The Marvels November 8, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Marvels comes to us suffering from a clear case of the “yes… buts.” It’s a rapidly progressive disease that’s been plaguing many MCU projects now that we’ve reached the middle age of this mega-franchise. Let’s run down all the places this disease is showing. Yes, the special effects look better than the unfinished slop within Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania … but they still somehow look worse than the majority of what's come before. Yes, the central trio of Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani share great chemistry… but much of their time is spent delivering inanely convoluted exposition about why this movie needs to exist. Yes, the fight choreography is pretty creative when the heroes fully harness their powers… but it gets pretty choppy whenever the camera isn’t in a wide shot. Yes, the main villain has a semi-compelling justification for her actions… but that reasoning happens offscreen, and her plan involves yet another skybeam. This list could fill the rest of this review… but that would be as interesting as having yet another debate over whether superhero fatigue is real or not (see what I did there?). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS_qbDztgVY I hope you aced your Kree and Skrull history exams because you’re going to need all your knowledge to understand the machinations of what’s happening here. I'm not up to date on current events (a symptom of not caring about the television shows), so there may be some tiny gaps in this retelling. But I doubt there are many people left who could fully comprehend and connect the dots anymore. There’s been a war between the Kree and Skrull that has left both sides in ruin: The Kree’s homeworld is desolate, and the Skrull are discriminated refugees. The leader of the Kree, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), has come upon a powerful bengal that gives her the strength of a god, more than enough to rally her armies and steal the natural resources of the neighboring planets. The uncovering of this Bengal has created a wormhole in time and space, entangling the powers of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). This trio must overcome the learning curve and work together if they want to stop Dar-Benn and save the countless lives being affected by her reign. Talented indie director Nia DaCosta takes over from duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who always seemed out of their element in a $150+ million behemoth. DaCosta fares a little better at the helm, keeping things zippy as we move from one planet to another, some of which I would have liked to spend a little more time at. She does have the benefit of a warmly welcomed shortened runtime (105 minutes) and no need to tell a boilerplate origin story for any of these characters. Even with all those “character-building” requirements out of the way, the character of Captain Marvel remains blandly two-dimensional. She has the same curse as DC’s Superman: Too powerful to feel like any villain is a threat, which forces the writers (DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik) to create a potential universe-ending catastrophe, which has become so tiring at this point. Larson has a clear grasp on the smaller character moments, even overcoming some of the shoddy greenscreens that she’s forced to deliver them on. But her attempts at humorous quips and iconic lines feel forced, almost as if she’s still not comfortable fully embracing this persona. Someone who has welcomed her cape is Iman Vellani. She’s Peter Parker to Larson’s Tony Stark, a bright young hero who wants to do good in the world, but just doesn’t know what her place is. There are a few moments clearly inspired by her show, a necessary boost of youthful energy to lift the spirits of the more professional adults. Parris (reuniting with DaCosta after Candyman ) greatly benefits from the work she put into WandaVision , with this being a further fleshing out of her character. All that can be said about The Marvels is that it is passably fine. It’s not bad enough to be a catalyst in the downfall of the MCU, nor is it good enough to be its savior (not that one movie should bear that unfathomable struggle). It inoffensively slots in with the rest of the forgettable middle-of-the-pack entries, rarely to be talked about again. Mission accomplished, I guess? Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will release The Marvels in theaters nationwide on November 10th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Legend of Ochi April 21, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Before the (digital) film reel started spooling to unveil the story of The Legend of Ochi , first-time feature writer/director Isaiah Saxon gave a brief introduction via a video message set in what could only be assumed as one of the Romanian filming locations. Speaking in a comedically hushed tone, the filmmaker stated that he made this film for children and that their intelligence rarely gets the respect it deserves from Hollywood. Maybe it was just because I had seen A Minecraft Movie a week prior and had my brain fried from the TikTok toilet humor, or the fact that the largely adult-oriented distributor A24 is finally breaking into the realm of children’s entertainment, but Saxon’s words really resonated with me. Here is a film for children that is explicitly meant to be engaged with on both an emotional and intellectual level, and not just a vessel for memes and merchandise. Of course, I say all this and can immediately see that A24 has littered their online shop with Ochi swag and ironically posted about it everywhere on social media. I guess we can’t always get everything that we want… Unfortunately, it’s way more interesting to think and discuss what The Legend of Ochi represents than it is to talk about what happens between minute one and minute ninety-six. For as much as Saxon finds himself clearly inspired by the darker children’s films of yesteryear like The NeverEnding Story , Labyrinth , and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , there’s never a moment where the weight of comparison doesn’t fully crush this lush tale. Take, for instance, the premise of the young girl Yuri (Helena Zengel) growing up in a remote village in the Carpathian mountains. She has a strained relationship with her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe), and has been told her whole life that the local wildlife that goes by the name of the Ochi only live to feed on the flesh of the living. All day and night, Maxim marches up the mountains, rabble-rousing and training the local youth to hunt down these creatures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jTFLg3arYU Being that she has a general distrust of her dad, Yuri doesn’t buy into the jingoistic fervor. And it also only takes one non-gun-related meeting with these creatures to convince her that they aren’t as dangerous as she’s been told. One of the babies got caught in a trap and has been separated from its family, a feeling that Yuri figuratively feels every day. That connection spurs them on a quest for reunification and self-discovery. In this momentary void between the television hiatus of The Mandalorian and its 2026 film continuation, the titular baby Ochi has kicked Baby Yoda / Grogu off its perch at the top of the animatronic cuteness pedestal. Fully operated by hand, this monkey-ish puppet features solid black eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and a lovely bright orange coat of fur. When seen from a distance in the dead of night, one could almost forgive Maxim for duping himself into thinking these creatures are evil. But just as it does for any living creature, the sun illuminates our best features. There’s a loveliness to seeing the Ochi move with a little bit of jerkiness, as sanding off the artificiality with visual effects would have made it seem even more fake. Saxon surrounds his humans and puppets in a world of matte paintings and sets possibly borrowed from Midsommar . He’s already been forced to stave off unfounded claims of AI usage, and I fear he’ll be forced to continue that defense as more eyes are placed upon the film. I’ll admit, the imagery within the film does have a striking resemblance to those demo reels that float around social media, preaching that technology has unlocked a new age of filmmaking. Along with the fact that it was filmed in 2021, before any of this AI nonsense was a serious threat, Saxon’s argument stems from the love and sweat put into his craft, which is always visible on the screen. But that love Saxon has for his work is never felt by us, with everything feeling more like an aesthetic than a fully realized world. The emotional coldness doesn’t help to bridge that gap either; David Longstreth’s score does all of the communicating. Because of this, I fear that Saxon’s intended adolescent audience is unlikely to discover and commit to the task that this film lays before them. It’s foolish and unfair for one film to be beset with the expectation that it’ll reinvigorate a largely stagnant subgenre, although the words from the creatives and marketers certainly have set themselves up for that. Saxon has certainly earned another go-around, so perhaps that will contain the spark that sets all of this ablaze. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2025 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. A24 will release The Legend of Ochi in theaters nationwide on April 25th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Nyad October 20, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s not hard to see why documentary directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin found themselves attracted to the story of Diana Nyad. With their Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo , the duo introduced (at least to the public at large) the character of Alex Honnold. He’s reckless, charismatic, and someone polite people would call a “free spirit.” Having that much of a personality dangling on the side of a rock hundreds of feet in the air is a combination made for the cinema. It was a film you had to see on the big screen, with the stunning imagery and stakes making it a thrill ride to rival even the most high-octane blockbuster. Diana Nyad seemed to cut from the same cloth as Honnold. She came to prominence in the 1970s, setting several world swimming records, such as the fastest time ever in the 22-mile Gulf of Naples race and swimming the 28 miles around the island of Manhattan in just under 8 hours. She’s someone who doesn't understand the word “no,” which does make her quite the asshole to her friends and trainers, as they often beg her to see the consequences of her illogical actions. For all her trophies and achievements, one thing has always eluded her: The 101-mile swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida. She wasn’t able to do it in her 20s; she’ll be damned if she can’t get it done in her 60s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3anCgVSQb3Q It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening plays Nyad, who finally accomplished her treacherous swim after four failed attempts. There’s no denying, or shame in admitting, that this is a role tailor-made to get Bening her overdue trophy. It’s an extremely challenging role, both physically and emotionally. She’s not that nice a person, being bossy and always pushing everyone around. But Bening never lets you outright hate her, as you’re always aware that she can do something no one else can, and the only way to accomplish it is to break a few eggs. Much of the film is set in the water during Nyad’s various attempts. The problem is that swimming is a bit like running in that it’s not the most cinematically engaging sport to watch. I’m oversimplifying things quite a bit (like all movies), but there’s not much of a visual difference between Nyad’s failures and successes. You see her in the water pushing herself to the extreme, yet you don’t feel it deep down like you should. Much of that has to do with the flatly competent direction by Vasarhelyi and Chin, who are making their feature narrative debut here. Outside of the somewhat jarringly stitched-together sizzle reels that feel lifted right from their documentaries, the pair never can bring this story out of the water, which is quite the shame considering the talents of Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi, Top Gun: Maverick ) were at their disposal. There’s a hollowness to the story and characters. Writer Julia Cox can’t find more within the character of Diana Nyad that Bening doesn’t do herself. It’s impressive to see Nyad make these attempts, but at some point, we all ask ourselves why she’s doing it, and the answers are both unclear and unsatisfactory. Helping carry Bening’s baggage is an excellent Jodie Foster as her best friend and trainer, Bonnie. It may be because she’s always sharing scenes with a person who seems like a fish out of water, but Foster/Bonnie is the unexpected heart and soul of the film. Nyad is stuck in an awkward middle ground. It doesn’t possess enough cinematic spectacle to be a Netflix original that deserves to be seen in the theater. It also doesn’t have enough energy or interesting characters to hold people’s attention as they watch it on the couch. There will be some that get a lot out of this, but for most, including me, this feels like an untapped opportunity for almost everyone involved. This review was originally published from the international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release Nyad in select theaters on October 20th, followed by its streaming premiere on November 03rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

First Man October 15, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen What do we as Americans really know about Neil Armstrong? Everyone can say that he was the first man to set foot on the moon, but what else? Most of us would be left blank and stuck, realizing that we know so little about one of the most important American figures of the twentieth century. Stepping in to remedy this problem is director Damien Chazelle with his new film First Man . Instead of solely focusing on the moon landing, Chazelle decides to center the story on Armstrong. Spanning from 1961 to the 1969 landing, First Man daringly attempts to entertain and educate its audience about the trials and tribulations that one man went through in the name of human exploration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSoRx87OO6k Hot off winning the Academy Award for Best Director in 2016 with La La Land , the thirty-three-year-old Chazelle again makes his case for being one of the best directors working today. He reteams with his La La Land cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, and the results are spectacular. The imagery of the film is engrossing and stirs a wide range of emotional responses. To give the film a 60’s look and feel, Chazelle opts to use a more grainy camera filter rather than the traditional smooth. He also uses a multitude of handheld close-ups to try to keep the story emotional and character-driven. As a space film, First Man more than delivers on the action and pushes the boundary on how movies can convey the overall experience of space travel. Chazelle shifts to IMAX cameras in space and fills the screen with both beauty and menace. The camera violently shakes as the rocket blasts off, engulfing us in the terrifying moment. Then everything steadies, and the awe of outer space is revealed. It’s a balancing act that perfectly captures the immense danger that was involved in order to reach new heights. Chazelle also reteams with his regular composer Justin Hurwitz, who gives a compelling soundtrack that perfectly complements the film. The best part comes during the lunar landing scene when a constant hard-charging drum beat takes over as the only sound we hear. Even though the outcome is already known, it’s still the most nerve-wracking part of the film. The one area where First Man struggles to make its mark is in the writing department. Josh Singer pens the script, based on the novel by James Hansen. The writing does well at establishing Armstrong in the beginning. He’s quiet and a bit standoffish, but also very loving. We see him as a family man, one who’s struggling to balance his piloting dreams with the welfare of his wife and kids. However, after the first act, not much time is spent on developing Armstrong’s character. The rest of the film centrally focuses on the mission straightforwardly. The years go by, but we hardly see any change in his character. This lack of an arc goes against Chazelle’s intentions and undermines the great work he does to connect us to the characters. It also restricts the core theme of the film from being achieved, as very little about Armstrong is actually revealed by the end. Marking his second time working with Chazelle, Ryan Gosling is spectacular as Neil Armstrong. Gosling plays against type and delivers a solemn and heroic performance. The camera is pressed to his face the whole time as we watch his perilous journey unfold on Earth as well as above it. Gosling controls each scene with his blank face and calmly keeps the audience connected to him. Playing Janet Armstrong is The Crown star Claire Foy, who trades in her British accent for a Texan one. Foy provides the emotion of the film as she plays the nervous wife who just wants to see her husband come home safely. She shares some great scenes with Gosling as their characters try to cope with the dangers of attempting history. Rounding out the A-list cast are Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, and Corey Stoll. Each one of them plays an important supporting character in Neil’s story. They all give commendable performances as they play well off of Gosling and Foy. Boldly going where no one has gone before, Damien Chazelle has changed the way space movies should be made. His expert use of all facets of production raises the bar for the future of commercial filmmaking. The combination of his powerful directing and the outstanding performances by Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy lifts First Man off the ground and into the upper echelon of both space films and biopics. Universal Pictures will release First Man in theaters nationwide on October 12th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Armageddon Time May 26, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the words of Mugatu from Zoolander : “Directors making their own autobiographies, it’s so hot right now.” Of course, a regarded filmmaker telling their life story isn’t exactly a brand new concept. François Truffaut did it with The 400 Blows , and so did Federico Fellini with Amarcord . But just like skinny ties and baggy beanies, the fad went away for a while. That was until 2018, when Alfonso Cuarón made it cool again with Roma , which earned him a trio of Oscar statuettes, including Best Director. Now it’s become a genre itself, with directors churning out cine memoirs at a pace that rivals the MCU. There’s been Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast , Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2 , Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God , Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo (I’m not going to spell out the whole title, it hasn’t earned that gesture yet), Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir films, and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans . And now, after venturing out into the Amazon jungle for The Lost of Z and deep space for Ad Astra , writer/director James Gray returns home to Queens, New York, for Armageddon Time . Apart from being a homecoming to the location that housed his first five films, Armageddon Time also serves as Gray’s return to the Croisette after almost a decade away. It’s his fifth time competing for the Palme d’Or, and, based on the quality of this film, I’d say it’s his best chance yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLu3t-G9Do Banks Repeta (in his first major role after appearances as younger versions of characters in The Devil All the Time and Uncle Frank ) is our stand-in for Gray as Paul Graff, a sixth-grader at PS-173 in 1980 Queens. He’s a gifted student, but not a very motivated one, which often leads him into trouble with his strict teacher, Mr. Turkeltaub. One of his regular prankster cohorts is Johnny, the only black student in the class. Despite both of them often getting caught for the same thing, Johnny’s punishment always seems to be worse than Paul’s. It’s a fact that resonates with Paul, even if the concept of racism hasn’t fully formed within his head. But his parents don’t see the innocence in the situation and move him to an elite private school across town. It’s not hard to imagine Gray writing this story during the Trump presidency, especially since Donald’s father and sister, Fred, and Maryanne, play small roles in shaping Paul’s increasingly pessimistic worldview during his time at the seemingly all-white prep school. Gray’s bluntness is apparent as he traces how the casually elitist and racist children of the Reagan era grew up to embrace the 45th president, and how their children will likely do the same in a few decades. It sometimes comes as lecturing, but there’s a sweetly honest feel to it that makes it go down smoothly. Also lending to the emotional pull of the film is the grown-up trio of Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins. Hathaway is given the shorter end of the stick as Paul’s affectionate mother, but the actress makes up for her limited time with some moments of pathos. Strong, playing the more emotionally distant father that doesn’t hesitate to teach with his belt, also makes a strong impression, even if it sometimes feels as if he’s trying to do his best Ray Romano impression. It’s Hopkins who steals the show as the grandfather who fled Europe to escape Jewish persecution and find a better life in America. He’s always got a nugget of wisdom to spare, and a heart warm enough to start a fire in winter. The scenes between grandpa and grandson are a clear standout, especially one set in the park where the elder shares a touching monologue, which will surely be used as Hopkins’ Oscar clip come next year’s ceremony. You won’t walk away from Armageddon Time feeling as if you’ve been enlightened or seen something out of the ordinary, but you may find yourself moved at times and closely connected to your familial past. And at the end of the day, we could all use a little more of that. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release Armageddon Time in select theaters on October 28th, followed by a nationwide expansion on November 4th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Zone of Interest June 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen “The banality of evil” is a term that has been (over)used to describe the lens that Jonathan Glazer uses to dissect the Holocaust in The Zone of Interest . The term was coined nearly fifty years ago by the German-born writer/philosopher Hannah Arendt during the post-war trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the highest-ranking Nazi figures behind the Holocaust. Eichmann showed no remorse for his inhumane actions, nor did he have hatred toward the people that he had been ordered to eradicate. He pleaded not guilty to his crimes, as he was just doing his job as part of the Nazi machine. Arendt viewed Eichmann as an ordinary cog who refused to think for himself. He was simply motivated by career advancement and didn’t want to disrupt the order of things. That banality would become one of the most dangerous things within the new Nazi regime, as indescribably heinous acts were committed with the same complacency as an everyday person doing their chores. Glazer zeroes in on that concept with his radically departing adaptation of Martin Amis’ (who tragically died just one day after the Cannes premiere) 2014 novel of the same name. There is no vilification of the main characters within Glazer’s story, which are the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller). They have five young children and are trying to create the perfect home to raise a family. When not working, the family spends their time swimming in the nearby lake, tending to their garden, or playing games in the house. They seem like a perfect unit, with the only reminder of their underlying beliefs being the concrete wall that separates their yard from the inner workings of Auschwitz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vfg3KkV54 There isn’t a single moment that takes place within the infamous camp, but its presence is always felt. The family will be sunbathing in the garden when a faint gunshot goes off on the other side of the wall. Both you and the characters know what that sound means, but only you care about the implications of it. For the family, those gunshots are just as much a part of everyday life as the birds chirping in the trees above. They go about their daily lives without a hitch, leaving you stranded in the fear of your imagination. This provocation through absence is in such stark contrast to other works within the Holocaust subgenre that it sometimes makes you question the approach other filmmakers took. Did Steven Spielberg’s stylizations within Schindler’s List lessen the impact of the horrors, or did they make it palatable enough so that it could be used as a teaching point for a mass audience? A more extreme version of that argument would be Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful and the lesser-known Robin Williams-starring Jakob the Liar . Glazer is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Spielberg. His absolute refusal of stylization towards the pivotal acts is based on your preconceived knowledge of Auschwitz. You’ve seen the photos, learned the class lessons, and most likely seen Schindler’s List . Seeing what’s going on lessens its impact, as the horrors you infer in your mind are much scarier than anything within the frame. You want to look away, except there was nothing you were looking at to begin with. Grand stylizations do emerge from time to time, most notably a pitch-black prelude overture of Mica Levi’s incredible score, and a black-and-white negative vision that follows a young girl on a secret mission. Paweł Pawlikowski’s regular cinematographer Łukasz Żal captures the action in staged wide shots, with much of it taking place within the house. Glazer and Żal positioned ten fixed cameras within the various nooks and crannies, operating by remote control, similar to surveillance cameras within a mall. They give off a feeling of detachment and unimportance, with Glazer refusing to view the characters going about their daily lives in anything but a neutral light. Friedel made a name for himself as a burgeoning Nazi in Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon back in 2009. While his commandant position would imply that he’s a radical supporter of the ideology, he is the film’s Eichmann, devoted to his role as a means to support his family and get ahead in life. The same can be said for Hedwig, with Hüller - having a wonderful Cannes with both this and Anatomy of a Fall - only breaking from her sternness when she finds out the family may need to move away from the camp. Sickening in the most calculated way possible, The Zone of Interest is Jonathan Glazer's ode to Stanley Kubrick. He answers the question of how evil can exist unchecked, holding all of your senses in a sterilized vice. Be sure to soak it all in during your first watch, because I doubt you'll ever want to view the world this way again. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release The Zone of Interest in select theaters on December 15th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Films of 2021 January 24, 2022 By: Hunter Friesen In the movie world, 2021 was a year to be thankful for what we have because sometimes you never know how much you appreciate something until you’ve lost it. This year brought back a slight return to normalcy, with theaters reopening and new films of all shapes and sizes demanding your attention. And while not everything that came out this year was a slam dunk, there are some truly incredible films that deserve some special praise. So, after seeing nearly one-hundred new films in 2021, here are the ten best in my eyes. Some of these films I expected to be on this list, while others came out of left field. It goes to show that you can experience something truly incredible if you dig a little deeper. Honorable Mentions The Dig Licorice Pizza A Hero Belfast The Tragedy of Macbeth 10. Pig I’m as surprised as you are that a Nicolas Cage film appears on this list. But Pig is something special, a film that truly subverted my expectations. Along with Cage’s outstanding performance, equal credit should go to first-time feature writer/director Michael Sarnoski for taking the film down a different path. It only makes sense that in the year 2021, the best film about regret and grief would also be about the search for a lost truffle pig. 9. The Worst Person in the World Norway’s The Worst Person in the World packs a richly emotional story fitting to its title. With a killer soundtrack and an amazing performance from Renate Reinsve, writer/director Joachim Trier is able to balance tone and time to deliver something equal to more than the sum of its parts. A perfect piece for anyone dealing with the crisis of not knowing where they are in life. 8. The Power of the Dog Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is one of the most violent films of the year – and of the Western genre – all without featuring a gun, knife, or fistfight. Instead, the violence that the film harbors is purely emotional and under the surface, carrying far more damaging effects than any external wound. And with a career-best Benedict Cumberbatch and a surprise turn by Kodi Smit-McPhee, it makes this film the equivalent of fine wine, as it’s near-perfect at the moment, and will only get better with age. Full Review 7. Swan Song Can a clone – even the most perfect one imaginable – seamlessly take the place of a human? And is it better to lie to your loved ones to protect them from grief than to leave them with the ugly truth? These are the weighty questions at hand in Benjamin Cleary’s film, which features Mahershala Ali in dual roles. It’s a slow burn with a lot going on behind the scenes. It buries itself in your head while watching as you wrestle with it in the moment and continue to interact with it long after it’s over. Full Review 6. The Father Like Schindler’s List and Requiem for a Dream , The Father is a superb film that you will only want to watch once. Its subject matter may hit too close to home for some viewers, or be an introduction for others. No matter your familiarity, the film’s take on dementia and the toll it places on everyone involved is so incredibly well done that it demands to be seen. Full Review 5. Judas and the Black Messiah Debuting all the way back in January, this is an all-powerful work from director Shaka King and the two leads of Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield (both Oscar-nominated, with the former winning). It’s both historical and timely, with the tragically short life story of Fred Hampton delivered with spine-chilling moments that educate and entertain. Full Review 4. The Last Duel Bolstered by spectacle and substance, Ridley Scott’s (who also had House of Gucci this year) medieval tale of betrayal is one of his finest films. It was one of the few films to exceed my already lofty expectations, and one of the few blockbusters of the modern age to be propelled by collaborative artistry, rather than preconceived properties and overblown budgets. Full Review 3. Annette From the visionary minds of The Sparks Brothers and director Leos Carax comes a rock musical of pure boldness. Stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard grab onto that boldness and run with it, creating several musical numbers that need to be seen to be believed. With Carax’s output being irregular, each of his features is something to treasure, especially when they’re this good. 2. West Side Story With The Great Musical War of 2021 coming to a close, Steven Spielberg has emerged as the predictable winner. Perfectly melding the work of Bernstein and Sondheim with the newfound talents of Ariana DeBose, Mike Faist, and Rachel Zegler, this new West Side Story makes the case for why some remakes should be allowed to happen. Because sometimes, they can meet (or surpass) the original, such as how this one does by bringing classic cinema into the modern world. Full Review 1. The French Dispatch A visual masterpiece bursting at the seams with talent both on and off the screen, The French Dispatch is a film by a filmmaker working at the absolute height of their powers. And while I’m not a proponent of rewatching films, I’ve seen this specific one three times in as many months, and will surely be watching it on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. I worry about how Wes Anderson will be able to top this with his next film (which is due this year). But until then, I’ll stay in the present and be thankful that something this magical is allowed to exist in a world that only seems to get bleaker. Full Review More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

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 as 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 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjMt1MIk2EA 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 torturous 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 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, as long as he doesn’t think deeply about the repercussions of his actions. Chalamet’s performance is the serious version of his role 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. Amazon MGM Studios will release Bones and All in select theaters on November 18th, followed by a nationwide expansion on November 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver April 19, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s ironic, but not unexpected, that the conclusion of Zack Snyder’s mega-budget blockbuster duology, the project that was supposed to bring every other studio’s franchises to its knees, has been treated by Netflix the same way it would churn out any piece of cinematic slop to its subscribers. The big game commercial spots have been replaced with tacky social media ads, the lavish red carpet premieres with unpublished fan screenings, the boastful (a better word would be “delusional”) interviews with boilerplate salesmanship, and the touting about the future of movie distribution being changed forever have altogether ceased. What was once planned to be an event film has been reduced to a footnote in the endless scroll, along with nearly everything else the streamer gets its greedy hands on. That ho-hum attitude toward the release couldn’t be more opposite from the film itself, which is able to find its feet and deliver the grandiose chaos that fans have been longing for after Part 1: A Child of Fire sacrificed itself to (poorly) lay the foundation of this universe. But Snyder and his two co-writers, Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad, can’t trust their audiences to remember anything from what they watched just four months ago, so we’re forced to listen to Anthony Hopkins give a “previously on…” recap as the opening shot descends on the dreadnaught mothership of the Imperium. On that ship is Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), who’s more-or-less been Frankensteined back to life after meeting his demise at the hands of Kora (Sofia Boutella) in the last movie. I know what you’re thinking. Did they at least use his resurrection as an opportunity to fix his haircut? I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s still as terrible as ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf16jEmvJUY The seven samurai of the outer worlds have been assembled, and now it’s time to prepare to defend the village against everything the Imperium will throw at them. Despite being ten minutes shorter than its predecessor, The Scargiver gets much more time to breathe thanks to the incessant hopping to nondescript worlds no longer being needed. Everything takes place in the village, save for the ungodly long dinner table scene where each character goes around giving a redundantly extended flashback to their origin. I know my curiosity will get the better of me and I’ll indulge in the future Snyder Cuts of these two features, but the thought of that scene being stretched even more does send a shiver down my spine. After that and an extended trip to FarmVille, the carnage can ensue. It might be a sacrilegious act to even compare the two, but there’s no escaping the feeling that the final hour and change of this film is Snyder’s attempt at his own Battle of Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers . Waves of faceless soldiers descend upon the village, ready to be mowed down by the plucky farmers. Snyder’s usual slow motion is on full display here, with some epic moments bound to line the racks of every screensaver website, while others flounder under the weight of the pretentiousness. And it’s still worth pointing out that Snyder once again serves as his own cinematographer, employing that ultra-shallow focus that we’ve all come to hate. Even with all those (very valid) complaints, none of this is as exhaustively mediocre as it was in A Child of Fire . Maybe it’s because of my reduced expectations or inability to fully care about what Snyder is dishing out, but there’s a lot of mindless enjoyment to be had. The explosions are forceful, the action is more competently filmed, and the objectives are clear. I dare say that I would have semi-welcomed experiencing this in the theater. The loudspeakers would have greatly helped in appreciating Junkie XL’s bombastic score, borrowing liberally from his work on Zack Snyder’s Justice League (not that I’m complaining). It’s easier to have fun with The Scargiver now that you’re not being bombarded with the tenacity of a used car salesman. I’m sure that’s not exactly the approach Netflix and Snyder had when they poured hundreds of millions of dollars into this wannabe franchise, which has four more entries planned. But that’s the reality of the situation, so it’s best we keep Snyder out of the headlines and just let the movie do the talking (or yelling, for that matter). Netflix will release Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver in select theaters on April 12th, followed by its streaming premiere on April 19th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Velvet Buzzsaw February 7, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen The art world can be a cutthroat business, or in the case of the film Velvet Buzzsaw , the art world is a business that can literally cut your throat. After a reclusive old man suddenly dies in her apartment building, art assistant Josephina unethically stumbles onto the man’s life's work: hundreds of eerie paintings depicting acts of unsettling violence. Seeing this as a golden opportunity to rise up the social ladder, Josephina strikes a deal with her boss, Rhodora, to sell the paintings for vast sums of money. Unbeknownst to the buyers and sellers, the old man intended for all his paintings to be destroyed upon his death. With his final wish going unfulfilled, the cursed paintings take on a shape of their own and begin to exact revenge on those who wrongfully profit from them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdAR-lK43YU Directed by Dan Gilroy, Velvet Buzzsaw works across multiple genres as it pokes fun at the art world through a mix of satirical comedy and grotesque horror. Even though this has been done before in many other films, Gilroy does it differently as he entertainingly contradicts the expectations that come with each genre. Instead of being laughed out loud, the observational comedy amusingly bewilders, and the scares are delivered through a bright color palette as opposed to the conventional dark low lighting. Blending genres does make for some great fun throughout, but from time to time, the film suffers from it. Gilroy overplays his hand at a few points, leading to some head-scratching moments where the film can’t decide if a scene is supposed to be funny or scary. Shot by veteran cinematographer Robert Elswit, the film also employs some neat camera tricks that keep the story on its toes. Information is steadily given frame by frame as it builds up to a big reveal that flips everything on its head. Both equally ambitious and narrow-minded, Gilroy’s script is quite lackluster when compared to his competent directing. Through an ensemble cavalcade of caricatures, the script satirizes the art industry and tries to prove that money and art don’t actually go hand in hand. This vision is respectable, but the clunkiness of the story and Gilroy’s inability to go outside the box hold it down. The clichéd anthem of “art is for everyone and greed is holding it back” quickly becomes an overused gimmick by the time the characters start to get their comeuppance. The sheer size of the cast also spreads the message too thin across the main narrative and several subplots, many of which are needless fillers. While this is a sin on a storytelling level, it is admittedly quite satisfying to watch each character receive a Final Destination -like death. The greatest asset the film boasts is its actors, who give life to the crazy characters they inhabit. Re-teaming with Gilroy after their fruitful work in Nightcrawler , Jake Gyllenhaal goes all in and is at his campy best as Morf Vandewalt, a renowned critic whose reviews can instantly make or break a career. Also in Nightcrawler , Rene Russo does a great job as Rhodora. She controls each character and scene with an iron fist and isn’t afraid to get dirty to make a living. Toni Collette and Zawe Ashton are pretty good as Gretchen and Josephina, respectively. They each give credible performances to their extravagantly unlikable characters. Even though they really don’t serve a purpose to the story, both John Malkovich and Daveed Diggs do good work as two contradicting artists who get caught up in the bloody mess. It probably wasn’t his intention, but Dan Gilroy has made a semi-unoriginal film that tries to make fun of the unoriginal world of high art. However, the unoriginality of the story doesn’t diminish from the amusement that it produces. Now available to stream on Netflix, this comedic slasher could be a good way to kill a couple of hours, especially at no cost. Netflix will release Velvet Buzzsaw on its streaming service on February 01st. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Irishman December 9, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen Spanning fifty years and dozens of features, director Martin Scorsese has crafted one of the finest filmographies in cinematic history. Over the decades, there appear to be two sides to the revered auteur’s style of filmmaking. One side is filled with fast-paced and violent storytelling in films such as Goodfellas, Casino , and The Wolf of Wall Street . On the other side is a slower and quieter study of the human condition that can be found in The Last Temptation of Christ , Kundun , and Silence . Now, after years of being disjointed, these distinct styles have finally melded together in the director’s newest Netflix film, The Irishman . Telling the true-ish story (it’s still hotly debated whether any of it is true) of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, the film places its main character at the forefront of American history in the mid-twentieth century. Over the years, Sheeran became increasingly attached to mob life, eventually leading him to the infamous teamster Jimmy Hoffa, whose fate is still unknown to this day. But as Frank rises the ranks within the mob, we watch as he slowly descends into a life of violence where the riches are short-lived and the damaging effects are everlasting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHXxVmeGQUc The first thing you’ll probably notice when looking up the film is its massive 209-minute runtime, which makes it the longest mainstream movie released in over a quarter-century. That amount of length may be daunting on paper, but Scorsese makes every minute of it glide by with ease. His usual style of kinetic editing and pacing is masterfully employed and keep the film entirely thrilling throughout. By the time the film has finished, you feel as though you have lived a life with these characters rather than just watched it. Another production facet that the film carries is a revolutionary new technology that digitally de-ages its main cast so they’re able to play their characters over multiple decades. Admittedly, the gimmick doesn’t work perfectly as the 76-year-old Robert De Niro never convincingly looks like his thirty-year-old self. But even with its missteps, the technology is never a bother and seamlessly works its magic in the scenes where the characters are closer to the actor's age. Adapted by Steven Zaillian from the book “I Heard You Paint Houses”, The Irishman is a dense (maybe too dense) and depressing crime epic. Scorsese’s trademarked main character narration is here in its entirety as Sheeran tells his life story while in a nursing home near the end of his life. Even though Scorsese implements his usual gangster style within the script, its use here is for an altogether different purpose than in previous films. Instead of showing the often joyous life of criminals with smugness, the script fully exposes us to the doom and gloom that a life of crime brings to someone. Frank is the main character in our story, but within his story, he’s always off to the side as he gets caught up in the everlasting destruction around him. By the time the third act reaches, and the characters are reflecting on their past, their sad nature is fully exposed. All the acts these characters committed were paid for in death and despair, with the reward being even more of the same. Teaming up with Scorsese for their ninth collaboration, Robert De Niro does his best work in decades in the titular role. His performance as Frank is closed off and internal, further highlighting that Sheeran had little control over his life. The further the story progresses, the more haunting De Niro becomes as he can more clearly see where the road will take him. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Al Pacino plays the infamous union boss Jimmy Hoffa. We’ve always known that Pacino has fervor in his acting repertoire. His only problem over the years was how to effectively channel it to the right performance. Fortunately, there seems to be a method to Pacino’s madness here as his boisterous fire perfectly counters De Niro’s coldness. Playing against type is another frequent Scorsese collaborator in Joe Pesci as mob boss Russell Bufalino. Even if it may be his quietest role to date, Pesci instills fear through his menacing delivery and stares. Rounding the ensemble cast are Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, and Anna Paquin, all of whom do great work in their supporting roles. Proving that the two sides of Martin Scorsese work better together than separately, The Irishman is a crime classic on par with the greats before it. Its extensive tale of remorse and sorrow is worth every minute you put into it. If you only see a handful of movies a year, make sure this Netflix epic is one of them. Netflix will release The Irishman in select theaters on November 01st, followed by its streaming premiere on November 27th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Book of Clarence January 8, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Writer/director Jeymes Samuel is more interested in making The Book of Clarence into a good time than a good film, which makes it just good enough to be a good use of your time and money (this sentence was brought to you by the word “good”). The British multi-hyphenate’s sophomore feature contains much of the same DNA as his Netflix-backed debut, The Harder They Fall , featuring an all-black cast in a genre that has largely ignored that demographic. This time, the setting has shifted from the American West to Jerusalem circa AD33. Things open with a drag race on sandy streets, a chariot race to be exact. The titular character (LaKeith Stanfield) and his friend Elijah (RJ Cyler) have wagered a lot of money and horses against Mary Magdalene (Teyana Taylor). We’re only two minutes in, and Samuel has made two references to Ben-Hur , the first being the Roman font title credits and sweeping music. But these references aren’t just plucked for their 1:1 value; they’re used to produce a remix of a classic tale that has repeatedly been told similarly for nearly a century. The camera whips and zooms around during the race, sometimes opting for POV shots as the local Gypsies sabotage the event by throwing rocks and spears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntNS-ANoMyM The race is lost, which puts Clarence and Elijah in a pay-up-or-be-crucified situation with Jedidiah (Eric Kofi-Abrefa), who lent them the funds to wager. Clarence is a lot like Howard Ratner from Uncut Gems : someone who thinks of himself as smarter than those chasing him, yet he always seems destined to be caught. It doesn’t help that he has a more upstanding twin brother named Thomas (also Stanfield), who has recently become one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. To Clarence, the allure of religion isn’t the purity of faith or promise of something larger than yourself; it’s the status it grants you. People flock to Jesus and his apostles like their movie stars, requesting miracles and attention. To pay off his debt, Clarence decides to recreate Jesus’ “tricks,” such as healing the blind, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel. He becomes the first “religion for profit” pastor, beating Kenneth Copeland at his own game two thousand years earlier. While taking shots at uber-wealthy people of faith, Samuel also instills a dash of rogue politicians, with Clarence making “Knowledge is stronger than belief!” his campaign slogan. But it’s not just Clarence that deserves scorn; it’s the people who eat up his words and acts despite them being obviously hollow. A little more time spent on this aspect would have been appreciated, as well as the mixture of comedy and drama. This is a case of style over substance, and the MCU disease, where every dramatic situation needs to be undercut by a wacky joke. In the case of Samuel, the style is just as much the substance as the actual substance. He pulls out every trick in his directorial arsenal to make this the “wickedly dope time” he wants you to have. Split screens, a bevy of iris shots, augmented colors, and a Jay-Z soundtrack keep things flowing at a decent pace throughout the nearly 140-minute runtime. There’s also the enormously entertaining cast featuring so many people who would have never been given a chance to star in a film like this, despite the cultural makeup of that time and place. Cyler, David Oyelowo, and Omar Sy supply the laughs, with cameos by Alfre Woodard and Benedict Cumberbatch being the film’s most laugh-out-loud moments. With January primarily being a time when studios dump their slop and serious awards titles slowly expand in hopes of Oscar gold, it’s nice to see a film like The Book of Clarence offer a decent alternative. Its messiness is more of a feature than a bug, and there’s more than enough on its mind and on the screen to keep it from falling victim to the cinematic hell that is this month. Sony Pictures Releasing will release The Book of Clarence in theaters nationwide on January 12th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen