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

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

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

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

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

Red Rocket July 16, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Red Rocket had its World Premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on December 03. American indie-darling Sean Baker has always worked on the ground level when making his films. He often casts non-professional actors and plants his audience in the ironically unglamorous parts of America, such as the dingy Magic Castle motel located next to Walt Disney World. Baker’s budgets are small, with The Florida Project carrying a total cost of $2,000,000, which is roughly the amount spent to have Arnold Schwarzenegger speak one hundred words in T2: Judgement Day . Now in 2021, Baker is back to shine a light on lower America with Red Rocket , which debuted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Opening with the catchy rhythms of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye”, former pornstar Mikey Saber has returned to the deadbeat town of Texas City. Mikey had been at the top of the porn scene for several years but eventually found his way out the door with some questionable career moves. With nowhere else to go, he begs and pleads his way into crashing with his former pornstar ex-wife Lexi, who, like him, was a shining star that has fallen back to the ground and lives with her poverty-stricken mother in the middle of nowhere. Mikey is a guy who always has a plan, but never a way to execute it. He does have a plan to get back to Los Angeles and revitalize his career, but it requires him to reconnect with some characters from his past who hate his guts. Both literally and metaphorically, Red Rocket is a ballsy movie. Baker has always found a fascination with the seedier side of America, which is the side that is often unauthentically portrayed in Hollywood (I’m looking at you Hillbilly Elegy ). His characters are often complicated and morally ambiguous, such as Halley from The Florida Project . But Baker doesn’t wallow in their pain and use it as a ploy for sympathy (again, looking at you Hillbilly Elegy ). Instead, he wants us to understand their desperation and see how so many people in this situation can rationalize their actions. Red Rocket doesn’t break from that developmental mold when it comes to his supporting characters. In Mikey’s journey back to the top, he rekindles with a weed queen that sees her business as a safety net for her family. Lexi and her mother are both addicted to opiates due to her mother’s medical condition and the distracting peace that the drugs bring from the painful world. With these characters on the brink of society, Baker uses their situation to subtly explain the unforeseen popularity of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election. Characters are often seen slumped at home in their couches with the television set to Fox News and its neverending coverage of the Republican candidate and his “mass appeal”. Baker’s illustration about the allure of Trump doesn’t try to be a grand statement for America itself, which turns out to be a good thing as the message comes together cleaner than the hamfisted ones found in mainstream media. But while Baker respects his supporting cast, his relationship with Mikey is more complicated. Mikey is the cinematic combination of Dirk Diggler and Howard Ratner. He’s a person that you love that you hate and hate that you love. You find yourself intrinsically drawn to him because of his drive and charm. But as the film progresses and Mikey’s grand plan comes closer into view, your attitude towards him starts to waver. Much of that emotional response comes from Simon Rex’s brilliant performance, whose most prominent role up until now has been a recurring supporting part in the Scary Movie franchise and some pornographic solo scenes in a series of straight-to-video gay porn releases. Almost as if he has lived the life of Mikey throughout stretches of his career, Rex seems to instinctively know how to play this type of sleazy charmer. While it does contain perfect casting, Red Rocket is not a perfect movie as a whole. With a runtime of 124 minutes, the film contains enough material for a tighter 90-minute story. The middle hour is the victim of this bloatedness, with long stretches given for light material. Still, the overly fatty meat on this movie’s bones does give Rex and the cast more than enough to chew on, resulting in an emotional rollercoaster that couldn’t be replicated by bigger productions. Slotting in nicely with Baker’s filmography and that of distributor A24, Red Rocket is one hell of a ride from beginning to end. There may be some potholes along the way, but they’re not enough to stop this film from reaching its satisfying destination. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Road House March 20, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Remaking Road House for modern times doesn't sound like a good idea on paper, with immediate expectations slotting it next to the other misplaced-in-time remakes of Ghost in the Shell and Baywatch . There wasn’t exactly a compelling story to the 1989 original, just Patrick Swayze delivering cans of whoop ass on greasy goons with his black belt in karate. And for a film that made less money than you would think, its cultural footprint has persevered throughout the decades thanks to the funny title, cheesy concept, and, for kids closer to my generation, the frequent Family Guy parodies . Even with the setting being transplanted to the modern day, Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) is still a man stuck in the past. He has no phone, a clunker of a car, and simply drifts from town to town scraping by through low-end cage fights. For him, it’s harder to fight the rage inside than any opponent. He’s calm and composed, but there’s always a twinge of insanity ready to let loose. “You don’t want to know me” and “I’m not afraid of him, I’m afraid of what I’ll do,” he says a few times, with brief snapshots of his UFC past (all shot at an actual UFC event) explaining how he fell so far. Like the idea of remaking the film itself, the casting of Gyllenhaal to take over from Swayze is an odd choice. He’s an actor not exactly known for being relaxed, as evidenced by his previous work in Okja , Nightcrawler , and Velvet Buzzsaw . It’s perhaps a case of the chicken or the egg, with Gyllenhaal being a great piece of casting for this newer take on the character, or his involvement changing the tone. Either way, it works out, with Gyllenhaal’s grounded approach never taking away from the fun. Plus, he’s already had fighting experience with Southpaw , so the producers probably saved a nice chunk of change on training costs. Dalton is hired by Frankie (Jessica Williams) to be the bouncer/enforcer of her family bar called The Road House, just one of several hit-or-miss attempts at some tongue-in-cheek humor by writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. It’s located on a beautiful beach in Florida, with the only problem being the infestation of bikers and roid ragers. It’s nothing Dalton can’t handle, with his laissez-faire attitude towards kicking the crap out of someone almost making it more disrespectful. None of these guys were worth his time, which leads him up the food chain toward the head of the richest crime family in the area, Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen). He’s got some dastardly plan and needs the bar taken out of commission by any means necessary, including kidnapping, murder, and explosions. The further the plot progresses, the less fun Road House becomes. It’s a bit of a bummer that the first fight where Dalton dismantles five bikers singlehandedly is by far the film’s best-set piece. Even if they are cartoonishly punchable, there is plenty of guilty pleasure in seeing some hooligans get their comeuppance. However, you can’t exactly fill a two-hour movie with your hero facing no resistance, so former UFC champion Conor McGregor has to be introduced as a bruising wildcard. McGregor won’t find himself with a lucrative acting career like former fighters Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista, but he fills his wildcard role enough here to be entertaining. Helming this bare-knuckle brawler is director Doug Liman, who helped revolutionize the action genre in the 2000s with The Bourne Identity and gave Tom Cruise another action vehicle outside of his usual Mission: Impossible films with Edge of Tomorrow . All that prowess quickly goes out the window the longer the fight scenes drag on, with questionable visual effects and camera movements overselling the brutality and undercutting the choreography. Once gasoline explosions and boat jousting get involved, things quickly go all the way overboard. Still, for as much as its faults are glaringly apparent, there’s nothing offensive about Road House . I guess that’s what you get when you do a remake of a movie that wasn’t that good to begin with and have it released exclusively on Prime Video. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Films of 2020 February 18, 2021 By: Hunter Friesen For the past two years, I’ve led this article by saying how crummy the year has been. Well, 2020 doesn’t even deserve to be joked about as it was such a terrible year that I’m glad has passed, even though I don’t have much hope for 2021. Even with the pandemic shutting down theatres and several tentpole films being delayed indefinitely, there were still quite a few movies worth celebrating. In an effort to give praise to those that deserve it, here is my list of the ten best films of 2020. Honorable Mentions Possessor Tenet The Truth On the Rocks Let Them All Talk 10. Ammonite What can be considered dull to some is romantic to others. Set in 1840s England, writer/director Francis Lee tells the story of a forbidden lesbian romance between a lonely fossil hunter and a young woman burdened by a loveless marriage. Ammonite has all the tropes of the romantic drama genre, but none of its clichés. Lee avoids these traps by trusting his leads in Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, who are a winning combination as they give amazing performances with little dialogue. Everything comes from just a look or a glance, enough to describe a whole scene and carry a film. 9. One Night in Miami After many successful years in front of the camera, Regina King proves she’s just as skilled in the director’s chair. What could have been an overly stagey experience is turned into a fiery character drama featuring some of the most influential figures in history in Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. Screenwriter Kemp Powers takes these four larger-than-life figures and brings them down to Earth and connects their lives to the present-day African-American experience. Special praise goes to the performances by British-born Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X and Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. as Cooke, as well as his contribution to the song “Speak Up." 8. The Prom The cinematic equivalent of a sugar rush, director Ryan Murphy assembled an all-star cast for his Netflix adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. The story of a lesbian teen who is denied the ability to tale her girlfriend to her conservative town’s prom is told exuberantly through flashy song & dance numbers. While it does have its cake and eat it too, the guilty pleasure that this film brings is in the wonderfully campy performances from its main troupe and its earworm-inducing tunes. 7. Wolfwalkers Hailing from Ireland, this fantasy adventure beat Pixar’s Soul to be the best-animated film of the year. Aspiring adventurer Robyn stars as our hero as she befriends a free-spirited “wolf walker” named Mebh, who has the power to become a wolf at night and defends the ever-shrinking forest. Beautifully animated in various styles and boasting a great lyrical soundtrack, Wolfwalkers also touches our minds with its authentic philosophical message about deforestation and the bridging of cultural differences. 6. The Nest Similar to the calculated and observational style of Stanley Kubrick and Yorgos Lanthimos, Sean Durkin’s newest feature is a drama/horror tale about the dangers of greed and ambition. Jude Law and Carrie Coon each give career-best performances as a couple that is forced to come to terms with their increasingly meaningless lives. With the gap between the haves and the have-nots becoming wider every day, this social critique is timely in the present and I suspect it will continue to be in the future. 5. First Cow First Cow is the most gentle “bro movie” out there. Writer/director Kelly Reichardt calmly guides us through this frontier-set story of friendship and opportunity. As unpredictable as it is gorgeous, Reichardt balances various genres as the film eventually spins itself into a heist film with high tension and stakes. Even with all these changing elements, Reichardt never loses the emotional connection with her characters. I’m still hoping Evie the Cow can get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. 4. The Trial of the Chicago 7 The words “the whole world is watching!” still ring in my head even after six months since seeing Aaron Sorkin’s newest Netflix film. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a nostalgic old-school courtroom drama bolstered by strong modern filmmaking and terrific performances from its cast. The timeliness and importance of its message make it a must-see as our nation faces a turbulent path of healing after a disastrous year. Full Review 3. Nomadland With Nomadland , writer/director/editor Chloé Zhao has crafted something special, something that pulls you in and never lets you go. Many times you catch yourself just basking in the imagery. The plains, the mountains, the natural landscapes. It doesn't feel like a movie, but a feeling that just carries you all the way through. With a lead terrific performance from the legendary Frances McDormand and a supporting turn from the reliable David Strathairn, Zhao combines so many complex things to create a true piece of art. 2. The Vast of Night Amazon’s The Vast of Night is a director's showcase for Andrew Patterson. With long takes and tracking shots that are near Cuarón level, Patterson fully immerses us in this 1950s-set small-town alien invasion mystery. Spookier than any conventional horror movie and brimming with an abundance of talent from its cast and crew, The Vast of Night is a startlingly well-made debut that will surely lead to fruitful careers for all those involved. 1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always Written and directed by indie-darling Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an authentic and upsetting coming-of-age story. Taking place over a trip to New York City to abort an unwanted pregnancy, Hittman did an impeccable job of exuding sympathy and connecting me to a process I am biologically unable to relate to. The title of the film comes full circle near the end in a scene that left me with no dry eyes. Newcomer Sydney Flanigan is a star in the making with her lead performance. Her career will be one to watch. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

In a Violent Nature May 28, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark For the second time this year, Shudder has unleashed a horror film that is making waves and igniting discussions among moviegoers. Two months ago, it was Late Night with the Devil , a film that injected a fresh twist into the found footage subgenre. Now they’re bringing In a Violent Nature , a horror film not for the faint-hearted. It's a thrilling ride, uniquely told from the killer's perspective. Meditative is a word I would not normally use to describe a horror movie, but In a Violent Nature has a meditative quality. Director Chris Nash penned a script that reflects this method, instilling a tragic backstory to a killer who knows nothing but death. Supposedly named Johnny, he fell victim to a terrible accident, leaving him stranded beneath the ground with only a makeshift breathing tube to sustain him. When a locket is stolen from the tower he’s buried under, Johnny emerges from the ground and goes on a rampage to get it back. As the plot unfolds, the movie gets to the gritty kills as Nash and DP Pierce Derks heavily use long-tracking shots to set up the scene. They usually consist of Johnny slowly creeping up to his next victim(s) as they talk about his urban legend in some form or another. It’s a decent way to build suspense and have audiences guessing where’s Johnny (no pun intended). Many of the faces of the victims remain obscured, an initially odd choice that over time illustrates itself as a way to communicate Johnny’s dehumanization of these people. The kills make this into one of the bloodiest splatter fests I have seen in a while, almost to the point where some viewers may regret having an appetite during or after watching. Outside of the cinematography, In a Violent Nature ’s methodical aura is also felt in its pacing, which is no surprise. Although the movie clocks in at 94 minutes, it’s in no rush to have the plot go from point A to point B. In one instance, we see a group of campers sharing stories around a campfire. As one of them shares a story correlating to Johnny, it’s all told in an uninterrupted take with a circling shot of the group sitting around the fire. While it’s an auteurist approach (Nash says Terrence Malick is an influence), the film does get carried away in the act and intermittently tests patience. In a Violent Nature is brutal in its scares and pacing, both of which prove to be its best and worst elements. Time will tell if this is able to break out into the culture, or remain an underground feature for the horror-centric service. Hopefully, there will be further conversation and attempts at brutal stories told from the perspective of evil. How will that all pan out, you may ask? Who knows, but heads may roll nevertheless. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice September 4, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen If you listen carefully, you can hear the collective sigh of relief of millions of Tim Burton and Beetlejuice fans from around the world the moment the opening credits of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice joyously commenced. Danny Elfman delivers a signature score as the camera weaves through the signature diorama of Winter River. This introduction is a microcosm of the subsequent one-hundred minutes: an unashamed retreading of everything that worked over thirty-five years ago and has become a part of popular culture lexicon ever since, done with enough respect and creative flair to be some of the most fun of the year. Ghostbusters II serves as the template for the opening sections, with a “where are they now” carousel setting the stage for how the famed characters have fared in the decades since. The once supernatural ally Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) now peddles the same ghostly schlock that Zach Baggins has cornered on cable television. How and why she got to this place is a mystery, as well as what her goal is to host a show that delegitimizes the supernatural. She’s got a buffoonish simp in her producer Rory (Justin Theroux), which is about the only somewhat good thing she has going for her. Her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) doesn’t want anything to do with her, another instance in a long line of reminders that your childhood heroes turn out to be terrible parents. On top of that, her father was just killed in a freak shark attack, forcing the entire group, Delia included, to venture back to the signature haunted house on the top of the hill. Of course, all of this plot in the human world is just there to serve what’s going on in the underworld. The titular Mr. Juice is still heartbroken over Lydia, and now must hide from his vengeful ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci). The complicated and ever-shifting rules and circumstances of the afterlife bring these two stories together, with Lydia and Beetlejuice needing to rescue Astrid from being sent to the Great Beyond. Plot is not what you came to this movie for, and neither is it an important aspect in writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s gameplan, which contains quite the animosity towards anything to do with PC culture. Burton also has a ball with pushing your preconceptions of what can be included in a PG-13 movie, with this one featuring an assortment of gore, cursing, and overall grossness. The effects are mostly practical, a challenge that Burton and his production team welcomed with open arms and flourished with. An animated sequence similar to The Corpse Bride and a silent horror recreation of the romantic origins between Beetlejuice and Delores’ are some of the standout moments that hit the nostalgia buttons so perfectly The cast is all having so much fun as well. Theroux and Willem Dafoe as a dead Tom Cruise-esque actor turned underworld cop who takes his job a little too seriously are the two standouts within the new additions. Their foolishness is matched only by their zeal for the zaniness surrounding them. Ryder and Keaton haven’t missed a beat in the time since, with the latter yet again being the outright champion despite having less screen time than you’d think. Bellucci is… there. She’s a symptom of the film’s disregard for plot and stakes, appearing out of nowhere and leaving without much of an afterthought. We can’t get everything we want, so it’s best to forgive those glaring gaps in depth since it created an opportunity for one of our most creative filmmakers to make something for himself and the people he cares about instead of just another executive who just wants to harness his aesthetic. We as the audience can only be as passionate about a film as the creatives behind it, with this one being so easy to love and laugh along with. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Films of 2018 January 24, 2019 By: Hunter Friesen With political and social upheaval, natural disasters, and the overall feeling of optimism fading away, 2018 was a rocky year that really never seemed to end. Fortunately for moviegoers, the year did offer a way of escape through some great films, ranging from record-setting blockbusters to genre-defying indies. Now that the year is finally over and all the films have been released, I can finally release my list of what I thought were the ten best films of 2018. Honorable Mentions They Shall Not Grow Old The Sisters Brothers Mission: Impossible - Fallout Thoroughbreds Wildlife 10. Private Life Coming out of Sundance, this film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins illustrates the challenges a forty-something couple goes through in order to start a family. Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti star as the couple as they go through treatments, adoption, and every method to have a child. The gripping performances from the leads along with Jenkin’s touching screenplay gave this film a ton of comedy and tragedy that led to one of the most emotional films of the year. 9. Vox Lux Dubbed by many as the anti- A Star Is Born , this film tracks the unsettling career of Celeste as she becomes famous through tragedy and chooses to live in that dark moment. Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman play Celeste as a teenager and adult, respectively. They each do an incredible job of creating a conflicted character that holds a mirror up to a society that worships celebrities. With a soundtrack by Sia, this pop tale has some great music to go along with its disturbing subject matter. 8. First Man Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling follow up La La Land with another equally great film. Trading in his piano for a rocket ship, Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong and gives us an accurate look into the turbulent life of one of America’s most famous figures. Chazelle's impeccable directing made for some of the most terrifying sequences of the year and allow us to bear witness to the immense danger that many brave men experienced in the name of exploring the unknown. Full Review 7. Roma Probably one of the best directors working today, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is his most personal and epic film to date. The sweeping story is centered around a housemaid named Cleo. Through her eyes, we watch the domestic struggle a large family must go through in 1970s Mexico City. Along with directing, writing, and editing, Cuarón also manned the camera and gave us some of the most awe-inspiring cinematography of the century. Available on Netflix, this film is the most accessible must-see of 2018. 6. First Reformed One of the most influential writers of American cinema, Paul Schrader both writes and directs this film about a tortured priest and the inner turmoil he struggles with as he examines the world we currently live in. Boasting some of the best dialogue of the year along with a career-best performance by Ethan Hawke, this dark and metaphorical film challenges its audience to see the effects humans have had on this planet and how we cope with our misdoings. 5. BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee returns to form with a true story of black cop Ron Stallworth infiltrating the KKK in 1970s Colorado Springs. Both John David Washington and Adam Driver deliver great performances, and Lee’s powerful editing near the end of this comedy/drama serves as both a history lesson and a modern commentary on how our society really hasn’t changed as much as we think it has. Full Review 4. Leave No Trace Also out of Sundance, This small film also is a quiet character study of a father and daughter that have chosen to live in the woods rather than within the confines of civilization. Sporting spectacular performances from breakout star Thomasin McKenzie and Ben Foster, the film expertly explores the idea of how we identify with home and how society reacts to the life choices we have made. 3. Avengers: Infinity War The more you think about it, Infinity War had no right to even work, let alone be great. Credit should go to directors Joe and Anthony Russo who were able to take a project that culminated eighteen films rostering twenty-five characters and make it into a high-stakes thriller that never felt overstuffed. It also delivered the MCU’s best villain and was able to leave a permanent mark on pop culture with just one snap. Hopefully, Endgame will be just as good. 2. A Star Is Born More of a 1B than a clear #2 , Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut more than lived up to its lofty expectations. The pairing of him and Lady Gaga in the lead roles was a match made in heaven as their chemistry lit up the screen both on and off the stage. With one of the best songs of the year in “Shallow”, this pitch-perfect retelling of a classic story left no dry eyes after its endearing tribute ending. Full Review 1. The Favourite My favorite film of the year (pun intended), this 18th-century piece can best be described as Barry Lyndon meets Mean Girls . The plot follows a spiteful struggle between two women, Abigail (Emma Stone) and Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), as they battle for the affection of the unhinged Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Combining three excellent actresses, a whip-smart script, and the uniquely awkward style of director Yorgos Lanthimos, this dark comedy was by far the most enjoyable and unforgettable film of 2018. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Queer September 10, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Queer had its North American Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on November 27. Desperation and desire go hand-in-hand within Luca Guadagnino’s Queer , an adaptation of the legendary William S. Burroughs’ early short novel. These are qualities that the famed workaholic Italian director has found a knack for expressing, doing so in opposing fashions this year with the stylishly Hollywood-y Challengers and this magnetically opaque hedonistic journey. Everything is presented in its most sensual form through Guadagnino’s eyes and ears, with the destination this time being Mexico in the 1950s. World War II is over and those returning from Europe and the Pacific are looking for a little rest and relaxation. The American public still (and will continue to for decades) looks upon homosexuality as a disease, forcibly creating the neighboring southern country as a haven filled with life’s great pleasures. The streetlights cast beams of heaven down upon the men and women of the night, the bars are always open, and everyone’s thirst is perpetually unquenchable. But Guadagnino and production designer Stefano Baisi don’t stop there, replacing establishing shots with dreamy illustrations filled with miniatures and backdrops that seem much larger and more expressive than they ever could have been. This version of Mexico isn’t being viewed through an objective lens, it’s someone’s reconstruction of a long memory. That memory belongs to William Lee (Daniel Craig), one of those GIs who left America once he got off his Navy boat and never looked back. Donning a sharp outfit and an even sharper tongue, his days consist of bar trips, flirtations with the boys passing through, and consuming what drugs and alcohol he can get his hands on. It’s a fast and cheap lifestyle, one that comes to a halt once he lays eyes on fellow American Gene (Drew Starkey). The youngster arrives on the scene in slow motion and is engulfed by the blaring words of Nirvana’s Come As You Are . You can feel the temperature rising in the room rising just as much as it is within William’s loins, with this introduction being just the first of many moments where the anachronistic soundtrack and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s camera concoct some of the most potently erotic sequences put to celluloid. That dichotomy between the audio and the visuals translates to William and Gene’s relationship, with the former trying to play younger and the latter containing much more maturity than his fresh face lets on. They have a unique honesty with each other, which Guadagnino transfers to the bedroom with as much raw authenticity as he had with Call Me by Your Name and last year’s All of Us Strangers . Craig is at his most appealingly charming here, mixing the sexual power of James Bond and the eccentricities of Benoit Blanc. He sees what he is through the mirror that is Starkey’s performance, the enigmaticness of Gene being his most appealing and perplexing quality. Burroughs’ novel was published in its unfinished form, something that Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes emulate within their project, even down to the literal runtime, which has been the subject of much scrutiny as it kept getting whittled down since its announcement. A question came to Guadagino during the North American premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival asking if the initial three-hour cut would ever see the light of day. The director shyly laughed and said that this was the film that he made, the hesitation in his voice almost signaling that he has as much desire to share his undiluted version as much as audiences want to consume it. The current 135-minute version is a shaggy mini-beast, hypnotically blending reality and dreams as it traverses from the urban hustle to the isolated jungles. Comparisons to Bardo may be appropriate in terms of trying to understand the imagery and intention behind each scene. There are moments when everything is frustratingly translucent, just escaping your grasp no matter how hard you try to grab ahold of it. But even in its haziness, there’s an alluring power that prevents your ignorance from clouding the enjoyment. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen