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Longlegs July 12, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) reads a letter at her desk that’s been mysteriously put there without her knowledge. The door to her kitchen is open, with the flickers of light from the porch lights interrupted by a figure passing them. Or were those gaps of light just pieces of our imagination, a symptom of the descent into madness that this story requires? Whether it's from a door, window, or any four-sided structure, every frame is a gateway to hell in Longlegs . They often tend to be a frame within a frame, as writer/director Ozgood Perkins’ camera claustrophobically narrows in on its target, forcing you to project your worst fears onto the tightly restrained information it drips. It’s no surprise that every shot is perfectly composed, each dim corner beckoning you to peel it back, if you dare. Despite a semi-limited sample size of a filmography, Perkins has displayed a mastery of his craft from the director’s chair, holding his audience captive through slow-burn tension (most audiences would rather use the word “tedious”) and dazzling imagery. One of the minor unfortunate side effects of the pandemic was Perkins’ “Better Than It Had Any Right To Be” Gretel & Hansel failing to find another life in everyone’s homes after it floundered in theaters. Something that is surprising is that all those shots come from first-time feature cinematographer Andres Arochi. The framing is always spot-on, obscuring just enough of Nicolas Cage’s titular character for us to beg for more. Old-school polaroids and grain are the methods of choice when Perkins and Arochi display the gruesomeness that’s going on in this story. Many of these scenes have been sporadically used throughout the viral marketing campaign, which, fortunately, hasn’t diluted their effectiveness in the final product. A 911 call where a father breathes heavily while cryptically explaining how he’ll kill his family sent long-lasting shivers down my spine. The decomposed bodies of other families forced all popcorn munching in my audience to immediately stop. The prime suspect in all this suburban death goes by Longlegs, a ghostly pale freak who loves to leave behind coded messages that spread his Satanic gospel and taunt the ever-frustrated law enforcement. Harker’s procedural work to catch him mixes a blend of Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs , both aspects kept tightly in check as each clue gradually reveals how the puzzle pieces fit together. That is until Perkins decides to hurriedly finish it all for us near the end through an expositional monologue. This is a story where the natural dissatisfaction of the loose ends is actually what’s so satisfying about it. Tying everything up with a nice ribbon feels more like a move by Perkins to win back the mainstream crowd after his previous features got battered by CinemaScore. Monroe is sensational in her lead role. She communicates the insular nature of her character flawlessly, keeping us both on the inside and outside. Perkins sets up her unclear psychic premonitions early on, her first vision identifying the house of a serial killer despite no other evidence. While that trait goes largely undeveloped from there, Monroe keeps the mind games going as she gets closer to the man who mentally torments her. Cage is an odd presence for this movie, his star power being too powerful to be effectively shrouded for so long, and his trademarked Cage-isms, including spontaneous singing and screaming, provoking laughter rather than menace. It’s still one of his better modern performances and continues his run of being interestingly employed by genre filmmakers ( Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent , Dream Scenario ). There are a lot of similarities, both technically and thematically, between Perkins’ film and The Black Phone from a few years back. The promise of the happy nuclear family of the mid-20th century was not all it was cracked up to be, with evil lurking within the voids. Both may not have been great enough to wholly grip you as much as they intend to, but there’s definitely enough going on to burrow in your head and go home with you. 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

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

Pain Hustlers October 24, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Pain Hustlers had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on October 20, followed by its streaming premiere on October 27. GMP: “Grey Matters Productions, how may I help you?” N: “Hello, this is Netflix, we worked with you guys on The Laundromat and Yes Day a few years back and wanted to see if you were interested in partnering up again?” GMP: “Oh hi Netflix! I gotta say I’m a little surprised you called since… well, let’s be honest, those two movies didn’t exactly pan out the way we planned.” N: “I know, but we’re in the business of hitting quotas and churning out as much content as possible. Quality is a little lower on the hierarchy of needs. Plus, the third time is the charm, right?” GMP: “I guess you’re right when you put it that way. So, what do you have in mind?” N: “We’d like to make a movie about the opioid epidemic — a takedown of Big Pharma.” GMP: “Hasn’t that already been done to death over the past few years? Hulu had that show Dopesick that won a couple of Emmys a few years ago, and Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed just won the Golden Lion at Venice last year for her story about Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family. It seems like the market is overly saturated and the bar has been set relatively high. Wait, didn’t you just release a show called Painkiller a few months ago about the Sacklers?” N: “I’ll admit, we got beat to the market in this area. But we’re Netflix, we never let being late to the punch stop us from getting in on the action. Remember Red Notice ? We did that after everyone was already getting sick of Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. And we still gave Joe and Anthony Russo hundreds of millions to make The Gray Man after Cherry . No one else on the planet would do that besides us.” GMP: “You do put your money where your mouth is, I’ll give you that. And at least you’re not Amazon. People actually watch the stuff you pour generations' worth of wealth into, even if they don’t like it. Speaking of the Russos and Amazon, did you see Citadel , supposedly the second-most-expensive show ever produced?” N: “No, of course not! But we are giving them another $200 million to make another action-adventure movie starring Chris Pratt.” GMP: “I don’t think you know what irony is. Whatever, alright, we can do this Big Pharma movie with you. We’ve got this book we bought the rights to called The Pain Hustlers about these two charismatic young people getting caught up in illegal pharmaceutical selling.” N: “Awesome! Who should we get to direct this? We need it to be fun and palatable enough so people will look up from their phones on the couch. But we also need a simplistic message about how all of this is bad.” GMP: “Okay, so you want something that’ll make it on your top 10 list on its opening weekend and then never to be talked about again? N: “That’s our specialty!” GMP: “Let’s see, Martin Scorsese did The Wolf of Wall Street a few years ago and that was a big success. You guys just worked with him on the The Irishman . Is there any chance you get him back? Or maybe Steven Soderbergh? I could get him on the phone and see if he’s interested.” N: “No, those guys were expensive and wanted full control of their work. We’re moving towards directors that are just big of a name to be on the poster, but not big enough that we can still tell them exactly what to do.” GMP: “[flipping through the rolodex] Well, there’s this guy called David Yates that’s available. He just came off the Fantastic Beasts trilogy so you can get him on the cheap. But he doesn’t have a discernable style, so he wouldn’t be a good fit for this angle you want.” N: “Ehh, that doesn’t matter. We’ll take him! I think we can make up for it by having a couple hundred ChatGPT bots watch some Scorsese movies and then edit the film.” GMP: “I don’t think that’s how that works, but it’s your money. Well since we cheaped out on the director, can we at least spend some decent money on the stars? After all, you have built your brand around paying ungodly amounts of money to movie stars. How about Emily Blunt and Chris Evans? Both charismatic actors and Evans checks off your obligatory Russo box.” N: “That sounds good. Blunt will be great in the role. Can we make Evans do a vague Boston accent even though he’s terrible at it? Oh, and can we make this whole thing a mockumentary? All the kids love those!” GMP: “I’ll let Evans do the accent because it would be fun to see him fail. But I don’t think the mockumentary angle is a good idea since that’s also been overplayed.” N: “Well, The Office was too much of a success on our platform so we have to do it. Hmmm. Alright, we’ll just do half of it. Like, we’ll lean on it heavily in the opening and then drop it for an hour before abruptly bringing it back right at the end.” GMP: “That seems a little haphazard and might mess with the tonal balance. But I get what you’re saying. You don’t want to mess with the algorithm. Alright, so I’ve got you down for the film rights, Yates, Blunt, and Evans. Your total will be $58 million, plus a few extra $10 million payments for marketing.” N: “Wow, only $58 million?!? I guess this is what it feels like to be making indie movies?” GMP: “Are you doing cash or card?” N: “Can you just put it on my tab? I’ve already got $14 billion on there right now so it just makes sense to keep adding to that. Don’t worry, we’ll pay it off eventually.” GMP: “I really shouldn’t since you still owe me for those other two movies, but what the hell, why not? Alright, we’ll have that order ready for you in October.” N: “One more thing! Can you have it ready by September? I want to debut it at the Toronto International Film Festival and start the buzz rolling early.” GMP: “Sure thing! We’ll just have to trim around the edges a little bit. You’ll probably lose about 10% in quality from what we already planned, but that doesn’t matter since we’re already making a movie no one will care about anyway!” 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

Immaculate March 27, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark In recent years, Hollywood has found a knack for releasing random religion-themed horror films that either get overlooked or flop altogether. This was evidenced when I saw Neon’s latest fright fest, Immaculate , and got a trailer for the upcoming 20th Century Studios horror film The First Omen . Director Michael Mohan and screenwriter Andrew Lobel craft a twist on the Rosemary’s Baby narrative with one of the hottest actresses working today, Sydney Sweeney. The movie looked like an intense, bloody horror show from the trailers. Ultimately, it’s a boring film that restrains itself from being the scariest thing to come out of 2024. After her parish shuts down in her hometown, American nun Cecilia (Sweeney) is assigned to a convent in rural Italy. As she settles in, she miraculously becomes pregnant and is proclaimed the next Virgin Mary. However, the more her pregnancy progresses, the more Cecilia learns of the convent’s darkest secrets. Although the synopsis seems too familiar, Immaculate initially appears to have the intention of breaking that formulaic mold through some solid cinematography and the casting of such a modern-day actress in Sweeney. But between Will Bates’ stock score and repetitious cycle of loud jumps scares and gotchas, this just feels like another entry in the already watered-down The Nun franchise. Sweeney is on a fascinating streak right now as Immaculate comes nearly one month after the disastrous Madame Web , which in turn came out a month and a half after the box office hit Anyone But You . Both of those polar opposites (as well as this project, which she produced) came after years of her presence on HBO with Sharp Objects , The White Lotus , and the controversial drama Euphoria . Her performance here might not break any new ground, but it does check off the box of being a solo leading lady who can sell a project on a concept and her acting abilities. She has a scream near the end where she’s caked in blood that echoes the signature outbursts from Janet Leigh in Psycho and Jenna Ortega in X . Aside from Sweeney, the cast isn’t very noteworthy, with everyone playing cookie-cutter horror characters. You’ve got the strict mother superior nun, the freaky priest who tries to defuse the situation but doesn’t help, the rebellious friend, and the one nun who thinks she’s better than everyone else. The only one that comes close to breaking out is Benedetta Porcaroli as Sister Gwen, the rebellious nun. When she and Cecilia are talking to each other and making humor out of whatever they’re doing, it’s cute, but it feels forced. If Immaculate is going to accomplish anything, it’s likely just that it’s a horror movie starring Sydney Sweeney and nothing else. There’s a moment where the nuns have a ceremony for Cecilia after the word of her pregnancy gets out. Cecilia is dressed in a lavish blue and yellow dress with a gold crown and see-through veil, metaphorically spotlighting her as the Virgin Mary. Everyone else is smiling and bowing their heads to her, reflecting how numerous viewers see Sweeney today. Then, in an instance, there’s a close-up of Cecilia shedding a tear, a callback to a certain shot of Sweeney in the second season of Euphoria . Are we as a society beginning to worship her as royalty this fast in her short career? Only time will tell, but I can guarantee people won’t look back at Immaculate as the primary reason for her ascendency. 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

Ranking the Films of Adam McKay April 17, 2024 By: Tyler Banark Adam McKay has had quite the rollercoaster of a career as a writer, producer, and director. He started as a writer for Saturday Night Live , where, after one year, he became the head writer from 1996 to 2001. Following his time on the variety series, he teamed up with Will Ferrell to create the production company Gary Sanchez Productions, spearheading several signature comedies. However, McKay took a heel turn in his career in 2015 when he made the acclaimed dramedy The Big Short , which marked his ascension as the face of satirical comedy, utilizing his sense of humor to convey messages that resonate in our society. In honor of his 56th birthday, here’s a look back at the filmmaker’s work and how his evolution has made an impression on Hollywood. 8. Vice (2018) A biopic following one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history, Vice sees McKay continuing down the path of dark satire he established with his predecessor, The Big Short . Christian Bale provides an enigmatic performance as Dick Cheney and continues to prove his chameleonic acting chops. The monologue he gives at the end is electrifying, forcing viewers to question his true intentions for the sake of ambiguity in the story. Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell also give standout performances as Lynn Cheney and President George W. Bush, respectively. However, Vice does falter in that the plot’s execution is a bit overly flashy. The movie pulled an unnecessary fake out ending only 48 minutes in. It also looks to focus on a lot of different characters that come and go in Cheney’s life, but it’s not done easily. The movie glosses over key events in Cheney’s life, such as his 2006 hunting incident and the use of waterboarding in Guantanamo Bay. 7. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2017) The sequel to McKay and Ferrell’s 2003 hit comedy, The Legend Continues was a mixed bag. It saw the long-awaited return of Ferrell’s mustached news anchor and crew, but it was filled with head-scratching lunacy rather than humor genuine enough to entertain audiences. The Legend Continues sees Ron Burgundy going head-to-head with several other news stations in the 1980s as television began evolving to bring niche news networks that run 24/7. Ron has a subplot where he’s separating from his wife, Veronica, but it isn’t fleshed out as well as it should. We do see their marriage face strife as their young son Walter falls victim to Ron’s absence. The plot’s main focus is on Ron and his pals, Brick, Champ, and Brian, having to change with the times through various moments of hilarity. 6. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) McKay’s second team-up with Ferrell couldn’t catch the lightning in a bottle they harnessed with Anchorman . Ferrell turns in another strong comedic performance as Ricky in his first collaboration with John C. Reilly, who plays his racing partner Cal Naughton Jr. Sacha Baron Cohen plays European driver Jean Girard, donning a French accent that’s so over-the-top. Michael Clarke Duncan and Amy Adams have small roles here as Bobby’s crew chief and assistant-turned-love-interest, respectively, and make the most of their screen time. 5. The Other Guys (2010) The first of a couple of successful collaborations between Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, The Other Guys is a clever action comedy that features some great humor. The duo steals the show as two backup detectives, Allen Gamble, and Terry Hoitz, respectively, who have to step into a case after two star detectives die (fantastically played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). Just the “aim for the bushes” scene is enough to make anyone want a full-length feature with them. There’s also an unforgettable running gag where Michael Keaton’s character, the captain, unknowingly quotes TLC songs. The success of Wahlberg here in one of his first studio comedic performances resulted in him branching out further as an actor, retaining Ferrell as a partner in the two Daddy’s Home films, which McKay produced. 4. The Big Short (2015) McKay’s first jab at a non-raunchy comedy, The Big Short cemented his filmmaking style with precisely paced editing and dark humor. Considering the film’s focus on the 2008 Financial Crisis, it was no surprise that it was a bit convoluted for audiences. But the stellar ensemble and several cameos from personalities such as Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and the late Anthony Bourdain made it all digestible. McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph had their train running while the tracks were being built, with the dialogue coming briskly and in your face. That strategy worked out, with the film netting five Oscar nominations, including the win for Best Adapted Screenplay. McKay’s status as a serious filmmaker was cemented… for better and for worse. 3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) One of Will Ferrell’s most iconic characters ever put to screen, Ron Burgundy, is easily the most recognizable and best character from the aughts. As for the movie itself, Anchorman is…kind of a big deal. Ferrell, of course, brings his a-game as Burgundy, as does Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Steve Carell as his respective colleagues. Christina Applegate performs just as outstandingly as Ron’s love interest, Veronica. The suggestive humor works brilliantly, thanks to the leading cast and Ferrell and McKay’s script. There are also several iconic moments, such as the news channel fight, Afternoon Delight, Ron’s banter with his dog Baxter, and Brian, Champ, and Brick’s introductions. These moments are complimented with timeless lines, even if the jokes can get too repetitive or dumb. 2. Don't Look Up (2021) McKay’s most recent film was the most distinct distillation of his two styles as it tracked two astronomers trying to spread the word that a comet is heading toward Earth. It was a collision of the serious tone and pacing of The Big Short and Vice, and the whacky humor of his earlier comedies. It may sometimes feel like an extended SNL sketch, but the extremely fun cast makes it all work. There was also more than just simple humor, with Nicholas Britell’s jazzy score receiving an Oscar nomination, and the visual effects certainly deserved that level of recognition. 1. Step Brothers (2008) Will Ferrell’s most underrated movie and one of the best screwball comedies out there, Step Brothers sees Ferrell and John C. Reilly having to put up with each other in a blended family setting as their parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) marry each other. Reilly joined Ferrell and McKay in the writer’s room, leading to many classic one-liners and an overall sillier plot. Both of the leads are their most unhinged, ranging from beating each other up to singing power ballads. It all may be dimwitted, but it’s easily the prime definition of a comedy to which viewers should turn their brains off. 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

Fly Me to the Moon July 10, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The spirit of Rob Reiner lives gloriously within Fly Me to the Moon , a winning combination of heart and humor aimed squarely at adults. Of course, Reiner is still alive and kicking out films pretty regularly, but the quality has dipped so dramatically that you’d be hard-pressed to know they even exist. I might be the only person in the world who holds the distinction of seeing LBJ and Shock and Awe in a theater, both times having the room all to myself. Director Greg Berlanti and screenwriter Rose Gilroy are here to pick up the slack, emulating the kind of energy Reiner and Aaron Sorkin produced so delightfully in The American President . The only unconvincing thing about Scarlett Johansson’s performance is her wig, which often carries the same spoofy look as Kristen Wiig’s Target Lady. But selling stuff that’s unconvincing is her job, with the first time we meet her character Kelly is at a Mad Men -esque advertising meeting where she sports a fake baby bump and correctly “guesses” (she bribed their secretaries) which cars each of the men drive. This is Johansson firmly in true movie star mode, her first time doing so away from the character of Black Widow in over a decade. It’s a lot of fun to see her be the brightest and most confident person in the room, often finishing the sentences of Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) as he races to keep up with her. Despite working for America’s preeminent government agency, Cole finds himself in the same position as any director of a nonprofit: underfunded, understaffed, and facing the pressure of the political machine. Public interest in space exploration has crashed back down to Earth after several failed attempts, the most notable being the death of three astronauts from Apollo 1. It also doesn’t help that Vietnam is still raging on and social upheaval is commanding the streets. Here to put a positive spin on everything is Kelly, which includes ad tie-ins and “punched up” biographies for all those involved. That thin line between lying and selling is what bothers Cole, who has made it his life's work to pull off the hardest task in the history of mankind with both the honor and integrity he believes America has. Things really come to a head when the government deems the Apollo 11 moon landing mission to be too big to fail, which means a contingency plan has to be put in place in the form of a fake recording. Berlanti and Gilroy have fun with the conspiracy-laden idea of the moon landing being faked, including a few jokes about Stanley Kubrick, who’s referred to as an overblown wunderkind who’s only made one good movie. Jim Rash gets more than a few moments to shine as a brash commercial director who’s more than happy to put in the powerful position of faking one of America’a finest moments. Berlanti and Gilroy don’t put too much stock into the ideological tension between Kelly and Cole. There are debates here and there about how Cole is doing this for idealism and Kelly is mucking it up by treating this like the Thanksgiving Day parade, all while those marketing dollars keep the lights on. What’s more important is the chemistry that Johansson and Tatum have at all times, which is never less than effortlessly charming. The translation into this time period might have been aided by the pair’s appearance in the Coen’s Hollywood Golden Age comedy Hail, Caesar! a few years back, although I’m pretty sure they didn’t share any substantial scenes. The horrendous poster and limited marketing would give you the impression that this is some straight-to-streaming cash grab, but real money has been spent on this production. There’s a ‘60s Jetsons sheen to everything, including a giddy Oliver Stone-inspired opening montage about America’s history with space up to this moment. The sets and costumes are light and airy, and so is Daniel Pemberton’s score. Cinematographer Darius Wolski, often seen helming Ridley Scott films, even gets to mimic the famous vacuum of space shot from First Man , only this time more comedically. Fly Me to the Moon is about people and a process, both of which serve as the main attractions. If there was a “They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To” category at the Academy Awards, this would be a strong contender to win. Now I hope people show up so we can start making more of these again. 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

2022 Winners January 1, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen While it definitely wasn’t as bad as 2020 or 2021, 2022 could still be considered a rough year for most people. But there were a few that rose above the challenges set before them and came out victorious. In this list, I’ll be going through nine of the biggest winners of 2022, whichever way you want to define the term “success.” Of course, plenty more could have been included here, but margin space is tight so some tough decisions had to be made. Make sure to come back tomorrow to see the unveiling of the 2022 Losers list. A24 Just as they always do, the independent distributor offered several genre-drying outings from our best present and future filmmakers. Their presence was felt at every film festival, with Everything Everywhere All at Once (SXSW), Close (Cannes), and The Whale (Venice) grabbing headlines from all over the globe. And with the box office potential for arthouse films falling by the wayside at alarming rates, A24 has continued to position itself as a strong brand geared towards younger demographics, so its future looks as bright as its present. Colin Farrell In terms of both quality and quantity, the Irish actor knocked it out of the park, starring in several productions in varying genres and scales. He started off the year with After Yang at Sundance, reintroducing Kogonada’s film after its 2021 Cannes bow. He then went big, both literally and metaphorically, for The Batman , which has netted him his own future spinoff show. Then there was Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives , where he and Viggo Mortensen aptly led the inspiring true story of the Thailand cave rescue. And, finally, he returned to his native home country to work again with Martin McDonagh on The Banshees of Inisherin , receiving the best reviews of his career. He’s already picked up a number of critics' prizes and looks to be a prime contender for the Best Lead Actor Oscar. Jenna Ortega No one had a bigger rise to fame in 2022 than Jenna Ortega. She had the one-two punch of The Fallout and Scream in January, proving that she was both able to carry heavy dramatic material and be a box office star. She kept the horror streak going with a supporting performance in Ti West’s X , followed by the titular role in Wednesday , which has already become one of Netflix’s most popular shows of all time. She’ll reprise her role in the upcoming Scream 6 , meaning we may have a new scream queen for this generation. Legacy Sequels Who says a sequel needs to come right away? If 2022 taught us anything, it’s that no movie is too old to get a follow-up. Top Gun: Maverick demolished box office expectations despite thirty-six years between entries, and Avatar: The Way of Water will look to repeat the success of its thirteen-year-old predecessor. Jackass Forever brought back the usual gang of numbskulls after a dozen years apart, resulting in even more hilarious brain trauma. Finally, there was Scream , blending both fan-favorites such as Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox with a fresh-faced group of potential Ghostface victims. Claire Denis The revered French auteur released two movies in 2022, both netting her positive critical remarks and some hardware for her trophy shelf. The first was Both Sides of the Blade , premiering at the Berlin Film Festival and reuniting her with Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon. Denis would pick up the festival prize for her direction just as she was racing around the clock to put the finishing touches on Stars at Noon for it to be submitted for the Cannes Film Festival, her first time there in competition in over thirty years. Her hard work paid off, as the film was jointly awarded the Grand Prize of the Festival (second-place prize) along with Lukas Dhont’s Close . Brian Tyree Henry Between both movies and television, and comedy and drama, Henry reached new heights in his career. He stole the spotlight from both Brad Pitt with his Thomas the Tank Engine-obsessed character in Bullet Train , and Jennifer Lawrence as a grief-stricken car mechanic in Causeway , which might earn him an Oscar nomination. He also concluded his run on Atlanta with the final two seasons, putting him in a prime position for next year’s Emmy awards. Horror Movies While other genres saw dwindling box office numbers, horror movies kept theaters afloat, both in wide and limited releases. Smile was the big winner with over $100 million both domestically and internationally, with Barbarian and The Menu close behind. Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2 proved to be a great investment at a budget of only $250,000, grossing over $10 million despite staying in a small number of theaters. X and Pearl gave arthouse horror fans a surprise treat, Prey reimagined the Predator franchise, and Bones and All told a story filled with both literal and metaphorical heart. Cate Blanchett Considering the high bar Blanchett has set for herself throughout her career, it’s hard to imagine how she would be able to raise it again. But just as she’s always done, she doubted the naysayers, turning in one of best performances of her career in TÁR , writer/director Todd Field’s return to feature filmmaking after a sixteen-year absence. She’ll be a top contender for her third acting Oscar. She also provided monkey noises for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio , and her narration for The School for Good and Evil was the only positive thing critics had to say about that movie. Ethan Hawke The only thing consistent about Hawke’s output this past year was the excellence of its quality. He made his MCU debut, and probably made some good money, as the main antagonist in Moon Knight . He then did three wildly different roles, both in terms of size and range, on the silver screen: Leading The Black Phone , supporting in The Northman , and providing a cameo in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery . But Hawke wasn’t just satisfied with appearing in front of the camera, as he also directed the six-part HBO Max documentary series on the relationship between Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. 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

April April 25, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen April opens in a black void. A faceless and mangled woman wanders around in knee-high water for a few minutes in a removed static shot. What exactly we're looking at and what she's doing is a complete mystery. It then cuts to the ground level of a rainstorm for another few minutes, the droplets and whistling wind emulating what we've come to expect from those white noise machines. But then suddenly we're watching a live birth take place from God's vantage point. This wasn't purely staged for the movie, this is the beginning of life in all of its agony and ecstasy. The film was written and directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, a Georgian (the country, not the deep-fried American state) filmmaker whose masterful debut film Beginning was unfairly kept in the shadows simply because of the fact that it was released in 2020. The film was placed in the First Features category as part of that year's Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, and gained a huge fan in Luca Guadagnino, who headed the jury at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and bestowed the film with a record number of prizes, taking home Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress. Guadagnino serves as a producer for April , which looks and feels like a natural leveling up of Kulumbegashvili's instincts as an artist. Presiding over that opening birth is Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili, reuniting with Kulumbegashvili), an OB-GYN who must put together the messes she inherits despite the limited resources allowed to her in the village. It turns out the pregnancy was never registered, which means neither Nina nor any of her colleagues were given the chance to find out that the lungs of the fetus were underdeveloped. The father makes accusations of malpractice against Nina, the prying eyes threatening to uncover the abortions she secretly performs in the village for girls who need them. From a legal standpoint, abortion is allowed in Georgia up to twelve weeks into the pregnancy. However, the ultra-conservative Orthodox Christian views shared by the large majority of the country's population make that right all but naught. Clinics can (and almost always do) refuse to perform the operation because of their beliefs, and any connection a person may have to it is enough to have them ostracized from the already confined communities. Viewers of Vera Drake back in 2004 may have been able to assuage themselves that the harrowing events took place in the 1950s before The 1967 Act made abortion legally protected in the United Kingdom. No such relief comes from within April, with the hostility towards women being felt in every frame. Each of those frames is expertly crafted by Kulumbegashvili and cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan. They are unbroken and still, lasting for several minutes and often blocking someone or something out of the frame. When Nina performs an abortion in the village for a teenage girl, we watch her from the girl's knees down as she writhes on the kitchen table from the pain. The boxed-in and closed-off nature of all these proceedings keeps both us and Nina isolated as to what is fully happening in this part of the world. Between the unsettling abstract visuals at the beginning of the film and the brutal real-life truths about bodily autonomy, this is one of the most bone-chilling films of the year. Sukhitashvili is an actress tailor-made to appear in films by Béla Tarr and Michael Haneke, her control of bleak stillness being unparalleled. Whether the camera is far away or a few inches from her face, Kulumbegashvili trusts her at every turn. Nina's past is kept in the dark, the few breadcrumbs we get here and there hint at romantic and professional trauma. Even as she tries to do the right thing, society makes her feel as if she's making things worse. Nowadays, almost every movie that brags that it needs to be seen in theaters is filled with extravagant visual effects and booming sound effects. The beauty of the cinema is not just in the sheer size of the speakers and screen, but the opportunity it gives us to break away from our world and be transported to a different one. This is the kind of movie where one of the top Letterboxd reviews states, "I fell asleep and when I woke up it was still the same shot." Absolute patience and concentration are a prerequisite, with any glances at your phone or minor distractions at home stripping away the spellbinding effect Kulumbegashvili has crafted. 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 Good Nurse September 11, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Good Nurse had its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it on its streaming platform on October 26. In this age of the true crime boom, it’s refreshing to watch something that doesn’t contain the usual fetishization of the criminal in an attempt to “get inside their head and understand them.” Or there’s the worse route, which is to make the show/movie capture the cultural zeitgeist by pandering to the TikTok crowd (I’m looking at you Dahmer , which has spawned the horrible “Jeffrey Dahmer Challenge”). Instead of doing any of those things, Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse wisely steers away from the crimes themselves and centers on the damaging causes and effects. The titular good nurse is Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain), a single mom who constantly struggles to balance the financial, physical, and emotional needs of herself and her two daughters. Despite having a heart condition that could easily kill her if she stresses herself too much, Amy works the graveyard shift at a New Jersey hospital, caring for the sick all throughout the night. After her shift, she goes home to see her daughters off to school and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before starting the cycle over again. One day, an angel appears in the form of Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne), a soft-spoken and caring new nurse who offers to help Amy. He lightens her workload, helps her take her meds, and is able to look after the kids at a moment's notice. For Amy, this almost seems too good to be true. As it turned out, it was. Cullen would be convicted of killing 29 patients across the dozens of hospitals he worked at, with almost all of the victims coming in with minor injuries and leaving for the morgue under mysterious circumstances. The Good Nurse never seems interested in answering the question “why did this monster kill all those people?” Rather, it takes the more interesting and socially relevant route of answering “how was this allowed to happen for so long?” Centering much of that discussion are two weary detectives (Noah Emmerich and Nnamdi Asomugha) brought in to investigate after the first questionable death at Amy’s hospital. Slowly, they begin pulling on threads, uncovering an extensive history of medical cover-ups prioritizing dollars over lives. There is nothing uplifting in its message, but it is constantly enlightening. But that enlightenment doesn’t come easy, with director Tobias Lindholm ( The Hunt ) bringing much of his Mindhunter skills into play. The tension is razor sharp, terrifyingly crescendoing across the deliberately paced material. DP Jody Lee Lipes shoots everything in drab gray wide shots, keeping the action unfrayed from excessive style. It’s the simplicity of the filmmaking that makes it all the more unsettling as you're reminded this happened for years in plain sight without anyone noticing, or caring. As Cullen, Redmayne finally gets the villain role we’ve all been waiting for (let's pretend Jupiter Ascending never happened). His charming awkwardness is used to great effect to mask the darkness underneath, making it easily believable why so many would doubt his culpability. To be fair, the wheels do come off the wagon once he’s erroneously pushed toward more dramatic moments, such as a semi-cringe outburst near the end. On the other hand, Chastain can do the heavy lifting. She gives Amy an empathetic intensity, making even the most mundane moments feel important. The Good Nurse is a tension-filled and infuriating true-crime examination of a broken system and the twisted individual who saw the opportunity it gave him. It’s an elevation of the genre that has repeatedly found itself wallowing in exploitation, with two Oscar-caliber performances leading the charge. 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

Renfield April 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The last time we saw Count Dracula, he was given a dark and gritty reboot (I say that in a backhanded tone) in Dracula Untold . It was a vain and half-assed attempt by Universal to set up their “Dark Universe,” which also included the entirely forgotten The Mummy starring Tom Cruise. For all the talk about the MCU starting to falter in Phase 4, you still have to give Kevin Feige credit for keeping the ship afloat and thriving for so long, as everyone else can’t even seem to hoist the sails. But at least that curse put upon Universal came with a blessing for audiences, as it forced the studio to think a little more imaginatively with their famous monsters. Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man , starring Elisabeth Moss, took that ludicrous premise and turned it into a story about trauma (before it became an overused buzzword throughout the pandemic). And now we have Renfield , the story of Dracula and his servant in the modern-day, overflowing with buckets of blood, as well as a few laughs for good measure. Nicholas Hoult plays the titular character, who was coerced into becoming the “familiar” (a nicer term for “slave”) for the Prince of Darkness (Nicolas Cage) way back in the 1930s, when he visited Dracula’s castle in hopes to make a real estate sale. An excellently crafted 4:3 black-and-white recreation of the 1931 original movie, complete with Hoult and Cage in period-accurate makeup and acting styles (I wished the whole movie was like this), gives us an introduction to this power dynamic. But while the world has changed drastically in the 90 years since, the relationship between the two of them has stayed the same. After an ambush by vampire hunters (sorry, Van Helsing is not with them), the two of them have been forced to relocate to New Orleans, where Renfield must find more victims for his master to feed on so that he may regrow to full power. But decades of killing innocent people for an evil dark lord have started to wear Renfield down. He decides he wants to do some good, which he gets an opportunity to do when he finds himself in the middle of a war between an honorable cop (Awkwafina) and the son (Ben Schwartz) of the most violent crime family in the city. Director Chris McKay, who brought us The Lego Batman Movie (fun!) and The Tomorrow War (boring!), goes for an action-comedy tone here. Renfield acquires powers similar to Dracula when he eats bugs, allowing him to execute goons with superhuman levels of brutality. The humorous attempts at extreme gore make more sense once you realize the idea for this story comes from Robert Kirkman, creator of the other ultra-violent comics (and subsequent television series) The Walking Dead and Invincible . The action scenes are filmed with pulpy flair but are undercut by excessive use of CGI instead of practical makeup, which is made even more disappointing since it’s already being used to perfection on Cage as his mangled body slowly heals from its wounds. Ryan Ridley’s script also has issues finding a healthy middle ground, with the attempts at digging into toxic relationships being too shallow, and the comedy being too on-the-nose. Renfield’s narration mostly just repeats what we already learned visually, and characters repeatedly spell out the plot and their motivations in expository dialogue. But most of those missteps are forgiven thanks to the movie completely delivering on its simple promise of seeing Nicolas Cage playing Count Dracula. Whether it’s flesh or the scene itself, Cage is always chewing on something through his extremely committed performance. He’s having an infectious amount of fun in the role, letting out his trademarked hoots and hollers between moments of extreme violence. If this movie achieves nothing else, I hope it inspires Cage to become this generation's Christopher Lee for the character, reprising him again and again in some (hopefully creatively inspiring) future iterations. 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 Caine Mutiny Court-Martial October 6, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen William Friedkin’s new adaptation of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial comes at an interesting moment. The first, and most unfortunately obvious, fact is that Friedkin passed away at the age of 87 in August, just a few weeks before this film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. There’s also the coincidence that the film begins streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime and then airs on Showtime the same weekend as The Exorcist: Believer , Blumhouse’s reboot of the horror franchise Friedkin originated with the 1973 original masterpiece. We can thank Taylor Swift for aligning the stars to allow Friedkin, never one to mince words with his opinions, to get the last laugh, at least in terms of quality. Believer will just have to settle with the boatloads of money it’s about to make. The Caine Mutiny originated in 1952 as a novel by Herman Wouk. The work of fiction grew out of the author’s personal experiences aboard destroyers during WWII. After its enormous success, Wouk adapted the material for the stage, a relatively easy task considering the novel’s one-room setting and small cast of characters. A movie adaptation was produced in 1954 starring Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Fred MacMurray, and E.G. Marshall. Along with directing, Friedkin also wrote the screenplay for this new take on the material, moving the setting from the Pacific Theater during World War II to the current-day Persian Gulf. The titular mutinous act performed aboard the USS Caine takes place during a torrential cyclone. Lieutenant Maryk (Jake Lacy) has lost all faith in the commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Queeg’s (Kiefer Sutherland) ability to guide them safely out of the storm. Maryk cited that Queeg was mentally unfit due to the stress of the situation, a common occurrence during his tenure. The insubordinate officer is being court-martialed for his actions, with Lieutenant Greenwald (Jason Clarke) reluctantly assigned to defend him in front of the military tribunal. Many will bemoan seeing a director as legendary as Friedkin having his final film reduced to premiering on a streaming service. While it’s an admirable sentiment, it avoids the fact that this material is ripe for the smaller-scale television landscape, an area Friedkin excelled at in the past with his 1997 adaptation of 12 Angry Men for Showtime. Friedkin may abandon the original material’s setting, but he has no qualms about embracing its inherently stage-like feel. A basic military courtroom serves as the sole setting throughout the 108-minute runtime. The action is repetitious, with a string of witnesses (Lewis Pullman, Tom Riley, Elizabeth Anweis, Jay Duplass) called upon to testify to Queeg’s time as commander and the specifics of what happened that fateful day. They’re each staged and edited around in their specific way, which keeps things fresh and flavorful. It’s a less theatrical version of A Few Good Men , with that restraint used to build nuance around this ethically dense topic. Despite only appearing in two scenes, Sutherland delivers his best performance in years as Queeg. To continue the A Few Good Men comparisons, he would be this film’s Col. Jessep, finely played by Jack Nicholson. Sutherland isn’t as hammy, although his character does sport a peculiar set of quirks such as speaking out of the side of his mouth and twiddling his thumbs to distract from the trembling of his hands. Between this film and Oppenheimer , Jason Clarke has shown his skill in playing contestable lawyers. And there’s also another figure who was taken from this world too soon in Lance Reddick, who’s never been a bad addition to a cast. Sure, this won’t be remembered as Friedkin’s finest work. It’s not at the same level as The French Connection, The Exorcist , or To Live and Die in L.A. But not every Alfred Hitchcock film is as good as Psycho , nor is every Billy Wilder film as good as Sunset Blvd . Friedkin is at that level where even some of his great movies won’t be remembered as strongly as his masterpieces. Make no mistake, this is a great movie, a fitting farewell to a filmmaker who could take any material and mold it into something uniquely entertaining and personal. 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

It Ends with Us August 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Every once in a while, there comes a moment during a critic’s career where they have a bit of an existential crisis over whether their opinion matters. Those pangs of self-doubt and uselessness can come in all shapes and sizes, covering an entire body of work or just a single piece. While I’ve never endured the self-questioning of my work as a whole (yet), there was a distinct moment during It Ends with Us where I seriously doubted any sort of merit I could bring to the conversation surrounding the film and the book it is based on. That immediate moment of realization came within the theater, but before the projector had even been turned on. After walking down the theater hallway and the entrance into the specific room, I turned the corner to see that the entire auditorium was filled with women, the majority of whom were members of a local book club. I’ll admit, this already sounds like it’s the start of a whiny tell-all where a man finally realizes the world isn’t catered to him. It’s not that serious, nor was this even close to the first time I learned that movies can have different target audiences. But it was a gentle reminder that there are certain movies I can’t expect myself to “get,” something that I appreciate since too many movies try to be for everyone, which inadvertently makes them appealing to no one. It Ends with Us easily slots into that “book club sensation” microgenre, with many of its members being sneaky box office sensations. Where the Crawdads Sing grossed over $150 million post-pandemic, and The Idea of You became Amazon MGM’s number-one romantic comedy ever on steaming earlier this year. Based on my audience’s reception as the screen cut to black and the credits rolled, It Ends with Us will follow a similar trajectory along with a healthy CinemaScore. Director Justin Baldoni has already tapped this source twice before with Five Feet Apart and Disney+ Original Clouds , both cancer dramas. That subject never gets broached here, although things do start on an equally glib note with the funeral for Lily’s (Blake Lively) father, who was a domestic abuser throughout much of her childhood. Love and relationships have never been simple for Lily, which is why she’s stayed single in Boston all these years, her dreams of opening a flower shop being her driving force. Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni, casting himself as the irresistible neurosurgeon) is also in the same boat, although he’s intentionally put himself there after years of trading love for lust. Ryle shows all the signs a college orientation would give you to identify a sexual predator; including saying things like “I need a kiss to get you out of my head” and never taking no for an answer. Within the confines of the page, there could be the slightest bit of room for interpretation about the dynamic Lily and Ryle share. But once it’s projected on a giant screen right in front of you and literalized, it just comes off as creepy and pathetic. Sure, that is part of the point, but Baldoni’s attempts as both the director and actor to make Ryle into a romantically compelling character end up backfiring on every occasion. It also brings into question the “relatable” brush screenwriter Christy Hall (writer/director of Daddio earlier this year) tries to paint Lily with, as if any girl couldn’t be at fault for falling for this guy. Forming the final part of this love triangle is Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), Lily’s first love from high school and now the owner of the hottest restaurant in town (did I mention that he’s really hot as well?). Where Ryle is controlling and manipulative, Atlas is caring and sensitive. They all have tragic backstories, all of which conveniently explain their current problems and behaviors. Furnishing the mass marketization of domestic abuse and toxicity is the most popular art direction and costuming from the “cozy” section of Pinterest. Kevin McKidd feels like a prop as Lily’s father, his Grey’s Anatomy connection causing a flurry of excited whispers amongst the audience. There are not as many opportunities to appreciate the eye candy as I would have hoped, with Baldoni shooting most scenes through close-ups, often recreating the Focus Features logo background across the Boston skyline. Lively pops off the screen as much as her questionable fashion choices (I’m definitely no expert, but what she wears to her father’s funeral seemed like a bit too much), with one almost wishing that the entire movie would have ditched the two possible lovers and solely focused on her running her flower shop with Jenny Slate and Hasan Minhaj. The brief glimpses into Lily and Atlas’ past can stay, though, as newcomer Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter share some wonderful moments. Readers of the book will no doubt be satisfied with what Baldoni has crafted, while those making this their first experience with the story will be left wondering what all the commotion has been about on Goodreads for all these years. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, just got a pass these past few weeks for making Deadpool & Wolverine “for the fans,” so it's best to apply that same metric here. 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