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The Devil All the Time September 24, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen What do you get when you combine two orphans by parental suicide, a serial-killing couple, a pedophile preacher, a corrupt sheriff, and a town full of zealots? You get the darkest and most disturbing movie of the year. The newest Netflix movie, The Devil All the Time , is a sprawling tale of faith and violence that spans multiple generations within the Appalachian heartland of America. The story opens in 1945 as Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgård) returns home to West Virginia from the Japanese front. He’s seen and done unspeakable things that he can only share with God. Willard has a young son named Arvin, whom Willard teaches that you must answer violence with violence. When the matriarch falls ill with cancer, Willard goes to extreme measures to test his faith in God and beg for her healing. These crazed acts by Willard leave a large impact on Arvin that resonates long after. After this brief segment, we jump years later and are introduced to the rest of the lowlifes and degenerates. A now teenage Arvin (played by Tom Holland) lives with his grandparents and Lenorrah, his pseudo-half-sister. Lenorrah’s mom died at the hands of her crazed preacher father when she was just a baby. Almost like a spiteful trick by the universe, a new young preacher comes into town with his eyes set on Lenorrah, even though she’s only fifteen years old. Stalking the country roads is the serial killing couple of Carl and Sandy, who like to take pictures of their victims before they cut them up. And then there’s Sandy’s sheriff brother, Lee, who isn’t afraid to bend the laws to enact his ideas of justice. There sure is a lot of movie within this movie... Director and co-writer Antonio Campos takes all his separate characters and places them at different corners within the Bible-belt setting. Similar to how Quentin Tarantino constructs his stories, Campos gives each character their own slice of the story and over time begins to intertwine them. But even at 140 minutes The Devil All the Time is too short to fit in all that it wants to deliver. The sheer amount of content it tries to cover forces the pacing to be rushed and the emotional payoffs to be underwhelming. Arvin is the only real character that we get enough time to make a connection with. The rest of the cast fill supporting roles, with some getting some standout scenes and others falling by the wayside. What also may or may not turn off viewers is the incredibly high amount of weight and ferocity put into the material. Campos doesn’t allow for a single moment of levity and only answers misery with more misery. The amount of physical and emotional torture inflicted upon these characters becomes too much at times, almost like Campos is testing his viewers to see how much they can take. But there still is a lot of good work here that deserves praise. Campos imbues each scene with a piercing atmosphere of terror and menace. Much of the sweat-infused imagery - shot in beautiful 35mm - instills feelings of dread that last beyond the credits. The scratching string-filled score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans also does a lot to darken the mood. There’s also a slew of strong performances throughout the all-star ensemble. Tom Holland plays against his Spider-Man type and turns in a surprisingly dark and heartfelt performance. Gone is his boyish charm as he gets his hands dirty on more than one occasion. Robert Pattinson - the next Batman - plays our lustful preacher. With his bright blue ruffled outfit and twangy Southern accent, Pattinson is a scene-stealer that you just can’t get enough of. Bill Skarsgård does a lot with his opening segment as he explores PTSD, faith, and fatherhood with his grounded performance. While somewhat underutilized, Eliza Scanlen as Lenorrah and Riley Keough as Sandy are great. Each brings emotional weight to their conflicted characters. The Devil All the Time is a mean and nasty film that bites off a lot more than it can chew. It might not work all the time, but the directional skill by Campos and the sheer talent of the cast keeps this ultra-depressing story from falling completely off the tracks. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Lisa Frankenstein February 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) isn’t your typical 1980s teenager. Instead of being fascinated with “football or basketball bodies,” she’s fallen head over heels for a guy whose body is six feet under. The subject of her admiration was a Victorian-era musician who unluckily met his demise when lightning struck a tree branch above him. Lisa tends to his tomb nearly every day, sharing her deepest secrets and longings to no longer be a part of the living world. It wouldn't be far-fetched to envision her as a distant cousin to Wednesday Addams. But what lightning takes away, it also gives back. A major storm occurs one night right above the old cemetery, with a peculiar amount of ball lightning sending bolts down into the grave of Lisa’s undead lover. Just as the title implies; she is now Dr. Frankenstein, and he is her monster. And together, they will rebuild his body by whatever means necessary. Writer Diablo Cody has long had a fascination with the lives of teenagers ( Juno, Jennifer’s Body ), and the lives of people who can’t let go of their teenage selves ( Young Adult ). She likes to exploit her genres as metaphors for adolescent angst and female sexuality. But unlike Juno - which netted her an Oscar - and Jennifer’s Body - later reappraised as a cult classic after initially being met with harsh criticism - Lisa Frankenstein whiffs considerably on whatever message it was going for, so much so that it feels impossible for anyone to discover some secret genius that was too ahead of its time. When I said “by whatever means necessary” earlier; I meant killing people for their body parts, which can then be sewn on the creature and fused by Lisa’s defective tanning bed. Lisa half-heartedly justifies the victims as people who deserved their punishment, mostly by wronging her in some sort of teenage way. But it’s all laid out too logically, as if killing people for their hands and ears was a no-brainer next step for a moody teenager. There’s no sense of ethical edginess, no sense of danger in Lisa getting caught, and no sense of thrills in seeing cosmic revenge. That lack of energy falls just as much on the feet of first-time director Zelda Williams. There is a prevalent feeling of passion for this project during its creation, but none of it permeates off the screen. Giddy uses of Tim Burton-esque animation and classic horror movie references land flat, with any needle drop of a 1980s crowd-pleaser feeling too obvious. Newton is a capable leading actress for this sort of thing, with her performance here being one of the few bright spots. Sprouse doesn’t get much of anything to do besides let out some grunts and some comedic mugging. He’s not an altogether talented physical comedian, but it’s hard to blame him when there just isn’t anything interesting beyond the basic premise of his character. By trying to be a lot of things, Lisa Frankenstein can never manage to be good at anything. There are moments of competence splashed throughout, but the overall sum of these tiny moments is far less than what the promising trailer sold. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Nobody 2 August 13, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen The perennially undervalued Bob Odenkirk finally got the cinematic starring role he deserved with 2021’s Nobody . The slick and entertaining action flick saw Odenkirk take his Saul Goodman charm and channel it towards one of the most fatherly roles since J.K. Simmons in Juno . Only, this time, this dad kicks some serious ass. It likely caused a burst of inspiration for many dads around the country to get a little more fit. Seeing something as bad as Nobody 2 in 2025 made me question why I liked the original so much, especially when the DNA is nearly identical. Was it actually that good, or was I just so starved for movie star action vehicles during the pandemic that I lapped up any crumbs that were offered? Answering that question would require a rewatch, something I’m far less inclined to do now that this would-be franchise has imploded with its second step. As part of the final showdown in the first film, Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk), a self-described nobody, burned the entire cash fortune of the Russian mafia he got violently tangled with. Doing so put Hutch in a seemingly never-ending debt that must be paid off by performing missions for a shadow organization that offered him and his family a new life. Days turned into weeks, which then turned into months. Monotony starts to set in, with each member of the family drifting down their separate paths. As a way to momentarily break this cycle and potentially motivate himself to leave this line of work, Hutch decides to take the family on a vacation to the same water park his dad took him to as a kid. There’s an inverse relationship between how much you force yourself to have fun on a vacation and the amount you actually have. Just ask Clark Griswold and his perilous journey to Wally World. The same happens here in the Wisconsin town of Plummerville, with the ego-tripping cops and local crime syndicate putting too much of a squeeze on Hutch’s quick trigger of a temper. One thing leads to another, and he has to shoot and stab his way out of another sticky situation. Creatively, there’s nothing here that wasn’t already covered in the first film. Hutch’s wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), wants him to get out of the game and keep a cooler head. Despite his best efforts, he always makes things worse. Screenwriters Derek Kolstad and Aaron Rabin talk out of both sides of their mouths as they bemoan the cycle of violence, yet revel in the carnage. The slighting of his daughter by a jerk at the arcade gives enough justification for us to cheer as Hutch destroys the building and assaults everyone inside. Kolstad is the brains behind the John Wick franchise, so this hypocrisy comes as no surprise. But as that franchise side-stepped that pitfall with absurdly ornate worldbuilding and interesting characters, the Nobody films can only muster generic scenarios and even more generic villains. Sharon Stone’s performance as crime boss Lendina ranges from bad, so bad it’s good, and embarrassingly bad. We know that she’s unhinged by how she sweet-talks her dog while ordering the slaughter of innocent people, and then later dancing for no discernible reason. If you’re going to take inspiration from The Joker, don’t make it Jared Leto’s version. Director Timo Tjahjanto has helmed some of my favorite modern action films. Titles like Headshot , The Night Comes for Us , and last year’s The Shadow Strays are packed to the brim with extravagantly choreographed carnage delivered by Indonesian talent far more committed and capable than their American counterparts. Odenkirk gives it his all, but his inherent physical limitations force Tjahjanto to hold back on his signature flair, staging set pieces that never eclipse being more than good enough. At least Christopher Lloyd cranking a Gatling gun into hordes of faceless goons is quite a sight. Those isolated moments are few and far between, drowned under an ocean of moments just as basic as the cover versions of the songs that line up the soundtrack. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Accountant 2 April 23, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen As a real-life accountant, there’s a guilty sense of pleasure I get seeing someone with my job title kick ass and take names. It must be what every police officer feels when they watch Die Hard , or a doctor whenever reruns of ER and Grey’s Anatomy appear on television, or archaeologists with the Indiana Jones franchise. Then again, all those films could be considered some of the least realistic depictions of said jobs, becoming a burden on the real professionals who have to endure countless questions about the practicality of what the on-screen protagonists do. Luckily for me, nobody went into the 2016 film The Accountant thinking it was going to be an honest reenactment of the day-to-day lives of your friendly bean counters. Never mind all the guns and talk about drug cartels, I can already tell you that the total absence of Microsoft Excel is an immediate red flag for believability. In a move that made me quite displeased but is admittedly the wiser business decision, The Accountant 2 (titled The Accountant² within the film for no logical reason) features just about the bare minimum of actual financial work. Mentions of 1040 tax returns, fraudulent claims of depreciation, and EBITDA are the only buzzwords handed out here. The moniker of “The Accountant” has as much to do with bookkeeping for our returning protagonist of Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) as real bats have to do with Batman, or wolverines with The Wolverine. Considering Affleck’s previous stint as The Caped Crusader within Zack Snyder’s DC films, there’s a comfortable familiarity to seeing him again don superhuman abilities within the shell of a mortal man. Previously depicted as a sort of antihero, returning screenwriter Bill Dubuque and director Gavin O’Connor have morphed Christian into a full-blown crime fighter. Mentions of his criminal past are kept to a vague minimum, and the mystery he sets out to solve here is of the murder of Ray King (J.K. Simmons, who, at seventy years old, finally gets the action setpiece that his exceptional physicality deserves), the federal treasury agent who was once on Christian’s tail. Ray’s death unveils a spider’s web of drug cartel dealings, human trafficking, and several illegal activities surrounding our southern national border. The plot is borderline incoherent for much of the runtime. Worse, it’s horribly uninteresting once everything starts clicking into place. The stakes eventually become so high that they become instantaneously weightless, the villains' threats so heinous that there’s no way they would ever be executed in a studio blockbuster. Dubuque doesn’t seem to care all that much about that, instead dedicating more time to Christian’s antics away from the criminal underworld, such as rigging a speed dating system (complete with comedic slideshow transitions!) and reconnecting with his equally violent brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal). Leaning on the chemistry of Affleck and Bernthal is this film’s saving grace on several occasions. Their comedic banter is reliable, and even a few touching moments of reconciliation are put in for good measure. O’Connor struggles to merge the clashing tones, creating a hilarious whiplash effect between a scene where Christian gets a girl's number at a line dancing bar, only for the next scene to mention human trafficking of children and that a person’s attempted murder is why they have superhuman cognitive abilities. There’s also a team of similarly skilled autistic children who provide intelligence to Christian from afar, which makes them fully complicit for each of the dozens of corpses that are stacked up. The ludicrousness of this plot point still has me questioning if I should take offense to it or not. Despite its ho-hum competence, the original The Accountant packed a semi-interesting exploration of a morally grey protagonist who hides behind a black-and-white profession. In the act of making the sequel as fun as possible, those edges have been severely sanded down. Sure, there’s more personality than before, but not a sense of a unique identity. In an effort to please everyone, the creators have blocked all potential for someone to find something special here. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Most Successful Directors at Cannes June 29, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen The Cannes Film Festival is renowned for its exclusivity to only the best filmmakers in the world. Every director’s dream is to climb the signature red carpet stairs and have their film compete for the Palme d’Or. Several have done it over the years, but only so many have been able to stick with it for so long. In this list, I’ll highlight the most successful directors in the festival’s history. In other words, these figures are the best of the best… of the best. Many of the aspects that come to mind when we think of the festival are relatively new, so almost everyone mentioned here is either still making films or recently retired. The criteria for placement on this list are as follows: The prominence of the director and their films. Do they grab headlines, or do they just kind of come and go? The number of films they've screened within the Official Competition. Films in the sidebars will be excluded. The number of awards they’ve won (Palme d’Or, Jury Prize, Best Director…) The consistency of their output. Do they have many duds within their resume, or are they steady as she goes? Honorable Mentions David Cronenberg Hou Hsiao-Hsien Sofia Coppola Paolo Sorrentino Mike Leigh 10. Quentin Tarantino Films in the Official Competition (4): Pulp Fiction (1994, Palme d’Or), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Cannes is a Mecca for international cinema and the purity of filmmaking, but it’s also a business that needs to grab headlines with glitzy premieres filled with stars. Tarantino is the perfect marriage of art and commerce, supplying the festival with artistically unique movies filled with Hollywood A-listers. Every one of his movies is the talk of the town, even if they haven’t been the most well-received ( Pulp Fiction got a few boos after winning the Palme d’Or, and Inglourious Basterds received decidedly mixed reviews). With his final film soon to enter production, we can already predict what will be the hottest ticket for Cannes 2025. 9. Nanni Moretti Films in the Official Competition (9): Ecce Bombo (1978), Dear Diary (1994, Best Director), Aprile (1998), The Son’s Room (2001, Palme d’Or), The Caiman (2006), We Have a Pope (2011), My Mother (2015), Three Floors (2021), The Sun of the Future (2023) The director is always the star of the show at Cannes (they are awarded the Palme d’Or instead of the producer), and Italian auteur Nanni Moretti is one of the biggest on account of him writing, directing, and starring in nearly all his films. He’s been referred to as the Italian Woody Allen, with his quirky satires taking aim at Italian society and politics. He’s been a mainstay of the competition for almost thirty years, with 2001’s The Son’s Room winning the top prize. 8. Hirokazu Kore-eda Films in the Official Competition (8): Distance (2001), Nobody Knows (2004), Like Father, Like Son (2013, Jury Prize), Our Little Sister (2015), Shoplifters (2018, Palme d’Or), Broker (2022), Monster (2023) Described as a modern-day Yasujirō Ozu by Roger Ebert, Kore-eda has always been adept at delivering social realism with gentle tenderness. But that loving affection doesn’t come across as overly sentimental, with hints of melancholy aiding the authenticity. His films have often focused on the construction of a family, whether by blood or special bonds. All of his films have been warmly received, with 2018’s Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters being considered his magnum opus. 7. Nuri Bilge Ceylan Films in the Official Competition (7): Distant (2003, Grand Prize of the Jury), Climates (2006), Three Monkeys (2008, Best Director), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Grand Prize of the Jury), Winter Sleep (2014, Palme d’Or), The Wild Pear Tree (2018), About Dry Grasses (2023) While his long (usually running over three hours), slow, and morally complicated films may not grab the headlines of his contemporaries, Turkish director Ceylan stands above almost all thanks to his impressive trophy case. He finished in the runner-up position twice (2003’s Distant and 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia ) before claiming his Palme d’Or in 2014 for Winter Sleep . He’ll be competing again this year with the equally long About Dry Grasses . 6. Lars von Trier Films in the Official Competition (9): The Element of Crime (1984), Europa (1991, Jury Prize), Breaking the Waves (1996, Grand Prize of the Jury), The Idiots (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000, Palme d’Or), Dogville (2003), Manderlay (2005), Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011) Every major festival needs a provocateur to grab the headlines. While Michael Haneke and David Cronenberg may push people’s buttons, Danish bad boy Lars von Trier always takes it to another level, which was illustrated by him being excommunicated and labeled “persona non grata” by the festival after his Nazi comments at the press conference for 2011’s Melancholia . That banishment put a strain on the relationship between the festival and one of its star pupils, who had picked up a second-place prize ( Breaking the Waves ) and Palme d’Or ( Dancer in the Dark ) since he was admitted to the competition in the mid-’80s. Von Trier would return years later for The House That Jack Built , which appropriately caused one of the biggest walkouts in festival history 5. Pedro Almodóvar Films in the Official Competition (6): All About My Mother (1999, Best Director), Volver (2006, Best Screenplay), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011), Julieta (2016), Pain and Glory (2019) A relatively late bloomer to the festival, Almodóvar didn’t make his way into the competition until 1999’s All About My Mother . But he made his first shot count, winning the Best Director prize. He’s usually brought global stars like Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas along with him for his twisty stories filled with bright colors. Even with all his success on the Croisette, Almodóvar isn’t a hardcore festival loyalist, opting to sometimes debut his films at other festivals, such as Talk to Her at Telluride and Parallel Mothers at Venice. 4. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Films in the Official Competition (9): Rosetta (1999, Palme d’Or), The Son (2002), The Child (2005, Palme d’Or), Lorna’s Silence (2008, Best Screenplay), The Kid with a Bike (2011, Grand Prize of the Jury), Two Days, One Night (2014), The Unknown Girl (2016), Young Ahmed (2019, Best Director), Tori and Lokita (2022, 75 th Anniversary Prize) You only have to look at the made-up 75th-anniversary prize to know just how much the festival loves the Belgian brothers. Of course, they also have two Palme d’Ors, and awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, sitting on their shelf to back up that claim. Self-described as one person who can do two things at once, their relatively short (running less than 90 minutes) morality tales about everyday people in Belgium have always struck a chord with whatever jury presides over them. 3. Michael Haneke Films in the Official Competition (7): Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001, Grand Prize of the Jury), Caché (2005, Best Director), The White Ribbon (2009, Palme d’Or), Amour (2012, Palme d’Or), Happy End (2017) The angry Austrian has one of the best batting averages of any filmmaker at the festival, winning a substantial prize for four consecutive films, including back-to-back Palme d’Ors. As the yin to Quentin Taranitno’s yang, Haneke is usually the one to deflate the mood at the party with his no-thrills observations about violence and cruelty. But no one does it better than him, with those joyless lessons about the ugliness of humanity sticking with audiences long after the conclusion of the final reel. 2. Joel & Ethan Coen Films in the Official Competition (8): Barton Fink (1991, Best Director, Palme d’Or), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Fargo (1996, Best Director), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001, Best Director), The Ladykillers (2004), No Country for Old Men (2007), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013, Grand Prize of the Jury) The Minnesota-born brothers are the reason Cannes has a rule against a film winning more than two prizes, as their festival debut, Barton Fink , earned the awards for Best Actor, Best Director, and a unanimous Palme d’Or. The festival rules didn’t stop the duo from becoming the record holders for most wins for Best Director, repeating for Fargo and The Man Who Wasn’t There (tied with David Lynch for Mulholland Drive ). Shockingly, No Country for Old Men , the film that won them the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Adapted), and Best Picture, was not awarded any prizes when it premiered on the French Riviera. 1. Ken Loach Films in the Official Competition (17): Looks and Smiles (1981), Hidden Agenda (1990, Jury Prize), Raining Stone (1993, Jury Prize), Land and Freedom (1995), My Name is Joe (1998), Bread and Roses (2000), Sweet Sixteen (2002), The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006, Palme d’Or), Looking for Eric (2009), Route Irish (2010), The Angel’s Share (2012, Jury Prize), Jimmy’s Hall (2014), I, Daniel Blake (2016, Palme d’Or), Sorry We Missed You (2019), The Old Oak (2023) The only certain things in life are death and taxes… and a Ken Loach film will compete for the Palme d’Or. The famed British director has had seventeen of his films in the Official Competition, a record that he continues to expand. He’s also tied for the record of most Jury Prizes (3) and Palme d’Ors (2). His slice-of-life style has made him the director of the people, with him never being attracted by the beckonings of Hollywood. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Small Things Like These November 8, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen "To get on in this life, there are things you have to ignore," pleads Eileen Furlong (Eileen Walsh) to her husband Bill (Cillian Murphy) after he confesses that, while walking through the local convent to finish his coal delivery, was approached by a young girl who begged him to take her to the river so she could drown herself. The other girls within earshot didn't object to her request, their silence implying that they've all contemplated taking that leap. Like a forceful clap, and before Bill can even comprehend the choice placed upon him, the Mother Superior (Emily Watson) enters the room and rips the girl away, sternly explaining that outsiders are not allowed to talk to the women. Eileen's words are a coping mechanism, something that the whole Irish town has taken as their mantra. But it's also emblematic of the age-old quote by their native philosopher Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." There isn't any explicit fear by the townspeople that the church will seek retribution if someone speaks out. But the church occupies every facet of people's livelihood, so why would you want to bite the hand that feeds you? You can keep eating as long as you don't ask how the sausage gets made. After going as big as you can get with Oppenheimer , including nearly $1 billion at the box office and the Oscar for Best Lead Actor, Small Things Like These is the type of intimate project that Cillian Murphy has long called home. He retains the same haunted figure he displayed as the father of the atomic bomb, but none of the hints of charm and brilliance. Bill is the quiet type, often speaking in hushed tones and looking down at his shoes. Nary a smile crosses his face, and the marks of coal stain his coat and fingers. Director Tim Mielants relies upon Murphy's natural shellshocked state to carry this domestic drama. At nearly every turn, a long glance into someone's face is preferred over dialogue, illustrating the unspoken truths that so many people carry with them every day. And even if words are exchanged, they're often broken apart by distinct pauses. We've often made the joke that if you removed the slow-motion sequences from a Zack Snyder film, then you'd be left with something less than feature length. That logic can be applied here with those pauses. Many movies have held my attention with much less substance before, but Mielants and screenwriter Enda Walsh, adapting from the 2021 novel of the same name, don't paint anything around the edges to keep you guessing about what's just out of sight. Even at just over ninety minutes (less when you exclude the credits), "Oh my God, get on with it!" flashed through my head on several occasions, each time with a little more anger than the last. There are some literal pretty images, many of them playing with focus and perspective. The camera is often near-sighted, blurring out everything that's not right in front of it and refusing to be curious. Bill is the personification of this mentality, although his gaze is intermittently widened through flashbacks to his childhood. Each one answers a long-buried secret he's always wondered about. These revelations and a stern scene between Mother Superior and Bill come late in the movie, an oasis after a vast desert. It's too little, too late, putting everything into words that we've already been led to infer. It seems that Mielants trusted his audience in the wrong areas, and we had to pay the price for it. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Zack Snyder's Justice League March 25, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen What was once an internet pipedream has become a reality. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is finally here in all its bombastic glory. This specific version of Justice League was never meant to happen, and neither was the 2017 theatrically released version. Snyder’s original vision was for this movie to be the third part in his DCEU series, directly following Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice . Snyder left the film in post-production after a devastating family tragedy. Distributor Warner Brothers - not wholly satisfied with the path Snyder was taking - brought in The Avengers director, Joss Whedon, to retool the film into a more light-hearted affair. What was released in theatres contained very little of Snyder’s material, and was widely disregarded as a disjointed and forgettable mess. The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement was born immediately, with hundreds of thousands of irate fans demanding that Snyder’s original version be restored. After years of campaigning, Snyder and his fans have been treated with a golden opportunity that looks to right the wrongs of the past. The general plot found within Snyder’s version is nearly identical to the one in the Whedon cut. The evil Steppenwolf, a loyal follower of Darkseid, has come to Earth to claim three mother boxes that wield unlimited power to conquer worlds. Honoring his promise after Superman’s death, Batman assembles a team of superheroes to stop Steppenwolf and unite the planet to defend itself from threats beyond the stars. Snyder adopts the Seven Samurai approach to his story as the first half takes an individual look at the members of the team. They each get backstories in varying degrees of quality, with some being more embarrassing than others. The Flash’s introduction will act as a litmus test of your acceptance of Snyder’s excessiveness. Above all else, this version of Justice League is an infinitely more cohesive and enjoyable experience compared to its predecessor. It’s also fun to ponder and discuss with others, unlike the migraines I get every time I think of the Whedon cut. The film looks and feels like a single production, and not a Frankenstein-like mashup of competing ideologies. Gone are all Whedon-directed scenes and the color saturation levels have been reset to Snyder’s usual palette. The intricacies of the story have been completely retooled, giving characters such as Cyborg and The Flash more characterization and things to do. Superman no longer has his infamous CGI baby mouth. Steppenwolf is less embarrassing as he is visually reworked and supplied with a proper backstory and motivation. Tom Holkenborg’s score and Fabian Wagner’s cinematography are also allowed to flourish on an unparalleled epic scale. Now, these improvements are not to say this a perfect movie. Stripping away the benefit of comparison, Snyder’s film carries many of the foundational problems that have plagued both of his previous DC films. The newly revised script provides the 5 Ws (and one H) for each story thread, filling in the gaping plot holes present in the Whedon cut. The problem is that a few of these storylines aren’t necessary or that interesting, to begin with. And the writing is still filled with cringe-worthy exposition with attempts at humor that don't mesh well with the self-serious tone. Snyder’s insistence on using a 4:3 aspect ratio - more commonly seen in arthouse films - seems to be a decision based more on him being seen as a bonafide auteur rather than just improving the picture quality. At 242 minutes long (yes, that’s four hours), the film requires a gigantic investment from the viewer that isn't fully warranted. Scenes are stretched to the nth degree by incessant slo-mo and a few deleted scenes that should have been left on the cutting room floor have found their way back here. The nearly thirty-minute epilogue is entirely spent on setting up sequels that are unlikely to ever be made. Its inclusion feels like an attempt by Snyder to rally his troops once again to demand the story be told his way. No matter how much it drags the story down and erases a lot of the goodwill built up to that point, Snyder’s ideas are much better than anything else being offered at the moment. Even though a much tighter and free-flowing three-hour cut could have been released, there is a complete singular vision here, one that Snyder has carried throughout his DC films. His vision may not always succeed, but it is something to be championed. With many blockbuster films leaning ultra-safe to guarantee box office returns, Snyder’s no-holds-barred style is the answer to Martin Scorsese’s comment on comic book films lacking an authorial voice. For better and for worse, a filmmaker was the driving force for a major franchise, which is more than one can say about the corporate machine attitude over at Marvel. An experience that may never be replicated again, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a mythologically epic film that delivers more than anyone could have imagined. It may not always work, but it sure does pack the punch that fans deserve. If you have the mental and physical ability to invest four hours into this monumental project, I recommend you do so. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Ad Astra September 23, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen You may not have noticed, but the 2010s have been a renaissance for space movies. It all started with Gravity in 2013, followed by Interstellar, The Martian , and First Man . The one thing each of these great movies has in common is their ability to tell a story of perseverance and triumph on a universal scale with the bonus of mind-blowing visual effects. Another addition to that list, but not entirely for the same reasons, is James Gray’s Ad Astra . Set in the near future, a catastrophic power surge travels across the solar system and strikes the Earth, killing thousands. SpaceCom (the new NASA) has tracked down the source and believes it to most likely be from Dr. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), whose last known location was near Neptune sixteen years ago. The doctor’s son, Maj. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) happens to be the most respected engineer/astronaut in the world. Realizing the personal and planetary stakes this mission will have, Roy is recruited by the higher-ups to travel to the surge’s source and destroy it before our planet is wiped out. James Gray has always been a more high-brow filmmaker that has been able to take big stars and concepts and use them for projects that reach beyond the tropes of the genre. Just like in his previous film The Lost City of Z , Gray here centers the story on a man on a journey, ending with the protagonist discovering more about himself than the destination he set out for. But don’t worry, the destination here is well worth your time as Gray makes full effect of the two things most scarce in space: light and sound. Hoyte Van Hoytema illuminates every vast beauty through his awe-inspiring photography and Max Richter’s soothingly intimate score perfectly complements the most emotional moments. Despite centrally being a very emotional film, Gray does liven things up from time to time with a few action set pieces that are both extremely creative and tense. Each one encapsulates the perils of space and the feeling that we humans are way out of our element once we go beyond our atmosphere. The writing of Ad Astra is what makes this film unique. Having more in common with Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey than the films mentioned in the beginning, Ethan Gross and Gray’s screenplay delivers an introspective and philosophical story that increasingly gets more human as the setting gets more cosmic. The story is centralized through McBride as we follow his POV through the dangerous mission. The narration by Pitt is used to convey his character’s inner thoughts. Against all norms of narrative storytelling, the narration works for the betterment of the film as it gives us an in-depth view of his perception of the unfolding events. Gray’s scripts have always had another layer to them. There is always a sense of something deeper underneath that’s slowly coming to the surface throughout the film. Ad Astra is another example of this trend as each line of dialogue or new information learned tends to serve dual purposes and lead to something bigger down the road. There do end up being a few frayed storylines that don’t get the attention they deserve, but the overall story makes up for that fault by ending up being more than the sum of its parts. Already having a banner year with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , Brad Pitt possibly delivers his greatest performance here. While Hollywood used Pitt’s movie star power to its full potential, here he is at his most subtle and whole. He carries the emotional weight of the film and never holds back or gives too much, leaving with just the right amount of characterization. Tommy Lee Jones is also great in his supporting role as the father, Clifford McBride. He’s more haunting than Pitt as we see the full effects that decades of claustrophobic space travel can have on the human mind and spirit. Liv Tyler shows up as Roy’s significant other in a small supporting role that, judging by the trailers, was supposed to be a lot more central to the story before being edited down. Reserved more to flashbacks, Tyler gives a more emotionally heavy performance that contrasts with Pitt. James Gray’s Ad Astra is part of the space renaissance of this last decade. But instead of following in the footsteps of those films it has joined, it charges down its own path and tells a deeply humanistic story on a cosmic level. Make no mistake, this is one of the best films of the year. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Gemini Man October 17, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen Henry Brogan (Will Smith) is the most elite assassin the U.S. government has ever had. He has 72 confirmed kills and is even able to hit a target on a moving train from over two kilometers away. Disillusioned and fatigued from years of killing, Henry decides to put it all away for a quiet retirement. Unfortunately for him, the life he’s lived the past few decades doesn’t just go away. After figuring out some dark secrets about his last job, Henry is betrayed by his government and made an enemy of the state. Knowing that Brogan is the best there ever was, the government decides to send their most valuable asset, Gemini; a direct clone of Brogan that “possesses all his strengths without his pain.”Pitted against a seemingly perfect version of himself, Henry must go on the run and fight to clear his name. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Ang Lee, Gemini Man is both a marvel and a tragedy on a technical level. Repeating the technique he used in his previous feature Billy Lyn’s Long Halftime Walk , Lee uses a frame rate of 120 frames per second, five times more than the traditional 24. This results in a give-and-take situation where the technology grants unparalleled picture quality at the expense of your eyeballs. The glorious images become physically hard to watch and induce headaches, especially when paired with 3D. Another technical innovation that Lee incorporates is the use of de-aging on 51-year-old Will Smith to allow him to play the 23-year-old clone. Just like the frame rate, this technique has its ups and downs. During the early and darker-lit scenes, the effects look great and don’t cause any distraction. Near the end of the film is when things start to slide downhill. Scenes taking place in the daylight show off the imperfections in facial movements. The final scene is the most guilty as the effects are laughably atrocious and make the clone look more like a character from “The Polar Express” than an actual living human. And even with these technical innovations, Lee still isn’t able to make full use of them in the action set pieces. The larger shootouts are handled pretty well as they flow together with steady camerawork and tight blocking. The hand-to-hand combat sequences are when Lee loses focus, leaning heavily on the Jason Bourne style of choppy editing and shaky cam. It becomes hard to tell what’s going on and who’s winning a fight, especially since the two Will Smith characters look and dress exactly alike. With three credited screenwriters and countless that have come and gone over the years, the script for Gemini Man is a mess that feels like it was ripped straight from the 1990s. That feeling is fitting since the screenplay was first written in 1997 and seems to have never been updated. It is heavily laden with cliches and hammy dialogue that are impossible to recover from despite the cast’s best efforts. The plot is pretty simple on paper, but on film, it's a confusing mess. It’s a strain to keep all the facts straight and follow the reasoning for anything to happen. There’s also a lack of humanity and character development. Will Smith does his best in his dual roles, but the writing gives him nothing to work with. By the end, most characters are just shells of a person. As noted before, Will Smith turns in one of his better performances and does a great job in his dueling roles. As Henry, Smith is closed off and mature. When playing the clone, he’s more vulnerable. Even with writing’s severe limitations on what he can do, Smith can sell you on the idea that these are two separate characters. Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Dani, Henry’s sidekick who’s forced to join him on the run. Winstead does a nice job as a companion to Smith. Unfortunately, she also falls prey to the writing and gets saddled with a cliched backstory and overly expository dialogue. Lastly, Clive Owen plays Verris, the leader of the Gemini Project and the supposed villain of the film. I say supposed because the film never really figured out if he is a bad guy or not. Owen does fine, but mostly because it's a role he’s been playing the last decade in subsequently worse films. Gemini Man is neither a good nor a bad film. Mainly it’s a tech demo that may lead to better films using these innovations in the future. It also teaches a valuable filmmaking lesson: all the bells and whistles money can afford are no match for a good story, which is something this film sorely lacks. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Armageddon Time May 26, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Armageddon Time had its World Premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on October 28. In the words of Mugatu from Zoolander : “Directors making their own autobiographies, it’s so hot right now.” Of course, a regarded filmmaker telling their life story isn’t exactly a brand new concept. François Truffaut did it with The 400 Blows , and so did Federico Fellini with Amarcord . But just like skinny ties and baggy beanies, the fad went away for a while. That was until 2018, when Alfonso Cuarón made it cool again with Roma , which earned him a trio of Oscar statuettes, including Best Director. Now it’s become a genre itself, with directors churning out cine memoirs at a pace that rivals the MCU. There’s been Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast , Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 1/2 , Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God , Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo (I’m not going to spell out the whole title, it hasn’t earned that gesture yet), Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir films, and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans . And now, after venturing out into the Amazon jungle for The Lost of Z and deep space for Ad Astra , writer/director James Gray returns home to Queens, New York for Armageddon Time . Apart from being a homecoming to the location that housed his first five films, Armageddon Time also serves as Gray’s return to the Croisette after almost a decade away. It’s his fifth time competing for the Palme d’Or, and, based on the quality of this film, I’d say it’s his best chance yet. Banks Repeta (in his first major role after appearances as younger versions of characters in The Devil All the Time and Uncle Frank ) is our stand-in for Gray as Paul Graff, a sixth-grader at PS-173 in 1980 Queens. He’s a gifted student, but not a very motivated one, which often leads him into trouble with his strict teacher Mr. Turkeltaub. One of his regular prankster cohorts is Johnny, the only black student in the class. Despite both of them often getting caught for the same thing, Johnny’s punishment always seems to be worse than Paul’s. It’s a fact that resonates with Paul, even if the concept of racism hasn’t fully formed within his head. But his parents don’t see the innocence in the situation and move him to an elite private school across town. It’s not hard to imagine Gray writing this story during the Trump presidency, especially since Donald’s father and sister, Fred, and Maryanne, play small roles in shaping Paul’s increasingly pessimistic worldview during his time at the seemingly all-white prep school. Gray’s bluntness is apparent as he traces how the casually elitist and racist children of the Reagan era grew up to embrace the 45th president, and how their children will likely do the same in a few decades. It sometimes comes as lecturing, but there’s a sweetly honest feel to it that makes it go down smoothly. Also lending to the emotional pull of the film is the grownup trio of Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins. Hathaway is given the shorter end of the stick as Paul’s affectionate mother, but the actress makes up for her limited time with some moments of pathos. Strong, playing the more emotionally distant father that doesn’t hesitate to teach with his belt, also makes a strong impression, even if it sometimes feels as if he’s trying to do his best Ray Romano impression. It’s Hopkins who steals the show as the grandfather who fled Europe to escape Jewish persecution and find a better life in America. He’s always got a nugget of wisdom to spare, and a heart warm enough to start a fire in winter. The scenes between grandpa and grandson are a clear standout, especially one set in the park where the elder shares a touching monologue, which will surely be used as Hopkin’s Oscar clip come next year’s ceremony. You won’t walk away from Armageddon Time feeling as if you’ve been enlightened or seen something out of the ordinary, but you may find yourself moved at times and closely connected to your familial past. And at the end of the day, we could all use a little more of that. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Velvet Buzzsaw February 7, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen The art world can be a cutthroat business or in the case of the film Velvet Buzzsaw , the art world is a business that can literally cut your throat. After a reclusive old man suddenly dies in her apartment building, art assistant Josephina unethically stumbles onto the man’s life work: hundreds of eerie paintings depicting acts of unsettling violence. Seeing this as a golden opportunity to rise up the social ladder, Josephina strikes a deal with her boss, Rhodora, to sell the paintings for vast sums of money. Unbeknownst to the buyers and sellers, the old man intended for all his paintings to be destroyed upon his death. With his final wish going unfulfilled, the cursed paintings take a shape of their own and begin to exact revenge on those who wrongfully profit from them. Directed by Dan Gilroy, Velvet Buzzsaw works across multiple genres as it pokes fun at the art world through a mix of satirical comedy and grotesque horror. Even though this has been done before in many other films, Gilroy does it differently as he entertainingly contradicts the expectations that come with each genre. Instead of being laughed out loud, the observational comedy amusingly bewilders, and the scares are delivered through a bright color palette as opposed to the conventional dark low lighting. Blending genres does make for some great fun throughout, but from time to time the film suffers from it. Gilroy overplays his hand at a few points, leading to some head-scratching moments where the film can’t decide if a scene is supposed to be funny or scary. Shot by veteran cinematographer Robert Elswit, the film also employs some neat camera tricks that keep the story on its toes. Information is steadily given frame by frame as it builds up to a big reveal that flips everything on its head. Both equally ambitious and narrow-minded, Gilroy’s script is quite lackluster when compared to his competent directing. Through an ensemble cavalcade of caricatures, the script satirizes the art industry and tries to prove that money and art don’t actually go hand in hand. This vision is respectable, but the clunkiness of the story and Gilroy’s inability to go outside the box holds it down. The clichéd anthem of “art is for everyone and greed is holding it back.” quickly becomes an overused gimmick by the time the characters start to get their comeuppance. The sheer size of the cast also spreads the message too thin across the main narrative and several subplots, many of whom are needless fillers. While this is a sin on a storytelling level, it is admittingly quite satisfying to watch each character receive a Final Destination -like death. The greatest asset the film boasts is its actors that give life to the crazy characters they inhabit. Reteaming with Gilroy after their fruitful work in Nightcrawler , Jake Gyllenhaal goes all in and is at his campy best as Morf Vandewalt, a renowned critic whose reviews can instantly make or break a career. Also in Nightcrawler , Rene Russo does a great job as Rhodora. She controls each character, and scene, with an iron fist and isn’t afraid to get dirty to make a living. Toni Collette and Zawe Ashton are pretty good as Gretchen and Josephina, respectively. They each give credible performances to their extravagantly unlikable characters. Even though they really don’t serve a purpose to the story, both John Malkovich and Daveed Diggs do good work as two contradicting artists that get caught up in the bloody mess. It probably wasn’t his intention, but Dan Gilroy has made a semi-unoriginal film that tries to make fun of the unoriginal world of high art. However, the unoriginality of the story doesn’t diminish from the amusement that it produces. Now available to stream on Netflix, this comedic slasher could be a good way to kill a couple of hours, especially when at the low cost of free. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Mastermind October 23, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen “For us to live any other way was nuts. To us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills, were dead. I mean, they were suckers… If we wanted something, we just took it.” Above almost any other line in his nearly sixty-year career, this one from GoodFellas , spoken as narration from Henry Hill to the audience, is the one that solidified director Martin Scorsese’s unparalleled ability to understand a way of life, specifically that of organized crime. It’s what made people incorrectly assume that he glorifies that lifestyle, with its “live fast, die young” mentality full of excess and greed. Deep down inside all of us is probably a juvenile desire to be free of all the rules and restrictions that we’ve placed on ourselves. But whether it's morals or laws, we keep the course and tough it out. It’s why we’re jealous of criminals, as they get to live the lives we can’t… except for the parts about getting caught, killed, or ruining the lives of everyone who’s become entangled with such schemes. Writer/director Kelly Reichardt is the type of filmmaker who loves to grasp onto those exceptions, twisting them into revelations that deconstruct what we’ve long assumed. Meek’s Cutoff is a female-centered western, Night Moves is an ecothriller stripped of a fast pace and righteous protagonists, and Showing Up displayed the untold pains that must be endured to create art, all without much expectation for reward. Inside all of these films are characters who want to escape their current situations, caught in a cycle of pre-established norms that prevent them from being their best selves. James Blaine “JB” Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is one of those characters, a failed architect who can’t bring himself to trudge through the basic life he’s built for himself. He has two boys with his wife, Terri (Alana Haim), and eats dinner with his disapproving parents (Bill Camp and Hope Davis) each week. It’s all so boring, except for the moments he spends at the local art museum. Rob Mazurek’s upbeat, jazzy score illustrates the gears turning in JB’s brain, the sleeping guard and disregard for any other security measures convincing him that he can easily become Henry Hill and take whatever he wants. He concocts a plan to steal four valuable paintings, carefully recruiting his team and giving them instructions on how the heist will go. It’ll be so easy, with no one getting in the way or caring about what’s being taken. JB certainly didn’t account for the “if it sounds too good to be true” part of the equation, which is how the whole thing falls apart and sends his life into a tailspin. It probably would have taken three “and then what?” questions from an outside party to see the many gaps in this master plan. To both Scorsese and Reichrdt, this examination of the Dunning-Kruger effect revolves around misplaced entitlement. In Scorsese’s eyes, it’s a tragic rise and fall from grace, littered with highs that convince the characters to withstand the lows. In Reichardt’s, the whole thing is just plain pathetic. The simplest description for the logic behind this criminal act is that a privileged man would rather steal from the public than do any amount of hard work for himself and his family. Reichardt twists this knife even deeper by setting the story in 1970, the shadow of the Vietnam War looming large. The theme of choice is frequently touched upon. Some people, mostly the underprivileged, don’t have a choice about being drafted to serve in this unjust war. Others are choosing to protest, with flyers posted on every corner and demonstrations being broadcast each night on television. JB makes a snide remark about draft dodgers harboring in Canada, as if he shouldn’t have to stoop that low in his current on-the-run predicament. And yet it seems all these people chose to do something with their lives, or made the most of their inability to do so. JB chose to make things worse, and everyone else has to pay a price. O’Connor’s incredible performance makes JB’s overall shittiness palatable. We don’t want him to fail, although everyone would probably be better off once he is caught. It’s the other half of the coin to his work in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery , with his portrayal of preacher Jud Duplentis being about finding a higher purpose after being lost in the wilderness. In GoodFellas , Henry states that “your murderers come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who've cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you're at your weakest and most in need of their help.” JB is one of those murderers, killing the image of the American dream at a time when it was most vulnerable, all with a smile and a masked spirit of innocence. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen