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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 that 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. 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 systematic, 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 ploying 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 that sometimes feel alone. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Avengers: Endgame May 2, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s taken eleven years and twenty-two films, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally reached its long-awaited bittersweet conclusion. Thanos has snapped his fingers and half of all life on Earth is gone. With the few remaining heroes left, the Avengers embark on a revenge quest against the villain that has stolen their friends and loved ones. But just like all plans, this one doesn’t go right and the team must now band together for one final showdown in order to save the universe and set things right once and for all. *Forewarning, this review may be a bit shallow at times and free of specific details for the sake of not wanting to give away spoilers. So please give me the benefit of the doubt as I try to be careful with my words. After four outings, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo have firmly planted their position as the MCU’s best directors. Whether it be during somber conversations between characters or in the Lord of the Rings style final battle, the amount of detail and effort that goes into each frame is unparalleled by any other blockbuster. Regular Marvel cinematographer Trent Opaloch’s compositional lighting and camera movement is simply outstanding and keeps the film running on all cylinders throughout its three-hour runtime. Also keeping the energy high is the lightning pace that brothers infuse into the film’s second and third act. They may miss the mark a bit during the first hour, but they more than make up for it in the latter two thirds as they deliver some of the most entertaining material put to screen. Lastly, aiding the brothers is a sweeping score by the always underappreciated Alan Silvestri. His music is swiftly able to go from epic to intimate in the blink of an eye and is a key driver behind many of the overwhelming emotions felt. Co-written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Avengers: Endgame may mark the first film in the franchise to look back in the past as opposed to solely setting up the future. The specific medium it uses to reminisce may not be the most logical or neat, but the end product is a string of touching moments that pleasantly rewards fans that have stuck around all these years. After some time away from each other during Phase Three, the main core of the Avengers is finally back together, albeit under less than ideal circumstances. This initial tighter cast allows the main troupe to get their time to shine in what could be a few send-off performances. Things start to get messy when the entire roster is put back together. Some characters get the shorter end of the stick in terms of screentime, but I don’t know how it could all be properly done unless this movie was another six hours longer (which I would still approve of). Marvel films have been built since day one on their ability to blend comedy with high emotional stakes. The stakes have never been higher here, and the same can go for the number of quippy jokes. The quality of the humor is surprisingly high throughout, but the sheer amount of one-liners during what should be tense moments verges on borderline overkill. With its bafflingly long cast list, Endgame boasts quite a few key acting highlights. The co-leads of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans shine brighter than they ever have before. They’ve gotten better with each performance and leave it all on the screen as they share immense chemistry with each other and everyone around them. Josh Brolin is still great as Thanos. While he doesn’t reach the high bar he set for himself in Infinity War , he still delivers another powerful performance that towers over all the other Marvel villains. Both Karen Gillan and Paul Rudd surprisingly stand out as Nebula and Ant-Man, respectively. They each have a more grounded personal story that offers a stark contrast to the epic main narrative. I realize I’m leaving a lot of great performances on the cutting room floor, but it would take a novel to talk about them all. Basically, everyone either did well or just alright. Nobody was outright bad. Arguably the biggest pop culture moment of all time, Avengers: Endgame is a film that arrived with an infinite amount of expectations and meets each and every one of them. Within its 181-minute runtime, you’ll laugh, you’ll more than likely cry (I did), and most importantly, be amazed at how a legendary neverending franchise can reach such a satisfying conclusion that both respects the past and gives confidence for the future. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

The Idea of You April 30, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Speaking to Vogue in 2020, the author of the 2017 book The Idea of You, Robinne Lee, stated that the protagonist of her novel, Hayes Campbell, was partly inspired by Harry Styles circa his days as part of One Direction. This came as a semi-confirmation to the biggest fan theory about the novel, as the similarities between the character and Styles (British, boy band, tattoos, young age, Coachella, etc.) were too eerie to ignore. It’s a good thing that Lee got ahead of the discourse when she did, as the visual incarnation of Hayes Campbell within director Michael Showalter’s film adaptation of her novel is far too compelling evidence to further ignore. Playing this universe’s version of Harry Styles is Nicholas Galitzine, moving up the book club heartthrob ladder after starring as Prince Henry in last year’s Prime Video release of Red, White & Royal Blue . Here he’s paired up with Anne Hathaway as Solène, a newly single mother nearing forty trying her best to quell the impending mid-life crisis. She has a sixteen-year-old daughter Izzy, a successful small-town art gallery, and a good group of friends. When her ex-husband bails at the last minute on taking Izzy and her friends to Coachella, Solène is the one to pick up the slack. Stuck in the middle of the desert surrounded by people less than half her age, she quickly finds the nearest spot that offers peace and quiet. But what she thinks is a VIP bathroom is actually the private one of Hayes Campbell, lead singer of the worldwide sensation boy band August Moon. This meet-cute ignites some serious sparks, with the pair slowly realizing that they do share some good chemistry. “Is this twenty-four-year-old kid flirting with me?” asks Solène in her head. It’s certainly a change of pace for her, and a bit nice to be on the other end of the stick as the cause for her divorce was that her ex-husband left her for a younger woman. But how will a relationship work between someone who never got to be a free adult, and someone who has only known total freedom? Showalter and co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt (co-writer/star of the early aughts indie sensation Kissing Jessica Stein ) probe the early romantic stages with a charming gracefulness, allowing the actors to work at their highest potential. Hathaway delivers one of her best performances, playing someone who has it all put together while simultaneously jumping off the deep end. She and Galitzine have a witty banter between them, making this romance both somewhat believable and rootable. It also doesn’t hurt that Showalter films the beautiful pair in some gorgeous locations such as Spanish beaches and the rain-swept streets of Paris. The second and third acts are when the film starts to flirt with some of its deeper themes, such as the price of fame and society’s value (or lack thereof) on women’s happiness. Contrary to hundreds of years of oppression, Solène chooses to live a bit vicariously and not have her well-being tied to her obligations. The online discourse around the pair’s romance is startling, to say the least, but there are quite a few stretches in logic in just how much the world at large gets swept up in this relationship. There’s also the predictability that comes with the will-they-won’t-they portion of the story. The more free-flowing style of the earlier portions is swapped for more stodgy conversations circling the question of how others will perceive the two together. There are moments when the material is on the cusp of a breakthrough, but the well-worn trappings of the genre and the need to be a crowd pleaser (even though there will be no in-person crowds to please due to the film’s Prime Video release) keep everything within a tidy box. There are much worse versions of The Idea of You in so many other multiverses, one of which likely has Styles playing Hayes Campbell in a much more winking fashion. We only need to look back on the one-two combo of My Policeman and Don’t Worry Darling to predict the outcome of that. The more adult version that we have in our universe gets the job done, becoming a respectable template of how to successfully do these book club adaptations. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Golda August 22, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Author’s Note: This review may not contain a 100% factual retelling of the Yom Kippur War. The summarization of this conflict is based on the events shown within the film. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren) walks into her war room smoking a cigarette, likely her twelfth of the day. The generals are already seated, a small sign of disrespect that none of the previous male leaders had to endure. But this is not a time to dottle on manners, as Israel is under attack on two fronts: in the northern Golan Heights by Syria and the west Sinai Peninsula by Egypt. This would be the fourth war between the Arabs and the Israelis, with the first three ending with a swift Israeli victory. But this time is different, as the element of surprise is on the side of the Arabs. Meir now has the fate of the country on her shoulders, with total collapse imminently approaching if she doesn’t act precisely and decisively. Meir sits in meetings every day hearing either depressing or conflicting reports (often both). Some of her generals press her to counterattack the Arab forces, and some plead to hang back in defense and hope that the Americans will bring them enough supplies to hold out. There’s also the constant clacking of the stenographer's keys, regular cancer treatments, and the knowledge that Israel is increasingly becoming a land of widows and orphans by the day. Golda is as much a biopic about Meir as Lincoln is for Abraham Lincoln and Darkest Hour is for Winston Churchill. Nicholas Martin’s ( Florence Foster Jenkins ) script uses the nineteen-day crisis as an examination tool for Meir’s character. Those coming in without previous knowledge of the conflict will find themselves lost. A few shoddy visual recreations of the battlefields are used to help illustrate, but the majority of the action is heard through the radio chatter and backdoor channels. There’s also the unnecessary framing device of Meir testifying before the 1974 Agranat Commission that bookends the events of the film. Mostly it feels like a selfish opportunity for the filmmakers to prop Mirren’s performance up. Mirren, who might have been a lock for an Oscar nomination in a different era, brings Meir back from the dead. The pounds of makeup on her face and the frayed wig are a minor distraction during the early stages. A cigarette is always in her hand, a tool to punctuate every line reading or drag on a moment of silence. It’s baity work, but nonetheless extremely entertaining. Her scenes with the U.S. Secretor of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber) are the highlights, with the actors finally being allowed to have a little fun with the rigid material. An expository sizzle reel opens the film, providing a twenty-five-year history of the various Middle Eastern conflicts through newspaper headlines. Golda has about the same amount of depth throughout its next 100 minutes, with brief flashes here and there to keep things interesting. Mirren is a performer that deserves a part like this, but she also deserves a better film around her. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Nosferatu December 20, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The bloody tale of Nosferatu the Vampire is almost as old as cinema itself. F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was one of the medium's first ripoffs, liberally "borrowing" elements from the story of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula . A German court ordered that all prints of the film were to be destroyed on the grounds of copyright infringement. But just as you can never kill the darkness that births such bloodthirsty creatures, you can't kill a true work of art. Count Dracula and Count Orlok have been joined at the hip in the century since, receiving film adaptations from luminaries such as Tod Browning ( Dracula , 1931), Werner Herzog ( Nosferatu the Vampyre , 1979), and Francis Ford Coppola ( Bram Stoker's Dracula , 1992). Writer/director Robert Eggers combines all of those productions into his remake/readaptation, crafting what could/should become not just the definitive text for this specific story, but for all stories within the subgenre of vampirism. A literal deal with the devil is made in the film's cold opening. Both out of fear and desire, our young heroine Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) beckons for a spirit to come to her. The silhouette of the creature projects through the billowing curtain of her bedroom, leading her to the lawn for a violent sexual encounter. Years pass, with nary a word spoken to anyone about what she experienced that night. Every day seems to be a dream, and every night contains a violently vivid nightmare. Those episodes, as well as her curse of foresight, are labeled as "melancholy" and "woman's sickness" by the male doctors in her German town. Her fiancé Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is blankly compassionate, yet emotionally oblivious to her situation. The character of Ellen is given more agency in Eggers' adaptation, something that Depp accepts with ease. She has the figure of a porcelain doll, perpetually in a state of cracking from the pressure that the demon exerts on her. And when she does finally break, it's into a million pieces, her body contorting, blood pouring out her eyes and mouth, and vocal inflections taking on a sinister tone. Between the likes of Demi Moore, Naomi Scott, and Cailee Spaeny, the bar for horror performances has been continually raised throughout the year. But Depp has crashed the party and surpassed all of them in a turn that should finally shut the doubters up. Until that climax, Ellen is the voice of reason in a sea of "respectable" men all ready to stick up their noses and tell her to know her place. None of them see the darkness that is swallowing them whole, that is until it's right in front of them in the grotesque form that is Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok. This vampire doesn't seduce with his looks, his skin a sickly grey and fingers sharp as claws. His deep voice bellows throughout the auditorium, and his heavy Eastern European accent illustrates his century-spanning life. Thanks to his job as a real estate clerk requiring him to travel to Transylvania and meet the count, Thomas is the first of the men to realize what's really at stake. You can almost hear (and definitely feel) the ear-to-ear grin Eggers wore throughout the filming of these initial meeting scenes. The enthusiasm he has in recreating such iconic movie moments is infectious, the top-tier craftsmanship making sure the effort can't be simply excused as a pale imitation. Cinematographer Jarin Blashke, DP on all of Eggers' films, paints every frame in expressionistic shadows, instilling a ghoulish atmosphere that immediately communicates that no heart beats for too long in this place. The frequent lighting from a background fireplace means that much of the foreground is dimly lit, keeping the facts that would ease our fearfully wandering minds just out of reach. That level of authenticity to the production also extends to Eggers' take on this story, which is more deeply rooted in the mythology of vampirism rather than the Hollywood lore we've become accustomed to. The village buried deep in the woods below Orlok's castle regularly performs rituals and sacrifices to ward off the beast. Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe appearing in his third film for Eggers) is the expert on the situation back in Germany, although his methods are a bit unorthodox. Apart from those eccentricities, this is a very familiar story, with Eggers making no alterations to the story beats. One could wish that he had been a little more liberal with the details, treating them more as a jumping-off point rather than scripture. Then again, his unwavering devotion reminds us of the power that the classics still possess. How can you be mad at the chef when he makes the best possible version of a well-worn recipe? More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom December 21, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s hard to care, let alone write, about the incredibly uneventful Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom , the last gasp from the bloated, rotten corpse that is the DCEU. It’s a soaking wet mess, not from H2O, but from the sweat of editor Kirk M. Morri as he tried to stitch this Frankenstein’s monster of a production together into a tolerably cohesive “cinematic experience.” The reports of multiple reshoots, reedits, reconfigurations of timelines, and just overall studio meddling are apparent at every moment, with the final product sharing the same amount of creative energy as a used Toyota Corolla. As the most well-liked member during Zack Snyder’s time at the helm, it’s fitting that Jason Momoa’s Aquaman / Arthur Curry would be the one to usher this mega-franchise out the door. Writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (with story credits also given to director James Wan, Momoa, and Thomas Pa'a Sibbett) wastes no time getting this farewell train going, revealing that Arthur and Mera (Amber Heard) got married, had a son, and now rule over Atlantis as king and queen. Still present are Arthur’s parents Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) and Tom (Temuera Morrison), as well as the allied King Nereus (Dolph Lundgren). But for every hero, there must be a villain, with Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) still maintaining that position from the first film. This time, however, he’s made a deal with an underwater devil: Free this long-imprisoned enemy of Atlantis and he will be bestowed with enough power to destroy Aquaman and everything he cherishes. Absolute power has corrupted absolutely, with Manta being blinded to the consequences his rage has on the environment. Blah blah blah… Arthur must learn what it means to be a king… blah blah blah… Patrick Wilson returns as Arthur’s half-brother Orm… blah blah blah… a giant battle commences… blah blah blah… the end. Look, we’re now 33 films deep in the MCU and 15 for the DCEU, so nothing can really be a spoiler anymore. We’ve truly seen it all, which was admittedly much shallower than I would have expected. But if you’ve developed short-term memory loss over these past few years or go full Velma and drop your glasses in the theater; you’re in luck, as this audiobook of a script doesn’t let anything go unnoticed through its relentless exposition. Whether it’s during a montage, a flashback, or just a regular scene, there’s always some sort of narration or formulaic plot-driven explanation. This might be one of the first blockbusters to treat the visual component of cinema as a secondary tool. And any visual flourishes here have been rendered naught by James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water last year (can you believe that these two films were at one point going to release on the same day!). There’s no egregious VFX sloppiness, just a lot of uninspired uses for such a vast world. Also paling to Cameron is the clunky messaging about environmentalism and xenophobia, with some of Arthur's speeches coming dangerously close to the level of Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground . Kidman and Abdul-Mateen II are too good to be doing this kind of thing (again), with Willem Dafoe being the lone lucky one who was able to get out of his contractual obligations. It should have been telling that no major additions were made to this cast, with only talks of departures and backdoor firings. That’s pretty much been the DC way these past ten years: don’t try much of anything new and endlessly fight with each other. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Cannes 2024 Predictions- Part 2: The Regulars April 7, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen With Oscar season firmly behind us (although it never really ends), it’s time to set our sights on the next white whale barreling toward us: festival season! Sundance and SXSW have provided the appetizer with their concentration of indies and spring studio releases, opening the doors for Cannes to take center stage with glitzy red carpets and world-class talent. Last year’s edition proved to be one of its best, with Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Prize winner The Zone of Interest being two of the most acclaimed and rewarded films of the year. Also featured were About Dry Grasses , Fallen Leaves , La Chimera , May December , and The Taste of Things . Last year’s SAG and WGA strikes will likely put a damper on the presence of Hollywood on the Croisette (and potentially at the later fall festivals), but it shouldn’t prevent Delegate General Thierry Fremaux and his team from assembling some of the best that world cinema has to offer. The festival will announce its full lineup on April 11. Until then, I’ll take a closer look at some of the films that are generating buzz and predict which ones are likely to make it up the coveted steps this year. This middle part of the series is where we find the directors with a decent Cannes and/or festival background. They may not have the ability to grab the headlines like some of their contemporaries, but many of them are in the process of being established as festival darlings and have projects that deserve attention on account of their immense potential. Preference will be given to directors who have displayed a commitment to Cannes before. So stuff like Luca Guadagnino’s Queer , Pablo Larraín’s Maria , and Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada won’t be included on account of all three of them having heavy ties to Venice. The Most Precious of Cargoes Michel Hazanavicius took Cannes by storm in 2011 with The Artist , which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. He’s had three films at the festival since ( The Search , Godard Mon Amour , and Final Cut ), all of which disappointed. He’s venturing into animation for his new film, an adaptation of a best-selling French book set during WWII. Production began just before the pandemic, with some footage and a 2024 release date being announced at the 2022 Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival. Hazanavicius’s spotty record and the festival’s aversion to animation in the Official Selection hints that if this does show up, it’ll be out-of-competition or in the Cannes Premieres section. Inside Out 2 It’s a partnership that may seem a little strange on paper, but the collaborations between Pixar and Cannes have always borne fruit (well, until last year’s Elemental ). Up opened the festival in 2009, and Inside Out was one of the most acclaimed titles of the 2015 edition. Soul was even given the honorable laurels for the 2020 edition. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Inside Out 2 is taken overseas to generate buzz ahead of the film’s worldwide release in June. Those Who Find Me Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili made one of the most acclaimed debut films of 2020 with Beginnings . It was part of the honorary selection at that year’s canceled edition, instead premiering months later in Toronto. Her sophomore feature tells a timely story of a “gynecologist-obstetrician working in the only hospital in a provincial town, who is unconditionally committed to her Hippocratic Oath, even if it means carrying out illegal abortions.” Fremeaux and his selection committee might have sympathy for Kulumbegashvili not getting her time to shine in 2020, so an invite into the main competition could very well be in the cards. Serpent's Path Kiyoshi Kurosawa will likely be pulling double duty this year as he’s already debuted the 45-minute-long Chime at the Berlin International Film Festival. He’s been a Cannes regular over the past three decades, but recently won the Best Director prize at Venice for 2020’s Wife of a Spy . His latest is a French remake of his own 1998 Japanese film that stars Matthieu Almaric. Partenhope Despite his Italian heritage, Paolo Sorrentino has opted to debut nearly all of his feature films on French soil His previous film, The Hand of God , was forced to skip Cannes because of its distribution by Netflix. No such worries are present for his new film, set within his native Naples. Gary Oldman is part of the sprawling cast that will travel through different eras in a dreamlike state, all (at least based on the first images) captured in crisp black and white. C'est Pas Moi Cannes is a party, and you can’t have a party without Leos Carax. He started the 2021 festival off with a bang with Annette , netting him the Best Director prize. His latest escapade is a short film that reunites him with Holy Motors frontman Denis Lavant for a self-portrait of Carax’s life and filmography. Expect something wholly strange and out-of-this-world. The End Despite only having two films to his name, director Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence have made him a marquee name on the festival circuit. He’s stepping outside the documentary structure for his third feature, which has been described as “a Golden Age-style musical about the last human family. Festival favorite Tilda Swinton leads the cast along with Michael Shannon and George MacKay. Neon holds distribution rights, giving the company a chance to nab their fifth consecutive Palme d’Or. Furiosa (*CONFIRMED*) The speed bump that was Three Thousand Years of Longing won’t be able to slow down George Miller from storming the Croisette with another story set in the world of Mad Max . He’ll be bringing along Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth for this origin story of the titular character. The Second Act (*CONFIRMED*) Along with Gaspar Noe, surrealist filmmaker Quentin Dupieux often is the provider of the strange and wild, most notably with Smoking Causes Coughing and Deerskin . He’s assembled his starriest cast yet for his new film, with Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, and Vincent Lindon playing actors appearing in a terrible film. Filming was completed before the public was aware of the film’s existence. Dupieux has only ever appeared in the sidebars, with the most likely landing spot being an out-of-competition midnight slot. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Tenet September 3, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen Spell it backward or forward, it spells the same. From Christopher Nolan - the virtuoso behind The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception , and Dunkirk - comes Tenet , an action blockbuster on a scale not seen before and that will never be replicated again. Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time. The plot summary I just gave you is the exact one supplied by the studio. I did this for fear of spoilers and because I cannot confidently give out any more information than what has already been covered. Tenet may be the most incomprehensible and mentally straining movie ever made. It feels like taking a whole semester of advanced physics in only one class period, all while being set in a warzone. I have no doubt there will be case studies and theses done about this movie. Nolan wastes no time throwing his audience over the deep end. He begins the film at a breakneck pace, moving from scene to scene in the blink of an eye. You struggle to grasp onto the high concept in real-time and are always playing catchup. This problem only exponentially gets worse as Nolan refuses to hold your hand as he goes further down the rabbit hole. Even one of the characters in the movie says, “Don’t try to understand it, feel it”. It’s almost as if Nolan inserted that quip just for the audience. The inability to follow the movie can be attributed to the out-of-the-box concept, but mostly it falls on Nolan’s embarrassingly weak script. The problems here are the same ones people have been saying about him for years now, that he overuses exposition and under-delivers on the emotional parts of his narrative. Tenet is nearly all exposition and no emotion. Many times the exposition gives more questions than answers and seems to be intentionally leading us astray. It’s also Nolan’s coldest film as any emotion is forced through cliche storylines that seem included to check off a box rather than tell a story. On a technical level, Tenet is both Nolan’s most and least impressive film to date. The action set pieces mix both practical and visual effects seamlessly, creating awe-inspiring showcases of movie magic. The use of time inversion in fight sequences, car chases, and an entire battle are just some of the moments that you have to see to believe. Hoyte Van Hoytema encapsulates all the gorgeous chaos in stunning widescreen cinematography and composer Ludwig Göransson overtakes your ears with a perfect hard-charging score. What’s a problem here, and has been for some time now for Nolan, is the astoundingly poor sound mixing. Without hesitation, I can say that Tenet is the loudest movie I have ever seen. Every gunshot felt like it went off next to my ear and every explosion shook my entire body. The ungodly loud sound effects made it near impossible to comprehend much of the dialogue, which was already poorly mixed, to begin with. If you thought it was hard to understand Bane in The Dark Knight Rises , just wait until you try to understand what the characters are saying here. Even with all my gripes, I was still enveloped in the world Nolan has created. There have been dozens of movies where I was lost after a few minutes and checked out for the remaining runtime. With Tenet , I was lost after minute one and completely invested for the remaining one hundred forty-nine. Part of that interest comes from the spectacle and part of that comes from the likable cast. In a star-making lead performance oozing with charisma, John David Washington plays our protagonist, who is literally called The Protagonist. He’s our vessel as he enters into this strange new world with no previous knowledge and must solve a deadly puzzle that goes against all logic. Robert Pattinson keeps his hot streak going with another charming performance as The Protagonist’s sidekick, Neil. Kenneth Branagh is intermittently good as our Russian villain, Andrei Sator. He’s exceptionally menacing in the quieter moments and cartoonishly over-the-top in his moments of outburst. Elizabeth Debicki plays the most emotionally resonant character as the helpless wife of our villain. Debicki is great in the role but is unfairly used more as an object for the story. Tenet is a full-on assault of the senses that contains unparalleled moments of spectacle and ambition. It’s nowhere near the top of Nolan’s filmography and will surely require multiple viewings to unravel. Make sure to pack some ibuprofen and prepare to have your mind twisted in ways you never thought possible. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

1967: A Dramatic Shift in Film March 29, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen The year 1967 can be regarded as one of the most pivotal years in cinema history. It was a transitional year where the conventional and unconventional came crashing together for the first time on such a large scale. Using David Newman and Robert Benton’s article “The New Sentimentality” (1964), we can categorize the conventional and unconventional into two distinct categories: Old Sentimentality (conventional) and New Sentimentality (unconventional). These two categories were not just found in film, they were also found in nearly every aspect of American culture. Each version of sentimentality garnered financial and critical success in 1967. No two movies were more opposed that year in style, viewpoint, and audience than Mike Nichols’ The Graduate and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . Also, no two actors better represented their respective sentimentality better than Dustin Hoffman and Sidney Poitier. In this essay, I’ll explain why and how 1967 was such a cinematic turning point that shifted the paradigm of power away from Hollywood conventionalism and towards a new era of auteur cinema. I’ll also look at how both Poitier and Hoffman were shaped by their generation and how their respective careers were forever changed in 1967. To show the difference between Old and New sentimentality, we must define what exactly they are. In simplistic terms, Old Sentimentality represents conventionalism and past values. The values this movement revered were about the good old days of ruggedness, strong moral character, and banding together. These ideas were born out of the nation’s unity and recovery from World War II and were prevalent throughout the next few decades. Figures such as Dwight Eisenhower, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda embodied this type of thinking, and films such as The Ox-Bow Incident, High Noon, and The Best Years of Our Lives were most popular. New Sentimentality began making a presence around the start of the 1960s. It was less about thinking as a group and more about thinking and acting for oneself. New Sentimentality pushed the idea of being self-indulgent, getting carried away, looking inward, and being authentic. John F. Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and Elvis Presley were the purveyors of this thinking, which could be found in films such as Bonnie and Clyde (screenplay by Newman and Benton) and Easy Rider . In 1967, producer and director Stanley Kramer released Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . It was an all-star vehicle for him filled with the biggest stars of the past few decades in Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Sidney Poitier was cast as the figure who’s coming to dinner, John Prentice. The plot is fairly straightforward as Prentice and his new fiancé, Christina, intend to get married. John is a respected medical doctor who has accomplished everything under the sun. Their engagement is under a deadline as he must fly to Europe that night. Christina’s parents, played by Tracy and Hepburn, are taken aback at the reality of their daughter marrying a black man, even though they raised her with a liberal mindset. Stanley Kramer was a director known for incorporating social commentary into his films. He previously had great success with The Defiant Ones and Judgement at Nuremberg . Even though his social messaging would make one think that he was a part of the younger outspoken generation, Kramer geared his films toward the older generation of moviegoers, the ones that would better respond to conventionalism and star power. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is part of an era in Hollywood where films about race were becoming more popular but weren’t purely benevolent in the way they handled the topic. Instead of utilizing themes like life under Jim Crow, black activism, or black community culture, a lot of films before the Hollywood New Age illustrated that racism was wrong through a white character's conversion from racial prejudice to tolerance. The prototypical movie of this thinking, In the Heat of the Night (also starring Sidney Poitier), won Best Picture that year. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , the racism obstacle is solved by the white parents' eventual acceptance of John marrying their daughter. In his book "Genre and Hollywood," author Steve Neale (1988) breaks this style down even further by explaining that “dramatic conflict [in racism films] was to be structured around two opposing poles clearly representing good and evil, with a readily identifiable hero and villain”. This idea of opposing forces is seen in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner as the prejudiced maid and the nosy Tillie act as the villains for the heroic Draytons to vanquish. Black characters rarely saw themselves as the heroes of their own story. They were either relegated to being the villain or to serve the heroic white characters. This role came to be known as the “noble negro”, a role that Sidney Poitier would play throughout the majority of his career. In her YouTube video Why The Help ?, Isabel Custodio (2020) describes this role as having “its own predictably recurrent tropes. These characters had impossibly noble traits seemingly honed to mollify white audiences. They were slow to anger, had no sexual impulses, and often sacrificed themselves for white co-stars.” Black audiences at the time often found Poitier's characters disingenuous. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , they thought it was ludicrous that Poitier played a world-renowned doctor who acts more holy than Jesus. Why give the parents a pat on the back for accepting a virtually perfect man? Kramer, on the other hand, believed that was the point. By making Prentice so perfect, only his skin color could be the barrier to marriage. Kramer’s viewpoint worked for his audience and the Oscars, as the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Original Screenplay. 1967 marked the peak of Poitier’s career. His successes in previous films had typecast him as the “noble negro”, a role the younger generation didn’t accept. Now that his career is over, it is ironic to say that Poitier’s appeal was to the generation of 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. As Poitier’s career was about to fall, the career of Dustin Hoffman was about to take off like a rocket. 1967 saw the release of The Graduate , directed by Mike Nichols, who was making his follow up to the critically acclaimed Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . That film put Nichols on the map with its groundbreaking vulgarity and sexual innuendos, with the latter carrying forward into his next film. The Graduate centers around Benjamin Braddock, who has just graduated college and doesn’t know what to do with his life. He finds himself in an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner. This sexually charged relationship goes on for quite some time until Benjamin catches feelings for Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. A beacon of New Sentimentality, The Graduate spoke to a generation through its unmatched authenticity. Dustin Hoffman had no screen presence before being cast. 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. Nichols saw something in Hoffman, an opportunity to use his “flaws'' to tell a story to a younger audience growing tired of Hollywood perfectionism. Film critic Roger Ebert (1967) described Hoffman’s performance as “painfully awkward and ethical that we are forced to admit we would act pretty much as he does, even in his most extreme moments." Hoffman’s awkward and anxious performance is filled with the traits of New Sentimentality. The idea of people having inward problems, sleeping around with others, and being wounded were ideas becoming more and more part of the national psyche, especially to young adults. Newman and Benton stressed that New Sentimentality had to do with you and you alone. “Personal interest is the abiding motivation and... your primary objective is to make your life fit your style.” The idea of personal interest and selfishness comes to its apex at the end when both Elaine and Ben run off together, though they have no idea what they are going to do now that they’re gone. Unlike Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Nichols (and screenwriters Buck Henry and Calder Willingham) doesn't craft the story around the message. It’s the inverse, as the message comes from the story. Ebert noticed this subversive social messaging in his review, saying, “[the film] is inspired by the free spirit which the young British and French New Wave directors have brought into their movies. It is funny, not because of sight gags and punch lines and other tired rubbish, but because it has a point of view. That is to say, it is against something.” With The Graduate , the audience is the one deciding the message for themselves, instead of it being intentionally swayed towards one side like Kramer did (even if he had good intentions). The Graduate’s methods proved highly successful, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1967 (beating out second-place Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner ) and garnering seven Academy Award nominations, winning for Nichol’s direction. The film also inspired a generation of filmmakers to craft stories for a new generation of moviegoers. Films such as American Graffiti, Harold and Maude , and the filmography of Woody Allen took a more liberal policy towards sex and personal relationships. Dustin Hoffman’s career exploded following 1967. He continued with down and dirty roles in films such as Midnight Cowboy, Straw Dogs, and Lenny . His imperfections won him a passionate following of fans that saw themselves through him. He reached his peak in 1979 with his Oscar-winning role in Kramer vs. Kramer and stayed at the top of his game for nearly a quarter-century with acclaim in later roles in Death of a Salesman, Rain Man, and Tootsie . 1967 was the transition point of two eras in American cinema. It was the beginning of the end for Hollywood conventionalism and the beginning of the rise of auteur-driven filmmaking. Looking through the lens of Old and New Sentimentality, one can see why and how this specific period marked that shift and how it enforced lasting consequences on how filmmakers see their audience and how audiences see themselves on the screen. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Spoiler Alert December 2, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen While it usually goes without saying, I feel I’m obliged to mention that this review is spoiler-free. I guess it doesn’t really matter since this film adaptation of the novel Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies kind of spells everything out within its title. The meta-ness of that title brings up a philosophical question: If a movie is incredibly predictable, but the creatives recognize and address it, is it then still predictable? For many years, the answer to that question would likely be a “no.” But with the overall rise in meta humor in nearly every genre (comic-book: Deadpool ; comedy: This Is The End ; horror: The Cabin in the Woods ), the pendulum has swung back the other way, making the unpredictable totally predictable. Spoiler Alert sits somewhere in the middle of this problem, as it presents a highly personal true story in such a conventional way that - even for all its positives - makes for an incredibly forgettable watch. It’s also a little surprising that this film is not a dime-a-dozen release by a streaming service as television plays such a large part in the life of its main character, Michael Ausiello, who currently serves as the editor-in-chief of his website, TVLine. Instead, it finds its way into theaters through Focus Features, where it will likely fall in line with the rest of the adult-skewing victims of this new box office landscape. Michael, played here by The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons in another attempt at meta-humor, has always used television as a safe space for his emotional traumas. Every day as a child, he and his mother would settle on the couch and catch up on soap operas. It eventually became the way he realized he was gay and offered escapism while his mother fought, and lost to, cancer. So, when Michael’s long-time partner Kit (I’m skipping a lot of plot here, but there’s only so much margin space, and the story of them meeting is very by-the-numbers) is diagnosed with the deadly illness, the heartaches of the past meet the reality of the present. To further emphasize the importance of television in Michael’s life even more, director Michael Showalter ( The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye ) stages several fake 80s sitcom moments, complete with overacting and canned laughter. These moments sort of serve as flashbacks to Michael’s past, with the bad memories portrayed through the rose-colored glasses of network television. It’s a jarring concept, one that never meshes well with the dramatic material that comes with a cancer drama. The same can be said for Michael’s narration, which is addressed to Kit in the afterlife and often butts in at the worst possible moments. Parsons is a weird movie star, mostly because he has a sort of “supporting actor that steals the show” energy, which was fully evidenced over the twelve seasons of The Big Bang Theory . He can’t totally shake that persona, with some moments of sincerity coming across as stilted. He and Ben Aldridge as Kit do make a nice pair, with Sally Field as Kit’s mother being a welcome addition in the couple times she pops up. Calling Spoiler Alert the more dramatic (and slightly inferior) version of Billy Eichner’s Bros is a little reductive, but it isn’t untrue. On both the comedic and dramatic fronts, everything within Showalter’s film has an aura of “been there, done that,” keeping it out of my memory bank for more than an hour after finishing it. I remember a lot of worse films than Spoiler Alert , but I also remember a lot of better ones too. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Twisters July 17, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Is it a good or bad sign if the most interesting aspect of a disaster movie is the humans? Twisters may be the first film to buck a decades-long trend within the disaster/monster subgenre where our species has been the superficial window to view the events within our world that hold dominion. The occasional glances at the watch here are reserved for the moments of tornado-based destruction, with the character-driven scenes coming in like a knight in shining armor to break up the monotony. I guess that’s what you get when you hire the director of one of the most tender human dramas of the decade. Lee Isaac Chung’s inability to fully flex his filmmaking muscles is definitely the lesser of two evils, as none of the traditional journeymen that could have been hired to fill the chair would have a percentage of the heart he instills here. A ragtag group of Oklahoman storm chasers has replaced his Arkansan family from 2020’s Minari , each ready to risk their lives in the name of science. But the risk turns out to have exactly that asking price, with the only two survivors of the five-person team being Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos). It’s another startling reminder Mother Nature is undefeated in any attempts to tame her. That fatal error of judgment was enough to send Kate behind a desk in the New York office of a weather service. She’s put her wild days behind her, which we all know isn’t true because we’re only ten minutes into a two-hour movie. Javi calls her back into the fold once an even deadlier series of storms starts ripping through her state. This time they’ve got the advantage of upgraded technology and a team full of PhDs, a combination that could help them answer the elusive question of how to prevent and stop these storms. The implementation of serving the common man as a reason to be in this line of work is sold well by Edgar-Jones and Ramos, both of whom carry a small amount of traumatized weight in their performances. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith doesn’t give them much of anything to work with, nor does he have regular Joes like you and I do anything more than get swept up in storms and look solemn after their towns have been destroyed. There’s an underdeveloped subplot about Javi’s boss acting as an ambulance chaser, buying up the ripped-up land at rock-bottom prices under the guise of offering a fresh start to those who have nothing left. That aspect could essentially be mirrored onto the film itself, with Smith and Chung always talking about their love for people, yet the way they walk illustrates otherwise. This is where Glen Powell enters the scene as “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens, his good-ol’-boy charm and looks implemented to distract from the film’s mental problems. That strategy works more times than it doesn’t, with Powell’s movie star swagger perpetually threatening to burn a hole through the screen. It’s no surprise that the most impactful moment of weather is just a drizzle of rain while he dons a cowboy hat and white T-shirt while striding to his mammoth pickup truck. But the simplicity of that breathless moment instantly becomes a double-edged sword, as the weightless scenes with millions of dollars worth of special effects feel even more disappointing in comparison. The theater roars and the screen fervently flashes, but the bone-chilling feeling of real danger is never felt. There’s a moment where Kate and Tyler rescue a mother and child by clinging for dear life at the bottom of a hotel pool. Chung holds the camera on their fear-stricken face as an act of humanistic connection, yet the CGI debris and wind effects rob those feelings from truly bubbling to the surface. To incorrectly apply a famous phrase: it’s full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Twisters may still end up being one of the better blockbusters of the summer on account of it’s central characters being the secret main attraction, although I’m not exactly sure that’s how the plan was drawn up at the Universal offices. The rusty old door has been opened with care that it needed, while the well-greased one seems to be giving the most trouble. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen

Daddio June 24, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen A 2024 release that could have easily found a better home in 2020, Christy Hall’s Daddio is one of those single-location films that popped up time and time again on streaming services during the waning days of the pandemic. It was almost a cheat code for stars and filmmakers to keep themselves active, limiting the action of the project to one location and keeping the number of cast members to less than you can count on one hand. The problem was that many felt exactly like that: an excuse to get back to work rather than a genius idea that plays with time and setting (examples include Locked Down and The Guilty ). But there were also some gems like One Night in Miami… and The Outfit . Daddio falls somewhere in the middle, never irritating because of its pandemic-esque presentation, but never unique enough to break through this subgenre. The concept is as simple as the setting: An unnamed woman (Dakota Johnson) hails a cab from JFK airport to get home. The driver, Clark (Sean Penn), and her start to share a bond during their late-night journey, striking up conversations as they deal with traffic, construction, and all the other things New York throws at them. Clark is a vulgar driver, one of those who “tells it like it is” as he spouts some pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo about the way humans behave. At first, he’s pretty courteous, complementing Johnson’s character for not being on her phone as they drive away. Quickly that turns into a monologue that starts with him saying “We used to be a culture…” filled with mini-rants on credit cards, technology, and apps. It’s this opening stretch of Daddio that’s the roughest, as Hall’s weakest material is used to acclimate us to these characters and setting. The weakness has less to do with the quality of the writing, lying more with the tiredness that comes from the specific points it is trying to make. The generational archetypes that these characters possess have been mined over and over again throughout the years, almost to the point where there’s nothing left to explore. That’s not to say that filmmakers should steer away from the material altogether, but there definitely needs to be something truly special to incite even a modicum of interest. Hall doesn’t possess that with her script, even if the actors show a great ability to hold our attention. Johnson often lives and dies by the material she’s been given (see The Lost Daughter compared to Madame Web ), with this being closer to the former example. There’s an aura of confidence radiating from her in attempting the one-location challenge, something that Penn also matches from the front seat. His casting is almost too perfect, which maybe comes from the fact he played a very similar role as a no-nonsense ambulance driver to a much younger co-star in Tye Sheridan in last year’s Asphalt City . The streetlights glittering the highway are always perfectly angled to illuminate Penn’s eyes, and the distant skyscrapers reflect in the windows. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael makes the brief glimpses outside the cab incredibly gorgeous, with the steam from the sewers and stoplights creating a smoky cool setting. The edges of the frame are tinged black, almost as if you’re looking through a half-awakened eye that just got off a red-eye flight. Hall places importance on the little things inside the cab just as much as what goes on outside of it. The camera will catch a twitch of the eye or a certain hand gesture, all of them adding up to reveal more about the characters. It’s an impressive showcase for her as a director, one that inspires confidence for the future. More Reviews One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen A Christmas Party September 23, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Him September 18, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Swiped September 19, 2025 By: Tyler Banark Hunter Friesen