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Him September 18, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen At this point, should Jordan Peele bear some of the blame for the countless bad films he’s inspired in the years since Get Out ? Based on the recurring delay of his next film, it feels like even he’s starting to feel the pressure of comparison. Then again, should Quentin Tarantino have been blamed for all the Pulp Fiction rip-offs of the ‘90s and early 2000s? Should Steven Spielberg be blamed for every movie centered around sharks or dinosaurs? It’s the mark of a true master, someone who makes it look so effortless that it deludes people into thinking that they can just as easily pull it off. 99% of them try and fail, with that one special person perfectly threading the needle between homage and distinctiveness, restarting the cycle all over again. Much as it really wants to be in that 1% club, Him is most certainly an imitator, flaunting sights and sounds as if it were some deep and insightful piece of filmmaking. In actuality, it's just noise, an irritating string of moments that increasingly pushed me to pack up and go home. But instead of doing that, I stayed in my seat, recounting all the productive things I could have done with the ninety-six minutes I just burned. I could have read a few more chapters in that book I should have already finished, cherished these final few summer days by going on a walk, or just stared blankly at a wall. Those corny workout videos that football teams post on social media during the offseason have been brought to the silver screen, only this time with more explanatory narration and opportunities for athletes to repeatedly take off their shirts. Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is one of those shirtless hunks, the next great football quarterback. Unfortunately, that path of success is derailed when he’s struck in the head by a random attacker, an event that’s never mentioned again until much later in the film. As an act of redemption, Cameron takes an offer to spend a week training at the compound of Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), the recipient of eight championship rings and the undisputed status of The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). You could say he’s the Daniel Day-Lewis of football, reaching his status through uncompromising dedication to his craft and a willingness to sacrifice everything. That even extends to the health and safety of his employees, all of them with a cult-like devotion to put their bodies on the line. There were several moments throughout that reminded me of Opus from earlier this year, which has been rightfully banished to the realm of obscurity. Both films try to expose our obsession with celebrity culture through a mixture of dark comedy and brutal horror. But the lameness of their ideas and ineffective scares make it a tedious snoozefest. The only benefit of the totally predictable jump scares is to jolt you back awake. But that’s only a startle, as it takes actual talent to scare someone. And just like Opus , Him ends with a baffling sequence of reveals that invite dozens of questions about the logic and ultimate goal of this whole operation. Why does every Julia Fox scene end with her having to leave? Why are there a bunch of rabid fans living on the outskirts of the compound as if it’s Area 51? Why does Isaiah drink alcohol and smoke cigars when it’s already been established that he follows an extremely regimented diet? Why does Cameron always preach about the importance of family, only for all those characters to be extremely annoying? The more I ask these questions, the less I actually want the answer. Him isn’t meant for fans of football, horror movies, or life in general. It’s meant to be used as a repellent, pushing people towards better movies. I’d like to consider this review as an act of public service, but I fear that the stench is going to stick with me for a while. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Avatar: Fire and Ash December 16, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and that James Cameron will defy all the doubters. 20th Century Fox was reluctant to make a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien , only to be swayed by Cameron’s gumption during a pitch meeting when he added a “$” suffix to the title. Titanic was destined to be a humongous flop as its production timeline grew longer and its budget eventually ballooned to the biggest ever for its time. It took over a decade for technology to catch up to the vision of Avatar , with an executive claiming that Cameron was delusional for thinking that he could pull this off. After being subjected to eight delays totaling thirteen years, people wondered if the sequel, The Way of Water , would be worth all the trouble. It’s safe to say that I don’t need to mention the combined $8 billion at the box office and dozens of Academy Award nominations for you to know how each of those films fared. Unfortunately, Avatar: Fire and Ash , the third of the five planned films in the franchise, might mark the end of this forty-year winning streak, at least in terms of critical and cultural relevance. I have absolutely no doubt that this film will join its predecessors to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Granted, that achievement won’t be as much of a challenge considering the several Premium Large Formats (PLF) the film will be released in, such as 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, IMAX, IMAX 3D, and HFR. Here in Minnesota, a ticket to screening in one of those formats will cost you about $25, an almost 50% increase from the average price of $17 for a normal screening. As much as those costs can be balked at on paper, every dollar is well earned on the screen. Seeing this in Dolby 3D HFR reminded me how much these films operate on a different plane of existence. Everything simultaneously feels lifelike and otherworldly, with the fully computer-generated sets having an amazing depth. Cameron delivered a foreword speech about the perils of generative AI, and made it very clear that his films are fully human-driven. Everything took a painstaking amount of time and resources to transfer from the mind to the silver screen. That includes the actors, whose performances are captured with an ever-increasing amount of detail. It’s quite astonishing for Zoë Saldaña to open this year with an Oscar win for her supporting role in the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez , and then close it out with equally impressive work as a ten-foot-tall blue alien. Despite it now only being three years since the previous film, it still takes some time to adjust to the sensory explosion. Cameron doesn’t make it any easier by forgoing all opening studio logos, plunging us right into the action of Pandora. After the death of their eldest son at the conclusion of The Way of Water , Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldaña) find themselves wandering down different paths of grief. Like every hardened marine, he keeps it all on the inside, pushing the family like a drill instructor so that something like this will never happen again. Neytiri has abandoned all compassion for humankind, pushing for all-out war against them. Unsurprising, considering our history, humans share Neytiri’s sentiment and are more than willing to raise the stakes. The Na’vi are not as unified as they once were, with several clans harboring resentment for how Sully’s involvement in their plight has only brought more death and destruction. The most outwardly spoken of these factions is the Mangkwan clan, also called the Ash People. They resolve their differences with their fists and are led by the witch Varang (Oona Chaplin). Seeing how this splintering can lead to the whole dam breaking, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the biggest proponent of Han Solo’s famous quote about how “hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side,” decides to ally with Varang and supply her with all the firepower she could ever want. Cameron has always been the master of understanding the purpose of a sequel, how the re-entry into a world marks an opportunity to expand upon the original and carve a new path. Fire and Ash contains no footprints of that ideology, essentially being a carbon copy of The Way of Water , a fact that both does and doesn’t make sense, considering that the two films were originally envisioned as one epic story. It seems that when the decision to split them was made, Cameron, along with co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, decided to hit copy/paste and call it a day. If you were to watch the final hour stretches of The Way of Water and Fire and Ash side-by-side, it would be nearly impossible to spot the differences. The introduction of Jaffa and Silver for these two sequels has not improved the quality of the writing. This is the kind of blockbuster where you can predict exactly what’s going to happen and when it will occur. The stakes of a lead character dying in the first battle are weightless because there are still another two-and-a-half hours to go. This trash for your mind is treasure for your bladder, as a movie that features this much water footage across a 195-minute runtime will naturally lead to a steady stream of bathroom breaks. If The Way of Water left you clamoring for more from the Avatar series, then Fire and Ash has delivered in monkeypaw fashion. It’s more… of the same, focusing on survival rather than evolution. The tension around my ears and markings all over my face from the 3D glasses were well worth it for the audio/visual experience, another in a long line of raisings of the bar by Cameron. But what good is a tricked-out sports car if you're just going to cruise around the neighborhood? More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Poitier and Hoffman: The Dueling Kings of 1967 Hollywood February 23, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In all the years that cinema has been alive, 1967 is undoubtedly one of the most pivotal. After years of jealousy towards the European model of thinking, America finally opened itself up to a new wave of filmmaking, one heralded by auteurs who subscribed to the ideas of new sentimentality. Films such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate spoke to the younger audience of American cinema, offering exploration into forbidden topics such as sex, violence, and social change. Even though these films made their mark both critically and financially, it did not mean the death of old sentimentality in film, quite the contrary. In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner both were nominated for Best Picture that year, with the former taking home the prize. These two films appealed to the older generation through their use of star power and production values. What’s most striking about the dichotomy between these two sets of films is the leading men at the center of them. On one side sits Dustin Hoffman; a short (only standing 5’5”) aloof brown-haired boy. On the other side is Sidney Poitier, who stands tall at 6’2” and is both exceedingly handsome and elegant. Both of these actors represented different generations of cinema and were hugely important in the turning point of 1967. Dustin Hoffman had no screen presence before being cast in The Graduate . He had no major previous roles and did not possess the classic movie star looks such as the blonde hair of Robert Redford and Paul Newman or the towering charisma of Warren Beatty. Hoffman was of Jewish descent, which could be easily discerned from his looks, making him even more of an outsider to his contemporaries. Director Mike Nichols saw something in Hoffman, an opportunity to use Hoffman’s “flaws” to tell a more authentic story to a younger audience growing tired of Hollywood perfectionism. In The Graduate , Benjamin’s detachment from every aspect of life is something that connects with younger viewers. In 1967, the Vietnam War was still raging, and the American optimism that had been so prevalent since World War II had started to wane. Kids didn’t have their entire futures planned out and were starting to see the flaws within American society. Because of Hoffman and The Graduate , no longer does the main character have to have a goal to achieve or a lover to swoon over. Instead, they can be aimless and enter into an adulterous relationship with an older woman. This performance spurred Hoffman’s career further, with equally down & dirty roles in Midnight Cowboy and Straw Dogs just a few years later. Sidney Poitier, on the other hand, was, through his involvement in the projects, a proponent of old sentimentality in Hollywood. Where Hoffman’s popularity was beginning to boom, Poitier’s reached its peak and would soon come crashing down. His roles in both In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner shined a light on race relations within America but did it through the old lens of conventionalism. Of course, a black man leading a Best Picture winner and garnering acclaim for his performance isn’t something to shortchange. But Poitier played by Hollywood’s rules, playing stoic, calm, and poignant men that appealed to a generation that stood for professionalism and the status quo. In the Heat of the Night has Poitier play Virgil Tibbs, who solves a murder case in the deep south and confronts the town’s ideals through his merit as a detective and ability to withstand undeserved ridicule. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Poitier is John Prentice, seemingly the world’s greatest doctor who rests the solution to his marital problem in the hands of Spencer Tracy, one of the great screen legends of the past. While both these roles allowed Poitier to address social change in intermittent radical ways, such as his retaliatory slap against Endicott and his fiery speech about thinking of himself not as a colored man, but just a man. Both of these movies portrayed the white savior narrative that had grown out of favor among the younger generation. Unlike Hoffman, Poitier’s appeal was, ironically, only to the people that had been holding him back all those years, and not to the people who were looking to create change within the nation and Hollywood system. This is why Poitier never stayed at the same level post-1967, as New Hollywood emerged and the old conventions started to die off, both literally and figuratively. Both Dustin Hoffman and Sidney Poiter were exciting actors for an exciting time in American cinema. Through their physical and personality traits, they appealed to different sets of ideals within the American psyche at a time when both sides came to a crossroads. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Zone of Interest June 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Zone of Interest had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on December 15. “The banality of evil” is a term that has been (over)used to describe the lens that Jonathan Glazer uses to dissect the Holocaust in The Zone of Interest . The term was coined nearly fifty years ago by the German-born writer/philosopher Hannah Arendt during the post-war trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the highest-ranking Nazi figures behind the Holocaust. Eichmann showed no remorse for his inhumane actions, nor did he have hatred toward the people that he had been ordered to eradicate. He plead not guilty to his crimes, as he was just doing his job as part of the Nazi machine. Arendt viewed Eichmann as an ordinary cog who refused to think for himself. He was simply motivated by career advancement and didn’t want to disrupt the order of things. That banality would become one of the most dangerous things within the new Nazi regime, as indescribably heinous acts were committed with the same complacency as an everyday person doing their chores. Glazer hones in on that concept with his radically departing adaptation of Martin Amis’ (who tragically died just one day after the Cannes premiere) 2014 novel of the same name. There is no vilification of the main characters within Glazer’s story, which are the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller). They have five young children and are trying to create the perfect home to raise a family. When not working, the family spends their time swimming in the nearby lake, tending to their garden, or playing games in the house. They seem like a perfect unit, with the only reminder of their underlying beliefs being the concrete wall that separates their yard from the inner workings of Auschwitz. There isn’t a single moment that takes place within the infamous camp, but its presence is always felt. The family will be sunbathing in the garden when a faint gunshot goes off on the other side of the wall. Both you and the characters know what that sound means, but only you care about the implications of it. For the family, those gunshots are just as much a part of everyday life as the birds chirping in the trees above. They go about their daily lives without a hitch, leaving you stranded in the fear of your imagination. This provocation through absence is in such stark contrast from other works within the Holocaust subgenre that it sometimes makes you question the approach other filmmakers took. Did Steven Spielberg’s stylizations within Schindler’s List lessen the impact of the horrors, or did it make it palatable enough so that it could be used as a teaching point for a mass audience? A more extreme version of that argument would be Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful and the lesser-known Robin Williams-starring Jakob the Liar . Glazer is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Spielberg. His absolute refusal of stylization towards the pivotal acts is based on your preconceived knowledge of Auschwitz. You’ve seen the photos, learned the class lessons, and most likely seen Schindler’s List . Seeing what’s going on lessens its impact, as the horrors you infer in your mind are much scarier than anything within the frame. You want to look away, except there was nothing you were looking at to begin with. Grand stylizations do emerge from time to time, most notably a pitch-black prelude overture of Mica Levi’s incredible score, and black-and-white negative vision that follows a young girl on a secret mission. Paweł Pawlikowski’s regular cinematographer Łukasz Żal captures the action in staged wide shots, with much of it taking place within the house. Glazer and Żal positioned ten fixed cameras within the various nooks and crannies, operating by remote control similar to surveillance cameras within a mall. They give off a feeling of detachment and unimportance, with Glazer refusing to view the characters going about their daily lives in anything but a neutral light. Friedel made a name for himself as a burgeoning Nazi in Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon back in 2009. While his commandant position would infer that he’s a radical supporter of the ideology, he is the film’s Eichmann, devoted to his role as a means to support his family and get ahead in life. The same can be said for Hedwig, with Hüller - having a wonderful Cannes with both this and Anatomy of a Fall - only breaking from her sternness when she finds out the family may need to move away from the camp. Sickening in the most calculated way possible, The Zone of Interest is Jonathan Glazer's ode to Stanley Kubrick. He answers the question of how evil can exist unchecked, holding all of your senses in a sterilized vice. Be sure to soak it all in during your first watch, because I doubt you'll ever want to view the world this way again. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A House of Dynamite October 9, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen If, for some reason, director Kathryn Bigelow and distributor Netflix decided to cut out the final two-thirds of their new film, A House of Dynamite , then they might have had a serious contender for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Of course, they didn’t do that, so what’s left is a pretty good film that immediately reaches its apex, only to then gradually deflate from there. It’s a disappointing fact, but I’d bet that any filmmaker would commit a host of unholy acts to be given the skill of dramatic storytelling that Bigelow possesses throughout that first act. A House of Dynamite arrives nearly a decade after Bigelow’s last feature, Detroit , the final entry in a fact-based trilogy about the perils of modern America. That movie tackled racial politics through the lens of the 1967 Detroit riots, with the two preceding films, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty , using the power of immediacy to take a moral stand on our involvement in the Middle East. Within those three films is a near-perfect balance of entertainment and education, made possible by the combination of Hollywood bravura and gritty journalism. Although this latest feature is not based on historical events, it doesn’t make it any less true. Screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, formerly the senior producer of Today Show and president of NBC News, has clearly done his homework, filling his script with rigorous procedures, acronyms, and chains of command throughout the United States federal government. The opening captions state that cooler heads started to prevail after the Cold War, with the world’s superpowers decreasing their nuclear arsenals in an attempt to avert a potential crisis that could not be undone. “That era is now over,” flashes next across the screen, as now thousands of little red buttons can wipe out all life on Earth. This is the story of what happens when that fateful day finally arrives. It begins at an air defense installation in Alaska. Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) and his team identify a single ballistic missile crossing the Pacific Ocean towards the United States. They pull out their instruction manuals and start transmitting their findings to the White House Situation Room, where Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson) assembles the leaders of the Executive Branch. Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris) and General Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts) mull the options, eventually presenting them to POTUS (Idris Elba) for a final decision. All of this must take place within eighteen minutes, all while the missile is headed directly for a major American city. To lend the power of perspective to this condensed timeline, Bigelow and Oppenheim go through these motions on three occasions, each time offering a different viewpoint. The first cycle is about the shock of discovery, with everyone doubtful that what they’re seeing is actually true. The second is about gathering facts, establishing defense measures, and following long-established procedures. The third and final cycle is about reaction, walking the walk after talking the talk. What level of response is required? Rare, medium, and well-done are the options given to the president, each placing the entire world in the palm of his hand. My introductory point about diminishing returns is derived from this repetition. For as much as the second and third cycles do their best to offer tidbits of new information by focusing on different characters, they can never escape the feeling that we’re just retreading what’s already been established. Phrases are repeated, and similar themes of hopelessness are copied between generically constructed characters. The several times that Ferguson’s character clutches her son’s dinosaur toy did not make me care more about what would happen to her personally. Volker Bertelmann’s score would be accused of stealing from Conclave had he not also been that film’s composer. The second cycle involves a moment at Gettysburg, which is still the bloodiest battle in American history, with over fifty thousand casualties across both sides. Now it’s a tourist attraction, with children and families walking the fields with smiles on their faces as they snap pictures and cheer on reenactments. The next war will not offer any such future luxuries, obliterating the board before anyone could make another move. While it may not be as succinct as originally promised, Bigelow has conveyed that message with fierce resolve. We’re all sitting in a house of dynamite, and the fuse is only getting shorter. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Killers of the Flower Moon October 18, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The question that has perpetually hanged over director Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Western Killers of the Flower Moon is the justification for the history-making 206-minute runtime. It’s a question of excess that has doggedly followed Scorsese for over five decades now, a curse that besieges anyone who pushes conventions past their preconceived limits. Did the climactic shootout in Taxi Driver have to be so graphic? Did Jesus and Mary Magdalene have to consummate their marriage in The Last Temptation of Christ ? Did Joe Pesci have to pop a rival mobster's eye out of its socket with a vice grip in Casino ? Did the characters have to swear so much in The Wolf of Wall Street ? Time and time again Scorsese has proved us wrong about what should and shouldn’t be in film. Killers of the Flower Moon is no different as several scenes would have been trimmed or fully excised in 99.9% of productions. And yet, none of those scenes felt superfluous, and there wasn’t a single one I wasn't fully invested in. It’s the mark of a master, someone who pieces the puzzle together with perfection while still keeping the magic alive by masking how he did it. Similar to Ridley Scott, Scorsese shows no signs of slowing down as reaches octogenarian status. Just as there was little surprise surrounding the length of the film (the man literally hasn’t released a film under 120 minutes in almost 40 years), nothing is shocking about Scorsese’s ability to fill the frame with operatic grandeur. The camera charges in, Robbie Robertson’s beating score resembles rock music as much as it can within the period, and the streets are bustling with lively characters. There’s a distinctly rowdy energy to everything, something that Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker have honed and perfected throughout their decades-long partnership. What is surprising about Killers of the Flower Moon is Scorsese’s ability to bring in the qualities of his lesser-known films, which is the capacity to take a step back and observe a culture. There’s a delicate balance between getting in the thick of the action and letting it wash over from a distance. For every street race and moment of shocking violence, there’s a chance to witness a piece of this land and its people. There are key moments where an Osage wedding or ceremonial tradition is recreated, shedding light on what’s ultimately at stake. Unfortunately for the Osage people, funerals were a more common occurrence than weddings at the turn of the 20th century. There’s nothing more dangerous in America than a man’s greed, and that snake has taken hold of the original people of Oklahoma. White people are the immigrants in Osage County, all of them pouring in to get a piece of the oil deposit pie. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) is one of them. He’s a soldier returning home from Europe, settling in to live with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro), who prides himself on his great relations with the Osage people. They are an alpha and beta pair, William the scheming mastermind, and Enrest the slack-jawed underling. The prize in everyone’s eyes is the “headrights” that each Osage member has, essentially a legal claim to a portion of the oil money. If a white man marries an Osage woman and she dies later on, those rights are solely transferred to the husband. Mollie (Lily Gladstone) is moderately aware of William’s tactics when he encourages Ernest to take an interest in her. But she can’t deny her feelings for Ernest, who genuinely cares for her throughout all his misdeeds. Their doomed relationship is beautifully portrayed by each actor, Gladstone being the film’s (and Scorsese’s) emotionally richest character, and DiCaprio weaponizing his charm to sinister results. De Niro is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, casting a shadow of death on each of the Osage he touches. There is the introduction of the FBI a little before the film reaches its third hour, led by Tom White (Jesse Plemons). But the injustice never ends, something Scorsese highlights with his “swinging for the fences” ending that recontextualizes much of what has just been witnessed. Excess is the name of the game within Scorsese’s filmography, and Killers of the Flower Moon has that in spades. But it’s not the flashy kind of excess that we’re used to seeing, it’s an excess that overwhelms your soul just as much as your senses. As the debate over what is and isn’t cinema rages on (and I pray to God it ends soon), let this be a clear illustration of what it can be: something powerful enough to enrapture you in the present and pleasantly linger with you long into the future. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Another Simple Favor May 1, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen On the set of the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera , a fellow actress loudly complained that Minnie Driver was playing her character up way too much. Sitting within earshot, director Joel Schumacher glanced up from his newspaper and said, “Oh, honey, no one ever paid to see under the top.” Although they have never worked together professionally and there’s no online record of them personally knowing each other, I would bet dollars to donuts that fellow director Paul Feig has that quote plastered above his office doorframe and repeated it several times throughout the production of Another Simple Favor . None of us is here to witness realism, or a masterclass examination of the human condition. No, we’re all here for the ludicrousness of the murder mystery plot, the luxuriousness of the Italian setting (complete with Italian stallion hunks and mafiosos), and the gaudy costumes worn by lead actress Blake Lively. It’s too bad for Feig that Paolo Sorrentino already beat him to the punch earlier this year with the Naples-set Parthenope , which will most likely be crowned as the year's most beautiful film. But Feig still makes good on his promises, planting his flag on the island of Capri and bringing two vibrant actresses along with him. The story picks up five years after the events of A Simple Favor . Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) has turned all those chaotic twists and turns into a true-crime novel. But interest amongst buyers has been low, and her son has a full-blown case of teenage angst. She needs a spark, something to get her out of the doldrums. That arrives in the form of Emily (Lively), fresh out of prison on appeal and insistent on Stephanie serving as her Maid of Honor at the destination wedding she’s hastily thrown herself into. The celebration includes ex-husband Sean (Henry Golding), Emily’s fiancé Dante (Michele Morrone, a camp legend for his work in the 365 Days trilogy), and a heated rivalry between the island’s mafia families. It’s all the ingredients necessary for a killer cocktail. Feig and screenwriters Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis understand that the only thing worse than finding yourself ensnared in a revenge plot is to be unsure if the plot even exists. Apart from some offhanded threats about legal action from Emily, there’s not a good reason for Stephanie to jetset off with the woman who previously tried to kill her. But having the characters use their head wouldn’t make for a fun movie, and there is a flirtatious bond between Emily and Stephanie that prevents them from being apart. Kendrick and Lively charge up that magnetism even more in their second go-around, serving a c-word I’m not allowed to say that does get tossed around quite a bit here. I almost wish the whole movie had just been the two of them sitting on opposite sides of prison glass, exchanging catty remarks. In addition to the elements I described earlier, there’s a subplot about an FBI investigation into Emily’s criminal aunt (Allison Janney). Its entirety is what I mostly blame for this runtime being a smidge north of two hours, a nearly unforgivable sin that made me internally recreate Elaine’s reaction to The English Patient . I was never going to be the target audience for this type of film. However, those in that zone seemed to have a wonderful time with it. Unfortunately, once this film debuts on Amazon Prime, their shared theatrical experience will not be shared by everyone else. Like the characters in the film, I recommend cuddling up with a bottle of wine and the minimum amount of brain cells to comprehend the sights and sounds flashing in front of you. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Friend March 28, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen I first saw The Friend as part of the Toronto International Film Festival back in September, squeezing it into my schedule on the final Saturday, making it the second-to-last film in my 37 film bonanza. I rushed over to the Scotiabank Theatre from the premiere of The Deb , scarfing down a corn dog as the festival volunteer rattled off the perfunctory introductory remarks. I then scurried out of the theater as soon as the credits began, my body and mind in go mode as I went a few blocks to catch the Midnight Madness screening of The Shadow Strays . What I just described in that four-ish hour chunk illustrates the sins of my gluttony when it comes to film festivals. In the race to see everything, many films become boxes to check off. The Friend was one of those films, largely due to the fact that it didn't grab me right away, making it easy to shrug off. But in the six months since then, it's lingered moderately well, raising my guilt as to how I originally treated it. If your best friend were to die and their will stipulated that you adopt their miniature horse, would you be able to do it? Let's also preface that question with the fact you're not a pet person, and you have a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan that prohibits animals in the building. This is the central question posed to Iris (Naomi Watts) after her best friend Walter (Bill Murray) suddenly dies from suicide. Now, Walter didn't own a literal miniature horse in New York City. No, that would be absurd. But he did have a 185-pound Great Dane named Apollo that he adopted in a spur-of-the-moment decision while he was out on a jog. Now with Walter gone, the dog has no master and will be indefinitely impounded if Iris doesn't step up to the plate. Suddenly coming home with a horse-sized dog is not a surprising move for Walter. He's also got three ex-wives - Elaine (Carla Gugino), Tuesday (Constance Wu), and Barbara (Noma Dumezweni) - as well as numerous flings with current and former students. He's the Bill Murray type, the life of every party and a lovable headache for everyone who gets close to him, Iris included. Murray's casting is pretty spot-on compared to the description from Sigrid Nunez's novel (she also wrote What Are You Going Through , the basis for the recent Pedro Almodóvar film The Room Next Door ), and his larger-than-life presence is always felt despite his limited screentime. For as much as The Friend would seem like the typical "dog helps a depressed human land back on their feet" kind of film, the writer/director duo of David Siegel and Scott McGehee flip much of that script. Dogs may be known as man's best friend, which would also mean we're their best friend. You'd be depressed if your best friend unexpectedly committed suicide, so why wouldn't a dog? Apollo is played by the canine actor Bing, who showcases his immense skills as a thespian. Bing/Apollo doesn't have the wet eyes of your usual cinematic dogs, something that always felt like a bit of a cheat code to our hearts. His face is blank as he solemnly stares at Iris whenever she tries to command him, his sighs are heavy every time he plops down in her bed. Things still move in a pretty predictable pattern. Iris' initial frustrations eventually become opportunities for her to embrace the chaos and redefine her life. Watts is at her usual best, working with a sturdy supporting cast and a few standout cathartic scenes. Dog lovers are very much the target audience for this story, and I'm sure they're going to eat it up. But even if you're someone like me who is neither a pet person nor found myself immediately hooked by what's being sold, allow it to linger in the days and weeks that follow. Like adopting an animal, this is a long-term investment. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Flash June 5, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen One of the first things you’ll notice about The Flash is how much of a lighter affair it is compared to Zack Snyder’s vision. I mean that on both a metaphorical and literal level, as director Andy Muschietti opens his film with the titular hero in such a ludicrously stupid situation, it almost has to be interpreted as a middle finger to Snyder’s doom and gloom. Carrying over from that dark place is Ben Affleck’s Batman, who looks a little ridiculous in the full daylight (almost as if his entire aesthetic was created with a different visual style in mind…) and still doesn’t have the time to put up with Flash’s personality (you and me both). But even if the tone and colors have been lifted from the shadows, the stakes are still as high as ever. Zack Snyder’s Justice League gave us a glimpse of Flash’s ability to enter the Speed Force and reverse the flow of time, which he did to save the entire world from Darkseid’s Mother Boxes. Being a jittery and perpetually inquisitive person, Barry extends that logic into the implication that he could go back far enough in time to save his mother from being murdered, for which his father was falsely blamed. It’s an extremely dangerous gamble, as even the slightest alteration could have unforeseen consequences on not just his own timeline, but innumerable timelines spread across the space-time continuum (the new industry-approved term is “multiverse,” which I’m sure you're very familiar with by now). To Barry, the risk is worth the reward. But instead of going back in time to make a paradise, he makes a new hell on earth. Because of his actions, the world has been rendered without metahumans, meaning no Superman, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman. But it does have a General Zod, who now stands unopposed in his destruction of Earth. Thankfully, the exclusion of metahumans doesn’t apply to Batman, who’s now in the form of Michael Keaton. Every comic-book franchise, whether live-action or animated, has dabbled in the multiverse at this point. There are some that haven’t gone far enough with it ( Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ), and some that have done it just right ( Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ). The Flash takes its concept and gives way to its worst impulses. The opportunity for endless possibilities is mostly spent on jingling car keys in front of your face in the form of cameos, line readings, and music stings that you recognize, many of which dramatically undercut the physical and emotional stakes of the situation. This is The Rise of Skywalker all over again, so desperate in its attempt for you to like it by flashing as many pleasure-inducing sights as possible that you don’t have time to think about what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s not like what’s on the surface hiding that rotten core isn’t good either. Ezra Miller continues to be the kid in high school who tried way too hard to be the class clown, devolving every “humorous” moment into an eye-rolling groan fest. I understand how it’s nearly impossible to look at them and not think about his heinous off-screen persona, but it’s also nearly impossible to like them on-screen. What’s their appeal? Being annoying? And now there are two of them! It also can’t be understated how undercooked several visual-effect-heavy sequences look. Characters move around weightlessly, CGI doubles look as natural as the actors from Tom Hooper’s Cats , and some “unbroken takes” might as well qualify for the Best Animated Short Film category at the Oscars (although I would harshly refrain from using the term “best”). Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania still takes the cake for the worst-looking blockbuster in recent memory, but this gives it a run for its money. To give Muschietti a smidge of credit, he does come up with some inventive ways to show off Flash’s powers without just ripping off the Quicksilver scenes from the X-Men movies. The distortions of time and physics may put physicists in a coma, but it’s mildly interesting to see how bad guys can be dispatched within the blink of an eye. The Flash is the straw (a heavy one nonetheless) that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to multiverses in blockbuster franchises. Instead of using its unlimited potential to deliver something unique, it sinks to the lowest form of pandering by just waving around what you already know. What’s the point of boasting about the oceanfront view if you’re only ever going to swim in the kiddie pool? More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Lost Bus October 3, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Lost Bus had its World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple TV+ will release it in theaters on September 19, followed by its streaming premiere on October 03. A sad truth came to light the other day when I was having dinner with a friend. I was recounting my recent trip to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), divulging the good, the bad, and the ugly. I eventually got to the part of my schedule that included The Lost Bus , which I described as the new Matthew McConaughey film about the California wildfires. "Which one?" my friend asked, a question that immediately contextualized the climate situation we're increasingly facing. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, nine of the ten largest wildfires in California history have occurred within the last ten years. As I'm writing this review on September 24th, three new wildfires have been reported in the state. The most destructive and deadliest wildfire in California history was the 2018 Camp Fire. This is where The Lost Bus gets its story from, beginning one day earlier on November 07, 2018. McConaughey plays Kevin McKay, a down-on-his-luck school bus driver in the town of Paradise. He's been divorced from his wife for a few years, his teenage son doesn't like him, his mom requires increased medical care, and he just had to put his dog down due to old age. He's begging for extra shifts at work to help with financial problems. The roads can be windy as he takes the kids to and from school, and his bus is in dire need of maintenance. In short, everything is already hanging on by a thread. A faulty utility tower sets off a spark among some brush. A passerby on the highway calls in the small fire, and the trucks are on their way. By the time they get there, the dry conditions and gusty winds have already made this nuisance into a problem. From there, the area of danger keeps getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger. The situation eventually got so bad that the strategy shifted from fighting the fire to saving lives, as doing both became mutually exclusive. By the end, eighty-five were killed and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Co-writer/director Paul Greengrass is the perfect person to helm this harrowing story on a macroeconomic level, having previously explored the matter-of-fact horrors of modern history with United 93 , Captain Phillips , and 22 July . Multiple scenes are dedicated to the logistics of fighting a fire of this size. How big is the area of containment right now, and where will it be in a few hours? When should the public be alerted, and what roads need to be cleared for a safe evacuation? How many trucks need to be requested as backup from the neighboring districts? The list goes on and on, and the time crunch gets progressively more severe. It's propulsively taut, with a no-nonsense lesson about how these situations have been dangerously exacerbated by a lack of accountability and preparation by our country's leaders and corporations. Once the microscope is zoomed in on Kevin, things get a lot more Hollywood-ized. Greengrass and co-writer Brad Ingelsby hammer home Kevin's status as an underdog and reluctant hero. He's just trying to get back home as the alerts start going out, and is the only bus within the vicinity of an elementary school with a class of twenty-two children whose parents couldn't pick them up. America Ferrera plays their teacher, essentially herding cats as everyone starts to sense that things are about to get much worse. The bus plows through smoke and debris as the rendezvous point constantly changes, with communication getting increasingly difficult. Greengrass overplays his hand during these moments. The camera snakes through a very digital fire, treating it like the shark from Jaws on its way to eat the children. All of them are just statistics for the plot, blankly reacting in fear to what's going on around them. McConaughey and Ferrera do decent work as their characters trade stories about their hopes and dreams. It's the same beats we've seen in every inspirational story "based on true events," ending on a small note of positivity about overcoming this tragedy. A decision was probably made at the pre-production stage to commit more to that angle than the docudrama about how hope is getting thinner by the day. I'd say they made the wrong choice, as Mother Nature continually proves that we're well past the point of wrapping these horrors with neat little bows. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Wolfs September 26, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen In Wolfs , both George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s characters go unnamed. It’s a requirement of the trade, both of them holding the title of “fixer,” someone you call when you’re in a jam and need help. A person who finds themself in this occupation needs to have a certain type of monasticism, explains Clooney’s character. They have no name, possessions, or past. They are a ghost… a lone wolf among a city full of sheep. The city in this scenario is New York, a familiar stomping ground for writer/director Jon Watts after his trilogy of MCU Spider-Man films. Here he finally gets to turn the brightness down and send some characters to the morgue, although that Marvel-y banter has stuck around in his DNA. Prominent DA Margaret (Amy Ryan) is enjoying a night on the town. She picks up a young man (Austin Abrams) at the bar, gets a penthouse suite for the two of them, and starts drinking her troubles away. Except, new trouble arises when the man falls off the bed and crashes through the glass table, killing him. She can’t call the police, as the scandal would ruin her career. So, she calls the unnamed contact on her phone, with Clooney appearing at her door with assurances that he’ll make everything disappear. The swanky hotel fears a scandal just as much as Margaret does, which is why they send in their fixer (Pitt). Just as it is annoying to find out that your Airbnb host double-booked you with another person during your weekend getaway, so is it for these two solitary professionals. But the only way to get the job done is to work together, a task that gets exponentially hard once drugs are discovered and the supposedly dead man suddenly wakes up. A lot of the early pages in Watts’ script are meant for blowing smoke up the asses of the two fixers. Several speeches about how they are one of a kind and that no one can do what they do. Of course, that whole angle gets demolished pretty quickly as these two are pretty much a mirror of each other. They dress in the same slick black outfits, talk in the same confidently hushed tone, and have bad backs. One could surmise this ironic humor is meant for Pitt and Clooney just as much as it is for the characters. They’re two identical movie stars from the same generation who could easily swap roles without much difference in outcome. I’d guess that Clooney would have nailed Moneyball just as much as Pitt did, and vice versa for Gravity . Luckily, the animosity and distrust between these two clones aren’t shared by Pitt and Clooney. Four movies together and a lifelong friendship go a long way to sell their instant chemistry here. The wisecracks and insults they share get tiring very quickly, but they always work on a basic level because of the infectious love the two of them have for each other. It’s Newman and Redford for the modern age, with some crime caper elements to keep the studio-mandated plot chugging along. Everything Everywhere All at Once cinematographer Larkin Seiple makes this look good for a streaming film, which is a backhanded way of saying it doesn’t look like a pile of digital garbage. Yes, there is a car commercial sheen to this that cannot be ignored, but the smoky shadows and nighttime gloominess of late winter New York sell the intriguing underworld that these characters dabble in. Theodore Shapiro provides a lofi techno soundtrack that’ll go great with any study session. None of this amounts to much of anything that will be memorable. I haven’t thought about it at all in the 24-hour gap between watching it and writing this review. It’s fun in the present and harnesses the power of movie stars in a time when that magic has steadily faded. For that, it gets a half-thumbs-up seal of approval. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Invisible Man March 5, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Invisible Man opens on a secluded waterfront mansion. Inside it, Cecilia Kass is executing her plan to run away from her abusive boyfriend, Adrian. She successfully escapes, but not without Adrian running after her in a violent fury. A few weeks after her departure, Cecilia is notified that Adrian has committed suicide. Her relief at his demise doesn’t last long as a series of coincidences begin to take shape. Cecilia starts to hear noises and has the constant feeling she is being watched. After some time, she discovers that Adrian isn’t dead, but invisible. He’s gaslighting her into submission, playing vicious tricks around the house, and tormenting others connected to her. With no one believing her situation, Cecilia must work to defend herself and the people she loves from unseen harm. As the writer/director behind several horror franchises such as Saw and Insidious , Leigh Whannell once again proves his chops here. He commands the material with his expert use of the camera and lighting. A multitude of slow pans and still shots imbue each scene with a lingering sense of terror that never ceases to grab hold of you. The dark, shadowy lighting puts a magnifying glass on Cecilia’s isolation as she battles her internal and external demons. And because the assailant cannot be seen, Whannell also relies on some expert sound design that is similar to the style used in A Quiet Place . Silence is the most abundant and effective sound device as it fills the gaps between the creaks and rumbles. It becomes clear throughout that hearing nothing is much scarier than hearing something. But what Whannell can be respected for most is his refusal to stoop to jump scares, especially considering the story allows for that. Sure, a jump scare here or there would have jolted some energy into the often overly-slow pacing, but Whannell’s insistence on taking the high road makes for a more complete horror experience. Of course, the concept of someone turning themself invisible is a little silly. The movie doesn’t totally defend against that criticism either, only mustering a quick line about how Adrian was “a leader in the field of optics”. However, once you get past that barrier of disbelief, you’ll open yourself up to what this movie has to offer under the hood. The script for The Invisible Man , penned by Whannell himself, has more on its mind than just scares. The movie does a great job of conveying the torment and aftermath that an abusive relationship can have on someone. Cecilia as a character is given a full arc as we follow her journey of slow recovery from beginning to end. This added layer brings a deeper meaning that is both used to educate about a serious topic and make the horror material pack a bigger punch. Portraying our heroine is the commanding Elisabeth Moss. It’s another unhinged performance similar to her previous roles in Her Smell and The Handmaid’s Tale . Moss’s all-in attitude helps suspend our disbelief of the material and grounds her character in the real world. She’s utterly believable in even the most bewildering of situations and carries the emotional weight of the film. Commendable supporting performances come from both Aldis Hodge as a sympathetic detective and Michael Dorman as Adrian’s brother, Tom. Through inventive storytelling and craftsmanship, Leigh Whannell and Elisabeth Moss have quite possibly created the definitive version of this ludicrous premise. Released at a time of year infamous for forgettable horror movies, it’s a breath of fresh air to see quality original content have its time to shine. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen