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Jojo Rabbit November 14, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen If you’re going to make a movie about the Nazis, you better make sure it’s going to be good. Multiply that rule by infinity if you’re going to make it a comedy. Because of this strict rule, only a select few have been able to take the greatest human atrocity of the modern era and turn it into a joke. Charlie Chaplin did it in 1940 with The Great Dictator (although he wasn’t fully aware of the horrors), followed by Roberto Benigni with Life is Beautiful in 1998. Now in 2019, Taika Waititi has added his name to that illustrious list with his newest film, Jojo Rabbit . Set in the waning months of World War II, this “anti-hate satire” follows the life of Jojo Betzler, a young boy growing up in the Hitler Youth. His patriotism runs so high Adolf Hitler himself acts as his imaginary friend. One day, Jojo discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa in their walls. This bewilders the boy, putting him in a quandary over what to do with his foreign guest. With an enemy in his home, Jojo must confront his nationalistic ideals and learn for himself what truly lies within the people he was born to hate. Apart from a few problems structurally and tonally, Jojo Rabbit is near faultlessly helmed by New Zealand native and Thor: Ragnarok director, Taika Waititi. From the often symmetric shot composition to the sumptuous production design, Jojo Rabbit is the most Wes Anderson-esque film that Wes Anderson didn’t direct. It does feel like Waititi is copying a little too hard from time to time, but the distinct whimsical style he employs effortlessly immerses the audience into the satirical world. Aiding this immersion, Waititi does what he knows best and interweaves comedy with drama as he pokes fun at the Nazis while also using them as a smaller target for his much grander message. That message is of peace and love, which can be authentically found within this story, especially in the interactions between Jojo and Elsa. A negative side effect of Waititi’s fluent directing is that it makes his middling writing stick it like a sore thumb. His risque plot eventually gets boiled down to a slightly over-simplistic message that isn’t able to land its punches as hard as it should. Weirdly, it all feels a little too safe for this kind of setting with these types of characters. The film also starts to lose its way around the middle third as a few of its many ideas and characters get lost in the shuffle. A few reveals are shocking, but only because not enough time was put into them to make us believe they were important enough in the first place. Even with these problems looming throughout the runtime, the script does have its shining individual moments. The slapstick one-liners mostly all land and the heart-tugging dramatic lines do hit close to home. With an assembled all-star cast, Jojo Rabbit is filled with great performances from A-list stars and fresh discoveries. The biggest hidden treasure that has been unearthed is the talent of Roman Griffin Davis. In his first-ever role, Davis perfectly translates his precocious character from the page to the screen. The future will be deservedly bright for him. Young star Thomasin McKenzie also does excellent work as Elsa. She already made a name for herself with last year’s Leave No Trace and her role here further solidifies her strong track record. Scarlett Johansson plays Rosie, Jojo’s sympathetic mother who takes in Elsa for hiding. Away from her usual Marvel role, this may be Johansson’s best work in years as she is both hilarious and endearing. In more purely comedic roles, Taikia Waittiti and Sam Rockwell are a blast as Adolf Hitler and Captain Kenzendorf, respectively. Taking the horrors of humanity and turning it into a comedic moral lesson is no small feat, especially when you target the worst of the worst. So even with his struggles here and there, immense credit should go to Waititi as he has crafted one of the better films of the year and made something that will be timeless in its message and morals. 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 Best Cinematographers Working Today And Where To Find Them Next April 30, 2021 By: Hunter Friesen Cinematography is often the first thing we notice when watching a film, but the person behind the camera creating the magic often goes unrecognized except for the few seconds their name appears in the credits. A Director of Photography (DP) can carry a distinct visual style throughout their body of work, often pairing that style with a like-minded director. There are dozens of cinematographers working today that have produced some truly stunning work. This list highlights fifteen of them in no particular order and gives a brief glimpse into what they are working on next. No list can ever be perfect, and I'll be the first to say that many worthy names have been left off here. But before you get angry about an omission, you have to remember that to qualify for this list; a cinematographer must be officially attached to a film that is expected to be released by the end of 2022. So, quality names such as Rachel Morrison and Bradford Young do not appear because they don't have anything lined up at the moment. Roger Deakins This British-born DP isn't just considered one of the best working today; he's considered one of the best of all time. Deakins has cemented that status with his long-lasting director partnerships with both the Coen brothers and Sam Mendes. He is adaptable to all genres and can work on light comedies such as The Big Lebowski or tentpole epics like Skyfall . And despite being a perennial Oscar loser for nearly twenty years, he has claimed two consecutive wins for his work on Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 , respectively. His next project will reteam him with Sam Mendes for the 2022 release, Empire of Light . Bruno Delbonnel When Roger Deakins isn't available, the Coen brothers have relied on the French-born Delbonnel. He broke out early in France with Amelie and A Very Long Engagement , which showed off his distinct color palette. He's now worked with the Coens and Joe Wright on multiple films, most notably Inside Llewyn Davis and Darkest Hour . It's fitting that each of his following two projects will be with those directors as he has Wright's The Woman in the Window on Netflix in May and Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth later this year. Robert Richardson Regularly working with the likes of Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese, Robert Richardson has built his resume through a who's who of directing talent. He often matches his sharp visual style with a specific project, whether it be the period-accurate hard-lighting in The Aviator , harnessing the power of 3D in Hugo , or shooting on 70mm for The Hateful Eight . Richardson's upcoming project is a reteaming with director Andy Serkis for Venom: Let There Be Carnage , the sequel to the 2018 smash hit. Emmanuel Lubezki Like Richardson, Emmanuel Lubezki has attached himself to some of the top directors of the modern era. He’s had a fruitful relationship with fellow Mexicans Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and also with the enigmatic Terrence Malick. His movies often push the limit of the long take and rely heavily on natural lighting. His work has netted him a career of eight Oscar nominations, and he won three years in a row from 2013-2015. After taking a short break, he'll be back in the hunt later this year with David O. Russell's Amsterdam . Matthew Libatique Lover of handheld camerawork and color specificity, Matthew Libatique has traveled around the industry and worked on projects at every level. He's had a lasting partnership with Darren Aronofsky, creating visual horror with the films Black Swan and Mother! . He's shown off his incredible range with Birds of Prey last year, along with A Star Is Born and The Prom . He has two upcoming projects, one of which is a reunion with Aronofsky on an untitled A24 drama. The other is Olivia Wilde's follow-up to Booksmart , which is the 1950s set horror-thriller, Don't Worry Darling . Janusz Kaminski Almost exclusively working with Steven Spielberg since their partnership began in 1993 for Schindler's List , Polish DP Janusz Kaminski has been responsible for some of the most incredible imagery of the past quarter-century. He is known for his heavy lighting of windows and shooting on grainy film stock. He has proven that he isn't dependent on Spielberg, as he did wonders with Julian Schnabel in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and in 2014 with The Judge . Kaminski will be in full musical mode this winter with Spielberg's West Side Story remake set to be released at Christmas. Darius Wolski Also, from Poland, Wolski netted his first Oscar nomination last year for News of the World . Since coming to Hollywood in the mid-1990s, Wolski has worked on several blockbuster productions such as the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and nearly a dozen films with Ridley Scott. Both he and Scott have three movies in the pipeline, with two of them, The Last Duel and House of Gucci , releasing later this year. The third is a Napoleon Bonaparte biopic with Joaquin Phoenix, which is expected to begin production soon. Greig Fraser Australian Greig Fraser started his career with fellow countrymen such as Scott Hicks, Andrew Dominik, and Jane Campion. His films often have crisp darkness surrounding them, heightening the slow-burn tension his directors like to instill. He began to branch out in the early 2010s, working with Kathryn Bigelow in Zero Dark Thirty and with Gareth Edwards in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . He netted his first Oscar nomination working with Garth Davis in Lion and recently won his first Emmy for his work in The Mandalorian . He's kept busy recently with two gigantic productions, which are Denis Villeneuve's Dune and Matt Reeves's The Batman . Darius Kohndji Like a fine wine, this Iranian-born DP seems to be getting better with age. His Hollywood hit came in 1995 on David Fincher's Se7en . He then attached himself to Woody Allen from Midnight to Paris to Irrational Man and showed off his prowess with soft lighting with James Gray in the films The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z . But he's also adept at sharp contrasts, which he used to perfection in Nicolas Winding Refn's Amazon series Too Old to Die Young . He's working with Alejandro González Iñárritu on his newest film, Limbo , which is filming now and slated for release later this year. Rodrigo Prieto Replacing Robert Richardson as Martin Scorsese's go-to cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto burst onto the scene with Alejandro González Iñárritu's internationally acclaimed hit, Amores Perros . He kept up his relationship with Iñárritu while also dabbling in multiple projects with Julie Taymor and Oliver Stone. His visual style has lent itself to sprawling stories, such as the globe-trotting Babel or the decades-spanning The Irishman . Prieto and Scorsese are back together again for a western titled Killers of the Flower Moon , which recently started filming. Maryse Alberti Maryse Alberti has worked with filmmakers such as Darron Aronofsky ( The Wrestler ), Ryan Coogler ( Creed ), and most recently Ron Howard ( Hillbilly Elegy ), carving out a spot for herself as one of the best cinematographers working today. Blending handheld camerawork with striking compositions, her work has a naturalistic quality that helps the stories she's working on to feel grounded yet richly cinematic. She'll next be seen working with actor/director Denzel Washington on A Journal For Jordan (based on the memoir by Dana Canedy), which will reunite her with Creed star Michael B. Jordan and also stars Chanté Adams and Robert Wisdom. Jeff Cronenweth The son of Blade Runner cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, Jeff cut his teeth on music videos and gradually worked his way into feature films. He's embraced digital photography, crafting some of the sharpest and cold imagery of the past decade in The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , and Gone Girl . He's recently been recruited by Aaron Sorkin to shoot his upcoming Lucille Ball biopic, Being the Ricardos . Linus Sandgren Favoring rich colors and eye-popping visuals, Sandgren started his Hollywood career with a bang in 2013 with David O. Russell's American Hustle . He stayed with Russell to make Joy just two years later and then partnered with wunderkind Damien Chazelle to make visual magic in both La La Land and First Man . He has a big lineup in the near future, with No Time to Die and Adam McKay's Don't Look Up being released later this year. He's also reteaming with Chazelle for the Hollywood epic Babylon , slated for release on Christmas 2022. Chung Chung-hoon When it comes to shot framing, this South Korean DP is the master. He partnered with fellow South Korean director Park Chan-wook in the films Oldboy , Thirst , and Lady Vengeance . The crowning achievement for the pair has to be 2016's The Handmaiden , a lush tale of deception and intrigue. He's dabbled in the English language a few times, and he can next be found working with Edgar Wright for Last Night in Soho and Ruben Fleischer for the Uncharted video game adaptation. Claudio Miranda Claudio Miranda is second to none when it comes to CG photography. He has embraced the popularization of digital filmmaking, showing off the wonders of technology in TRON: Legacy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button . He won an Oscar in 2012 for his groundbreaking work with Ang Lee in Life of Pi . He's working with director Joseph Kosinski on two upcoming releases: the highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick and Netflix's Escape from Spiderhead . Mihai Malaimare Jr. While not the biggest name on this list, this Romanian DP has worked with quite a few high-profile directors. He started with Francis Ford Coppola in his avant-garde trilogy of Youth Without Youth, Tetro , and Twixt . Then in 2012, he and Paul Thomas Andreson collaborated to make The Master , one of the most daring and gorgeous uses of 65mm. He kept a low profile for a while after that but returned in 2019 with Taika Waititi to make the sumptuous Jojo Rabbit . He'll next be seen partnering with newcomer Jeymes Samuel for the black-led Netflix western, The Harder They Fall . 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

Bones and All November 13, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen At this point, I have to ask, “What can’t Luca Guadagnino do?” For as much his signature brand of visual poetry seems to stay consistent throughout his films, the genres he chooses to instill them upon cannot be more wildly different. 2009’s I Am Love had Tilda Swinton speak Italian with a Russian accent in a story of romantic affairs. Swinton stayed with him for his next film, A Bigger Splash , except this time her character, a rock star on vacation, doesn’t speak in order to save her vocal cords. The nastiness of that film would not be found in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name , with a vulnerable star-making performance by Timothée Chalamet grabbing headlines and awards attention. But then not even a year later came a wild pivot in the form of his (excellent) remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, Suspiria. Adding an extra hour to the runtime, Guadagnino’s take on the material was both depressingly realistic and batshit crazy, stripping the original of its distinct color palette while still maintaining its own sense of beauty. And now, after a brief detour into television with his 8-part HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are , Guadagnino seems to have finally found a project that takes elements from each of his past works and combines them into something extraordinarily original. Maren (Taylor Russell) has a problem. Apart from living on the fringes of Reagan-era American society, she also has an uncontrollable tendency to consume human flesh. She’s a full-blooded cannibal down to her DNA, thanks in part to her mother’s genes. She tries her best to suppress these urges, but every once in a while they get unleashed, leading someone to get hurt and Maren and her dad to skip town. After years of this tortuous cycle, Maren’s father decides that enough is enough, leaving her to fend for herself. He leaves behind her birth certificate, a clue she uses to track down her long-lost mother in order to understand this affliction. On the road, she comes across an assortment of crazy creatures, the first being Sully (Mark Rylance), a fellow “Eater” who talks to himself in the third person and drifts across the country fulfilling his thirst. A strange, yet also oddly educational, experience with him pushes Maren further down her path. She bumps into another Eater named Lee (Timothée Chalamet) who seems to be living by himself just as she is. From there, the two disillusioned youths trek across middle America, finding out more about themselves and their place in all this mess. Adapting Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 book of the same name, Guadagnino and writer David Kajganich drip feed information about the condition of Eaters. The first half hour, with much playing out during Maren’s encounter with Sully, dedicates itself to understanding the physical and mental pain of needing to consume human flesh. How can a person live with themselves knowing that they’ll always have an unsatisfying hunger, and the only way to temporarily cure it is to eat another human being? It’s a dangerous question, one that doesn’t have a perfect answer that keeps everyone from getting hurt. Lee thinks he has it figured out, so as long as he doesn’t think deeply about the repercussions of his actions. Chalamet’s performance is the serious version of his from Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up , going mostly with the flow as he accepts his fate. Rylance, on the other hand, might as well still be playing his character from Don’t Look Up , with his awkwardly creepy demeanor and southern cadence hinting at the anguish he’s been through. Russell, who burst onto the scene with Trey Edward Shults’ 2017 family drama Waves , finds the perfect balance between youthful naivety and real-world ruggedness. And then there’s also the brief Call Me By Your Name reunion as Michael Stuhlbarg wreaks havoc on your nerves as a redneck Eater that may or may not have a taste for his own kind. Even with all the gruesome body horror, Guadagnino fills this story with rich emotional resonance. At the center of it all is a love story between two young adults who must come to terms with who they are individually and together. It just so happens that the film with the biggest heart this year also contains several sequences of actual human hearts being devoured. 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

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

Crazy Rich Asians September 6, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Rachel Chu and Nick Young have been together for over a year now and couldn’t be happier. Both of them are professors at NYU, which is how they first met. One day, Nick asks Rachel to come with him to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding, with the added bonus of meeting his family. Thinking she knows everything about Nick, Rachel agrees to go on the trip. Except there’s one thing she doesn’t know: Nick’s family is rich, “crazy rich” in fact. Caught off guard by this, Rachel is unknowingly thrust into a new world of luxury and spectacle, one that is a far cry from her modest upbringing. Despite the challenge, she’s determined to be at Nick’s side and to make a good first impression on his family. Directed by Hollywood journeyman Jon M. Chu, the film’s biggest problems mostly all stem from his lackluster directing. Chu doesn’t bring any originality to the finished project and mainly just uses every rom-com cliché in the book, such as the tough parental figure, comedic sidekick, wacky relatives, and will-they-or-won’t-they plotline between the two leads. Chu also struggles to provide a sense of balance in terms of pacing and plots. The pacing is inconsistent throughout. The beginning of the film quickly shifts from scene to scene as we set up the story and characters. After that things slow way down and we tediously crawl to the end. Apart from the main plot, there is also a subplot featuring Nick’s cousin, Astrid. While she’s a good character overall, her story is very unnecessary and continually gets dropped and picked back up at odd times. On a bright note, Chu does impeccable work during the wedding sequence. It’s easily the most heart-tugging part of the film as the two main characters share a loving connection. Writers Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim do a fair job of adapting from the original bestselling novel. They do a great job at making the lead character very likable and relatable. Rachel isn’t your average rom-com woman whose life is in shambles until she meets a guy. It’s refreshing to see a lead female character have her life together and not have to rely on some guy in order to be happy. The screenplay also fits in a good amount of quality jokes, a lot of which come from Awkwafina’s character. Unfortunately, just like the directing, the biggest problem is the overabundance of clichés. It’s a shame for a screenplay to have such a great lead character and then repeatedly bury her with the same old tropes we’ve seen time and time again. Because of the large cast of characters, the film boasts both good and bad performances. Constance Wu does a great job as Rachel Chu. She makes herself relatable and confidently holds her own throughout. She also shares electric chemistry with both Golding and Awkwafina. Opposite Wu is Henry Golding as Nick Young. Golding does very well, especially when considering that this is his acting debut. He’s at his best when with his on-screen partner and adds a lot of charm to his role. Having already done great work in this year’s Ocean’s Eight , Awkwafina gives another hilarious supporting performance here. Playing Rachel’s roommate from college, she constantly delivers the best jokes, with most of them coming off as improvised. Some minor supporting actors suffer from Chu’s poor directing and have to resort to overacting in order for us to like them. The biggest losers from this are Ken Jeong and Jimmy O. Yang. Their characters are way too over the top and are annoying as soon as we meet them. Crazy Rich Asians is a film that mostly suffers from poor directing and a formulaic story that lacks any sort of originality. Still, it's better than most modern romantic comedies and the reliable trio of Wu, Golding, and Awkwafina make this film a moderately enjoyable ride. 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

Knock at the Cabin February 1, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Knock at the Cabin is so good that it makes M. Night Shyamalan’s previous film, Old , just that more fascinating in retrospect. The lack of terrible line readings and quality acting within Cabin seems to validate the conspiracy theory (which a few critics and audience members embraced from the start) that the alien-like awkwardness within Old was intentional, almost like Shyamalan was playing a joke on all of us. But that theory would also have to extend to the terribleness within Lady in the Water, The Happening , and The Last Airbender , which becomes too far-fetched to be fully believed. Cabin finds the believers pitted against the non-believers. But this isn’t a debate over the typical beliefs surrounding religion, politics, or sexual orientation. No, this is about whether you believe that the world is about to be consumed by an apocalypse of biblical proportions and that the only way to stop it is to sacrifice a family member. Leading the group of believers is Dave Bautista’s Leonard, a gentle giant who fully understands the impossible situation that he is thrusting upon the family of parents Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff), and daughter Wen (Kristen Cui). Along with Leonard are three other believers, all of whom have shared the same catastrophic visions, including tsunami waves as tall as skyscrapers and the sky being shrouded in permanent darkness. Of course, Andrew and Eric don’t take the situation too lightly and think that these people are part of a crazed cult, prompting the believers to stage an impromptu home invasion in order to get the necessary sacrificial lamb. Shyamalan’s film follows a long line of entries within the specific “what would you do?” horror-thriller subgenre. How much evidence would you need to contemplate killing one of your family members in order to save the world? It’s a question the director constantly keeps at the forefront of his screenplay, co-written with the duo of Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman from the book by Paul Tremblay. The tension is palpable as the “intruders” say all the right things and act with sympathetic politeness, making it impossible to fully write them off as the lunatics they’re initially perceived as. It is a shame that - for a story with the central theme about beliefs - Shyamalan can’t fully trust his audience to believe everything that they’re seeing. An overuse of flashbacks in an attempt to rationalize character actions in the present comes off as a bit shallow and reductive. It’s a clear example of the faulty “rubber ducky” reasoning invented by Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet, where a character will behave a certain way based solely on some past event, shredding any amount of nuance in favor of formulaic storytelling. Thankfully, Shyamalan has recruited some fine actors to sell the unbelievable nature of the premise and characters. Bautista has made a lot of headlines about being taken seriously as an actor, and this performance decently proves that he’s putting his money where his mouth is. His hulking physicality instinctually inspires fear, but his soft-spoken demeanor contrasts that with interesting results. Groff and Aldridge have a good give-and-pull connection, pretty much making the flashbacks even more redundant as a way to explain their relationship. Special praise should also be placed upon Herdís Stefánsdóttir’s jittery score, which takes until near the third act to fully come into its own and do much of the heavy lifting for selling suspense. And while it pales in comparison to his work with Robert Eggers, Jarin Blaschke’s (working with Lowell A. Meyer) claustrophobic camerawork works well with Shyamalan’s trademarked twisty movements. Although Shyamalan will likely never return to the heights of his early days, works like Knock at the Cabin are proof that he still deserves a place within the theatrical landscape, especially as the horror/thriller genres continue to increase their importance in putting butts in seats. He even gets to deliver his signature twist, which is simply that he has made a good film that works well because of his traits as a filmmaker. 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

Renfield April 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The last time we saw Count Dracula, he was given a dark and gritty reboot (I say that in a backhanded tone) in Dracula Untold . It was a vain and half-assed attempt by Universal to set up their “Dark Universe,” which also included the entirely forgotten The Mummy starring Tom Cruise. For all the talk about the MCU starting to falter in Phase 4, you still have to give Kevin Feige credit for keeping the ship afloat and thriving for so long, as everyone else can’t even seem to hoist the sails. But at least that curse put upon Universal came with a blessing for audiences, as it forced the studio to think a little more imaginatively with their famous monsters. Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man , starring Elisabeth Moss, took that ludicrous premise and turned it into a story about trauma (before it became an overused buzzword throughout the pandemic). And now we have Renfield , the story of Dracula and his servant in the modern-day, overflowing with buckets of blood, as well as a few laughs for good measure. Nicholas Hoult plays the titular character, who was coerced into becoming the “familiar” (a nicer term for “slave”) for the Prince of Darkness (Nicolas Cage) way back in the 1930s, when he visited Dracula’s castle in hopes to make a real estate sale. An excellently crafted 4:3 black-and-white recreation of the 1931 original movie, complete with Hoult and Cage in period-accurate makeup and acting styles (I wished the whole movie was like this), gives us an introduction to this power dynamic. But while the world has changed drastically in the 90 years since, the relationship between the two of them has stayed the same. After an ambush by vampire hunters (sorry, Van Helsing is not with them), the two of them have been forced to relocate to New Orleans, where Renfield must find more victims for his master to feed on so that he may regrow to full power. But decades of killing innocent people for an evil dark lord have started to wear Renfield down. He decides he wants to do some good, which he gets an opportunity to do when he finds himself in the middle of a war between an honorable cop (Awkwafina) and the son (Ben Schwartz) of the most violent crime family in the city. Director Chris McKay, who brought us The Lego Batman Movie (fun!) and The Tomorrow War (boring!), goes for an action-comedy tone here. Renfield acquires powers similar to Dracula when he eats bugs, allowing him to execute goons with superhuman levels of brutality. The humorous attempts at extreme gore make more sense once you realize the idea for this story comes from Robert Kirkman, creator of the other ultra-violent comics (and subsequent television series) The Walking Dead and Invincible . The action scenes are filmed with pulpy flair but are undercut by excessive use of CGI instead of practical makeup, which is made even more disappointing since it’s already being used to perfection on Cage as his mangled body slowly heals from its wounds. Ryan Ridley’s script also has issues finding a healthy middle ground, with the attempts at digging into toxic relationships being too shallow, and the comedy being too on-the-nose. Renfield’s narration mostly just repeats what we already learned visually, and characters repeatedly spell out the plot and their motivations in expository dialogue. But most of those missteps are forgiven thanks to the movie completely delivering on its simple promise of seeing Nicolas Cage playing Count Dracula. Whether it’s flesh or the scene itself, Cage is always chewing on something through his extremely committed performance. He’s having an infectious amount of fun in the role, letting out his trademarked hoots and hollers between moments of extreme violence. If this movie achieves nothing else, I hope it inspires Cage to become this generation's Christopher Lee for the character, reprising him again and again in some (hopefully creatively inspiring) future iterations. More Reviews 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

Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 Recap November 5, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen With nearly 100 films screening across several different series, the Twin Cities Film Fest had more than enough to offer to cinephiles in its fourteenth year of existence. The festival prides itself on its mixture of established studio contenders and up-and-coming independent projects, and this year was no exception. Unfortunately, my schedule wasn't as forgiving as I would have liked, preventing me from seeing a few anticipated titles such as The Teacher's Lounge (Germany's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar) and Downtown Owl (partly filmed in Minnesota). There were other titles such as The Holdovers and Fingernails that I was able to see at TIFF . Even with that obstacle, I was still able to see five films, which ran the gamut of being some of the best and worst I've seen all year. Take a look at how I ranked them below, with almost all of them having a full review attached for your pleasure. 5. Foe Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal do everything they can to keep things interesting, a job they can do with ease. They run the entire emotional gamut with their performances, but none of it registers due to director Garth Davis’ detachment from the material. Each of them is forced to overact once the third-act twists come into play. Everything feels so forced by then that it’s almost comical. But it’s not a total trainwreck, so it’s just rather tediously bad. Son of Saul cinematographer Mátyás Erdély captures the landscape beautifully, showcasing the mystifying wonder that keeps people like Hen and Junior tethered to this patch of dirt. If only Davis could have done the same with his direction and script, as most of his decisions steer away from that intrigue and end up being as interesting as dirt itself. Full Review 4. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt Writer/director Raven Jackson makes sure her voice is heard with her debut feature, one that is more Malickian than Malick himself. It loops around in nonlinear circles, telling the story of a life with poetic beauty. Its vagueness is both its biggest asset and liability, challenging your patience with its methodical pacing. It's one of the main reasons this demands to be seen in a theater, as a home viewing would rob you of the focus and attention to detail needed to fully appreciate it. 3. American Fiction American Fiction may be a victim of expectations as winning the People’s Choice Award at TIFF certainly raised the bar. Whether that’s fair or not is a different story. All I know is that I can only write about what I felt, which was slight disappointment mixed with great optimism about what Jefferson will do next. 2. All of Us Strangers All of Us Strangers is a ghost story that invites the viewer to project themselves onto the story just as much as it tells its own. There’s nothing easy about letting go of the past, and there’s nothing easy about what comes after. It’s not an uplifting message, but it’s an endearing one that we’ve all come to find truth in. Full Review 1. The Taste of Things There continues to be a need for stories that reflect the increasing bleakness of this world. But that means there’s more room for projects that remind us of the beauty in the timeless things we all experience and often take for granted. The Taste of Things is one of those films as it illustrates both the simplicity and complexity of sustaining ourselves through food. Just make sure to plan your meals carefully before and after seeing it. You owe your stomach (and other senses) that much. Full Review 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

Heads of State June 27, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Heads of State doesn’t take the positions of the president of the United States or the prime minister of the United Kingdom very seriously, which, considering the current and recent real-life figures who have held those positions, is mostly a replication of how the world currently sees them. US President Will Derringer (John Cena) ascended to the Oval Office through the box office. Modeled after Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was the lead of the ultra-violent, gun-toting action franchise Water Cobra . Those good looks, millions of dollars, and a legion of fans made up for the lack of political experience, which is why he approaches his role as commander in chief like he were in a movie, making brazen speeches that are meant to inspire his constituents and instill fear in his enemies. In contrast to the fresh-faced Derringer, Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) has been in office for over six years, having spent a few more decades in the lower-level political trenches. He’s all business and no thrills. Every speech is picked over with a fine-tooth comb, every decision is backed with mountains of intelligence, and there’s absolutely no room for sensationalism. By the laws of movies and magnets, we know that these two opposites will eventually attract. The catalyst for their bonding comes when both are on Air Force One. Aided by an unknown traitor on the inside, terrorists shoot down the plane. Everyone on board, including the leaders, is presumed dead. They miraculously survive and now have to work together in order to return to their positions of power and stop these terrorist killers. While watching this, I was repeatedly reminded of the mostly forgotten 1996 comedy My Fellow Americans . In that movie, Jack Lemmon and James Garner play former presidents who hate each other. The current president is Dan Aykroyd, who frames them for a kickback scandal (remember when that actually meant something?!?). Enemies must now become friends, but not without hurling insults and committing slapstick harm to each other. Heads of State is pretty much a remake, even down to the gag about leaping from a moving train. Anything not lifted straight from that movie is plucked from somewhere else. The separating factor is supposed to be the action, a bylaw now for every streaming comedy. But it’s as weightless as the opening scene food fight in a Spanish village. Director Ilya Naishuller doesn’t bring the same kineticism from Hardcore Henry or Nobody , and everything is drenched in cheap special effects. There are flashes of nifty camerawork, most notably in the brief appearance of Jack Quaid as a covert agent who is eager to protect his leaders against hordes of villains. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paddy Considine, Carla Gugino, and Stephen Root comprise the rest of the cast, each of them going through the motions. Cena and Elba have decent chemistry, with this being a reunion from their bitter rivalry in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad . In a charged political climate such as this, there’s some merit to being able to laugh at and with political satire, even if it’s not that good. 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

Decision to Leave May 26, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Decision to Leave had its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Mubi will release it in theaters on October 14. Phantom Thread meets Vertigo in Park Chan-wook’s deliciously twisted Decision to Leave . For many directors, that combination would come together as well as oil and water. But for the famed South Korean auteur, whose previous works of Oldboy and The Handmaiden (both awarded at Cannes. I predict this one will be as well) have exemplified his unparalleled ability to combine the traditional with the gonzo, it’s a heavenly pair that you immediately want more of. As the new hotshot detective within the Busan police force, Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is brought in to solve a mysterious new murder case. A climber has fallen from the top of the local mountain, and a strangely coincidental set of clues hints that it may not have been an accident. The victim’s Chinese immigrant wife, Seo-rae (Tang Wei), is brought in for questioning, a move that jeopardizes everything as Hae-jun develops a sort-of crush on her. Seo-rae seems to know more than she lets on, but Hae-jun’s judgment is clouded by love, putting him at odds with the mounting evidence against her and the rest of the detectives. What ensues is a dangerous game of cat and mouse where the intentions of the players are often hidden, but the danger is always present. Just like every film in Chan-wook’s filmography, the direction, especially the camerawork and editing, is first-rate. It’s not uncommon for 360-degree twists, reversals, re-reversals, and smooth pans to take place in one continuous movement. One scene, in particular, is an entertainingly surreal set piece where the camera peers through the detective’s binoculars as he spies on a suspect, only for him to be transported to that location next to the person of interest. DP Kim Ji-yong (replacing regular cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung after he made the jump to Hollywood) loads each of his images with double (and sometimes triple) meanings, most notably present during a conversation scene in a stairwell. Though it always wears its film noir influences prominently on its sleeve, Decision to Leave is not merely a slave to the past. Chan-wook and frequent collaborator/co-writer Seo-kyeong Jeong inject the film with modern sensibilities. Smartphones, often the hindrance of many mystery films, are brilliantly employed. A language translating app is relied upon to bridge the gap between the two Hae-jun and Seo-rae, with subtle details sometimes being lost in translation. There are also delayed text messages and warped video/audio recordings that endlessly twist and turn the facts. You can sometimes feel lost while watching the film, as if you missed some important revelation that brings everything together. These are the moments where Chan-wook leans more on his Phantom Thread inspirations than his Hitchcockian ones. Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, the characters within Decision to Leave can’t be tied down with simple explanations. Manipulation and intrigue are the names of the game, with the unspoken sexual tension tinging the edges of every scene. As the playfully dangerous duo, Hae-il and Wei are more than up to the task, with their unmatched chemistry doing wonders for the film’s emotional themes. Decision to Leave is often a paradox in itself. It’s classical, yet modern. Cold, yet sexy. Unsatisfying, yet enthralling. Luckily, it finds the near-perfect balance between all of those things, creating a wondrous genre exercise that must be seen to be wholly believed. 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 Menu November 16, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen As a cinephile and critic, the occurrence of asking the question “What is going to happen next?” while watching a movie is one of the most valuable and enjoyable experiences. It’s what makes the Knives Out films so enjoyable because writer/director Rian Johnson always knows how to be one step ahead of the viewer, twisting and turning their preconceptions of what can happen in a whodunnit. On the inverse of that spectrum lies the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which I still greatly appreciate the majority of the time. But, I do have to admit that it’s getting exponentially tiring to see the same formula repeat itself 3-4 times each year. However, no movie (barring maybe Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia or Glass Onion ) has made me ask the question “What is going to happen next?,” more frequently and passionately than The Menu . Colin Stetson’s Hereditary -esque score (so you know something sinister is waiting in the wings) acutely plays while Ralph Fiennes’ world-renowned Chef Julian Slowik (walking and talking with unwavering intensity like Hannibal Lecter) welcomes his elite guests to the island of Hawthorne, where they will dine like kings and queens. Unbeknownst to the patrons, they each have been assembled intentionally and catered to with the utmost precision towards a much darker grand goal. There’s a fading movie star (John Leguizamo); a snobby food critic (Janet McTeer) and her yes-man editor; a wealthy regular customer (Reed Birney) and his wife (Judith Light); and a trio of tech bros that came only so that they could brag about it. At the center of the narrative are the final guests Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), a foodie that acts as if he’s a teenage girl about to go backstage and meet Harry Styles, and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), Tyler’s date for the evening that finds all this food worshiping to be a bit much. Margot’s presence is a disturbance to Slowik, who did not account for her as Tyler made the reservation several months ago before they were a couple (the restaurant does not allow single reservations). Trying to keep the evening going as originally planned is the steely Elsa (Hong Chau), the second-in-command who guests while Slowik handles the food. From one course to the next, the chef answers his guest’s increasingly desperate questions through his painstakingly crafted works of art. Just like any great food movie ( Chef, Julie & Julia ), The Menu delightfully makes you crave the dishes it serves up, even if you don’t understand what half of them are. Ingredients for each are slyly displayed as they are introduced, so you can attempt to remake them if your heart desires (I suggest finishing the movie before finalizing that decision). Regular David Lynch cinematographer Peter Deming and production designer Ethan Tobman cast a luxuriously simplistic shadow over everything akin to the work in Parasite . And similarly to Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 Best Picture winner, screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy infuse their dark thriller with social commentary about elitism, gender roles, and creators vs. critics. There’s a dark satisfaction to watching some of these characters receive their comeuppance, even if the punishment far exceeds the crime. Director Mark Mylod, returning to film after a lengthy stint at HBO with Succession and Game of Thrones , keeps the film tightly knotted, building the pressure from the moment the guests step foot on the island all the way to the end. Of the films I used for comparison, each of them is better than The Menu in their respective traits. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out characters are more fleshed out and entertaining, the social commentary and technical aspects of Parasite are better developed, and the actual Hannibal Lecter is far more sinister. But the one overarching skill that The Menu does better than all those films (yes, I’m saying Parasite isn’t the best at everything, calm down Letterboxd) is that it holds your attention like a vice grip and keeps you frantically guessing all the way through. That alone is more than worth the price of admission, which becomes a bargain once you factor in all the other delectable aspects. 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

Babylon December 16, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen With dashes of Singin’ in the Rain, Boogie Nights, The Wolf of Wall Street, Uncut Gems , and Mulholland Drive , Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a true auteurist epic in every sense of the word. It’s a 188-minute deconstruction of Old Hollywood mythology, complete with cocaine, fast cars, projectile vomit, glitzy actors, underground sex dungeons, and buckets of style. There isn’t anything like it this year, or any year for that matter. Things kick off with a bang in 1926 at a house party in Bel-Air. Inside is a who’s who of Hollywood royalty and up-and-comers. Busting down the door and attracting all the eyes is Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a Jack Nicholson-esque star who only seems to exude charm. Literally crashing through the gate is Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), barely clothed and ready to get people’s attention. “You don’t become a star, you either are one or you aren’t, and I am,” she says as she struts to the dance floor where dozens of naked men and women perform acts of debauchery on par with Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom . Returning from his elephant (yes, the one you would find in the jungle or the zoo) delivery is Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a dreamer wanting to be part of something bigger, something that lasts. Providing the musical entertainment for the evening is Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) on the trumpet and Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) with her sexually charged ballads. From this night on, these five characters will have their stories cross paths on several occasions. They’ll star be featured in some of the biggest moments of the Silent Era, and also find themselves hurtling during its downfall. The rise of talkies will bring about a new style of filmmaking, one that’ll benefit some, and destroy others. But through it all, they’ll find a way to create a legacy that lives beyond their mortal lives. This house party, with all its moral depravity and excessiveness, is only the tip of the iceberg of the messed up stuff Chazelle has jam-packed within his rapid-fire screenplay. After the goodness of La La Land and the conventionalism of First Man (and I mean both of those in the best way possible), this film feels as if Chazelle has reached the teenage portion of his career, where curse words and sexual promiscuity flow as if he’s just discovered fire. Thankfully, Chazelle shows no signs of immaturity as a director. As a way to remind all of us why he became the youngest person to be awarded the Best Director Oscar, he adopts a wildly infectious form of controlled chaos, with simultaneous scenes crashing into each other to the beat of Justin Hurwitz’s blaring jazz score. It’s incredibly showy work, but something that perfectly fits within the unhinged glory often found in this period. The train does come off the rails from time to time, particularly in the closing five minutes where Chazelle’s thesis statement becomes a bit too heavy-handed. And some characters get lost in the shuffle for extended periods, begging the question of if some material was left on the cutting room floor. But I love messy films that aren’t afraid to swing for grand slams when there’s only one out, rather than go for the practical approach of a sacrifice fly ball. Chazelle has more than earned himself this exercise in self-indulgence and outrageousness, and we’re all better for witnessing it. And it also doesn’t hurt to have career-best performances from Pitt and Robbie, starring in their third movie together and finally being allowed to share scenes. Calva doesn’t get blinded by the star power around him as he acts as our guide through this deranged world. He eventually carves a spot for himself, influencing film history on a more profound level than he could ever imagine. Also along for the ride are supporting/cameo performances by Jean Smart, Olivia Wilde, Katherine Waterston, Max Minghella, Spike Jonze, and Tobey Maguire as a weasel-like sociopath. My biggest fear is that Chazelle may have inadvertently made his generation’s Heaven’s Gate : An overly ambitious auteur epic that proves to be too much for audiences and critics, leading to a decline in filmmaker power within the Hollywood studio system. Of course, I don’t believe this film will lead to something that dramatic, but I also can’t imagine casual moviegoers John and Jane Doe coming out of this film with their heads still on straight, nor Paramount recouping the $100+ million they've spent. So, if my worst fears become a reality, I only have one thing to say. To paraphrase Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs : If Babylon causes the downfall of auteurs in Hollywood, it will have been well worth it for those that watched the movie (and survived). 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