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Marriage Story December 12, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen “Divorce is like death without a body.” With nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce in America, this quote from Noah Baumbach’s new film now rings truer than ever. Debuting on Netflix, Marriage Story centers on the relationship between Charlie and Nicole Barber. Charlie is an emerging New York theatre director and Nicole is a revered actress who's followed him on the stage for the last decade. The good times are over now and the couple is in the process of divorce, with their eight-year-old son, Henry, caught in the middle. The couple first decided to part ways amicably, but over time things got messier with lawyers and a sudden move by Nicole to Los Angeles. Now on opposite coasts, the two sides must bear the immense strain of splitting up while still trying to keep some semblance of their family together. The tenth feature from Baumbach (and second for Netflix), the unfolding of Marriage Story takes several cues from its stage theatre setting. Numerous scenes play out in long, uninterrupted takes as characters move around the space, delivering monologues aimed at the audience just as much as they are at other characters. The blocking of each camera and character movement is superb as it allows scenes to flow with grace and deliver their maximum effect. Accenting Baumbach’s work behind the camera is an orchestral score from legendary musician Randy Newman. The score calls back to Newman’s similar work in Toy Story as the mood swings back and forth from playful to somber. More of a writer first, and director second, Baumbach’s screenplay contains both unparalleled honesty and authenticity. The film opens with Charlie and Nicole saying what they love about each other, only for it to be revealed that it’s all part of an exercise assigned to them by their divorce counselor. This perfect establishing scene and many others work wonders at making us feel for their relationship and connect it to our experiences, both good and bad. Being as this is a semi-autobiographical film for Baumbach about his earlier divorce, you may fear that bias would be present. Luckily, Baumbach isn’t interested in taking sides. He may give Charlie a little more of the benefit of the doubt, but overall he paints a balanced picture where both the features and flaws of each character are on display. And despite the depressing subject matter, the film is still able to be quite funny as comedy gets weaved throughout. This is usual for Baumbach, who uses humor as an addition to the drama rather than a clean break from it. Playing Charlie and Nicole are Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, respectively. Each of them is amazing on their own and will deservedly be showered with awards this season. They each have their big individual scenes and one grand one together, but where they each make their money is in the little scenes between the big ones. A small facial movement here or special line delivery there goes a long way in developing who they are and what they stand for. Laura Dern is also great as Nicole’s no-nonsense lawyer, Nora. Dern has made a name for herself as a tough character, and she continues that here with a fierce, commanding performance. Alan Alda and Ray Liotta play Charlie’s two lawyers that have two very different styles that complement each of their acting strengths. Alda is the gentler and more presentable one when compared to Liotta’s more hostile and brash demeanor. Never before has a film been so pleasantly depressing and genuinely funny at the same time. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, or you’ll do both at the same time. By the time the credits start rolling, you’ll have been on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Deliverance August 20, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Deliverance is a powerhouse showcase for Lee Daniels as a producer, as it takes a lot of skill to assemble such a stacked cast and crew for a project this uninspired. The real-life story of single mother LaToya Ammons and her three children being haunted by evil spirits has been a long-gestating project for Daniels, being announced over ten years ago as his follow-up to The Butler . Time marched on, with Daniels pivoting to his biopic on Billie Holiday ( The United States vs. Billie Holiday ), an otherwise rote story salvaged by the discovery of the acting talents of its star Andra Day, who received a Golden Globe award and Academy Award nomination for her work. The pair are reunited for this project, although I’m skeptical of any possibility of awards to come to the rescue this time. “Inspired by a true story” immediately blankets what we are about to witness, a statement that has become a clichéd requirement (likely for legal reasons) for every member of the possession subgenre ( Poltergeist , The Conjuring franchise, The Amityville Horror ). Ebony Jackson (Day) and her three kids have just moved to their third home in just under a year, this time settling in Pittsburgh with Ebpny’s mother Alberta (Glenn Close, looking like a cousin to her character from Hilbilly Elegy ). There are cracks within every dynamic of the family, partially due to Ebony’s drinking, which has Child Protective Services monitor them at various times, and the fact that the children’s father seemingly abandoned them by going to Iraq. But for all the internal demons that plague this family, there are also external ones lurking within the walls. The youngest child, Andre, has an imaginary friend who increasingly tells him to commit heinous acts, and strange noises permeate every nook and cranny. Anyone who has seen an exorcist movie knows what’s been happening and where it’s leading. It’s why the second-act appearance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as an apostle sent to serve the family in their time of need never feels like the revelation Daniels and screenwriters David Coggeshal and Elijah Bynum want you to believe it is. Daniels is still a mighty fine director for actors, previously guiding Mo'Nique - also reuniting with the director here as the CPS officer Cynthia - to an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Precious . Between Day and Mo'Nique’s more grounded work, one would have hoped that this project would have ditched the whole demonic angle and focused squarely on the social drama. Then again, we wouldn’t have gotten scenes of a bald Glenn Close wielding a baseball bat, or of the youngest child flinging his feces at his teacher as an act of possession. These unintentionally hilarious moments keep the horror elements tolerable, although that definitely wasn’t the plan. The Scary Movie franchise might have just as much in common with this story as the others mentioned earlier. There’s also humor to be found in how the film tries its damnedest to avoid the term “exorcist,” instead referring to all of it as a “deliverance.” What goes on during a deliverance? A religious figure comes to the home of a possessed person, warning the other family members that the demon has a strong hold on the victim and that they must not believe anything it says. The religious figure then sprays holy water on the demon and recites verses from the bible. Hmmmm… sounds like an exorcism to me. Between last year’s The Exorcist: Believer and two unrelated Russell Crowe movies ( The Pope’s Exorcist and The Exorcism ), Daniels was entering the exorcism genre at the perfect moment to shake things up and be its temporary savior. What’s the point of a horror movie (or any movie, for that matter) if you’re going to play it safe when it comes time to deliver the goods? I’m not mad, I’m just really, really, disappointed. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Asteroid City June 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Asteroid City had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on June 13. By far the strangest movie in his eclectic filmography, Asteroid City is Wes Anderson’s return to America in over a decade, having spent time in fictional Eastern Europe for The Grand Budapest Hotel , Japan for Isle of Dogs , and well… France for The French Dispatch . The fanciful writer/director takes us into the scenic deserts of the 1950s American southwest, specifically the titular sleepy tourist town that serves as the meeting point for all of the eccentric characters. The half-built town, complete with the stereotypical bar-stool diner and motel, is the destination for those attending the annual Junior Stargazer / Space Cadet convention. It’s a place where the best, brightest, and most awkward kids in America show off their new inventions, including a jetpack, raygun, and overhead projector for the moon, which, in one of many hilarious throwaway lines, is said to have huge potential in the future of interstellar advertising. Arriving in a putter under the beaming sun is Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer with a genius son and young triplet girls. This event is only a brief stop on his way to see his father-in-law (Tom Hanks, proving as always to be a wonderful addition to any cast), who’s the only other person that knows of Augie’s wife’s recent demise. Also in attendance is a group of other precocious children and their host of parents (Scarlett Johannson, Liev Schreiber, Steve Park, Hope Davis, etc.) Eventually, this event designed to look up at the stars comes in contact with something from there, which reshapes how our characters interact with each other and themselves. As I said in the opening sentence, this is Anderson’s weirdest movie to date, always keeping your eyebrow in a raised position. To avoid spoiling events beyond what is shown in the trailer, I’ll only mention that Anderson’s screenplay (written in conjunction with his usual partner Roman Coppola) emulates a certain Christopher Nolan movie that has to do with dreams. How else are you going to be able to fit in all the names within this all-star cast, including regular players Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum? The term “this is the most Wes Anderson movie Wes Anderon has ever made” has been used to describe nearly every new entry in his filmography. That cycle doesn’t stop with Asteroid City , as the traits you’ve come to love (or hate) are all here: symmetrical framing, varying aspect ratios, color and black & white cinematography, and steady camera movements. Anderson’s usual designer Adam Stockhausen once again creates a doll-house world filled with too many sights and sounds to be absorbed in one viewing. Sure, there may now be umpteen TikTok and A.I. generated videos replicating Anderon’s distinct style, but all of them contain just the window dressing of a Wes Anderson movie, and not the emotion. Just as his box of tricks has constantly evolved, so has Anderson’s ability to find the heart in his richly defined characters. While on their methodically placed tracks, each character veers off in different directions, exploring the fear of death, finding connections in a barren land, cutting through the messiness of life, and paying homage to those kitschy B-movies you grew up watching late at night on the public access channel. At this point in his filmography, you’ve probably made up your mind about Wes Anderson. I’m somewhat of an apologist, with those instantly recognizable production qualities and whimsical tones being music to my ears (and eyes). Asteroid City is another healthy dose of what I’m come to love, with the bonus of seeing an auteur continue to find new ways to channel what they do best. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Passages August 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Passages opens with Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German filmmaker living in Paris, working on the set of his next film. It’s immediately apparent that he’s a control freak… and an asshole. He’s critical of everything that’s going on, from the position of his actor’s arms as he walks down the stairs to the amount of wine in an extra’s glass. He probably thinks of himself as Stanley Kubrick, except there isn’t enough brilliance to make up for the callousness. That attitude on the set doesn’t take a break once he goes home to his husband Martin (Ben Whishaw). The couple go to the film’s wrap party at a dance club. Being the more introverted one, Martin goes home early, leaving Tomas to his own devices. He crosses paths with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) on the dance floor, and the two eventually go home together to have sex. Rebuking the natural secrecy of an affair in an effort to quench his desire for control, Tomas tells Martin all about it the next morning. Tomas wants the best of both worlds: to be in a steady marriage with Martin and to have an exciting new fling with a woman. These three characters are now intertwined, yet it’s obvious only one of them is pulling the strings. Similar to his 2014 film Love is Strange , writer/director Ira Sachs (co-writing with his regular partner Mauricio Zacharias) delves into the thorniness of longstanding relationships, and how there isn’t a clear-cut way to get through it. Tomas thinks he can get what he wants, yet it seems he actually doesn’t know what he wants in the first place. He says “I love you” and engages in sex when it works for him, and never seems to have the ability or desire to understand the other party in that transaction. One of the main problems of the film is that it spends too much time spinning its wheels around this toxic trio. It eventually gets tiring to watch Tomas act selfishly and be begrudgingly forgiven by Martin or Agathe. Sure, that cycle may be a portal to connect with the victims, but it’s also not something wholly original. It’s not a coincidence that the best scene of the film is near the end where Martin and Agathe finally break the circle and sit down to talk directly. Whishaw and Exarchopoulos are both calm and collected throughout much of the film. They each are trying to convince themselves that this new reality can work, but it’s clear no one is coming out better than they used to be. And even in his cruelty, Rogowski is captivating, showing just enough promise to illustrate why he would be accepted into someone else’s life. Filled with as much as explicit sex (although striking it with an NC-17 rating was a displeasing illustration of how the MPAA views homosexuality) as it has insight into complicated relationships, Passages is another worthwhile effort from the dependable Ira Sachs. It’s a ménage à trois for the modern age, mixing confrontation and carnality to perceptive results. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Awards Update: Fall Festival Winners & Losers September 28, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Welcome to an ongoing series where I cover the 2024/2025 awards season. On a regular basis, I will update my Oscar predictions, taking into account the new information that has been received since the last update. Full predictions in every category can be found on the Home and Awards page. “Frenzied” and “chaotic” would be the words most apt to describe the two weeks where the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival crash into each other. Reactions pour in, standing ovations are timed, and prizes are bestowed upon a select few. It’s one of the most fun stretches of the year as a cinephile and an awards junkie, a time when you can eat your fill of quality cinema and confirm/deny your early Oscar predictions. Because there’s so much to talk about and so little margin space to fit it all in, let’s split everyone off into two groups: Winners and Losers. Of course, all of this is relative, and anything could happen in the six months we have left in the season. Starting with the winners, more specifically the actual winners, we’ve got Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door nabbing the Golden Lion in Venice, a victory I learned about as I exited from the press screening of the film at TIFF underwhelmed. But the Isballe Huppert-led jury saw something different, which I don’t think many other people will agree with so enthusiastically. This is not a top-tier work by the famed Spanish filmmaker, with the lead performances by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore being the only viable awards chances. They’re both being submitted as lead actresses by distributor Sony Picture Classics, which is the morally correct move. But that category has found itself quite stacked in the past few weeks, and SPC already has Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun to campaign. We can scratch The Life of Chuck , this year’s TIFF People’s Choice winner, off the prediction charts. It’s just been picked up by Neon with a planned Summer 2025 release. That also means we’ll have to wait and see if the film can repeat what the last twelve winners of that award did and be nominated for Best Picture. Could we get two People’s Choice winners nominated at the 2026 ceremony? The two runners-up at TIFF, Emilia Pérez and Anora , both solidified themselves as top-tier contenders. They both received swaths of attention at Telluride and TIFF, showing that they can perform just as well at public festivals as they did at a high-brow competition like Cannes. I expect them to dominate the above-the-line categories, with Emilia Pérez nabbing a handful of craft nominations for its outstanding musical numbers. However, there was no bigger winner these past few weeks than Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist , which nabbed its director the Silver Lion for Best Director. It was by far the best thing I saw at TIFF, a sentiment that many critics agreed with. It’s amazing that something made so cheaply (under $10 million) feels so similar to the epic Hollywood productions of the past. How A24 will be able to maintain that desire and enthusiasm until the release date announced on December 20th will be a question, but they certainly have something special on their hands that people are hungry for. I mentioned in my last update that I would put it in several categories if the reviews were kind, and now that promise comes true. Other small winners would be Babygirl and Hard Truths , both of which gained great reviews for their lead actresses Nicole Kidman and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, respectively. Conclave and The Piano Lesson would also fall into this category, although some of the early predictions for Stanley Tucci and Samuel L. Jackson turned out to be wishful thinking. Regardless, both of those adaptations received strong enough reviews and public sentiment that they should find themselves in more than one category. There’s also September 5 , which was picked up by Paramount and received strong reviews despite its under-the-radar status. Sitting in the loser territory (only slightly) is Luca Guadagnino’s Queer . Reviews were fine, but the passion is definitely lacking, which is something this very challenging (no pun intended) movie needs. It’ll likely only have an awards presence through Daniel Craig’s performance. Also a small loser is Pablo Larraín’s Maria . Angelina Jolie will almost certainly be nominated, but I’m thinking Larraín and Netflix are striving for a bit more considering this is supposed to be his final entry in his biopic trilogy. And then there’s Nightbitch , a movie that is much more subdued and normal than its title and trailer led us to believe. Of course, we can’t end this article without mentioning the dud that was Joker: Folie à Deux . This sequel could have never repeated the overwhelming success of the first film, but the mediocre reviews, bad press, and low box office projections suggest that it will be a mighty challenge to muster any awards attention. It’ll probably still get some craft nominations, just nothing substantial. Now it’s on to the regional festivals (NYFF, AFI, Middleburg, Chicago, etc.), where most of these winners (and some of the losers) parade themselves around to gain national support. It’s a lot like the election primaries, so we’ll need to have our ears to the ground and listen for which ones are gaining traction when even more eyes are placed upon them. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen

Shirley March 16, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are 435 members of The United States of Representatives. In 1968, only 11 were women, 5 were black, and none were black women. It’s a sobering fact that opens writer/director John Ridley’s biopic of Shirley Chisholm, who was the first person to break the barrier of entry for black women in Congress. The very next scene sees her standing in a sea of middle-aged white men as they’re gathered for the freshman congresspeople class photo. Except it’s glaringly obvious that the capital background is a greenscreen (a very shoddy one), and everything is overlit and washed out. And that scene gets repeated throughout the next two hours: good intentions canceled out by poor filmmaking and an overly basic approach to one of the most interesting political figures of the twentieth century. To give credit where it is due, Ridley doesn’t give us the clichéd knee-deep full breadth of Shirley’s life, instead focusing on her 1972 campaign for the presidency, the first undertaken by a black candidate as part of a major party. Throughout the eighteen months leading up to the Democratic Party primary, Shirley campaigned as part of the working class, free of the political strings and corporate greed that perpetually hamper the democratic process. Regina King is electric throughout her several campaign stops, supplying the necessary fire to convey Shirley’s trailblazing nature. She’s a person who hates the word “can’t” and never backs down from a fight. From her personality, we get a glimpse of who she was as a politician and what she may have accomplished. Ridley doesn’t bother with those details, although it would have been nice to learn a little more since her presidential campaign hardly tells the whole story. Vague biopics have gotten by before, mostly because they had the personality to fill in the gaps. The recent duology of Jackie and Spencer by Pablo Larraín, I’m Not There , and The End of the Tour would fit under this category. Ridley semi-accomplished this with his 2013 Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi: All Is by My Side , offering an under-the-hood inspection of Hendrix before his superstardom. Shirley ditches all that to be as palatable as possible, complete with politicians made so cartoonishly prejudiced that they’re lined up like bowling pins for King to knock down in an Oscar clip. Sure, Chisholm definitely faced stiff opposition from unsavory figures (a.k.a. white men), but seeing it here so sanitized takes away from the reality of the situation. King is at least surrounded by a decent supporting cast, most notably Lance Reddick in one of his final roles as Shirley's longtime advisor Mac Holder. Michael Cherrie surprises Shirley’s longtime husband Conrad. But then there’s also Terrence Howard and Lucas Hedges in wasted roles that offer them little to do. “Better get it used and cheap” is what Shirley tells Conrad when he says he needs a new camera. It’s a nice and tidy bit of writing from Ridley, yet it seems he took it to heart and used it as his mantra for the entire production. With Ridley’s Oscar-winning skills as a writer and Netflix’s deep pockets, it’s deeply disappointing that neither of them could muster up what Shirley Chisholm deserved. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Super Mario Bros. Movie April 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen While every genre has its share of highlights and lowlights, video game movies have always seemed to have a lot more low-quality content compared to everyone else. It doesn’t take a genius to see that year after year of films from the Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Hitman , and Street Fighter series really poisoned everyone’s appetite for stories that spawned a controller. Japanese gaming company Nintendo (probably the only gaming company every mother knows) at least had the smarts to quit when they were behind, shutting almost all film adaptations of their properties after the disaster that was 1993’s Super Mario Bros . Now exactly thirty years later, and with the help of Universal and Illumination, the studios behind the Despicable Me and Secret Life of Pets films, Nintendo is bringing Mario back to the silver screen in animated form for The Super Mario Bros. Movie . The Mushroom Kingdom is under attack by the evil Bowser, with Princess Peach and Mario being the only heroes capable of stopping him. Both Peach and Mario have dedicated their lives to helping others, whether it’s the entire population of Toads within the Mushroom Kingdom, or Mario’s more timid brother Luigi, who’s been captured by Bower. Their journey takes them to other worlds, which will delight longtime players of the Mario franchise. Whether it’s in the form of karts, platforms, or brawling arenas, there are plenty of callbacks, almost as if you’re wielding a controller and guiding Mario on his heroic journey. And while that exact statement has ruined so many video game movies in the past (who wants to watch a game rather than play it?), the filmmaking on display here turns that liability into an asset. The camera moves with Mario, with lots of tracking shots as our characters traverse through the levels in both 2D and 3D sequences, with the sound effects all ripped straight from the games. Brian Tyler’s fun score features many of the iconic motifs, with the added bonus of quite a few needle drops, none of which are all that imaginative or above ultra-literal, but they get the job more than done in the moment. The voice cast is above the punching bag they were made out to be when they were initially announced. Chris Pratt is still as likable as ever, and at least doesn’t commit too hard to the Italian accent for it to be embarrassing. Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day are commendable as Peach and Luigi, respectively. Jack Black is probably the most inspired choice with Bowser, being both menacing as a villain and entertaining as a character with some laughs (and songs) along the way. It may not exactly be as super as its title states, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a vastly superior version compared to the last time the plumber brothers were in theaters. It doesn’t matter if you lean towards either the classic or the modern games, there’s something for all fans, with the added bonus of future occasions to level up. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Materialists June 11, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Materialists opens during the Paleolithic period of the Stone Age. A caveman brings tools and flowers to the woman he loves, hoping it’ll be enough to earn her affection. We may think that love gets purer the further you go back in time, but there has always been a business angle. Dowries, negotiations, and aligning kingdoms are the old ways of forming a union. Now there’s an algorithm for that, loaded with statistics like height, income, and political views. And for those that are more serious (or desperate) and have the funds to do so, there are services like Adore, which will assign a personal matchmaker to search for you. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is one of those matchmakers, and a damn good one to be specific. She’s responsible for nine marriages, salvaging the most recent one by spinning the bride’s cold feet confession that part of the reason she’s marrying the groom is because it makes her sister jealous into a lesson about finding value and feeling valued. The key to her success is to treat dating as a business venture, using the same calculating mindset you’d find on Wall Street. “Market forces,” “competitive advantage,” and “strategic skills” are her phrases of choice. The results speak for themselves, and there’s no denying that this is the path that the dating landscape is rapidly progressing along. It’s natural and odd that after writer/director Celine Song tenderly explored the concept of destiny and love in Past Lives , her follow-up takes a cold, hard look at the facts. There isn’t going to be a Prince Charming waiting in the wings, or a Cinderella that perfectly fits the glass slipper. Dating is a trial-and-error endeavor, with adaptability and compromise being the most important qualities. Song makes sure there are a lot of laughs to be had with all this nonsense. Lucy’s customers are demanding, neurotic, and impatient. A potential match must be this tall, be in this age range, like these certain songs/movies, and make at least this amount of money. Living in the Midwest all my life certainly didn’t prepare me for the astronomical figures that people expect to receive on the East Coast. But all of this is funny because they’re saying the quiet parts out loud, and deep down, we all know we do it too. The eternal bachelorette who has a knack for helping others find love is a trope as old as the romantic dramedy itself. Song may know how to reexamine it in the ways I just described, but she also knows how to harness its extremely potent traditional qualities. She also knows how to best steer the performers on all sides of this love triangle. Yes, Lucy gets more than she bargains for when she simultaneously finds affection in two separate places. Johnson is perpetually on a pendulum swinging back and forth. And after the swing (and miss) that was Madame Web , she was due for a major slide to the lighter side. We meet Pedro Pascal’s Harry as he charms his way through his brother’s wedding reception. He’s also obscenely rich, tall, and handsome. He’s what Lucy refers to as a “unicorn” in her line work - the man of every woman’s dreams. John (Chris Evans) has some of those qualities, but definitely not the financial ones. He’s your usual struggling actor with a part-time catering job who lives in a shitty apartment. But he’s real, and there’s a reason Lucy and he were together for five years before they broke up. We’ve seen characters with these archetypes before, but here they’re steeped in enough authenticity so you can’t just immediately pick a side. Materialists can also be too honest for its own good. There’s a darker element that gets introduced later in the story that drives part of Lucy’s decision-making about her personal life. Song handles it to the best of her ability, but its inclusion is habitually distracting from the other excellent qualities. Honesty is still the best policy, and Song continues to show that she’s a master of telling us how it is in the ways we want to hear it. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Ranking the Films of Adam McKay April 17, 2024 By: Tyler Banark Adam McKay has had quite the rollercoaster of a career as a writer, producer, and director. He started as a writer for Saturday Night Live , where, after one year, he became the head writer from 1996 to 2001. Following his time on the variety series, he teamed up with Will Ferrell to create the production company Gary Sanchez Productions, spearheading several signature comedies. However, McKay took a heel turn in his career in 2015 when he made the acclaimed dramedy The Big Short , which marked his ascension as the face of satirical comedy, utilizing his sense of humor to convey messages that resonate in our society. In honor of his 56th birthday, here’s a look back at the filmmaker’s work and how his evolution has made an impression on Hollywood. 8. Vice (2018) A biopic following one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history, Vice sees McKay continuing down the path of dark satire he established with his predecessor, The Big Short . Christian Bale provides an enigmatic performance as Dick Cheney and continues to prove his chameleonic acting chops. The monologue he gives at the end is electrifying, forcing viewers to question his true intentions for the sake of ambiguity in the story. Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell also give standout performances as Lynn Cheney and President George W. Bush, respectively. However, Vice does falter in that the plot’s execution is a bit overly flashy. The movie pulled an unnecessary fake out ending only 48 minutes in. It also looks to focus on a lot of different characters that come and go in Cheney’s life, but it’s not done easily. The movie glosses over key events in Cheney’s life, such as his 2006 hunting incident and the use of waterboarding in Guantanamo Bay. 7. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2017) The sequel to McKay and Ferrell’s 2003 hit comedy, The Legend Continues was a mixed bag. It saw the long-awaited return of Ferrell’s mustached news anchor and crew, but it was filled with head-scratching lunacy rather than humor genuine enough to entertain audiences. The Legend Continues sees Ron Burgundy going head-to-head with several other news stations in the 1980s as television began evolving to bring niche news networks that run 24/7. Ron has a subplot where he’s separating from his wife, Veronica, but it isn’t fleshed out as well as it should. We do see their marriage face strife as their young son Walter falls victim to Ron’s absence. The plot’s main focus is on Ron and his pals, Brick, Champ, and Brian, having to change with the times through various moments of hilarity. 6. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) McKay’s second team-up with Ferrell couldn’t catch the lightning in a bottle they harnessed with Anchorman . Ferrell turns in another strong comedic performance as Ricky in his first collaboration with John C. Reilly, who plays his racing partner Cal Naughton Jr. Sacha Baron Cohen plays European driver Jean Girard, donning a French accent that’s so over-the-top. Michael Clarke Duncan and Amy Adams have small roles here as Bobby’s crew chief and assistant-turned-love-interest, respectively, and make the most of their screen time. 5. The Other Guys (2010) The first of a couple of successful collaborations between Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, The Other Guys is a clever action comedy that features some great humor. The duo steals the show as two backup detectives, Allen Gamble, and Terry Hoitz, respectively, who have to step into a case after two star detectives die (fantastically played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson). Just the “aim for the bushes” scene is enough to make anyone want a full-length feature with them. There’s also an unforgettable running gag where Michael Keaton’s character, the captain, unknowingly quotes TLC songs. The success of Wahlberg here in one of his first studio comedic performances resulted in him branching out further as an actor, retaining Ferrell as a partner in the two Daddy’s Home films, which McKay produced. 4. The Big Short (2015) McKay’s first jab at a non-raunchy comedy, The Big Short cemented his filmmaking style with precisely paced editing and dark humor. Considering the film’s focus on the 2008 Financial Crisis, it was no surprise that it was a bit convoluted for audiences. But the stellar ensemble and several cameos from personalities such as Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and the late Anthony Bourdain made it all digestible. McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph had their train running while the tracks were being built, with the dialogue coming briskly and in your face. That strategy worked out, with the film netting five Oscar nominations, including the win for Best Adapted Screenplay. McKay’s status as a serious filmmaker was cemented… for better and for worse. 3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) One of Will Ferrell’s most iconic characters ever put to screen, Ron Burgundy, is easily the most recognizable and best character from the aughts. As for the movie itself, Anchorman is…kind of a big deal. Ferrell, of course, brings his a-game as Burgundy, as does Paul Rudd, David Koechner, and Steve Carell as his respective colleagues. Christina Applegate performs just as outstandingly as Ron’s love interest, Veronica. The suggestive humor works brilliantly, thanks to the leading cast and Ferrell and McKay’s script. There are also several iconic moments, such as the news channel fight, Afternoon Delight, Ron’s banter with his dog Baxter, and Brian, Champ, and Brick’s introductions. These moments are complimented with timeless lines, even if the jokes can get too repetitive or dumb. 2. Don't Look Up (2021) McKay’s most recent film was the most distinct distillation of his two styles as it tracked two astronomers trying to spread the word that a comet is heading toward Earth. It was a collision of the serious tone and pacing of The Big Short and Vice, and the whacky humor of his earlier comedies. It may sometimes feel like an extended SNL sketch, but the extremely fun cast makes it all work. There was also more than just simple humor, with Nicholas Britell’s jazzy score receiving an Oscar nomination, and the visual effects certainly deserved that level of recognition. 1. Step Brothers (2008) Will Ferrell’s most underrated movie and one of the best screwball comedies out there, Step Brothers sees Ferrell and John C. Reilly having to put up with each other in a blended family setting as their parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) marry each other. Reilly joined Ferrell and McKay in the writer’s room, leading to many classic one-liners and an overall sillier plot. Both of the leads are their most unhinged, ranging from beating each other up to singing power ballads. It all may be dimwitted, but it’s easily the prime definition of a comedy to which viewers should turn their brains off. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24 Recap September 21, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen They said it couldn’t be done. Of the 278 films screened over the 10 days at the 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), I was able to see 37 of them. Never mind that my eyesight has probably gotten much worse, my skin is even paler than before, and that someone broke the world record for most movies watched at a film festival by eclipsing 80 films within the same timeframe. This year’s edition of TIFF was a rousing success for both myself and the festival as a whole. I maintained a perfect schedule throughout, seeing everything I wanted to, ranging from glitzy world premieres in the biggest venues to independent international films in the back of the Scotiabank Theatre. The best came first on Friday (well, technically third since I saw Presence and William Tell on Thursday) in the form of The Brutalist , which met the sky-high hopes I had placed upon it through its placement on my Most Anticipated of 2024 list. Although I had to reluctantly accept a 35mm presentation of the film instead of the 70mm print that was being shown at the public screenings, there’s no denying that this is one of the most beautiful films of the year. It’s a new American epic that I will certainly catch again later this year whenever A24 decides to start their rollout, which I assume will emulate the molasses pace of classic Hollywood roadshows. This needs to be treated as a cinematic event on the same level as Oppenheimer . See it on the biggest screen possible, and plan a dinner afterward to reward both your body and mind. While the feasibility for The Brutalist to win the coveted People’s Choice Award was slim, both in terms of logistics regarding the runtime and mass appeal, I did end up seeing the actual top dog a few hours later at its world premiere. Unfortunately, I didn’t share the same enthusiasm for The Life of Chuc k compared to everyone else, with Flanagan’s approach to the material being a little too disjointed and schmaltzy for my liking. However, being in the same as the cast and crew, as well as the raucous audience, was more than worth it. John Crowley’s charming two-hander We Live in Time provided a nice break in the disappointment streak, which would continue the next morning with The Room Next Door and Hard Truths . In a bubble, both are fine movies with exceptional qualities to them. But when you factor in the talent involved, it’s impossible not to view them as less than they should have been. It was extremely shocking to walk out of The Room Next Door to the news that it had won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, a prize that seemed destined for The Brutalist . Ron Howard’s Eden , still without distribution as of this print date, served as my only Gala premiere within Roy Thomson Hall. After he showed humanity at its best with his previous film ( Thirteen Lives ), Howard drags us down to its most vile state. The pulpy tone and starry cast are what sell the experience. Overall it’s nothing special, which is why it’ll likely get punted to streaming, where it’ll probably be a big hit. Sunday was a double Ralph Fiennes day. Edward Berger’s Conclave is a soap opera with as much page-turning substance as it has a prestige-like style, while The Return , Uberto Pasolini’s adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey , was a snooze-fest. Bookending The Return was two fun thrillers: Justin Kurzel’s The Order and A24’s Heretic . The former contains some exceptional action setpieces and moments of chilling true-crime violence, while the latter has a devilishly delicious Hugh Grant performance. Things started slowing down a bit as the weekdays rolled around. David Mackenzie’s Relay was a smoky cool way to start a Monday morning, while Luca Guadagnino’s abstract adaptation of Queer was a puzzling way to end the night. Thankfully I had some sleep between that film and Tuesday morning’s Better Man , the CGI-monkey starring biopic on Robbie Williams. Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here and Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson provided glimpses into fractured families reckoning with their past and future. Halina Reijn took that familial structure and burned it to the ground with Babygirl , a perverse tale of sex and power featuring knock-out performances from Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. I saw two slow cinema titles carrying over from Venice on Wednesday: Harvest and April . While the former spun its wheels a few too many times, the latter mixed abstract visuals with real-life horrors to excellent results. Capping off the night was The End , Joshua Oppenheimer’s narrative feature debut after years of success as a documentarian. I was by far the biggest fan of this somber musical about the last surviving family, with the audience within the Princess of Wales growing more restless as the 148-minute feature went on. To be fair, TIFF didn’t do its audience many favors this year as they scheduled several long and challenging films for the 9:30 pm slot, which always starts at least twenty minutes late. The final Thursday-Sunday was reserved for catching up on several titles I had a passing interest in. The Fire Inside and Millers in Marriage turned out to be the only two that I came out with a positive reaction, while stuff like Without Blood , On Swift Horses , and The Cut ranged from disappointing to downright terrible. Somewhere in the middle was Bring Them Down , The Deb , and The Friend . Despite my eyelids carrying the same weight as dumbbells, I decided to cap the festival with the Midnight Madness screening of The Shadow Strays , the new film from Indonesian action aficionado Timo Tjahjanto. It was one of my most anticipated of the festival, and the energy from the crowd and the film was more than enough to sustain me throughout the 140-minute runtime. One could debate the pros and cons of watching so many movies in such a short amount of time. But there’s nothing like having a cinematic buffet such as this, and the experience of gorging is unbeatable. Now I’ll take an extended break, as the mere thought of watching a movie gives me a headache. FULL RANKING 1. The Brutalist 2. Conclave 3. The End 4. Saturday Night 5. The Order 6. April 7. I’m Still Here 8. Relay 9. We Live in Time 10. Heretic 11. The Shadow Strays 12. Presence 13. Harbin 14. The Piano Lesson 15. Babygirl 16. Queer 17. Eden 18. The Fire Inside 19. Millers in Marriage 20. The Room Next Door 21. Hard Truths 22. William Tell 23. Harvest 24. The Life of Chuck 25. Better Man 26. The Friend 27. Shell 28. Bring Them Down 29. The Deb 30. The Assessment 31. Nightbitch 32. The Return 33. On Swift Horses 34. Without Blood 35. The Last Showgirl 36. Hold Your Breath 37. The Cut More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

All of Us Strangers October 23, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen All of Us Strangers screened at the 2023 Twin Cities Film Fest. Searchlight Pictures releases it in theaters on December 22. Being alone isn’t solely confined to the physical world within writer/director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers , an adaptation of the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. The recluse at the center of this story is Adam (Andrew Scott), a middle-class screenwriter who relentlessly keeps himself holed up in his semi-decent London flat. But things aren’t all bad as Harry (Paul Mescal) shows up unannounced at Adam’s door. They seem to be the only two residents alive within this ghost town of an apartment complex, making their interaction feel almost like destiny, especially considering that both of them are queer. Despite Harry’s casualness, Adam isn’t someone who’s able to open himself up to other people. He’s been alone almost his entire life as both his parents died in a car crash when he was twelve. He’s working on a script based on his closeted childhood, but the words just can’t seem to form on the page. Somehow he’s able to do research by going back to his old childhood home outside of London, where both of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) still reside as if they never died or aged a day since their demise. Both they and Adam are aware of this fantasy, yet they do not speak of it, almost as if keeping it unspoken retains its power. Aligning with Yamada’s novel, Haigh never commits to fully explaining this illusion. Is Adam crazy? Is he time-traveling? Is he just dreaming? Is this a manifestation of his script? All of those explanations are equally valid in the moment, yet none of them are important enough to warrant in-depth examination. To borrow a line from Christopher Nolan’s Tenet : “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” The only thing that matters here is the ethereal pull of Adam’s experience and how it offers an examination of life then and now. For all the warmth that comes with nostalgic memories of your past, there is also the cold, sobering rush of reality. Even in Adam’s fantasy, coming out to his parents doesn’t go over smoothly. Both of them have their mindsets trapped in the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Adam explains that there are no problems with being queer in modern society, and yet his and Harry’s story would indicate otherwise. Haigh elevates his craft with visual flourishes that aid the dreamlike nature of the film. Mirrors and reflections, both in their literal and metaphorical form, play an integral role in Adam’s journey between the worlds. There’s a gentle flow between the scenes, with frames dissolving and fading into each other. Cinematographer Jamie Ramsay recreates magic hour photography everywhere he aims his passive 35mm camera. That absorbing visual palette aids the performances of the core quartet. Scott reaches for a healthy dose of tears and pent-up regret, which balances nicely with the strategically outward pain from Mescal. Bell and Foy are affectionate as the enigmatic parental figures, always feeling like real characterizations of people that once lived and loved. All of Us Strangers is a ghost story that invites the viewer to project themselves onto the story just as much as it tells its own. There’s nothing easy about letting go of the past, and there’s nothing easy about what comes after. It’s not an uplifting message, but it’s an endearing one that we’ve all come to find truth in. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Last Thing He Wanted February 27, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen Netflix has been on a roll these past few years. While changing the idea of how television can be consumed, the streaming giant has also financed dozens of films from revered auteurs and budding talent. This level of investment has paid dividends with films such as The Irishman and Roma . But like all portfolios, there are some stinkers such as Bright and The Ridiculous 6 that blemish the hits. Joining the latter pile of garbage is the newest film to be dumped unceremoniously on Netflix: The Last Thing He Wanted . A journalist for The Atlantic Post , Elena McMahon made her mark with hard-hitting investigative pieces detailing the revolutions in 1980s Central America. One day, her secretive father attempts to reconnect with her after years apart. It’s revealed he’s rekindling their relationship because he has fallen victim to Alzheimer’s. With his final days winding down, he confesses that he is a gun smuggler for the Nicaraguan Contras and asks her to complete his final deal. To fulfill her father’s dying wish, Elena must go back to the place where everything began for her. Only this time she’s on the opposite side of the law than before. Reteaming with Netflix after the critical success of Mudbound , director Dee Rees makes some of the most shocking failures a respected filmmaker could make. Her command of the material is nonexistent as the plot and characters move along without any rhyme or reason. For a two-hour movie (that feels twice as long), Rees offers little in terms of suspense and subtlety. The choppy editing lacks any cohesiveness between its revolving door of throwaway characters and locations. Even when Rees is supplied with quality supplemental material, such as the score by Tamar-kali, she cues it at the most obvious times, turning it against her intentions. She does throw in a nice camera movement every once in a while, but it’s painfully obvious that it’s only being done to try and cover up the catastrophe that is being filmed. An example is the laughably bad final shot that looks ripped straight from a parody movie. Adapted by Rees and Marco Villalobos from the book of the same name, The Last Thing He Wanted is one of the most incomprehensible movies ever made. I would feel safe betting someone a billion dollars to watch this movie and then properly explain what they had just seen. The dialogue is both cliched and flowery as it makes even the smallest detail hard to comprehend. Characters speak English in a way so cryptic that it seems they aren’t even speaking English at all. No amount of rewinding or looking through a dictionary could help me understand what exactly someone was saying. Fortunately, the poor sound mixing makes half of the dialogue muddled, saving me from further anguish. Also part of the problem is the script’s overabundance of half-baked storylines and details. I would say that almost every one of these plots and subplots is filled with holes, but I’m not sure of what the plot was, to begin with. Characters and locations come and go, barely leaving a mark on the overall narrative. That is, until the end when Rees wraps a dozen different things up in the final three minutes, ending the film in a pile of disjointed pieces that produces more questions than answers. I know it’s a tired trope to say that a movie should have been a mini-series... but this seriously should have been a mini-series. Anne Hathaway is mediocre as our supposedly tough main character. Hathaway tries her best, but she is woefully miscast and can’t muster a sliver of enough fortitude to convince us of her believability. Ben Affleck plays a CIA agent hot on Elena’s trail. Affleck seems to have been on set for less than a week and has as much energy as someone who just woke up from a nap after downing a bottle of NyQuil. Factoring in his minuscule screen time, it’s safe to say that the main reason he was cast was to put his name on the poster. Playing the ailing father is Willem Dafoe, who has recently been on a career resurgence. Disappointingly, Dafoe falls into the type of hammy overacting that plagued the middle third of his career. The Last Thing He Wanted is a glaring misfire on the careers of the usually dependable cast and crew. It will surely land on many worst-of-the-year lists and may even take the top spot on a few. Thinking about this awful movie is the last thing I ever want to do. More Reviews 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple January 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Rip January 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Dead Man's Wire January 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Chronology of Water January 9, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen