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Heretic September 11, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Heretic had its World Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on November 15. With as many organized religions as there are fast food chains, it can be quite hard to differentiate between “the one” and the imitations. It’s a conundrum that Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) has dedicated much time to. He’s done the research, concocted some hypotheses, conducted experiments, and solidified his grand thesis on how religion has transformed the human race for thousands of years. And based on his secluded house filled with metal-lined walls and counterintuitive locks, his outlook isn’t going to be positive. Unbeknownst to Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), Reed’s request made to their Church of Latter-Day Saints to receive a house visit wasn’t simply about hearing their sales pitch. But before the pair land in the trap, they must still navigate the polite society minefield. They’re mocked before they even open their mouths, with a group of teenage girls posing for ironic photos with them. For the first time in my life, I actually felt sorry for those missionaries you often find on the street corners handing out Bibles. But their faith is strong and they believe in their mission, so the pain is just another hurdle in God’s grand plan. I wouldn’t want to meet their God if Mr. Reed was always part of his plan. Things start with simple pleasantries, with the girls making their rehearsed points and Reed intermittently countering with humoristic observations he’s made in his studies. Grant weaponizes his charm to its full extent during this opening section, making no distinction between his buffoonish characters from his rom-com days and the darkness that we know Reed is hiding. The writer/director pair of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods know what they have on their hands, giving this moment of set-up the space to breathe far beyond what most horror films would allow. Once Reed starts to reveal his cards, that’s when the girls start to differentiate themselves. Paxton is the more agreeable one, always walking on eggshells to appease Reed’s demands and never seeming like a bad guest. She tells a story to Barnes about stumbling about pornography, the shame and inexperience of it keeping her from saying the word “fucking.” Between this and her role as Sammy’s religiously fanatic girlfriend in The Fabelmans , East has claimed a bit of a monopoly on these roles. Dressed in black as opposed to Paxton’s white, Barnes is the more skeptical of the two, with the past opening the door to a more confrontational view of everything she preaches. Figuring out where this is all going is what makes Heretic so much fun. Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (a frequent collaborator with Park Chan-wook) keeps the camera roaming on a tightrope, expanding the exquisite decorated confinement that production designer Philip Messina has crafted. The comparison between fast food chains and religions gets expanded once Reed brings in the Monopoly board game, with the theme of iterations connecting all three. There have been iterations of this type of production before, with Woods’ labeling during the world premiere screening of the film’s genre being “A24” being a pretty simple way to summarize it all. Whether that term is complimentary or derogatory is up to you. The film’s commitment to living up to this promise ultimately subsides for more familiar beats. Moments of the sound drowning out to make way for a loud crash are repeated a few too many times, as well as some conveniences in reveals. Reed may work in absolutes when making his claims, but that doesn’t mean that the filmmaking has to follow the well-trodden path of its genre brethren. Even if they can’t be fully supported by the end, the ideas at the forefront of Heretic is what takes it to the next level. It’s not looking to offend or be the person who arrogantly claims that “they’re just asking questions.” This is a genre exercise after all, not a semester in Religion 101. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

A Brief History of Presidents' in Film February 15, 2022 By: Hunter Friesen February 15 marks President’s Day in the United States. Originally a holiday to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, the day was eventually changed to honor the service of all our nation’s leaders. In celebration of this national holiday, it’s time to look back at Hollywood’s history with the presidents and see which ones have been most prominently featured on the silver screen. Some of these men are portrayed by actors and some are merely a background figure in the movie. No matter the situation, their presence was felt both in front and behind the camera. Below are four presidents who, for better or worse, have had a major impact on cinematic history. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) Regularly ranked among scholars as our nation’s greatest leader, it’s no surprise that Abraham Lincoln holds the record for the most portrayals in film at an astounding 130 times, nearly double George Washington’s second-place tally of 70. Honest Abe was the focus of one of Hollywood’s earliest biopics with director John Ford and leading man Henry Fonda telling the story of Lincoln before office in Young Mr. Lincoln . While the events in the film are fictional, the story of Lincoln early in his law career gets the spirit of him right. It was a little over seventy years later when Lincoln got the biopic treatment again with Steven Spielberg’s aptly named Lincoln . Centralizing the time frame in the months before the end of the Civil War as Lincoln struggles to pass the much needed thirteenth amendment, Lincoln boasts a mesmerizing turn by Londoner Daniel Day-Lewis as the titular character, which won him his third Oscar as part of the film’s twelve total nominations. Even with the pacifistic stoicism that he’s known for, Hollywood still couldn’t help themselves as they tried to turn the sixteenth president into an action star with the historically incorrect Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter . The less said about that movie, the better. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) The youngest president ever elected, John F. Kennedy was the first television president as he used the newfound technology to win appeal from the masses. Because of his popularity, Kennedy has made all sorts of appearances in film. He had the conventional biopic detailing his navy heroics during World War II with PT 109 . Cliff Robertson plays young Kennedy who leads his crew on treacherous resume missions in the Pacific. Bruce Greenwood portrays the president in 2000 as he navigates the Cuban Missile Crisis in Thirteen Days . Unfortunately for Kennedy, his most famous moment was his assassination on November 22, 1963. That date is also the focus of several movies such as Oliver Stone’s inaugural presidential movie JFK , which peeks behind the curtain and tries to expose the conspiracies that cloud over what actually happened that fateful day. While most of the facts within JFK have been debunked, there’s no denying the power of Stone’s direction and the stacked ensemble led by Kevin Costner. 2013’s Parkland is set entirely within the day that Kennedy was assassinated, weaving together the perspectives of several people who were thrust into an extraordinary situation. A few years later, director Pablo Larraín and star Natalie Portman view the assassination through First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s eyes in Jackie . Richard Nixon (1969-1974) Much like in real life, Hollywood’s relationship with the thirty-seventh president is rocky, to say the least. As the only president to resign from office, the story of Nixon has been tackled several times by prominent filmmakers. Keeping him in the background, Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men and Steven Spielberg’s The Post frame his presidency around the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandal. Peter Morgan and Ron Howard approach Watergate from a different angle with Frost/Nixon , as a post-presidency Nixon (played by Frank Langella) conducts a series of interviews with David Frost. Only a few years after making JFK , Oliver Stone gave Nixon the full cradle-to-grave epic biopic with Nixon . Surprisingly not as damning as one would think, Stone’s movie plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy as our “hero” rises to the highest mountain, only to be eventually brought down to the lowest valley. George W. Bush (2001-2009) The 43rd president, George Bush has never been portrayed as the smartest person to occupy the Oval Office. Adam McKay’s Vice , which takes a lot of influence from Oliver Stone, makes Bush a dimwitted supporting character with daddy issues that is puppeteered by his vice president Dick Cheney. Complete with a fake nose and hairpiece, Sam Rockwell received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Ten years earlier, Stone was able to complete his presidential trilogy with W. , a surprisingly tame biopic with Josh Brolin as the title character. Again, Stone paints Bush as simply stupid who didn’t understand the full consequences of an Iraq invasion. While Stone partially acquitted Bush of Iraq, equally brash filmmaker Michael Moore eviscerated Bush with his Palme d’Or winning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 . Moore attacks the Bush administration for using fear and paranoia to justify a war in Iraq rather than going after those truly responsible for the World Trade Center attacks. Moore produced and released the film with the sole intention of preventing Bush from being reelected in 2004, which proved unsuccessful. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Passages August 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Passages opens with Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German filmmaker living in Paris, working on the set of his next film. It’s immediately apparent that he’s a control freak… and an asshole. He’s critical of everything that’s going on, from the position of his actor’s arms as he walks down the stairs to the amount of wine in an extra’s glass. He probably thinks of himself as Stanley Kubrick, except there isn’t enough brilliance to make up for the callousness. That attitude on the set doesn’t take a break once he goes home to his husband Martin (Ben Whishaw). The couple go to the film’s wrap party at a dance club. Being the more introverted one, Martin goes home early, leaving Tomas to his own devices. He crosses paths with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) on the dance floor, and the two eventually go home together to have sex. Rebuking the natural secrecy of an affair in an effort to quench his desire for control, Tomas tells Martin all about it the next morning. Tomas wants the best of both worlds: to be in a steady marriage with Martin and to have an exciting new fling with a woman. These three characters are now intertwined, yet it’s obvious only one of them is pulling the strings. Similar to his 2014 film Love is Strange , writer/director Ira Sachs (co-writing with his regular partner Mauricio Zacharias) delves into the thorniness of longstanding relationships, and how there isn’t a clear-cut way to get through it. Tomas thinks he can get what he wants, yet it seems he actually doesn’t know what he wants in the first place. He says “I love you” and engages in sex when it works for him, and never seems to have the ability or desire to understand the other party in that transaction. One of the main problems of the film is that it spends too much time spinning its wheels around this toxic trio. It eventually gets tiring to watch Tomas act selfishly and be begrudgingly forgiven by Martin or Agathe. Sure, that cycle may be a portal to connect with the victims, but it’s also not something wholly original. It’s not a coincidence that the best scene of the film is near the end where Martin and Agathe finally break the circle and sit down to talk directly. Whishaw and Exarchopoulos are both calm and collected throughout much of the film. They each are trying to convince themselves that this new reality can work, but it’s clear no one is coming out better than they used to be. And even in his cruelty, Rogowski is captivating, showing just enough promise to illustrate why he would be accepted into someone else’s life. Filled with as much as explicit sex (although striking it with an NC-17 rating was a displeasing illustration of how the MPAA views homosexuality) as it has insight into complicated relationships, Passages is another worthwhile effort from the dependable Ira Sachs. It’s a ménage à trois for the modern age, mixing confrontation and carnality to perceptive results. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Napoleon November 15, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Petulant, disagreeable, prideful, ugly, childish, insecure, genophobic, and impatient. These are the adjectives that can be used to describe one of the most powerful men in the history of the world: Napoleon Bonaparte. He saw himself as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, and yet he lacked all the qualities that allowed them to etch their names in the history books. But what he lacked in the personality department he made up for with his tactical genius, orchestrating tens of thousands to swift victories over armies twice as large. Napoleon was an able opportunist, as is illustrated in the opening title cards that set the stage for the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royalists are being sent to the guillotine, opening up quite a few positions in the French nobility. The young gunnery commander stuck himself to Paul Barras, who sought to recapture the Port of Toulon. A resounding victory gave Napoleon his first taste of real power and respect, something he would feverishly seek to protect through the rest of his days. Fortunately for him, this period was ripe with arrogant leaders seeking to establish their claims through military might. England, Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, and Russia are each pieces in a puzzle that constantly changes shape and size, with some of the pieces aligning one year, and then fighting the next. Napoleon is a finely sharp sword, outgrowing anyone else’s ambition for him until he plants himself atop the throne of Europe. With his vast historical drama background that includes the likes of The Duellists, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven , and The Last Duel , director Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about setting the stage for global conflicts. Even at the age of 85, he’s never taken a moment to slow down, crafting projects that seem to only get bigger the older he gets. It’s no surprise that both he and fellow octogenarian director Martin Scorsese ( Killers of the Flower Moon ) have found themselves at Apple with their latest historical dramas, the streaming giant plunking down $200 million for each project. While it may not have been the wisest financial decision, it was a fortuitous one for the art of epic filmmaking. Scott paints a wide canvas for each of the climactic battle scenes. It’s as close to a replica as one could get to the work of director Sergei Bondarchuk in the Soviet version of War and Peace where literally thousands of extras marched across plains as hundreds of cannons engulfed them in carnage. To be fair, Scott does have the benefit of robust visual effects, which are used seamlessly. There is never a feeling that these battles are just one giant CGI army crashing into another. The stakes and violence are real, emboldened by the careful application of strategy; such as cornering the Austrians and Russians at The Battle of Austerlitz through false fronts, hidden calvary, and perfectly timed infantry charges. The director has never turned in a poorly crafted film, but what does often hold back both his and our engagement is a less-than-ideal script. It’s no coincidence that some of his best films in this later period sprouted off the page through talented screenwriters like John Logan ( Gladiator ) , Steven Zaillian ( American Gangster ), and Matt Damon/Ben Affleck/Nicole Holfcener ( The Last Duel ). Napoleon marks the second collaboration between Scott and writer David Scarpa after All the Money in the World , with the results here being quite the improvement over the former. While there are repeatable inklings of this being a Wikipedia entry condensed down to 158 minutes (the reported future four-hour cut will greatly alleviate this minor problem), Scarpa finds plenty of avenues to dissect Napoleon down to the bone. Much of this is done through the prism of his relationship with his lover Josephine, herself an opportunist who knew what needed to be done to survive in an era where women had little to no autonomy. Both of them are vindictive towards the other, yet they cannot help being addicted to their shared love, as if they realize they are two identical souls that have reached far beyond what they thought they could accomplish. Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby are wondrous as the couple. Obviously, if you need someone to portray an emotionally and physically troubled genius, you get an emotionally and physically troubled genius like Phoenix. It’s as if his version of Napoleon watched Taxi Driver and totally missed the point, but still tries to emulate the Travis Bickle archetype. But while the other world leaders look down upon him, it’s not like they’re much more mature. All of them treat the world like a recess playground, all while millions of lives are casually thrown away. Kirby finds herself in and out of the emperor’s favor, mostly secluded in various castles and palaces. That is where her battles with Napoleon take place, battles of wit and sex, two things she has in spades over him. The world still properly bemoans what could have been had Stanley Kubrick been allowed to make his Napoleon biopic. There are surely semblances of it in Scott’s film, which continues his string of blockbusters propelled by smart filmmaking and collaborative artistry. It’s timely and timeless in its craft and examination of history, ready to raise the bar just that much higher for later entries in the genre. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Pinocchio September 15, 2022 By: Button Tyler Banark Yes, Disney's live-action remakes may lack the heart and genuineness of their animated counterparts, but as long as they get the views, the execs at the mouse house could care less about anything else. With Pinocchio being the latest victim of the conglomerate's cash-grabbing strategy, it gives a keen reminder of where the jingle from the opening studio logo comes from. I have no personal connection to the original 1940 film, but I couldn't pass on it with Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks attached. Despite their good intentions, Pinocchio is another run-of-the-mill live-action remake of the mouse house that still left no room for creativity. Hanks is the movie's main selling point as Geppeto, a lonely old clockmaker who wishes for nothing more than a real son in his life and not the titular wooden puppet he made. After making a wish, the wooden boy comes to life and wishes to pursue the dream of becoming a real human boy. Although similar to the source material, Zemeckis' Pinocchio had some new characters, such as Fabiana, her marionette Sabina, and Sofia the seagull. These new characters are nuanced and don't add much to the story, but they never feel unnecessary. None of the characters felt out of place, mainly because this is a remake, and if you know the story, you know what you're in for. Aside from Hanks, the cast as a whole seemed a bit inconsistent as Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Jiminy Cricket felt odd with him doing a weird voice, while unrecognizable, that creeped me out. Whenever he spoke, I wasn't sure if JGL was trying to do a caricature take on the role or if what he was doing was spot on with what the character was supposed to be. On the other hand, Keegan-Michael Key fit in as Honest John; he brought that energetic charisma from his Key and Peele days, which helped a lot, given the role consists of him being a mischievous fox. Lastly, Luke Evans has a small role as the Pleasure Island coachman. He does a musical number, and that's it. However, after doing this and playing Gaston in the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast , I'm convinced that he enjoys doing these lifeless films. The movie's effects are worth mentioning, as this movie is a massive CGI fest. If I had a dollar for every shot in this film that I could tell was from a green screen, I'd have a fortune. Whether it was kids sliding down a mountain of candy or seeing fake water splash into Hanks' face, the effects were distracting as they could easily take viewers out of the movie. The worst part about it was anytime Pinocchio had a close-up; he looked like a cartoon character in the worst way possible. The good thing about the effects here is that they don't seem reminiscent of the motion capture from two Zemeckis films from the 2000s resembling the uncanny valley: 2004's The Polar Express and 2009's A Christmas Carol . Finally, it's been occurring to me that Zemeckis seems like a director that's way beyond his prime and needs to call it quits. I think he's only made one movie since Cast Away that I'd consider be solid, and that was 2015's The Walk . I know he didn't mean any poor intentions to Pinocchio , but when he's making a film such as this for a studio like Disney, one would think he'd be allowed to take some creative liberties. Unfortunately, this is not the case here, and it shows. The only time I felt this wasn't the case was during the finale, Gepetto gave a mini-monologue, and it hit hard enough to the point where it drove me to tears. To make matters worse, Disney has some unnecessary Easter eggs and callbacks to other films sprinkled throughout that are cringe-worthy. Overall, Pinocchio is a remake not worth the time and energy to watch. Unless that is if you're a fan of the original and want to watch it for nostalgia. It may be released only on Disney+, which is pretty deserving, given how much quality and substance this movie lacks. You can follow Tyler and read more of his thoughts on movies here . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Madame Web February 14, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Sony has really outdone themselves this time. Venom was one of the worst movies of 2018, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was one of the worst movies of 2021, and Morbius was by far the worst movie of 2022. If Madame Web isn’t the worst thing I see in 2024, then God help us all. On one hand, I have to commend their consistency. But on the other hand, I have to ask if all these movies have just been some sort of sick joke, almost like an attempt at reverse psychology for us to hate Spider-Man. There’s no other explanation beyond that, because who in their right mind would give the green light to such low-tier characters (in the case of Morbius and Madame Web) and mess it all up on four consecutive occasions? Let’s just get this over with, shall we? Things begin in the Amazon as Cassie Web’s mother researches spiders just before she dies (sorry everyone, that memeified line isn’t in the final cut of the film). Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) has been hired to protect the very pregnant mother on her journey but backstabs her once she finds the elusive arachnid that grants powers to whoever it bites. It’s now thirty years later and Sims has been continually having visions about three teenage girls (Syndey Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor) killing him with their own superpowers. What would any sane person do in that scenario? Brush off these nightmares and carry on with their life? Move as far away as possible from the location of this predicted occurrence? Wrong! The correct answer is to track down these girls with stolen Patriot Act surveillance equipment and murder them first. It’s so simple! This is how Cassie (Dakota Johnson) gets tangled into this web, as her path has seemed fated to cross with those of the girls. Like Ezekiel, she too can see into the future (or travel back in time if you’re going off the incredibly incoherent editing), only she uses it to save lives. She’s not like other women; or people for that matter, as evidenced by one of the most awkward baby shower scenes to ever grace the screen. But that estrangement isn’t from her mysteriously uncontrollable power or the fact that she’s an orphan, it’s from the “so bad it’s almost hilarious” script by the four credited writers of Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, and director S.J. Clarkson. Never has expository dialogue been so in demand, and a plot been so needlessly convoluted. None of this makes any sense once you step back and think about the chronology of events. Ezekiel wants to kill the girls because they will eventually gain superpowers, but the girls only get the powers as a byproduct of Ezekiel trying to kill them. So wouldn’t him trying to kill them first only be speeding up what’s going to happen? That paradox aside, the shoddy camerawork and special effects make it nearly impossible to comprehend what’s going on in the present. That might have been a public service in disguise, as the less you see and think about this film, the better. Johnson is an actress who can be great in the right roles, but also awful in the wrong ones. Her two films with Luca Guadagnino - A Bigger Splash and Suspiria - are part of the former, with this being as far down the latter as you can go. Never has a comic book casting been this misjudged, with her line deliveries and overall demeanor signaling her apathy about being part of this project. Sweeney’s characterization and wardrobe almost sexualize her more than Euphoria , with Merced and O’Connor doing little else to impress. The biggest injustice of the film might be its extraordinary ability to make Tahar Rahim look like a terrible actor, with the revered French arthouse performer rendered to ADR’d lines and boilerplate villainous speechifying. Madame Web might do more harm to spiders than birds themselves. Sony has reached the point of insanity by releasing the same bland product over and over again and expecting different results, and I’m right there with them for watching each one. We’ve still got Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3 this year, so this crazy train isn’t going to stop anytime soon. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

I Care a Lot February 25, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Have you ever stopped to think about how we treat our elderly in America? Once they reach a certain age and things start to get more difficult, we ship them off to a glorified daycare that they never return from. It’s a process we never want to think about, as it gives us a guilty conscience. But that exact feeling of guilt and shame is something that writer/director J Blakeson wants you to confront in his new film I Care a Lot , a part social satire, part crime thriller. “I’m not a lamb, I’m a (expletive) lioness,” says Marla Grayson as she opens the movie shunning us, the audience, for thinking we’re good people when we enable her to do so much evil. Marla is a state-appointed legal guardian who looks after elderly people that are deemed too unwell to care for themselves. Marla swoops in, ships the person to a secure retirement home, and seizes all their assets for herself. It's a lucrative occupation that is buoyed by an American public unwilling to care for their own. I Care a Lot is as black as a black comedy can be. There is not one single nice character within this whole movie, and not one single nice deed is done. It’s two hours of theft, manipulation, and in some cases, murder. The first half of the film dives deep into the scandalous nature of retirement care, which is treated as a crime ring. The process starts as Marla uses her doctor contact to scout patients that are both wealthy and healthy enough to be a perennial cash cow. In exchange for a monetary sum, the doctor recommends to a judge that Marla be the patient’s guardian. Marla then auctions off the patient’s belongings, using the funds to pay herself and the exorbitant retirement home fees she's negotiated under-the-table with the manager. It’s a grueling process that becomes harder to stomach as time goes on, but Blakeson doesn’t want us to look away, he wants to see what we’re complicit in. Rosamund Pike plays Marla in a role she was born to play. Sporting a sharp blonde bob, stunning suits, and taking huge drags from the world’s largest vape pen, Pike commands the screen every second she’s on. It’s a towering performance similar to that of her Oscar-nominated role in Gone Girl . She’s certifiably crazy, extremely ambitious, and scary as hell. Pike has already been Golden Globe nominated this year for Best Performance in a Comedy, which is ironic since the only kind of laughing I did while watching this was nervous laughter. With the second half, Blakeson takes a sharp turn away from social satire and into an increasingly wild crime thriller. Marla has taken a “golden goose” under her care, someone named Jennifer Peterson (a perfect Dianne Wiest) that has no living family and a lot of money to spend on medical fees. But, the predator quickly becomes the prey as it is discovered that Jennifer isn’t who they think she is. Turns out she’s connected to the Russian mafia, run by a sadistic Peter Dinklage. This is the part of the movie where you will either throw your hands up in disgust or gleefully delve into the chaotic mess. The second half is inferior to the first as it trades its bite for conventional plotting. It also tests your connection with Marla as you instinctively root for her to win against the mafia, even though she clearly is the villain in the grand scheme of things. At times you wonder who is worse between the two of them. Even then, there is a lot of fun to be had watching her get out of this deadly situation. You do have to suspend some disbelief, but what movie doesn’t make you do that? The score by Marc Canham takes a lot of inspiration from the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems . Like the tonal shift of the plot, the synthesized music starts playful, but gets darker as Marla descends into the criminal underworld. I Care a Lot is a pitch-black comedy in the similar vein of Gone Girl and Uncut Gems . It’s both a scathing satire on the retirement system in America and an entertaining crime thriller boasting a terrific performance from leading lady Rosamund Pike. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Shirley March 16, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are 435 members of The United States of Representatives. In 1968, only 11 were women, 5 were black, and none were black women. It’s a sobering fact that opens writer/director John Ridley’s biopic of Shirley Chisholm, who was the first person to break the barrier of entry for black women in Congress. The very next scene sees her standing in a sea of middle-aged white men as they’re gathered for the freshman congresspeople class photo. Except it’s glaringly obvious that the capital background is a greenscreen (a very shoddy one), and everything is overlit and washed out. And that scene gets repeated throughout the next two hours: good intentions canceled out by poor filmmaking and an overly basic approach to one of the most interesting political figures of the twentieth century. To give credit where it is due, Ridley doesn’t give us the clichéd knee-deep full breadth of Shirley’s life, instead focusing on her 1972 campaign for the presidency, the first undertaken by a black candidate as part of a major party. Throughout the eighteen months leading up to the Democratic Party primary, Shirley campaigned as part of the working class, free of the political strings and corporate greed that perpetually hamper the democratic process. Regina King is electric throughout her several campaign stops, supplying the necessary fire to convey Shirley’s trailblazing nature. She’s a person who hates the word “can’t” and never backs down from a fight. From her personality, we get a glimpse of who she was as a politician and what she may have accomplished. Ridley doesn’t bother with those details, although it would have been nice to learn a little more since her presidential campaign hardly tells the whole story. Vague biopics have gotten by before, mostly because they had the personality to fill in the gaps. The recent duology of Jackie and Spencer by Pablo Larraín, I’m Not There , and The End of the Tour would fit under this category. Ridley semi-accomplished this with his 2013 Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side , offering an under-the-hood inspection of Hendrix before his superstardom. Shirley ditches all that to be as palatable as possible, complete with politicians made so cartoonishly prejudiced that they’re lined up like bowling pins for King to knock down in an Oscar clip. Sure, Chisholm definitely faced stiff opposition from unsavory figures (a.k.a. white men), but seeing it here so sanitized takes away from the reality of the situation. King is at least surrounded by a decent supporting cast, most notably Lance Reddick in one of his final roles as Shirley's longtime advisor Mac Holder. Michael Cherrie surprises Shirley’s longtime husband Conrad. But then there’s also Terrence Howard and Lucas Hedges in wasted roles that offer them little to do. “Better get it used and cheap” is what Shirley tells Conrad when he says he needs a new camera. It’s a nice and tidy bit of writing from Ridley, yet it seems he took it to heart and used it as his mantra for the entire production. With Ridley’s Oscar-winning skills as a writer and Netflix’s deep pockets, it’s deeply disappointing that neither of them could muster up what Shirley Chisholm deserved. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Hunt November 27, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are certain things within our mortal world that have been proven to be impossible. You can’t travel faster than the speed of light, nor can you read someone’s mind (all the mutants reading this must feel so smug). There are also the less fun things humans can’t do, such as achieving world peace or not paying taxes. And now I think I’ve stumbled upon a new scientific impossibility: Understanding the plot of Hunt on a first watch. As the directorial debut of newly minted Emmy winner and Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, Hunt is the most serious adaptation of Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy . The Cold War still rages on, with Russia and the United States shifting their political war out of Vietnam and over to Korea. The wounds of the Korean War still sting thirty years later, with both North and South battling each other in a war of paranoia and information. There’s a rumor going around that there is a North Korean mole, codenamed Donglim, within the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). This mole has leaked the plans for several failed past operations and may have access to the itinerary and security details for the president’s upcoming trip around Asia. In order to get to the bottom of this mess, the newly appointed director covertly orders the chiefs of the foreign and domestic security units to investigate the other by any means necessary. Foreign Unit chief Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Domestic Uni chief Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) have had their differences in the past, such as when Jung-do killed a suspect who had kidnapped Pyong-ho during an assassination attempt on the president. Each of them has a slight suspicion over the other’s loyalty, and this “no red tape” opportunity is just what they need to dig deep and uncover every dirty secret. Unless you have an eidetic memory or a Ph.D. in contemporary Korean history (two things I definitely don't have), making sense of Hunt in the moment is an impossibly difficult mental exercise. As many of us did with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet a few years back, you have to accept the convoluted nature of the whole thing. Double crosses become triple crosses, which then become quadruple crosses, which then become quintuple crosses (I’m not even joking with this). And deciphering the script, co-written by Jo Seung-Hee and Jung-jae, may not be worth the effort, as nearly every plot beat follows the standard spy thriller rulebook. Hunt can’t use the same “don't try to understand it, just feel it” excuse as Tenet , as there isn’t any emotional pull to feel (not that Tenet had a heart either). Fortunately, Jung-jae fills those emotional and logical gaps with enough bullets and bombs to equip a small army. Taking influence from Michael Mann (specifically the street shootout from Heat ) and his fellow countrymen Park Chan-wook, Jung-jae plunges into the action set pieces headfirst with handheld camerawork and propulsive editing. There is not a single dull moment within this spider web, with the characters getting increasingly woven together to chaotic results. If you thought the intricately layered works of John le Carré ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager ) weren’t complex enough or didn’t have nearly enough frenzied shootouts, then Lee Jung-jae has something for you in Hunt . He treats his debut as if it's the bus in Speed , never letting it go under 55 mph in fear that the nitrate itself will instantaneously combust. Your two options are to accept that situation and ride this bus all the way to its fiery conclusion, or jump off this speeding hunk of metal. You’re going to get hurt either way, it’s just up to you if you want it to be a good or bad type of pain. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Tuesday June 13, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Death has come in all different shapes and sizes throughout times and cultures. In Christianity, Death is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Pale Horseman to be exact. In many Romantic language regions (France, Portugal, Italy), it is mostly personified as a female figure, with other areas of Europe seeing it as more Grim Reaper-like with a skeletal frame and a scythe. And in Asia, Death takes the form of a bureaucrat, an escort between the lands of the living and dead. Considering all the different physical and temperamental interpretations of Death throughout human history, its presence as a talking macaw bird in Daina Oniunas-Pusic’s Tuesday shouldn’t come as anything out of the ordinary. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially with Oniunas-Pusic introducing us to this celestial being as it traverses the Earth collecting the souls who are at its doorstep, many of them leaving this world in fear and confusion. No matter the form it takes, Death does come for us all, and you’ll never know when and how it’ll show its face. For the 15-year-old titular character (Lola Petticrew), Death has been stalking her for months now in the form of an unspecified terminal illness. It’s felt each time she takes a wheezing breath, and whenever her stay-at-home nurse tries to steer the conversation away from anything too morbid. But when that fateful bird actually does come for her one day, she doesn’t plead or cry. Instead, she tells it a joke and offers to give it a bath, as the blackness of death has clouded its bright orange feathers. Like Superman, the bird can hear everyone’s dying thoughts at all times. The piercing sound design elevates the overwhelming fear and discomfort of that situation, a neverending stream of people revealing themselves in their final moments. On the other end of that problem is Tuesday’s mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who refuses to listen to her daughter’s pleadings about their situation. To reveal anything more about the plot would diminish the experience of witnessing it first-hand. Oniunas-Pusic’s vision for her story knows no bounds, reaching further down the rabbit hole than even your wildest predictions could have covered. And even if I did tell all within this review, you still wouldn’t have all the necessary information to make a decision on whether it all works or not. The directions the film goes down have to be felt to be processed, many of them likely to not fully reveal themselves until much later down the road. It’s like trying a new food. Sure, you can read all the ingredients and form an opinion in your head whether you would like it. But you can’t know for sure until you stop thinking and just put it in your mouth. The gamble is part of the process. That inability to fully comprehend everything solely through text complements the actor’s trust in Oniunas-Pusic. Petticrew and Louis-Dreyfus are tasked with extremely challenging jobs, acting opposite a CGI creation (a very convincing one) and navigating the extremely thin tonal tightrope this film often finds itself balancing on. Each of them is dealing with the five stages of grief in their own way, Petticrew being further along into acceptance and Louis-Dreyfus stuck in denial. Special mention does have to be made to Arinzé Kene for his motion capture performance and vocal work as the macaw, both of them making the bird into just as much a character as what Andy Serkis has done with his creations over the years. Would a conventional narrative track for this story result in a more cohesive and stronger emotional pull? Perhaps. But there are still several tearjerking moments between mother and daughter, one of which takes place on a beach seemingly secluded from the rest of humanity. And fear not all you haters of weepy terminal illness dramas, as no boy is trying to romance Tuesday in her final days, nor does Zora go through the clichéd motions of dealing with her sadness. It all comes together to make something more than the sum of its parts, which are all equally fascinating to pick apart and dissect. I’m still doing that as I type out this review, and I’m sure to continue doing it throughout the year. Death is not something that can be neatly packaged and processed, so it makes sense that a film about it would refuse to trek down the well-laid path that so many have gone down before. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Sometimes I Think About Dying January 26, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Sometimes I Think About Dying had its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Oscilloscope will release the film in theaters on January 26, 2024. Those who have worked in an office setting will find plenty to admire and shudder about in Sometimes I Think About Dying , director Rachel Lambert’s adaptation of the 2019 short film of the same name. Lambert essentially sticks a camera within a small-sized office on the Oregon coast, acting as a fly on the wall as a group of strangers fills their ho-hum days with small talk and routine socializing. Except there’s one person in the office who seems incapable of engaging in that sort of mindless thing. Fran (Daisy Ridley), always dressed in plain clothes and found sitting at her desk adjusting spreadsheets, can go for days without talking to anyone. This prolonged silence isn’t because she dislikes her coworkers, but more of a defense mechanism to keep people from finding out what’s underneath. Things change suddenly when a new employee, Robert, comes to town. He seems to be a translator between Fran and the rest of the world, slowly pulling her out of her shell. One of the things revealed early on comes from the name of the film, which is that Fran sometimes drifts off into space during the day. But she doesn’t fantasize about romantic endeavors or if they forget to turn the stove off. No, she thinks about all the different ways she could die, such as hanging from the large crane outside her office window or being consumed by insects in the nearby forest. Lambert, collaborating with cinematographer Dustin Lane and production designer Robert Brekco, stages these fantasies with surreal beauty. They may only be brief glimpses, but they stick with you long after. Lane’s camera never moves, often keeping the background out of focus as Fran eavesdrops on her coworkers. These moments can go on for extended periods, acting as a way to slowly enter the world of Fran. But it also feels like there’s not a ton on the page like it needs to be stretched in order to fit within the required feature runtime. Ridley does deliver one of her best performances as Fran, ditching the movie star swagger of the Star Wars films in favor of an extremely stripped-down inhabitation of a character. She speaks maybe five lines within the first thirty minutes, yet you’re endlessly fascinated with learning more about her. It is unfortunate later on when those simple questions aren’t answered, leaving you just as unsatisfied as when you started. Sometimes I Think About Dying is a small movie with a small scope, buoyed by some intriguing visuals and a standout performance from an actress who looks ready to take on this new side of her career. As a twelve-minute short film, it’s a bit too short. And as a ninety-minute feature film, it's a bit too long. Somewhere out there is a perfect 45-60 minute version of this story. But it’s not here right now, which is a shame. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Boys in the Boat December 15, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen I’m just as surprised as you are. Four stars? For a George Clooney movie? About rowing? In 2023? It’s such an unlikely outcome that I’m still in shock just as much as I was during minute one… and minute fifty… and minute one hundred. I kept waiting for this Jenga tower to come crashing down. There surely were moments where it started to falter, but then Clooney or the charismatic Callum Turner would make everything right again. In an act of full transparency, I’ll start with what is probably the worst element of the film, which is the bookending scenes (never a good sign). We open and close with an elderly Joe Rantz sitting on a dock watching his young grandson learning how to row. These images of pain and perseverance bring him back to his college days at the University of Washington during the Great Depression, where he was living out of a broken-down car and using newspapers to plug the holes in his shoes. The corny bits of narration from the trailer are all featured in these opening segments, along with the usual visual trademarks of Depression-era poverty. What’s more scarce than money are ways to make money, which is why Joe (Turner) and a few of his classmates try out for the university’s rowing team, as anyone who makes it gets a part-time job and a place to sleep. For Joe, hunger, both in its physical and mental form, is enough of a substitute for a lack of technical skill. But making the team is only the first hurdle. Staying on the team is the bigger challenge, and the only way to accomplish that is to win. These eight boys will go up against schools with bigger and better programs filled with kids who have had rowing passed down through generations. Because no one would ever make a movie about a sports team that repeatedly loses (“winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” is literally the ending to the studio-supplied plot summary), it’s not surprising that Washington’s fortunes turned out to be considerably grander than they ever imagined. They were a bunch of boys who had nothing to their names beyond their need to survive. Clooney and writer Mark L. Smith (writer for The Midnight Sky ) do well to illustrate the strength and resilience needed to succeed in such a demanding sport. Severe blisters, cramps, and overall exhaustion are not a probability, they’re a certainty. Clooney perfects his craft as a director just as much as the boys do on the boat. It’s his biggest leap in becoming this generation’s Clint Eastwood, a name-brand director who doesn’t possess any distinct flair, yet always delivers a respectably crafted studio film. Each race is a feat of momentum and inertia, and commendably displays the strategy required in rowing, which is far more complicated than simply going faster than the opponents. Aiding that is Alexandre Desplat’s triumphant score and great sound work that details each facet of this well-oiled machine. There’s something sweet in how committed Clooney and Smith are to the underdog sports script, even down to the slightly underdeveloped, yet fully endearing romance between Joe and his classmate Joyce (Hadley Robinson). There’s even the usual camaraderie between the boys involving them building up the confidence of the quieter member of the group. Turner is a more than capable lead, possessing what's required both physically and emotionally. Joel Edgerton also does decent service as the team’s coach, who’s up against a rock and a hard place between demanding alumni and the Nazi-hosted Olympics. The Boys in the Boat is the type of film that would have made quite a name for itself back in the 80s and 90s. Don’t let that statement make you think it doesn’t deserve a place today, as it possesses a timeless amount of heart and soul. It’s a highly entertaining and much-needed life preserver for Clooney’s directorial career. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen