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Chaos Walking March 11, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Like The Hunger Games, Harry Potter , and Percy Jackson , Chaos Walking is the newest attempt to establish a lucrative franchise based on a series of popular teenage-audience books. But unlike those successful series, this Lionsgate release is more likely to fall in line with the other failures such as The Golden Compass and The Mortal Instruments . Haven’t heard of this movie? Well, I wouldn’t blame you since Lionsgate has attempted to bury this money pit in the middle of the pandemic to save themselves from further embarrassment. Filmed in 2017 and originally to be released in early 2019, the film underwent extensive (and expensive) reshoots after the first cut was deemed unwatchable. It was shelved for nearly two years until crawling its way back from the grave into newly reopened theatres. So, is this movie as terrible as its reputation precedes it? No, but that’s not to say it isn’t bad. Similar to all YA novels, Chaos Walking takes place in a dystopian space colony in 2257. This planet is like Earth, except that there is something in the atmosphere called The Noise. An introvert's worst nightmare, The Noise makes it where the thoughts of men are heard aloud, and is something our hero, orphaned Todd (Tom Holland), still has yet to control. Everything he thinks is broadcast to anyone within earshot, restricting any sense of privacy. No one knows why this is happening, and why women are not affected. The colony Todd lives in also has no women there, as he is told the Spackle - the native inhabitants of the planet - killed off. Obviously, what you’re told isn’t always what actually happened. Everything changes when a scout, Viola (Daisy Ridley), crashes on the planet. The leader of the colony decides to use her as bait to attract her command ship so he can ambush it and leave this godforsaken land. Naturally, Todd develops a crush on Viola, agreeing to help her escape to a deserted colony fitted with a communicator that she can use to warn her rescuers. If you wanted to know what Tom Holland was thinking all the time, this will be a supreme disappointment to you. The character is very bland, and so are his thoughts, which consist solely of him saying his name to calm himself down and suppressing his budding feelings for his newfound partner. Holland tries to use his Peter Parker charm to make the character at least bearable, but the script makes his efforts a waste. The word bland is the best way to describe everything about this movie. It might be a weird movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s interesting. There’s a lot of semi-world building here as we are introduced to all sorts of details about the planet and its backstory. I say semi because the movie never gives away too much information, as they want you to pay more for that in the sequels, which are never going to happen. It’s also done at a rapid pace, moving from one location to another like we’re just skimming through the pages. Adapting his book, writer Patrick Ness seems more interested in setting up sequels than establishing an interesting base. Take for instance the Spackle, who look like all-black Martians and rightfully fought back against the colonizing humans. In this movie, we see them for one three-minute action scene. After that, they disappear completely and are never mentioned again. I was told by a friend that the Spackle are reintroduced in the third book, a fact that I audibly groaned at. I want to learn about these natives now, not these boring humans! Even for a $100 million (+ reshoots) blockbuster, Chaos Walking is sparsely light on meaningful action. Director Doug Liman had the potential to mash the sci-fi and western genre into something off the beaten path, but he instead stays in the same lane as his contemporaries. Like Star Wars , the guns shoot plasma so the wounds are bloodless and any serious violence is cut away from. The one unique feature is the movie’s questionable hatred towards animals, as a horse is violently put down and a dog is drowned in the frame. I’m glad no one in the cinema could hear my thoughts while watching this movie because my head was full of a lot of questions and negative comments. By next month, Chaos Walking will feel like a distant memory, a fact that we should all rejoice in. It was nice to be back in the cinema after a long while, I just wish it wasn’t for this. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Sonic the Hedgehog February 20, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s been almost a year now since we were exposed to the horror that came with the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog . The blue furball we loved as a kid was turned into a monster with human teeth, small eyes, and freakishly long legs. After the overwhelmingly negative reactions, Paramount Pictures announced they would be delaying the movie and taking time to redesign Sonic to better fit his classic video game look. Now in February 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog has been released with improved visual effects. The story takes place in the small town of Green Hills, Montana. Sonic is living his best life there as he causes mischief for the residents and partakes in other fun activities. On one night, Sonic’s actions get the better of him and he attracts the attention of the US Government, who hire the insane Dr. Robotnik to track him down. Needing to go on the run, Sonic recruits the help of local police officer Tom Wachowski. The two set out on the road, getting into hijinks along the way. Directed by Jeff Fowler, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t have enough originality to warrant its existence as a movie. The structure of the story is eerily similar to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial as an alien creature gets stuck on our planet and must rely on an unassuming human to help him return to his homeworld. The only difference here is that after the initial setup, the story turns into a bit of a buddy road trip movie. But the road trip structure here also apes other computer-effect character movies such as Looney Tunes: Back in Action and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle . Fowler does impress slightly as two moments pop up that make for great fun, which are the moments where time slows down to account for Sonic’s super speed. It’s a nice comedic bit that shows off Sonic’s powers, even if it plays almost shot for shot the same as Quicksilver’s scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past . It’s also important to point out that the decision by Paramount to redesign Sonic turned out to be the right move. The new look is very well done and is more appropriate to the character. While also being a ripoff of E.T. the script for Sonic the Hedgehog also takes a few too many ideas from the playbook of other kids' movies, most notably the self-referential humor found in The Lego Movie and its sequel. But while the Lego movies were able to catch lightning in a bottle, Sonic's attempt is impeded by a less-than-talented committee of writers. The producers must have needed money to fund the character redesign as it seems they sold off some of their jokes to corporate entities. Many recurring gags surround Amazon, Uber, Zillow, and Olive Garden. None of these jokes land and only get more shallow as the movie goes on. There are also quite a few pandering pop-culture references to the likes of Keanu Reeves and the floss dance. Yes, Sonic flosses in this movie not once, but on two separate occasions. Ben Schwartz voices the titular blue speedster. For better and worse, Schwartz is the definitive voice of the character, supplying a sly, sarcastic tone. He can be quite grating at times, but it’s also not entirely his fault due to the poor material he’s been given. James Marsden as Tom Wachowski fares the best out of the human characters. His performance solely consists of him reacting to his furry sidekick’s antics. You can tell that Marsden isn’t interacting with a real object, making for some awkward scenes. Lastly, generational talent Jim Carrey plays the oddball villain, Dr. Robotnik. Carrey falls into his usual schtick of thinking that high energy equals great comedy. He’s begging you to like him as he bounces around in a similar fashion to his earlier roles. Sonic the Hedgehog is about as bad as I was led to believe, but not as bad as I feared it would be. What’s ironic is that the best part of the movie, the visual effects, used to be the worst part. If only Paramount had decided to redesign the whole movie and turn it into something worthwhile instead of this needless cash grab. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Legend of Ochi April 21, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Legend of Ochi screened at the 2025 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on April 25th. Before the (digital) film reel started spooling to unveil the story of The Legend of Ochi , first-time feature writer/director Isaiah Saxon gave a brief introduction via a video message set in what could only be assumed as one of the Romanian filming locations. Speaking in a comedically hushed tone, the filmmaker stated that he made this film for children and that their intelligence rarely gets the respect it deserves from Hollywood. Maybe it was just because I had seen A Minecraft Movie a week prior and had my brain fried from the TikTok toilet humor, or that the fact that the largely adult-oriented distributor A24 is finally breaking into the realm of children’s entertainment, but Saxon’s words really resonated with me. Here is a film for children that is explicitly meant to be engaged with on both an emotional and intellectual level, and not just be a vessel for memes and merchandise. Of course, I say all this and can immediately see that A24 has littered their online shop with Ochi swag and ironically posted about it everywhere on social media. I guess we can’t always get everything that we want… Unfortunately, it’s way more interesting to think and discuss what The Legend of Ochi represents than it is to talk about what happens between minute one and minute ninety-six. For as much as Saxon finds himself clearly inspired by the darker children’s films of yesteryear like The NeverEnding Story , Labyrinth , and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , there’s never a moment where the weight of comparison doesn’t fully crush this lush tale. Take for instance the premise of the young girl Yuri (Helena Zengel) growing up in a remote village in the Carpathian mountains. She has a strained relationship with her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe) and has been told her whole life that the local wildlife that goes by the name of the Ochi only live to feed on the flesh of the living. All day and night Maxim marches up the mountains rabble-rousing and training the local youth to hunt down these creatures. Being that she has a general distrust towards her dad, Yuri doesn’t buy into the jingoistic fervor. And it also only takes one non-gun-related meeting with these creatures to convince her that they aren’t as dangerous as she’s been told. One of the babies got caught in a trap and has been separated from its family, a feeling that Yuri figuratively feels every day. That connection spurs them on a quest of reunification and self-discovery. In this momentary void between the television hiatus of The Mandalorian and its 2026 film continuation, the titular baby Ochi has kicked Baby Yoda / Grogu off its perch at the top of the animatronic cuteness pedestal. Fully operated by hand, this monkey-ish puppet features solid black eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and a lovely bright orange coat of fur. When seen from a distance in the dead of night, one could almost forgive Maxim for duping himself into thinking these creatures are evil. But just as it does for any living creature, the sun illuminates our best features. There’s a loveliness to seeing the Ochi move with a little bit of jerkiness, as sanding off the artificiality with visual effects would have made it seem even more fake. Saxon surrounds his humans and puppets in a world of matte paintings and sets possibly borrowed from Midsommar . He’s already been forced to stave off unfounded claims of AI usage, and I fear he’ll be forced to continue that defense as more eyes are placed upon the film. I’ll admit, the imagery within the film does have a striking resemblance to those demo reels that float around social media preaching that technology has unlocked a new age of filmmaking. Along with the fact that it was filmed in 2021 before any of this AI nonsense was a serious threat, Saxon’s argument stems from the love and sweat put into his craft, which is always visible on the screen. But that love Saxon has for his work is never felt by us, with everything feeling more like an aesthetic than a fully realized world. The emotional coldness doesn’t help to bridge that gap either, David Longstreth’s score doing all of the communicating. Because of this, I fear that Saxon’s intended adolescent audience is unlikely to discover and commit to the task that this film lays before them. It’s foolish and unfair for one film to be beset with the expectation that it’ll reinvigorate a largely stagnant subgenre, although the words from the creatives and marketers certainly have set themselves up for that. Saxon has certainly earned another go-around, so perhaps that will contain the spark that sets all of this ablaze. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Gladiator II November 11, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen One of the hottest TikTok trends of the year centered around raising the question of how often men think about the Roman Empire. Answers ranged from "a few times a month," "at least once a week," and "almost every day." As is usually the case with social media, everything surrounding this viral moment was performative. But if you were to glance at this year's crop of movies, there is evidence to support the modern popularity of Rome. Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating Megalopolis found Rome in the new world, with Madison Square Garden transformed into a coliseum and everyone flashing their favorite togas and olive branch crowns. And now, Ridley Scott returns us to the epic world of his Best Picture-winning film. Similar to Coppola, Scott finds his version of Rome in an anarchic state. The legend of Marcus Aurelius has become all but forgotten by the commoners, replaced by the tyrannical rule of brothers Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). "They can eat war!" is their response to General Acacius' (Pedro Pascal) subtle plea that their bloodlust is starving the empire. He's just returned from conquering Numidia (modern-day Algeria), although there weren't many spoils to be had in the victory as the bodies of the slain men and women were burned right in front of their families. One of those victims was Arishat, the wife of Lucius (Paul Mescal) who only spoke in sentences that characters say before they die. Rage and bloodlust are the only currency that Lucius possesses while he's enslaved as a gladiator, two skills that make him worthy of the sponsorship of Macrinus (Denzel Washington). In the gladiator pits, Lucius faces off against some of the nastiest animals on the planet, including rabid baboons, sharks, and a man tall enough to be in the NBA riding an armored rhinoceros. It is entirely forgivable for anachronistic creatures to appear upon the sands of The Colosseum. Like the spectators lining the rows, we're sitting in the theater for thrills, and the sight of Paul Mescal taking a bite out of a howling monkey and a shark jumping out of the water to snatch a random gladiator off a boat is something to behold. What's less forgivable is the CGI used to render these creatures to life, specifically the primates. Quite a few snickers emerged from the rows behind me as the image of Mescal flailing on the ground pretending to fight a monkey formed in their heads. For Scott, age is still just a number, a fact that he can flaunt with even more swagger as he continuously eclipses the technical prowess of almost all his peers. While Gladiator II doesn't contain the unparalleled scale of Napoleon or the unforgettably brutal hand-to-hand combat of The Last Duel , it executes itself well enough to avoid faltering under the threat of comparison. The opening siege of Numidia follows a D-Day pattern as the Romans crash their vessels on the jagged shores. Arrows and catapults are exchanged at will, and bodies are returned to the sea in droves. Things never get much bigger than that, with subsequent violence being reserved for the circular walls of The Colosseum. Fueling the background for those skirmishes is backdoor politics between various parties looking to ascend to the throne. Lucius is Macrinus' instrument for gaining favor from the current emperors, while Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) tries to rally the old guard of senators and generals. Writer David Scarpa returns to Scott's side after collaborations on All the Money in the World and Napoleon . The sweep and authentic drama from the original isn't to be found here, with a majority of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime spent wading water. It's Denzel Washington that breaks the movie out of that funk. He turns in a true movie star performance, twirling in his fine robes and chewing on every syllable. Nothing is more amusing than being in his presence, a feeling that will surely net him his tenth career Oscar nomination. While not necessarily miscast, Mescal never reaches the heights expected of him. The same goes for Pascal, who was caught in a functionary role. "Indulgent" wouldn't be a word I'd use to describe Ridley Scott, but that's just what Gladiator II is. It's the sequences and performances that lean into the schlock that fare the best, although that's what disassociates it from the superior original and will likely hinder its memorability. To answer Maximus’ famous question: I was entertained… kind of. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Creator September 27, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Creator is the return of original science-fiction on the big screen… but only if you’ve never seen a Star Wars film, Blade Runner, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Avatar, or A.I. Artificial Intelligence . Honestly, it wouldn’t be a shocking revelation to learn that The Creator was spawned from an early draft for director Gareth Edwards’ follow-up to his Star Wars entry Rogue One . It’s a disappointing fact given the hard road Edwards has been on since that 2016 galactic actioner, but it’s also not enough to derail this epic film, which offers enough dosages of spectacle to keep it steady. “It’s not real, just programming” is a line said multiple times by Joshua (John David Washington). He’s part of the population that doesn’t see anything human inside the A.I. citizens within 2065 society. But there are others, most of them in Asia, that see these androids as the next step in evolution. Any robot that wears a hood to cover up the holes where its ears should be is indistinguishable from any meat-based lifeform. This difference in ideology reached a tipping point when a nuclear bomb was detonated in Los Angeles, an event the United States government blamed on the A.I. War soon broke out, with many of the androids fleeing to the refuge of New Asia. Joshua is part of a task force to find and terminate the A.I. leader, who has reportedly built a weapon great enough to destroy NOMAD, the American space station that fires a giant laser down on the planet (sound familiar?). But this weapon is not a thing, it’s a robot child that can control electronics with her mind. Joshua may disregard robot life, but he’s not monstrous enough to kill a child, which makes him a fugitive to his CO (Allison Janney) and the rest of the human military. If the plot summary of “grizzled man begrudgingly escorts kid who is special but slowly grows attached to them and has a change of heart” sounds familiar to you then that means you’ve watched/played any combination of Logan, The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, God of War , or The Witcher over the past few years. The Lone Wolf and Cub trope is barebones here as Joshua and Alfie (the name given to the child) don’t share a strong enough connection throughout much of their journey. Washington and newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles are delightful actors, but Edwards and co-writer Chris Weitz offer little comradery outside of poorly placed jokes and overly sentimental exchanges about what it means to be human. There’s also little introspection given to the subject of human vs. artificial intelligence. All the robots are noble and peaceful, and all humans are violent and selfish. The Vietnam War parallels aren’t subtle, only this time “Fortunate Son” has been replaced by “Everything In Its Right Place.” There isn’t much room for debate nor fully compelling characters when everything is binary. Edwards remains an extreme talent as a director, crafting set pieces that incite realistic terror and spectacle within extraordinary events. He’s assembled much of the Dune team including cinematographer Greig Fraser, editor Joe Walker, and composer Hans Zimmer, each of them adding gravitas to this vision of our future. The widescreen imagery is impressively grand, begging to be projected on the biggest IMAX screen possible. The fact this only cost $80 million unofficially confirms that many Hollywood tentpoles that cost three times as much are money laundering schemes. The Creator is always on the verge of being a good movie, but just can’t ever string together the consistency needed to make the leap. One thing that is certain is that we can’t afford to let Edwards slip away into hibernation again. Somewhere out there is a killer script that needs a visionary captain. And when that time comes, blockbuster filmmaking will be forever changed for the better. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

John Wick: Chapter 4 March 15, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen In a move that will surely make it Michael Haneke’s least favorite movie of all time, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a glorious showcase of violence. Not since the days of gladiators (and I’m not talking about Russell Crowe) has mankind’s bloodlust been so voraciously quenched. Does the collective laughter and applause from my audience at the sight of bad guys having their testicles ripped apart, limbs severed, or cranium detached by a bullet make them bad people? Maybe. But this isn’t the movie (or franchise) for that sort of question. It’s best to follow the advice Winston gives to John Wick before he resumes his rampage: “Just have fun out there.” John Wick is back for his fourth chapter, whom at this point has become a far cry from his humble beginnings in 2014 when he was just a man getting revenge for his dead dog. A novelization’s worth of lore has been built up since then, with people carrying lofty titles like The Bowery King, The Director, and The Adjudicator, and societies like The High Table becoming a part of this world on top of our world. You may ask yourself how John Wick can rack up more bodies in one day than the US military does in a year, all without ever running into the police or government agencies. But then again, that angle has been done way too many times in other lame action movies, so it’s nice to be invited into something unfamiliar, even if the seriousness it handles itself with often comes across as self-parody. That tongue-in-cheek playfulness, whether intentional or not, most clearly comes across in Keanu Reeves’ performance. His stilted dialogue and inability to say more than two lines at a time do break the grand illusion instilled by cinematographer Dan Lausten’s exquisite framing and lighting, but that’s also par for the course for Reeves at this point in his career, which has risen to meteoric levels within this digital age for just that reason. That ironic sense of charisma works well with the theatricality supplied by the supporting cast, featuring the great Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada, and the operatic scale of the narrative. Just as James Cameron continually revolutionizes visual effects and puts most of his contemporaries to shame, Chad Stahelski does the same for action set pieces, at least within the confines of the Hollywood studio system (Hong Kong and other Asian countries deserve some respect). With a nearly three-hour runtime, your dollars spent on tickets will be stretched to their max potential, with sequences going for multiple film reels, pushing the envelope on the physical toll an actor/character can take. The neon lights engulf everything in bright colors, and the camera stays back and moves with fluidity. There’s a specific set piece reminiscent of Minority Report , with Stahelski holding onto a single take for minutes on end. It’s pure, unadulterated adrenaline, delivered in hefty doses. The cinematic nods don’t stop there, with an ode to Lawrence of Arabia serving as the show-stopping introduction. The luxuriousness of that initial setting is extended throughout, with the hottest tourist spots of Paris, including the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triomphe acting as backdrops. Although I said the character of John Wick has drastically changed over time, the John Wick series has maintained that underdog energy since its initial entry, even though the budgets have increased nearly sixfold. Each sequel tries its hardest to outdo the previous one, offering an improvement on what’s already been done and creating something entirely new. Although I know it will be done, I don't know how they’re going to top this in John Wick: Chapter 5 . More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Empire of Light September 12, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Empire of Light had its Canadian Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on December 09. With Empire of Light , Sam Mendes further proves that he’s one of the best directors working today. He also proves that he should abandon his newfound lust for writing his own scripts, as that should be left in more capable hands. It’s also hard to judge Mendes’ film on its own terms, as it comes at a time when filmmakers feel overwhelmingly compelled to tell their life stories through film. Just this year we have Steven Spielberg ( The Fabelmans ), Richard Linklater ( Apollo 10 1/2 ), Alejandro G. Iñárritu ( Bardo ), and James Gray ( Armageddon Time ) offering insights into one of, or both of, their child and adult lives. We also can’t forget Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast , Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza , and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God making dents in last year’s Oscar race. And then there’s Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma , Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird … alright I think you get the idea. With all the direct competition in the past and the present, Empire of Light crumbles under the weight of expectations and comparisons. It’s nowhere near being classified as bad, just underwhelming and forgettable once you also factor in all the talent involved both in front and behind the camera. Whether they know it or not, the workers within the Empire Theater act as a sort of family. Roger Deakins’ lush cinematography (solidifying him and Mendes as the best working director/cinematographer pair) captures all the bells and whistles of this movie palace, which now stands on its last leg as the age of multiplexes rushes in. You can see how this place once was the entertainment capital of the coastal English town it resides in, with its staged screens and elaborate decorations. At the helm is the self-entitled owner, Donald (Colin Firth), who never has much time for the rest of the employees. Hilary (Olivia Colman) is the de facto manager, even though she’s never watched a film during her tenure. A new recruit (Michael Ward) shakes things up a bit, unlocking romantic feelings within Hilary and some unsavory attitudes toward race and class within the community. As with nearly all entries within this specific subgenre, Empire of Light explores the healing power within movies. Except, instead of purely emotional healing, the films playing within this cinema can also cure mental illnesses, which Hilary is afflicted with, and bigotry towards others. The messages within Mendes’ script, his first without a co-writer, are never connected as tightly as they should be, with several topical ideas floating around as loose fragments. If only he could have picked one because there are specific moments for each that are well-executed. But as a whole, they are less than the sum of their parts. The weakness on the page doesn’t serve the actors well, with Colman falling into a bit of overacting for her character’s outbursts. She and Ward lack the necessary chemistry to make their relationship believable, with it mostly feeling like Mendes put them together simply because they’re outsiders. Empire of Light exemplifies both the best and worst parts of cinema, in that it holds unbelievable power in certain moments and unbelievable artificiality in others. If Mendes goes back to solely directing his next feature (or at the very least co-writing with an esteemed partner), then the world will be in for an immense treat. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Priscilla November 2, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen What’s most evident about Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is how much it is the antithesis of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis from last year. The Australian showman’s authorized propaganda piece (I don’t mean that as derisively as it sounds, all biopics are propaganda to some degree) lit up the marquee signs at the multiplexes thanks to its bright cinematography, fast-paced editing, and roaring soundtrack. Coppola’s film will subsist within arthouses and the back of the multiplexes as she trades all that in for a somber mood, silence so deafening that a you could hear a pin drop, and a soundtrack so devoid of Elvis hits that you would think he was a one-hit wonder. Of course, as per the title, Coppola shifts away from The King and examines the woman who constantly lived in his shadow, someone who only got one scene in Luhrmann’s rendition (and looked about twice as old as she was supposed to be). Actually, scratch all that. The most evident thing about Priscilla is the star-in-the-making presence of Cailee Spaeny, a growing sentiment considering her Best Actress win at this year’s Venice Film Festival. She’d been relegated to playing the younger versions of lead characters to this point: young Lynne Cheney in Vice , the daughter of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex , and young Eleanor Roosevelt seen only in flashbacks in The First Lady . She is technically playing the younger version of a real person here, but this time the focus is entirely on her. That expanded canvas allows her to spread her wings, showcasing an immense talent to hold your attention and convincingly play across an elongated timeline. We first meet Priscilla Beaulieu in Germany circa 1959. Her father has been stationed at the local Army base, making her the loneliest American in all of Bavaria. Just like it were a fairy tale, the sad girl gets her wish when an Army captain asks her to come along and meet Elvis Presley, who’s also been stationed abroad. He’s undeniable, a beaming example of Americana that seems to have leapt off the posters to fulfill her wildest fantasies. He’s ecstatic to bring her into his world, and she’s naively happy to go along for the ride. Quickly comes a move to Graceland, marriage, a child, and the duties of being a reliable homemaker to the most desirable man in the world. Coppola’s film is at its best in the beginning as she explores the morally questionable inception of the couple’s relationship. She was 14 and he was 24, but Elvis was always kind and courteous, and she was emotionally mature for her age. Despite their initial hesitations, her parents consented to their star-crossed union. Coppola doesn’t heavily lean to one side or the other, instead offering evidence for both camps. There are moments of both intentional and unintentional grooming on the part of Elvis, as well as Priscilla imprudently rushing in without understanding what she’s signing up for. What’s less interesting about Priscilla is what happens once the dust settles. Graceland quickly morphs from a luxurious palace into a gilded cage where Priscilla is forced to spend her most youthful days. She’s not allowed to leave the compound without supervision, and also not allowed to bring anyone in. It’s a more subdued version of Pablo Larraín’s duology (soon to be trilogy) of Jackie and Spencer as Priscilla is a prisoner in a dream, caught in a cycle that doesn’t become more impactful despite Coppola’s insistence on keeping it on loop. That lack of energy is almost a winking joke on Coppola’s part as she takes one of the most charismatic men in entertainment history and reveals him to be a scared child doing his best to masquerade as an adult. Jacob Elordi sees Elvis as someone who always wants to stay in control, but never does anything of value to maintain it. He’s lucky that his looks and sphere of influence do all the work for him. Fantasy slowly catching up to reality is often a theme of Sofia Coppola’s filmography and, along with Marie Antoinette , this is one of its most clear historical instances. It’s the more authentic version of the story Luhrmann avoided telling, although it is missing some much-needed spectacle that he could have shared. At the very least, Spaeny should join the ranks of Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, and Elle Fanning, all of whom Coppola announced to the world through her work. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Fingernails October 31, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fingernails had its International Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple TV+ will release it in theaters on October 27, followed by its streaming premiere on November 03. How far would you go to prove your love to someone? Would you move across the country? Would you undergo a career change? Would you rip off your fingernail to undergo a love test? If you answered yes to any of these questions, most importantly the final one, then you would be right at home in Christos Nikou’s Fingernails . In the Greek writer/director’s vision of the near future, there is such a device that can scientifically prove whether two people are in love. All it takes is for each person to rip off one of their fingernails and place it into the machine. Within a few minutes, you’re provided with an undeniable answer. What you and your partner do after that is entirely up to you. Most people who fail the test break up, causing divorce rates to momentarily skyrocket before reaching record lows. Anyone who passes the test is left with a sense of security, although that sense of risk that keeps a relationship from flatlining has now been eliminated. Unemployed teacher Anna (Jessie Buckley) is in the latter camp. She and her longtime boyfriend Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) passed the test a few years ago. He’s content with the coasting they’ve been doing since then, but she’s beginning to have doubts. What’s the point of being proven compatible if nothing else is going to come from it? That kind of questioning is one of the many ways you can poke holes in Nikou’s concept of modern love. A couple’s love for each other is never constant, so should we be putting value in a machine that can only judge based on a fixed moment in time? What about open relationships? Same-sex relationships? It’s best not to ask too many questions as Nikou and co-writers Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis (the latter also co-writing Nikou’s 2020 feature debut Apples ) have little interest in answering them. Taking all of this at face value would be an acceptable proposition except for the fact that there isn’t much to discover on the surface. Nikou served as the assistant director to Yorgos Lanthimos on Dogtooth and the influences are quite obvious. This transition to the English language takes an almost identical comically dry approach of The Lobster , sans the deadpan dialogue and threat of being turned into an animal if you don’t fall in love. What’s meant to replace that lack of originality is an edge, which is sorely lacking here. Many of Nikou’s ideas are left half-baked, with a lot of time and space budgeted for rote revelations we see from a mile away. What Nikou has shown a knack for is his ability to create a world that’s both detached and identical to our own. The all-knowing machine is a glorified microwave, put together and painted as if it were a prop for a high school stage play. A drab autumnal color palette envelopes everything, a visual metaphor for how love has lost its luster. One could question why Jeremy Allen White - a hot commodity after the success of The Bear - would sign onto the role of Ryan, a perennial wet blanket who makes it all too easy for us to root for Anna and her coworker Amir (Riz Ahmed) to get together. Buckley and Ahmed are charming, exchanging glances as they’re feelings for each other slowly develop. There’s also the likable presence of Luke Wilson as the inventor of the machine and Anna Murphy as Amir’s girlfriend. Fingernails is a pole vaulter who has an incredible walk-up, but somehow always seems to hit the bar. Nikou is finding his craft as an auteur, with this film proving that he can semi-successfully adapt his vision to a larger canvas. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Greatest Irish Filmmakers March 17, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen Happy St. Patrick’s Day! If we’re going by the past few years worth of Oscar nominations, it would seem that the Irish film industry is going through a renaissance period. The dark humor and rough political history of the land lend well to complex films, most recently seen in The Banshees of Inisherin and Belfast . Along with celebrating those films, I want to take a look at some of the top filmmakers to hail from the “Old Country.” Because of the close geographical proximity and political intertwining, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to distinguish someone as either Irish or English. Of course, there’s no law against being both, but I’d like my list to be narrowed down to only filmmakers who identify as Irish and mostly create Irish films. This excludes people such as Kenneth Branagh and John Boorman, as they tend to be more British with their identity and work. Fear not though, as there are still several venerable names that will be featured here, with all of them building up a distinct filmography ripe for discovery. Neil Jordan Jordan has long been fascinated by unconventional sexual relationships, which makes sense when you consider that The Crying Game was his big breakout, netting him an Oscar for his screenplay. Jordan has split his time between his homeland and Hollywood over the decades, with Interview with a Vampire, Michael Collins, The End of the Affair , and Breakfast on Pluto being some of his more popular works. He’s also helped launch the careers of several famous Irish actors such as Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Colin Farrell, and Saoirse Ronan. Martin McDonagh McDonagh has become the central representative for Irish cinema through his absurdist black comedies, with almost all of them containing acts of savage violence. Yet there’s always a little bit of humanity that gleams through the bloodshed. Colin Farrell has been his most loyal compatriot, appearing in In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths , and The Banshees of Inisherin . McDonagh has also successfully transferred his style to America, directing Oscar-winning performances from Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell (also in Seven Psychopaths ) in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri . Although he does technically have an Oscar for his 2006 short film Six Shooter , the world still awaits McDonagh to climb the Dolby Theatre steps for one of his feature films. Jim Sheridan Only a select few directors have had the pleasure of working with Daniel Day-Lewis on multiple occasions, with Sheridan being the only one to work with him on three films. Their first collaboration was for Sheridan’s directorial debut My Left Foot , which netted both of them Oscar nominations, with Day-Lewis winning for his lead performance. After a brief intermission with The Field , which got Richard Harris an Oscar nomination, the pair would reunite for In the Name of the Father and The Boxer . Sheridan would amass another surprise Oscar hit a few years later, with his warm immigrant tale within In America receiving double acting nominations along with a nod for his screenplay. Lenny Abrahamson Abrahamson was originally going to have a career in philosophy, but he abandoned his doctorate studies to pursue a career in filmmaking. While his parents may have been initially disappointed in him, the decision proved to be the right one, as he was the recipient of the award for Best Director at the Irish Film and Television Awards for his debut feature, Adam and Paul . He’s won the award another four times since, most recently for Room , for which he also received a surprise Oscar nomination. His work on the small screen has been just as fruitful, with 2020’s Normal People containing two breakout performances in Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Terry George George started out as the writing partner with Jim Sheridan, sharing credit on the screenplays for In the Name of the Father and The Boxer . Sheridan would even co-write the screenplay for George’s directorial debut, Some Mother’s Son , starring Helen Mirren. He would make a splash on his first solo endeavor, 2004’s Hotel Rwanda , chronicling the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo would be nominated for their performances, along with George’s script. George would also lend his talents to HBO, working on prestige dramas such as In Treatment and Luck . John Carney Nobody loves folk music more than John Carney. He entered the scene with Once in 2007, a love story about two struggling musicians in Dublin. While a tiny production, the film was able to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly.” 2013’s Begin Again shifted that story to American, with Keira Knightly playing a singer and Mark Ruffalo as a down-on-his-luck record executive. Another Oscar nomination would be earned for the song “Lost Stars.” He moved back to Dublin for Sing Street in 2016, which rode the indie circuit to enthuse reviews for its youthful exuberance. Now the two lands have come together for his latest film, where American Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars alongside Eve Hewson in a Dublin-set story about a mother and musician coming together through song. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it received strong reviews. Apple is set to release it sometime this year. John Crowley Crowley assembled an all-star cast consisting of Cillian Murphy, Kelly Macdonald, and Colin Farrell, for his debut feature film Intermission . The grungy aesthetics of that Dublin-set story would be translated into his next feature Boy A , which announced the talents of Andrew Garfield to the world. Saoirse Ronan would be the next young actor to work with Crowley, with Brooklyn netting her an Oscar nomination along with one for Best Picture. Unfortunately, Crowley wouldn’t reach the next level with The Goldfinch , but I’m hoping it’ll only be a brief stumble followed by a confident rebound. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Back to Black May 16, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We begin near the end of the icon’s journey, only to flash back to where it all began. The icon has a strained relationship with their family, immediately giving them unresolved trauma. But they have a special talent and someone in their family (most likely a grandparent) acts as their motivational coach. They suddenly hit it big, but are blindsided by the pressures of fame and the need to conform. They fall in love with an outsider, which, coupled with the growing stress, leads them to drugs and alcohol. Everyone says they need help while the excuses keep piling up, eventually ending in a burnout that crowns the tabloids. After some soul-searching, they find themselves back at the top performing one of their iconic songs. It ends back where we started, with the untimely death being revealed during the postscript, along with all their other achievements. It would be damn near impossible for you to guess what single movie I was describing. Even if you narrowed it down to just the past five years, you’d still have to decide between Elvis , Bohemian Rhapsody , Respect , I Wanna Dance with Somebody , and Bob Marley: One Love . The musician biopic subgenre has become such a cliché at this point that there’s even a sub-subgenre for parodies like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story . But even those are starting to feel a little stale, as the jokes don’t have the same punch when you can see them coming from a mile away. Writer Matt Greenhalgh would have only needed to add a few jokes to his Back to Black script to make it into one of those parodies. All the other tropes are already there, so why not make this a comedy? It’s surely not a compelling drama, nor a “definitive” retelling of Amy Winehouse’s life. Everything has been scrubbed with disinfectant several times over, leaving behind a product so basic that you’d barely get the impression that this person was special at all. The one laughable thing is Greenhalgh’s treatment of Winehouse, with his pen always pushing her further down the gutter. Between the alcohol, the ever-growing lineup of drugs, and discussions of self-harm, there’s nothing that Amy isn’t doing to destroy herself. Greenhalgh’s claim that all this self-destruction was predominantly spurred by Amy’s inability to have a child is both borderline insulting and too neat. There’s also the unintentional running joke of Amy saying that she needs to stay true to herself while also perfectly following the rags-to-riches template. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has previously shown an interest in musicians, helming the 2009 John Lennon origin story Nowhere Boy . The strategy doesn’t seem to have changed in the decade-plus since, with the beats being produced in a forgettably competent manner. The staging of Winehouse’s performances is quite nice, with star Marisa Abela doing a fine impression both physically and vocally. Less than stellar is Jack O'Connell as her sleazy on-again, off-again husband, and the relative sidelining of Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville. Getting anything out of Back to Black will be a tall order for any viewer, regardless of your familiarity with Winehouse’s life and music. There’s also the unavoidable presence of the Oscar-winning 2015 documentary Amy , which covers more material with more depth in just as much time. But as long as Winehouse's songs see a bump on Spotify, then the producers will be happy. And we all know that’s what really matters in this landscape. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Anora June 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Anora had its World Premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release it in theaters on October 18. Love him or hate him (I’m curious if there’s anyone out there who hates him), you’ve got to admit that Sean Baker knows how to open a movie. The catchy rhythms of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” jolt Red Rocket ’s Mikey Saber awake on his long-haul bus trip from LA to the middle of nowhere in Texas. The lyrics of “You’re probably going to start a fight / I know this can’t be right / Hey baby, come on.” reverberate throughout Mikey’s subsequent actions. But as much as you despise what he’s doing - just like the song - you can’t help but tap along with him. Baker’s newest work, Anora , takes an almost identical strategy. The high-energy beat of Take That’s “ Greatest Day (Remix) ” blasts from the theater speakers as Baker’s signature red-colored cursive opening studio logos bleed across the black screen. The words “Today this could be, the greatest day of our lives,” take over as we fade in on a sex worker giving a lap dance to a very enthusiastic customer. The camera glides from right to left, revealing an assembly line of workers and their male patrons. Everyone is living in euphoria at this moment, the world melting away with each strut of their bodies. I’m pretty sure Greta Gerwig’s Cannes jury only needed these initial thirty seconds to declare this their Palme d’Or winner. For our titular Anora (Mikey Madison), or Ani, as she likes to be called, her night is only just beginning. As the only dancer in her club who can understand Russian on account of her family’s Uzbek background, Ani gets assigned to be the personal escort for a high-rolling Russian fuckboy looking to blow his oligarch father’s money on as many girls and drugs as he can. His name is Ivan/Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) and he speaks in respectably broken English, dons a haircut and skinny frame akin to Timothée Chalamet, and is obviously a rich kid who’s been handed everything on a silver platter all his life. But he pays handsomely and treats Ani with respect, so how can she say no? Things escalate from there, including a New Year’s Eve party at Vanya’s luxurious beachfront mansion and a week-long escapade at the swankiest spots in Las Vegas. Baker’s documentarian aesthetics keep this Pretty Woman- esque tale of young love grounded within reality. The club Ani works at is dingy and run by a pretty scummy group of older guys. And Vanya is no Richard Gere, acting more like a bratty child than the respectable man he’s been sent to America to become. But like any night of ecstasy, the sobering reality of the morning sun eventually sets in. A hasty marriage between Ani and Vanya at one of those seedy Las Vegas chapels brings out the wrath of Vanya’s neglectful parents, who sick their hired goons/caretakers to have the couple’s marriage annulled. They say you truly get to know someone during a moment of weakness, and Ani learns a lot about Vanya once the music stops. A series of misadventures ensue over several hours, more than enough to fill the 139-minute runtime, but not enough to make it wholly justifiable. It’s hard for a comedy, even a truly laugh-out-loud one such as this, to be great when 25% of its runtime could have been trimmed. Madison is always in her element as she follows Baker’s on-the-ground improvisational rhetoric. She delivers a true movie star performance, a quality Baker always seems to find in his often unknown (or underseen) stars. That level of showmanship goes a long way to carry the zaniness. The entire product reminded me of Triangle of Sadness , another Palme d’Or winner that often overstayed its welcome. But both that film and Anora always stand out from the rest of the pack and send you on a high note, which can never go unappreciated. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen