Drive-Away Dolls February 23, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen It may only be a sample size of one movie a piece, but between The Tragedy of Macbeth and Drive-Away Dolls , it’s becoming quite clear to see what skills and fascinations each of the Coen brothers brought to their decades’ worth of conjoined works. It wouldn’t be a far-fetched theory to envision Joel winning most of the arguments for the relatively darker No Country for Old Men and The Man Who Wasn’t There , while Ethan held a tighter grip for Intolerable Cruelty , The Ladykillers , and Burn After Reading . This isn’t to say that one was right and the other was wrong, as almost all those movies listed are a masterclass in balancing tone and homage ( No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading are my personal favorites). It’s more of an explanation of why the brothers have parted ways these past few years, each breaking away from the time-old shackles and experimenting with their newly unfiltered vision. However, that last part about “unfiltered” is only somewhat correct. Joel’s departure saw him saddle up with one of the most well-known dramas in the English language, with Ethan teaming up with his wife, Tricia Cooke, to co-write and co-produce a lesbian road trip comedy. The results here are a bit scatterbrained, sort of touching on a few too many Coen trademarks with only half the potency they used to have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy0RYiQRWUk One thing Drive-Away Dolls doesn’t lack is brevity. At a crisp 84 minutes when factoring in the credits, this crime caper moves at the same pace as the racing dogs featured near the Tallahassee-set climax. A flurry of B-movie transitions, including whip pans, spinning frames, and wipes, never allows you to lose sight of the kitschy influences. There are a few sequences, specifically some psychedelic drops and neon-infused frames, that tip the scales too much in the wrong direction, but it’s never enough to ruin the whole trip. Things start in Philadelphia on the eve of the 21st century. Jamie (Margaret Qualley) is a free spirit who finds herself broken up with by her cop girlfriend (Beanie Feldstein) after a few too many actions without thought. She and her uptight friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) need a temporary change of scenery, which is the perfect excuse to earn some extra cash by performing a driveaway service to Florida. Except, this particular car contains a mysterious briefcase inside, one that holds powerful secrets that a group of bumbling goons (led by Colman Domingo) are after. A few other actors show up in bit parts/cameos. Pedro Pascal stars in the cold open and experiences the alternative use for a wine opener, Bill Camp is the droll car dealership manager, and Matt Damon plays the head honcho after the briefcase. Everyone is having fun in their roles, especially Qualley with her Texan accent and delightfully vulgar views on life. It’s their energy and charm that get most of the material across the finish line, as the Coen/Cooke script often feels stuck in the realm of “just okay.” “Just okay” would be an accurate statement to use for the whole film, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. It’s hard to complain about something being “just okay” when it’s this zippy and kooky, even if the headliner name of Ethan Coen would make you believe you were in for something a little more special. Focus Features will release Drive-Away Dolls in theaters nationwide on February 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF23 Recap September 20, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen Now that TIFF23 has come to a close, it's time to embark on the challenging task of ranking all the films I had the opportunity to watch. While it's no easy feat to compare such a wide range of genres and styles, my goal is to celebrate the artistry and innovation that permeated throughout the decadent TIFF venues. I also won't lie in saying that there's a small amount of joy I get by bashing in the poor films one more time. From large studio tentpoles to small international projects, I invite you to explore what the festival had to offer in 2023. 27. North Star Maybe not every actor should be allowed to make their directorial debut. Kristen Scott Thomas' first foray behind the camera (while still being in front in a supporting role) is littered with choppy editing, poor pacing, and a scattershot script that has way too much on its plate. Emily Beecham is the only shining star (pun intended) in a cast that includes Scarlett Johansson fumbling a British accent and Sienna Miller being fine, I guess. This is surely bound for VOD/streaming way down the line. 26. Finestkind Writer/director Brian Helgeland told the TIFF audience that he wrote the script for Finestkind thirty years ago, a fact that becomes glaringly obvious the longer the film goes on. The story is stuck in the past in the worst ways possible, soaked with cheesy sentimentality, a laughably underdeveloped female character that Jenna Ortega somehow signed up for (did she owe someone a favor?), and an out-of-nowhere crime plot that undermines all the heart and soul mined in the first half. As per his contract demands these days, Ben Foster goes crazy a few times, and so does Tommy Lee Jones as he realizes he’s appearing in a stinker. It’s a Paramount+ production, meaning it’ll play well to the “guys being dudes” crowd that has been gorging on Taylor Sheridan's diminishing machismo these past few years. 25. Knox Goes Away Between the other hitman-focused movies at the fall festivals and how much it seriously fumbles the great concept of a hitman battling rapidly developing dementia, Michael Keaton’s sophomore directorial outing fails to be anything more than a depressing shrug. Luckily for the actor/director, he’s slightly exonerated from blame as Gregory Poirier’s CSI-level script is what sinks this ship. Al Pacino gives his most comfortable performance sitting in some luxurious recliners, and Marcia Gay Harden does Keaton a favor by showing up for one half-decent scene. 24. His Three Daughters Azazel Jacobs’ follow-up to French Exit (remember that during the pandemic?) starts incredibly rough as our three lead characters act as if they’re aliens who are trying to replicate drought emotions. This bug may be a feature to some, but it ends up feeling like a grating mashup of Yorgos Lanthimos and Wes Anderson. Things do settle down later, allowing the actresses to flourish. Natashya Lyonne stands out as the slacker of the three sisters, and yet she seems to have the firmest grasp on the mysteries of life. 23. Rustin Rustin won’t live on in the public consciousness for its craft, but it most certainly will because of Domingo’s performance. It’s a shame the whole package couldn’t come together, but it’s hard to complain when the headliner is just that good and the objective of the mission is to enlighten just as much as it is to entertain. Full Review 22. Quiz Lady By far the broadest film TIFF programmed this year, Quiz Lady is your typical streamer comedy. Director Jessica Yu has helmed episodes of prestige television as well as both feature and short documentaries (winning an Oscar for Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien ), yet you’d never be able to tell based on what she delivers here. Everything is filmed with basic competence, with the actors filling much of the empty space with hit-or-miss jokes. It’s fun to see Oh cut loose, and Ferrell’s wholesome game show host turns out to be his best role in years. You can have some decent fun with this on a Friday night, forgetting all about it when you wake up the next morning. 21. Nyad Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin are still able to showcase their prowess with editing in their first narrative feature film. The directing duo crafted some fine moments of underdog drama, following Diana Nyad as she tries to overcome the impossible. There are no surprises or standout moments, but Annette Bening's commitment to the role makes for an inoffensive watch. 20. The Royal Hotel It’s adapt or die for Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liz (Jessica Henwick) as they take jobs as bartenders in the only pub in a remote Australian mining town. The temp agency warned the girls that they needed to be “okay with a little male attention,” which turns out to be quite the understatement as their first night is filled with nasty jokes, unruly stares, and just general douchiness. Choosing adaptation is a death sentence, as there’s no reward for allowing this toxic mob to take control of their mind and body. Director Kitty Green announced her talent with the matter-of-fact The Assistant in 2019 (also starring Garner). This sophomore effort is a leveling up of her prowess behind the camera, lining every scene with a grimy sense of dread. It feels like a thrill ride, except none of the thrills are satisfying. Green greatly elevates her script, written by Green and Oscar Redding, which never packs the depth needed and tends to loop around as it tries to sustain the 90-minute runtime. Garner and Henwick are powerful anchors, “supported” by some convincing creeps. I have no doubt Green will be hitting it big within the next few years. 19. Woman of the Hour Anna Kendrick dominated the actor-turned-director battle at this year’s TIFF, with her film, Woman of the Hour , being quite an impressive statement of her skills behind the camera. Now all she needs to do is find a good script because the one here doesn’t give her enough to work with. While well staged, much of the “action” of the film by the serial killer feels like filler, and the main ideas are spelled out as if they're competing at a spelling bee. Netflix opened the market with an $11 acquisition, giving this true crime film the perfect home. 18. Reptile Reptile will likely fall into the pantheon of semi-forgettable Netflix originals. I can’t say that’s a shame because the movie doesn’t do a lot to make a case for its existence in my memory outside of a few questionable choices. But when compared to the other forgotten content, it’s a cut above. Full Review 17. Pain Hustlers Pain Hustlers is just an inferior copycat of The Wolf of Wall Street , which is exactly what you get when you have David Yates instead of Martin Scorsese. Emily Blunt and Chris Evans are as charming as ever, but there's nothing special about this run-of-the-mill rise-and-fall story. If you recently watched Dopesick or Painkiller , then you might find a little more here. 16. The Critic While writer Patrick Marber and star Ian McKellen are having a delightfully catty time with The Critic , director Anand Tucker takes the material too seriously, making it uneven, yet still enjoyable. McKellen plays the internet's stereotypical version of a critic: mean, smearing, and always out to make himself the star of the show. Times are changing in London as the newspapers are merging, threatening McKellen’s job, and the fascists are becoming more radicalized. Marber’s script is a little too scattershot, never developing its numerous plotlines and characters outside of the central McKellen story. The glossy production values make this a decent package as a whole. A perfect piece of entertainment to get a spring theatrical release as counterprogramming to a superhero blockbuster. 15. Lee Lee has a lot of famous actors, but only Kate Winslet is playing a character. The rest of the cast, along with almost every other aspect of the movie, feels like they're playing dress-up. It's neither good nor bad, just forgettable. 14. Les Indésirables Ladj Ly's sophomore effort is not an answer to a question, but a further examination of it. There's dissatisfaction at the end of the road, both intentionally through Ly's honest depiction of political warfare and unintentionally through the overloaded script that tries to combine too much. Even with this slight slump, Ly's voice continues to grow, and I can't wait for it to click sometime in the future. 13. Dumb Money Just like the memes that inspired the movement, Dumb Money is fun in the moment, but has little to no substance underneath the surface. If you’re looking for entertainment, you get just enough of it to make this worthwhile. If you’re looking to be educated on this event, I’d recommend literally anything else. Full Review 12. Seven Veils It wouldn’t be a normal TIFF if it didn’t feature the newest film by hometown hero Atom Egoyan. Amanda Seyfried plunges headfirst into her role as the new director of a revival of Salome at the Canadian Opera Company, a production Egoyan himself helmed while making this film. There are a lot of big swings, with more than half of them not connecting. But the ones that do connect are really special, such as the audacious staging of the material. The bar may be low, but this is Egoyan's best work in decades. 11. Fingernails Christos Nikou’s sophomore feature is a leveling up of his production values, but never quite reaches the thematic heights it aims for. There’s a nice love story in here, it’s just buried under too much mundane material. 10. Dream Scenario Nicolas Cage has never been funnier (at least in an unironic way) than he is in Kristoffer Borgli’s English-language debut. The famed madman actor plays a dorky professor who inexplicably appears in everyone’s dreams, making him the most famous person on the planet. The fame quickly gets to his head, but it also brings unintended consequences once the dreams start taking darker turns. Borgli's examination of cancel culture isn’t all that skillful, with most of the insights being surface-level. Cage is what sells this whole premise and covers any of the minor problems. While he’s still appearing in VOD garbage more often than he should, there have been just enough auteur-driven projects to keep him an icon to the Letterboxd generation. Being that this specific film is an A24 production, be prepared for the ensuing meme frenzy come November. 9. One Life No modern movie has had a more significant fourth-quarter comeback than One Life . The first 90 minutes of James Hawes’ feature directorial debut has the same dry cracker texture as many other British WWII period pieces you’ve seen over the years. An immediate 180° is made in the climactic scene (you'll know it when you see it), leaving me and the rest of the audience in tears. Anthony Hopkins stars as the older Nicholas Winton, with Johnny Flynn playing the younger version that made it his mission to rescue children out of the Holocaust ghettos of Eastern Europe. It’s Hopkins’ segments in the 1980s that give the film the spurts of life it needs. Recently minted Oscar-winner Volker Bertelmann provides a sweeping score, accenting the epic work done by this humble humanitarian. 8. Memory Two people with memory issues come together in writer/director Michel Franco’s newest film, which doesn’t wallow in mystery as his past filmography would suggest. Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a mother who can’t seem to forget her past drug and alcohol struggles, while Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) has dementia and can’t seem to remember much of his past life. These two troubled souls are attracted to each other, even if the forces of the world, notably their families, would like them to stay apart. The script places all its priorities on these two performances, both of which reach near perfection. There’s sadness and pain in their stories, but they unlock small linings of hope when they appear in each other’s lives. Franco doesn’t offer much in terms of answers, not that anyone should expect struggles of this magnitude to be so easily solved. 7. Next Goal Wins Next Goal Wins makes fans out of all of us, both thanks to Waititi’s skill and the simple goal it strives for. It’s effortlessly watchable, uncontroversial, and full of good vibes, making it one of the best options for the family this year. Full Review 6. Hit Man If Top Gun: Maverick wasn't enough to convince you of Glen Powell's movie star charisma, then Hit Man will certainly be the successful pitch. Richard Linklater's film is a sexy romantic comedy pairing Powell with Adria Arjona to electric results. While the Netflix acquisition means fewer people will get to see this crowdpleaser in theaters, it'll surely have a long and successful life on the streaming platform. 5. The Boy and the Heron There are animated films for children, and there are animated films for adults. This is an animated film for everyone, and the world is a much better place because of it. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, figures in animation history has provided us with his swan song, and now it’s time for us to continue his legacy with the pieces left behind. Full Review 4. Origin Ava DuVernay blends academia and entertainment to sprawlingly epic results in her adaptation of the Isabel Wilkerson novel. I'm still not sure if DuVernay succeeds in making all her connections, but she always makes them compelling through her direction. Aunjanue Ellis capitalizes on her first lead performance, anchoring the emotion within this sweeping story. 3. Evil Does Not Exist Drive My Car writer/director and all-around arthouse superstar Ryûsuke Hamaguchi makes his most outspoken work with Evil Does Not Exist . The tranquility of a Japanese village is being threatened by the introduction of a “glamping” (glamorous + camping) site proposed by a talent agency. The site would negatively impact much of the environment around it, with many of the village resident’s livelihoods being forever altered. Despite being clear in his message, Hamaguchi never eviscerates the villains of this story. The extreme slow cinema approach will test the patience of many expecting a return to the leanness of Drive My Car . Those who embrace the molasses will find themselves powerfully transported to one of the few places left that hasn’t been bulldozed by capitalism. Eiko Ishibashi delivers a magnificent score. It angers me that I’ll have to wait several months until it’s available to stream on Spotify. 2. The Beast Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast is the pretentious European version of Cloud Atlas , which is a statement that tells you everything you need to know about whether you’ll like it or not. I was all in on this movie, even if its ultimate message and specific story beats are hard to follow. Bonello jumps between 1904, 2014, and 2044, intersplicing the three time periods to tell a story about love conquering time. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play characters in each period, navigating the unknowable connection they feel for each other. It’s overindulgent and excessive, but Bonello displays a mastery of tone and vision across the 146 minutes. There’s passion, fear, humor, drama, and everything in between. I’d love to see it again sometime down the line. 1. The Holdovers Through his directorial choices, Alexander Payne makes The Holdovers into a Christmas classic for adults. The cinematography glows like a warm fire and the relaxed pacing allows these characters to breathe. This is a melancholic film, with Payne knowing that the holidays are not full of yuletide cheer for everyone. But there are still seasons greetings to be had, just enough to make you want to be a better person and stay close to those that matter most. What more could you ask for in times like these? Full Review More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Contrary to its title, The Drama is quite a funny movie. But it’s not a comedy in the traditional sense, seeking to amuse or offer you a good time. If you were to describe many of its funniest moments to someone, they might react with disgust and ask, “How the hell could you find that funny?” Honestly, that wouldn’t be an overreaction, because I felt a little guilty every time I chuckled, looking around at the rest of the audience to make sure I wasn’t some sort of sicko. This is a film that starts with the question: How would the people closest to you react if they found out about the worst thing you've ever done? From there, it (correctly) assumes that sleeping dogs won’t lie, the harsh truth boiling to the surface, eventually erupting in the most ugly way possible. If modern humanity has proven itself adept at one thing, it’s making things worse than they initially were for seemingly no apparent reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zmKcUa4Xxk The film opens with a meet-cute that is not very cute. Charlie (Robert Pattinson) walks by a high-end Boston coffee shop and notices Emma (Zendaya) in the window. Understandably irresistibly drawn to her, he sits down at a table and thinks of an excuse to talk to her. He notices she’s reading a book, so he quickly gorges on the Wikipedia summary. In a sheepish and drawn-out manner, he walks up and lies about how much the book meant to him. It turns out that she’s deaf in the ear facing him, so she didn’t get any of it. Now he’s standing there like a fool, and she’s totally confused as to what his intentions are. In Charlie’s eyes, that’s a story worth sharing with everyone, which is why he’s using it as the leadoff for his wedding speech to Emma. They seemingly became an idyllic couple, despite having a poster for Ingmar Bergman’s The Passion of Anna in their cozy apartment, which is something that just invites trouble. The premonition comes to fruition once best friends Mike (Mamoudou) and Rachel (Alana Haim) dare Charlie and Emma to confess their worst sins. Each of their sins is shameful in its own right. However, Emma’s is exponentially worse than the rest, requiring several moments to confirm that she isn’t telling some sick joke. For the characters and us, there’s no shaking the reveal. You can’t simply refuse to meet it, both because there’s still an hour left on the running time, and because its nature is so intertwined with America’s fractured DNA that you’d be refuting what’s in the mirror. Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli pulled off a similar concept with cancel culture in his previous film, Dream Scenario . That film was a lot more overtly funny than this one, giving a little more allowance to finding the humor in the absurdity. Now the target has been zeroed in, so there’s no escape. Despite now being a forty-year-old pretending to be a younger adult, Pattinson still has that twitchy, youthful energy. He becomes a nervous wreck, conflating the good memories he had with Emma with the newly discovered awful revelations about her past. Borgli lets us into his mind by intermingling those pictures, continually crosscutting as if the disease is taking over. His sanity is squeezed out to make room, with several awfully uncomfortable scenes stemming from the breakdown. By nature of Pattinson being the one reacting to the secret, Zendaya takes on a slightly passive role. However, she’s going all-in here, putting her image as a Disney Channel and MCU actress through the ultimate test. Everyone wants to fully deny or twist her past into something that can be diagnosed, which just digs the hole even deeper. And until they learn their lesson (which they don’t, and won’t), they’re going to find out how much a little drama can bring down the whole house. A24 will release The Drama in theaters nationwide on April 03rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Blink Twice August 15, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut is loaded with so many symbols, clues, and hidden messages that the rapid-fire nature of their delivery might make you miss them if you blink (sorry, the joke just wrote itself). It’s the mark of a confident storyteller, someone who can transfer their vision onto the silver screen and trust the audience to go along for the ride even though they never get to play with a deck. To give us some credit, Kravitz’s symbolism and structure heavily mirror recent thrillers such as Get Out and The Royal Hotel , so the mysteries surrounding the plot become much simpler to solve once you identify that this is an equivalent equation, a delicious copycat nonetheless. “Be invisible” is the order Frida (Naomi Ackie) receives every day at her job as a waitress for a catering company. It’s something she’s unfortunately become an expert at, first seen sitting on the toilet of her rundown apartment as her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) asks if she has half of the rent. A coincidence could be her ticket to a better life, as recently #MeToo canceled tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), who is the prime benefactor of the charity event she’s catering. It’s all part of his apology tour, with the reason for his cancellation never being revealed, an omission that Kravitz and co-writer E.T. Feigenbaum feel that we can fill with our own doomscrolling mentality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcmfonGWY4 The meet-cute between Frida and Slater is a rousing success, so much so that he invites her to his private island with some of his friends. Phones are strictly prohibited, replaced with endless shots of tequila, lavishly prepared meals by the seemingly brainwashed staff, and a drug that takes you to another world. It’s a perfect vacation… almost too perfect. Days and nights begin to blur together, with Frida and the other women’s memories starting to fade the longer they stay. The casting of Christian Slater, Simon Rex, and Haley Joel Osment as Slater’s entourage immediately rings the alarm that nothing good is ever going to happen on the island. Each of them is a “nice guy” on the outside, asking the women if they’re having a good time and constantly snapping photos to prove how much of an ally they are. Roberto Bonelli’s production design is eerily perfect as well, the bold red house being the center point where all the lush green grass converges. The visual connections to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery remain strong as everyone is dressed in their finest whites, with DP Adam Newport-Berra always placing the background just out of focus and filled with unknown entities. The editing by Kathryn J. Schubert may be the most stylized tool in Kravitz’s arsenal, with a mixture of quick cuts matched with startling string scratches and long takes that drip-feed through the villa. It can sometimes be a little too showy for its own good, with Kravitz overplaying her hand and underestimating her audience. It’s propulsive once the cork pops off the wine bottle, with quite a few scenes of brutality to match what’s been lurking underneath. Kravitz’s stature as an actor may have been why she was able to assemble such a stacked ensemble. She directs them all impeccably, with Ackie and Adria Arjona (seen this year in Hit Man ) being the standout leaders. They’ve put themselves into an “adapt or die” situation, and the actors are in lockstep with the material at every turn. Rex, Slater, and Osment don’t do much adapting to the material, which isn’t a bad thing considering their presence already sells their character dynamics. Tatum leads us into the darkness with his charm, his vape pen, and holistic views on therapy, building up a “crypto bro” aura to mask his true intentions. Kyle MacLachlan and Geena Davis suffer from the number of actors on display, with the pair always feeling relatively insignificant. Even with all the devilish debauchery at play, fun is still the name of the game with Blink Twice . It’s meant to be a thriller that has you gripping the seat and jolting into the arms of the person sitting next to you. Kravitz wants you to be yelling “I knew it!” with each new plot twist, a task that is sometimes a little easier than it should be. There’s a lot of satisfaction to be had in that, and also in seeing a person reach a new rung as an artist. Amazon MGM Studios will release Blink Twice in theaters nationwide on August 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

How to Make a Killing February 18, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen What would you do to reclaim something that was stolen from you? Most of us would probably be embarrassed to answer what we’d do for a Klondike bar, let alone the $28 billion fortune that Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) has been owed since birth. Except that “right” is mostly a technicality, and not something he should realistically expect to obtain. By name, he is a member of the Redfellow family, a fabulously wealthy, generational-spanning empire rivaling names like Biltmore, Rockefeller, and Kennedy. They live above the rest of America in their Long Island estate named Huntington, which originally served as the title for this film. Becket’s mother was the daughter of Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris), the lion who sits atop the family rock. “Was” is a word used both literally and figuratively. Her illegitimate pregnancy from a lowly band member had her ostracized; the years of struggling as a single mother at the poverty line culminated in her death from illness. Before she left, she taught Becket everything she knew about being rich, such as shooting a bow, ordering the right wine with a meal, and dressing for every occasion. Those things didn’t do much for Becket in the present as he lived on the outskirts of New Jersey. But it would pay off one day, with her final words of wisdom being that he should live the life he deserves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxBof_p3_es Interestingly, she didn’t mention anything about the money. But it was kind of the elephant in that sad hospital room, something so tantalizing that it could be used to rationalize using extreme measures to achieve her final mortal wish. It’s also not hard to feel a little entitled to the money when the actual possessors haven’t done anything else to earn it. Why should they get all the fun, while Becket gets none of it? What if Becket were to cut the line by pruning a few branches from the family tree? And like cigarettes or Oreos, once you’ve had one, there’s no way to stop. For both Becket and writer/director John Patton Ford, this whole thing comes a little too easily. The seven family members standing in the way of the fortune are all vapid assholes, the kind of self-aggrandizing sort that we’ve been inundated with over the past few years in this wave of “eat the rich” cinema. Youngest Taylor (Raff Law) is a fratboy partier; Noah (Zach Woods) is a pretentious visual artist who calls himself “White Basquiat”; and Steven (Topher Grace) is a scam-artist pastor. There’s supposed to be a challenge/conflict inflicted upon the audience at the sight of people being murdered simply on the assumption that Becket is more worthy of the fortune. Does it make us bad if we’re enjoying the carnage? That would be a question to wrestle with had the material supposed more of a bite. As it currently stands, it’s too shiny, sleek, and willing to please rather than provoke. It’s an adaptation of the 1949 Ealing Studios dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets , the kind that Minnesota’s own Coen brothers later championed loosely and directly with Fargo and The Ladykillers . The influence of American Psycho is also quite apparent, even down to the white poster featuring Powell in a suit with slicked hair akin to Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman. Taking on the role of a bad person is one of the biggest tests of an actor’s ability to have the audience stick with them. Leonardo DiCaprio ( The Wolf of Wall Street ), Brad Pitt ( Fight Club ), Bryan Cranston ( Breaking Bad ), and Robert De Niro ( Taxi Driver ) have it in them. I’m still not sure if Powell does on that same level. This is the other side of the coin to his charming turn in Hit Man from a few years ago. However, the disguises and charisma in Richard Linklater’s film were used to explore how much of our identity is a performance. Here, it’s mostly just for show. Good things come to those who wait, a mantra that Ford doesn’t follow enough in his sophomore feature. The framing device of Becket narrating this story from a jail cell is a momentum killer; the victims are uninspired caricatures, and the presentation is merely watchable. For all the extravagance thrown around, this whole thing feels little more than a cheap exercise in posturing. A24 will release How to Make a Killing in theaters nationwide on February 20th 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 2025 Lineup Predictions April 3, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Film festivals are a lot like whack-a-mole. When one ends, the anticipation for the next begins. Sundance always kicks things off in January high up in the mountains of Utah, followed then by Berlin Film Festival in February, and SXSW in March. Now all eyes turn to the most prestigious festival of them all: Cannes. Cannes' influence on the awards season has grown exponentially over the past decade. Their Official Competition has fielded two best picture winners in Parasite and Anora ; as well as nominees like Triangle of Sadness , Anatomy of a Fall , The Zone of Interest , The Substance , and Emilia Pérez . This expansion has gone hand-in-hand with the international growth of the Academy, with these new members being more accepting of the highbrow work that Cannes has always prided itself on. With that kind of increased attention comes a greater desire for filmmakers and studios to birth their new works on the Croisette. Delegate General Thierry Fremaux will have to navigate a minefield to select the twenty-ish films that comprise this year's Official Competition. There will be no shortage of mainstays looking to get their customary slot, as well as several newcomers looking to make a splash on the world's biggest stage. The festival will announce its full lineup on April 10. Until then, I'll take a deep dive into the field and predict which ones are likely to be given the honor of climbing the coveted red steps this year. THE HEADLINERS Alpha Now that Coralie Fargeat just stormed Cannes with The Substance , the ball is back in Titane writer/director Julia Ducournau's court to unleash a new tale of biological horror. Neon is once again backing her, with Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani starring. The rumored plot follows a teenager who is mistreated by classmates once they believe she carries an infectious disease. As with Titane and Raw , that information will likely be just the tip of the iceberg. Die, My Love Not many filmmakers have a stronger bond with Cannes than Lynne Ramsay. The Scottish-born director has debuted each of her four feature films at the festival, as well as her early shorts. She'll be breaking her eight-year absence with a story about a mother struggling to keep her sanity. Jennifer Lawrence will star as the mother, with Robert Pattinson as her partner. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother When thinking of established American directors to make Cannes their home, you’d tend to think of the Coens and Wes Anderson. But it’s actually Jim Jarmusch that deserves to be at (or at least near) the top of that list as he’s premiered eleven feature films on the Croisette since 1984. His highest point was 2005’s Broken Flowers , which took home the Grand Prix. He began shooting his new film in the fall and late winter of 2023, recruiting the likes of Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, and Vicky Krieps. Highest 2 Lowest Spike Lee is already 0/1 on English-language remakes of famous Asian films, his version of Oldboy was so terrible that 99% of filmmakers would steer very clear of that territory ever again. But Lee isn't like anybody else, and he's enlisted his most trusted accomplice, Denzel Washington, to pull off this reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller. A24 and Apple TV+ are backing the project, with all parties interested in making a big splash before this hits theaters in the summer. No Other Choice 2022's Decision to Leave was one of director Park Chan-wook's most successful films, nabbing him the coveted Best Director prize at the festival. He'll likely return this year for his fifth appearance in competition with a Korean adaptation of the 1997 horror thriller novel The Ax . Lee Byung-hun will star as an unemployed man who, in an act of desperation, starts to kill all the other applicants for the new job he needs. Sentimental Value The Norwegian band that brought you 2021's The Worst Person in the World is back together! Joachim Trier is in the director's chair, Eskil Vogt is in the writer's room with him, and Renate Reinsve is in front of the camera. Brought into the fold is Stellen Skarsgård as Reinsve's film director father, who offers her the lead role in his next film. Neon preemptively acquired North American rights to the project, signaling their hunger to nab their sixth consecutive Palme d'Or. The Phoenician Scheme Cannes thrives on star power to fill its historic red carpet, and Wes Anderson always has enough to go around. His newest cast will feature no less than Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, and Benicio del Toro in a comedic espionage thriller. Focus Features just dated the film for a theatrical release beginning on May 30, all but confirming a return to the Croisette. The Secret Agent The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho has quietly delivered some of the best-reviewed titles in each of the years he's been at Cannes. His last appearance in the Official Competition was in 2019 with Bacurau , which tied for the Jury Prize with Les Misérables . His latest project will be set in 1977, following a man who is on the run from a violent past. Walter Salles' I'm Still Here just put Brazil on the map at Venice last year with a similar story, will Filho do the same at Cannes this year? The Young Mother's Home If I were a gambling man, I would bet my entire life savings on the fact that the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will premiere their latest film at Cannes. The duo have debuted their previous ten films on the Croisette dating back to 1996, with 1999’s Rosetta and 2005’s L’enfant both winning the Palme d’Or. They’ve also won the Best Screenplay ( Lorna’s Silence ) and Best Director awards ( Young Ahmed ), as well as the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury on three separate occasions. Their newest feature will tell the story of five young mothers striving for a better life for themselves and their children. Production began last fall, giving the brothers plenty of time to prepare for a record-breaking Palme d’Or run. THE LOYALISTS An Affair Arnaud Desplechin has made nearly a dozen appearances at the festival between the main competition and the sidebars. While his last few films have been disappointments, last year's Filmlovers! was met with great acclaim, renewing his standing invitation. He's got François Civil starring as a virtuoso pianist living an impossible love story. Eagles of the Republic Like much of the Western world, Cannes still remains slow to appreciate projects that originate from Africa. The Egyptian-born Tarik Saleh won the Best Screenplay prize at the 2022 edition of the festival with Cairo Conspiracy , the second film in his Cairo trilogy that will be concluded with this year's Eagles of the Republic . It follows an actor who is pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities. Nouvelle Vague While we’ll have to wait almost another two decades for Richard Linklater’s ambitious adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along , the famed Texan filmmaker has something up his sleeve that will be irresistible to the Cannes brass. He'll be making his French-language debut with his retelling of the production of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless , complete with appearances by all the famous French New Wave figures that aided in solidifying the status that Cannes has within the industry. It’s been twenty years since Linklater last competed on the Riviera (2005’s Fast Food Nation ), so it's time for him to be brought back into the fold. Rosebush Pruning Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz has appeared in the competition lineup for the previous two editions of the festival with Firebrand and Motel Destino . The relatively muted reception to those films follows a similar trajectory throughout the rest of his Cannes career, placing a little bit of doubt on his usual standing invitation. But he's assembled his starriest cast yet in his new film, enlisting Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Callum Turner, Tracy Letts, Jamie Bell, and Riley Keough in a story about a family all suffering with genetic illnesses on their estate. If this is Aïnouz's last chance to make an impression, he's at least taking the no guts, no glory approach. Silent Friend Hungarian writer/director Ildikó Enyedi did herself no favors by making her Official Competition debut with 2021's The Story of My Wife , her weakest film. However, the casting of the legendary Tony Leung in the lead role of her new project could more than well make up for that fault. The interesting concept also helps, with Leung playing an old tree observing life as he stands in the middle of a botanical garden. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele The Russian-born Kirill Serebrennikov has debuted his previous four features at Cannes, most recently last year with his English-language debut Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie . He shot his newest film before that one premiered, a retelling of notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during his fugitive years in South America. August Diehl, everyone's favorite actor for playing Nazis, will play the doctor. The Mastermind Showing Up received the most attention and praise of writer/director Kelly Reichardt's career when it premiered on the final day of the 2022 edition of the festival. It only makes sense for all parties to continue the relationship, especially with her new project being a crime thriller starring Josh O'Connor as an art thief. Reichardt has often been the unsung hero of independent cinema, so it's about time she received some laurels on a big stage. Vie Privée Writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski has been a staple of the sidebars, competing in Critics’ Week, Un Certain Regard, and Directors’ Fortnight. Will this be the time she finally graduates to the main competition? She's got none other than Jodie Foster leading her next film as a psychiatrist who mounts a private investigation after she believes that one of her patients has been murdered. Virginie Efira and Mathieu Amalric are also part of the cast. Yes! Success has followed Nadav Lapid wherever he goes as of late. He won the Golden Bear at Berlin for Synonyms in 2019, and then the Jury Prize at Cannes for Ahed's Knee in 2021. While it's definitely a coincidence, Lapid seems to be taking inspiration from Jim Carrey's 2008 Yes Man for his next feature, which will also be about a man who can only answer "yes" to every question asked to him. The Israeli Film Fund gave it backing last year, and it was pitched at the Cannes Investor Circle, so Lapid has always been interacting on the Croisette with this project. THE UP-AND-COMERS / QUESTION MARKS Eddington After three much-discussed features with A24, Ari Aster has shed his newcomer status and become one of the leading figures of American independent cinema. His new film is certainly a step up, with a cast comprised of Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. If any audience is going to be receptive to Aster's craziness on the first go-around, it would be Cannes. Miroirs No. 3 Along with Hong Sang-soo, German writer/director Christian Petzold is one of the most consistent headlining figures of the Berlin Film Festival. However, he was notably absent from this year's lineup, likely due to the time constraint caused by his newest film beginning production in the fall. The question is now if he'll wait a whole year to finally claim the elusive Golden Bear, or pivot to another major European festival. Cannes would be happy to have Petzold's, especially since it marks another reteaming of the director with the luminous Paula Beer. Orphan László Nemes began his career in 2015 at the top of the mountain. His film Son of Saul won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and then the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (now named Best International Feature). He debuted his follow-up, Sunset , in 2018 at Venice to less acclaim and attention. He'll be staying in his native Hungary for his third feature, centering on a young boy who must confront the truth about his father after he turns out to be alive after being presumed dead. Nemes' usual collaborators co-writer Clara Royer and cinematographer Mátyás Erdely are back as well. Resurrection Chinese mainland director Bi Gan was the talk of the town in 2018 when he debuted Long Day's Journey Into Night , complete with the one-hour-long single take, as part of the Un Certain Regard section. Production on his next project, a sci-fi detective story, has been in production for quite some time, supposedly being finished late last year. Multiple producers from all over the world have boarded the project over the past few months, signaling a lot of confidence in what Gan has created. Stitches Angelina Jolie looks to be staying in Paris for one more film. This time she'll be playing an American filmmaker arriving to cover the famed Fashion Week, facing challenges and self-discovery. Cannes veteran Alice Winocour wrote and directed the feature, with her previous effort being the well-reviewed Revoir Paris in 2022. The History of Sound Reports were published last summer that director Oliver Hermanus' new film wouldn't be ready in time for the fall festivals. It would instead use the extra time it had bought to fine-tune and wait for a potential premiere at Cannes. With rising superstars Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal headlining, that bet may pay off quite well. Even if it doesn't appear at Cannes, expect it to be a heavy hitter at Venice, where Hermanus took Living back in 2022. The Love That Remains Hlynur Pálmason's Godland made quite the splash in the Un Certain Regard section in 2022, eventually being shortlisted as Iceland's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. He shot his new film under-the-radar in Iceland last year, which will tell the story of a family as the parents navigate a separation amidst the changing seasons. The film has already been shopped around at the Berlin Film Market for worldwide distribution, signaling that it's ready to go. The big question that remains is if he'll graduate to the Official Competition, or remain in the sidebars. The Wave Cannes got more than they bargained for with Emilia Pérez last year. Would they be willing to program another Spanish-language musical so quickly, this time from renowned filmmaker Sebastián Lelio? His story takes place in his native Chile, centering on a student who gets involved in a feminist movement at her university. Cannes remains one of the few festivals Lelio hasn't made an impression at (his 2009 film Navidad premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section to tepid reviews), giving him all the more reason to represent South American cinema on the world's biggest stage. The Way of the Wind There’s no way to figure out when a Terrence Malick film will be released. All you can do is wait and pray. Malick premiered his last movie, A Hidden Life , at Cannes in 2019, and he also won the Palme d’Or for his magnum opus The Tree Of Life in 2011. He once again has saddled himself with another weighty topic, as The Way Of The Wind will tell several episodes of the life of Jesus Christ, led by a cast of Mark Rylance, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, and Matthias Schoenaerts. Several of Malick’s films have been delayed for years as he endlessly tinkers in the editing room, so there’s no telling when this film will be seen. 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

Awards Update: The People Have Spoken! December 18, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Welcome to an ongoing series where I cover the 2024/2025 awards season. On a regular basis, I will update my Oscar predictions, taking into account the new information that has been received since the last update. Full predictions in every category can be found on the Home and Awards page. The people have spoken! Well, technically only the critics and select industry people have spoken. But even if we’ve only gotten a taste of the full precursor season so far, this is still one of the most formative times of the year, a moment when every publicist needs to decide if their campaign can ease up or slam on the gas pedal. Things are being written in pen rather than pencil, and it’s time to start putting our money where our mouths have been for the past several months. I’ll start by saying that all the money I‘ve been pushing to the middle of the table on the prospects of Blitz for so long has turned into a colossal failure. Between the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice nominations, the Apple TV+ production walked away with one stinking nomination… for Best Young Actor/Actress. In the last update, I mentioned the small possibility that the film could rebound at the BAFTAS. Now I don’t think it matters, the total indifference by the public being so strong that nothing will penetrate it. These past few weeks have hurt double for Saoirse Ronan as her other performance in The Outrun has been blanked just as badly. Let’s move on to greener pastures, which is where films like Emilia Pérez , Conclave , and Wicked have been roaming. Jacques Audiard’s Mexican-set musical cleaned up at the European Film Awards, set a record for the most nominations at the Golden Globes for a comedy/musical film, and tied for the second most nominations at Critics Choice. Conclave and Wicked led in total nominations at the Critics Choice, the former being so strong that I’m even considering moving it to the top of my Best Picture rankings. Anora is still at the peak by default, but I’m still in a “need to see it to believe it” mode for a Sean Baker film to win the televised awards. What are we going to do with The Substance ? That’s a question I’ve been repeatedly asking myself over these past few days. On one hand, the impressive overperformance at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice inspires great confidence in a handful of the above-the-line categories needed to secure a Best Picture nomination. On the other hand, this is still a polarizing film, at least in the sense of its mass appeal. Of course that hasn’t stopped several other films from being nominated over the years, but you’ll forgive me for thinking this case is a little more out there than any of those. It’s right behind A Real Pain for that last slot, although it won’t take much more to convince me it’ll get in. The announcement of the shortlists today for ten of the categories at the Oscars didn’t pack as many surprises as it did in years past. The usual heavy hitters were handsomely rewarded across the board, as did almost all of the predicted contenders for the Best International Feature race. And good ol’ Diane Warren appears again in the Best Original Song category, which we all know will result in another anonymous Oscar nomination. We’ll still have to wait until early January for the rest of the valuable precursors. SAG, DGA, WGA, BAFTA, and PGA will all occur within one week of each other. After that, we’ll have all that we need to make some “factual” predictions. 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

Relay August 18, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Except for its horrendous opening scene conversation between whistleblower Matthew Maher and CEO Victor Garber (going uncredited for his brief cameo), Relay consistently punches way above its weight class. It's got an interesting premise, great talent both in front of and behind the camera, and an eagerness to entertain. Now all it needs is an audience to pick up what it's putting down, or else this will be just another case of a mid-budget film exemplifying the age-old adage of "If a tree falls in a forest..." While Maher's character may be a whistleblower in possession of incriminating documents, his meeting with Garber doesn't serve the purpose we would normally assume. This isn't about one showdown before the bad guy gets their comeuppance. No, this is about doing the (depressingly) logical thing, which is to give the documents back and live to see another day. Being a hero costs a lot more than anyone is willing to pay, and the bad guys are getting more ruthless and efficient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywC__z5VgZM This unofficial surrender doesn't come easy, which is where Tom (Riz Ahmed) comes in to work his magic. He's the unofficial agent for the whistleblower, handling every interaction between them and the company. Of course, this line of work can get quite dangerous. Tom protects his anonymity from everyone by communicating through the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS), which enables people who are deaf to communicate with standard telephone users. Sarah (Lily James) is the newest client for Tom. She's stolen documents proving the cover-up of the fact that her company's newest lab product has cancerous side effects. Sam Worthington's team of ex-special forces operatives has surveilled and harassed her day and night on behalf of the company, and it's Tom's job to get her out of the mud. Ahmed may already be an Oscar nominee for his work in Sound of Metal , but Relay provides the most powerful example of his leading man capabilities. His first line of dialogue doesn't come until the film enters its second act, allowing Ahmed to flex his presence throughout the cat-and-mouse proceedings. He dons a few disguises, pulls some switcheroos that would make Ethan Hunt blush, and has a no-nonsense attitude about getting the job done with as little interference as possible. Movie logic dictates that the main character's strict moral and/or professional code must be broken on the next job they take, especially if said job is supposed to be their last. Screenwriter Justin Piasecki doesn't shy away from those clichés, wrapping them around strong characters to bolster the narrative. We follow the job from beginning to end, learning the complex directions (and misdirections) Tom must follow to keep himself one step ahead. It's incredibly physically and mentally draining work, with no affirming reward beyond the simple act of survival. Director David Mackenzie, returning to the silver screen after a seven-year hiatus that included a detour into television, makes sure that the struggle is incredibly satisfying to watch unfold. The kineticism is akin to an espionage thriller, with Tony Doogan's late-night score providing a smoky, cool atmosphere. The camera flows freely within the real-life settings, lending authenticity to this life-and-death story that goes unnoticed in plain sight. Bleecker Street will release Relay in theaters nationwide on August 22nd. 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

I Care a Lot February 25, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Have you ever stopped to think about how we treat our elderly in America? Once they reach a certain age and things start to get more difficult, we ship them off to a glorified daycare that they never return from. It’s a process we never want to think about, as it gives us a guilty conscience. But that exact feeling of guilt and shame is something that writer/director J Blakeson wants you to confront in his new film, I Care a Lot , a part social satire, part crime thriller. “I’m not a lamb, I’m a (expletive) lioness,” says Marla Grayson as she opens the movie, shunning us, the audience, for thinking we’re good people when we enable her to do so much evil. Marla is a state-appointed legal guardian who looks after elderly people who are deemed too unwell to care for themselves. Marla swoops in, ships the person to a secure retirement home, and seizes all their assets for herself. It's a lucrative occupation that is buoyed by an American public unwilling to care for its own. I Care a Lot is as black as a black comedy can be. There is not one single nice character within this whole movie, and not one single nice deed is done. It’s two hours of theft, manipulation, and in some cases, murder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D40uHmTSPew The first half of the film dives deep into the scandalous nature of retirement care, which is treated as a crime ring. The process starts as Marla uses her doctor contact to scout patients who are both wealthy and healthy enough to be a perennial cash cow. In exchange for a monetary sum, the doctor recommends to a judge that Marla be the patient’s guardian. Marla then auctions off the patient’s belongings, using the funds to pay herself and the exorbitant retirement home fees she's negotiated under-the-table with the manager. It’s a grueling process that becomes harder to stomach as time goes on, but Blakeson doesn’t want us to look away; he wants to see what we’re complicit in. Rosamund Pike plays Marla in a role she was born to play. Sporting a sharp blonde bob, stunning suits, and taking huge drags from the world’s largest vape pen, Pike commands the screen every second she’s on. It’s a towering performance similar to that of her Oscar-nominated role in Gone Girl . She’s certifiably crazy, extremely ambitious, and scary as hell. Pike has already been Golden Globe-nominated this year for Best Performance in a Comedy, which is ironic since the only kind of laughing I did while watching this was nervous laughter. With the second half, Blakeson takes a sharp turn away from social satire and into an increasingly wild crime thriller. Marla has taken a “golden goose” under her care, someone named Jennifer Peterson (a perfect Dianne Wiest), who has no living family and a lot of money to spend on medical fees. But the predator quickly becomes the prey as it is discovered that Jennifer isn’t who they think she is. Turns out she’s connected to the Russian mafia, run by a sadistic Peter Dinklage. This is the part of the movie where you will either throw your hands up in disgust or gleefully delve into the chaotic mess. The second half is inferior to the first as it trades its bite for conventional plotting. It also tests your connection with Marla as you instinctively root for her to win against the mafia, even though she clearly is the villain in the grand scheme of things. At times, you wonder who is worse between the two of them. Even then, there is a lot of fun to be had watching her get out of this deadly situation. You do have to suspend some disbelief, but what movie doesn’t make you do that? The score by Marc Canham takes a lot of inspiration from the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems . Like the tonal shift of the plot, the synthesized music starts playful, but gets darker as Marla descends into the criminal underworld. I Care a Lot is a pitch-black comedy in the similar vein of Gone Girl and Uncut Gems . It’s both a scathing satire on the retirement system in America and an entertaining crime thriller boasting a terrific performance from leading lady Rosamund Pike. Netflix will release I Care a Lot on its streaming service on February 19th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Fair Play February 2, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Netflix must have had big Promising Young Woman prospects when spending a festival-record $20 million on writer/director Chloe Domont's debut feature, Fair Play . Fennell's 2020 Oscar-winning film has laid the path for similarly biting films to gain recognition, and Domont follows close to that model with her thrilling examination of gender politics and relationships within the corporate world. But while Fair Play is quite provocative with its mixture of sex and violence, much of it comes to its detriment when the credibility of its authenticity comes into question during the third-act climax. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are the usual extremely motivated Wall Street up-and-comers that you've come to expect. Along with their undying motivation for their careers, they also can't take a break from each other. Their physical passion is unmatched, evidenced by an impromptu hookup in the bathroom at Luke's brother's wedding, which Luke wildly takes as an opportunity to propose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vICUPlr3EEI Despite now proving their undying love for each other in private, they must keep their relationship a secret in public, as they both work for the same high-stakes hedge fund where office romance is strictly forbidden. The couple makes it work most of the time, professionally speaking to each other and only passing glances when no one is looking. But all bets are off when a senior employee is fired, and his position is up for grabs. The pair must juggle their ambitions with their loyalty to each other, along with keeping their indiscretions under the rug. Domont depicts the world of high finance as a pressure cooker that melts even the brightest people down into monsters. If Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (smartly) glorified the life of wheeling and dealing, Fair Play offers a sobering reality. A glaring Eddie Marsan sits in his corner office, ready to berate his employees at any moment. The underlings are constantly pitted against each other, with loyalty disintegrated whenever the slightest hint of upward mobility comes into play. Emily and Luke initially try their best to sidestep the rat race, with each offering the usual "may the best man win" rhetoric. But when Luke makes that statement, he means it literally, as it slowly starts to dawn on Emily that he sees a significant difference between them based on their gender. Ehrenreich brings that toxic alpha-male energy to Luke. He's someone who says all the right things to your face (usually laced with an unhealthy amount of curse words), but you know he doesn't believe any of it. This is a world where men usually get what they want, and their inflated egos come crashing down when they’re "unfairly" passed over. Domont doesn’t portray Emily as a saintly female in a sea of testosterone, with Dynevor, already a Netflix star through Bridgerton , packing a hard edge in her performance. There are no heroes in this story, only those who get their hands dirty and those who get them dirtier. The carnal influence of Adrian Lyne (who marked any unceremonious return last year with Deep Water ) is apparent, with Domont blending the dour and gleeful to semi-positive results. There's a hearty (and unhealthy) amount of excitement you get out of people taking down one another, even if the reasoning behind all of it is morally corrupt. Things do come off the rails alarmingly quickly during the climax when the theatricality of the situation greatly overpowers the reality. The messaging is obvious in volume, but a bit murky in tone, leaving things not as nicely wrapped as the presentation would signal. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Netflix will release Fair Play in select theaters on September 29th, followed by its streaming premiere on October 13th. 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

Jurassic World: Rebirth July 1, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me six times, shame on both of us, I guess? In its thirty-two-year-long existence and now seven-film catalogue, the Jurassic Park franchise has produced only a single decent entry: Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1993 original. A .142 batting average would get a major league baseball player sent down to the minor leagues the next day. In Hollywood, it nets you billions of dollars. Rebirth is the worst kind of baseball player: the kind who strikes out looking. Despite nearly all of its swings missing by an ever-increasing number the longer it stood at the plate, the Jurassic World trilogy at least had the gumption to have an idea about what’s next in the prehistoric cycle of life. Rebirth isn’t remotely concerned with evolution, just survival. It’s a scientific fact that 99.9% of species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct. Time has proven that survival isn’t enough. Now I’m counting down the days until this franchise gets kicked out of that exclusive 0.1% club. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jan5CFWs9ic It’s no secret that nostalgia in its most weaponized form has been the oxygen that keeps this dying flame from completely going out. Nostalgia for the first time you saw a dinosaur on screen, so real that you could have walked up and touched it. Nostalgia for John Williams’ score, which immediately evokes a sweeping grandeur. Nostalgia for the one-liners coming from likeable characters. Rebirth attempts at mimicking all that without an ounce of shame. Even when it does hit the target, which, to be clear, is not often, the positive effects have been diluted down. Another shady company wants something from another dinosaur-infested island, which means another ragtag group of characters must defy another set of million-to-one odds in order to live to see another day. Supplying the financial motivation is Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a representative of ParkerGenix, whose top scientists have found out that the blood of three dinosaurs is the final ingredient to developing a miracle cure for heart disease. Ex-special forces Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) is the hired muscle, Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) is providing the on-the-ground paleontology expertise, and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) is the only boat captain brave enough to venture into certain death. There are a few other members of this expedition, but the absence of their names from the poster immediately signifies that their sole responsibility is to be dinosaur food. With stars like this, there’s an innate likability to these characters. Unfortunately, you leave the theater with nothing more than what you brought in. I’d estimate that 80% of Bailey’s character is his cute glasses and sweater. Returning from the original film and its immediate sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park , screenwriter David Koepp pushes past all notions of characterization, truncating important aspects like motivation and depth. Running in conjunction and sometimes parallel to all of this is the story of a family stranded on the island after a whale-like dinosaur called a Mosasaur capsizes their boat. Their fight for survival grinds down any sense of momentum and tension, with long stretches of children in weightless peril. Director Gareth Edwards at least has the sense to create a pretty picture through some sun-baked imagery. As evidenced by his 2014 Godzilla film and The Creator , Edwards has a knack for establishing large-scale spectacle. What needs to be improved is executing on that promise. There isn’t a signature moment of awe or terror here, just several okay-ish copy-and-pasted sequences from previous entries. It’s worth pointing out that I’ve never had a fascination for either this franchise or dinosaurs in general. Heck, I didn’t see Jurassic Park until 2020, and that was because a local cinema programmed it to stay afloat during the COVID-19 drought, and I was going through withdrawals from not being in the theater for months. But even if these retreads hit all the right buttons for you, don’t you want more? Don’t you want to see at least an attempt at charting a new path? A better word than “rebirth” would have been “regurgitation.” Universal Pictures will release Jurassic World: Rebirth in theaters nationwide on July 02nd. 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

Devotion November 19, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen There have been several instances of two nearly identical movies released questionably close to each other. 1998 saw both the A Bug’s Life/Antz and Armageddon/Deep Impact debacles, with the former winning out in each scenario. And 2013 had both Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down , with the former winning again as it gained two sequels in London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen . Now in 2022, we have Top Gun: Maverick and Devotion , two aviation-centered films that star Glen Powell and feature a sequence where one fighter pilot has to save his buddy after they crash land in a snowy forest. And just like all the other examples, the former (clearly) wins out in this case, with Maverick soaring high above the clouds while Devotion never gets off the ground. To give both movies the benefit of the doubt, their similarities in both plot and release dates are due to circumstances mostly outside of their control. Maverick was shot in 2019 and ready to go in early 2020, but was held for release until this summer on account of Tom Cruise’s insistence on a full-scale theatrical release (a bet that paid off in full as the film became the highest-grosser of the year and Cruise’s career at $1.5 billion). Devotion didn’t sit on the shelf as long, with filming taking place in early 2021 and normal visual effects work taking place afterward. And to Devotion’s credit again, its story is based on actual people and events during the Korean War, while Maverick is entirely fictional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCDEGP6VjYY But the one thing that Maverick has (in spades) that Devotion doesn’t is a sense of energy and thrill. That unparalleled theatrical experience is why Maverick will likely outgross franchise blockbuster staples like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water . Director J.D. Dillard doesn’t try to replicate that for Devotion , instead giving it a more dignified sense of importance through slower pacing and subtlety. It’s an admirable angle, at least on paper. But in execution, it strips the film of all forward momentum and makes the 138-minute runtime feel like 1380 minutes. Jonathan Majors stars as Jesse Brown, one of the only African-American aviators within the Navy. Jesse is the strong and silent type, mostly because he knows that standing up to anyone or lashing out in anger will destroy all his life’s work. Transferring in as his new wingman is Tom Hudner (Glen Powell, also an executive producer). The pair don’t become fast friends, but they do become brothers born in combat as they get shipped off to the frontlines of Korea as the threat of a third World War becomes evermore present. Like Dillard’s direction, Jack Crane and Jonathan Stewart’s stilted screenplay doesn’t play above the military tropes we’ve come to expect. There’s flyboy camaraderie, a racist bully, a mission with 1000/1 odds, and a spouse back at home getting teary-eyed as she reads letters on the front step. Majors and Powell do their best to inject a little life from time to time, but there’s nothing they can do to battle the mundanity of everything surrounding them. It’s hard to imagine who Devotion will fully satisfy. Enthusiasts of historical dramas (such as myself) will find it all too simplistic and clichéd; action junkies won’t walk away awed by the CGI-tainted flight set pieces, and Majors and Powell fans won’t get anything from their by-the-book characters. Just as the Korean War holds the moniker “America’s forgotten war,” Devotion will have to make do with being “America’s forgotten 2022 aviation film.” Sony Pictures Releasing will release Devotion in theaters nationwide on November 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen