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Love Hurts February 6, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Ostensibly, Love Hurts is an original movie. It’s neither a remake nor a reboot, or based on some existing source material. For that fact alone, it deserves some credit, as does Universal Studios for backing and distributing a film that gives the fifty-three-year-old Ke Huy Quan his first chance to be at the top of the call sheet in his forty-year career. But that’s where the positive remarks end for Love Hurts . All of its “original” ideas have been seen time and time again, all of its well-marketed stunts have been executed better by other action properties, and all of its holiday-related sentimentality is so undercooked that it might as well be served to the vultures. Love does hurt, but so does having to sit through a movie that you know won’t do anything more than be a void for your precious time. Love Hurts is still at least inoffensively entertaining, mostly from the effortless charm that Ke Huy Quan had kept from the world for nearly two decades before he returned in Everything Everywhere All at Once . He campaigned nonstop for almost twelve months between the film’s world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and the 2023 Academy Awards, culminating in his victory in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Every single one of the hundreds of interviews and speeches he conducted felt genuine, a rare feat in the increasingly politicized and performative game that is awards season. Quan’s enthusiasm for having a leading role is completely infectious, giving his character an immediately rootable spirit. He plays Marvin Gable, a Milwaukee realtor who always sees the bright side and greets every day with a smile. But while there is authenticity behind his demeanor, it's also a coping mechanism to cover his shady past as an assassin for his crime-lord brother. It’s a life he’s left behind, although it doesn’t seem like he tried very hard as he still lives in the same town and took a very public job that has his face plastered on every bus station bench. I guess Clark Kent’s strategy of simply putting on glasses to hide his identity is more scientific than I thought. But even if Marvin’s brother is egregiously oblivious, his former “lover” Rose (Ariana DeBose) isn’t. She’s supposed to be dead, at least in the legal sense after Marvin betrayed his brother’s orders and let her flee instead of being executed. Now she’s back to get revenge on Marvin’s brother’s syndicate and break Marvin out of the dull existence that she thinks is a lie. I use “lover” in quotes because Quan and DeBose have zero romantic chemistry together. The twenty-year age difference doesn’t help, nor the fact that Marvin’s constant annoyance at Rose’s chaotic nature never once hints at a past infatuation. It’s never a good sign when a climactic kiss makes an audience wince instead of swoon. The film marks the directorial debut of Jonathan Eusebio, a veteran fight and stunt coordinator with a long list of credits that include a smattering of MCU titles, the John Wick franchise, and The Matrix Resurrections. The choreography is expectedly up to par, with 87North Productions and John Wick head honcho David Leitch serving as producer. But Eusebio’s camerawork and editing don’t reach the heights of his boss, the punches and kicks never landing with enough force to garner a physical reaction. Even with a runtime of a mere 83 minutes, much of Love Hurts still feels like weightless padding to justify the feature-length treatment. If they stripped this down to its essentials, then maybe it could have been a half-decent short film, or, heaven forbid, Quibi original. I still doubt it, but at least everyone would have saved themselves the few precious dollars we need to save in order to buy eggs. 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 Deliverance August 20, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Deliverance is a powerhouse showcase for Lee Daniels as a producer, as it takes a lot of skill to assemble such a stacked cast and crew for a project this uninspired. The real-life story of single mother LaToya Ammons and her three children being haunted by evil spirits has been a long-gestating project for Daniels, being announced over ten years ago as his follow-up to The Butler . Time marched on, with Daniels pivoting to his biopic on Billie Holiday ( The United States vs. Billie Holiday ), an otherwise rote story salvaged by the discovery of the acting talents of its star Andra Day, who received a Golden Globe award and Academy Award nomination for her work. The pair are reunited for this project, although I’m skeptical of any possibility of awards to come to the rescue this time. “Inspired by a true story” immediately blankets what we are about to witness, a statement that has become a clichéd requirement (likely for legal reasons) for every member of the possession subgenre ( Poltergeist , The Conjuring franchise, The Amityville Horror ). Ebony Jackson (Day) and her three kids have just moved to their third home in just under a year, this time settling in Pittsburgh with Ebpny’s mother Alberta (Glenn Close, looking like a cousin to her character from Hilbilly Elegy ). There are cracks within every dynamic of the family, partially due to Ebony’s drinking, which has Child Protective Services monitor them at various times, and the fact that the children’s father seemingly abandoned them by going to Iraq. But for all the internal demons that plague this family, there are also external ones lurking within the walls. The youngest child, Andre, has an imaginary friend who increasingly tells him to commit heinous acts, and strange noises permeate every nook and cranny. Anyone who has seen an exorcist movie knows what’s been happening and where it’s leading. It’s why the second-act appearance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as an apostle sent to serve the family in their time of need never feels like the revelation Daniels and screenwriters David Coggeshal and Elijah Bynum want you to believe it is. Daniels is still a mighty fine director for actors, previously guiding Mo'Nique - also reuniting with the director here as the CPS officer Cynthia - to an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Precious . Between Day and Mo'Nique’s more grounded work, one would have hoped that this project would have ditched the whole demonic angle and focused squarely on the social drama. Then again, we wouldn’t have gotten scenes of a bald Glenn Close wielding a baseball bat, or of the youngest child flinging his feces at his teacher as an act of possession. These unintentionally hilarious moments keep the horror elements tolerable, although that definitely wasn’t the plan. The Scary Movie franchise might have just as much in common with this story as the others mentioned earlier. There’s also humor to be found in how the film tries its damnedest to avoid the term “exorcist,” instead referring to all of it as a “deliverance.” What goes on during a deliverance? A religious figure comes to the home of a possessed person, warning the other family members that the demon has a strong hold on the victim and that they must not believe anything it says. The religious figure then sprays holy water on the demon and recites verses from the bible. Hmmmm… sounds like an exorcism to me. Between last year’s The Exorcist: Believer and two unrelated Russell Crowe movies ( The Pope’s Exorcist and The Exorcism ), Daniels was entering the exorcism genre at the perfect moment to shake things up and be its temporary savior. What’s the point of a horror movie (or any movie, for that matter) if you’re going to play it safe when it comes time to deliver the goods? I’m not mad, I’m just really, really, disappointed. 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

Top 10 Films of 2022 January 3, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen The world of cinema didn’t paint a lot of pretty pictures in 2022. Studios continue to merge, consolidating power in the hands of the few, resulting in some poor decisions that favored the dollars over artists. Save for Everything Everywhere All at Once , small to mid-budget movies floundered at the box office, continuing the dark trend of only blockbusters surviving at the cinemas. But the beginning of a new year should not be a time to reminisce about all the bad stuff that happened over the past twelve months. It should be a time when we look at all the positives and figure out a way for them to continue in the future. So, in an effort to give credit where it’s due, I’ve listed out my favorite films of 2022. Some of these films I expected to be on this list, while others came out of left field. It goes to show that you can experience something truly incredible if you dig a little deeper. Honorable Mentions The Batman Everything Everywhere All at Once Blonde Aftersun The Menu 10. After Yang After Yang is full of grace and compassion, with a touch of melancholy to make it a truly reflective experience of the human soul. It merges American sci-fi with the softer side of independent cinema, which makes it a perfect project to be under the A24 umbrella. With only two films to his name, writer/director Kogonada is already entering the conversation as one of the best humanistic directors of the modern era. Full Review 9. The Banshees of Inisherin Equally hilarious as it is disturbing, The Banshees of Inisherin finds Martin McDonagh, as well as his troupe of actors, in top form. There’s nothing quite like it, and it serves as another reminder that we should all be a little kinder to one another. Full Review 8. Broker Hirokazu Kore-eda has always been more interested in the human drama coming from each character, how they intersect, and what decisions they ultimately make rather than inserting any kind of thriller-like elements to entice the story to a more mainstream audience. The result is another solid, if not outstanding, effort from the Japanese filmmaker, backed by a flawless ensemble led by the subtly nuanced and exceptional Song Kang-ho. Full Review 7. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery A sequel to 2019’s Knives Out , the great igniter to the revitalization of the whodunit genre, was always going to be a tricky obstacle to overcome. In stepped Netflix, who gave writer/director Rian Johnson the necessary blank check to indulge in his wildest fantasies. And because of that, he has crafted a whodunnit that is grander, funnier, stranger, and perhaps better than the original. As the first of two planned sequels, I can only imagine what Johnson is going to serve up next. Full Review 6. TÁR As our guide through a world of classical music and power dynamics, Cate Blanchett reaches another echelon in a career whose peaks have only been marked. If TÁR is meant to mark the second coming of Todd Field’s career, then we should all be in for a lengthy treat for the mind, body, and soul. But if this was only a brief blip and we’re subjected to another sixteen-year absence, then I at least know what my most anticipated film of 2038 will be. Full Review 5. Decision to Leave Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave is often a paradox in itself. It’s classical, yet modern. Cold, yet sexy. Unsatisfying, yet enthralling. Luckily, it finds the near-perfect balance between all of those things, creating a wondrous genre exercise that must be seen to be wholly believed. Full Review 4. Nitram Justin Kurzel's Nitram was one of the best films of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival (where I first saw it) as it explores a real-life tragedy with both grace and severity. While it may be an experience that wrecks people's bodies due to its humanistic intensity, there is hope that there will be a greater understanding of this dark chapter in human history upon leaving the theater. Full Review 3. The Fabelmans The Fabelmans is a collection of Spielberg's greatest hits, all delivered to their greatest effect. There’s laughter, tears, and wonder in this story that is much more than the sum of its parts. If Spielberg climbs the Dolby Theatre steps to collect his third Best Director Oscar, then it will be one of the few long overdue wins that came at the right time for the right project. Full Review 2. All Quiet on the Western Front In the film’s harrowing opening sequence, we follow a coat worn by a German soldier. The man dies in battle, and the coat is plucked off his corpse. It’s then shipped back to a factory to be washed of the blood, mended, and given to a new recruit. It’s moments like this, of which there are many, where director Edward Berger masterfully illustrates the futile self-fulfilling cycle of death that war creates. All Quiet on the Western Front is not just the best film of the year, it’s one of the best of its genre. Full Review 1. Babylon With dashes of Singin’ in the Rain, Boogie Nights, The Wolf of Wall Street, Uncut Gems , and Mulholland Drive , Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a true auteurist epic in every sense of the word. It’s a 188-minute deconstruction of Old Hollywood mythology, complete with cocaine, fast cars, projectile vomit, glitzy actors, underground sex dungeons, and buckets of style. There isn’t anything like it this year, or any year for that matter. Full Review 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 Holdovers September 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Holdovers had its International Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on October 27. Between its retro production titles, popping sound, dissolved editing, and grainy cinematography, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is not just a film that is set in 1970, it looks and feels like it was made during that time. The Omaha-born writer/director (only directing in this outing) returns from a six-year hiatus after the disappointing Downsizing , delivering one of his best films through a great story and equally great characters. The titular band of misfits at Barton Academy are those that have been left behind during the two-week holiday break. They’re the ones who can’t go home to their families, either because they don’t have one or they’re not welcome. The curmudgeonly history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) presides over them. He’s been handed this shit detail because none of the other teachers like him (the students share that sentiment), and because he’s also all alone. The worst of his troublemaking leftovers is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). He has a supernatural talent for getting into trouble and pushing Paul’s buttons. But he’s also a very gifted student, consistently getting the top score in class, a nearly impossible feat due to the rigors of the course and Paul’s tortuous teaching style. Also left with Paul and Angus is the school’s cook Mary. She’s decided to stay put to be with the memory of her son, as he was enrolled in the school before being drafted and killed in Vietnam a few months back. These three unlikely companions form a holiday family, going on misadventures together and learning something about each other and themselves. Nothing about writer David Hemingson’s past indicated that he would make such a bitingly funny and introspective script, let alone on the first try, at least in the realm of feature films. He’s written for a couple of television shows, none too noteworthy except for the shortlived Kitchen Confidential starring pre-fame Bradley Cooper. Paul’s insulting Latin phrases and general disregard for his students’ confidence puts up a tough exterior, one that will take a large tool and persistence to crack. Giamatti is masterful with his barbs, getting under your skin with ease as you consistently plead “Why can’t you just be nice?” Yet he’s always likable, with the later sections of the movie interestingly pulling back the layers of his past. Much of that later warmth also comes from Sessa and Randolph’s performances. Sessa delivers an astounding debut performance, overcoming many of the rookie tropes. The pain of Randolph’s character is felt in every scene, but she refuses to make it her whole personality. She’s hilarious when she checks Giamatti’s callousness, and provides the warmth Angus needs at this difficult time. I expect and fully support Oscar campaigns for each of these performers. Through his directorial choices, Payne makes The Holdovers into a Christmas classic for adults. The cinematography glows like a warm fire and the relaxed pacing allows these characters to breathe. This is a melancholic film, with Payne knowing that the holidays are not full of yuletide cheer for everyone. But there are still seasons greetings to be had, just enough to make you want to be a better person and stay close to those that matter most. What more could you ask for in times like these? 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

Fair Play February 2, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fair Play had its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Netflix will it in theaters on September 29, followed by its streaming premiere on October 13. Netflix must have had big Promising Young Woman prospects when spending a festival-record $20 million on writer/director Chloe Domont's debut feature, Fair Play . Fennell's 2020 Oscar-winning film has laid the path for similarly biting films to gain recognition, and Domont follows close to that model with her thrilling examination of gender politics and relationships within the corporate world. But while Fair Play is quite provocative with its mixture of sex and violence, much of it comes to its detriment when the credibility of its authenticity comes into question during the third-act climax. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are the usual extremely-motivated Wall Street up-and-comers that you've come to expect. Along with their undying motivation for their careers, they also can't take a break from each other. Their physical passion is unmatched, evidenced by an impromptu hookup in the bathroom at Luke's brother's wedding, which Luke wildly takes as an opportunity to propose. Despite now proving their undying love for each other in private, they must keep their relationship a secret in public, as they both work for the same high-stakes hedge fund where office romance is strictly forbidden. The couple makes it work most of the time, professionally speaking to each other and only passing glances when no one is looking. But all bets are off when a senior employee is fired and his position is up for grabs. The pair must juggle their ambitions with their loyalty to each other, along with keeping their indiscretions under the rug. Domont depicts the world of high finance as a pressure cooker that melts even the brightest people down into monsters. If Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (smartly) glorified the life of wheeling and dealing, Fair Play offers a sobering reality. A glaring Eddie Marsan sits in his corner office, ready to berate his employees at any moment. The underlings are constantly pitted against each other, with loyalty disintegrated whenever the slightest hint of upward mobility comes into play. Emily and Luke initially try their best to sidestep the rat race, with each offering the usual "may the best man win" rhetoric. But when Luke makes that statement, he means it literally, as it slowly starts to dawn on Emily that he sees a significant difference between them based on their gender. Ehrenreich brings that toxic alpha-male energy to Luke. He's someone that says all the right things to your face (usually laced with an unhealthy amount of curse words), but you know he doesn't believe any of it. This is a world where the man usually gets what he wants, and their inflated egos come crashing down when they’re "unfairly" passed over. Domont doesn’t portray Emily as a saintly female in a sea of testosterone, with Dynevor, already a Netflix star through Bridgerton , packing a hard edge in her performance. There are no heroes in this story, only those that get their hands dirty and those that get them dirtier. The carnal influence of Adrian Lyne (who marked any unceremonious return last year with Deep Water ) is apparent, with Domont blending the dower and gleeful to semi-positive results. There's a hearty (and unhealthy) amount of excitement you get out of people taking down one another, even if the reasoning behind all of it is morally corrupt. Things do come off the rails alarmingly quickly during the climax when the theatricality of the situation greatly overpowers the reality. The messaging is obvious in volume, but a bit murky in tone, leaving things not as nicely wrapped as the presentation would signal. 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

Final 2025 97th Academy Awards Predictions February 28, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen One of the most chaotic award seasons in recent memory is finally coming to a close, and it looks like it’ll be a photo finish. For almost the entire nine-month duration since Cannes, we’ve been going back and forth on who’s got what it takes to be the top dog. Enough drama has been created, ended, and recreated to match a whole season of one of those “The Real Housewives” shows. Just as I mentioned in my nominations predictions update, the key to the Oscars is focusing your attention on what matters. So you’re going to see little analysis in categories with clear frontrunners and more in tighter races. Notable precursors that will be used to determine likely winners are the Golden Globes (GG), Critics Choice Awards (CCA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), BAFTAs, and any category-specific guild award. I’d also like to point out that I will be predicting the three short categories, but won’t be producing analysis since I have none to offer. I’ll just be going with the GoldDerby consensus. Best Picture Anora Conclave The Brutalist Emilia Pérez A Complete Unknown Wicked I'm Still Here The Substance Nickel Boys Dune: Part Two After successive years of watching Everything Everywhere All at Once and Oppenheimer run the table, it's been fun to witness what this year has brought. Anora secured its frontrunner status after it had a whirlwind weekend where it picked up the CCA, PGA, and DGA awards. But then the winds shifted towards Conclave , which then took home the BAFTA and SAG Ensemble. Conclave 's predicted wins for Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing were enough for Argo , and Anora 's predicted wins for Director and Original Screenplay were enough for Parasite . If Anora were to lose, the combination of precursor wins it has would place it alongside Brokeback Mountain and Saving Private Ryan in the pantheon of Oscar upsets. That's something I can't predict will happen again. Best Director Sean Baker (Anora) Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) James Mangold (A Complete Unknown) It's been a slugfest between Brady Corbet and Sean Baker; the former winning the Golden Globe and BAFTA, and the latter netting the DGA. The DGA award is the most predictive of the bunch, and people like Tom Hooper ( The King's Speech ) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu ( The Revenant ) have gone on to win the Oscar with only that award in their arsenal. It's still hard to pick Baker because Corbet's work is so much more aligned with what this branch rewards. I said the same thing when it came to Sam Mendes and Bong Joon-ho a few years back, and I was wrong to make the more conventional choice. The tide is with Anora more than it is with The Brutalist , so I'll go with that and bite my nails until the very end. Best Original Screenplay Anora A Real Pain The Substance The Brutalist September 5 For a brief moment, it seemed that The Substance was gaining some momentum after its win at the CCA. But that stopped once A Real Pain won the BAFTA. All this division means that I'll default to the WGA winner and Best Picture frontrunner, Anora . Of course, the fact that it's been unable to handily win this category across so many shows means that there's some weakness, so maybe we're in for a surprise. Best Adapted Screenplay Conclave Nickel Boys A Complete Unknown Emilia Pérez Sing Sing Just as I said during the nomination predictions, the choosing of four other nominees to lose to Conclave is merely a formality. Peter Straughan's screenplay has won the Globe, CCA, and BAFTA. It was not eligible for the WGA award, which means that the winner there, Nickel Boys , gets to be the unofficial runner-up. Best Lead Actor Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) With A Complete Unknown getting four total nominations at SAG compared to the single mention for The Brutalist , it was no surprise that Timothée Chalamet claimed victory there. If he had won somewhere else between the Globes, CCA, or BAFTA, then I would be picking him here. But Brody took all those other awards, and The Brutalist received a lot more love here. Still, it would not be a surprise if Chalamet won considering this category continually falls head over heels with biopic performances and equally admired A Complete Unknown . Best Lead Actress Demi Moore (The Substance) Mikey Madison (Anora) Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) Demi Moore has won the Golden Globe - Comedy, CCA, and SAG awards; Mikey Madison has the BAFTA, and Fernanda Torres has the Golden Globe - Drama. Madison does have the power of the Best Picture frontrunner on her side, which would be more decisive if The Substance and I'm Still Here weren't also beloved and nominated for Best Picture as well. I think that Torres will siphon enough votes from Madison, and Moore will claim her final victory. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) Yura Borisov (Anora) Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown) Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice) We all know it's going to be Kieran Culkin winning this award. Let's move on and spend our energy elsewhere. Best Supporting Actress Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) Ariana Grande (Wicked) Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) The one thing that the lovers and haters of Emilia Pérez can agree on is that Zoe Saldaña delivers a great performance, a sentiment that's carried her to wins at all the major precursors (GG, CCA, BAFTA, SAG). She's also delivered some great speeches as of late, which will make sure she doesn't become one of the victims of the controversies surrounding the film. Best Cinematography The Brutalist Nosferatu Maria Dune: Part Two Emilia Pérez The American Society of Cinematographers gave their top prize to Edward Lachman for Maria . It's not a surprising victory considering the legendary status that Lachman carries within that profession. But it's also a little surprising since Maria has greatly underperformed on the awards front, as evidenced by its sole nomination being in this category. Nosferatu won the CCA and The Brutalist got the BAFTA. Given that the latter award has some Oscar overlap, I'll go with that. Lol Crawley's work in The Brutalist is also more in line with the grand scale of previous winners like Dune and Oppenheimer . Best Film Editing Conclave Anora Emilia Pérez The Brutalist Wicked The not Oscar-nominated Challengers won the CCA, and the ACE awards are after the Oscars, which means we're flying pretty blind into this category. Conclave won the BAFTA and is the likely ACE - Drama frontrunner, which is just enough to convince me it'll win here. I'd also watch out for Anora given that it'll likely win ACE - Comedy and has the Best Picture frontrunner boost. This is going to be one of the most decisive categories of the night. Best Original Score The Brutalist Conclave Emilia Pérez The Wild Robot Wicked The Golden Globes and CCA threw a wrench into this category by awarding their prize to Challengers , which was not nominated at the Oscars. That means the BAFTA winner, Daniel Blumberg ( The Brutalist ), is the precursor favorite heading into the night. Volker Bertelmann ( Conclave ) took down equally stiff competition when he beat Justin Hurwitz's score for Babylon a few years back. But the fact that he lost at the BAFTAs despite Conclave winning the top prize shows that Blumberg's work is more beloved this year. Best Original Song El Mal (Emilia Pérez) The Journey (The Six Triple Eight) Mi Camino (Emilia Pérez) Never Too Late (Elton John: Never Too Late) Like a Bird (Sing Sing) With sixteen total nominations across thirty-five years, Diane Warren has to win at least once, right? Surely she'll win once within the next few years, but how am I supposed to predict that when history tells me it's very unlikely? "El Mal" from Emilia Pérez has already won the Golden Globe and the CCA, giving it every reason to be favored here. Best Sound Dune: Part Two Wicked A Complete Unknown Emilia Pérez The Wild Robot It's been a pretty split race all season. A Complete Unknown won the main prize at the Cinema Audio Society, Dune: Part Two won the Sound Editing prize at MPSE, as did Wicked for Music Editing. I'm thinking the two music-heavy films will cancel each other out, allowing for Dune: Part Two to repeat its victory from the first film. It also won this award over Wicked at the BAFTAs, with A Complete Unknown not even being nominated. Best Production Design Wicked Nosferatu Conclave The Brutalist Dune: Part Two Wicked won the CCA, BAFTA, and ADG - Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film awards, giving it a clear edge. Conclave did win the Contemporary category at the Art Directors Guild, as well as Nosferatu in the Period category, giving them both of them at least a chance. Best Costume Design Wicked Conclave Nosferatu A Complete Unknown Gladiator II The exact same circumstances from Best Production Design are repeated here, and so is my pick for who will win the Oscar. Best Makeup & Hairstyling The Substance Wicked Nosferatu Emilia Pérez A Different Man Horror makeup has historically been undervalued through this category's history, so the much-predicted victory for The Substance will be more than deserved. It's won the CCA, BAFTA, and multiple prizes at the Make-Up and Hair Stylists Guild, and also aided in the transformation for Demi Moore's possible Oscar-winning performance. Best Visual Effects Dune: Part Two Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Wicked Better Man Alien: Romulus This category has been sewn up ever since Dune: Part Two delayed its release from November 2023 to February 2024. Further proof has been provided from its victories at CCA and BAFTA, as well as its mighty haul at the Visual Effects Society awards. However, the top prize at the latter ceremony went to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes . But ape fans can't get their hopes up, as this scenario has played out for each of three previous Apes films, each one of them losing at the Oscar. Best Animated Feature The Wild Robot Flow Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail The circumstances of this year's race in this category are nearly a repeat from last year's battle between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron , with The Wild Robot and Flow taking the spots of the former and the latter, respectively. But I think the opposite result is going to come true this year. Flow doesn't have the BAFTA win that The Boy and the Heron got, and one could make the argument that the love for the legendary Hayao Miyazaki was worth far more than any precursor. The Wild Robot is also helped by the fact that it isn't a sequel like Spider-Verse was, which this category tends to dislike unless it's from the Toy Story franchise. Best International Feature Emilia Pérez (France) I'm Still Here (Brazil) Flow (Latvia) The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany) The Girl with the Needle (Denmark) Until this year, no film has ever been nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Picture and lost the former award, meaning that either Emilia Pérez or I'm Still Here will become a victim of circumstance and carry that unwanted distinction. Emilia Pérez won this award at both the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and has a whopping ten more total nominations than I'm Still Here . But that doesn't mean this is an open-and-shut case, as the recent controversies surrounding Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, as well as the general vitriol towards the film itself, is a major thorn in its side. There's also the fact that I'm Still Here getting that Best Picture nomination illustrates that there's a lot of support for it, which seems to only keep growing. Best Documentary Feature No Other Land Porcelain War Sugarcane Black Box Diaries Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat As usual in this category, the precursor leader, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story , hasn't even been nominated here. This gives the edge to the DGA-winner, Porcelain War . However, the critical swell of support for No Other Land cannot be denied, especially when coupled with the extremely compelling fact that it's still fighting to secure US distribution. I'm going to lean with where everyone's heart seems to be, although it would not surprise me if that doesn't turn out to be true. Best Animated Short Film: Wander to Wonder Best Documentary Short Film : The Only Girl in the Orchestra Best Live-Action Short Film : A Lien 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

The Old Man & the Gun November 1, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Robert Redford has built a successful decade-spanning career as a charming actor who can play any type of character with a heart of gold. It seems fitting that in his final performance in the new film The Old Man & the Gun , Redford plays Forrest Tucker, a man who was born to rob banks. Except he’s not your typical bank robber, he’s the most polite and happy criminal around. Now at the age of seventy-four, Tucker becomes nationally famous and must continue his passion while eluding the pursuit of detective John Hunt, who becomes enraptured by the legend of one man living his dream despite the consequences it may bring. Director David Lowery isn’t a household name, but the thirty-eight-year-old has made some quality films such as his 2017 indie hit A Ghost Story and Pete’s Dragon in 2016 (also starring Redford). Lowery goes for the sweet and simple approach when it comes to directing this film. He keeps the feel of the film feeling like a cool, light breeze and keeps the main plot centered on detail at a time. He also nails the look and feel of the film to fit the 80s setting. The film doesn’t just feel like it's set in the 80s, it's like it was made during that time period. He uses very grainy film stock to shoot the movie, giving it a very nostalgic feel. There is also an abundance of old classic songs of that era that perfectly fit the tone. The simple approach Lowery uses also has its minor drawbacks. The overall story of the film felt a little shallow and could have used more buildup and stakes in order to build suspense. There could have also been more interaction between characters in order to develop relationships as some don’t feel as genuine as they should have. Lowery also adapts the screenplay from a real-life biographical article written about Forrest Tucker in The New Yorker by David Grann. Lowery matches his writing with his approach to directing. The script is filled with tender moments that work wonders with the actors involved. The diner scenes between Redford and Sissy Spacek are the best as they simply just enjoy each other and talk about life in old age. With only a little bit of effort and some magic, the two actors and the dialogue they share are able to keep us engaged throughout. Below the surface, however, is where Lowery’s script suffers from the same problems as his directing. The overall story told feels too simple to satisfyingly fit a feature-length film. More background and supporting details could have been used to tell the story with more depth. Many important events happen with little to no explanation, which proves very distracting by the end as they cut down on the overall believability. Redford essentially plays a culmination of every part he’s previously played in his fifty-plus-year career. He works magic with his confidence and overall physical presence in each scene. It’s a testament to his skill that you never actually see the gun he uses during the robberies, rather his charisma and charm are the only weapons he needs. Even with all his misdoings, you end up rooting for him by the end of the film. Partnering up with Redford in a supporting role is Sissy Spacek as Jewel, a widow whom Forrest takes an interest in. Jewel finds herself romantically caught up with Tucker and just can’t seem to shake him off despite knowing what he does for a living. Spacek and Redford have excellent chemistry together and keep us thoroughly entertained in even the most mundane of scenes. Every criminal needs a cop to be his nemesis, and filling that role is Casey Affleck as John Hunt. Affleck provides a counterbalance to Redford’s glee as his character glumly deals with the thought of getting older in a static career. Affleck middlingly works throughout but never matches Redford’s ability to make us care about his character. The Old Man & the Gun is similar to that of a Sunday drive out into the country. It doesn’t really know where it’s going from time to time, but it doesn’t really matter because the ride itself is more enjoyable than the final destination. In his farewell performance, Redford shows us that he can win over any crowd and rides out into the sunset and leaves us with his legend and unforgettable skill as an actor. 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

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery September 10, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery had its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on November 23, followed by its streaming premiere on December 23. The Last Jedi haters are rolling in their graves, as Rian Johnson has pulled off another incomprehensible feat with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery . A sequel to 2019’s Knives Out , a great igniter to the revitalization of the whodunit genre, was always going to be a tricky obstacle to overcome. In stepped Netflix, who gave Johnson the necessary blank check to indulge in his wildest fantasies. And because of that, he has crafted a whodunnit that is grander, funnier, stranger, and perhaps better than the original. The Thrombey family has been dealt with and a whole new cast of characters has been assembled within Glass Onion . None of these people are bound by blood. Instead, they are all old friends that go by the “Disruptors.” The leader of the group is Miles Bron (Edward Norton), whose billion-dollar fortune allows him to live on a private Greek island. Lionel (Leslie Odom Jr.) is the lead scientist at Bron’s company. There’s also Senate candidate and family woman Claire (Kathryn Hahn), airheaded fashion model Birdie (Kate Hudson), gun-toting Duke (Dave Bautista), and his much younger girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline). The black sheep of the group is Andi (Janelle Monáe), who was excommunicated after she lost a lengthy lawsuit against all of them for stealing her business idea. Every year, the group (minus Andi) receives a puzzle box invitation for a weekend getaway on Miles’ island. This year, however, invitations have also been sent to Andi and to Mr. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), whose mind is turning into mush as the COVID-19 pandemic has him shut inside without a case to crack. As you expect, the fireworks begin to go off once all these characters are assembled in one location. Long-held secrets are spilled, violence is enacted, and everyone is a suspect. As is the location and budget, the mystery here is much larger than in the original film. Double crosses become triple crosses, which then become quadruple crosses. As another testament to his dominance over his genre contemporaries, Johnson’s ability to control the material as both a writer and director are unparalleled. Through slick editing and a tactical sense of pacing, he’s created another murder mystery where the placing of the puzzle pieces is just as satisfying as seeing the whole picture. Monáe takes over the Ana de Armas role from the first Knives Out . She’s Blanc’s intelligence, laying out the details of each of these theory characters, and what motives they may have to harm another. Talking specifically about how she effortlessly overcomes the challenge of her role would require going into spoilers, so you’re just going to have to take me at my word that she’s incredible. The rest of the cast doesn’t have as much pressure on their shoulders, but they still shine when they need to. Norton is his signature smarmy self, complete with a flashback scene of him donning Frank Mackey’s outfit from Magnolia (a decision I can only imagine was explicitly targeted toward me). Hudson gets many of the laugh-out-loud moments, and Hahn chews the scenery as usual. Of course, Craig leads the pack, whose enthusiasm for the role is immediately infectious. Watching an actor known for playing the most serious iteration of James Bond don a pinstripe swimsuit and spew information with a comically overdone Southern accent is such a sight to behold. Luckily, Craig’s relationship with this character is much more positive than Bond, so the future is bright for further travels around the world. Glass Onion skillfully embraces and overcomes the usual dangers of doing the same thing as the original, just on a bigger scale. As the first of two planned sequels by Netflix, I can only imagine what Johnson is going to serve up next. 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

Judas and the Black Messiah February 8, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fred Hampton was only 21 years old when he was murdered by Cook County police in an illegal home raid in 1969. He was drugged with a sedative to prevent him from fighting back and shot twice in the head while sleeping in front of his nine-month-pregnant partner, Deborah Johnson. Even though he died young, Hampton had already accomplished more than many of us could ever dream. As chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Hampton founded the multicultural organization, the Rainbow Coalition, and allied his party with other Chicago groups in an effort to end street violence and instigate social change. He was a born leader and speaker, moving hundreds with his words at the protests and educational courses he led. Now, after fifty years since his untimely death, Hampton is getting the biopic treatment in Judas and the Black Messiah . The British-born Daniel Kaluuya portrays Hampton in a performance that can only be described as electrifying. Kaluuya has already made himself known with his lead performance in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and a supporting turn as a sadistic hitman in Steve McQueen’s Widows . Here, Kaluuya elevates his game even further as he channels both the powerfulness Hampton carried in public and the tenderness he had in private. There isn’t one second you’re not glued to him while he’s on screen. An Oscar nomination is bound to happen and a win would be deserved. Playing Judas to Hampton’s Black Messiah is LaKeith Stanfield (also in Get Out as the brainwashed Andre King). Stanfield plays William O’Neal, who was a petty Chicago criminal who became an informant for the FBI as he rose the ranks within the Black Panthers. O’Neal was the one who sedated Hampton in exchange for $200,000, an act he never considered a betrayal. Stanfield rises close to the level of Kaluuya as he gives a twitchy and layered performance that is nothing short of a career-best. Directed and co-written by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah meets both criteria of a biopic, which is to be both entertaining and informative beyond the top-layer Wikipedia facts. We learn about Hampton through O’Neal, as we watch him ascend from the bottom to the top within the party, interacting with Hampton at various points in history. King doesn’t commit the sin of falling head over heels with his subject. Like the Messiah in the holy book, Hampton had his demons that he had to constantly wrestle with. King takes a similar approach that Steven Spielberg took with Lincoln , where we get a compelling real-life hero and learn about what they had to overcome both externally and internally. This treatment also extends to O’Neal, whom King doesn’t wholly vilify or pardon. We’re shown the path O’Neal initially led himself down and how he saw an opportunity to work for the FBI. While it’s an easy decision to make, King lets the audience decide how to perceive O’Neal’s actions. With Steve McQueen’s go-to cinematographer Sean Bobbitt in his crew, King makes this one of the most surprisingly gorgeous movies of the year. Incorporating a mixture of long takes and over-saturation, King and Bobbitt perfectly illustrate the vibrant urban setting. And the jazz-infused score carries sharp tension with its low trombones. At just over two hours long, King carries his film with great energy from beginning to end. Expertly filmed action is interspersed throughout as well as sharply edited speeches that contain more action than the actual shootouts. Even when King falters for a few brief moments at the beginning of the third act, he picks himself back up and delivers an utterly spine-chilling and infuriating ending that properly uses the clichéd element of postscript. Judas and the Black Messiah is an all-powerful work by director Shaka King and the two leads Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield. Both timely and historical, this biopic will surely land near the top of my best-of-year list and is not one to miss. 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

Murder Mystery 2 March 31, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen When I’m watching a new movie, I always bring a small notebook and jot down observations and things I want to mention in my final written review. Usually, I fill up about a page or two with bullet points, most of them almost illegible due to me having to write them in the dark while still trying to look at the screen so as not to miss anything potentially important. But for Murder Mystery 2 , now available on Netflix, I wrote only two lines: “Happy Madison logo usually signals a movie being cheap and artificial” and “bad jet ski greenscreen.” Both of those observations were made within the first five minutes, and neither of them required much critical thinking on my part. For the next eighty minutes, I just sat in my chair and watched the movie with as much attentiveness as a student during the last class before Spring Break. There were definitely things that happened in the movie: people got killed, Sandler and Aniston did their usual married couple banter, and the mystery was resolved through some sort of twist ending. But for the life of me, I can’t recount anything else more specific than that. I was neither fully entertained nor bored, neither liking nor hating what I was watching and probably was somewhere between asleep and awake during long stretches. That’s the Netflix national anthem at this point, with 90% of their content just being the air that fills the room, with the other 10% that is worth your time ( The Irishman , The Meyerowitz Stories, Private Life ) being suffocated into relative obscurity. This is also why, in an act of full transparency, the information provided in the screener email is doing most of the heavy lifting in this next paragraph that summarizes the setup for the main plot. Nick and Audrey Spitz are now full-time detectives after solving the case in the first movie (I’ll give $100 to anyone that can remember how that movie ended). They’re about as competent as you would think, which is why they gleefully accept an invitation from The Maharajah (also from the first movie) to his wedding on a luxurious island. But the circumstances that seem too good to be true turn out to be exactly that, as the couple finds themselves framed for murder. They must now clear their name once again and unveil the real killer (or killers). I feel like I’m not properly doing my job as a critic by keeping this review so brief, but there’s really not much else to say. If you’re the type of person who wants to watch something like this, then you’re not likely to be stopped by a bad review. And if you’re someone who isn’t immediately clamoring to see this, then there won’t be any good reviews to convince you otherwise. It doesn’t matter which bucket you fall into, as no one is going to be thinking about (let alone talking about) this movie by Monday. 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

Materialists June 11, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Materialists opens during the Paleolithic period of the Stone Age. A caveman brings tools and flowers to the woman he loves, hoping it’ll be enough to earn her affection. We may think that love gets purer the further you go back in time, but there has always been a business angle. Dowries, negotiations, and aligning kingdoms are the old ways of forming a union. Now there’s an algorithm for that, loaded with statistics like height, income, and political views. And for those that are more serious (or desperate) and have the funds to do so, there are services like Adore, which will assign a personal matchmaker to search for you. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is one of those matchmakers, and a damn good one to be specific. She’s responsible for nine marriages, salvaging the most recent one by spinning the bride’s cold feet confession that part of the reason she’s marrying the groom is because it makes her sister jealous into a lesson about finding value and feeling valued. The key to her success is to treat dating as a business venture, using the same calculating mindset you’d find on Wall Street. “Market forces,” “competitive advantage,” and “strategic skills” are her phrases of choice. The results speak for themselves, and there’s no denying that this is the path that the dating landscape is rapidly progressing along. It’s natural and odd that after writer/director Celine Song tenderly explored the concept of destiny and love in Past Lives , her follow-up takes a cold, hard look at the facts. There isn’t going to be a Prince Charming waiting in the wings, or a Cinderella that perfectly fits the glass slipper. Dating is a trial-and-error endeavor, with adaptability and compromise being the most important qualities. Song makes sure there are a lot of laughs to be had with all this nonsense. Lucy’s customers are demanding, neurotic, and impatient. A potential match must be this tall, be in this age range, like these certain songs/movies, and make at least this amount of money. Living in the Midwest all my life certainly didn’t prepare me for the astronomical figures that people expect to receive on the East Coast. But all of this is funny because they’re saying the quiet parts out loud, and deep down, we all know we do it too. The eternal bachelorette who has a knack for helping others find love is a trope as old as the romantic dramedy itself. Song may know how to reexamine it in the ways I just described, but she also knows how to harness its extremely potent traditional qualities. She also knows how to best steer the performers on all sides of this love triangle. Yes, Lucy gets more than she bargains for when she simultaneously finds affection in two separate places. Johnson is perpetually on a pendulum swinging back and forth. And after the swing (and miss) that was Madame Web , she was due for a major slide to the lighter side. We meet Pedro Pascal’s Harry as he charms his way through his brother’s wedding reception. He’s also obscenely rich, tall, and handsome. He’s what Lucy refers to as a “unicorn” in her line work - the man of every woman’s dreams. John (Chris Evans) has some of those qualities, but definitely not the financial ones. He’s your usual struggling actor with a part-time catering job who lives in a shitty apartment. But he’s real, and there’s a reason Lucy and he were together for five years before they broke up. We’ve seen characters with these archetypes before, but here they’re steeped in enough authenticity so you can’t just immediately pick a side. Materialists can also be too honest for its own good. There’s a darker element that gets introduced later in the story that drives part of Lucy’s decision-making about her personal life. Song handles it to the best of her ability, but its inclusion is habitually distracting from the other excellent qualities. Honesty is still the best policy, and Song continues to show that she’s a master of telling us how it is in the ways we want to hear it. 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

Showing Up July 17, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Showing Up had its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on April 07, 2023. As Woody Allen once said: “80% of success is just showing up.” But for the character of Lizzy (Michelle Williams) in Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up , which premiered in competition recently at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, showing up doesn’t seem to be leading to much. She has a sort-of career at a small arts college in Portland, complete with her mother as her boss and Andre 3000 as the flirty pottery expert. Her cat owns her personal life with around-the-clock needs for attention, and her neighbor/landlord, Jo (Hong Chau), still hasn’t fixed her water heater after two weeks of constant requests. Is Woody Allen wrong, or is this all her life is cracked up to be? Either way, it’s not a comforting thought. Reichardt’s work has been infrequent, yet always well-reviewed. 2008’s Wendy and Lucy marked the first of many collaborations between the director and Williams, followed by Meek’s Cutoff and Certain Women . But even with those great reviews, Reichardt’s films have never lit the box office on fire. First Cow , seemingly an epic in comparison to her other work, was prevented from having a chance due to its unlucky release during the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe as an act of self-commentary, all of that can also be said of Lizzy in Showing Up . Sculpting intimate creations, Lizzy’s work has always been appreciated but never put on the same pedestal as her contemporaries, such as Jo and her unwieldy creations. Lizzy is struggling to meet the deadline for her new exhibit, and questions whether she should even attempt to show up. In its low-key nature, Showing Up can be a comforting ode to small artists persevering to put their creations into the world. Just as Reichardt often sleeps on people’s couches and teaches at Bard College (all of which was revealed by Michelle Williams), Lizzy has to put up with no hot water and a never-ending litany of problems to finish her work. And taking the connecting through-line of the bond between humans and animals from First Cow , Reichardt finds a way for Lizzy’s life to be upended, and ultimately transformed, by a pigeon that injures itself by crashing into her window. Both sides of the debate will correctly say that not much happens in Showing Up . But for those that are familiar with Reichardt's work, is that much of a surprise? Plot has never been on the priority list. Ditto to pacing, as Reichardt, serving as her editor as always, lets the credits roll in extended fashion across the first several minutes, and makes time for Williams to meticulously craft the arms to one of her sculptures in an unbroken take. With that slow pacing, Reichardt has often been able to mine deep and expose the hidden feelings that faster-paced works can’t. Not many could carefully tell the uplifting and heartbreaking friendship within First Cow . Showing Up tries to find a similar vein but doesn’t deliver the same refined fulfilling message about the way unforeseen people and circumstances shape our lives. Unlike Lizzy’s clay creations that start as wet messes and end up as fully formed creations, Reichardt’s work stops just short of the kiln and ends up feeling more like a shallow puddle of good ideas. Showing Up won’t win Reichardt any new fans, but it could potentially offer another helping of what her supporters love so much. For them, Reichart has supplied the goods, now it’s time for them to show up. 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