Tyler's Takes: In Defense of Pixar's 'Elemental' June 22, 2024 By: Tyler Banark As I was making my Top 10 Pixar Movie list in preparation for Inside Out 2 , there was one specific movie that, while coming close, didn’t make the cut. It’s been on my mind a lot over the past year and was even the main inspiration for this series I’m starting here. The movie in question is Elemental , a sleeper hit that was initially met with mixed reactions, poor marketing, and a barely profitable box office campaign. It was a fever dream of a film through its unusual release, and, while it does have a misstep here and there, it should have received more love than it got. One could say its biggest laurel placed upon it was a simple namecheck nomination in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars, where it was easily trounced by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron , the latter being the winner. Still, in a time where Pixar is making films that either feel too safe, don’t stick the landing, or totally miss the mark by a mile, Elemental circumvented all those traps through a valiant risk-taking effort. Spoiler Warning: Specific story points will be mentioned Like many other Pixar films, Elemental is brilliantly animated and presents itself as simple on the surface, yet rich in complexity as it delves into themes of immigration, familial expectations, and social class. These themes are embodied in one of our two main characters, Ember. The first two themes are vital as her parents, Bernie and Cinder, immigrated to Element City in search of a new life, their journey being fraught with challenges, such as finding a place to live while facing xenophobia and prejudice. As Ember grows up, she’s led to solely believe she’ll one day take over her father’s shop. This nuanced exploration of societal issues and expectations adds depth to the film and invites the audience to reflect on these themes. The theme of social class is also seen in Ember and her counterpart/love interest, Wade. Ember comes from a working-class family of immigrants who sacrificed everything and live in a rundown building that houses their home and Bernie’s shop. Meanwhile, Wade comes from a more well-to-do family, as we see them living in a fancy high-rise apartment. The dichotomy of these two character’s financial upbringings was not something I would expect to see in a Pixar film, yet it effectively bolsters the narrative by adding an element of uncertainty to their relationship. Another commendable component of Elemental is its ability to be a family-friendly rom-com, something the marketing department failed to highlight. Posing as the strongest aspect of the film’s script, this subplot sees Ember and Wade’s relationship go through the beats we’ve come to expect within raunchier entries in the genre. Neither of them gets along with the other when they first meet, with Ember wanting nothing more than for Wade, a water person who works as a city inspector, to leave her father’s shop alone. He writes them up for a citation as their pipes aren’t up to city code, while also helping her find a way to have them waived. Hilarity ensues as they spend more time together and meet each other’s families. When Wade meets Ember’s parents, he’s greeted with hostility as he claims to be a food inspector. In doing so, Bernie forces Wade to eat a traditional fire dish that causes him to bubble up from the heat. On the contrary, when Ember meets Wade’s family, they treat her kindly and think nothing of their different elements. Audiences can tell director Peter Sohn took heavy inspiration from numerous rom-coms, most notably Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Moonstruck , to convey the love story on display. The more time Ember and Wade spend together, from attending a sporting event to building a barricade, the more their feelings mutually grow, eventually settling into a case of opposites attracting. They go out on dates, seen in a beautiful montage accompanied by Lauv’s original anthem, “Steal the Show.” But their relationship is held back by one crucial thing: elements can’t mix without harming each other. When they decide to put this theory to the test, they discover that they can in fact touch each other (change each other’s chemistry, as Wade put it), and share a little dance in celebration. While it is of course beautifully animated and soulfully (no pun intended) written, the uplift during this moment comes from a dreamy score provided by the great Thomas Newman. It encompasses that feeling couples get when the world stops around them, all all they can do is be right here, right now. There’s a reminiscent feel within this scene to the similarly thematic one in WALL-E , which Newman also scored. Have no fear though, as your skepticism surrounding the possibility that the movie would simply follow the rom-com formula beat-for-beat gets subverted. In many cases, the film’s climax happens after the love interests go apart, most likely through a big where they confront each other in public, reconciling their differences and solidifying their love. Right after Ember and Wade have their dance, she tells him it’s over as she remembers that she must stay loyal to her father’s wishes, always putting them above herself. Moments later, Wade crashes Ember’s family party celebrating Bernie’s retirement. Wade monologues about the reasons why he and Ember can’t be together, reminding her that there are “a million nos… But there's also one yes.” If Elemental wanted to make the safe decision to follow every other rom-com, Ember would’ve said it back, proudly telling her family and friends that elements can mix, and Wade is accepted. However, Ember tells Wade she doesn’t love him back and demands that he leave. Wade does so… but they later reconcile and express their love in the film’s climax. Look, this is still a Disney movie after all, there has to be a happy ending. Part of what makes numerous Pixar movies amazing is how complex they are underneath the surface. The Incredibles pushes the envelope of what can be included for a PG movie, Ratatouille and the Toy Story movies tackle the theme of purpose, WALL-E focuses on a show, don’t tell narrative approach rarely seen in family movies, while Up and Coco act as films that discuss the act of letting go of dark clouds. Elemental is no different from them as it acts as a rom-com for the whole family that doesn’t follow the formulaic plot that can come with that subgenre. It stands alone as Pixar’s first movie to land on its feet after a disappointing streak to start the 2020s. Onward and Luca played it safe, Soul and Lightyear bit off more than they could chew, and Turning Red ’s execution didn’t work the way it wanted. Unlike those movies, Elemental was a risk-taking effort that stuck the landing in a way I wish a lot of others could see. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

BlackBerry April 24, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Out of all the “corporate biopics” that were on the docket for 2023, none piqued my interest more than BlackBerry . The allure of the story came solely from the predictability of the outcome, as everyone knows Nike made billions off the Air Jordan brand and that Tetris would become one of the world's most popular video game franchises. But do people really know what happened to BlackBerry, the phone that one executive referred to as “CrackBerry” due to its dominant popularity within the business landscape? I’m guessing they don’t, as a little-known product called the iPhone consumed all the attention at that transitional moment. But before we get ahead of ourselves with all that doom and gloom, let's jump back to the hopeful beginnings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXL_HDzBQsM The year is 1992. Mike Lazarides (Jay Baruchel) and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson, also serving as co-writer and director) have just founded Research in Motion in Ontario and are going around to investors pitching their idea for a revolutionary new phone that is capable of being an all-in-one business machine. While their idea is brilliant, the duo has little to no business acumen, which is illustrated by the laissez-faire way they approach their equally bright workers. Luckily, one of their “so bad it’s good” business pitches catches the attention of the power-hungry Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), who sees the potential for this product. He jumps ship in exchange for becoming co-CEO with Lazarides, making them the new Jobs and Wozniak. Success comes quickly in the form of market domination and billions of dollars in market capitalization. But the fall came quicker when the actual Steve Jobs came out with a phone that had a keyboard on the screen (“Who would want that!?” yells Lazarides during the Apple announcement). The rest, as they say, is history. Of course, you could just read the Wikipedia article on BlackBerry to get all of that information. But Johnson is a smart enough writer and director, invoking a seriocomic sensibility at every turn. The camera is handheld and observational, with zooms similar to The Office and Succession . You laugh along with these misfits as they race to their doom, but you also never look down upon them. Their brilliance is always on display, even if Jay McCarrol’s electronic score (borrowing heavily from The Social Network ) does most of the heavy lifting as tech-heavy terms like “network interface” and “carrier capacity” are thrown around to land credibility. Baruchel’s Lazarides is a charisma void. He’s someone who would say thank you after being told to fuck off, which happens more than a few times as Balsillie’s ambition starts outgrowing his capabilities. Howerton is brilliantly cast, as he essentially plays his character of Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia , just with a quite obvious bald cap. And then there’s also Johnson as the man-child of the group, who always sees work as an opportunity to have fun. But his idea of fun is not just about slacking off; it’s about creating a family ecosystem that produces new ideas through support and nurturing, something a lot of other tech companies miserably tried to emulate through bureaucracy. Time has not been an ally for the BlackBerry phone, but I believe it will be for this movie. While the other movies in this growing subgenre built themselves largely around the iconography of the brand, Johnson always has his sights set on the people behind the machine, which is what makes this specific story that much more compelling and rewatchable. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2023 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. IFC will release BlackBerry in select theaters on May 12th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Color Purple December 19, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Color Purple is not a musical, it’s a MUSICAL. Unlike other movie musicals slated to release soon (looking at you, Wonka and Mean Girls ), this one is unabashed in its traits and always threatening to leap off the screen and break out into song in the aisles. Director Blitz Bazawule opens the film with the camera swirling down from the sky, eventually careening its way to two sisters sitting in a tree. The girls make their way into town, where they’re greeted by the townsfolk singing about how the Lord works in mysterious ways. It’s an uplifting, high-energy tune filled with athletic choreography and a restless spirit, a tone-setter for the rest of the set pieces. These joyous moments do not replace the darkness that is within this story. Even at a young age, Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Netti (Halle Bailey) face incredible hardships. Celie is pregnant with her second child from her father, Alfonso, the first having been “given to God” immediately after it was born. The second shares the same fate, with the cruelty of the father only growing exponentially. A wolf in sheep’s clothing comes in the form of “Mister” (Colman Domingo), who reluctantly buys Celie to be his bride after being told that Nettie is not for sale. Years go by in the blink of an eye as a grown-up Celie (Fantasia Barrino, reprising her role from Broadway) must live a secluded life raising Mister’s unruly kids from his previous marriage and is forbidden from contacting Nettie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPwzBUui1GA Her first smile does not come until almost an hour into the film. By then, it’s a foreign concept, something she forgot was able to exist in her life. Barrino is quite remarkable as Celie, never feeling like an imitation of Whoopi Goldberg from the 1985 Steven Spielberg film. She has the incredibly difficult job of being beaten down to utter silence while also displaying perseverance through loud musical numbers. Along with her in many of those set pieces is Danielle Brooks (also returning from Broadway) as Sofia and Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery. Each of these women delivers a movie star performance on the grandest stage, with Brooks being the notable standout with her rendition of “Hell No!” But while the cast is all game for the balancing act of light and dark, Bazawule and screenwriter Marcus Gardley are not. A distinct tonal imbalance hangs over everything, making it all feel like it's stuck in neutral. For a movie that belts its emotions for 140 minutes on a giant screen, you ought to feel something, anything . I don’t want to cop out and say this movie just doesn’t have “it,” but there’s no better way to describe it. The words “occasionally monotonous” are not what I predicted to use to describe this beforehand. Neither would I think Gardley would sand down Alice Walker’s novel even further than the 1985 film did, with Celie and Shug’s original passion for each other being reduced to little more than a slightly sexualized friendship. Bazawule does display an admirable amount of command over the entire production. His experience with Beyoncé's Black Is King is apparent, with the music and visuals popping off the screen. It’s an interesting middle ground between a film adaptation and a recorded stage production, sometimes feeling like several visual albums awkwardly stitched together to make a cohesive narrative. Dan Laustsen’s cinematography features heavenly lights beaming through every window, and Paul D. Austerberry’s sets are beautiful, yet artificial. The Color Purple has a giant heart that it loudly shares with the world, yet there always seems to be a gap in the translation. A puzzling transition here, a missed emotional beat there; it all adds up to something being a little less than the sum of its parts. Luckily, this epic journey ends on a superior note, both lyrically and visually. I walked away with a half-smile, which definitely counts for something. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Color Purple in theaters nationwide on December 25th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Normal April 14, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In Normal , Bob Odenkirk plays a normal man with the normal name of Ulysses Richardson. He has a normal American job as a police sheriff. His newest posting is in the normal state of Minnesota, specifically in the normal small town literally called Normal. It has all the usual normal trademarks you'd expect from a place that's a bit behind the times: hardware stores, soda and ice cream parlors, and the local bar that everyone frequents. Everyone goes about their normal lives with a smile, always ready to lend a helping hand to their neighbors. This is a place where the leading cause of death is boredom. Except, when looking just a smidge underneath the surface, a lot of stuff within Normal feels a little… abnormal. A few of the shops have CB radios and police scanners, almost as if they're policing the police. The police station armory is way overstocked with military-grade equipment: C4, light machine guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition. That local bar is decorated head-to-toe with firearms, and the owner can't totally remember if they're loaded or not. And the town recently met its fundraising goal of $16.8 million, a sum that, by simple math, implies each member of the ~1500-person population chipped in just over $10,000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OndK0w1lYY Ulysses was specifically hired for his weary, half-defeated attitude towards life. He's carrying heavy baggage from his previous positions, and is just hoping for a quiet gig to help rehabilitate his confidence. This is not a new role for Odenkirk in his current twilight renaissance, which began with his introduction as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and reached new heights when his character became the main star of Better Call Saul . Since the conclusion of those shows, he’s become an unlikely action star with the Nobody films, where he plays the titular man who struggles to balance his suburban home life while trying to put his past of crime behind him. Derek Kolstad was the screenwriter for the two Nobody films, and he’s also the writer here. He created the John Wick series, so he’s got a knack for crafting stories about troubled men who must reluctantly unleash their hidden violence once they’re plugged into impossible situations. Ulysses gets thrown into the fire once he discovers that the $16.8 million in the town bank vault actually belongs to the Yakuza. The town gets a small percentage of the dirty money for hiding it away. They’ve sold their souls for cash, led by Mayor Kibner (Henry Winkler) and the rest of the old guard. Now that Ulysses knows their secret, he can’t be allowed to leave the town alive. Much of the humor in this action-comedy comes from relishing in the Minnesota stereotypes. The previous mayor died from going ice fishing when it was too cold, and his memorial service featured a potluck dinner. The cold opening (pun intended) introduces us to the Yakuza, with two of its lowly members’ punishments being that they’re posted in Normal to guard the money. Their pleas to be spared hurt my feelings as a Minnesota citizen, but I also can’t fully disagree as I look at the weather forecast and see that we could expect snow in mid-April. After a certain amount of time, everything starts to feel a little pedestrian. Ben Wheatley’s direction is competently done, yet never unlocks that next level. A snowstorm barrels over the town once the shootout begins, blanketing each scene in constant flurries. Luckily, it’s the kind of fake snow that isn’t wet, so it’ll be easy to shovel the next day. Many of the citizens also meet their end through comedically gruesome coincidences, but they’re never as funny as the movie thinks they are, just like how the supporting cast isn’t that colorful either. Then again, you’re not going to find much color in a Minnesota winter, so it’s best to be grateful for any amount that comes your way. Magnolia Pictures will release Normal in theaters nationwide on April 17th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bob Marley: One Love February 13, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen So formulaic that it might as well be taught in math class, Bob Marley: One Love is just another entry in a long line of music biopics that merely exist to pump up the brand image of its icon. It’s what the haters of Maestro thought they were watching, all of them unable to perceive the amount of soul poured into that story by an artist working at the height of his powers. One Love takes away the brush and replaces it with the creaky gears of a machine whose only purpose is to deliver the most palatable retelling possible, as if coloring outside the lines would combust the film stock it was printed on. The conventional postscript text isn’t enough from a screenplay credited to four writers (Terence Winter, Frank E. Flower, Zach Baylin, and director Reinaldo Marcus Green), as a copious amount of prescript set the stage for the political landscape of 1970s Jamaica. The Caribbean island nation is in a state of turmoil, with the threat of violence forcing everyone to look over their shoulder. Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) positions himself at the center of this conflict by staging a peace concert. Before he can sing a note, an assassination attempt results in him and his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) being hit by a bullet. Despite his carefree attitude and unwillingness to accept defeat, Marley realizes this stroke of death is a sign that cannot be ignored. He jets off to England to record his next album, “Exodus,” which will become one of the most successful ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajw425Kuvtw Green has a “look but don't touch” attitude towards the events of this three-year framework. Almost everything of note is visited but never explored in an interesting way. No amount of ambiguity or complexity is created, with Marley being an almost mystical Christ-like figure floating through a world of pain. He says that “you can’t separate the message from the music,” but his message never seems to be more than just a simple blanket statement for peace. Characters only speak in plotlines, all of them entirely forgettable save for the two leads. In a commendable move, almost all of the dialogue is delivered through authentic Jamaican accents. It may put more strain on the viewer to grasp each word, but it lends the extra ounces of credibility this product sorely needed. Ben-Adir and Lynch disappear into their roles, extending their acting chops beyond just simple mimicry. Their performances are hints of why Paramount was allegedly planning for an awards-qualifying release before punting into the doldrums of February. But those performances are all for naught once the music starts going. The concert scenes are obviously lip-synced, each one more rigid than the last. Cinematographer Robert Elswit struggles to create the illusion of thousands of screaming fans, nor do he and Green capture the uniqueness of reggae. A few flashbacks are splashed throughout to help explain Marley’s fascination with the music and Rastafarianism, but they end up being cheap crutches that only elongate the “feels one hour longer than it is” 104-minute runtime. You need to ask yourself two questions after you’ve watched a biopic. Could I have gotten the same information just by reading the Wikipedia page? A “no” is the ideal answer, but a “yes” isn’t cause for automatic failure. If this is just a Wikipedia entry, was the presentation of the information at least entertaining? One Love is a capital Y-E-S and N-O to those questions, respectively, which begs the question of what was the point of any of this. Millions of dollars and years of work amounted to less than what I could get for free in just a couple of minutes. Paramount Pictures will release Bob Marley: One Love in theaters nationwide on February 14th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Nickel Boys December 24, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Every once in a while, there comes a film that breaks your preconceptions on how a story can be told. The Jazz Singer, Jaws, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, The Blair Witch Project, The Avengers , and The Zone of Interest are such films, leaving you with the impression that you've seen much more than just a single piece of work. It might not happen right away, but RaMell Ross' Nickel Boys is destined to join those ranks. It's one of the most important films of the year, both in terms of the substance it carries over from the pages of its source material and in how it elicits your emotional response to it. Imagery is Ross's weapon of choice, with much of the words within Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel being either reduced or omitted altogether. But he doesn't stop there, opting to fully dismantle the debate of objective vs. subjective within storytelling and literally placing us within the eyes of the two leads: Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson). While video games and virtual reality have brought the first-person perspective to televisions for years, it's still a relative stranger to the silver screen, especially once you consider the added challenge of the audience not being able to control where and when they look. Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes' adaptation goes even further once the layers of time start to fold on top of each other, trapping us in a series of undefinable dreams and nightmares, each one crashing into the other without warning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2qZ429rUZw The central timeline places itself within 1962 Tallahassee. We see and hear the world through Elwood's eyes and ears: A television playing Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, his reflection in a steaming iron, a white officer giving him a dirty look, and his grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) raining tinsel upon him as he lies under the Christmas tree. These sequences play out through the prism of memory, all of them fragmented and extremely brief. They create the dots that we connect through our history and understanding of the time period. We only remember bits and pieces of our past, but the experiences are carried with us to the end of time. Elwood's experience worsens when he accepts a ride from a kindly stranger. The car turns out to be stolen, a fact that the aggressive officer probably used to pull over any African American he could that day. Elwood's punishment is a trip to the Nickel Academy reform school, a place where the term "school" is nothing more than window dressing. The White and Black kids are segregated into different buildings; the latter group is mostly all here for some bullshit reason or another, their ages ranging from preschool to high school. What could a preschooler have done to deserve this level of punishment? Turner is the Red to Elwood's Andy Dufresne, quickly offering the sobering tips of what life is like here. The system is rigged, and a few boys disappearing every once in a while is not something out of the ordinary. This place is a microcosm of America itself, pushing down its most disenfranchised citizens while simultaneously scolding them for not being able to climb the barbed ladder. Cinematographer Jomo Fray's camera stays locked within the eyes of the two boys, freely moving between them. This deprivation of the traditional cinematic gaze makes them blank slates, especially Elwood, who we don't get a good look at until over an hour in. There's a newfound sense of discovery as we witness the good and the bad through them, everything real enough that you can't excuse it as just a piece of entertainment. Whitehead's novel was based on the Dozier School for Boys, a place where bodies are still being uncovered. Ellis-Taylor often provides those small semblances of warmth as the kindly matriarch. Her beaming eyes and smile nestle into your heart when they're fixed directly at you. A smattering of scenes with Daveed Diggs recontextualizes the events of the past, with the camera now fixed on his back as if he were in a film by the Dardenne brothers. In one of those later scenes, two of the men reopen their past at school. They talk as if they went to war together and came back with PTSD, with reintegration into society being a constant struggle. A more Hollywood-ized version of this story would make this moment feel a little hokey, but Ross' vision makes it authentic. They, and, by extension, we, have been on a tumultuous journey in a way that we've never seen before. Amazon MGM Studios will release Nickel Boys in select theaters on December 13th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Novocaine March 8, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Whether we like it or not (“masochist” is the word of the day), pain serves an essential purpose in our lives. Those unpleasant pangs are a survival mechanism our bodies use to keep us away from all the harmful things the world throws at us. Everyone can remember the first time they placed their hand on the stove as a kid, and those feelings ensured we never did it again. But what if pain didn’t exist? At first, we’d all jump at the chance to feel like Superman, taking all those horrible things that used to hurt us in stride. However, one only has to gaze over at David Cronenberg’s 2022 film Crimes of the Future to know that a world without pain is one without guardrails. In Cronenberg’s dystopian tale, people openly perform surgery on themselves, splice organs for art, and attempt to morph themselves into a new level of evolution. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to know when they’ve gone too far when all the warnings have been shut off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PyOIlJEdqA In Novocaine , Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) has CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis), a rare genetic disorder where he is incapable of feeling pain or temperature. He lives his mild-mannered life as a bank manager with the utmost safety. Tennis balls are on every corner he could bump into, and all of his digestive needs are met through smoothies, as solid foods could lead him to bite his tongue off. It’s these early moments where Lars Jacobson’s script illustrates that it has more on its mind than just the silly antics that the trailers solely focused on. Studies have shown that most people with CIPA don’t live past thirty, and their quality of life is quite poor on account of the increased anxiety that they endure. It can lead a person to become a hermit, shielding themselves from everything in an attempt to see another day. Like any twentysomething guy who spends almost all of his free time playing video games, the thing that gets him to come out of his shell is a girl. Sherry (Amber Midthunder) is one of the tellers at the bank Nathan works at, and she takes an interest in his awkward personality and odd case. But just as things are about to get serious between the pair, the bank is robbed, and Sherry is taken hostage. Fearing that he’s going to lose the one good thing that’s ever happened to him in his miserable life, Nathan becomes a vigilante, using his condition for his own benefit. From this point, all those injuries that Nathan’s spent his whole life avoiding become the punch-line to the wall-to-wall set pieces. While Cronenberg made a body horror feature, the directing duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen have made a body comedy feature. At one point during a brawl in a kitchen with one of the robbers, a gun falls into a deep fryer. Sensing that he’s got no other option, Nathan plunges his hand into the oil and grabs the gun. He later gets impaled with a crossbow bolt, which is treated more as a minor annoyance than a serious injury. These gags are all well executed, even if they become entirely repetitive the more we progress through the story. Quaid is a capable lead, recently being promoted from television and supporting roles. His comedic sense makes up for a lot of the dead weight his costars pack on, which includes punchable crooks, Jacob Batalon in his signature role as the best friend to the hero, and cops that are getting too old for this shit. This probably could have been a streaming movie, but then you’d be robbed of all the communal laughing and squirming to all the mishaps, which is worth just enough to cover the admission price. Paramount Pictures will release Novocaine in theaters nationwide on March 14th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A Good Person March 22, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen For both good and bad reasons, Zach Braff’s A Good Person proudly wears its heart on its sleeve, which is about the size of The Grinch’s when it grew three sizes that eventful day. It’s Braff’s first writing and directing credit since 2013’s Wish I Was Here , which didn’t make quite the same splash as his 2004 debut Garden State . The acoustic/folksy soundtrack and big emotional moments have been lifted from the past and into the present with A Good Person , with Braff staying behind the camera in favor of allowing Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman (reunited with Braff after Going in Style in 2017) to chew the scenery, and then some. Braff sadly found the inspiration to write A Good Person during the pandemic. He went through a series of tragic moments, losing close friends and family, some specifically to COVID-19. His pent-up grief and anger manifested themselves on the page in the form of a young woman who has to pick herself back up after an unimaginable loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phRXBLwcy5I Pugh plays that woman, Allison, who is very soon to be married to Nathan (Chinaza Uche). On her way to try on wedding dresses with her soon-to-be sister-in-law and her husband, Allison is involved in a fatal car accident, with her being the only survivor. The guilt sends her down a dark path filled with pills and alcohol, with her relationship with Nathan also coming to an end. There is some light at the end of the tunnel as Allison seeks help for her problems at AA meetings, where she runs into Nathan’s father, Daniel (Morgan Freeman, actually given something to do outside of bad B-movies). The only way forward for these two lost souls is to face their fears together, which promises to bring about complicated feelings of regret and loss. Braff may not wallow in the pivotal car accident, but he sure does pound the keys during the aftermath. The first third almost surpasses Darren Aronofsky's levels of melodrama as Allison goes through the clichéd stages of grief. Braff doesn't have Aronofsky's theatrical flair, though, with his attempt to keep things grounded only making it soapier. The cutesy song choices and mismatched comedy don’t help either, with the tone never finding a consistent throughline. Things do get better as time goes on, both for the characters and Braff’s capabilities as a storyteller. The beats begin to be less predictable, and the pace lets the actors breathe in the moment. Pugh and Freeman are fantastic in the quiet scenes they share together, breaking down their complicated relationship and building it back up again with honest conversations. But just as the story and performers are reaching their peak, Braff sends them back down the ski hill with some over-the-top scenes that further push the already strained boundaries of authenticity. Pugh and Freeman handle it fine, but it feels like a waste to saddle two generational talents with some of the most well-worn material known to the cinematic medium. Amazon MGM Studios will release A Good Person in select theaters on March 24th, followed by a nationwide expansion on March 31st. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bohemian Rhapsody November 12, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Making a biopic about Freddie Mercury and Queen is a truly difficult task for anyone to accomplish. Trying to condense the life of the greatest lead singer of all time into a feature-length film is next to impossible. Attempting this feat is Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody , which unsurprisingly isn’t able to do justice to its subject matter. Still, the film makes up for what it lacks by containing great musical performances and a mesmerizing performance by Rami Malek as Freddie. Singer has never been good with emotions throughout his career, and that clearly shows here. He desperately struggles to deal with the more human scenes and the difficult relationships Freddie had with many of his closest friends and family. Most scenes feel hokey as they try every shameless tactic to get the audience to care. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU The film also uses a straightforward method of telling the story. The plot basically boils down to a glorified Wikipedia article that tracks the history of the band from start to finish. By the end, everything that is learned feels like surface details that could easily have been explored more. Singer may not be an emotional filmmaker, but what he does have going for him is his ability to be a showman. The many different concert scenes are a treat to watch as they play back some of the band’s greatest hits. Eventually, it all culminates in the famous Live Aid performance that blows away all expectations. The film beat for beat recreates the historic moment and makes you feel like part of the electric crowd. Written by Anthony McCarten, the script for Bohemian Rhapsody fails quite badly at various points. The most apparent problem is the truly atrocious dialogue that ruins many moments that are supposed to be heartfelt. Any scene with Mary and Freddie immediately becomes a sappy mess and dashes away any hope of connection to the characters and their relationship. It can also be said that the script fails to defend the film’s 134-minute runtime as it never dives deep enough into Mercury’s troubled life. Background details are given about his upbringing and the strained relationship he had with his parents. However, these elements are treated with minor importance and don’t make an impact on Freddie as a character. On a brief note, there is a small subplot with Mike Myers cameoing as a record producer who objects to the band’s unconventional ways. Myers comes off as a cartoon and the whole storyline reeked of desperation to get a slight laugh out of the meta-joke. Lastly, Freddie’s sexuality is briefly touched on, and with very little detail, it never truly feels that important, even though it became a defining part of his image by the end of his career. The script never gives an explanation for why and how Freddie is gay, just the fact that he is. His sexuality becomes the main storyline by the end of the film, but by then, it’s too little too late. Freddie Mercury always seemed like the type of person who would be impossible to properly portray on screen. Rami Malek defies that logic and delivers a pitch-perfect performance. Apart from the singing voice, Malek recreates the mannerisms and overall presence of Mercury down to the letter. He brings a kind of contagious energy that lights up the screen every time he grabs the mic, giving us a sense of what it might have been like to be in front of Mercury as he performed. The rest of the cast does an alright job, but really none of them matter compared to Malek. Lucy Boynton is pretty good as Mary Austin, Freddie’s wife at one point and lifelong friend. Boynton does what she can with the terrible dialogue and tries to salvage each scene she shares with Malek. Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joseph Mazzello play the rest of the band. Each of them is average and just kind of floats around in the background as Freddie takes center stage. Bohemian Rhapsody isn’t a good film when put together as it fails to be a serviceable biopic about the band and its larger-than-life lead singer. However, the film is still a very fun time that delivers when it comes to musical thrills and will have you banging your head and listening to Queen for weeks after. 20th Century Fox will release Bohemian Rhapsody in theaters nationwide on November 02nd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF25 Recap September 17, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen For ten days at the beginning of September, the laws of time and space cease to exist. Days turn to night in an instant, getting three hours of sleep per night becomes a normal practice, and diets consist of Tim Horton’s donuts, movie theater popcorn, and hot dogs from that heavenly cart located at the corner of King Street W and John Street. If you’re not going home asking yourself why you put your mind and body through the wringer, then you haven’t fully experienced the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Of the two hundred plus films showcased throughout the fiftieth edition of this festival, I saw thirty-eight of them, an improvement over last year’s tally of thirty-seven. Before branding me with the crazy label, just know that I’ve met and observed people who have eclipsed fifty films without breaking a sweat. My streak started on a soaking wet Thursday with one of the best films of the festival: Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier. The recipient of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this Norwegian drama is one of the year’s most emotionally intelligent films. Every tear, gasp, and laugh is produced at the exact right moment. Yet it's never manipulative, always proudly wearing its heart on its sleeve. I expect a lot of Oscar attention to be placed upon Trier and his quartet of cast members, with Stellan Skarsgård likely to be the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor. The second day began with a major disappointment as Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin was a major bore. And that’s coming from someone who enthusiastically took a college elective course on modern Russian history. Luckily, Park Chan-wook’s wildly entertaining No Other Choice picked me right up only a few hours later. And then later that night, I caught the world premiere of The Choral , a comfortingly forgettable British dramedy starring Ralph Fiennes as a choir teacher who must inject new life into a town’s choir during the height of World War I. Sony Pictures Classics will release it in theaters on Christmas Day. After taking the festival by storm last year with The Brutalist , Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold returned with The Testament of Ann Lee . Fastvold takes her turn in the director’s chair in stride, presenting a quasi-musical about the titular character and the founding of the Shaker movement in colonial America. Amanda Seyfried is excellent in the title role, and I hope she’ll be a factor in this year’s Oscar race once a distributor picks up the film. It’s unfair to label Wake Up Dead Man as my least favorite of the now three Knives Out films, as I still had a lot of fun with it. Josh O’Connor is ostensibly the lead, taking an ever larger role as the audience’s guide than Ana de Armas and Janelle Monáe did in their respective entries. The cast is not as well served here, while Daniel Craig falls deeper into his Foghorn Leghorn routine, upping his comedic prowess as the proudly rational detective must come face-to-face with the realization that all the clues point to this murder being a miracle. I saw a lot of good/great films throughout the first few days, but I was still waiting for “the one” to appear. That happened early Monday morning in the form of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet , which deservedly took home the festival’s coveted People’s Choice Award. There wasn’t a dry eye in the theater as the origin of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is told through the tragic prism of his young son, Hamnet. Jessie Buckley is nothing short of transcendent, practically engraving her Oscar with every moment of laughter and cries. It’s the best film of the year, and make sure to check it out in theaters this Thanksgiving. Netflix led the charge during the festival’s middle section. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams are also two of the year’s best films, telling touching stories set against breathtakingly beautiful backdrops. Edward Berger couldn’t maintain the momentum as he delivered his worst film to date in Ballad of a Small Player . It’s still watchable thanks to his expert craftsmanship, but the DNA is all wrong. Ranging from “okay” to “good enough” during that span were Rental Family , The Lost Bus, Nuremberg , Hedda , The Secret Agent , and Good Fortune . Starring Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine came into the festival with a ton of heat after Venice showered the film with positive reviews and the Silver Lion prize to director Benny Safdie. I’m a little puzzled as to what everyone saw in the film, as all I experienced was a standard sports biopic clothed in just enough rough production qualities so that distributor A24 could maintain their indie cred. The final few days are always a crapshoot in terms of quality. Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy starred in the toothless capitalist satire Sacrifice , while Angelina Jolie led an international cast through Paris Fashion Week in Couture . Vince Vaughn may be a very likable actor, but he can’t carry a tune to save his life, which is why he’s horribly miscast as a Las Vegas lounge singer with untapped potential in Easy’s Waltz . The worst film of the festival was Scarlet , Mamoru Hosoda’s anime version of Hamlet (there he is again!) that trades away all of the wit and heart for obnoxious characters and never-ending yelling. Many of these films will be released in theaters or on streaming by major studios from now until the end of the year, while others will be trapped in limbo for years to come. It’s all a part of the big gamble we all partake in, experiencing the ecstasy and agony through stories projected on a giant silver screen. You’d assume I’d swear off movies for a few weeks after this whole ordeal. But the train never slows down, and I’m having too much fun to jump off. FULL RANKING Hamnet Frankenstein Sentimental Value No Other Choice The Testament of Ann Lee Train Dreams It Was Just an Accident Sound of Falling Nouvelle Vague Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Roofman Two Prosectors The Voice of Hind Rajab The Secret Agent Rose of Nevada Sirāt Eagles of the Republic The Christophers Rental Family Ballad of a Small Player Fuze Hedda The Smashing Machine Nuremberg A Private Life Good Fortune Couture The Wizard of the Kremlin Sacrifice The Choral Tuner Christy The Lost Bus Silent Friend Orphan The Fence Easy’s Waltz Scarlet More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga May 21, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Since the relative conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been an increasing urge to claim that a certain film “needs to be experienced on the biggest screen possible.” While it is true that no television can match the sharpness and brightness of a theatrical projection (if handled well, which is becoming more of a rarity these days), the notion that every movie with a budget over $100 million needs to be seen in the cinema does water down the uniqueness of the ones that truly push the medium forward. I can tell you for a fact that Argylle wouldn’t have been harmed had it bypassed its theatrical release and gone straight to Apple TV+. I can also say the inverse of that towards Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , and that anyone who chooses to experience George Miller’s newest extravaganza outside of the cinema deserves the same amount of ire that David Lynch has for phones . The screen pops, and the sound system roars with each successive introduction to a motorcycle. But it’s not done as an act of fetishization for the aesthetic of the machinery; it’s about the newfound importance of bikes in the wasteland. Along with bullets, they are just as much a part of the hierarchy of needs as food and water. The world is now a desolate desert of nothingness, with none of its inhabitants possessing the survival skills of Arrakis’ Fremen population from Dune . Murder and thievery are the new names of the game. But hidden away from all the destruction amongst the sand is an oasis of abundance called “The Green Place.” Furiosa and her family escaped the ravaged land to live there, but their paradise is encroached on by a biker gang who kidnap Furiosa to take her back to their leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth donning a wild set of fake teeth and nose prosthetics). A relentless chase across the desert ensues, one whose consequences will shape Furiosa’s outlook on the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJMuhwVlca4 But from there, things slow down. True to the subtitle, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris treat Furiosa’s journey as a saga, complete with chapters. Each contains its own set piece and three-act structure, but this is not the non-stop onslaught of action that Fury Road was. This is a prequel, after all, so time is well spent on introducing (and reintroducing) the elements and characters of this universe. Gas Town, Bullet Town, and the Citadel are back, and so is Immortan Joe (now played by Lachy Hulme) and his War Boys. Even with all its operativeness, Miller still indulges in the silliness of the world and concepts, such as Joe’s sons Rictus Erectus and Scrotus. And let’s not forget Pissboy, whose weapon of choice is exactly what you think it is. It’s that combination of grit and goofy that has marked the high points of Miller’s nearly five-decade-long career. You only have to look for a few seconds on his IMDb page to notice that Happy Feet Two and Mad Max: Fury Road are squished right next to each other on the timeline. The carnage is gruesome, and the body count is quite high as Miller takes an almost Biblical approach akin to the world just before God’s flood. There’s still a popcorn-munching delight in the carnage, not out of guilt, but out of the pleasure of seeing the process executed by masters of their craft. Margaret Sixel’s (and co-editor Eliot Knapman's) editing is just as propulsive as it was before, with the rhythms of the action likely to be matched by your heartbeat. Junkie XL’s booming score beckons closely to his work on Fury Road (not a bad thing!), most noticeable during the show-stopping “Stairway to Nowhere” sequence. If there is to be one complaint - a minor one nonetheless - it is the price of a bigger scale in the form of a slight overreliance on visual effects. A few backdrops and ragdoll effects look a little questionable, although never to the extent that the first trailer led us to believe. It’s also hard to be overly critical, as Miller’s flawless mixture of practicality and technicals on Fury Road raised the bar so high that no one might be able to clear it going forward. Simon Duggan’s photography isn’t as sweeping as John Seale’s on Fury Road , but he gets across the finish line with some angles and movements. Anya Taylor-Joy solidifies her blockbuster chops in the titular role, her eyes even more striking when surrounded by grease paint. Miller takes a similar stance on dialogue as Denis Villeneuve, opting for his actor’s expressions and camera to do much of the talking. However, that strategy doesn’t apply to Hemsworth, who chews up the scenery each chance he gets. The pristine IMAX visuals do make his prosthetics quite glaring, but that phoniness is one of the leading characteristics of his messianic figure. While they don’t have their names on the poster, Alyla Browne and Tom Burke are exceptional as Young Furiosa and Praetorian Jack, respectively. Furiosa may not surpass Fury Road , but I don’t think that was ever the intention, at least not directly. At the very least, it’ll be regarded as the best pure action film of the year and be another notch for Miller’s claim to be the best to ever do it. So, what does the 79-year-old Australian do now that he’s conquered the desert twice? Go and do it again, of course! Warner Bros. Pictures will release Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in theaters nationwide on May 24th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Top 10 DreamWorks Animated Movies March 7, 2024 By: Tyler Banark A child sitting on the moon fishing accompanied by a fairytale-like fanfare. What more could you ask for from one of Hollywood's simplest and most recognizable studio logos? With Kung Fu Panda 4 on the horizon this week, DreamWorks Animation has another installment of one of its many beloved franchises. While it has evolved over the years, the studio has never lost sight of its humble beginnings. In their 25-year history, they’ve proven adept at rivaling Disney through their ability to tell stories of different substances and styles. And unlike the Mouse House and Illumination (who never fail to rope audiences in with their vexing mascot and bland style), DreamWorks has never shied away from being themselves, even if the result isn’t always exclamatory. Nevertheless, they still crank out consistently amazing movies, and here are the ten that have stuck with me the most. 10. Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) I wouldn’t go so far as to describe animated movies as campy, but if there’s one that fits that mold, it’s this 2009 gem. Led by a voice cast of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Stephen Colbert, Monsters vs. Aliens makes for a wacky monster movie that pokes fun at kaiju movies and old sci-fi cult classics like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman . Rogen gives one of his most underappreciated voiceover performances here as B.O.B., a dimwitted gelatinous mass lacking a brain. The film isn’t one of DreamWorks’ most talked-about works, but rest assured, there are a few lovers of this movie like myself out there. 8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) As the follow-up on the studio’s biggest surprise hit, How to Train Your Dragon 2 greatly expands the world of Berk and its inhabitants. Hiccup continues his research of dragons and the possibility of them and Vikings living in harmony. The sequel introduces Cate Blanchett’s Valka, Hiccup’s long-lost mother, and Djimon Hounsou’s Drago, a man looking to control all dragons. Their additions add to the already impressive returning voice cast. Throughout the trilogy’s run, each entry made the case that it was worthy of top accolades, but there was always something else pushing it aside. The first and third entries were defeated by Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 , and the middle chapter ran into The Lego Movie and Big Hero 6 . 8. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) The conclusion to one of the most underappreciated trilogies ever, The Hidden World finds Hiccup and Toothless facing the ultimate test of a ruthless dragon hunter and his army, all while discovering a hidden realm where dragons live in peace. The animation is top-notch, and the cast is wonderful as always, especially Jay Baruchel, who never failed to make his case as to why he was the best choice for Hiccup. F. Murray Abraham joined the cast as the antagonist, Grimmel, who, like Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2 , knows how to counter and confound his opponents. Director Dean DeBlois went all out to make The Hidden World a fitting conclusion to a decade-spanning trilogy, with John Powell’s score remaining consistently soulful, just as the series was as consistent in overall quality. 7. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) As a big welcome back to not only the Shrek universe but to DreamWorks as a whole, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish took some of the biggest risks audiences have witnessed from a DreamWorks property. It not only switched gears in animation styles by following the storybook look of The Bad Guys , but it also featured the scariest representation of death in a family-friendly movie. Thanks to Wagner Moura’s spine-tingling voiceover work, the Wolf is one of the best villains in recent years. However, The Wolf wasn’t the only baddie here making a statement for himself. Big Jack Horner, voiced by John Mulaney, displayed his ruthlessness by being willing to kill one of his henchmen without remorse. Puss is written with complexity as he grapples with mortality and anxiety, capped with further commentary on how our time in life is short and shouldn’t be wasted. 6. The Bad Guys (2022) Based on the popular children’s book series by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys flew under the radar when compared to the studio’s other works. Not only was it the best animated film to come out that year, but it was also one of the first to show Into the Spider-Verse ’s impact on the industry, as the animation is far different than anything done before by DreamWorks. The Bad Guys steers away from the typical computer-generated look and goes for something more storybook-like. It pulled me in immediately through its opening scene: a long take of Wolf and Snake eating breakfast before pulling up to a bank for another heist. On the surface, it’s just an opening scene that the typical viewer could just brush off. However, if you’re like me, you’ll notice that DreamWorks made a subtle homage to Quentin Tarantino and his crime flicks (more specifically, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction ). Sam Rockwell led an excellent cast; including Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Zazie Beetz, and Richard Ayoade. 5. Kung Fu Panda (2008) A remarkable feat that safely introduced young audiences to martial arts movies, Kung Fu Panda not only featured the witty humor audiences came to expect but also a compelling character arc for Jack Black’s Po. The movie provided resonant motifs of never giving up and that answers can be found in the unlikeliest places. Black had an impressive supporting cast around him, including Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, and Ian McShane as one of the best villains in studio history who is both menacing and understandable. Kung Fu Panda cemented DreamWorks’ second most successful franchise, and it’s never been far behind a certain green ogre… 4. Shrek 2 (2004) Shrek 2 is one of the rare sequels to equal its predecessor. Not only did it raise the stakes, but it distanced itself enough to the point where it could be a standalone, feel-good movie. Shrek 2 also featured a great villain in Fairy Godmother, who is nice on the surface but reveals her true intentions by trying to get in between Shrek and Fiona. The sequel also introduced us to the irresistible Puss in Boots, who solidified himself as a franchise favorite to the point where he got two spin-offs. There’s also a strong soundtrack, with the highlights being the movie’s anthem, Accidentally in Love, and Jennifer Saunders’ cover of Holding Out For a Hero . 3. Shrek (2001) A landmark film of a generation and the first film to win Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars, Shrek is DreamWorks’ golden child. It put the studio on the map and provided a wake-up call to Hollywood that Disney isn’t the only source of animation, while also spawning three sequels and two spin-offs. During its run, Shrek went on to become the first animated film in almost sixty years to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, and Eddie Murphy became the first actor to receive a BAFTA nomination for a voice-over role by playing Donkey. It threw out audiences’ preconceptions about fairytales, giving us a hero far from Prince Charming on the outside, yet still charismatic and lovable. It made a statement that anyone is capable of giving and receiving love, with the added bonus of several raunchy jokes and clever moments that have become staples of online culture. 2. The Prince of Egypt (1998) The best piece of religious cinema I’ve ever seen and one of DreamWorks’ earliest works, The Prince of Egypt follows the story of Moses and his liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Ancient Egypt. Based on the book of Exodus, it’s one of the few faith-based films to resonate with culture both critically and commercially, with other worlds like The Passion of the Christ and Silence falling on extreme ends of the spectrum. A strong cast including Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, and Martin Short all brought their A-game. The Prince of Egypt is still one of the few DreamWorks movies to feature traditional hand-drawn animation, most notably seen in the climax where Moses parted the Red Sea, and an eerie nightmare sequence told through Egyptian paintings. Music from Hans Zimmer and a soundtrack featuring sweeping songs such as Deliver Us , Through Heaven’s Eyes , and The Plagues , aided in establishing the epic scale and the studio’s legacy. 1. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) If you’re reading this and know this cinephile personally, then this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. As the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover, and that’s exactly the case with How to Train Your Dragon . Gorgeous animation with the help of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakin, a stellar voice cast, and a timeless script are just a few of the reasons why the movie exceeded all expectations. Hiccup and Toothless are an irresistible duo, accompanied by many characters that complement them well. Furthermore, John Powell’s score is one of the best, if not the best this critic has ever heard. It’s easy to listen to, and you can’t help but smile when you hear our duo’s themes. This first chapter also lays the groundwork for one of the most consistent animated trilogies ever, never going overboard with the worldbuilding, leaving enough to be discovered and built upon in said sequels. Through Hiccup, the movie conveys that you should never be afraid to be who you truly are, even if everyone around you is different. This method can be applied to DreamWorks as a studio, which is exactly why How to Train Your Dragon is their best. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen