The Nun September 13, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Over the last five years, the Conjuring Universe has taken the horror genre by storm. This has been made possible by having great directing and inventive scares that defy expectations. The Nun , the newest film in the series, has none (pun intended) of those quality traits. Instead, it ends up being one of the most generic and forgettable horror films in recent memory. Set in 1952 Romania, the body of a young nun is found outside a monastery. The nun committed suicide by hanging, but the purpose is unknown. The Vatican sends Father Burke and Sister Irene to investigate the nun’s death and find out if the monastery is still holy ground. Once there, Burke and Irene are met with many different types of supernatural evil, all of which spawn from a spirit that has been recently awoken. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzD9zGcUNrw Marking only his second feature, director Corin Hardy fails miserably to make this film different than other supernatural horror films. He relies way too heavily on jump scares and doesn’t establish a creepy atmosphere. Despite having only a 96-minute runtime, The Nun is surprisingly boring. Hardy keeps the pace very slow and doesn’t allow for anything interesting to develop. Not much really happens until the very end, when we get a quick final showdown that ends in the campiest way possible. Speaking of campiness, the film tries to interject the scares with a few slight one-liners. They make no sense in the context of the story and always fail miserably, invoking groans rather than laughter. One slight nod that can be given to Hardy is his average camerawork. Some of the overhead and pan shots are interesting to look at, but that’s about it. Written by Gary Dauberman with help from James Wan, The Nun could already take the cake for the worst writing of the year. The overall premise of the film is decent, but any resemblance to a story after that is downright terrible. Important elements have very little background and anything that happens is given no reasoning whatsoever. Each character is very dull. They have tragic generic backstories that try (and fail) to make us connect with them. They also make some of the dumbest decisions, such as splitting up multiple times and trying to fight a demon head-on. Similar to the directing, the writing fails to make the film scary in any way. Almost every “scare” is a jump scare that just startles you. After that, nothing really happens as the film cycles to the next jump scare. It’s very predictable and restricts any element of surprise. Completing the trifecta of horribleness is the acting. Demián Bichir plays Father Burke. Just like his character, Bichir is very bland and lacks any trace of personality. All he does is have a concerned look on his face and barely makes any meaningful interaction with the other characters. Taissa Farmiga, sister of franchise star Vera Farmiga, plays Sister Irene. Unfortunately, Taissa shares no quality acting traits with her superior sister. She constantly looks out of her element and isn’t able to be more than a one-note character. Last, and certainly least, is Jonas Bloquet as Frenchie, a local farmer who acts as a guide to Burke and Irene. Frenchie is the arrogant tough guy in every horror film that you just want to punch. He’s the source of all the painful one-liners and is just flat-out terrible to watch. The Nun is a boring and frightless mess that fails on all levels. By the time the credits roll, any audience member should feel insulted that they wasted both time and money on this pitiful excuse of a horror film. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Nun in theaters nationwide on September 07th. 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

Practical Magic 2 September 9, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In show business, time is always the biggest constraint. Everyone only has so much time to become culturally relevant, and so much time to get the band back together to maintain that status. Instead of cracking the elusive universal mystery of eternal youth, Hollywood seems to have forsaken the notion of anything becoming too old to still be profitable. Harrison Ford returned to Blade Runner thirty-five years later, while Emily Blunt stepped into the shoes of Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns over fifty years after Julie Andrews. Tom Cruise lit up the box office by flying one more mission as Maverick in Top Gun: Maverick , and will be racing another lap in the equally long-gestating Days of Thunder 2 . So, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Practical Magic , the 1998 mid-budget box office disappointment that also received negative critical remarks, is getting a belated sequel. A passionate fanbase can be thanked for this return, themselves longingly holding on to the unapologetic themes of sisterhood and comedic witchcraft, elements not as easily found in mainstream cinema as they probably should be. Where else can one see a witch’s domestic abuser boyfriend be killed by her sister, buried in a bed of roses, risen from the dead as a possessive demon, and then exorcised by a neighborhood watch of snooty suburban housewives? Fans of that original film will take pleasure in the many callbacks and returning elements of this sequel. Aunts Franny (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) are back with a sly smile as they continue to be the talk of their small New England town. They’re like Etsy witches for the lovelorn wives, only their spells actually work. Not casting any more spells is Sally (Sandra Bullock), who gave away her powers after the family curse killed her second husband, Gary (Aidan Quinn doesn’t return as a corpse). She also made her sister Gillian (Nicole Kidman) promise to never reveal to Sally’s two daughters, Kylie (Joey King, who previously played Kidman’s daughter in A Family Affair ) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), that they are also witches. Never mind that the daughters were pretty much full participants in all the prep work for the original film’s exorcism prep, and were around the aunts long enough to likely get a hint of what’s going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho10_4IX1jE The truth eventually rears its ugly head for Kylie when her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Maridueña of Blue Beetle ) is critically injured the morning after they profess their love for each other. Realizing that the curse is real and she’s been lied to her entire life, she runs away to figure out how to break it. This involves going to England, where Sally and Gillian chase after and recruit the help of the dashing witchcraft professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace). For all the reasons I gave above for why the first film became a cult (or should I say coven?) favorite, the plot was very much not one of them. That’s why it’s a confusing shame as to why the collection of screenwriters - Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel - felt the need to stuff so much of it in here. At nearly 130 minutes in length compared to the original’s 100, there’s a clear feeling that stuff is being made up on the spot, with vague witchcraft words used to paper over thinly developed reasons for these characters to do half the stuff they do. Of course, all movies are just made up reasons for things to happen. But this one feels like it needed to prove its own existence, or was tricked into thinking this is what the people wanted. Truly, the only thing people were clamoring for was more chemistry between Bullock and Kidman. Together they are a winning combination, trading heartfelt speeches and witty one-liners without skipping a beat all these years later. Clad in black as a reclusive librarian, Bullock’s impulse is to say no to everything, the walls built from a past full of pain. That sad sack energy would be a lot more tiring if it weren’t channeled through someone as effortlessly watchable as her, who also gets a fun sparring partner in Kidman’s grown-up wild child. Try as they might to become the next generation, King and Williams are stuck on their tracks, given little opportunities to make moments for themselves. At least King gets to go off on her own journey, while Williams stays put in a hospital (her character is a doctor) for almost the entire runtime. Director Susanne Bier and cinematographer Simon Duggan don’t offer any sumptuous visuals, preferring an overlit, washed-out look. There’s no warmth or autumnal hues, just a bland palette best served for streaming. Pun fully intended, but Practical Magic 2 does not recapture the magic of the original. I’d normally add the phrase “try as it might” to the start of that sentence, but it never seemed like the filmmaking team tried in the right ways. When you’ve got several extremely talented actresses in your lineup, your best course of action is to get out of the way and let them do their thing. In trying to do too much, Practical Magic 2 casts a spell of clumsiness, tripping over its own feet to an unsatisfying return. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Practical Magic 2 in theaters nationwide on September 11th. 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 Best Cinematographers Working Today And Where To Find Them Next April 30, 2021 By: Hunter Friesen Cinematography is often the first thing we notice when watching a film, but the person behind the camera creating the magic often goes unrecognized except for the few seconds their name appears in the credits. A Director of Photography (DP) can carry a distinct visual style throughout their body of work, often pairing that style with a like-minded director. There are dozens of cinematographers working today that have produced some truly stunning work. This list highlights fifteen of them in no particular order and gives a brief glimpse into what they are working on next. No list can ever be perfect, and I'll be the first to say that many worthy names have been left off here. But before you get angry about an omission, you have to remember that to qualify for this list; a cinematographer must be officially attached to a film that is expected to be released by the end of 2022. So, quality names such as Rachel Morrison and Bradford Young do not appear because they don't have anything lined up at the moment. Roger Deakins This British-born DP isn't just considered one of the best working today; he's considered one of the best of all time. Deakins has cemented that status with his long-lasting director partnerships with both the Coen brothers and Sam Mendes. He is adaptable to all genres and can work on light comedies such as The Big Lebowski or tentpole epics like Skyfall . And despite being a perennial Oscar loser for nearly twenty years, he has claimed two consecutive wins for his work on Blade Runner 2049 and 1917 , respectively. His next project will reteam him with Sam Mendes for the 2022 release, Empire of Light . Bruno Delbonnel When Roger Deakins isn't available, the Coen brothers have relied on the French-born Delbonnel. He broke out early in France with Amelie and A Very Long Engagement , which showed off his distinct color palette. He's now worked with the Coens and Joe Wright on multiple films, most notably Inside Llewyn Davis and Darkest Hour . It's fitting that each of his following two projects will be with those directors as he has Wright's The Woman in the Window on Netflix in May and Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth later this year. Robert Richardson Regularly working with the likes of Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese, Robert Richardson has built his resume through a who's who of directing talent. He often matches his sharp visual style with a specific project, whether it be the period-accurate hard-lighting in The Aviator , harnessing the power of 3D in Hugo , or shooting on 70mm for The Hateful Eight . Richardson's upcoming project is a reteaming with director Andy Serkis for Venom: Let There Be Carnage , the sequel to the 2018 smash hit. Emmanuel Lubezki Like Richardson, Emmanuel Lubezki has attached himself to some of the top directors of the modern era. He’s had a fruitful relationship with fellow Mexicans Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and also with the enigmatic Terrence Malick. His movies often push the limit of the long take and rely heavily on natural lighting. His work has netted him a career of eight Oscar nominations, and he won three years in a row from 2013-2015. After taking a short break, he'll be back in the hunt later this year with David O. Russell's Amsterdam . Matthew Libatique Lover of handheld camerawork and color specificity, Matthew Libatique has traveled around the industry and worked on projects at every level. He's had a lasting partnership with Darren Aronofsky, creating visual horror with the films Black Swan and Mother! . He's shown off his incredible range with Birds of Prey last year, along with A Star Is Born and The Prom . He has two upcoming projects, one of which is a reunion with Aronofsky on an untitled A24 drama. The other is Olivia Wilde's follow-up to Booksmart , which is the 1950s set horror-thriller, Don't Worry Darling . Janusz Kaminski Almost exclusively working with Steven Spielberg since their partnership began in 1993 for Schindler's List , Polish DP Janusz Kaminski has been responsible for some of the most incredible imagery of the past quarter-century. He is known for his heavy lighting of windows and shooting on grainy film stock. He has proven that he isn't dependent on Spielberg, as he did wonders with Julian Schnabel in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and in 2014 with The Judge . Kaminski will be in full musical mode this winter with Spielberg's West Side Story remake set to be released at Christmas. Darius Wolski Also, from Poland, Wolski netted his first Oscar nomination last year for News of the World . Since coming to Hollywood in the mid-1990s, Wolski has worked on several blockbuster productions such as the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and nearly a dozen films with Ridley Scott. Both he and Scott have three movies in the pipeline, with two of them, The Last Duel and House of Gucci , releasing later this year. The third is a Napoleon Bonaparte biopic with Joaquin Phoenix, which is expected to begin production soon. Greig Fraser Australian Greig Fraser started his career with fellow countrymen such as Scott Hicks, Andrew Dominik, and Jane Campion. His films often have crisp darkness surrounding them, heightening the slow-burn tension his directors like to instill. He began to branch out in the early 2010s, working with Kathryn Bigelow in Zero Dark Thirty and with Gareth Edwards in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . He netted his first Oscar nomination working with Garth Davis in Lion and recently won his first Emmy for his work in The Mandalorian . He's kept busy recently with two gigantic productions, which are Denis Villeneuve's Dune and Matt Reeves's The Batman . Darius Kohndji Like a fine wine, this Iranian-born DP seems to be getting better with age. His Hollywood hit came in 1995 on David Fincher's Se7en . He then attached himself to Woody Allen from Midnight to Paris to Irrational Man and showed off his prowess with soft lighting with James Gray in the films The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z . But he's also adept at sharp contrasts, which he used to perfection in Nicolas Winding Refn's Amazon series Too Old to Die Young . He's working with Alejandro González Iñárritu on his newest film, Limbo , which is filming now and slated for release later this year. Rodrigo Prieto Replacing Robert Richardson as Martin Scorsese's go-to cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto burst onto the scene with Alejandro González Iñárritu's internationally acclaimed hit, Amores Perros . He kept up his relationship with Iñárritu while also dabbling in multiple projects with Julie Taymor and Oliver Stone. His visual style has lent itself to sprawling stories, such as the globe-trotting Babel or the decades-spanning The Irishman . Prieto and Scorsese are back together again for a western titled Killers of the Flower Moon , which recently started filming. Maryse Alberti Maryse Alberti has worked with filmmakers such as Darron Aronofsky ( The Wrestler ), Ryan Coogler ( Creed ), and most recently Ron Howard ( Hillbilly Elegy ), carving out a spot for herself as one of the best cinematographers working today. Blending handheld camerawork with striking compositions, her work has a naturalistic quality that helps the stories she's working on to feel grounded yet richly cinematic. She'll next be seen working with actor/director Denzel Washington on A Journal For Jordan (based on the memoir by Dana Canedy), which will reunite her with Creed star Michael B. Jordan and also stars Chanté Adams and Robert Wisdom. Jeff Cronenweth The son of Blade Runner cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth, Jeff cut his teeth on music videos and gradually worked his way into feature films. He's embraced digital photography, crafting some of the sharpest and cold imagery of the past decade in The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , and Gone Girl . He's recently been recruited by Aaron Sorkin to shoot his upcoming Lucille Ball biopic, Being the Ricardos . Linus Sandgren Favoring rich colors and eye-popping visuals, Sandgren started his Hollywood career with a bang in 2013 with David O. Russell's American Hustle . He stayed with Russell to make Joy just two years later and then partnered with wunderkind Damien Chazelle to make visual magic in both La La Land and First Man . He has a big lineup in the near future, with No Time to Die and Adam McKay's Don't Look Up being released later this year. He's also reteaming with Chazelle for the Hollywood epic Babylon , slated for release on Christmas 2022. Chung Chung-hoon When it comes to shot framing, this South Korean DP is the master. He partnered with fellow South Korean director Park Chan-wook in the films Oldboy , Thirst , and Lady Vengeance . The crowning achievement for the pair has to be 2016's The Handmaiden , a lush tale of deception and intrigue. He's dabbled in the English language a few times, and he can next be found working with Edgar Wright for Last Night in Soho and Ruben Fleischer for the Uncharted video game adaptation. Claudio Miranda Claudio Miranda is second to none when it comes to CG photography. He has embraced the popularization of digital filmmaking, showing off the wonders of technology in TRON: Legacy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button . He won an Oscar in 2012 for his groundbreaking work with Ang Lee in Life of Pi . He's working with director Joseph Kosinski on two upcoming releases: the highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick and Netflix's Escape from Spiderhead . Mihai Malaimare Jr. While not the biggest name on this list, this Romanian DP has worked with quite a few high-profile directors. He started with Francis Ford Coppola in his avant-garde trilogy of Youth Without Youth, Tetro , and Twixt . Then in 2012, he and Paul Thomas Andreson collaborated to make The Master , one of the most daring and gorgeous uses of 65mm. He kept a low profile for a while after that but returned in 2019 with Taika Waititi to make the sumptuous Jojo Rabbit . He'll next be seen partnering with newcomer Jeymes Samuel for the black-led Netflix western, The Harder They Fall . 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

Poitier and Hoffman: The Dueling Kings of 1967 Hollywood February 23, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In all the years that cinema has been alive, 1967 is undoubtedly one of the most pivotal. After years of jealousy towards the European model of thinking, America finally opened itself up to a new wave of filmmaking, one heralded by auteurs who subscribed to the ideas of new sentimentality. Films such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate spoke to the younger audience of American cinema, offering exploration into forbidden topics such as sex, violence, and social change. Even though these films made their mark both critically and financially, it did not mean the death of old sentimentality in film, quite the contrary. In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner both were nominated for Best Picture that year, with the former taking home the prize. These two films appealed to the older generation through their use of star power and production values. What’s most striking about the dichotomy between these two sets of films is the leading men at the center of them. On one side sits Dustin Hoffman; a short (only standing 5’5”) aloof brown-haired boy. On the other side is Sidney Poitier, who stands tall at 6’2” and is both exceedingly handsome and elegant. Both of these actors represented different generations of cinema and were hugely important in the turning point of 1967. Dustin Hoffman had no screen presence before being cast in The Graduate . He had no major previous roles and did not possess the classic movie star looks such as the blonde hair of Robert Redford and Paul Newman or the towering charisma of Warren Beatty. Hoffman was of Jewish descent, which could be easily discerned from his looks, making him even more of an outsider to his contemporaries. Director Mike Nichols saw something in Hoffman, an opportunity to use Hoffman’s “flaws” to tell a more authentic story to a younger audience growing tired of Hollywood perfectionism. In The Graduate , Benjamin’s detachment from every aspect of life is something that connects with younger viewers. In 1967, the Vietnam War was still raging, and the American optimism that had been so prevalent since World War II had started to wane. Kids didn’t have their entire futures planned out and were starting to see the flaws within American society. Because of Hoffman and The Graduate , no longer does the main character have to have a goal to achieve or a lover to swoon over. Instead, they can be aimless and enter into an adulterous relationship with an older woman. This performance spurred Hoffman’s career further, with equally down & dirty roles in Midnight Cowboy and Straw Dogs just a few years later. Sidney Poitier, on the other hand, was, through his involvement in the projects, a proponent of old sentimentality in Hollywood. Where Hoffman’s popularity was beginning to boom, Poitier’s reached its peak and would soon come crashing down. His roles in both In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner shined a light on race relations within America but did it through the old lens of conventionalism. Of course, a black man leading a Best Picture winner and garnering acclaim for his performance isn’t something to shortchange. But Poitier played by Hollywood’s rules, playing stoic, calm, and poignant men that appealed to a generation that stood for professionalism and the status quo. In the Heat of the Night has Poitier play Virgil Tibbs, who solves a murder case in the deep south and confronts the town’s ideals through his merit as a detective and ability to withstand undeserved ridicule. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Poitier is John Prentice, seemingly the world’s greatest doctor who rests the solution to his marital problem in the hands of Spencer Tracy, one of the great screen legends of the past. While both these roles allowed Poitier to address social change in intermittent radical ways, such as his retaliatory slap against Endicott and his fiery speech about thinking of himself not as a colored man, but just a man. Both of these movies portrayed the white savior narrative that had grown out of favor among the younger generation. Unlike Hoffman, Poitier’s appeal was, ironically, only to the people that had been holding him back all those years, and not to the people who were looking to create change within the nation and Hollywood system. This is why Poitier never stayed at the same level post-1967, as New Hollywood emerged and the old conventions started to die off, both literally and figuratively. Both Dustin Hoffman and Sidney Poiter were exciting actors for an exciting time in American cinema. Through their physical and personality traits, they appealed to different sets of ideals within the American psyche at a time when both sides came to a crossroads. 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

Empire of Light September 12, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen 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 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JA3bD5xs-Q 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 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 of 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. This review was originally published from the Canadian premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release Empire of Light in select theaters on December 09th. 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 American New Wave of 1970s Hollywood May 4, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many American filmmakers sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema. For the past several decades, American films were built upon prestige and spectacle, drawing millions to see wondrous images and famous faces on a gigantic screen. Largely influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, a new batch of American filmmakers created a movement called the “American New Wave” or “New Hollywood.” This movement defied the nostalgic standards of yesteryear and created a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. With the meteoric rise of television and inflated production costs, studios were in a state of financial ruin when this movement was beginning to form. Coupled with the disbanding of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1967, these filmmakers had a golden opportunity of artistic freedom and expression. Two of the most prominent filmmakers in New Hollywood were the Italian-American duo of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. They modeled their filmmaking process around the auteur theory and did whatever they could to break and reshape the rules of Hollywood. The two films that broke new ground were Coppola’s The Godfather in 1972 and Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1976. These two films challenged Old Hollywood storytelling through their use of social messaging, complicated central characters, and attitudes towards on-screen violence. The incorporation of social messaging within movies had been around for some time in Old Hollywood, but it was often lightened for audiences. Stanley Kramer spoke about societal issues in many of his films, such as The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . Despite being released right around the time of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, these films were geared towards older generations of moviegoers, the ones that would better respond to conventionalism and star power. While he revered Kramer, Martin Scorsese didn’t follow in his footsteps when it came to telling his story. Taxi Driver is set in the authentic 1970s version of New York City, filled with pimps, prostitutes, drugs, and murder. In a voiceover, the central character, a lonely taxi driver named Travis Bickle, describes his nightly routine: “Each night, when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the c** off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.” Travis is just a cab driver, and only about three feet separate him from his passengers. And yet, somehow semen and blood end up on his seats. Our imaginations can only run wild with the disgusting things he witnesses every night. Seeing these horrific events nightly slowly pushes Travis to his breaking point, which he was already a bit too close to due to the undiagnosed PTSD he carries with him since his discharge from the Vietnam War. He has no contempt for his fellow man and only sees them as the worst versions of themselves. In one of his monologues, Travis describes the cities residents as ”animals coming out at night – whores, skunk p*****s, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” This quote shows the mental downfall of Travis and how he decides to take matters into his own hands. Scorsese, and screenwriter Paul Schrader, give the audience an honest and unsensitized depiction of what New York City is like. Gone are the days of the glimmering bustle of New York in films such as Guys and Dolls and Breakfast at Tiffany’s . Taxi Driver, along with other New Hollywood films like Midnight Cowboy and The French Connection showed New York as a cesspool of crime and villainy that no decent person should visit, let alone live in. Also set in New York City, albeit a few decades earlier, was Coppola’s The Godfather . Adapted from the novel by Mario Puzo, Coppola steeps his film into the rich Italian immigrant culture, one filled with hardships and stresses the importance of family. Vito Corleone is a character that is given immense psychological development. Many of his actions are done to protect his family and strengthen his relationships with the other crime families. He still can be considered a villain, as he orders men to be killed and works in illegal enterprises. With Brando’s method acting, Vito was an unprecedented authentic depiction of Italian-Americans, distancing the image away from the Tommy Gun swinging depictions in earlier films such as The Public Enemy and Scarface . There could also be an argument made that Coppola’s new image became a harmful stereotype, as The Godfather became immensely influential in how Italian-Americans were portrayed in future films. Similar to Vito, it’s difficult to place the character of Travis Bickle on the spectrum of hero and villain. He takes a complicated journey from an outcast to a killer, with almost everything being under the surface. Scorsese and Schrader avoid what director Sidney Lumet called “the rubber-ducky moment,” a phrase that stemmed from the television specials of the 1950s where characters and their motivations could be easily explained. For example, a person’s rubber ducky was stolen as a child and that’s why they became a deranged killer. Lumet criticized this moment for being too simple and preposterous, as nobody’s personality and persona could come from just one experience. Scorsese and Schrader never simplify Travis as a character. Film essayist Matt Zoller Seitz (2016) noticed the initial complexity by writing: “There is nothing spontaneous or natural about this man. He’s deeply damaged, maybe by the war, maybe by his childhood; we don’t know exactly what his problem is, and ultimately it doesn’t matter.” We never truly know what Travis problems are, and we never know exactly what is going on inside his mind. Based on his monologues previously mentioned, we can only imagine what Travis sees and thinks about. Even if we don’t always know everything that’s happening internally, Scorsese does give us glimpses from time to time. The famous mirror scene is an example of Scorsese using his directorial toolkit to illustrate Travis, but not explain him. Using disjunctive editing, a radical departure from classic storytelling, and a technique reminiscent of the French New Wave, Scorsese breaks up the flow of the scene, separating the viewer from Travis. Travis practices confronting someone with a gun, pointing it at his reflection, and uttering incomplete sentences. In his article, "The Last Temptation of Travis Bickle," author Andre Caron (1997) described this technique as a “sudden distancing process in order to separate the viewer from Travis.” The only conversation Travis can hold throughout the film is with himself, and even that is just fragments of threats and taunts. With the cut-up editing, the viewer is disoriented and begins to mirror the paranoia that Travis has in his head. In the mob genre, there are no two more complicated characters than Vito and Michael Corleone. Before them, the genre was populated with more stereotypical and one-dimensional representations by the likes of James Cagney and Paul Muni. Vito Corleone was an immigrant of the United States looking to make a name for himself and secure a future for his family. He doesn’t see the mafia as a glorious lifestyle. He doesn’t want his youngest son, Michael, to be involved in the family business. Michael initially doesn’t play a part in the family and has no intention to do so. At the beginning of the film, he describes his father’s actions to his girlfriend as “that’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” Throughout the film, Michael becomes more and more embroiled in his family affairs. After his father is gunned down in the street, he takes it upon himself to enact revenge on those responsible. The restaurant scene is the moment that marks Michael’s transition from innocent war-hero to mafia murderer. Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey in a restaurant. Like Scorsese does in his mirror scene, Coppola uses character-driven editing to not explain Michael, but to give us bits and pieces of his thoughts. As the two men try to excuse their actions, Coppola cuts to a close-up of Michael as he stares at his opponents. He has a personal grievance with the men and a sense of duty to his family, but he still doesn’t know if should go through with the action. The sound of a corkscrew and wine bottle being opened add to the tension bubbling in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjyB2MpxBU Michael’s head. After some short conversation, Coppola recommits to the close-up of Michael, now slowly zooming in and overtaking the dialogue with the sound of an oncoming train. At this moment, Michael makes up his mind and commits to the deed, pulling out a gun and killing both men. With the power of sound effects, dialogue, and editing, Coppola doesn’t fall into the easy rubber-ducky trap, as he instead slowly exhibits Michael’s transition and demands the audience to feel the pathos behind his actions. Finally, both Taxi Driver and The Godfather feature moments of extreme on-screen violence, often committed by the main characters. They are both unflinching in execution and don’t shy away from the horrors. In Taxi Driver , Travis acquires his weapons through an illegal dealer. He buys more guns than a person could need, including many that are much more powerful than he requires. To him, the ends justify the means. Being a vigilante and having illegal access to firearms doesn’t mean anything if he has good intentions. While there can be an argument for that mode of thinking, Travis also doesn’t seem to care about the consequences of his actions, so long as they are deemed bad in his eyes. After a few outbursts here and there, the film culminates in a shootout at a brothel. Scorsese lingers on the scene with slow pans to show the aftermath but also uses quick edits when guns are being fired. The scene is brutal, with an extreme focus on the physical damage being done to bodies, and the mental damage being done to Iris, who witnesses the whole thing. Unexpectedly, the media portrays Travis as a hero who took matters into his own hands and saved a girl from prostitution. As the viewer, we know that Travis isn’t a prototypical hero and his actions aren’t ones to admire. This cycle of violence and interpretation goes back to the social messaging Scorsese and Schrader instill into the film. There is a disconnect between the true story and the one printed. Who is to blame for this disconnect, the readers of the paper, or the publications glorifying the disturbing act? The answer is both. The audience (the viewers included) crave violence with a morbid attraction. The media lives to meet that demand, writing stories depicting heroes and villains. Scorsese and Schrader emphasize that violence is inherently evil and that it doesn’t solve the worst problems in the world. No character’s situation is improved after the events in the film, as Travis feels empowered to commit more acts and Iris is forever scarred, both physically and mentally. The Godfather came a few years before Taxi Driver when auteurs were experimenting with the relationship both Hollywood and audiences had with violence. Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, and Straw Dogs broke into the mainstream, with their heavy use of screen violence being one of the central elements of their success. The violence within The Godfather does not sensationalize the crime lifestyle. Each death is stripped of stylization, often being shown in gruesome fashion. For example, the garrote scene has Luca Brasi’s eyes popping out of his head, and Sonny’s ambush leaves him in a bloody mess. Finally, the ending follows the massacre of several high-ranking mob bosses, including one being shot in the eye and another being gunned down in bed. None of this violence is played to be heroic or produce good consequences, similar to Taxi Driver and the films mentioned before. Taking a page out of their European contemporaries and defying the methods of their Hollywood elders, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese became two of the most respected filmmakers of the New Hollywood movement. Because of their attitudes towards violence, character development, and social messaging, the pair revolutionized the role that a director played in the filmmaking process and the connection audiences had with cinema. 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

Inside Out 2 June 16, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark Pixar’s newfound knack for unnecessary sequels rears its head once again with Inside Out 2 . When the inevitable news broke that a sequel to the 2015 hit was going into production, many people (including myself) hesitated to view things positively and pondered the need for its existence. On top of that, Pixar was currently on a losing streak in terms of critical and audience reactions, with the likes of Lightyear and Elemental coming and going without much fanfare. And even with those worrisome trailers, all those negative thoughts left my head once I sat down to watch the final product, which could (and hopefully will) be the start of the studio returning to form. Despite all the pageantry by Pixar to be returning to this property, some of the original key players in the cast and crew are missing. For the cast, only Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black returned to voice Joy, Sadness, and Anger, respectively. Tony Hale and Liza Lapira took over for Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling as Fear and Disgust, an unfortunate downgrade, as the replacements don’t rise to the occasion. But on a more positive note, Poehler once again knocks it out of the park as Joy, and she’s joined by a bevy of new emotions in Embarrassed, Ennui, Envy, and Anxiety. Ayo Edebiri and Maya Hawke stand out as Envy and Anxiety, respectively, with the latter giving the best voiceover performance of the year thus far, capturing the frenetic chaos and capitalizing on the inner struggle one can have when dealing with it. At the same time, Edebiri brings her bombastic charms to her adorable character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEjhY15eCx0 Regarding the crew, the most prominent absentees are previous co-writer/director (and overall Pixar legend) Pete Docter and composer Michael Giacchino. Although Docter is still attached to the project as an executive producer and his role as Chief Creative Officer at the studio, his absence is felt in the driver’s seat as veteran studio writer Kelsey Mann takes over. That isn’t to say Mann does a lousy job; there’s just that extra bit of creativity missing to make this all feel truly special. After Anxiety boots the original emotions from headquarters, they come across more concepts that operate the human mind, many of them not seen in the first movie. Riley’s secret vault, brainstorms, Sense of Self, and a sar-chasm are just as generously illustrated as the ones presented in the predecessor. The use of Riley’s beliefs as cords stringing from a pond underneath headquarters to a flower inside it is terrific. The designs of the new emotions felt fitting given their natures - Embarrassment being big and Envy being small - each conveying how those feelings take over once expressed. There’s also a moment where Anxiety creates a tornado when she starts to take over, an apt metaphor that’s as fun to watch as it is relatable. In a more stunning turn of events, the film takes a stab at different animation styles in several scenes. When the original emotions are locked away in Riley’s secret vault, they meet Bloofy, a character from Riley’s favorite children’s show, and Lance Slashblade, a video game character that Riley once had a crush on. Bloofy and Lance are animated differently, with the former (along with his fanny pack sidekick Pouchy) being traditionally 2-D animated and the latter having the design of a late 2000s video game graphic. Although it’s not something I would have expected Pixar to do, it’s a pleasant surprise from their traditional formula. There may be some slight missteps in this sequel, but Inside Out 2 is still a delightful return to the world of emotions, bringing back the spark that we once consistently expected from Pixar. The kids will have fun watching it for its humor, while the grown-ups will find the concepts to be intriguing. How long will it take before Pixar is officially back? Who knows, but there’s no need for longtime fans and moviegoers to get anxious over it. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will release Inside Out 2 in theaters nationwide on June 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

Snow White March 19, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen At this point in the Disney live-action remake cycle, the only way to grade Snow White would be on a curve. “That’s not fair!” says Pinocchio , Dumbo, The Lion King , and The Little Mermaid . To them, my response is simple: Be better (or release later). Their faults have become Snow White ’s blessing, a bar lowered so that even something with as many conceptual flaws as this can pass for good enough. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom, nor does this remake of the famed 1937 Walt Disney animated film (itself a much cheerier adaptation of the fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm) get by purely on the benefit of comparison. First and foremost, Rachel Zegler is simply wonderful as the titular princess. I’d call it a star-making performance if she hadn’t already proved those bona fides with turns in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbird & Snakes . Instead, I’ll just call it a case of perfect casting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV46TJKL8cU Zegler fills her role with grace and composure, endlessly likable and charming. Her character’s disposition is natural goodness, a lesson taught by her royal parents. But tragedy struck the young Snow White in the form of her mother dying from illness and her father disappearing after he led some of his troops to fight in some unspecified war off-screen. This power vacuum allowed the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot) to take command of the kingdom, forcing Snow White into servitude and taking away all sense of hope and optimism amongst the citizens. Look, you don’t need me to rehash this plot. Screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson doesn’t make many changes to the original’s story and structure. Her main goal was likely to remold some of the creakier elements with modern sensibilities, such as making the original Prince into Jonathan (Andrew Burnap), a somewhat wisecracking Robin Hood-type whose initial cold heart is melted by Snow White’s kindness. Burnap’s casting is less than ideal, with the Tony winner always looking exactly like his real age of thirty-four despite all the strenuous work done by the hair and makeup department. There’s never any predatory or creepy intonation between him and Zegler; it's just that seeing them side-by-side raises a slight eyebrow when I should be immediately swooning. Not changing from the original film is the fact that the seven dwarves are animated… although I prefer the original style to whatever this is. It’s not the same uncanny valley from the recent The Lion King films, as that had the detriment of being compared to real-life animals. But there’s still some creepiness permeating from them in each frame, and I can confirm that one child had to leave the screening in fear during the dwarf's initial introduction (the correlation can’t be confirmed, but the evidence is pretty strong). It’s no surprise that they’ve been heavily reduced in the marketing campaign and that no 3D prints were made. Something that is two-dimensional is Gadot’s performance. We all know she’s not a gifted thespian, with her turn here never clearly defining itself as strained or campy. I’m leaning towards the former, although her evil musical number makes a strong enough case for this to be seen as an elaborate wink for the parents. Director Marc Webb doesn’t stage many of the setpieces well, overcutting and giving more attention to the fake sets rather than the performances. Luckily, the music by musical superstars Benj Pasek and Justin Paul is catchy and empowering, so I could at least just close my eyes and still be entertained. Kids will definitely not wear out this VHS tape (I guess the term for this in this day and age would be “overload the Disney+ server”) as they did with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves . Internet trolls will also be disappointed to find out this isn’t an unmitigated disaster. Avoiding a catastrophe probably wasn't Disney’s strategy when they put down so much cash for this, but that’s about the best we’re all going to get. Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures will release Snow White in theaters nationwide on March 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

Dear Evan Hansen September 23, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Besides the expected superhero films, the genre that seems to be all the rage in 2021 is musicals. This year sees several different variations of the movie musical, featuring original concepts ( Annette ), musical variations of classic tales (Amazon’s Cinderella ), Broadway adaptations (Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights , and Miranda’s directorial debut Tick, Tick… Boom! ), and even remakes of Broadway adaptations (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story ). Slotting right in with the rest of the Broadway pack is the film adaptation of the modern stage musical sensation: Dear Evan Hansen . Riddled with social anxiety, depression, and a cast on his left arm, Evan Hansen is a teenager who can never seem to fit in. He writes letters to himself for motivation, in which one haphazardly falls into the hands of the troubled Connor Murphy, who takes his own life shortly after. The Murphys believe the letter to be Connor’s suicide note, with Evan being his best friend. Rather than admit the truth that Connor was his bully, Evan goes along with this opportunity, netting him a newfound sense of popularity and affection from those who never once passed him a glance. He also becomes an unofficial member of the Murphy family, with the parents taking him under their wing and their daughter, Zoe, developing a relationship with him. But like all charades, the lie begins to spin out of control, tangling Evan and those he cares about in a web of deceit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_c_Jd-hP-s Tasked with bringing the stage play to cinematic life is director Stephen Chbosky, who recently had success with Wonder , about a boy with facial disfigurement, and the soon-to-be cult classic/greatest movie ever, according to Tumblr, The Perks of Being a Wallflower . Unlike the musicals mentioned in the beginning, Dear Evan Hansen doesn’t feature large group numbers on sweeping sets. Much of the action occurs in smaller, domestic locations, with the most exotic sets being a school gymnasium and a run-of-the-mill apple orchard. And even when a song features more than one performer, they hardly share the same location, such as “Requiem,” where the Murphys are crosscut and folded on top of each other. The film hangs its heart on the musical numbers, many of which have become anthems to a generation, especially “You Will Be Found,” which has become so iconic that it gets a special Sam Smith treatment during the credits, along with the familiar showstopping rendition that occurs at the midpoint. Schbosky shows middling prowess for the staging of these numbers, opting for the actors to sing live, filming them through extended takes and slower camera movements that accentuate the emotional pull of the material. That stillness also acts as a double-edged sword, as there is a distinct lack of energy that makes the 137-minute runtime feel a lot longer than it is. Ironically, the main problem that keeps this version of Dear Evan Hansen from being a sensation is not the cinematic qualities, but the story itself, which won Best Book of a Musical at the 2017 Tony Awards. The problem with the story is systemic, with Evan’s actions being steeped in selfishness. Screenwriter Steven Levenson tries too hard to have his cake and eat it too as he attempts to scorn Evan’s actions while also finding the silver lining with a poignant message about friendship and grief. The stage may have been able to cover this with its overpowering emotional tunes and acting, but the slowness of the film adaptation allows for that problem to fester until your sympathy for Evan has completely dried up, and you just want him to get caught. Fortunately, the actors aren’t too affected by the script’s problems. Reprising his famous role, Ben Platt proves once again that he was born to play Evan Hansen, despite his 27-year-old face and gangly body signaling that he should have stayed retired. Kaitlyn Dever, who broke out in 2019 with Booksmart , often steals the show as Zoe. Dever finds the right amount of vulnerability as her character deals with the death of a brother she never had much respect for. She and Platt make their relationship seem believable, despite the glaring age difference and underwritten romantic development. Misguided, but not without its merits, Dear Evan Hansen aims for the heart with pinpoint accuracy. There’s an emotional and sweet lesson buried under the creepy candy coating that is the central premise. Once that obstacle is overcome (which is a big task), then there are enough powerful songs to connect with those who sometimes feel alone. Universal Pictures will release Dear Evan Hansen in theaters nationwide on September 24th. 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

Tony August 18, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen During the waning days of the press tour for The Odyssey , Christopher Nolan gave a surprisingly in-depth and frank interview with Chinese podcast host Zhong Shu. As part of the discussion, Nolan expressed one of his annoyances with modern film criticism: the tendency to gamify the experience of watching a film. Many audiences have an insecure need to be one step ahead of the story, as if knowing what's going to happen before it happens is the mark of an intelligent viewer. And if we're smarter than the movie, then it means the movie isn't pulling off its trick of illusion. "Because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism...” he said. "Because people have this idea that, ‘Because I can understand why the story affects me the way it is, therefore, it didn’t work." Apart from maybe superhero films, Nolan's grievance finds its greatest home in the biopic genre. Whether it’s the fact that they're (somewhat) based on true stories with rigid parameters for what can and can't happen, or that it’s simply what sells lots of tickets, biopics have some of the most recurring and recognizable traits in all of cinema. Throughout my time as a film critic, I've written ad nauseam about films like I Wanna Dance with Somebody , Back to Black , Bob Marley: One Love , and Bohemian Rhapsody . Just as they all presented the same cadence of trials and tribulations for their central figures, I wrote the same critique of having to sit through the formula again and again. Perhaps my fixation on the routine story beats prevented me from digging deeper into the juicier thematic material. Of course, like Nolan's view, my critique of those subpar films was not solely based on the innate fact that they followed the formula. Plenty of great biopics followed the Rosetta Stone to the letter just as much, such as A Complete Unknown , The Aviator , and Nolan's own Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer . What creates a feast out of a famine is the combination of all facets of the production. Bob Marley: One Love and A Complete Unknown both feature transformative performances (Kingsley Ben-Adir and Timothée Chalamet, respectively) at the center of their conventional stories, but only the latter featured the craft and unspoken warmth that kept me fully invested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1MVnzd2aVc All in all, this brings us to Tony , the origin story of Anthony Bourdain (going by “Tony” here) before he became the bad boy of the culinary world with his Kitchen Confidential book and travelogue shows. Granted, he was always a bad boy, as evidenced by the opening quote (also prominently featured on the film’s poster): “I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout.” In his eyes, his roguish charm comes from his cool wordplay, with lies spun with such a bragging nature that he wholly believes everyone hangs onto his every word like it is gospel. It’s why he’s telling everyone he’s going to get a summer writing fellowship grant from Vassar only a few minutes after coming out of the interview. It’s not much of a coincidence that the two people who see right through him are women: his stern mother Gladys (Dagmara Domińczyk) and Nancy (Emilia Jones), an older classmate he has a crush on. Unfortunately, the script by director Matt Johnson, as well as Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, and Matthew Miller, does not support these women as anything beyond functions for Tony to become Anthony Bourdain. They are uninterested in him when he needs to be at his lowest, and then interested in him once the story requires it. The double whammy of their initial disinterest is what sets Tony on his course of self-discovery. Inevitably, he doesn’t get the writing fellowship. Instead of admitting this fact to his parents and friends, he steals all the cash from his dad’s wallet and hops on a bus. His destination is the seaside Provincetown, where he’ll repair his broken ego by wooing Nancy at her summer job. On his first night in town, he’s thrown out of a restaurant for drunkenness, losing all his cash and bumming on the street. The restaurant’s owner and head chef (Antonio Banderas), who simply goes by “Chef,” takes pity on Tony, giving him a dishwasher job in exchange for the couple of bucks he needs to get back home. In the kitchen, Tony meets the salt and brine of the working class, filled with cursing, inappropriate jokes about coworkers' mothers, and the high stakes of surviving a lunch rush during the height of tourist season. It’s put up or shut up, with Tony unable to talk his way out of his inadequacy. As he did a few years ago with BlackBerry , Johnson has crafted an ode to outcasts, those who sweat over a hot stove all day, then throw away their apron to sit around a fire on the beach while throwing back a few (too many) beers. There’s a rambunctious rhythm to the chaos of the kitchen, the staff’s mismatched personalities merging into a found family. It’s admirable that Johnson focused most of his efforts on that aspect, because the biopic-y nature of this story is rather shallow, overrelying on our already established understanding of Bourdain. His ignition for cooking is rather absent here, with only a small handful of scenes featuring meals being served. For a movie about a chef, there was not a moment when my mouth watered, nor did I feel very educated about how a master chef starts his journey. What I did feel connected to was Dominic Sessa’s lead performance, a natural extension of his revelatory debut work in The Holdovers a few years back. It’s his time to come of age, to figure out the person he truly is instead of the person he keeps telling everyone (and himself) who he will be. Banderas is also quite incredible in a role that could have used just a little more padding. He’s found his oasis in the desert, secure enough in his dreams and ambitions to extend a helping hand to Tony, whose greatest life lesson was getting punched in the face as he was thrown on that first night. Even when you think you can’t eat anymore, a great chef will bring something out that makes your stomach find a new level of appetite. Even with a talent like Johnson, Tony didn’t do that for me, more or less just being another stage in the endless course meal that is the biopic genre. It’s appetizing to look at and has a smooth flavor, but little nutritional value. A24 will release Tony in select theaters on August 07th, followed by a nationwide expansion on August 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

Reptile September 9, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Is a red herring a red herring if you know it’s a red herring? That tongue twister of a sentence rattled throughout my head throughout most of the bloated 134-minute runtime of Reptile . In this police procedural, there are several suspects and clues, most of them presented so obviously to be of fake importance that you know immediately that you don’t need to expend the mental energy to keep track of them all. Even with these self-inflicted wounds, writer/director Grant Singer, making his feature debut, can still mount an entertaining movie that is far stranger (mostly in a good way) the more you look under the hood. The body of Summer Elswick has been found in the home of her partner, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake). She was stabbed 33⅓ times, with the final strike being so powerful that it got the knife stuck in her pelvis. She has a shady ex-husband by the name of Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman) and an even shadier enemy in commerce in Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt). And then there’s still Will and his obsessive mother (Frances Fisher). There are probably other people who could have done this, too, but Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) is already starting to get lost in the mud of motives and opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS1cNkZ9o1U For all its talk of murder and treachery, what stands out the most about Reptile is the enlarged funny bone it has. There are little jabs here and there, most of them meant to raise your eyebrow as they create a hard break from the grisliness. Tom has a fascination with Will’s touchless sink faucet, even going so far as to take a picture of it during the recreation of the moment Will found Summer’s body. I can’t say it always works, but it does make for some interesting moments that make the film more watchable, especially considering the conventionalism of the events. Most of the story follows Tom and his partner (Ato Essandoh) going through the motions of finding evidence and investigating suspects. The answers are the ones you expect, with the same going for the twists. Singer and editor Kevin Hickman create some good moments of tension through their cross-cutting, overlapping the simultaneous actions of a handful of characters. It’s a disorienting technique that works to place you in the mind of Tom, who’s still dealing with his shady past that forced him to move to New England with his wife (Alicia Silverstone, unfortunately, not given enough to do). But Singer can’t help himself with the disorientation as he repetitiously punctuates many of his scene transitions with loud crashes, which gets about as annoying as you’d expect. Del Toro is giving it his all in a role he co-wrote with Singer and Benjamin Brewer. He’s a man who seems to have lost a little bit of his touch, never really knowing if he’s on the right trail or can trust anybody. It’s a slight shame that the material isn’t able to match his effort on screen. Timberlake has always been an uncomfortable actor, especially in dramas, as you can clearly see the effort he’s putting in to pull it off, as opposed to the nonchalant professionalism of Del Toro and Silverstone. Thankfully, that twitchy uneasiness is part of his character. The rest of the characters are real characters , mostly on account of their actors committing too much to the part. Reptile will likely fall into the pantheon of semi-forgettable Netflix originals. I can’t say that’s a shame because the movie doesn’t do a lot to make a case for its existence in my memory outside of a few questionable choices. But when compared to the other forgotten content, it’s a cut above. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release Reptile in select theaters on September 29th, followed by its streaming premiere on October 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

Anora June 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HxTmV5i7c 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 sic 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 ensues 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. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release Anora in select theaters on October 18th. 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