, Stone’s film was the perfect combination of the psychedelic style of the creators and the period. Critiqued for its historical inaccuracies (which Stone is no stranger to), the film is best remembered for Val Kilmer’s stunning performance as the central figure. Kilmer was reportedly mistaken several times for the real Jim Morrison and did his own singing in each of the film’s concert sequences (take that Rami Malek). 7. Wall Street Only a year removed from Platoon , Stone switched his sights from American foreign policy to the domestic financial industry with Wall Street. Most famous for coining the multi-meaning quote “Greed is good,” and giving finance bros a figure they (wrongly) looked up to, Wall Street is overly naïve and mostly just two hours of Stone yelling about how capitalism is broken. But that doesn’t mean his simple statements aren’t correct, nor does it make the film any less entertaining with its flashes of excess that would later become popular in films such as Boiler Room and The Wolf of Wall Street . It’s a shame the 2011 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps wasn’t able to match the heights of its predecessor, especially considering the ripe material Stone was given with coming out of the Great Recession in 2008. 6. Any Given Sunday With enough light and noise to give even the audience a concussion, Stone makes Any Given Sunday into a war picture. He never lets you forget that football is not played on just a simple field, but a battlefield. The score is everywhere, the blood is spilling, and everybody is playing for their survival. Stone's direction is ambitious and loud, which is the sort of thing that works perfectly for this type of sports movie. Everything is heightened to the highest degree, both emotions and physicality. It's no wonder the NFL didn't approve of this movie as no viewer can come out of this and be motivated to watch football, let alone play it. 5. Born on the Fourth of July With a great Tom Cruise performance at its center, Born on the Fourth of July is an endearing, yet conventional, biopic. Centering on the loss of innocence and the façade of the American dream for the Vietnam-era youth, Stone returned to his Platoon roots. He crafts several ingenious individual scenes with his might behind the camera, which earned him his second Oscar for Best Director. The scenes at the prom, Vietnam, and the Syracuse protest are just some of the great moments. John Williams’ score perfectly supplements the sweeping nature of the story, as it contains trumpet swells that recall youthful patriotism and a string orchestra that signals the haunting moment reality has crushed those once bright dreams. 4. Nixon A few years after making JFK , Stone gave Kennedy’s 1960 election opponent the full cradle-to-grave epic biopic with Nixon . Surprisingly not as damning as one would think and turning out to be a box office bomb by grossing only $13 million against its $44 million budget, Stone’s film plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy as our “hero” rises to the highest mountain, only to be eventually brought down to the lowest valley. The Welsh Anthony Hopkins, who, unlike Val Kilmer, doesn’t share many resemblances to his counterpart, gives a great performance, complete with a foul mouth and overwhelming thirst for alcohol. Hopkins was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal, as was Joan Allen as First Lady Pat Nixon. 3. Platoon As the film that quickly raised Stone’s status as an American auteur, Platoon is a dizzying autobiographical masterpiece. There's no order to anything that happens, from the battle scenes to the doldrums of downtime. Along with your confusion, you feel despair and a loss of purpose. What's the point of any of this? Soldiers are sent to die, or they survive and wish they were dead. The film was an enormous box office hit, grossing nearly $150 million on only a $6 million budget. It would conquer the 1987 Academy Awards with a haul of four awards, including Best Director for Stone and Best Picture. It would also launch the careers of several of its stars, many of which would work with Stone again (Charlie Sheen in Wall Street and Willem Dafoe in Born on the Fourth of July ). 2. Natural Born Killers Making each of his previous films look tame in comparison, Natural Born Killers creates a hellscape within the mind of the viewer as Stone savagely takes down the true-crime obsession of the American public. Matching the bewildering chaos on-camera was a bevy of troubled stars behind-the-scenes, such as the drug-addicted Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Sizemore, and Juliette Lewis beginning to practice Scientology. You also had Quentin Tarantino - who had just won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Pulp Fiction - lambasting the film for its reworking of his original script. All that drama fueled public anticipation for the film as it became a box office success while being banned in several countries and demonized by politicians for its unflinching violence and gonzo style. With the 2010s seeing a boom in true-crime podcasts, scripted television, and reality shows, the film has only gotten more relevant as time went on, with several critics praising the film for its messaging during its 25th anniversary in 2019. 1. JFK Accurately described as a “mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma,” Stone’s magnum opus is his quest for truth and justice against the military-industrial complex that stole his innocence. It’s a masterwork of cinematography by Robert Richardson and editing by Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia, both of which won Academy Awards in their respective categories. Richardson employed 7 cameras and 14 film stocks during the production, ranging from 16mm to 35mm, as well as color and black and white. Despite some of the film’s claims being later debunked, the “counter-myth” Stone proposes is nonetheless enticing at the moment and makes you wonder what else could be lurking in the shadows. The meeting between Jim Garrison (wonderfully played by Kevin Costner) and Mr. X remains one of the most effective conspiracy scenes in cinematic history. While it was trounced by The Silence of the Lambs in each of the above-the-line categories it was nominated for at the 1992 Academy Awards, JFK remains one of the quintessential films of its time and genre. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Starling Girl February 6, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Starling Girl had its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Bleecker Street will release it in theaters on May 12. The narrative beats within writer/director Laurel Parmet’s The Starling Girl may not be the most original, but that doesn’t lessen their impact. Elevated by an excellent leading turn by Elzsia Scanlen, who continues her upward trajectory after successful supporting roles in hit films and television shows such as 2019’s Little Women and HBO’s Sharp Objects , Parmet’s feature debut offers a youthful examination of the struggle between personal ambitions and the confines of religious tolerance. Scanlen is the titular Starling girl (Jem Starling to be exact), playing younger than herself through wardrobe decisions and physical performance. The Starling family is among many within a Christian fundamentalist community nestled in the Kentucky plains. Jem's actions are in service of what God and her community would want, such as leading a group prayer dance for her youth group. But just like every teenager, Jem starts to become drawn to the other sex, particularly her handsome youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman, last seen as the shy Lt. Robert “Bob” Floyd in Top Gun: Maverick ), who happens to be ten years older than her and married. The attraction slowly becomes mutual, with the flirtation of danger being a catalyst of their desire for each other. Parmet’s script focuses both on the personal aspects of this complicated relationship, and the societal judgment of it. As part of being a member of her community, Jem does not have the luxury of independence when choosing a romantic partner. Her devout mother and recovering alcoholic father have decided that Jem will be courted by Owen’s much younger brother Ben, despite there being no spark of affection between them. This loss of autonomy is painful to witness, mostly because of Scanlen’s displays of inner turmoil. Much of the film plays within the tropes of this specific story, as our character rebels against their societal expectations, leading to consequences in their relationship with themself and others. At 116 minutes, the pacing could have been greatly quickened, or at least some of it chopped off in bulk. Much of the material with Jem’s father, played finely by Jimmi Simpson, plays dangerously close to parody as the struggles with addiction are delivered with such heavy-handedness. If not for Scanlen’s performance, The Starling Girl would fall much further into the realm of obscurity its middling writing and direction had it heading for. If not for anything else, Parmet’s film has given one of our brightest young talents room to shine. Those with a deeply religious background may find more depth to it, but they may also find it dryly conventional. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen