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Fountain of Youth May 22, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Guy Ritchie is a very busy man. Since 2020, the British writer/director has released five feature films ( The Gentlemen , Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre , The Covenant , and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ) and directed multiple episodes of The Gentlemen and MobLand for Netflix and Paramount+, respectively. He's also got two more feature films already in the can ( In the Grey , Wife and Dog ), and recently signed on to direct the sequel to the Jake Gyllenhaal starring Road House reboot and a Sherlock Holmes origin story television series for Amazon Prime. The only stone left to acquire in his streaming service Infinity Gauntlet is Apple TV+, which is where his newest film, Fountain of Youth , comes into play. And just like the Avengers had to suffer for Thanos to get his final stone in Infinity War , so do we across the 125-minute lifespan of this ultra-bland adventure film. I'm a fan of Ritchie, with his swaggering, self-assured brand of filmmaking being effortlessly entertaining. There's a slickness to everything he does, usually just a cut above what a standard director would produce. Based on his blitz of output over the last half-decade, I could almost forgive him for coasting a little bit here. Everyone needs a break, or has an off day where they just didn't have their head in the game. Except I don't think Ritchie had his head within the vicinity of the stadium for this project, let alone near the court. Take, for instance, the cookie-cutter opening chase scene set within the alleyways of Bangkok. We're meant to feel like we've been dropped right in the middle of a chaotic situation, except there isn't an ounce of energy to pull us in. The overcooked editing seems to be a symptom of the need to hide the stunt performers, their presence being quite obvious anytime the camera catches their face. The motivation for this chase stems from Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) having stolen a piece of artwork from a notorious gangster. Except he didn't take it for the money, just the clue hidden on its backside. Once he finds the other five paintings and puts together the pieces of the puzzle, he'll unlock the location of the mythical Fountain of Youth and possess all the treasures it promises. But just like he doesn't care about the value of the artwork he has to steal, Luke also doesn't prioritize the pot of gold at the end of the journey. The journey is a big enough reward by itself, and there's never been a bigger and more thrilling one than this. His sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman), on the other hand, finds herself on a journey towards divorce. She left her high-flying life with Luke a decade ago to raise a family, although everyone knows she hasn't been nearly as happy since. Almost like destiny, her job as the curator of an art museum housing one of the paintings Luke needs brings the siblings together again. Krasinski and Portman are both good actors, but they're ill-suited for this type of film. For Krasinski, he's going way overboard with his Indiana Jones audition/impression. Harrison Ford was effortlessly charming, and Krasinski seems to never stop trying here. And the more you try to make something happen, the less it will. Portman has always been a performer who loses her edge once the budgets for the projects creep into eight figures. She's someone who thrives on making big, risky choices for assured directors like Todd Haynes ( May December ) and Pablo Larraín ( Jackie ). Ritchie doesn't possess that skill, leaving Portman lost at sea. To the actor's defense, there isn't much within James Vanderbilt's script to lift them out of the depths. Everything feels designed to be viewed through the prism of a streaming service. New locations and set pieces are introduced every fifteen minutes, and characters speak only in plotlines. Luke and his team even have a fancy PowerPoint presentation pre-made for Charlotte, themselves taking turns explaining the history and importance of their mission. It's the bare minimum to keep you from turning it off, but never enough to keep you interested in what's happening next. That mantra might as well be extended to the whole project, although I'd recommend not even bothering to begin with. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Wonka December 13, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Have you ever wanted to know the origin story of Willy Wonka? No? Well too bad! The good chaps on the Warner Bros. executive board needed a four-quadrant product to help boost the Q4 2023 earnings report and good ol’ Willy was the character on the board that the dart landed on. It was either him or Will Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf. But don’t worry too much, as you might actually enjoy this piece of commerce, as writer/director Paul King of the Paddington films brings enough whimsical charm to make it all go down as smoothly as the titular character’s chocolate. Debts, ledgers, profits, margins, fine print, cartels, bribes, and monopolies. These are the words you would be familiar with finding in a film about The Great Recession or about drug trafficking, not a film about Willy Wonka. But the candy on the island where Willy (Timothée Chalamet) sets his sights on making his fortune might as well be drugs, as it rules over the economy and everyday life of its citizens. The decadent Galeries Gourmet is where you go to sell your chocolate. But you need a shop to legally sell it, and the three main chocolatiers/tycoons - Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber - have an iron-clad grip on the trade through police influence and price fixing. “The greedy beat the needy” is the motto of the town’s poor, whom Willy joins when he’s swindled into indentured servitude by the mean laundry woman Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman). This all sounds a bit depressing, doesn’t it? There’s a clear Dickensian feel to everything, with King and co-writer Simon Farnaby never shying away from the darkness that often appears in Roald Dahl’s stories. Willy is an orphan just like Noodle (Calah Lane), a young girl Mrs. Scrubbit took in as a baby and forced to be her eternal personal servant. The one thing Willy has that sets him apart is his optimism, which he often lets out through some jovial songs. The marketing department at WB may not have wanted you to know that this was a musical, but King and Chalamet are more than ready to knock your socks off through the power of showmanship. The songs are not all hits as Chalamet acts like a kid on a high school stage, speaking out to the crowd with glee. His version of Willy veers a little closer to Johnny Depp than Gene Wilder, packing enough mystery into his abilities that you sometimes wonder if he’s even human. Paddington alums Sally Hawkins and Hugh Grant followed King over here, with the former playing Wonka’s deceased mother and the latter an Oompa Loompa. It’s hard to look away from Grant as the four-foot-tall green-haired creature on account of his inherent charm and the awkwardness of his face being superimposed on a CG creation. It’s only about two steps better than what Corey Stoll got as MODOK in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania back in February. There’s also a bevy of likable supporting players like Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Carter, and Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, the leader of a group of corrupt monks who guard the stolen chocolate for the cartel. Paul King’s Wonka is possibly the best version of such a depressingly deep-rooted concept. It’s harmless, regularly fun, and offers a little something for both kids and adults. It doesn’t have the rewatchability of the 1971 original, but it’s got a lot more than Tim Burton’s crazed (and sometimes underappreciated) 2005 remake. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Highest 2 Lowest August 15, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Matter cannot be created or destroyed. To receive something, you must be willing to give something up. For record mogul David King (Denzel Washington), a man dubbed to have “the best ears in the business” and a trophy cabinet filled with dozens of Grammys, receiving his golden nest egg after decades of work building an empire may come at the cost of his legacy. The offer from a private equity firm will ensure long-term financial resources for the label, but will also squeeze out every last drop of respectability. That push-and-pull is the most interesting aspect of director Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest , which also happens to involve a central plot about David’s son being kidnapped and held for ransom. Going the same route that Steven Spielberg ventured with his 2021 version of West Side Story , Lee and screenwriter Alan Fox side-step Akira Kurosawa’s legendary 1963 film High and Low to instead readapt the source material that was Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom . It’s a wise move considering that Lee’s previous interaction with a celebrated piece of Asian cinema was his 2013 direct remake of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 South Korean film Oldboy , which ended up being a spectacular failure. The setting has returned home to New York City, a place that only Martin Scorsese could potentially rival Lee as its most loyal cinematic artist. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” booms as the camera glides across the aerial skyline of the concrete jungle that is our nation’s biggest and most culturally influential city. The opening credits are tinted with the orange and blue color scheme of the New York Knicks. Yankees fans openly yell expletives defaming Boston, and the city’s Puerto Rican population comes alive for a performance by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. King stands upon his Olympic penthouse balcony overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge when he gets an anonymous call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph). The $17.5 million ransom would eat up all the liquidity King needs to execute a secret plan to buy enough shares to stave off the sale of his company. “There’s more to life than making money,” is something that King says early in the film when his business partner begs him to accept the sale offer. He bemoans that the latter word in the term “show business” has grown exponentially more powerful. One can feel Lee and Washington, marking their fifth collaboration in a partnership spanning over thirty years, personally decrying where the film industry is headed. Tweets about box office results, online debates about profitability, and articles about who’s making the most money illustrate that people are following dollar signs more than the art. And yet, the money always seems to be the most important thing to King in this situation of life and death. In the same sentence where he asks the police how they’ll bring Trey home, he also asks how he’ll get his money back. All money ain’t good money, and this specific bag of money sets off a chain reaction of mayhem. Lee steers a lean and mean machine during the film’s later stretches as King is on the hunt for the perpetrator. The hour it takes to get to that point is much creakier. Lee’s penchant for a big score backfires as Howard Drossin’s intrusive instruments pull away our ears. Fox’s script is littered with rote dialogue, leaving performers like Ilfenesh Hadera as King’s wife to be nothing more than a mouthpiece for the plot. And Matthew Libatique’s digital cinematography (likely done as a business decision due to Apple TV+ housing the film after a brief theatrical run) doesn’t contain any of Lee’s trademark vibrant textures. Washington is still our greatest living actor, endlessly entertaining with a performance that contains the might of King Lear and the lyricism of NLE Choppa. He’s a master of controlling the chaos, something that King reckons with as his usual tight grip is rapidly loosened by external forces. Washington goes toe-to-toe with A$AP Rocky in a battle of bars, the pair each showing a new side to themselves. There’s also Jeffrey Wright nicely balancing weariness and wit as King’s right-hand man, Paul, who’s grateful that he’s been given a second chance after his imprisonment. To have followers, you have to be a leader. Lee is a leader, still doing what he loves through methods only he could pull off, which is what art is all about. He’s still got plenty left in the tank, even as he comes to a point where time comes at a premium price. I’ll follow him up to the highest mountain, and down to the lowest valley. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Current War October 31, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the late nineteenth century, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were the two titans of American innovation. With the country modernizing at a rapid pace, both of them figured that there needed to be a better way to power society than just candles and gas. After some years of development, they both discovered different ways to transmit electric current. Edison stood behind his Direct Current (DC) and Westinghouse championed his Alternating Current (AC). They were similar designs, each with their unique benefits and costs. But the country wasn’t big enough for both of them and only one method could prevail. Out of this situation sprang a fierce competition between the two men, a rivalry that was labeled as “the war of the currents”. This war lasted years as they battled endlessly to see whose technology would be the one to forever power and illuminate America. After having a tumultuous time getting to theaters (that’s a whole other story to look up), The Current War finally arrives two years after intended. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the film moves like electricity, zipping from scene to scene. The use of sharp camera work and montages oozes kinetic energy that keeps everything moving at a frantic pace, never ceasing to slow down or end. You’re gripped within the race and linked to the main characters as they tirelessly persist to be the one on top. If you’re not a natural history lover, this technique will keep you endlessly entertained without boring you with historical details. If you are a fan of history, this technique will still entertain you but leave you disappointed as moving the film at the speed of light (or current for that matter) doesn’t allow for deeper learning about the events or people attached to them. Anything that is learned is only surface level as there just isn’t enough time to develop any factual depth. It also doesn’t help that these shallow details become increasingly hard to keep straight, especially as the years go by in minutes and characters are split up into several intertwining storylines. While a miniseries would be the better way to tell this story, The Current War is an exciting way to convey history on the screen. Just like Gomez-Rejon’s use of rapid pacing, writer Michael Mitnick’s screenplay is expeditious and Sorkin-like. The rivalry between our two main giants is fierce as they snap dialogue to beat each other in the labs and the presses. And just like the outcome of the directing, the writing here is entertaining but very hard to follow. Mitnick tries to do too much in too little time as he crams the script to the brim with historical facts. As more information is heaped on, it becomes information overload, and gets increasingly impossible to keep things straight. By the end, you’ll feel like you’ve read a Wikipedia page and will only be able to remember fragments here and there Also, Nikola Tesla shows up in the story and participates in the race. While Tesla does deserve to stand with Edison and Westinghouse in the history books, he doesn’t belong in this already overly-stuffed movie. Starring as the brash Thomas Edison is Benedict Cumberbatch, whose American accent isn’t as convincing as one would think. Like most of Cumberbatch’s performances, you can see the genius of the character within his speech and mannerisms. Thankfully, the genius he plays here isn’t as cold as Sherlock Holmes or Alan Turing. There’s some warmth under Edison’s surface that you can sense through Cumberbatch’s performance. Michael Shannon plays the opposite of Cumberbatch as he is calmer and calculated in his performance of George Westinghouse. He’s the more businessman-like of the two as he carries himself more professionally. Nicholas Hoult plays Nikola Tesla. Just like Cumbertach, Hoult’s Eastern European accent isn’t on point, but it’s fine enough to pass. Hoult does well at making you see the frustration within Tesla as his brilliant ideas are never allowed to flourish. Lastly, Tom Holland does supporting work as Edison’s secretary. As it was filmed before his star power ballooned from Spider-Man, Holland’s role is minor and doesn’t give him much to work with. The Current War is the most entertaining and needlessly confusing movie of the year. All the talent involved makes a great effort, but their good intentions just come up short of making a great movie. But it’s still quite good and deserves to be seen, even if you’d be hard-pressed to absorb and remember most of what it’s trying to teach you. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

After the Hunt October 7, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt opens with the sounds of a ticking clock. With each tick, a routine is established for Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts). She's woken up in the morning by a kiss from her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), takes two pills as she shuffles through their classy apartment, and then struts across the Yale campus to teach her philosophy course. Days go by like the seconds on that looming clock, almost as if you could blink and fast-forward through weeks of monotony. And then, one day, that clock stops, jolting your eyes wide open as you scratch and claw to hang onto all that you have. That occurs the day after Alma and Frederik host a party for the students and faculty. Hank (Andrew Garfield) is the department's resident bad boy, poking and prodding at the generational divide between the guests. He and Alma are good friends, and both are up for the same tenured position. Hank especially likes to mischievously pick on Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), Alma's favorite student, who just submitted her PhD dissertation. Barbs are shared, wine is copiously consumed, and everyone goes home having flexed their favorite philosophical jargon. Maggie appears on Alma's doorstep the next day. She explains that Hank came up to her apartment after walking her home. A few more drinks were shared, and then he "crossed the line." Hank denies the whole thing, spinning a yarn about confronting Maggie for plagiarizing her dissertation, and this being her way of covering it up. Between what she should believe and what she chooses to believe, Alma becomes the third point in this triangle, which opens up old wounds from her conflicted past. Guadagnino and first-time screenwriter Nora Garrett don't allow a single door to be kept open, always half or fully closed. Sightlines are blocked and voices are muffled, leaving assumptions to fill in the gaps. “I’m in the business of optics rather than substance,” says the school dean, a poignant summarization of how these issues are handled. A young male student tells Alma that she will get tenure because higher education now favors women in the post-#MeToo climate. Maggie is a black, queer student in a largely white populous, and she comes from rich parents who have made a handful of sizable donations to the university. These things initially carry as much weight as the facts of the case, eventually growing to bury the truth of the matter underneath layers of excuses and conjecture. But the truth by itself is just as slippery. Guadagnino takes after David Fincher, specifically his idea that “language was invented so people could lie to one another.” Everyone goes into a conversation with an agenda, twisting and turning every syllable beyond its face value. What they can’t control is their body language, which Guadagnino and cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed capture under a microscope. Hands fold at the end of a sentence, and eyes dart once a question is asked. Jonathan Demme’s famous close-ups take a new life here, with the 180-degree rule being broken as characters talk directly towards the camera. In those moments, you can no longer hide from what’s been bubbling over, almost as if you’ve been slapped back awake after spacing out. Roberts is fantastic, presumably taking a lot of inspiration from Cate Blanchett’s performance in Tár . There’s even a similar scene where she scolds a student who dares to question her teachings. Her conviction is supported by her sharp outfits and blonde hair, with every confrontation being a battle she has every intention of winning. But she also carries a loose thread, one that completely unravels her once someone starts to pull on it. Garfield is slimily charming, so full of himself that you’re confident that he is capable of doing bad. And Edebiri finds the gap between naivety and confidence, knowing that she hasn’t been fully stripped of power in this situation. As evidenced by the Woody Allen-inspired credits, Guadagnino isn’t interested in making things comfortable or easy for us. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise, considering the tangledness of previous works like Suspiria and Queer . Any answer will have to be formulated on your own, and subjected to assumptions and doubts. Even the ending betrays what we were left to speculate, fittingly illustrating that a maze can never be solved by going in a straight line. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Martin Scorsese Films October 16, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In the realm of American cinema, few names resonate as powerfully as Martin Scorsese. With a career spanning over five decades, he has crafted a body of work that is as diverse as it is profound. He’s bigger than the gangster films he’s mainly known for, adapting himself to deliver quintessential entries within the sports, noir, biopic, and kids subgenres. It was an extreme challenge to narrow this list down to only ten movies, as a director of his stature has so many masterpieces that even the great ones don’t make the cut. A ranking of the 11-20 entries would still tower over 99% of other filmmakers. Honorable mentions that just missed inclusion were Raging Bull , Hugo , and New York, New York . 10. Gangs of New York Gangs of New York is an epic about the battle for American democracy, often paralleling some of the modern struggles within our government. It features some of Scorsese’s best world-building as he weaves us in and around the catacombs and rickety tinderbox buildings of 1860s New York. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance may not rank as the highest in his filmography, but it doesn’t matter when Daniel Day-Lewis is chewing every scene as the violently charismatic Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting. 9. Taxi Driver Taxi Driver sees New York as it truly was in the 1970s: a cesspool of crime and villainy that no decent person should visit, let alone live in. Scorsese bridges the gap between our thirst for the unseen on screen and how it plays out in reality. There’s a smoky focus on the physical and mental damage done, and how the media can twist evil into a morbid story of vigilante justice. 8. Silence Faith-based movies are often met with skepticism, but the power of Scorsese’s filmmaking is always able to appeal to both sides of the coin. He transports us the 17th-century Japan, a place of clashing cultures that becomes the backdrop for the soul-searching journey of Father Rodrigues. Andrew Garfield painfully captures the inner turmoil of a man battling his faith and the system that surrounds him. 7. The Departed Not many directors can claim that their seventh-best film was the one that netted them both the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. Scorsese blends a taut and intricate plot with stellar performances from its ensemble cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, and Martin Sheen. It was, and still is, one of his most straightforward films, offering escapist thrills through a refined lens. 6. The Irishman At 209 minutes, The Irishman is a true-crime epic. Telling the story of mob hitman Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, the long-gestating project is packed with an all-star cast of Robert De Niro as the titular character as well as Joe Pesci and Al Pacino in career-defining roles. Instead of rehashing his usual gangster formula, Scorsese flips the script and fully exposes the audience to the doom and gloom that a life of crime brings to someone. 5. Goodfellas Goodfellas is the shining testament to Scorsese’s unparalleled brilliance at bringing the world of organized crime to life on the silver screen. It showcases an unapologetic and unflinching portrayal of the mafia lifestyle. We are in the same position as Lorrain Bracco’s Karen Hill, always weary of what’s going on and what’s around the corner, but too blinded by lights to do anything about it. And even when we spin out of control, there’s still a piece of us that wants to do it all over again. 4. The Wolf of Wall Street The exuberance and moral decay of 1980s Wall Street never felt more alluring than it does in The Wolf of Wall Street . But that excitement is also a powerful teacher, showcasing that greed isn’t good. It’s a car crash that you can’t look away from, filmed so kinetically that almost want to be in the driver’s seat. It also took extreme talent from Scorsese and his whole team to set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a film, with the word “fuck” said 506 times. 3. Casino Like the story itself, Casino is as excessive as possible. It was the most Scorsese-like movie Scorsese had made up to that point, featuring all the hallmarks: Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, the rise and fall of the mob, smooth camera movements, an absolute fuckton of swearing, and a roaring soundtrack. It’s compelling and thrilling to watch from minute one to minute one-hundred and seventy-nine. 2. The Aviator This biographical masterpiece flawlessly captures the tumultuous life of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio is perfectly cast here as he was miscast Gangs of New York , brilliantly showcasing Hughes's genius, eccentricity, and inner demons. Scorsese’s meticulous attention to detail recreates Classical Hollywood as we witness the rise and fall of one of cinema’s first titans. 1. The Age of Innocence The costume drama is not a genre one would normally associate with Martin Scorsese. But Scorsese is not a director confined to certain genres. Tender, yet brutal, The Age of Innocence burns with fiery passion while also being extinguished by icy repression. It's a battle of yin and yang that Scorsese perfectly balances with his sumptuous staging and set design. But what always separates Scorsese from the pack is the performances he can bring out. He always seems to find a new level for even the very best such as Daniel Day-Lewis. Winona Ryder radiates and Michelle Pfeiffer incites yearning with her performance. Never has such a naked performance been given under so many layers of clothes. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Rebel Ridge September 5, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen To say that writer/director Jeremy Saulnier had to traverse quite the bumpy road to bring Rebel Ridge , his first film in five years, over the finish line would be quite the understatement. John Boyega was initially slated to star in the leading role, with things progressing far enough for a material amount of the film to be shot in 2021 before he mysteriously backed out . Fresh off roles in Old , The Underground Railroad , and Brother , Aaron Pierre came in as the substitute (a welcome upgrade, which I’ll talk about later) and filming resumed almost a year later. A series of reshoots and pickups followed, with the budget ballooning from the originally reported $25 million to nearly $40 million. Even with all those bad omens, the less-than-stellar release strategy, and not seeing a single frame of the finished product, I knew there was no way that Saulnier would deliver a worse Netflix film with “rebel” in the title than what Zack Snyder has done with his four (two original cuts and two director’s cuts) Rebel Moon features. I realize that that statement doesn’t indicate much praise, so let me be clear: Rebel Ridge will be one of the better/best films that very few people are going to talk about in 2024. I also would like to mention that I intend no disrespect to Boyega and what he would have delivered in this role, as his previous performances outside the Star Wars universe ( Breaking , The Woman King , They Cloned Tyrone ) have their merits thanks to the physicality and emotional depth he brings. However, I also don’t think Boyega would have ever been able to match what Pierre is putting on the table here. Saulnier was spoiled for choice, and he landed on the better of two good options. Pierre plays Terry Richmond, an ex-Marine who finds himself in a small Louisiana town posting bail for his cousin. He’s blasting his heavy metal playlist on his ten-speed bike when he’s driven off the road by a pair of local cops looking to get their daily power trip. Through a convenient loophole in the local justice system, any property seized by the cops under suspicion becomes police property, which means the $36,000 in cash in Terry’s backpack now stays within precinct walls. It doesn’t matter if Terry has receipts for how he acquired it, as the process for fighting the accusation will take months of paperwork that he doesn’t have. Everyone within city hall is either oblivious, complicit, or scared by the corruption. The local sheriff (Don Johnson, continuing his streak of playing conservative scumbags) and his goons keep a tight leash on everything going on within the community, going so far as to threaten and blackmail. But Terry isn’t just any ex-Marine, he’s a martial arts and survival expert who isn’t afraid to chase down a prison bus on a highway with his bike. He doesn’t take a hotel room during his impromptu layover, instead opting to camp in the woods and catch fish with his bare hands. Terry is destined to be the new star of every “alpha bro” account on TikTok, with his ease in kicking ass and taking names being just the sort of thing that attracts the crowd that identifies as lone wolves. But Saulnier doesn’t paint Terry in that light, which has been done so many times before, often poorly. He is one man fighting against a corrupt system, but violence isn’t going to change the entire culture suddenly. Saulnier’s signature visceral violence is still fully on display, only this time with a little more restraint compared to Green Room and Hold the Dark . Bones still snap with furiosity and broken noses gush with blood. But it’s a lot easier to justify murdering Nazis and rogue bounty hunters than boys in blue, no matter how much they’ve turned themselves into a profiteering militia. While Terry does the dirty work, up-and-coming lawyer Summer (AnnaSophia Robb) digs into the litany of paperwork that’s been created to cover up this mess. She and Terry find a connection through what this town has taken from them, and what they must do (and not do) to make things right again. Rebel Ridge is as much a Rambo audition for Pierre and Saulnier as anything that’s come out over the past few years. But both of them have a little more on their mind than just musclebound carnage, leaving us with something both entertaining in its action and engaging with its ideas. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Ambulance April 14, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen A funny thing happened before my screening for Michael Bay’s newest film, Ambulance . During the pre-trailer commercials, a TV spot for Ambulance came on the screen, claiming that it has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of Michael Bay’s entire filmography. Except in their claim, the advertisers neglected to mention what the numerical value was. Knowing that it couldn’t be a coincidental error that they left it out, I quickly did my research and found that the score was 66%, which is a fine score, but nothing to brag about. But when you look at Bay’s other films, which include the dismal Transformers: The Last Knight at 15% and Bad Boys II at 23%, it becomes clear that the bar was really, really low. And with that bar being set to the floor, Ambulance is able to haphazardly clear it as explosions and lens flares go off in the background in true Michael Bay fashion. Michael Bay does not have the time or mental capacity to deliver human drama. Luckily, after years of trying to do just that in Armageddon and Pearl Harbor , Bay has finally thrown his arms up in the air and decided to triple down on giving the people what they want: pure adrenaline-filled mayhem (better known as Bayhem). Ambulance has a plot as thin as a dryer sheet. If this were like 99% of the other films, that would be a major problem. But Bay is that 1% where it doesn’t matter what the story is, as it will almost assuredly be bad, as it still is here. Will Sharpe (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a decorated war hero whose wife needs experimental life-saving surgery. His insurance won’t cover it, and he’s desperate for money. In his time of need, he looks to his adopted brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), who’s followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming a career criminal. He’s looking to make one last score that could net them $32 million from a Los Angeles bank. Despite his reservations, Will agrees to help out in return for a portion of the cut. Of course, things don’t go as planned and the brothers are forced to take an ambulance hostage that also has an EMT (Eiza González) onboard who’s trying to save the life of a wounded police officer. By using addition by subtraction, Bay has cut out the usual fat in his films and delivered one of his leanest films to date. The whole setup for the heist takes less than five minutes, with the rest of the runtime devoted to the action. But just as the advertisers should include an asterisk when claiming this as Bay’s best-reviewed movie, I also need to use an asterisk when calling this Bay’s leanest film since it still comes in at a bloated 136 minutes. Nearly 20-25 minutes could have been shaved off without much detriment to the final product. There are still the usual Bay fetishes here with explosions coming from every angle, guns going bang, and the American military being given the best recruitment commercial they could ever ask for. Bay has even found a new fascination with the drone camera, as he uses it to whirl and whizz around the action with dizzying effect. There’s no time for your brain to comprehend much of what’s going on as Bay takes your senses for a joyride. Along with the carnage, what helps keep your eyes glued to the screen is Jake Gyllenhaal’s bonkers performance. His diet might as well consist of Red Bull and sugar every morning as he’s bouncing off the walls with manic energy, screaming nearly every line as he toes the line between being purely psychotic and a charming anti-hero. Abdul-Mateen II and González provide a nice fold to him as they try to keep things under control. When Bay’s previous films have contained performances like Ben Affleck’s in Armageddon and uh… Ben Affleck’s in Pearl Harbor , it’s truly something to see decent work here. Just like the roller coasters at amusement parks, every theater showing Ambulance should have a warning stating that people with medical conditions should not see this movie. And if you are up to the challenge, make sure to grab your free T-shirt that says “I survived Michael Bay’s Ambulance and all I got was this lousy shirt” on your way out. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Judas and the Black Messiah February 8, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fred Hampton was only 21 years old when he was murdered by Cook County police in an illegal home raid in 1969. He was drugged with a sedative to prevent him from fighting back and shot twice in the head while sleeping in front of his nine-month-pregnant partner, Deborah Johnson. Even though he died young, Hampton had already accomplished more than many of us could ever dream. As chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Hampton founded the multicultural organization, the Rainbow Coalition, and allied his party with other Chicago groups in an effort to end street violence and instigate social change. He was a born leader and speaker, moving hundreds with his words at the protests and educational courses he led. Now, after fifty years since his untimely death, Hampton is getting the biopic treatment in Judas and the Black Messiah . The British-born Daniel Kaluuya portrays Hampton in a performance that can only be described as electrifying. Kaluuya has already made himself known with his lead performance in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and a supporting turn as a sadistic hitman in Steve McQueen’s Widows . Here, Kaluuya elevates his game even further as he channels both the powerfulness Hampton carried in public and the tenderness he had in private. There isn’t one second you’re not glued to him while he’s on screen. An Oscar nomination is bound to happen and a win would be deserved. Playing Judas to Hampton’s Black Messiah is LaKeith Stanfield (also in Get Out as the brainwashed Andre King). Stanfield plays William O’Neal, who was a petty Chicago criminal who became an informant for the FBI as he rose the ranks within the Black Panthers. O’Neal was the one who sedated Hampton in exchange for $200,000, an act he never considered a betrayal. Stanfield rises close to the level of Kaluuya as he gives a twitchy and layered performance that is nothing short of a career-best. Directed and co-written by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah meets both criteria of a biopic, which is to be both entertaining and informative beyond the top-layer Wikipedia facts. We learn about Hampton through O’Neal, as we watch him ascend from the bottom to the top within the party, interacting with Hampton at various points in history. King doesn’t commit the sin of falling head over heels with his subject. Like the Messiah in the holy book, Hampton had his demons that he had to constantly wrestle with. King takes a similar approach that Steven Spielberg took with Lincoln , where we get a compelling real-life hero and learn about what they had to overcome both externally and internally. This treatment also extends to O’Neal, whom King doesn’t wholly vilify or pardon. We’re shown the path O’Neal initially led himself down and how he saw an opportunity to work for the FBI. While it’s an easy decision to make, King lets the audience decide how to perceive O’Neal’s actions. With Steve McQueen’s go-to cinematographer Sean Bobbitt in his crew, King makes this one of the most surprisingly gorgeous movies of the year. Incorporating a mixture of long takes and over-saturation, King and Bobbitt perfectly illustrate the vibrant urban setting. And the jazz-infused score carries sharp tension with its low trombones. At just over two hours long, King carries his film with great energy from beginning to end. Expertly filmed action is interspersed throughout as well as sharply edited speeches that contain more action than the actual shootouts. Even when King falters for a few brief moments at the beginning of the third act, he picks himself back up and delivers an utterly spine-chilling and infuriating ending that properly uses the clichéd element of postscript. Judas and the Black Messiah is an all-powerful work by director Shaka King and the two leads Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield. Both timely and historical, this biopic will surely land near the top of my best-of-year list and is not one to miss. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Northman April 25, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen For the majority of filmmakers across the history of cinema, there’s an inverse relationship between the control they have over the final product and how much financial backing they have. Independent films are usually the more daring ones because they can get away with making a smaller return. Sometimes a filmmaker wants to use a bigger budget to execute their vision. But once more money and resources get involved, the need to make a return on investment becomes a top priority. If your film has a $200 million budget, it needs to make around $500 million to be profitable. For a movie to gross $500 million, it needs to be accessible to a wide array of audiences. That’s where the limit on creative control comes in. Filmmakers want to be eccentric and create something unique. But being unique doesn’t guarantee results, so concessions have to be made. Throughout the production, there’s a constant battle between maintaining creativity and “selling out” by playing it safe. Writer/director Robert Eggers is the newest auteur to take up that challenge. His previous two films have a combined budget of $15 million. Both were claustrophobic mood pieces lacking commercial appeal and grossed respectable sums for what was expected. And now for his third feature, The Northman , Eggers was written a check for $90 million to execute his epically staged Viking tale of revenge. Thankfully, the worry that every cinephile has had since the film was announced has been assuaged. The Northman is an audacious uncompromised vision from one of America’s best filmmakers. The Viking theme is not window dressing, it is the full DNA. While this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the painstaking detail Eggers instilled in his colonial New England folktale, The Witch , and the nautical insanity in The Lighthouse . But for a movie as big as this that needs to attract as much attention as possible, it would make sense from a business perspective to dull down the foreignness. In fact, there have been reports of financiers pressuring Eggers to water things down. Even if the finished version is less than what Eggers wanted, you can’t tell based on what’s still on the screen. A musclebound and completely terrifying Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth, whose legend would be the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet. Amleth’s father is betrayed by his uncle in an attempt to seize power. The young prince escapes and lives in banishment for the rest of his years, with only his bloodlust for his uncle keeping him going. An opportunity bound by fate arises for Amleth to exact his revenge. But like any Shakespearean tale, fate is a cruel mistress, and what seems destined to happen may not happen the way you think. Even at 137 minutes, The Northman is never dull. Eggers lends real weight to the action. Extended long takes illustrate the extreme gore and viciousness of Viking warfare. Limbs are chopped clean off, spears are caught midair and hurled back, and entrails get turned outward with just a few slashes. It’s that violence that creates a stark dichotomy between the physical and emotional assets of the film. The brutality of the violence isn’t properly balanced out with a tender emotional core, despite Eggers' best efforts. Anya Taylor-Joy is introduced near the midpoint to pump the heart as her relationship with Amleth steadily buds into a romance. But the film’s fist stays clenched even during those tender moments, unable to fully deliver the feeling that should be felt. Despite that romantic void, The Northman paves over it with an interesting perspective on the classic tale of revenge against those that have wronged you. The expected payoff doesn’t come, with Eggers finding immense introspection in moments that normally wouldn’t lend themselves to it. Even a sword fight between two naked Vikings taking place at the foot of an erupting volcano (yes, that actually happens) digs deeper than the superficial wounds and finds something close to the heart. The Northman is a brave and bold revenge tale that has immediately become the definitive Viking movie. Robert Eggers is no longer one of the rising stars of American filmmaking, he is the star. As the majority of filmmakers struggle to get financing for their projects, Eggers has proven once again that he deserves a blank check from here on out. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Gemini Man October 17, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen Henry Brogan (Will Smith) is the most elite assassin the U.S. government has ever had. He has 72 confirmed kills and is even able to hit a target on a moving train from over two kilometers away. Disillusioned and fatigued from years of killing, Henry decides to put it all away for a quiet retirement. Unfortunately for him, the life he’s lived the past few decades doesn’t just go away. After figuring out some dark secrets about his last job, Henry is betrayed by his government and made an enemy of the state. Knowing that Brogan is the best there ever was, the government decides to send their most valuable asset, Gemini; a direct clone of Brogan that “possesses all his strengths without his pain.”Pitted against a seemingly perfect version of himself, Henry must go on the run and fight to clear his name. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Ang Lee, Gemini Man is both a marvel and a tragedy on a technical level. Repeating the technique he used in his previous feature Billy Lyn’s Long Halftime Walk , Lee uses a frame rate of 120 frames per second, five times more than the traditional 24. This results in a give-and-take situation where the technology grants unparalleled picture quality at the expense of your eyeballs. The glorious images become physically hard to watch and induce headaches, especially when paired with 3D. Another technical innovation that Lee incorporates is the use of de-aging on 51-year-old Will Smith to allow him to play the 23-year-old clone. Just like the frame rate, this technique has its ups and downs. During the early and darker-lit scenes, the effects look great and don’t cause any distraction. Near the end of the film is when things start to slide downhill. Scenes taking place in the daylight show off the imperfections in facial movements. The final scene is the most guilty as the effects are laughably atrocious and make the clone look more like a character from “The Polar Express” than an actual living human. And even with these technical innovations, Lee still isn’t able to make full use of them in the action set pieces. The larger shootouts are handled pretty well as they flow together with steady camerawork and tight blocking. The hand-to-hand combat sequences are when Lee loses focus, leaning heavily on the Jason Bourne style of choppy editing and shaky cam. It becomes hard to tell what’s going on and who’s winning a fight, especially since the two Will Smith characters look and dress exactly alike. With three credited screenwriters and countless that have come and gone over the years, the script for Gemini Man is a mess that feels like it was ripped straight from the 1990s. That feeling is fitting since the screenplay was first written in 1997 and seems to have never been updated. It is heavily laden with cliches and hammy dialogue that are impossible to recover from despite the cast’s best efforts. The plot is pretty simple on paper, but on film, it's a confusing mess. It’s a strain to keep all the facts straight and follow the reasoning for anything to happen. There’s also a lack of humanity and character development. Will Smith does his best in his dual roles, but the writing gives him nothing to work with. By the end, most characters are just shells of a person. As noted before, Will Smith turns in one of his better performances and does a great job in his dueling roles. As Henry, Smith is closed off and mature. When playing the clone, he’s more vulnerable. Even with writing’s severe limitations on what he can do, Smith can sell you on the idea that these are two separate characters. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Dani, Henry’s sidekick who’s forced to join him on the run. Winstead does a nice job as a companion to Smith. Unfortunately, she also falls prey to the writing and gets saddled with a cliched backstory and overly expository dialogue. Lastly, Clive Owen plays Verris, the leader of the Gemini Project and the supposed villain of the film. I say supposed because the film never really figured out if he is a bad guy or not. Owen does fine, but mostly because it's a role he’s been playing the last decade in subsequently worse films. Gemini Man is neither a good nor a bad film. Mainly it’s a tech demo that may lead to better films using these innovations in the future. It also teaches a valuable filmmaking lesson: all the bells and whistles money can afford are no match for a good story, which is something this film sorely lacks. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Superman July 8, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Art never exists within a vacuum. Whether intentional or not, art is always in conversation with what has come before and what may come after. “Art imitates life” is the old adage, with the reverse being equally true. Within the world of comic-book films, specifically those based on DC Comics publications, there has been a perpetual push-pull in terms of the tone for their classic characters. The overcommercialization of Batman & Robin led to the more adult-oriented Batman Begins . Doubling down on that approach with The Dark Knight , in conjunction with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s strategy of being more family-friendly, gave DC the confidence to hand the keys to their cinematic kingdom to Zack Snyder, who likened the characters to tormented deities rather than everyday heroes. Grimmer than the fairy tales from the famous German brothers, these stories were the opposite of “summer fun,” and required real-time course corrections (the theatrical cut of Justice League vs. Zack Snyder’s Justice League ) , muddying the overall picture. Bursting onto the scene as the ultimate course correction is James Gunn’s boldly titled Superman . It’s not a coincidence that the opening studio logos feature a bright background, a cheerful animated version of Superman, and a tinge of John Williams’ iconic score. As his Kryptonian parents state in their farewell video message, he’s been put on Earth because it’s the place where he can do the most good. And boy, were they right. This Earth also has its own Eastern European crisis, with Superman (David Corenswet) intervening when one side invades the other. He did so in the name of saving lives, and potentially stopped an impending war. By doing so, he violated several international laws and established himself as judge, jury, and executioner to those who can spin the truth. Similar to Captain America: Civil War and Zack Snyder’s approach in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , Gunn investigates the naivety of simply doing good in a modern world that perpetually proves that it can play devil’s advocate. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is their Devil, pulling the strings on a multi-pronged hit on Superman’s public image. What good is a beacon of hope when people stop believing in it? This central idea on the symbolism of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s classic character is the film’s greatest asset, especially with Gunn opting to go straight for the heart of the matter by placing this story slightly later in the origin story timeline. Superman is the people's champion, with street vendors rushing to pick him up when he crashes into the ground, and kids waving his symbol as a means to ward off evil. But he's now stuck between a rock and a hard place, with every decision taking two steps forward, three steps back. What’s disappointing is watching that kernel get drowned by an onslaught of extra characters, side plots, and bloated set pieces. It’s all in the name of fun, but too much fun can be a bad thing. Just outside the main troupe of characters is the Justice Gang (sounds like an opportunity for a future name change) trio of Guy Gardener, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific (with his terrific tennis balls), Metamorpho, the Luthor henchman of Ultraman and The Engineer, and all the staff at The Daily Planet. Their jobs are to deliver the copious amounts of exposition required to keep this flying locomotive on the tracks, explaining what just happened and what will happen. There's also Krypto the Superdog lending comedic relief at every turn. Your mileage on his antics will be in direct correlation to how much you like dogs (hint: I'm more of a cat person). All of this culminates in a final stretch that attempts to serve everything and everyone mentioned, along with nuggets for what's to come next in this new era of the DC Universe. Gunn mostly succeeds in juggling all these haphazardly thrown balls, but he doesn't excel enough to make me crave more. If it could have focused on one ball, then it would have been a slam dunk. You miss every shot you don't take, but there comes a point where you're just chucking at the wall. Corenswet is quite the discovery as our titular hero, exuding a boyish charm and optimism that skipped over Henry Cavill. He wears the big red logo proudly, which Gunn prominently shows off every time he leaps through the sky. The visual effects that encapsulate him during those high-flying effects are well done, carrying a goofy off-beat energy from the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Luthor's brain is often stronger than Superman's brawn, with Hoult capturing the megalomania required to take on such a formidable adversary. He's punchable as he throws tantrums, consumes himself with envy, and belittles everyone around him. Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane is underserved by the sped-through nature of her relationship with Clark Kent/Superman, but she still manages to make a good impression. So, here we are, back to square one. A decade's worth of previous DC films have been thrown in the trash (good riddance, I mostly say). In his overeagerness to be liked and do everything, everywhere, all at once, Gunn may have placed the cart before the horse, but he also swings the door wide open to a universe with endless possibilities. Now we just have to wait and see if the juice will be worth the squeeze. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen