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Crime 101 February 11, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Simply by being a crime film set in Los Angeles that puts a weary cop and a calculating thief on a climactic collision course, the comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat are rampant and obvious for Crime 101 . Even the author of the novella, Don Winslow, can’t escape scot-free, as he published it in 2020. Then again, despite Heat being the shining pinnacle of its genre, it doesn’t have a monopoly on Los Angeles-based crime, especially when several other entries like Chinatown , Colors , and Point Break already staked their claim. Crime 101 probably won’t ascend to that level of notoriety, but it also won’t be an odd duck if it’s mentioned in the same sentence. Prior planning prevents poor performance. It’s a phrase/code that Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) religiously lives by, as we first see him going through the rhythms of preparation for his next heist. He brushes off all loose hair and skin flakes, ensuring that not a speck of DNA can be found at the scene. He wears a mask, never resorts to violence, and is in and out within thirty seconds. It’s like clockwork; the sole clue to his plans is that every job takes place along the US 101 freeway in Los Angeles. Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) is the only person who seems to have cracked the code, with everyone else being fooled into believing that Mike’s jobs are all just random robberies. Also intertwined in this classic tale of cops and robbers is insurance broker Sharon Colvin (Halle Berry), who hasn’t received the respect and rewards she’s owed after years of catering to the ultra-wealthy slobs who require insurance policies on their multi-million dollar antiquities. On her most recent client visit, a potential buyer revealed to her that he bought a piece of contemporary black art because the current political landscape would cause it to appreciate for future resale. Is there anything more degrading than groveling for less than your worth, only to see a life-changing amount of money thrown as if it’s loose change? With a 140-minute runtime, Winslow’s story, adapted for the screen and directed by Bart Layton, pleasantly takes its time to have its characters meet in the middle, both physically and philosophically. Ruffalo is currently hitting his stride as a worn-down cop, also playing the part in HBO’s Task . He’s chaim smoking as he approaches a crime scene, having already endured what the city has thrown at him. The only reason he’s not higher up on the food chain is that he “doesn’t play by the rules,” which essentially means that he doesn’t turn a blind eye to cop corruption. Added in as a chaos agent is Barry Keoghan, once again renewing his monopolistic license to play the twitchy freak in every movie. It’s not broken, so there’s no need for him to fix it. He’s been tasked to hijack Mike’s big score by their shared handler (Nick Nolte). Layton keeps the tension building as everyone moves on their individual and shared tracks, the camera often being handed off as one coincidentally bumps into another. It’s rather unshowy work, just skilled craftsmanship that achieves the basic task put before it. As much as Hemsworth may walk the walk when committing crimes, he cannot talk the talk when it’s time to be a normal member of society. Hinting at being on the spectrum or still possessing mental scars from childhood, he is a man of little charm outside of his impossibly good looks. It’s those physical features that attract Maya (Monica Barbaro), who both does and doesn’t see through the many red flags Mike flashes. How far would you go to make a relationship work, even in the face of danger? It is tough to review Crime 101 because there is very little that it does either above or below the average. Its biggest accomplishment is giving Halle Berry a role worthy of her talents, something that hasn’t happened in a long time. She’s roaringly good, possessing both movie star wattage and serious dramatic chops. Of course, that’s an unsurprising fact. But sometimes you don’t appreciate just how good something is until you’ve been without it for a long time. More Reviews How to Make a Killing February 18, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Crime 101 February 11, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Pillion February 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Josephine February 7, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Josephine had its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution. By being located high up in the Utah mountains (or, starting next year, the Colorado mountains), intentionally positioned as far away as possible from the red carpets and bright lights of Hollywood, the Sundance Film Festival has always put itself in the best position to be the guiding light for the next generation of independent American filmmakers. In its early days, the festival ushered in the talents of Steven Soderbergh ( Sex, Lies, and Videotape ), Quentin Tarantino ( Reservoir Dogs ), Todd Haynes ( Poison ), and Gregg Araki ( The Doom Generation ). In more modern times, industry leaders like Ryan Coogler ( Fruitvale Station ), Damien Chazelle ( Whiplash ), Jordan Peele ( Get Out ), Ari Aster ( Hereditary ), and Celine Song ( Past Lives ) have each made their breakthroughs amid snowfall and frigid temperatures. As part of this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition is Josephine , a film that feels destined to launch its writer/director, Beth de Araújo, into the same realm of acclaim as the previously mentioned names. It’s a film that the festival has been backing for many years, initially taking the project under its wing as part of the 2018 Sundance Institute Screenwriting and Directing Lab. After delays stemming from the pandemic and normal industry turmoil, the finished product has finally been unveiled. de Araújo clearly has used the years to refine and finely calibrate her story. A child’s life is fully filtered through their parents, every day being filled with interactions that become pieces of the puzzle to them as a human being. When we’re first introduced to the titular Josephine (Mason Reeves), we see the world through her eyes, similar to that of what RaMell Ross instilled in Nickel Boys . She’s going out to Golden Gate Park with her dad (Channing Tatum) for soccer practice . She’s at the exact age where she wants to appear grown up, repeatedly exclaiming that such things “are for babies!” In the park, Josephine will get her first unvarnished experience of the real world. In a playful race against her dad, she hides in a bush, waiting to jump out and scare him. On the other side of the trail, she watches as a woman walks into the park bathroom. A man then follows her in, drags her out, knocks her unconscious, and proceeds to rape her. The assailant is caught a few moments later, but that’s not the end of this. The coldness of my description of the climactic events matches that of de Araújo’s presentation. With Josephine’s eyes serving as the camera, we watch as the act unfolds in real-time. It’s one of several moments where a lingering camera is used to amplify tension and horror with clinical precision. Josephine’s life has now become bifurcated between the before and after of the event. Her childlike innocence has been short-lived, with her father and mother (Gemma Chan) having to guide her through the next phase. The parents have differing opinions, with mom wanting Josephine to see a psychiatrist, and dad putting her into a self-defense class. de Araújo plays down the middle of both sides, seeing the repercussions that come from running and facing your fears, especially when you’re too young to fully comprehend what’s happening. Time will eventually heal this wound, but an aching scar will be left. Reeves is a transcendent performer, never letting the layers of artificiality that inherently come with film inhibit her from finding the emotional truth. Tatum and Chan are also excellent, two parents clinging to each other as they’ve been shot into the void. If, for some odd and cruel reason, you were forced to only watch one film from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, make sure it is this one. More Reviews Crime 101 February 11, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Pillion February 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Josephine February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the pantheon of generic, no-nonsense action films that fill January year after year, Jason Statham’s output is becoming increasingly unparalleled. Rivaling the production of Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the ‘80s, Statham has become Hollywood’s go-to liberator of machismo, with the baton unofficially passing from the past to the present throughout the Expendables franchise. The British-born, bald tough guy can hunt sharks ( The Meg, Meg 2: The Trench ), drive fast cars ( Fast & Furious franchise), hunt down criminals ( Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre ), and deliver “so bad it’s good” B-movie entertainment ( The Beekeeper ). He’s always a man with a particular set of skills, making him a nightmare for the suckers who get in his way. Shelter falls right in line with The Beekeeper and A Working Man , with Statham playing Michael Mason, another supposed everyman trying to hide from his violent past. Doing one better than those previous two movies, this time, he’s hiding on a desolate, remote island off the coast of Scotland. He spends his days holed up in his cabin atop a cliff, playing against himself in chess and drinking away regrets. Whenever he does look out to sea, he knows that one day someone is going to show up for retribution. Until then, the only other human contact he has is the weekly supply shipments from a fishing boat manned by a captain and his younger niece, Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). A violent storm knocks Jessie off her dinghy and drowns the captain, marooning the girl on Mason’s island as he’s required to take care of her. Not one for personal contact, he begrudgingly returns to civilization to get her some medicine. A security camera picks him up, with MI6’s secretly illegal artificial intelligence program mistakenly flagging him as an international terrorist. A hitsquad quickly arrives on the island, forcing Michael and Jessie to go on the run to clear his name and rectify the past. We spend almost a third of the film on the island before any fists or bullets are exchanged, a surprising amount of time considering the heavy marketing push on the action elements. Statham carries these moments with a steady presence, his only companions being the wind and the waves. He does have a trusty dog by his side, his innocent stares always providing the answer to Michael’s rhetorical questions. David Buckley’s score is at a constantly low, thumping register, the danger always around the corner. Heading up MI6 down in London is Bill Nighy, who’s just been publicly sacked by the prime minister after it's discovered that the AI program has been spying on every British citizen. He’s someone who doesn’t care about freedoms getting in the way of power, which is how he burned Michael many years ago when they worked together. Naomi Ackie is his second-in-command, never fully in the know of how ruthless Nighy is. Both of them are fine, likely taking this job for an easy paycheck. They never leave their respective control rooms and get to bark orders at their underlings. A standout is Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who most recently played Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet . Jacobi Jupe deservedly got the majority of the praise for playing the titular boy, but Breathnach was just as sensational. She continues her ascension here, successfully making me care about Michael’s ability to protect her, something these “Lone Wolf and Cub” type of films seldom accomplish. It feels like an oversimplification to compare her to Saoirse Ronan based on looks and her Irish background, but the talent is there. Look out for her later this year in the remake of Sense and Sensibility and Robert Eggers’ Werwulf . Cornering the market this month with Greenland 2: Migration, along with this film, director Ric Roman Waugh competently stages the action. Statham goes toe-to-toe with the ruthless black ops assassin who took his position once he deserted, offering a slice of redemption to his arc. It’s all a tad generic, with a thin instigating element and a bafflingly weak climactic showdown. But sandwiched between those elements is an up-to-par action/drama showcase for one of our most dependable stars and a rising talent. More Reviews Crime 101 February 11, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Josephine February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen As a proud Minnesotan, Mercy really isn’t the right movie for the moment. Now entering its third week, the ongoing inhumane ICE raids throughout the Minneapolis area have ravaged the community, forcing citizens to fear those who have supposedly sworn to protect them. Minnesotans have always exemplified a strong communal spirit, so we will prevail. Within the opening scenes of Mercy , there are several moments where masked law enforcement officers arrest vaguely defined bad guys. These officers then make speeches about how they are doing what needs to be done to uphold the law. The country is at war with its morals, and the wrong side is winning. In fairness to Mercy , it was conceived, written, and produced years before today’s headlines, and it certainly had no intention (or courage) to make a statement. But this is also a movie that is not right for any moment, with little to warrant the amount of time and energy that went into its creation. January is always good for one movie that a studio would like to bury with as little fanfare as possible. Mercy is this year’s poster child, falling in line alongside such classics as Flight Risk , The 355 , Mortdecai , Dolittle , Serenity , and the bulk of the Underworld movies. We’ll at least always have my beloved The Beekeeper . Perhaps the only redeeming quality this film has is the presence of a 50-foot-tall Rebecca Ferguson, domineering over her chained-up prisoners. I’d imagine someone will get a kick out of that (not me, of course…). Her existence is a function of the Mercy Program, which has rapidly usurped the traditional legal system within Los Angeles County. Things such as rights and due process were clogging the judicial pipeline, so an artificial intelligence system was promoted to the simultaneous roles of judge, jury, and executioner. In this courtroom, you’re guilty until proven innocent, and you only have ninety minutes to overturn the verdict. Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) was an early proponent of this new system, arresting many of its initial convicts. Now the shoe is on the other foot, with him being locked in the steel chair. The system anthropomorphizes itself through Judge Maddox (Rebecca Reguson), whose sleek looks are matched by the coldness it displays towards humanity. Facts and logic trump emotions, which run hot as Chris stands trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Nicole. Within his allotted time, Chris is given full access to the municipal database, which pretty much lets him do whatever the plot needs of him. An authoritarian near-future sci-fi plot such as this shares several ideas with Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report , which imagines a world where supposedly incorruptible foreknowledge can be used to prevent a crime before it is even committed. Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriters Scott Frank and Jon Cohen brought thought-provoking nuance to this concept in the 2002 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise. Humans no longer trust themselves to be their own police, somehow thinking that a system built by them will be a better replacement. Freedom has been traded away in favor of alleged security. Mercy fully lacks any interest or ability to mingle with those ideals. Director Timur Bekmambetov and screenwriter Marco van Belle would rather disorient the viewer than engage with them. Legal jargon and plot revelations fly at an increasingly accelerated pace, all of it seemingly pulled out of thin air to service whatever needs to happen at this exact moment. And not to spoil the ending, but this film cowardly talks out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to artificial intelligence, government surveillance, and the increased militarization of the police. Bekmambetov was also a leading producer for last year’s Ice Cube-starring War of the Worlds , a cinematic calamity that will always be easy to laugh at. That film was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, employing the “Screenlife” strategy to make it appear as if the film's events were unfolding on a computer monitor. Used more as a cost-cutting measure rather than a means to upend the cinematic grammar, this aesthetic wholly lacks any sense of cinematic integrity. War of the Worlds at least had the benefit of solely being watched at home through Amazon Prime. Mercy putting it all on a silver screen is just lame, hitting way too close to my usual experience at work. A significant portion of this film’s marketing budget has been used to promote its release in IMAX 3D, a format I imagine would be an absolute nightmare to experience. Pratt is a terrific star when given the chance to feed off other people’s energy, such as in the many seasons of Parks and Recreation and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. This film fully strips away that asset, locking him in a single location, devoid of all humor or thrills. Rebecca Ferguson gets even less to do as the artificial overlord, dryly reciting lines and mugging for the camera anytime a music sting cues a reveal. This story offers little mercy to their careers and to its audience. Luckily, I’ll be able to get my revenge a year from now when we’re able to discuss the worst films of 2026. More Reviews Crime 101 February 11, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Josephine February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen As I sit at my computer typing this review, it is -32° F outside. A thin pane of glass separates me from the howling arctic winds, whose whistling is their warning call should I ever be foolish enough to meet them outside. Frost dresses every surface, making the whole state feel like one big hockey rink. The brief, constant need to stay indoors crafts a rift in time, blurring the days and reminding me of the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. That window of time bestowed the outdoors with the power of freedom. Now, it’s trying to kill us. All of that dramaticism is to say that I got some basic enjoyment (and jealousy) from the sights and sounds of the Hawaiian islands that serve as the backdrop for the new Prime Video action film The Wrecking Crew. The film opens over the ocean, with a helicopter-traversing camera that eventually descends onto the bustling streets of Honolulu. We follow a weathered man who continually looks over his shoulder as he walks to a mailbox within a market. He picks up the pace once he drops off the envelope, eventually crossing into an abandoned part of town. A mysterious van runs him down, and his corpse catalyzes his estranged sons to resume the hunt. One of them is James (Dave Bautista), a native son of the island who works as a trainer for the Navy SEALS. There isn’t an aspect of his life that he doesn’t control, which is why he didn’t want anything to do with his womanizing and reckless father. One of those apples that didn’t fall far from the tree is James’ half-brother Jonny (Jason Momoa), a wildcard who fled the island as a teenager, now living as a deadbeat detective in rural Oklahoma. These opposites attract once Jonny receives the mysterious letter from their father, which contains clues to a deeper conspiracy involving political corruption and criminal rings. Similar to last year’s John Cena and Idris Elba-starring Heads of State , this is a run-of-the-mill actioner that initially pits its two stars against each other until they must come together to stop a common enemy. And without spoiling the third-act reveal, it’s constantly obvious who the secret bad guy is here. Baustista and Momoa are fine together, their similar physical and comedic sensibilities not allowing for anything new to be brought to the table. Jonathan Tropper’s script or Momoa’s improvisation seems to think that ironically using terms like “gaslighting,” “triggered,” and “boomer” are the pinnacles of comedy, which they aren’t unless you're twelve years old. That demographic will probably get the most out of this movie, downing the surprisingly Hard R vulgarity and violence just as much as Momoa chugs a Guinness, a brand that he has a commercial partnership with. Director Angel Manuel Soto, last seen helming the most forgotten DC movie of the last few years, Blue Beetle , does bring some life to the film, opting for a mixture of handheld camerawork and long takes. It brings some complementary panache to the leads, their muscles flexing more in real-time than being cut around. All of that kind of gets thrown away for the big car chase set piece on a highway, which looks horribly digitally composited. The brothers are directly responsible for many civilian deaths from automobile accidents, showing little remorse for their actions, almost as if cops can cause as much collateral damage as they want and only get a stern talking to as their punishment. That kind of pick-and-choose energy permeates throughout the film’s many attempts at representation for the island’s native citizens. The brother’s father is given a ceremonial ocean burial, and an off-the-grid commune is highlighted. But then there are also several borderline racist jokes directed at the European and Asian bad guys. I’d be a little more up in arms about the hypocrisy if the film were more than a pile of nothingness. There’s certainly bigger fish to fry in this world, and better movies to watch. More Reviews Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Josephine February 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Running 160 minutes, Magellan could be considered a short film for Filipino writer/director Lav Diaz. Often also serving as his own cinematographer and editor, it is not abnormal for one of his films to eclipse the three-hour mark. Two of his most acclaimed works are The Woman Who Left (winning the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival) and Season of the Devil , both clocking in at nearly four hours. A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery reaches eight hours, Melancholia and A Tale of Filipino Violence are seven, and From What Is Before is five-and-a-half. Apart from its reduced runtime, Magellan also contrasts on account of its exponentially grander scale and scope. Almost all of the previously mentioned films were shot in black-and-white with consumer-level HD and DSLR cameras, extremely inexpensive compared to traditional productions. For this film, €2 million was allotted, still a small amount for a story taking place on multiple continents and headlined by a major international star in Gael García Bernal. The relative brevity of this film was initially not by design; the project first announced in 2019 under the title of Beatriz, The Wife . The goal was to depict the life of Ferdinand Magellan through the eyes of his younger wife, whom he married just before his expedition, and then never saw again. True to his form, Diaz is still working on a much lengthier sort of sequel to Magellan with the extra footage , which will fulfill that promise. Here, she is essentially a cameo, a brief moment of solace between Ferdinand’s perilous journeys. That choice is in service to this specific story, as Magellan sees the titular explorer as little more than power-hungry and only out for himself. Magellan left Spain in 1519, seeking to reach the Spice Islands of Southeast Asia. He sailed west, intending to prove that there was a faster route than going under the southern tip of Africa. For two years, he and his crew sailed across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, eventually making landfall in the eastern Philippines. They were the first European contact for the native people, bringing the word of God with them. Of course, this view of Christianity is still strictly conservative, with two homosexual crewmen being executed midway through the journey. All physical renderings of local idols are immediately burned, with any displays of worship being swiftly punished. As Bender once said in Futurama : “The whole world must learn of our peaceful ways... by force!” For many Filipinos, the legend of Ferdinand Magellan is one marked by bloodlust and outsized ambition, a symptom of the European disease to conquer rather than cooperate. Working with cinematographer Artur Tort, a frequent collaborator of the similarly patient director Albert Serra, Diaz constructs breathtakingly painterly frames. Within the 4:3 ratio, both the background and foreground contain a multitude of plot strands, their naked truth revealing the spoken lies. In one moment, Ferdinand kneels to pray to God in gratitude, with several native corpses lying near him. Although he often bristles against the idea of ‘Slow Cinema,’ Diaz is very much a part of that community, along with other revered filmmakers like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bela Tarr, and Theo Angelopoulos. The camera sits motionless for minutes on end, equally capturing both the epic and mundane. It replicates the pace of a journey, the ecstasy not all that much different than the endless agony. You’re lulled into the film’s liminal flow of time, a witness to the tragically pathetic expansion of Western civilization. Others may be lulled to sleep, their slumber never interrupted due to the film’s absence of any noise above a whisper. Even with its length, much of Magellan still feels surface-level. Granted, this is not meant to be the definitive portrait of the man, as evidenced by the fact that we don’t get a good look at him until at least an hour in. Diaz is more concerned with repercussions than reinterpretations, the slippery slope this specific part of the world has been on for more than five centuries. Many of the lessons are still being learned the hard way, with the only difference being the way they’re dressed. More Reviews Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Twin Cities Film Fest 2025 Preview October 14, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen From late August through mid-September, the fall film festival corridor reaches its apex of influence and popularity with the overlapping of the trifecta that is the Venice International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival. Dozens of A-list movie stars and auteurs debut their newest projects, walking the red carpet and shaking hands to attract as much attention as possible. It’s all a game, with the victor being showered with praise in the form of box office earnings and industry awards. While those headlining festivals are mostly exclusive events, a democratization of this process begins in October with the blitz of the regional festivals. All across the country (and the world), smaller festivals gather a collection of the best that world cinema has to offer, curating for local tastes and building narratives that carry on throughout the rest of the year. Notable festivals that take place during this time include the New York Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival, and AFI Fest. Also a part of that mix is the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF), now celebrating its “Sweet 16” anniversary with its lineup of blockbusters and headliners. Distributor Focus Features retains its opening night slot for the third year in a row after The Holdovers and Conclave , respectively. Both of those films placed for the Best Feature Film Award, something that this year’s selection, Hamnet , could very likely do, considering its rave reviews and awarding of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Tissues will be needed for the audience of this tear-jerker, which features Oscar-worthy performances by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It will then be released in theaters around the Thanksgiving holiday. Also from Focus Features is Bugonia , the newest collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone, whose previous works include The Favourite , Poor Things , and Kinds of Kindness . Stone plays a CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed young men who believe that she is an alien who has been sent to destroy the planet. Amazon MGM Studios will bring Hedda , writer/director Nia DaCosta’s reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play, starring Tessa Thompson. Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen, and Keanu Reeves headline Ansari’s directorial debut, Good Fortune , which will play at the Edina Mann 4 Theatre as part of the festival’s new partnership to expand its programming capabilities. Searchlight Pictures will be pulling double duty during the festival’s final days with the dramedies Rental Family and Is This Thing On? . In the lineup press release, Executive Director Jatin Setia said that he wanted to “put a brighter spotlight on the independent spirit.” That sentiment is illustrated by the selection of The Floaters as the Spotlight Centerpiece. Marking its Minnesota Premiere at the festival, the indie dramedy features an eclectic cast of performers like Jackie Tohn, Seth Green, Aya Cash, and Steve Guttenberg. Director Rachel Israel and producer Shai Korman will conduct a Q&A following the screening. The Closing Night Gala, Lost & Found in Cleveland , will also bring together its cast and crew, including directors Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman, as well as actors Santino Fontana and Benjamin Steinhauser. The festival received a record number of submissions this year, with over 150 films set to screen at the Marcus West End Cinema, Edina Mann 4 Theatre, or virtually via the TCFF streams platform. The selection runs from October 16 to the 25th, with information about scheduling and tickets available at twincitiesfilmfest.org . More Reviews Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Frankenstein September 11, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Frankenstein had its North American Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on October 17, followed by its streaming premiere on November 07. Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker most in love with monsters, finally gets the chance to adapt the story of the most famous one of all. It’s been a dream project for him, entwined in his DNA and influencing each piece in his vast filmography. For decades, Mary Shelley’s novel always seemed to elude him, with box office hits and scores of Oscars never moving the needle enough. Then came Netflix with its bottomless war chest, opening the possibility for an epically scaled story about monsters playing god. “Some of what I will tell you is fact. Some is not. But it is all true.” This is how Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) prefaces his life’s story to Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen) after his injured body is rescued from the frozen tundra of the North Pole. A creature has been hunting him from the ends of the Earth, seemingly unkillable after Anderson’s men fire several shots and trap him under the ice to no avail. To understand this relationship, Victor must start from the beginning, when death conquered over his mother, igniting a vengeful desire for the brilliant boy to reverse what only God can control. His goal and methods make him a bit of a bad boy in Victorian England, the professors at the Royal Society decrying his attempts to revive the dead. He is more or less creating zombies, a patchwork of body parts from separate corpses held together by an electric current through the spinal column. They’re technically alive, although they lack a soul to become emotionally and mentally intelligent. But as history has proved time and time again, war loosens moral constraints. In comes Harlander (Christoph Waltz) with his deep pockets and need for Victor to revive dead soldiers so that they can be reused for cannon fodder. The Creature (Jacob Elordi) is the first specimen to take things to the next level, offering increased motor skills and the ability to learn language. The original 1818 novel carries the full title of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.” But unlike the Greek god, Victor doesn’t champion humanity or its new member. He’s only interested in reversing death, not creating life. To fix death only takes a keen intellect and equipment. Bestowing life takes compassion and patience. The Creature is slow to learn, stumbling around with his oversized limbs and scars that make him look similar to the Engineer from Prometheus . He is discarded once he proves useless, a toy that his owner no longer finds amusing. Conversely, Shelley and, by extension, del Toro, share great sympathy for The Creature, his plight being a reflection of humanity's cruel backwardness. Harlander claims to be a man of honor, and yet he can’t even remember the name of the war that he’s currently getting rich on. Elordi turns in his best performance yet, with the pounds of makeup and effects never inhibiting his emotional pull. His grunts eventually become full sentences, with the second half of the film dedicated to the origin from his perspective. Heavy is the head that wears the crown of immortality, forced to walk a lonely life of rejection and incompleteness. At the very least, del Toro crafts this dreary story into an absolutely breathtaking experience. The filmmaker’s love for the material is entirely infectious, with the constantly roaming camera picking up every sumptuous detail from Tamara Deverell’s sets and Kate Hawley’s costumes. The stark black and red suits and dresses gothically contrast with the pure white snow, which is then bathed in blood and fire. Victor’s clifftop laboratory exemplifies that contradiction, littered with pristine sculptures and severed bodies. Isaac’s doctor is a mad genius, his ego always more inflated than his understanding of what he’s truly doing. He and The Creature are in a constantly revolving door over who is the predator and the prey, blazing a bloody trail across Europe. Mia Goth is well cast as Victor’s sister-in-law, Elizabeth. She has just as curious a mind as Victor, but also a heart to be offered to The Creature. Waltz joins alongside Charles Dance, David Bradley, and Ralph Ineson as the heavy hitters lining up the rest of this stately cast. With a lifespan recently crossing over into two centuries, Shelley’s story has long suffered the plague of becoming a copy of a copy of a copy. Endless adaptations and inspirations have taken only the elements that are deemed the most commercially muscular, leaving out the heart and mind. Del Toro has picked up those discarded pieces and made it whole again, reminding us why stories like these have and will withstand the test of time. More Reviews Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the world of law enforcement, a “rip” is a seizure of criminal assets, typically money, weapons, or drugs. Like its namesake, it’s a fast-moving operation whose main objective is to get in and get out with as much stuff as possible before trouble explodes. Of course, criminals don’t find much humor in the irony of being robbed, so the job requires the toughest and bravest (“foohlhardy” would be the more correct word) from the police force. During those raids, adrenaline is pumping, and alluring substances are being grabbed. Add a ticking clock on top of that, and you never know what exactly is going to go down. Director Joe Carnahan’s The Rip boasts the tagline: “Count the money. Count it again. Count on no one.” The money is located in a stash house in Hialeah, a city just northwest of Miami, graced with bullet holes on each of its welcome signs. A tip came in to Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) about $150,000 being hidden for the cartel by a girl named Desi (Sasha Calle). But once Dane and his team - JD (Ben Affleck), Mike (Steven Yeun), Numa (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo (Catalina Sandino Moreno) - make their way through the house, they find out that $150,000 hasn’t been stashed, but $20 million. What was once a routine bust-up on a Friday afternoon before a well-earned weekend has become an all-night standoff. This unit is a family, but even a bond within a family can be tested by that amount of money. Carnahan got his start with seedy cops and criminals with 2002’s Narc , a theme that has continued in the two decades since with Smokin’ Aces and Copshop. He was also part of the screenwriting team for Bad Boys for Life , also a Miami-set story of cops getting in way over their heads. But instead of living the lives of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as they exchange one-liners while cruising down Ocean Drive, Damon and Affleck are being pitted against each other under the guise of ulterior motives and opportunities. Aflfeck’s character was in a relationship with the police captain, whose unexpected murder left a vacant job opening that Damon took. Now with $20 million on the line, questions that were left unspoken are now being asked out loud. This is a story (loosely) inspired by true events, something that Carnahan and co-writer Michael McGrale use as an opportunity to highlight the moral complexities within police work. As part of the murder investigation over the captain’s murder, everyone is brought in for questioning. Feathers get ruffled as silent accusations are made as to how this was allowed to happen. Add in the fact that this job also requires a willingness to be shot at on a daily basis, and you could understand the temptation to want a little more. After all, is it illegal to steal from criminals? It’s not like they earned this money through honest work, and definitely won’t use it to pay for medical bills, mortgages, and everything else that makes life an everyday grind. With a cast full of Oscar-nominated talent (or soon to be in the case of Taylor) and a director who tends to lean into the grunge, it’s interesting to watch this whodunnit yarn unspool across the humid night. As expected, Damon and Affleck carry a natural ease with each other, a forty-year friendship that’s been through thick and thin. The former is sporting a bit more grey than usual, possibly a bit of foreshadowing for the journey he’s about to take for Christopher Nolan in this summer’s The Odyssey . The latter gets a brief moment to show off his chiseled torso, perhaps a leftover element from his time as The Caped Crusader. Everyone else feels a bit underserved, stock characters that move from one room to another. It all gets too big and silly for its own good, relying on “Gotcha!” reveals to piece every loose thread together. It probably won’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny, but that’s not the kind of thing Netflix wants to serve, even going so far as to replay portions of earlier scenes and repeat important details so that no viewer can be totally lost. All of the actors and characters made a lot of money for this, but I don’t feel much richer from the experience. More Reviews Shelter January 28, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Hunter Friesen

H Is for Hawk January 20, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen H is for Hawk. G is for grief. M is for melancholy. S is for sadness. W is for woe. D is for dejection. And, of course, C is for cookie. Based on Helen Macdonald’s best-selling memoir of the same name, H Is for Hawk runs down the alphabet of emotional turmoil, spelling out each word in capital letters. It’s one of those books whose specificity can be richly extrapolated into universality, the language of the page finding the words that we’ve all come to experience through loss. But as a film, specifically this one directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, everything seems to have been funnelled into mining the same emotional beats that we’ve come to expect. When we first meet Helen (Claire Foy), she’s enraptured by the majesty of two hawks gliding through the air. Their perfectly outstretched wings make them rise and fall against the pale blue sky, the flapping of wings being the only sound within the tranquil field. Following in her dad’s (Brendan Gleeson) footsteps, Helen's younger years saw her become a proficient falconer. A move to London for a professorship shut down that passion for a while. The urban jungle still treats her well, taking her class to the pub instead of the stodgy Cambridge lecture halls. Helen rang her father when she saw those hawks, a quick opportunity to reminisce about how they used to travel the countryside, appreciating its natural beauty. That would be the final words she would share with him, as the next phone call she receives is from her mother telling her that her father suffered a fatal heart attack. Hawthorpe renders this reveal through intense claustrophobia, pushing the camera onto Helen’s face as she slowly hangs up the phone and falls into her own arms. She goes to dinner with her best friend, Christina (Denise Gough, a consistently pleasant presence throughout this gloomy film), the air thick with silence. The dead seem to come alive more often once they’re underground. That phone call is the only time we see Gleeson’s character alive; the rest of his scenes come from a rush of flashbacks that Helen can’t shake. He’s buoyant, refusing to retire. There’s passion in his refusal to quit, but also a sense of fear in that he doesn’t know what will happen once he stops moving. Helen ceases altogether under the grief, eventually adopting a goshawk, the most aggressive species of hawk, as a distraction. Hawks can’t perceive what they don’t see, which is how Helen deals with her emotions. Burying them deep down, she becomes a sort of wild animal to her friends and family. Foy brings determination to her role, a blank stare becoming her perpetual costume. She has an attention-grabbing presence, which becomes the film’s main asset as it can barely string together the scraps of its story. Timelines become fragmented, clichés become repetitive, and everything is drawn way past its full potential. We’ve come to diagnose Helen’s depression ninety minutes before she does, making this whole thing feel like a spinning wheel in a rut. Along with Tuesday and The Thing with Feathers , H Is for Hawk joins a recent trend of people using birds to aid them in their journey of accepting death. Unlike those initial two films, the bird featured in this one does not talk, only squaking every once in a while as it gets fed pieces of raw meat. That realism gives Foy the entire spotlight, but it also leaves her alone to carry such a blank film. More Reviews Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Wrecking Crew January 26, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Magellan January 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s devilishly and depressingly fitting that 2026 begins with a film set in an unstable wasteland. In those lost fields, the dead walk among the living. And yet, the living don’t seem to do much actual… living. They’re alone and afraid, with empty stomachs and hearts. At this point, everything is out to kill you, and the more pleasant opponent is the dead. Because for them, at least you know it’s strictly business, a primal instinct that the virus has made uncontrollable. For the other humans, you never know what you’re going to get. People want leadership, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who walks and talks the part. On this British isle, that’s Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell, not doing a great job for Irish public relations between this and being the head vampire in last year’s Sinners ), the boy we briefly saw being inducted into this newfound hell through the devouring of his vicar father during the cold open of 28 Years Later . Now, as you guessed it, twenty-eight years later, he’s weaponized that trauma into a religious fervor to cleanse the land in the name of Satan. Following him are his “fingers,” wayward youth in desperate need of guidance, willing to also be called Jimmy and wear a blonde wig to fit in. There can only be seven fingers, so a person must kill their way into the club, which is what Spike (Alfie Williams) inadvertently does once he’s given the ultimatum. The human-induced grotesqueness within this franchise is a steady concept in the recent work by screenwriter Alex Garland. Beyond the script for the previous entry in this franchise, the most pertinent work he’s done has been the one-two punch of A24 military actioners, Civil War and Warfare . While I didn’t like the former film upon its release, I’ve slowly come to appreciate the shock that it sends down our nation’s system. Unfortunately, time is becoming its own asset, no longer needing to be rewatched in order to be experienced. But I digress. Zigging instead of zagging, Garland doesn’t continue to pile on, nor does he take the easy route of making the next installment bigger than the last one. The Bone Temple slides down a register, containing all events within a few days and only a couple of hundred yards. That titular location is where the good Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) still lives. Through a shared curiosity with local alpha, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), he’s inching closer to a cure for the virus. Morphine seems to help vaporize the clouds over the beast’s mind. ‘90s British pop also appears to have an alluring amount of power, everyone knowing that a little Radiohead goes a long way. There is still a place for Iron Maiden’s “The Number of The Beast,” with director Nia DaCosta shifting away from the iPhone scrappiness and towards something a little more traditionally cinematic. Everything is still visually washed out, and rushing zombies have the camera pushed in front of their snarling faces. This is hardly an action film, making every stroke of violence even more punishing. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score transplants the breathy vocalizations from her work in Hedda (also directed by DaCosta), almost as if there’s an underworld chorus. Initially, 28 Weeks Later was my favorite in the franchise, thanks to its ability to pull back the lens and take a macroeconomic look at this epidemic. Now, The Bone Temple has ascended to the top by doing the exact opposite. Garland and Danny Boyle have coyly teased a third entry in this new series, something this film supports in its conclusion. Both the creatives and the audience deserve to see this through, not becoming a memento mori of what could have been. The ball is entirely in your court, Sony. More Reviews Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen H Is for Hawk January 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Discover a new dimension of storytelling as we delve into the world of cinema, sharing our perspectives and sparking conversations about the latest and greatest movies. Reviews Mercy January 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen H Is for Hawk January 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Reviews by Hunter Friesen Reviews by Tyler Banark Button Button A Christmas Party Button Button Button Eden Button Button Button Friendship Button Button Button In a Violent Nature Button Button Button Kung Fu Panda 4 Button Button Button Pinocchio Button Button Button Saturday Night Button Button Button TIFF24 Dispatch #2 Button Button Button TIFF25 Dispatch - Cannes Catchup Button Button Button The Wild Robot Button Button Button We Live in Time Button Button Button Boy Kills World Button Button Button Eileen Button Button Button Immaculate Button Button Button Inside Out 2 Button Button Button Late Night with the Devil Button Button Button Robot Dreams Button Button Button Snack Shack Button Button Button TIFF24 Dispatch #4 Button Button Button The Last Showgirl Button Button Button We Grown Now Button