Heretic September 11, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9i2vmFhSSY I wouldn’t want to meet their God if Mr. Reed were always part of his plan. Things start with simple pleasantries, with the girls making their rehearsed points and Reed intermittently countering with humorous 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 upon 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 are what take 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. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release Heretic in theaters nationwide on November 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

Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Gary Cooper: Jay Kelly. Cary Grant: Jay Kelly. Clark Gable: Jay Kelly. George Clooney: Jay Kelly. Not since The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has a movie been about the actor playing the character as much as it is about the character themselves. Unlike Massive Talent , which mostly just used the meme-ified persona of Nicolas Cage for surface-level metahumor, writer/director Noah Baumbach plays it pretty straight, investigating the walls that have been built over decades to separate George Clooney the person from George Clooney the movie star. For instance, Jay Kelly and George Clooney have reached the point of fame where they pay the price of no longer being able to be a normal part of society. Merely walking down the street will initiate a mob of fans and paparazzi, and any form of contact is kept secret for security purposes. Everyone is either trying to get or give something, and the trajectory of his career and personal life is a perennial headline. It’s a lonely life, one that requires a great deal of sheltering and personal sacrifice to achieve and maintain. Sure, the rewards come in the form of millions of dollars and being worshipped as a god. But money can’t buy happiness, and it isn’t much fun to be a god to those you’ll never know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8GbcVkqZwQ Baumbach communicates all of this in the opening set piece, a long take that swirls up and around the set of Jay’s newest film. There’s a person assigned to always be fixing Jay’s costume and makeup, a person to get him coffee, and a person to train the canine co-star. All those hours of work are to support the few seconds of artistic genius that are printed onto celluloid. Ron (Adam Sandler) and Liz (Laura Dern) manage Jay’s persona with the outside world. Does he want to do a movie with a pair of up-and-coming directors? Does he want to accept a career tribute award in Tuscany? Jay is on top of the world, which means the only direction for him to go is down. Jay is now becoming an empty nester after his youngest daughter is going on a European summer vacation before her fall semester at college. He’s estranged from his eldest daughter, the cost of his career blooming simultaneously as she was growing up. Jay’s longtime mentor, director Peter Schneider (played by Jim Broadbent), has also just passed away. He and Jay shared many good years in the past, making movies at the height of their powers. At the funeral, Peter’s son spins a different tale of his dad never being around, and how the movies both personally and financially ruined him near the end of his life. Jay fears that he may be heading down that path, so he decides to abandon his current plans and chase his daughter around Europe. Baumbach and co-writer Emily Mortimer (who also acts in the film as Jay’s personal hairdresser) never deny that the crux of this narrative was spurred by the fact that a rich, privileged actor is having a midlife crisis (or a three-quarters life crisis, since he is on the other side of sixty years old). His daughter is going on this trip because he’s paying for it, and he can follow her by immediately booking a private jet and having his entourage accompany him. With political and social upheaval, natural disasters, and the overall feeling of optimism fading away, why should I care about Jay Kelly? Frankly, there isn’t much of a reason to care about the plight of Jay Kelly beyond the fact that he’s so darn charming and likable. Clooney turns in one of his best performances, with the movie star wattage turned all the way up. But he’s also self-reflective and regretful, always asking if he can have one more take, a luxury that can only be afforded on a movie set. Ron’s biggest fault is that he can’t say no to Jay, always stuck between his roles as a manager and a lifelong friend. He gives and gives and gives, with the only source of gratitude being the 15% he claims from Jay’s paychecks. Sandler matches the excellence he previously delivered for Baumbach in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) . The tide of public sentiment has turned in his favor over the years, and an Oscar nomination would be a deserved apex. Nicholas Britell’s score includes tender strings, and Linus Sandgren’s cinematography is richly textured. Right after Jay lands in Paris, there’s a shot of the string of cars circling a roundabout. The sun hasn’t yet risen, with the blue hour bathing the streets and faraway Eiffel Tower in a pool of coolness. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful shot, and it was the moment I realized that this was some of the most fun I’ve had with a movie all year. Netflix will release Jay Kelly in select theaters on November 14th, followed by its streaming premiere on December 05th. 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

MSPIFF43 - Dispatch #1 April 22, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The 43rd Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) is currently going on from April 11-25, with over 200 films screened. Here are some quick-bite reviews of a few of the films I have watched, with more to come soon. Green Border Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border is nothing short of ambitious, as it sees the revered Polish writer/director putting her native government through the wringer in the hopes of shining a light on the atrocities taking place on its eastern border. Split into several chapters, the majority of the film’s focus is on a Syrian migrant family as they start their journey to Sweden to start a new life with one of their distant relatives. Like thousands of other families, they are lured into Belarus under the government’s false advertisement of safe travel into the European Union. They are then harassed and extorted by border guards until being forcibly flung into Poland as part of a geopolitical war to destabilize the EU. Any hope of sympathy from the Polish forces quickly vanishes; replaced with more xenophobia, abuse, and forcible deportation back to Belarus. Holland captures the brutality of this inhumane game of tug-and-war in stark black-and-white, the endless forest along the border being perpetually shrouded in darkness. There’s always a “one step forward, two steps back” attitude towards the plight of the family, with Holland never crossing over the line of torturing her characters for the sake of a message. The themes of inhumanity extend further into the other chapters, which eventually becomes a bit of a Pulp Fiction -esque story of intersecting storylines. One of those storylines features a young group of Polish activists who circumvent the law to aid the battered migrants, although their work never seems to be more than putting a metaphorical band-aid on a gunshot wound. Although the feeling of hope rarely shines through in Holland’s material, a bit of it can be felt based on the anger it incites. It’s no surprise that for all the prizes (including the Special Jury Prize in Venice) and acclaim the film has received from Western audiences, it was heavily condemned and censored by the Polish government. Even if the film has been prevented from having its full impact at home, it at least still carries quite the universal punch abroad. (3.5/5) Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell You need to have serious guts (and a really trustworthy producer) to have your debut feature film run over three hours and feature little to none of the usual trappings audiences expect to keep them occupied in their seats. Vietnamese writer/director Phan Thien An has created a film of extraordinary uniqueness, aligning closely with the extreme slow cinema works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Béla Tarr. The plot is simple: A man’s sister-in-law dies in a motorcycle accident and he must escort his young nephew across the country to his estranged father. But the literal plot is something that An is least concerned with, instead focusing much of his attention on the spiritual ambiguity underlining every moment of our lives. Every scene is comprised of a single take, all of them extraordinary feats of production on account of their length and complexity. Time is often at a standstill, with no one ever seeming to be in a rush or wanting to have a direct conversation. Your attitude towards this style will be determined quickly, most likely in your ability to stay awake. But even those who drift off from time to time will have their dreams permeated by images from the film. It’s part of the experience, a little piece of the film that sticks with you, something the large majority of other works fail to do. Pham received the Camera d’Or prize for best first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where he premiered as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section. I have no doubt that it will be the first of many prizes he will receive at that festival, as their relationship seems to be a match made in heaven. (4/5) Shoshana Michael Winterbottom’s story of British Mandatory Palestine (specifically Tel Aviv) circa the 1930/1940s never knows exactly what side it wants to be on. It’s a film that wants to examine the British/Arab/Jewish conflict from all angles but always feels too scared to probe a little deeper for fear of angering viewers, which becomes most noticeable when the postscript reveals sentiments that the events of the film hardly supported. Winterbottom has usually been a filmmaker who plays fast and loose (see 24 Hour Party People and Wonderland ). Here he trades that all away for a polished procedural style, complete with bland archival footage and a tacky score by the usually reliable David Holmes. At the heart of this conflict are the star-crossed lovers of British police officer Tom Wilkin (Douglas Booth) and Zionist Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum). They try to stay neutral with their feelings, but the increasing violence and tension ultimately force them to choose a side. Both of the leads are quite capable in their roles, it’s just that they end up being swallowed by the uninteresting forces around them. (2.5/5) Janet Planet Playwright Annie Baker’s feature directorial debut is a work of quiet observation, both literally and metaphorically. The nature of rural Massachusetts is the film’s soundtrack: crickets, swaying trees, and the distant verve of a car passing by on the dirt road. Inside one of the secluded houses live Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and her 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler). Throughout the summer of 1991, three people enter their lives: the reserved Wayne, former friend Regina, and pseudo-intellectual Avi. Baker captures the textures of an endless summer with ease, using a certain kind of slow cinema that’s mostly been found in cinema outside the Western hemisphere. While the argument behind the need for the theatrical experience has mostly been reserved for huge tentpoles filled with bombastic sound and visuals, Janet Planet makes just as much of a case to be seen in a dark room while barely registering over a whisper. The quiet rhythms and cinematography will surely not play as well at home, or in any multiplex with sound bleed. It’s one of those films I wished I could see alone in a screening room, just letting the vibes wash over me. Zeigler is tremendous in her first-ever performance. She and Nicholson share great chemistry, always at the heart of the film even as sometimes spins its wheels. Baker’s film could be the little indie sensation of the summer if A24 gives it the proper push it deserves. (3.5/5) 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

Hamnet September 10, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Not that the one-letter difference was totally throwing everyone for a loop, but the opening script to Hamnet , director Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell’s book of the same name, states that the names “Hamnet” and “Hamlet” were essentially the same in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were interchangeable, with both versions being equally represented across documents. By that logic, it doesn’t take a licensed psychiatrist to diagnose what kind of headspace William Shakespeare was in when he wrote “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” only a few years after the death of his child, Hamnet. Despite being a master of words, young Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) was not as eloquent with his tongue. He is poor, tutoring the local children in Latin to help pay off his unloving father’s debts. It’s obvious he’s destined for something more than just being a glovemaker or farmer, but the opportunity to be anything more than that is simply not possible in the rural fields of Stratford. Anne Hathaway, or “Agnes” (Jessie Buckley), is also conflicted with the cards she’s been dealt, rebelling against her strict family by venturing deep into the forest with her falcon. One sight of her bright red dress contrasting against the lush green trees pushes Will to fall for her immediately. They’re perfect for each other, two souls seemingly lost in time. Before being sucked into the increasingly creaky Marvel machine with Eternals , Zhao delivered two of the most interesting American independent films of the last decade in The Rider and Nomadland . The latter became a sensation during the COVID-19-stricken 2020 awards season, winning Oscars for Best Lead Actress, Best Director, and Best Motion Picture. Zhao has an uncanny ability to view the natural world with a lyrical quality, simultaneously conveying stark realism and a dreamlike gentleness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYcgQMxQwmk The rustling of the forest trees is just as important as any line of dialogue. The camera captures its sweeping serenity with compassion, inviting Agnes to live in a world of her own. That world is eventually populated with her three children: the oldest, Susannah, and twins Hamnet and Judith. The family is a tight unit, with their interactions providing hints for William’s inspirations for his work. His first kiss with Agnes is followed by a burst of inspiration for a romance about a pair of star-crossed lovers, and the children perform as three witches for their mother. Young Hamnet dreams of being a player on the stage for his father, practicing his sword fighting daily. As explained by William’s stern mother, Mary (Emily Watson), God can just as quickly take away what he has granted. The death of young Hamnet from disease, coupled with the physical separation between Agnes and Will as he works in London, sends Agnes into a downward spiral of grief. The pair goes through the stages in different cadences, losing sight of each other and inviting agony. This story may be a tear-jerker (this is the most I’ve cried during a movie in years), but there isn’t a single moment where it's cloying at those ducts. Zhao depicts an honest collision course of pain, featuring two of the best actors working today. Buckley is nothing short of transcendent, practically engraving her Oscar with every moment of laughter and cries. She is not a tragic figure to be tossed aside in favor of her husband’s greatness. She encapsulates the entire human experience, what it means to be your true self, and then produces an extension of that through children. Like Zhao, Mescal’s abilities are better suited for smaller stories, as evidenced by his relatively disappointing work in last year’s Gladiator II as opposed to his previous highlights of Aftersun and All of Us Strangers . But that’s not to say any of his performances are small, far from it. It’s heartbreakingly cathartic to witness him channeling his torment into his work, recontextualizing the most celebrated works of the English language for those who were previously uninitiated. A special mention must be given to the young actors who play the children: Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Olivia Lynes, and Jacobi Jupe. The latter is phenomenal as the titular boy, never once falling into the perennial trap of overplaying their hands. He is pushed just as hard as the adults, passing with flying colors at every moment. Outstanding music from the industry’s most underappreciated composer, Max Richter, aids in this journey. The apex is reached when he reintroduces his most famous piece of music, all but guaranteeing the need for tissues to be passed around for each person in the audience. By staging "Hamlet," Shakespeare preserved his child. His body may have only been a part of this physical world for a mere eleven years, but his spirit has lived on for over half a millennium, adapting to serve different cultures and contexts. Zhao’s film is a single drop in an ocean; the mightiest one that pushes the waves in a bold new direction. This review was originally published from the Canadian premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Focus Features will release Hamnet in select theaters on November 26th, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 5th. 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 Running Man November 11, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Does a joke get funnier the more times you say it? Does a piece of music get richer if you play it louder? Does food taste better if you chew it more? Does a painting become more beautiful if you paint harder? Lessons in moderation are all around, each protecting us from the consequences of having too much of a good or bad thing. Edgar Wright is an excessive filmmaker, always keeping his editing zippy, set pieces cued to a hip piece of music, and comedy at its most deadpan. His indulgences had been held in check by a creative partnership with stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, or at least harnessed towards their fullest potential in a worthwhile endeavor. Now, in The Running Man , they’ve been tangled into their most off-putting form, all in service of a story that’s been beaten to the punch many, many, many times before. Set in the dystopian world of 2025 (hey, they got that right!), America is a vast land of the haves and have-nots. Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is one of the have-nots, forced to work in radiation-laced factories for less than minimum wage. But he’s the kind of poor you only find in the movies, which means that despite a dire physical and financial situation, he still has chiseled abs, pearly white teeth, and an expensive haircut. Those qualities, plus his hair-trigger temper, make him the perfect candidate for The Running Man , a game show where a contestant wins one billion dollars if they survive for thirty days while being hunted down. No one has ever won the game before, which practically means it's suicide. That’s already the situation Ben is in (his neighborhood is called “slumicide”), and his toddler desperately needs medicine for a fever. If you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, you might as well get paid to suffer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD18ddeFuyM Granting credit where it's due, the story of The Running Man is based on the novel by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. A few years later, it was adapted for the screen as an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle. That predates all the other dystopian stories revolving around games like The Hunger Games , Ready Player One , and Battle Royale . But in modern movie form, it’s already been lapped by those properties, plus adjacent stories like Ready or Not , Self Reliance , and The Hunt . It’s bad to come late to the party; it’s worse to also not come with a gift in hand. If Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall aren’t going to be first, they’re going to make damn sure they’re the loudest. You’d need more than two hands to count the number of speeches made about the 1% pushing their thumbs down on the little guy, and how the game, and, by extension, life, is rigged against all of us. Everything is a pre-packaged, corporate-sponsored meal to keep us in line for the slaughter, and we’re all too weak to do anything but swallow it whole. Never mind the retreading of these very timely themes, Wright might have had the audience raising their fists in solidarity if everything else about the film wasn’t so… lame. Fitting to his name, Ben Richards is a generic protagonist whose only sin is that he cares too much. His anger is righteous, and every supporting character’s sole occupation is to tell him how much of a hero he is for the commoners. That means a supporting cast of William H. Macy, Michael Cera, Lee Pace, and Emilia Jones is wasted. At least Colman Domingo brings a robust amount of charm to his duties as the game’s emcee, the lone supply of humor in this shockingly unfunny script. It’s hard to judge if this is a success or a failure in the test of whether Glen Powell is a bona fide A-list leading man. On one hand, he’s saddled with a nothingburger character and a shallow story. On the other hand, he doesn’t do much to rise above those limitations, mostly meeting the project on its level. If you can’t decide if something is good or bad, then you’ve probably already answered the question. Unfortunately for me (and us), it didn’t take long to decide that The Running Man is an extreme disappointment. It’s a fitting film for the time: grotesque, unapologetically brash, and always looking to send a message. A famous man once said that “I know writers who use subtext, and they are all cowards.” You know what’s also cowardly? Selling a prime steak, and then serving reheated hamburger. Paramount Pictures will release The Running Man in theaters nationwide on November 14th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

La Grazia December 5, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Inside Italian auteur Paolo Sorrentino lie two wolves, each representing a near equal amount of his quarter-century spanning filmography. On one side lies a man fascinated by the complexities of love and beauty, often expressed through hedonistic behavior. His most acclaimed and awarded work, The Great Beauty , follows a man who fills the dark emptiness of his heart with the debauchery of the Roman nightlife. Excess is often the name of the game, with the visuals matching the grandiosity of the experience. On the other side is an examination of the church and state. Supreme powers are held by flawed men who lie within the halls of the Vatican and the Quirinal Palace. Loro and Il Divo center themselves on famous prime ministers, the former on Silvio Berlusconi, the latter on Giulio Andreotti. The closest these two sides came to merging was in the HBO miniseries The Young Pope , where a brash American cardinal played by Jude Law is unexpectedly elected as one of the youngest popes in Catholic history. He’s disruptive to the old ways, his actions spurred by the love he never received throughout his orphaned childhood. 2025 is also a year where everything comes together, although still in a mutually exclusive fashion. Released in February in the United States after playing internationally in 2024 was Parthenope , led by the most beautiful woman in the world, as she discovers desire and determination in Naples. Coming now in December, after stops at the Venice, Telluride, and New York Film Festival, is La Grazia , a sobering drama about a sunsetting Italian president dealing with a complex executive decision and the sadness he endures after his wife’s passing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQn44a_IHo The opening is cold and austere, listing out the contents of Article 87 of the Italian Constitution against a plain blue sky. Within the president lies the ultimate legal powers, instilled so that he may be a righteous symbol for the Italian people (something that America has lost sight of). After commendably serving as a lawyer and judge for many years, Mariano De Santis (Tony Servillo) has become the man for the job. He’s a stately person, self-described as boring and clinical. He’s not perfect, as he indulges in cigarettes as he stands atop the palace late at night, overlooking the millions of Romans that he has sworn to serve. Just as a leader needs a strong mind, he also needs a strong heart. Mariano’s has been crushed by the death of his wife ever since he took office. He leads out of a sense of duty, but can no longer find the gratification in the work. He falls asleep every time he prays, and is starting to have doubts about all things both spiritual and literal. This is the eighth occasion that Servillo has appeared in a Sorrentino film, a collaboration that has been wonderfully fruitful for the pair. Servillo displays a wealth of sadness with each look, his soul conflicted as he has lost purpose while occupying the most important job in the country. To sign or not to sign. That is the central question for Mariano, as his daughter and assistant, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti), presents him with a bill to legalize euthanasia and a trio of options for pardons. She is aggravated by his stubbornness, his nickname within the halls being “reinforced concrete.” As always, Sorrentino finds immense beauty in these proceedings. The frames are cool and calculated, like pristine marble. The soundtrack is elegant, with the prominent inclusion of “Le Bimbe Piangono” by Guè Pequeno included for an extra bit of spicy levity. “Who owns our days?” is a question that is brought up on numerous occasions throughout the film. Is it the best version of ourselves, or the version racked with doubt and guilt? The road to perfection is one marked by pain and heartache. Yet, it’s what makes us stronger, winning the battles in a never-ending war. La Grazia takes a roundabout way to illustrate that theme, mixing in Sorrentino’s in-the-moment, flashy style with a sneaky amount of depth. Mubi will release La Grazia in select theaters on December 05th. 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

It Ends with Us August 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Every once in a while, there comes a moment during a critic’s career where they have a bit of an existential crisis over whether their opinion matters. Those pangs of self-doubt and uselessness can come in all shapes and sizes, covering an entire body of work or just a single piece. While I’ve never endured the self-questioning of my work as a whole (yet), there was a distinct moment during It Ends with Us where I seriously doubted any sort of merit I could bring to the conversation surrounding the film and the book it is based on. That immediate moment of realization came within the theater, but before the projector had even been turned on. After walking down the theater hallway and entering the specific room, I turned the corner to see that the entire auditorium was filled with women, the majority of whom were members of a local book club. I’ll admit, this already sounds like it’s the start of a whiny tell-all where a man finally realizes the world isn’t catered to him. It’s not that serious, nor was this even close to the first time I learned that movies can have different target audiences. But it was a gentle reminder that there are certain movies I can’t expect myself to “get,” something that I appreciate since too many movies try to be for everyone, which inadvertently makes them appealing to no one. It Ends with Us easily slots into that “book club sensation” microgenre, with many of its members being sneaky box office sensations. Where the Crawdads Sing grossed over $150 million post-pandemic, and The Idea of You became Amazon MGM’s number-one romantic comedy ever on streaming earlier this year. Based on my audience’s reception as the screen cut to black and the credits rolled, It Ends with Us will follow a similar trajectory, along with a healthy CinemaScore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLET_u31M4M Director Justin Baldoni has already tapped this source twice before with Five Feet Apart and Disney+ Original Clouds , both cancer dramas. That subject never gets broached here, although things do start on an equally glib note with the funeral for Lily’s (Blake Lively) father, who was a domestic abuser throughout much of her childhood. Love and relationships have never been simple for Lily, which is why she’s stayed single in Boston all these years, her dreams of opening a flower shop being her driving force. Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni, casting himself as the irresistible neurosurgeon) is also in the same boat, although he’s intentionally put himself there after years of trading love for lust. Ryle shows all the signs a college orientation would give you to identify a sexual predator, including saying things like “I need a kiss to get you out of my head” and never taking no for an answer. Within the confines of the page, there could be the slightest bit of room for interpretation about the dynamic Lily and Ryle share. But once it’s projected on a giant screen right in front of you and literalized, it just comes off as creepy and pathetic. Sure, that is part of the point, but Baldoni’s attempts as both the director and actor to make Ryle into a romantically compelling character end up backfiring on every occasion. It also brings into question the “relatable” brush screenwriter Christy Hall (writer/director of Daddio earlier this year) tries to paint Lily with, as if any girl couldn’t be at fault for falling for this guy. Forming the final part of this love triangle is Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), Lily’s first love from high school and now the owner of the hottest restaurant in town (did I mention that he’s really hot as well?). Where Ryle is controlling and manipulative, Atlas is caring and sensitive. They all have tragic backstories, all of which conveniently explain their current problems and behaviors. Furnishing the mass marketization of domestic abuse and toxicity is the most popular art direction and costuming from the “cozy” section of Pinterest. Kevin McKidd feels like a prop as Lily’s father, his Grey’s Anatomy connection causing a flurry of excited whispers amongst the audience. There are not as many opportunities to appreciate the eye candy as I would have hoped, with Baldoni shooting most scenes through close-ups, often recreating the Focus Features logo background across the Boston skyline. Lively pops off the screen as much as her questionable fashion choices (I’m definitely no expert, but what she wears to her father’s funeral seemed like a bit too much), with one almost wishing that the entire movie would have ditched the two possible lovers and solely focused on her running her flower shop with Jenny Slate and Hasan Minhaj. The brief glimpses into Lily and Atlas’ past can stay, though, as newcomer Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter share some wonderful moments. Readers of the book will no doubt be satisfied with what Baldoni has crafted, while those making this their first experience with the story will be left wondering what all the commotion has been about on Goodreads for all these years. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, just got a pass these past few weeks for making Deadpool & Wolverine “for the fans,” so it's best to apply that same metric here. Sony Pictures Releasing will release It Ends with Us in theaters nationwide on August 9th. 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

Lee September 26, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are a lot of famous actors in Lee - Kate Winslet, Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, Noémie Merlant, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, and Josh O’Connor are just a few - but only one of them is playing a character. Everyone but Winslet, who also spearheaded the project and serves as producer, seems to be playing WWII dress-up. The same can also be said for screenwriters Liz Hannah, Marion Hume, and John Collee, and director Ellen Kuras, the latter being the most disappointing considering her impressive career as a cinematographer, aiding the creations from visionary auteurs such as Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme, and Michel Gondry. Things open in 1977 as a young journalist (Josh O’Connor) interviews Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller (Winslet in dodgy old age makeup, also a hindrance for Andrea Riseborough) about her life. Lee never fakes putting on a friendly persona, believing that all interviews are investigations and that no one can understand the whole truth. But she goes on, recounting her younger days. By 1940, she was at a crossroads in her life, too old to remain the pinup supermodel she was in her 20s, and not taken seriously as a photographer and journalist because she didn’t have a Y chromosome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmFYkiUAAA8 When World War II breaks out across Europe, Lee finds herself a job at Vogue , although she’s forced to stay and photograph the home front instead of being on the frontlines like she wants. But that opportunity comes soon enough, putting her down a charging path around wartorn cities and landscapes with LIFE photographer David Scherman (Andy Samberg). As the only woman in a sea of dead and dying men, Lee offers a different perspective on the carnage, taking pictures of the civilian women who are just as beaten and battered, as well as the normalities of past lives that have become extinct. Kuras mentioned during the TIFF introduction that Winslet started pushing for the project in 2015 during the afterparty for The Dressmaker (also premiering at TIFF). The eight years of grueling work to get to this moment are evident on the screen, with Winslet delivering a movie star performance full of glamor and depth. She carries the entire emotional weight of the film, doggedly wearing it as she trudges deeper into hell. The culmination comes as she and Scherman are some of the first Americans to witness the atrocities of Buchenwald and Dachau. Kuras treats these moments with sensitivity and poise, reigning in Alexandre Desplat’s score, allowing the silence to do the talking. But apart from that moment, much of Lee is as flat and uneventful as a North Dakota landscape (trust me, I’ve driven through my fair share of those). Kuras or the script offer Winslet any aid in giving an inside look at Miller, instead opting to follow the conventional Wikipedia model for a biopic. We get the who, what, when, and where of Miller’s life, but rarely do we get a satisfactory answer to why. Lee Miller lived a life worthy of a Kate Winslet performance, but she also deserved a movie that captured her story with the same level of interest. It’s neither good nor bad, just plain forgettable. And with a subject like this, that’s probably the biggest sin to commit. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Roadside Attractions will release Lee in select theaters on September 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 Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes November 16, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen A lot of hot air has been exhumed over the past year about the exponential increase in movie runtimes. Avatar: The Way of Water (192 minutes), Babylon (189 minutes), The Batman (177 minutes), Killers of the Flower Moon (206 minutes), Oppenheimer (180 minutes), and Beau Is Afraid (179 minutes) are just a few of the martyrs that had to take a few lashes from audiences (some more than others) for testing the endurance of butts. With a title that takes just as long to say as it does to watch the movie, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the one behemoth where I find myself siding with audiences. 157 minutes isn’t that long compared to the previous examples, but it’s too damn long here. It suffers from a much more severe case that found itself attached to Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King, where we reach the climax and expect a somewhat swift resolution, and yet the film just keeps going… and going… and going… and going. But that only becomes a problem once we reach the final act of this three-act plot, with the first two offering some of the best material this YA franchise has seen. Director Francis Lawrence is back at the helm after guiding the final three entries in the Jennifer Lawrence tetralogy. His presence maintains a sense of consistency with those earlier films. The tone is still grim, with this story being set 64 years in the past and centering on a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blythe) as he tries to pick up his family name immediately after the great District v Capital civil war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDE6Uz73A7g The annual Hunger Games are still in their infancy, and the citizens’ interest in them is starting to wane. Favor is as good a currency as actual money, two things Snow is in desperate need of. He can receive favor from his superiors, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) and Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), by providing ideas on how to improve the fledgling games. It’s an almost eerily similar situation to modern sports, with Snow being thought of as a genius when he comes up with the idea of making the contest more narrative-driven and allowing spectators to bet on the outcome (hopefully, The Capital is located in a state that allows that). Physical currency will come from being a good mentor to District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) as the winning tribute and mentor receives a substantial reward. Is money worth having if it’s been soaked in blood? Don’t forget, becoming the winning tribute most likely requires them to murder a few of their fellow competitors. Neither Lucy Gray nor Coriolanus was born a killer. Even less of a killer is Coriolanus’ classmate Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera), who sees the games as cruel and unusual punishment against children too young to be alive during the war. It’s an interesting bit of politics to follow these teenagers navigate a world of power-mad adults. Coriolanus and Lucy Gray have a compelling relationship, neither of them being fully ready to embrace the role of being a hero or villain (or anti-hero). They’ve been brought up to hate each other because of their class differences (describing someone as “district” is equivalent to calling them poor), except now they must work hand-in-hand to gain a competitive advantage. Of course, we do already know the outcome of this battle on account of this being a prequel, but Blythe does a great job masking that through his complex performance. It’s too bad writers Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt constantly make his job tougher as they haphazardly flip his characterization in the third act. Their treatment of Zegler is more consistent, with both of them leaning hard into the several opportunities to unleash her immaculate singing voice. Viola Davis is clearly having the most fun, literally introducing herself while maniacally cackling and often found fondling deadly snakes. Even with its inability to promptly say goodbye and bits of desperate fan service, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is still a cut above the rest of the YA genre. It’s actually a shame that it isn’t supposed to be the start of a whole series, as there’s more than enough here to sustain an even deeper dive into this enticing world. Lionsgate will release The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in theaters nationwide on November 17th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Joker: Folie à Deux October 1, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Imagine you’re Todd Phillips. At the beginning of the summer of 2019, Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time, putting the comic book genre at the peak of its power and cultural relevancy. You have your own comic book movie releasing later in the fall, one that will be a soft “fuck you” to all the genre contemporaries that built themselves upon a pile of special effects, and not the ideas and controversy that you’re bringing to the table. The premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival, one of the most prestigious in the world, is all set, and everyone is going to lose their minds at the edginess you’re about to unleash. Instead, your worst fears become realized: people love the movie. The jury at Venice gave it the top prize, the Golden Lion, a historic occasion for this type of film. Apart from more than a few naysayers, critics are hailing it as a revolutionary film for the time. More than a billion dollars flood in from the box office, and awards rain down from the sky. Everywhere you turn, people are clamoring for more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OKAwz2MsJs It’s all wrong. People shouldn’t be enjoying the movie, at least not like this. You had to deal with this in the Hangover franchise, and now it’s time to take the same steps here to correct the course. That’s right, Joker: Folie à Deux is the new The Hangover Part III , a movie filled with so much contempt for its fans that you wonder why it even bothered to please them in the first place. Of course, I could be talking out of my ass about this whole situation. But based on Phillips' desire to always be a subversive rebel and subconscious disdain for success, there’s no other way to explain how much this sequel tries to talk down to those who worshipped at the altar of its predecessor. Mathematically, that would mean that all the previous detractors would be won over. But the work within Folie à Deux simply isn’t good enough for them. Sure, it still looks pretty, with Lawrence Sher returning as the cinematographer to deliver some immaculately grimy shots. Instead, it’s just the same joke being told again. And no matter how much you try, it’ll never be as funny the second time around. To give Phillips some credit, this isn’t exactly the same old joke again. Yes, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is still a disillusioned and misunderstood figure within Gotham City, now locked up in Arkham Asylum for the past five years after he murdered all those people. The trial of the century is coming up, and his court-appointed lawyer is mounting the defense that Arthur and Joker are two totally different people. It’s also the defense that Phillips finds himself the most tied to, siding against the people who worshipped Joker and belittled Arthur. Joker isn’t cool; he’s a murderer who stands for nothing but chaos, all while Arthur sits alone waiting for the tiniest amount of compassion. And we pass him over every day, opting to tune in to revel in the juicy details about the violence and misery enacted by someone who doesn’t deserve an ounce of our attention. Furthering the case of Arthur’s split personality is his increasingly frequent outbursts into song and dance. Each of them serves as the creative outlet to which words can’t do justice, although the prospect of a $200 million dark comic-book musical is much more realized on paper than here. “Dour” would be the word of choice to describe each set piece, with Phoenix and Lady Gaga, appearing here as Joker’s #1 fan, Harley Quinn, providing the only semblance of passion. After a while, they all start to blend into one meh soup, a symptom of the on-the-nose messaging and Phillips’ inability to craft a catchy setpiece. It’s much easier to appreciate them within the franticness of a trailer rather than the methodicism of the final product. There is something to be said about this movie’s dedication to adhering to its DNA despite all the scope and scale placed upon it. It desperately wants to do something different, although it’s not quite sure what that is. It’s played both sides, but instead of doubling its profits, it exponentially multiplied its losses. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Joker: Folie à Deux in theaters nationwide on October 04th. 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

Saturday Night September 12, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark There’s life before Saturday Night, and there’s life after Saturday Night ! No, I’m not just talking about the first-ever episode of one of the most iconic comedy series ever. Although no one could have been prepared for how big of a cultural phenomenon the show would go on to be, one thing has rang true about SNL: staying true to being the escape from our mundane lives. As for Saturday Night , Jason Reitman’s latest film is a tumultuous dark comedy thriller about the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode of SNL going to air. What he does with the movie is a match made in heaven, as it captures the behind-the-scenes mayhem that occurred on October 11th, 1975. The film works as a comedy, but it works better as a thriller and a race against the clock to ensure everything and everyone is ready to go. The big selling point of Saturday Night is that it’s being dubbed as a comedy thriller. These two genres rarely, if not never, mesh, so seeing Reitman and Sony Pictures talk about the movie in this light created vast intrigue. The film starts at 10:00 pm on the dot. Every few minutes, the audience is updated about where the cast and crew are before showtime, as they have until the 11:30 airtime to be ready. We see the famous cast and crew racing against time to ensure everything is correct. DP Eric Steelberg capitalizes on this by having the camera move with the cast through long takes and back-and-forth pans. He makes the audience feel as though they are in the room, witnessing the craziness. It also helps Reitman and Gil Kenan’s script translate well to the screen. The duo taps into a similar vein as the Safdie brothers, adding another entry to the recent trend of anxiety-inducing cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ9O_tl5Npk The showrunner, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), has to run around like crazy to ensure everyone and everything is all set…but it’s not. Everything one could imagine going wrong for a live TV show goes wrong: the lighting and sound systems are wrecked, the cast is fighting amongst each other, and worst of all, Michaels has numerous sketches to use but can’t fit them within the airtime given. On top of this, he has a couple of NBC execs (Willem Dafoe and Cooper Hoffman) on his back, with the anxiety always just on his shoulder whispering the five words no one in the TV or filmmaking process wants to hear: "We are cutting the show." The biggest highlight of this movie is the ensemble, which further elevates the madness on display. No specific person stood out more than the rest, as this is very much an ensemble movie. However, some exceptions are worth mentioning. LaBelle gets the most screen time as Lorne Michaels and doesn’t waste any of it. He commands every moment on screen, proving why he’s one of the best young actors working today, a streak that started at TIFF two years ago with The Fabelmans . Cory Michael Smith and Matt Wood play Chevy Chase and John Belushi, respectively, and do the comedians justice. Smith not only has a spot-on impression of Chase, but he also nails the look of the controversial comedian. Meanwhile, Wood captures the mindset of the thunderstorm-fueled Belushi. At no point in any scene is there always a sense of dread where he could break at any second, and Wood does a fantastic job making audiences question whether it will happen. All of these aspects of Saturday Night make it one of the year’s best movies, but there’s also the subtle homage to the process of shooting an episode of SNL. The process likely became more accessible after the first episode, and they figured out the system, but it can only make viewers imagine what each cast and crew member goes through weekly. Getting an idea of their lines, making costumes fit, and ensuring the sound and lights are effective. The SNL cast and crew endure a lot, but somehow, they always manage to get it down by the time the clock strikes 11:30 p.m., and the show goes live. No matter what may be happening behind the scenes, they put any tension aside and give audiences a laugh they’ve been waiting all week for. Because when whoever’s on-screen shouts, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,” the crowd goes wild, and all worries vanish. This review was originally published from the Canadian premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Releasing will release Saturday Night in theaters nationwide on September 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

Cannes Review Roundup June 8, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Another Cannes Film Festival is in the books, which means it’s time to decompress from all the commotion and gather my thoughts on everything I saw. This year I watched a personal best of fifteen films within the Official Competition lineup during my three-day stint, an almost Olympian feat that will likely force me to upgrade my contact prescription for my already deteriorated eyes. Full reviews for Megalopolis , Kinds of Kindness , The Apprentice , The Substance , Emilia Perez , and Anora have already been published. This article will serve as a catch-all for everything else, with the films listed chronologically according to my schedule. But make no mistake, while these films are being given short-take reviews, that does not mean they hold a smaller presence within my memory, as the festival always has a knack for unveiling works that bury themselves deep into your conscious, revealing slowly over the proceeding months. Grand Tour Director Miguel Gomes’ film is a work lost in time and space, both in its story and filmmaking. Its titular tour of South Asia is captured through almost silent era techniques, with ultra-grainy black-and-white cinematography and a dream-like story of two traversing lovers. Mixed into this historical story is modern documentary footage of the same locations, a juxtaposition of the land and its people in the century since. I’ll admit, the biggest reason I sought this out was because it was the only opportunity I had to see something in the famed Grand Theatre Lumiere. I’ll be in a better headspace when I catch up with it again when it most likely reaches the States next year. (3/5) Bird Bird gradually warms your heart as it navigates the gutters of England, a favorite spot for Cannes regular Andrea Arnold. I do wish that Arnold had attempted to stretch herself a little more creatively over the first ⅔ of the runtime. The “been there, done that” attitude does get broken up by a surprising element, one that I didn't entirely agree with. But I can’t deny that it had some emotional effect. Nykiya Adams delivers a great performance in her debut, with Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski as their usual freaky selves. There’s also a fun Saltburn reference that got a lot of laughs, although it was definitely unintentional as this was shot before Fennell’s film was released. (3.5/5) The Shrouds Was this supposed to be a comedy? Because it’s so poorly written and performed that at times I couldn’t tell. I did get the feeling that Cronenberg was initially aware of the unintentionally comedic concept of a man creating an app that lets you watch your loved ones decompose in their graves, but then it all is steered down such a self-serious road that you can’t help but laugh at it. Cronenberg throws a lot of ideas and plot developments at the well, most of them way too autobiographical for us to comprehend. Crimes of the Future was my biggest disappointment at Cannes 2022, with this easily (re)laying claim to that title. Is there an award that’s the opposite of the Palme d’Or? (2/5) Oh, Canada A typical Paul Shrader film as it tackles a man wrecked by the guilt of his past. But it’s not all doom and gloom within a world of crime, as Schrader’s adaptation of Russell Banks’ novel has a more melancholic glimpse into a life roughly lived. Where has this version of Richard Gere been all these years?!? Some bizarre directorial choices, such as Jacob Elordi and Gere swapping places in their respective timelines and Uma Thurman cast as multiple characters, prevent this from being a definitive film that Schrader could potentially go out on. (3.5/5) Limonov: The Ballad Cannes' new favorite Russian ambassador Kirill Serebrennikov delivers a biopic with a lot of style, but not much substance, at least not in the forms my Western brain could comprehend. The clash of hemispheres makes for a jarringly interesting experience, with Ben Whishaw’s stunning titular performance almost convincing you he’s playing a layered character. A fascinating disappointment that I’d be welcome to revisit once I dive into Serebrennikov’s previous works. (3/5) Beating Hearts How does a musical work without any songs? Pretty, actually. Gilles Lellouche directors the hell out of this epic gangster drama, crafting a romantic odyssey with the visual flair of West Side Story and the grit of La Haine . Both sets of our star-crossed lovers are wonderful together. (3.5/5) The Girl with the Needle My personal Palme d’Or winner! Magnus von Horn descends us into a haunting time in Denmark, drip-feeding dread through his claustrophobic 4:3 camerawork. The blacks are as dark as night, and the whites are blindingly bright, a combination that resembles the horror of The Lighthouse with the bleak beauty of Cold War . Lovers of ultra-depressing European arthouse pieces keep on winning! (4/5) The Seed of the Sacred Fig Without a doubt the most important film of the festival, Mohammad Rasoulof’s statement about his native land both directly and indirectly dismantles the current Iranian regime through gripping imagery and performances. It succeeds as both a political statement and a taut thriller, although it leans a little too much on the latter in its final stages and oddly opts for metaphors after it has already effectively communicated so literally. (3.5/5) All We Imagine as Light As the first Indian film in the Official Competition in almost thirty years, Payal Kapadia’s sophomore feature certainly had a lot to live up to. It’s a quietly powerful film about the people that inhabit Mumbai, a city that never seems to sleep. It takes its time to reveal itself, but fully hits the landing once it all comes together in the final stages. The score and luminous cinematography were both among the best of the festival. (3.5/5) 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