Mirrors No. 3 March 20, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the past decade, possibly through ever-increasing globalization and normalization of subtitles, America has witnessed an unprecedented growth in recognition of foreign-language films and filmmakers. To be more specific, this growth mostly comes from Europe, with every other continent on a much longer road. Films like Amour , Cold War , Another Round , The Zone of Interest , Anatomy of a Fall , Emilia Pérez , and Sentimental Value each netted multiple above-the-line nominations at their respective Academy Awards, finding audiences in the multiplex just as much as the arthouse. For all of the filmmakers behind those films, the path to Western appreciation, which, I want to make clear, is not the be-all and end-all for the canonization of cinema, is one marked with decades of work on the festival circuit and appearances on critics’ lists. As with almost everything related to awards, it comes down to timing. The right person making the right movie at the right time is both a lazy and correct way to explain why so-and-so won such an award. It might be why the German writer/director Christian Petzold has largely remained siloed within Europe, never fully crossing the Atlantic Ocean and into the consciousness of the American cinemagoing public. That’s not to say he hasn’t deserved it, far from it, actually. In the past decade, he’s become one of the most consistently impressive filmmakers with Phoenix , Transit , Undine , and Afire . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqNG8EWydW0 Along with one-word titles and strong critical reviews, a consistent thread among those works has been the presence of Paula Beer. Thankfully, after being subjected to being the life-affirming mystery girl for the world’s biggest sad-sack loser in Afire , she’s been promoted back to a leading role. Almost as if Petzold read my review for that film and made it a mission to fulfill my wishes, Beer’s wet blanket of a boyfriend in Mirrors No. 3 dies almost immediately from a car accident. Except, it didn’t really feel like an accident, with Laura (Beer) exchanging two meaningful glances with Betty (Barbara Auer), the woman who lives on the road where the accident takes place, just before it happened. Also adding to the mystery is that Laura emerges from the wreckage physically unscathed. She asks to stay with Betty for a few days, a proposal that Betty agrees to with a little more happiness than a person normally would. The film takes its title from the third movement of a piano solo written by Maurice Ravel more than one hundred years ago. It’s called “A Boat on the Ocean,” which lyrically describes the journey of a boat as it sails up and down the ocean waves. Each of Petzold’s characters seems to be riding that same wavelength (pun intended), the car accident rustling things back to the surface. Betty repeatedly mistakenly refers to Laura as Yelena, and somehow has a spare bedroom filled with clothes that fit a young woman. Her husband and adult son don’t stay with her anymore, immediately objecting when she sets out a fourth plate for dinner before they realize Laura is also in the house. There’s a palpable feeling of suspense as we try to understand the motivations behind Laura hiding away from her life and Betty being so open. If this were a Hitchcock film, it would all climax with a moment of melodrama. Here, it’s more gentle, just like the soothing piano soundtrack and magically rural cinematography. Eventually, you just kind of wade into the mystery, never taking offense to the fact that it extends beyond the point where you’ve put the pieces together. Part of that satisfaction comes from Beer and Auer’s transfixing performances. They say as much with their expressions as they do with their words, compelled to each other through their separate and shared journeys. This might ultimately be a minor work in Petzold’s filmography, but that doesn’t mean major credit shouldn’t be given to those who made it happen. 1-2 Special will release Mirrors No. 3 in select theaters on March 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

Crazy Rich Asians September 6, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Rachel Chu and Nick Young have been together for over a year now and couldn’t be happier. Both of them are professors at NYU, which is how they first met. One day, Nick asks Rachel to come with him to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding, with the bonus of meeting his family. Thinking she knows everything about Nick, Rachel agrees to go on the trip. Except there’s one thing she doesn’t know: Nick’s family is rich, “crazy rich” in fact. Caught off guard by this, Rachel is unknowingly thrust into a new world of luxury and spectacle, one that is a far cry from her modest upbringing. Despite the challenge, she’s determined to be at Nick’s side and to make a good first impression on his family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-YX-5bAs0 Directed by Hollywood journeyman Jon M. Chu, the film’s biggest problems stem mostly from his lackluster directing. Chu doesn’t bring any originality to the finished project and mainly just uses every rom-com cliché in the book, such as the tough parental figure, comedic sidekick, wacky relatives, and will-they-or-won’t-they plotline between the two leads. Chu also struggles to provide a sense of balance in terms of pacing and plots. The pacing is inconsistent throughout. The beginning of the film quickly shifts from scene to scene as we set up the story and characters. After that, things slow way down, and we tediously crawl to the end. Apart from the main plot, there is also a subplot featuring Nick’s cousin, Astrid. While she’s a good character overall, her story is very unnecessary and continually gets dropped and picked back up at odd times. On a bright note, Chu does impeccable work during the wedding sequence. It’s easily the most heart-tugging part of the film as the two main characters share a loving connection. Writers Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim do a fair job of adapting from the original bestselling novel. They do a great job at making the lead character very likable and relatable. Rachel isn’t your average rom-com woman whose life is in shambles until she meets a guy. It’s refreshing to see a lead female character have her life together and not have to rely on some guy to be happy. The screenplay also fits in a good amount of quality jokes, a lot of which come from Awkwafina’s character. Unfortunately, just like the directing, the biggest problem is the overabundance of clichés. It’s a shame for a screenplay to have such a great lead character and then repeatedly bury her with the same old tropes we’ve seen time and time again. Because of the large cast of characters, the film boasts both good and bad performances. Constance Wu does a great job as Rachel Chu. She makes herself relatable and confidently holds her own throughout. She also shares electric chemistry with both Golding and Awkwafina. Opposite Wu is Henry Golding as Nick Young. Golding does very well, especially when considering that this is his acting debut. He’s at his best when with his on-screen partner and adds a lot of charm to his role. Having already done great work in this year’s Ocean’s Eight , Awkwafina gives another hilarious supporting performance here. Playing Rachel’s roommate from college, she constantly delivers the best jokes, with most of them coming off as improvised. Some minor supporting actors suffer from Chu’s poor directing and have to resort to overacting in order for us to like them. The biggest losers from this are Ken Jeong and Jimmy O. Yang. Their characters are way too over the top and are annoying as soon as we meet them. Crazy Rich Asians is a film that mostly suffers from poor directing and a formulaic story that lacks any sort of originality. Still, it's better than most modern romantic comedies, and the reliable trio of Wu, Golding, and Awkwafina make this film a moderately enjoyable ride. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Crazy Rich Asians in theaters nationwide on August 15th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Causeway September 11, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Above almost anything, Causeway marks Jennifer Lawrence’s return to her independent roots. Through all the Hunger Games, X-Men, and David O. Russell films (in which she had the smarts to turn down an appearance in Amsterdam ), it can be easy to forget that this is the same actress who burst onto the scene and received her first Oscar nomination in the tiny Sundance film Winter’s Bone . Now, a dozen years later, she’s back to being actress Jennifer Lawrence, and not movie star Jennifer Lawrence. Causeway centers itself on the story of Lynsey, a recently discharged Army Corps of Engineers engineer who must stay at a recovery home after she received a traumatic brain injury from an IED blast. At first, she’s not able to hold a glass or string together a sentence without exerting herself beyond her newfound limits. But after some practice and patience from her caregiver (a wonderful Jayne Houdyshell in a brief role), she’s back on her feet and heading to her real home in New Orleans. But being back home is not the end of the road for Lynsey, as she must face much tougher challenges, including childhood trauma and reintegrating with a society she left behind. Not wanting to overcome that obstacle, she strives to be redeployed, much to the distress of her doctor (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who rightfully notices that Lynsey is not altogether. So, she takes a job cleaning pools, which leads her to cross paths with a local car mechanic named James (Brian Tyree Henry). Noticing their similarities on the inside, the two strike up an interesting connection that goes deeper than something purely platonic or romantic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojBOTd6Euo Causeway has been plagued by trouble since its inception. It was shot in the middle of 2019, followed by a flurry of reshoots after poor test screenings. Red, White, and Water was its original title, later changed to Causeway this year (a more appropriate, yet bland, title within the context of the story). And after several release date shifts, Apple picked up the film for distribution, their second partnership with A24 after The Tragedy of Macbeth this past year. Even with all those bumps along the way, first-time director Lila Neugebauer sensitively delivers a personal story that avoids much of the PTSD/trauma clichés we’ve come to expect. It is still a predictable movie in its outcome, but the means to get there are not the ones you’d usually find. There are several surprising choices Neugebauer and the team of screenwriters make to give this film a semi-fresh take on the genre. A cello-filled score by Alex Somers beautifully accents much of the low-key nature of the film, creating more of an ambiance for Lawrence and Henry to do some of their best work. Neugebauer’s Broadway sensibilities keep their chemistry warm and palpable, with words seemingly playing a secondary role in how they communicate. A look or body movement does most of the talking, as does a moment of silence. There’s nothing life-changing or revolutionary about Causeway , even if it does sharpen the mold it stems from. But it does provide showcase roles for its central leads and is a promising start to a potentially fruitful cinematic career for Neugebauer. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple Original Films will release Causeway in select theaters on October 28th, followed by its streaming premiere on November 04th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Poor Things December 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Stripping away the artifice of society and the exertion of power over another person are two things that director Yorgos Lanthimos, the lead figure behind the Greek Weird Wave movement, has consistently explored throughout his wacky career. Whether it be parents going to extreme lengths to manipulate their children’s worldview in Dogtooth , the threat of being turned into an animal if you don’t fall in love in The Lobster , or an omniscient Barry Keoghan terrorizing Colin Farrell’s family in The Killing of a Sacred Deer , Lanthimos has always taken the road less traveled to tell his twisted tales of morality. Marking his reunification with The Favourite star Emma Stone and writer Tony McNamara, Poor Things attempts to wrap all of Lanthimos’ earlier work into one lavishly produced feature, a move that both creates a wondrously unique film and wholly exemplifies the idea of having too much of a good thing. In another life, Bella Baxter (Stone) could have been the world’s greatest poker player. She’s a master at calling out people’s bluffs through her inquisitive nature and unfamiliarity with modern life. Why don’t people have sex all the time? Why do we eat things that are revolting? Why do we make meaningless small talk with people we care little about? Everyone regurgitates the usual “because it’s polite” or “because that’s just the way things are” answer, but both they and Bella know that it’s all bullshit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlbR5N6veqw Bella is a science experiment by the mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Once, there was a woman named Victoria who threw herself off the London Bridge because of perinatal depression. The opportunistic doctor seized the moment to do something that had never been done before, something that “was obvious once I thought more about it”: Take the brain out of Victoria’s unborn child and put it into her own skull. She is now a woman with a clean slate, unchained from the tethers of Victorian society and free to form a path of her own. This version of London has the usual trademarks we expect: smog, brick roads, and cockney accents. But then there are electrified cable cars, dogs with duck heads, ducks with dog heads (brought to you by our boundless doctor), and cruise ships emitting green smoke. The influences of Terry Gilliam are apparent, even down to cinematographer Robbie Ryan’s employment of peephole lenses and crazy angles to go along with his reintroduction of the fisheye lens from The Favourite . Those orgiastic visuals go hand-in-hand with Bella’s extraordinary journey around Europe. Her companion for much of the adventure is Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a chauvinistic lawyer who whisked her away from her safely guarded cage. He’s a himbo who thinks of himself as an intellectual, which makes him the antithesis of Bella’s burning passion to understand the world. Fortunately, there are other people (Hanna Schygulla, Jerrod Carmichael, Suzy Bemba) who are more open to uncovering the backwardness of the patriarchy. There does become a point where McNamara’s script starts to run out of ideas. A few too many retreads about Bella’s observations artificially elongate the 141-minute runtime and grind down the final third, a common minor problem within Lanthimos’ filmography (I say that as one of his biggest fans). But then he always closes the book with gusto, this being no exception. Poor Things is also not an exception to the rule that Stone and Lanthimos have formed one of the most exciting actor-director partnerships of the modern era. Stone turns in one of the finest performances of the year, playfully illustrating the transition from an amusing child to a full-fledged intellectual, all while flawlessly carrying the film’s emotional core. Her burden is lightened by her great supporting cast: Dafoe an idyllic partner for Lanthimos’ vision, Ruffalo appears as if he thought this was a Monty Python sketch, Ramy Youseff plays the terrifyingly intrigued rookie doctor, and Kathryn Hunter’s brothel owner opens up Bella’s view on pain and pleasure. It’s a true testament to Lanthimos’ pedigree as a director for me to say that this is my least favorite of his English-language features. It will surely land somewhere at the tail end of my Best of 2023 Top 10, and will just as surely pick up a bevy of nominations and wins at the Oscars. Lanthimos has already finished production on his next film, AND (Also starring Stone and Dafoe), which will presumably be released sometime in 2024. If that film continues this winning streak, we may very well need to start having the conversation about him being the best director working today. Searchlight Pictures will release Poor Things in select theaters on December 08th, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 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

A Minecraft Movie April 2, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Every generation needs its bloated big-screen extravaganzas that box the human cast within mammoth green-screen walls that will eventually become uncanny CGI environments. Late Millennials and early Gen Z had Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl . The latter generation received the tail-end of the 3D craze with Alice in Wonderland , Avatar , and all those Disney live-action remakes. Now it’s time for Generation Alpha to get their dose with A Minecraft Movie . Based on what list you consult, Minecraft is the highest-selling video game of all time (it’s hard to define the dozens of versions of Tetris and decide if they should be counted together). Released in 2011 by Mojang Studios, the game is a 3D sandbox-style game made of procedurally generated blocks. There are no goals, missions, or objectives, just a virtually infinite space to cater to any “What if” question that pops into your head. I intermittently played the game for a few years when it first came out and loved its casual and inviting nature. There’s a great deal of fulfillment when you are the master of your own destiny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJO_vIDZn-I Unfortunately, that level of full-fledged freedom cannot be replicated on the silver screen. There must be story beats to follow, characters to root for, and trinkets to market. So, the six credited screenwriters have come up with the usual “band of lonely misfits find themselves in a strange land and discover the power of family” storyline. Hey, it worked for The Goonies and the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, so why mess with a good formula? Things start in Idaho, which gets the kind of glowing endorsement one would usually expect from a Hollywood blockbuster. In the small potato chip-fueled town, we find the recently orphaned brother-sister duo Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), washed-up arcade game champion Garrett Garrison (Jason Momoa), and side hustle extraordinaire Dawn (Danielle Brooks). Henry is your typical misunderstood gifted kid, with Natalie being the older sibling who had to grow up too fast and be the adult in this situation (just don’t ask how she was able to buy a house when she looks as if she just graduated high school). This perfunctory opening act is just to set the table and let us know that everyone is down on their luck and in need of a change of scenery. That comes both literally and figuratively when they all go through a portal into the Overworld, the setting for the video game. In this cube-based world is Steve (Jack Black), who left the real world behind years ago and has been thriving off his creativity ever since. It’s hard to determine if the special effects are successful or not. On one hand, the replication of the video game is pretty spot-on. On the other hand, seeing a semi-realistic rendering of animated characters and landscapes on an IMAX screen is inherently off-putting, kind of like all those AI-generated images of characters from The Simpsons as real people. The live-action aspect was a flawed idea from the beginning, trapping the actors into a black box theater style of performances that certainly didn’t suit them. Black makes it out okay, his lovably braggadocious swagger helping him accomplish his sole task of explaining every facet of this world in the most juvenile way possible. You get as much mileage here out of Momoa as you did with his Aquaman films, of which I was no fan. Like most of the leads in the Disney live-action films, the kids have decent faces for reactions, but not any skills when it comes to delivering lines. There’s some semblance of a plot involving a sky beam and the world ending, but I didn’t care enough to remember. Children and more hardcore players of the game will be able to put it all up on a whiteboard for you, highlighting why that random pig was wearing a crown and the importance of that random blink-and-you ’ll-miss-it background actor. The promotional material blatantly tells everyone to turn off their brains and just enjoy the ride, so you might as well just do that. Warner Bros. Pictures will release A Minecraft Movie in theaters nationwide on April 4th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

It Chapter Two September 12, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen In 1913, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line to the Ford Motor Company. He made a ton of money and was hailed as a leading innovator. Now, just a hundred years later, director Andy Muschietti brings that same assembly line principle to IT Chapter Two as he serves up his scary products in the exact fashion as the one before. This sequel to the highest-grossing horror movie of all time (unadjusted) takes place 27 years later in the same town of Derry, Maine. The rambunctious kids are all adults now and have gone on their separate paths to some form of success. Unfortunately, the good fortune for each is put to an end by the return of Pennywise, who seeks more victims for his twisted games. Being the only ones that have stopped the evil force, the adults must come together again to put an end to this bloody mess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUopiAYdRg Director Andy Muschietti returns behind the camera after the record-breaking success he earned from 2017’s It. For the second time around, Muschietti goes even bigger and bolder than before, both in terms of the horror set pieces and the length. When it comes to giving audiences what they came to see, Muschietti delivers by adding even more blood, gore, and creepiness. Pennywise’s indescribable powers get even more creative as his prey are stalked and slaughtered with unnerving brutality. The biggest fault that plagued the previous film was its recycling of cheap jump scares that were meant to artificially hold your attention. That same problem is even more glaring in the sequel as any scary moments are just startling moments where something pops out at the screen. The more they happen, the more predictable and boring they are to watch. A runtime is never indicative of quality by itself; every movie should earn its length through skill and craftsmanship. And at 170 minutes, IT Chapter Two falls way short of earning its record-breaking runtime. Instead of the horror being a slow burn, it's more of a slow churn as the recycled jump scares quickly lose their minuscule luster and make this already long film feel even longer. Screenwriter Gary Dauberman takes up the impossible task of adapting Stephen King, a challenge that has killed the careers of countless adapters before him. He tries his best to break away from the ridiculousness within King’s novel, but his efforts end up backfiring on him and make the film even more awkward, as some elements are left in and some left out. The story wants you to take it pretty seriously, but keeping in the weird elements makes that almost an impossible task. Muschietti didn’t do much to justify the excessive length, but Dauberman should shoulder more of the blame for his uneven pacing. The film starts great with the two playing off each other with a fun and brisk pace. Then, against all logic, Dauberman has them split up for ninety minutes, severely slowing things to a crawl and forcing the jump scares to keep you awake. The highest regard should go to casting director Rich Delia as he has brilliantly put together a group of adult actors that uncannily look like their younger counterparts. Unfortunately, good looks are the only quality some actors possess here. James McAvoy does fine as Bill. The most evident acting trait he shows off is his struggle to hide his Scottish accent with a less -than- convincing New England one. Having a rocky 2019, to say the least, Jessica Chastain follows up the bomb that was Dark Phoenix with another subpar performance. She doesn’t shine as brightly as Sophia Lillis’ younger Beverly despite being the more acclaimed actress with a lot more screen time. The standout performances come from the two Bills in the cast, Hader and Skarsgård. Hader plays adult Richie and fares the best in the cast at toeing the line between drama and comedy. Skarsgård as Pennywise is a sight to see, but unfortunately doesn’t get seen for long stretches. Between him and Heath Ledger’s Joker, future performances for clowns now have an insanely high bar to reach. With over five hours of material between the two films, the It series has come to a less-than-satisfying close with IT Chapter Two . There are some things to admire Muschietti and co. for doing or trying to do. But for every great Bill Skarsgård moment (which is all of them), there were just as many moments of wasted potential due to unoriginal filmmaking. Overall, between its highs and lows, IT Chapter Two makes for a semi-enjoyable time. Just make sure to bring a seat cushion. Warner Bros. Pictures will release It Chapter Two in theaters nationwide on September 06th. 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

Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 Recap November 5, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen With nearly 100 films screening across several different series, the Twin Cities Film Fest had more than enough to offer to cinephiles in its fourteenth year of existence. The festival prides itself on its mixture of established studio contenders and up-and-coming independent projects, and this year was no exception. Unfortunately, my schedule wasn't as forgiving as I would have liked, preventing me from seeing a few anticipated titles such as The Teacher's Lounge (Germany's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar) and Downtown Owl (partly filmed in Minnesota). There were other titles such as The Holdovers and Fingernails that I was able to see at TIFF . Even with that obstacle, I was still able to see five films, which ran the gamut of being some of the best and worst I've seen all year. Take a look at how I ranked them below, with almost all of them having a full review attached for your pleasure. 5. Foe Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal do everything they can to keep things interesting, a job they can do with ease. They run the entire emotional gamut with their performances, but none of it registers due to director Garth Davis’ detachment from the material. Each of them is forced to overact once the third-act twists come into play. Everything feels so forced by then that it’s almost comical. But it’s not a total trainwreck, so it’s just rather tediously bad. Son of Saul cinematographer Mátyás Erdély captures the landscape beautifully, showcasing the mystifying wonder that keeps people like Hen and Junior tethered to this patch of dirt. If only Davis could have done the same with his direction and script, as most of his decisions steer away from that intrigue and end up being as interesting as dirt itself. Full Review 4. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt Writer/director Raven Jackson makes sure her voice is heard with her debut feature, one that is more Malickian than Malick himself. It loops around in nonlinear circles, telling the story of a life with poetic beauty. Its vagueness is both its biggest asset and liability, challenging your patience with its methodical pacing. It's one of the main reasons this demands to be seen in a theater, as a home viewing would rob you of the focus and attention to detail needed to fully appreciate it. 3. American Fiction American Fiction may be a victim of expectations as winning the People’s Choice Award at TIFF certainly raised the bar. Whether that’s fair or not is a different story. All I know is that I can only write about what I felt, which was slight disappointment mixed with great optimism about what Jefferson will do next. 2. All of Us Strangers All of Us Strangers is a ghost story that invites the viewer to project themselves onto the story just as much as it tells its own. There’s nothing easy about letting go of the past, and there’s nothing easy about what comes after. It’s not an uplifting message, but it’s an endearing one that we’ve all come to find truth in. Full Review 1. The Taste of Things There continues to be a need for stories that reflect the increasing bleakness of this world. But that means there’s more room for projects that remind us of the beauty in the timeless things we all experience and often take for granted. The Taste of Things is one of those films as it illustrates both the simplicity and complexity of sustaining ourselves through food. Just make sure to plan your meals carefully before and after seeing it. You owe your stomach (and other senses) that much. 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

TIFF23 Dispatch - Part 2 September 17, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen All of the films were screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Click here for additional full reviews and dispatches. Select films below will receive separate full-length reviews at a later date, most likely in connection to their public releases. 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. (3/5) 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. (4/5) 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. (3/5) 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. (4/5) 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. (2/5) More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Taste of Things October 29, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Is there a more perfect way to wake up in the morning than to the smell of sizzling eggs, crackling bacon, and onions soaked in butter? It’s what Dodin (Benoît Magimel) has awoken to every day over the past twenty years, the aroma of the fresh ingredients crawling its way from the kitchen all the way to his grand bedroom within the vast manor. “This is the best moment of the day,” he thinks as he flies down the stairs, ready to be embraced by the food and woman that he loves. Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) has always been the head of her kitchen domain, crafting famous meals with quiet determination. She too is in love with Dodin, yet she always refuses his proposals for marriage on the grounds that matrimony will only complicate the good thing they have going for them. He’s always disappointed in her rejections, and yet he also slightly agrees with her. Together they are unstoppable; him the mastermind of intricate recipes and menus, and her the hands-on artist who brings those ideas to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKCGtoIOVY If you were to eliminate all the scenes of cooking within The Taste of Things , you would be left with maybe thirty minutes of “plot.” I put that last word in quotations because those extended sequences of cooking tell just as much, if not more, of the story as the scenes filled with dialogue. Cooking is an intimate process for the central pair, a time when they communicate without saying a word. A scene early on sees Dodin entertaining guests with Eugénie preparing all the courses downstairs. Once it is over, all the men congratulate Eugénie and ask her to dine with them next time. She happily says that would be redundant as “what I say is already in the food.” Writer/director Tran Anh Hung (winner of the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) entrances you in this process of creation. There’s a sweet harmony in witnessing the journey of the garden to the plate. The camera swerves around the kitchen, capturing the in-process cookery with sumptuous detail. Meat sizzles, water boils, spoons clank against the brass pots, the doors of the woodfire oven creak open, and the bread cracks when cut open. It’s a total ASMR experience, one that fully earns the simplistic description of “food porn” that has lovingly been bestowed upon it. There’s little drama or stakes within The Taste of Things , which is one of its best features. There are plenty of movies ( Burnt ) and television shows ( The Bear ) that showcase the anxiety-inducing highwire act that cooking can be. There is great skill under pressure here, but Anh Hung is more interested in the slowly drawn method and how it all comes together when you are comfortable in your element. Time seems to stand still, your body and mind totally connected as one. It’s like a conductor guiding a symphony, every note being hit perfectly with reassuring calmness. The scenes outside the kitchen are just as sumptuous as the food itself. The warm cinematography makes the gardens and fields feel like Eden. The seasons are picturesque in their beauty, leaves turning from vibrant green to bright orange, replaced by a freckling of snow. Binoche and Magimel are an electric pair within their surroundings. They project a consistent feeling of serenity, both of them aware that their love for each other is intertwined with their craft. You know what they say, the quickest way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. There continues to be a need for stories that reflect the increasing bleakness of this world. But that means there’s more room for projects that remind us of the beauty in the timeless things we all experience and often take for granted. The Taste of Things is one of those films as it illustrates both the simplicity and complexity of sustaining ourselves through food. Just make sure to plan your meals carefully before and after seeing it. You owe your stomach (and other senses) that much. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2023 Twin Cities Film Fest. IFC Films will release The Taste of Things in select theaters on February 09th, followed by a nationwide expansion on February 14th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Fly Me to the Moon July 10, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The spirit of Rob Reiner lives gloriously within Fly Me to the Moon , a winning combination of heart and humor aimed squarely at adults. Of course, Reiner is still alive and kicking out films pretty regularly, but the quality has dipped so dramatically that you’d be hard-pressed to know they even exist. I might be the only person in the world who holds the distinction of seeing LBJ and Shock and Awe in a theater, both times having the room all to myself. Director Greg Berlanti and screenwriter Rose Gilroy are here to pick up the slack, emulating the kind of energy Reiner and Aaron Sorkin produced so delightfully in The American President . The only unconvincing thing about Scarlett Johansson’s performance is her wig, which often carries the same spoofy look as Kristen Wiig’s Target Lady. But selling stuff that’s unconvincing is her job, with the first time we meet her character, Kelly is at a Mad Men -esque advertising meeting where she sports a fake baby bump and correctly “guesses” (she bribed their secretaries) which cars each of the men drives. This is Johansson firmly in true movie star mode, her first time doing so away from the character of Black Widow in over a decade. It’s a lot of fun to see her be the brightest and most confident person in the room, often finishing the sentences of Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) as he races to keep up with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW7enw6mFxs Despite working for America’s preeminent government agency, Cole finds himself in the same position as any director of a nonprofit: underfunded, understaffed, and facing the pressure of the political machine. Public interest in space exploration has crashed back down to Earth after several failed attempts, the most notable being the death of three astronauts from Apollo 1. It also doesn’t help that Vietnam is still raging on, and social upheaval is commanding the streets. Here to put a positive spin on everything is Kelly, who includes ad tie-ins and “punched up” biographies for all those involved. That thin line between lying and selling is what bothers Cole, who has made it his life's work to pull off the hardest task in the history of mankind with both the honor and integrity he believes America has. Things really come to a head when the government deems the Apollo 11 moon landing mission to be too big to fail, which means a contingency plan has to be put in place in the form of a fake recording. Berlanti and Gilroy have fun with the conspiracy-laden idea of the moon landing being faked, including a few jokes about Stanley Kubrick, who’s referred to as an overblown wunderkind who’s only made one good movie. Jim Rash gets more than a few moments to shine as a brash commercial director who’s more than happy to put in the powerful position of faking one of America’s finest moments. Berlanti and Gilroy don’t put too much stock into the ideological tension between Kelly and Cole. There are debates here and there about how Cole is doing this for idealism, and Kelly is mucking it up by treating this like the Thanksgiving Day parade, all while those marketing dollars keep the lights on. What’s more important is the chemistry that Johansson and Tatum have at all times, which is never less than effortlessly charming. The translation into this time period might have been aided by the pair’s appearance in Coen’s Hollywood Golden Age comedy Hail, Caesar! a few years back, although I’m pretty sure they didn’t share any substantial scenes. The horrendous poster and limited marketing would give you the impression that this is some straight-to-streaming cash grab, but real money has been spent on this production. There’s a ‘60s Jetsons sheen to everything, including a giddy Oliver Stone-inspired opening montage about America’s history with space up to this moment. The sets and costumes are light and airy, and so is Daniel Pemberton’s score. Cinematographer Darius Wolski, often seen helming Ridley Scott films, even gets to mimic the famous vacuum of space shot from First Man , only this time more comedically. Fly Me to the Moon is about people and a process, both of which serve as the main attractions. If there were a “They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To” category at the Academy Awards, this would be a strong contender to win. Now I hope people show up so we can start making more of these again. Apple Original Films will release Fly Me to the Moon in theaters nationwide on July 12th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Avatar: Fire and Ash December 16, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and that James Cameron will defy all the doubters. 20th Century Fox was reluctant to make a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien , only to be swayed by Cameron’s gumption during a pitch meeting when he added a “$” suffix to the title. Titanic was destined to be a humongous flop as its production timeline grew longer and its budget eventually ballooned to the biggest ever for its time. It took over a decade for technology to catch up to the vision of Avatar , with an executive claiming that Cameron was delusional for thinking that he could pull this off. After being subjected to eight delays totaling thirteen years, people wondered if the sequel, The Way of Water , would be worth all the trouble. It’s safe to say that I don’t need to mention the combined $8 billion at the box office and dozens of Academy Award nominations for you to know how each of those films fared. Unfortunately, Avatar: Fire and Ash , the third of the five planned films in the franchise, might mark the end of this forty-year winning streak, at least in terms of critical and cultural relevance. I have absolutely no doubt that this film will join its predecessors to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Granted, that achievement won’t be as much of a challenge considering the several Premium Large Formats (PLF) the film will be released in, such as 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, IMAX, IMAX 3D, and HFR. Here in Minnesota, a ticket to screening in one of those formats will cost you about $25, an almost 50% increase from the average price of $17 for a normal screening. As much as those costs can be balked at on paper, every dollar is well earned on the screen. Seeing this in Dolby 3D HFR reminded me how much these films operate on a different plane of existence. Everything simultaneously feels lifelike and otherworldly, with the fully computer-generated sets having an amazing depth. Cameron delivered a foreword speech about the perils of generative AI, and made it very clear that his films are fully human-driven. Everything took a painstaking amount of time and resources to transfer from the mind to the silver screen. That includes the actors, whose performances are captured with an ever-increasing amount of detail. It’s quite astonishing for Zoë Saldaña to open this year with an Oscar win for her supporting role in the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez , and then close it out with equally impressive work as a ten-foot-tall blue alien. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb_fFj_0rq8 Despite it now only being three years since the previous film, it still takes some time to adjust to the sensory explosion. Cameron doesn’t make it any easier by forgoing all opening studio logos, plunging us right into the action of Pandora. After the death of their eldest son at the conclusion of The Way of Water , Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldaña) find themselves wandering down different paths of grief. Like every hardened marine, he keeps it all on the inside, pushing the family like a drill instructor so that something like this will never happen again. Neytiri has abandoned all compassion for humankind, pushing for all-out war against them. Unsurprisingly, considering our history, humans share Neytiri’s sentiment and are more than willing to raise the stakes. The Na’vi are not as unified as they once were, with several clans harboring resentment for how Sully’s involvement in their plight has only brought more death and destruction. The most outwardly spoken of these factions is the Mangkwan clan, also called the Ash People. They resolve their differences with their fists and are led by the witch Varang (Oona Chaplin). Seeing how this splintering can lead to the whole dam breaking, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the biggest proponent of Han Solo’s famous quote about how “hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side,” decides to ally with Varang and supply her with all the firepower she could ever want. Cameron has always been the master of understanding the purpose of a sequel, how the re-entry into a world marks an opportunity to expand upon the original and carve a new path. Fire and Ash contains no footprints of that ideology, essentially being a carbon copy of The Way of Water , a fact that both does and doesn’t make sense, considering that the two films were originally envisioned as one epic story. It seems that when the decision to split them was made, Cameron, along with co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, decided to hit copy/paste and call it a day. If you were to watch the final hour stretches of The Way of Water and Fire and Ash side-by-side, it would be nearly impossible to spot the differences. The introduction of Jaffa and Silver for these two sequels has not improved the quality of the writing. This is the kind of blockbuster where you can predict exactly what’s going to happen and when it will occur. The stakes of a lead character dying in the first battle are weightless because there are still another two-and-a-half hours to go. This trash for your mind is treasure for your bladder, as a movie that features this much water footage across a 195-minute runtime will naturally lead to a steady stream of bathroom breaks. If The Way of Water left you clamoring for more from the Avatar series, then Fire and Ash has delivered in monkeypaw fashion. It’s more… of the same, focusing on survival rather than evolution. The tension around my ears and markings all over my face from the 3D glasses were well worth it for the audio/visual experience, another in a long line of raisings of the bar by Cameron. But what good is a tricked-out sports car if you're just going to cruise around the neighborhood? 20th Century Studios will release Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters nationwide on December 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

Barbie July 18, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen In a recent article by The New Yorker , Greta Gerwig stated that “her ambition is to be not the biggest woman director but a big studio director. And Barbie is a piece of I.P. that resonated with her.” Sure, the arthouse crowd could cry foul at losing one of their most longstanding patrons, with Gerwig being most known through the mid-2000s to late 2010s as an entrenched member of the mumblecore movement, where young adults vented about their first-world problems (that’s the crass way of defining the genre). From Martin Scorsese to Christopher Nolan, plenty of major filmmakers have started small and then jumped aboard the volatile cruise ship that is the studio system. They’re legends to the public because they can seamlessly find the most comfortable middle ground between art and entertainment. The loss within the independent crowd from Gerwig’s departure is a noble sacrifice, as having her at the helm of tentpole productions is of benefit to the greater good of cinema. Barbie may not find that exact sweet spot like the instant classic blockbusters, but it has just as much of a brain as it does have good ol’ fashioned summer movie season fun, solidifying itself as an achievement of this season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBk4NYhWNMM Just as she does in our childlike imaginations, Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives in a perfect dream world where the sun shines every day, and everyone gets along. The Barbies inhabit and govern the land in perfect harmony, with the Kens (Ryan Gosling being Robbie’s "... and Ken" ) always competing for the attention and affection of their female counterparts. Every day is the same day, that is, until Robbie’s Barbie, known as Sterotypical Barbie because of her absolute perfection, starts having thoughts about death and existentialism. This rift is due to a downward mood in the girl who owns Stereotypical Barbie in the real world, as the doll reflects the emotions of the person who plays with her. So Barbie must venture out into our imperfect world, towing Ken along with her. The overall uniqueness of Barbie is no small feat, but it’s also not something that should be viewed as that big of a surprise, especially to those who have paid attention to Gerwig’s tenure as a director. Both the lived-in intimacy of Lady Bird and the modern buoyancy of Little Women are evident here. It’s so apparent how a product so steeped in corporate greed, like Barbie, could have been a cynical cash grab. Gerwig avoids (most of) those pitfalls, infusing this fish-out-of-water story with reflective takes on feminism, gender roles, and self-worth. There’s the million-dollar question surrounding the whole story: Barbie is perfect so that she can inspire little girls to be perfect at any job they want. But is selling perfection only setting kids up for failure, as we all learn that no one is perfect? The answers Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach (also her husband) give are nothing you haven’t heard before. But just as Triangle of Sadness and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery didn’t have the most original things to say about the ultra-rich last year, the obvious things they were saying have never been said more funnily. Gerwig and Baumbach deliver nonstop laughs with their script, dishing up just as hearty spoonfuls of social commentary. Gosling walks away with the most laughs, as his dim-witted charm and good looks make him the personification of a lost puppy. His role is a purely comedic one, with Robbie commandingly doing the tougher task of balancing the humor and central themes of the movie. She walks and talks like a dream doll, but also finds something deep within the core of her plastic shell. The rest of the large ensemble cast is there for support, with some getting better treatment than others (Kate McKinnon often steals the show as Weird Barbie, but Will Ferrell gets little to do as the Mattel CEO). If 2003’s The Cat in the Hat is the worst case for this sort of candy-coated production, then Barbie is one of the best-case scenarios. Gerwig has kept her directorial winning streak intact and further pushes her status as one of this generation’s leading voices. I’ve got some simple free advice for all the studio heads been facing big blockbuster bombs this summer: invest in Greta Gerwig. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Barbie in theaters nationwide on July 21st. 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