Search Results

The Housemaid December 17, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Keenly shot and dressed like one of those insufferable holiday-themed luxury car commercials, director Paul Feig’s adaptation of Freida McFadden's bestselling 2022 novel knows how to have a good time. Awards and prestige can be damned, as this is all about the guilty pleasure that is harbored within trashy twists and turns. It’s something the suit-and-tie-wearing filmmaker has been enamored with over the past few years, helming other BookTok sensations like A Simple Favor (and its sequel ) and The School for Good and Evil . This is the first time he’s been able to hit that elusive target, which makes the fact that this is his first theatrically-released project since 2019 not much of a coincidence. Hooting and hollering were rampant throughout the audience as the barbed edges of this salacious story gradually slinked their way out of the shadows. There’s also no shortage of warning signs before their arrival, with every utterance of “I insist” concealing sinister intentions and every people-pleasing smile lasting just until everyone looks away. The gardener has two jobs: tending to the plants and staring at everyone suspiciously through the windows. Both of those jobs are quite simple, as this mansion has a lot of flowers, and everyone on the inside is up to no good. Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is the fly that lands in this ointment. Fresh out of prison and on parole, she thinks she’s found the dream job she desperately needs as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy couple Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar). Andrew designed the whole house, complete with a fabulous kitchen, soundproof walls, a screening room stocked full of candy, and Chekhov’s winding staircase. He’s a perfect husband and father, especially considering that Nina seems to be suffering from some sort of personality disorder. One minute, she’s all sunshine and rainbows; the next minute, she’s accusing Millie of destroying their family. Andrew's status as an absolute saint, along with being unfairly attractive (granted, everyone is obscenely beautiful in this cast), makes it all too good to be true. I caught the smell of bullshit once he pseudo-intellectually claimed that Barry Lyndon is a “misunderstood masterpiece,” which makes absolutely no sense considering its numerous Oscars and perennial placement on lists of the best movies ever made. But Millie doesn’t seem to be much of a cinephile, and everyone has a tragic backstory that conjures up just enough sympathy for the red flags not to seem so scary. And then, of course, sex has to become a part of the problem, with Andrew and Millie growing closer while they endure Nina’s mood swings. This is a story best experienced in the theater, mostly due to the fact that you wouldn’t be able to pause and ask one of the many questions that would unravel this pretzel. Those four walls and the social agreement of silence mean you’re mentally and physically locked in for this ride, which Feig knows how to keep deliciously entertaining. Seyfried handles the shifts between pleasantries and insanity well, and Sweeney continues her streak of frothy thrillers. The Housemaid makes me happy about the fact that I’ll likely never make enough money to be able to hire a stranger to live at my house. Then again, I’d probably be alright with taking my chances if it meant I got to have a home theater like Andrew’s. I’d just make sure to leave all the drama to the movies, where it’s served 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

Red Rocket July 16, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Red Rocket had its World Premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on December 03. American indie-darling Sean Baker has always worked on the ground level when making his films. He often casts non-professional actors and plants his audience in the ironically unglamorous parts of America, such as the dingy Magic Castle motel located next to Walt Disney World. Baker’s budgets are small, with The Florida Project carrying a total cost of $2,000,000, which is roughly the amount spent to have Arnold Schwarzenegger speak one hundred words in T2: Judgement Day . Now in 2021, Baker is back to shine a light on lower America with Red Rocket , which debuted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Opening with the catchy rhythms of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye”, former pornstar Mikey Saber has returned to the deadbeat town of Texas City. Mikey had been at the top of the porn scene for several years but eventually found his way out the door with some questionable career moves. With nowhere else to go, he begs and pleads his way into crashing with his former pornstar ex-wife Lexi, who, like him, was a shining star that has fallen back to the ground and lives with her poverty-stricken mother in the middle of nowhere. Mikey is a guy who always has a plan, but never a way to execute it. He does have a plan to get back to Los Angeles and revitalize his career, but it requires him to reconnect with some characters from his past who hate his guts. Both literally and metaphorically, Red Rocket is a ballsy movie. Baker has always found a fascination with the seedier side of America, which is the side that is often unauthentically portrayed in Hollywood (I’m looking at you Hillbilly Elegy ). His characters are often complicated and morally ambiguous, such as Halley from The Florida Project . But Baker doesn’t wallow in their pain and use it as a ploy for sympathy (again, looking at you Hillbilly Elegy ). Instead, he wants us to understand their desperation and see how so many people in this situation can rationalize their actions. Red Rocket doesn’t break from that developmental mold when it comes to his supporting characters. In Mikey’s journey back to the top, he rekindles with a weed queen that sees her business as a safety net for her family. Lexi and her mother are both addicted to opiates due to her mother’s medical condition and the distracting peace that the drugs bring from the painful world. With these characters on the brink of society, Baker uses their situation to subtly explain the unforeseen popularity of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election. Characters are often seen slumped at home in their couches with the television set to Fox News and its neverending coverage of the Republican candidate and his “mass appeal”. Baker’s illustration about the allure of Trump doesn’t try to be a grand statement for America itself, which turns out to be a good thing as the message comes together cleaner than the hamfisted ones found in mainstream media. But while Baker respects his supporting cast, his relationship with Mikey is more complicated. Mikey is the cinematic combination of Dirk Diggler and Howard Ratner. He’s a person that you love that you hate and hate that you love. You find yourself intrinsically drawn to him because of his drive and charm. But as the film progresses and Mikey’s grand plan comes closer into view, your attitude towards him starts to waver. Much of that emotional response comes from Simon Rex’s brilliant performance, whose most prominent role up until now has been a recurring supporting part in the Scary Movie franchise and some pornographic solo scenes in a series of straight-to-video gay porn releases. Almost as if he has lived the life of Mikey throughout stretches of his career, Rex seems to instinctively know how to play this type of sleazy charmer. While it does contain perfect casting, Red Rocket is not a perfect movie as a whole. With a runtime of 124 minutes, the film contains enough material for a tighter 90-minute story. The middle hour is the victim of this bloatedness, with long stretches given for light material. Still, the overly fatty meat on this movie’s bones does give Rex and the cast more than enough to chew on, resulting in an emotional rollercoaster that couldn’t be replicated by bigger productions. Slotting in nicely with Baker’s filmography and that of distributor A24, Red Rocket is one hell of a ride from beginning to end. There may be some potholes along the way, but they’re not enough to stop this film from reaching its satisfying destination. 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

Misericordia March 27, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Misericordia screened at the 2025 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Janus Films will release it in theaters on April 18th. If nothing else, Misericordia is about the dangers of being the hottest person in a small town, and that nothing good happens after 2:00 am. It all starts when Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), now in his mid-30s and living in Toulouse, returns to the village that he grew up in. Shot from the backseat of his car looking through the windshield, his arrival is marked by wandering stares by the locals standing on the street corners. He's here for the funeral of his former boss and supposed lover, the local baker who now leaves a void in the community. Left behind are the baker's widow Martine (Catherine Frot) and adult son Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). The former is happy to see Jérémie in her time of mourning, the latter icy based on some implied fallout during the boys' youth. Jérémie's initially planned short stay quickly turns into multiple days, allowing for the polite indifference from Vincent and some of the other locals to erode and be replaced by festering rage. The exact nature of Jérémie's game is hard to define. Just like Claire Mathon's rain-soaked cinematography, writer/director Alain Guiraudie keeps us in the fog throughout much of the runtime. Jérémie doesn't seem to have much to return to in Toulouse, nor can he hope to gain much in this village. But that won't stop him from trying, with his greatest asset being his skill as a flirt. For as much as boiling anger seems to permeate through each scene, Guiraudie finds the humorous absurdity of all this backwardness. Everyone seems to simultaneously want to sleep with each other, the rotation also including Vincent's friend Walter (David Ayala) and the village priest Father Philippe (Jacques Develay). Something that Jérémie isn't good at is covering up a murder, which he commits against someone in the village. He plays a game of two lies and a truth with everyone, including the local police. The truth makes the lies seem a little more credible, although he always has the same look on his face as a little kid who sweeps all of his trash under the bed instead of throwing it out as his parents told him to. Guiraudie captures every side-eye glance and judgmental stare of the supporting cast as Jérémie continually tries to dig himself out of this mess. There isn't tension and suspense in the traditional form, mostly a curiosity about how this web will get even more tangled. The performances are all well-done and understated, keeping things on a glacially paced path. Things don't go as you would expect, nor do they resolve themselves in a clean fashion. At only 100 minutes, it's watchable and entertaining enough, although it perpetually stops just shy of being great. 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

In a Violent Nature May 28, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark For the second time this year, Shudder has unleashed a horror film that is making waves and igniting discussions among moviegoers. Two months ago, it was Late Night with the Devil , a film that injected a fresh twist into the found footage subgenre. Now they’re bringing In a Violent Nature , a horror film not for the faint-hearted. It's a thrilling ride, uniquely told from the killer's perspective. Meditative is a word I would not normally use to describe a horror movie, but In a Violent Nature has a meditative quality. Director Chris Nash penned a script that reflects this method, instilling a tragic backstory to a killer who knows nothing but death. Supposedly named Johnny, he fell victim to a terrible accident, leaving him stranded beneath the ground with only a makeshift breathing tube to sustain him. When a locket is stolen from the tower he’s buried under, Johnny emerges from the ground and goes on a rampage to get it back. As the plot unfolds, the movie gets to the gritty kills as Nash and DP Pierce Derks heavily use long-tracking shots to set up the scene. They usually consist of Johnny slowly creeping up to his next victim(s) as they talk about his urban legend in some form or another. It’s a decent way to build suspense and have audiences guessing where’s Johnny (no pun intended). Many of the faces of the victims remain obscured, an initially odd choice that over time illustrates itself as a way to communicate Johnny’s dehumanization of these people. The kills make this into one of the bloodiest splatter fests I have seen in a while, almost to the point where some viewers may regret having an appetite during or after watching. Outside of the cinematography, In a Violent Nature ’s methodical aura is also felt in its pacing, which is no surprise. Although the movie clocks in at 94 minutes, it’s in no rush to have the plot go from point A to point B. In one instance, we see a group of campers sharing stories around a campfire. As one of them shares a story correlating to Johnny, it’s all told in an uninterrupted take with a circling shot of the group sitting around the fire. While it’s an auteurist approach (Nash says Terrence Malick is an influence), the film does get carried away in the act and intermittently tests patience. In a Violent Nature is brutal in its scares and pacing, both of which prove to be its best and worst elements. Time will tell if this is able to break out into the culture, or remain an underground feature for the horror-centric service. Hopefully, there will be further conversation and attempts at brutal stories told from the perspective of evil. How will that all pan out, you may ask? Who knows, but heads may roll nevertheless. 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

Top 10 Films of 2022 January 3, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen The world of cinema didn’t paint a lot of pretty pictures in 2022. Studios continue to merge, consolidating power in the hands of the few, resulting in some poor decisions that favored the dollars over artists. Save for Everything Everywhere All at Once , small to mid-budget movies floundered at the box office, continuing the dark trend of only blockbusters surviving at the cinemas. But the beginning of a new year should not be a time to reminisce about all the bad stuff that happened over the past twelve months. It should be a time when we look at all the positives and figure out a way for them to continue in the future. So, in an effort to give credit where it’s due, I’ve listed out my favorite films of 2022. Some of these films I expected to be on this list, while others came out of left field. It goes to show that you can experience something truly incredible if you dig a little deeper. Honorable Mentions The Batman Everything Everywhere All at Once Blonde Aftersun The Menu 10. After Yang After Yang is full of grace and compassion, with a touch of melancholy to make it a truly reflective experience of the human soul. It merges American sci-fi with the softer side of independent cinema, which makes it a perfect project to be under the A24 umbrella. With only two films to his name, writer/director Kogonada is already entering the conversation as one of the best humanistic directors of the modern era. Full Review 9. The Banshees of Inisherin Equally hilarious as it is disturbing, The Banshees of Inisherin finds Martin McDonagh, as well as his troupe of actors, in top form. There’s nothing quite like it, and it serves as another reminder that we should all be a little kinder to one another. Full Review 8. Broker Hirokazu Kore-eda has always been more interested in the human drama coming from each character, how they intersect, and what decisions they ultimately make rather than inserting any kind of thriller-like elements to entice the story to a more mainstream audience. The result is another solid, if not outstanding, effort from the Japanese filmmaker, backed by a flawless ensemble led by the subtly nuanced and exceptional Song Kang-ho. Full Review 7. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery A sequel to 2019’s Knives Out , the great igniter to the revitalization of the whodunit genre, was always going to be a tricky obstacle to overcome. In stepped Netflix, who gave writer/director Rian Johnson the necessary blank check to indulge in his wildest fantasies. And because of that, he has crafted a whodunnit that is grander, funnier, stranger, and perhaps better than the original. As the first of two planned sequels, I can only imagine what Johnson is going to serve up next. Full Review 6. TÁR As our guide through a world of classical music and power dynamics, Cate Blanchett reaches another echelon in a career whose peaks have only been marked. If TÁR is meant to mark the second coming of Todd Field’s career, then we should all be in for a lengthy treat for the mind, body, and soul. But if this was only a brief blip and we’re subjected to another sixteen-year absence, then I at least know what my most anticipated film of 2038 will be. Full Review 5. Decision to Leave Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave is often a paradox in itself. It’s classical, yet modern. Cold, yet sexy. Unsatisfying, yet enthralling. Luckily, it finds the near-perfect balance between all of those things, creating a wondrous genre exercise that must be seen to be wholly believed. Full Review 4. Nitram Justin Kurzel's Nitram was one of the best films of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival (where I first saw it) as it explores a real-life tragedy with both grace and severity. While it may be an experience that wrecks people's bodies due to its humanistic intensity, there is hope that there will be a greater understanding of this dark chapter in human history upon leaving the theater. Full Review 3. The Fabelmans The Fabelmans is a collection of Spielberg's greatest hits, all delivered to their greatest effect. There’s laughter, tears, and wonder in this story that is much more than the sum of its parts. If Spielberg climbs the Dolby Theatre steps to collect his third Best Director Oscar, then it will be one of the few long overdue wins that came at the right time for the right project. Full Review 2. All Quiet on the Western Front In the film’s harrowing opening sequence, we follow a coat worn by a German soldier. The man dies in battle, and the coat is plucked off his corpse. It’s then shipped back to a factory to be washed of the blood, mended, and given to a new recruit. It’s moments like this, of which there are many, where director Edward Berger masterfully illustrates the futile self-fulfilling cycle of death that war creates. All Quiet on the Western Front is not just the best film of the year, it’s one of the best of its genre. Full Review 1. Babylon With dashes of Singin’ in the Rain, Boogie Nights, The Wolf of Wall Street, Uncut Gems , and Mulholland Drive , Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a true auteurist epic in every sense of the word. It’s a 188-minute deconstruction of Old Hollywood mythology, complete with cocaine, fast cars, projectile vomit, glitzy actors, underground sex dungeons, and buckets of style. There isn’t anything like it this year, or any year for that matter. Full Review 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

One Battle After Another September 24, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen One Battle After Another is a film chock-full of unexpected occurrences. It’s unexpected that it would contain the most thrilling car chase of the past few years. It’s unexpected that it would have a scene where a group of middle-aged white men would start their meeting by exchanging Christmas pleasantries, only to then be so disgusted by the existence of the mixed-race child they put a bounty on. It’s unexpected for a place called the “Chicken Licken Frozen Food Farm” to be the pivotal location for the film’s middle act. It’s unexpected that Leonardo DiCaprio would play such a burnout dirtbag after years as the most suave man in the world, a choice that allows him to once again flex his status as cinema’s most unconventionally funniest performer. And yet, being that this is the year 2025, nothing should really surprise us anymore. One Battle After Another is the apex of a string of 2025 films directly about the 2025 experience. This story involves themes of immigration, liberation, radicalization, and revolution, all seemingly ripped straight from the headlines and gloriously projected onto IMAX screens. The National Guard is dispatched to sanctuary cities, ICE encampments are crammed with unattended children, and marginalization is performed in the open without any remorse. But by also being a loose adaptation (“inspiration” is the label used in the credits) of the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland , writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson illustrates that none of these issues are brand new to the American political landscape. It’s an endless cycle of progress and pushback, with each side digging its heels a little deeper with each subsequent turn. Case in point: The French 75 militant group, and its most outspoken comrade, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). The letters and protests weren’t getting the job done, so they’ve been substituted with raids and bombings. The liberation of an immigration detention center is where it all starts, with Perfidia initiating a dangerous dominant/submissive relationship with Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), and Pat (Leonardo DiCaprio) impressing her with his fireworks display. The blood of battle runs hot, and so does the passion between Perfidia and Pat. A baby girl is born, the next generation to carry the revolutionary flame. But before the light can even be passed, it’s extinguished when Lockjaw seizes the upper hand and picks off the group’s members one by one. Pat is renamed to Bob Ferguson, taking the baby (now named Willa) on the run to the backwoods of Baktan Cross. Fifteen quiet years go by, with Bob and Willa (Chase Infiniti) living a secluded life for reasons she doesn’t totally understand. Lockjaw’s mission eventually gets unpaused, with his pursuit of these two fugitives plunging the town into a hotbed of political turmoil. One Battle After Another is the outlier in Anderson’s filmography. It’s his first film in over twenty years to take place in the present day (assumedly, since a specific date isn’t given here). It’s also his costliest production by a wide margin, with a reported budget between $130 and $175 million. Anderson fully embraces both of those facts, reminding us why the artist responsible for Boogie Nights , There Will Be Blood , and The Master deserves to have a canvas just as expensive as Jurassic World: Rebirth . Catch me on a good day, and I’ll proclaim Magnolia to be the greatest film ever made. This is a frantic story for a frantic time, furiously rushing from one location to the next. Like Magnolia , Anderson just keeps pushing us along, never allowing for a moment for wrist watches to be checked. 161 minutes fly by, all of it subsumed by Jonny Greenwood’s score that might as well have been recorded as the piano was falling down the stairs. For all its serious earnestness, this is also a deeply silly and funny story. Lockjaw may as well be a description of the character rather than a surname. Penn walks around with the same mobility as a sunglass carousel, full of pent-up anger and jealousy. He’s the reason the Grindr Dating App always reports a massive increase in traffic at major Republican events. He desperately wants to be a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a group of wealthy white men who declare themselves superior solely because they deem it so. It’s easy to laugh at this ludicrousness, but we all know there probably is such a thing in our world. DiCaprio is also wonderfully buffoonish as a retired activist who can no longer remember secret passwords and see himself within the big picture. It might seem crass to talk about award prospects so soon after the film’s debut and so far from this year’s Academy Awards. But like Oppenheimer , a movie of this size and relevance doesn’t come around all that often, and that rarity needs to be celebrated. Anderson is one of the biggest losers in Oscar history, going 0-11 over a span of nearly thirty years. The time is now for a revolution within his film, and so it is for him to walk up that gilded stage, receiving one honor after another. 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 Son September 12, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Son had its North American at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release it in theaters on November 25. Esteemed playwright Florian Zeller returns to the silver screen with his sophomore feature after the Oscar-winning success of The Father . An adaptation of his French stage play, The Son , sees Zeller return to the familiar ground of mental health and family anguish, only this time it centers on a depressed teenage boy instead of an elderly man with looming Alzheimer’s. And instead of dealing with this sensitive issue with poise and ingenuity, Zeller rubs our faces in it while screaming “THIS IS IMPORTANT!” for two ungodly hours. Hugh Jackman stars as Peter, a middle-aged father who seems to be reaching his peak. He and his second wife, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), have just welcomed their new child, and are living in an upscale apartment in New York City. Peter is also a budding prospect to manage a major new political campaign, one that may take him to the next level. Knocking on Peter’s door one night is his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern), who explains that their son, seventeen-year-old Nicholas (Zen McGrath), hasn’t been to school in over a month. Kate can’t seem to reach him on an emotional level, so she pleads with Peter to have Nicholas move in with him. Being the dutiful father, Peter agrees in the hopes that a change of scenery will snap Nicholas out of whatever funk he’s in. The actors are not well served here, with screenwriters Zeller and Christopher Hampton opting for an emotional sledgehammer rather than the precise scalpel they used for The Father . Zeller stressed beforehand to the press that teenage mental health issues are an ever-complicated topic that can’t be easily explained. Although it may be true, that’s an odd statement because the film itself does the exact opposite. The reasoning behind Nicholas’ depression comes across as superficial and shallow, with his parent’s recent divorce being the culprit. There is no gray area for introspection, which McGrath’s one-note performance does no favors in exploring. There’s also a literal Checkov’s gun moment, deflating any suspense on how the movie will end, which is wretchedly executed. Both Kirby and Dern get little to do besides sitting around talking about how worried they are about Nicholas. Kirby does well with what she’s given, offering an outsider’s opinion on Nicholas’ state and imploring Peter to not let himself get sucked down the rabbit hole. Jackman and Anthony Hopkins, who appears in a cameo as Peter’s unloving father, are the only actors to make it out of this mess unscathed. Jackman’s performance runs the whole emotional gamut. He runs laps around McGrath during the moments of emotional outburst, and finely handles the subtle moments with Kirby. Hans Zimmer’s orchestral score, guaranteed to become one of his most underrated pieces of work, does much of the heavy lifting. And Simon Bowle’s production design, complete with sleek interiors and harsh exteriors, traps the characters within the ungodly situation they find themselves in. If only Zeller was able to harness their powers for good. Instead, all we’re left with is an infuriatingly preachy film that possibly does more harm than any other film this year. There’s a scene midway through The Son that exemplifies my experience watching the film. Peter and Beth are having a bonding moment as they recreate the dance routine they did when they first met each other at a party years ago. Nicholas walks in on them, and can’t help but join in on the fun. The three dance goofily, enjoying each other’s company for the first time in forever. After a while, the camera begins to swirl, losing sight of Nicholas as it focuses on the married couple. It then pans to the left, hard needle dropping to the most clichéd emo song imaginable as Nicholas expressionlessly stares directly into the camera. All the goodwill built up to that moment is immediately lost forever, and all I’m left with is an infuriatingly preachy film that possibly does more harm than good. 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

Unfrosted May 3, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen We’ve had a lot of corporate biopics over the past year; Air , Tetris , Flamin’ Hot , Pain Hustlers , BlackBerry , The Beanie Bubble , and Barbie (it still counts) just to name a few. And while they’ve ranged from really good to state-run propaganda, they’ve all lacked the one critical thing that separates the greats from the classics: a burning desire to care. Sure, I love basketball (I write this in a euphoric state as my long-suffering Minnesota Timberwolves are finally making a playoff run) and there’s a bit of a compelling underdog story to Air , but how much can I expect myself to care when I know the story ends with everyone making billions of dollars? What sort of satisfaction was I supposed to feel in Tetris when Taron Egerton outsmarts the evil monopolistic businessmen, only for his company to eventually become the same sort of corporate behemoth decades down the road? In steps Jerry Seinfeld to the director’s chair for the first time ever. The man behind the famously titular “show about nothing,” is here to do the opposite of what everyone else has been feigning over the past year. Be honest, do you really need to know the story of how Pop-Tarts came into existence? If so, is that information worth two hours of your life? Of course not! So let’s break the mold of these stodgy rags-to-riches-to-greed biopics and stop pretending to care about the “truth” behind the products that run the world. The race for space has been replaced with breakfast toaster pastries in Unfrosted . Kellogg’s and Post, both located in the “Cereal City” of Battle Creek, Michigan, have their sights set on being the first to the market. Team Kellogg’s is comprised of product specialist Bob Cabana (Seinfeld), CEO Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan), and lab whiz Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy). Across the road at Post is Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer) and her beleaguered second-in-command Rick Ludwin (Max Greenfield). It’s weird to say a biopic’s best quality is its disregard for reality, but that’s exactly the kind of strength that Unfrosted proudly wears on its sleeve. This is the kind of movie where the now 70-year-old Seinfeld plays a typical suburban dad with two young kids and someone says, “Pack your bags. We’re going to Moscow!” and then they’ll be there the very next scene. Quite a few people perish along the way to perfecting the Pop-Tart formula, prompting one of the funniest lines from a now-widow, “Why did my husband die!?! Isn’t this a cereal company!?!” Seinfeld’s response? A slight shrug. There is a very distinct SNL feel to the whole thing, which only gets increasingly accented with each SNL cast member cameo (Fred Armisen, Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, Bobby Moynihan, Darrell Hammond, etc.). Jokes are flying a mile a minute, most of them feeling as if they were written the week of filming and there wasn’t enough time to fully workshop them. There are some classic Seinfeld zingers and wordplay, but nothing to the extent of what he’s produced before. I guess that’s to be expected when a screenplay has four credited writers (Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, Barry Marder). Hugh Grant as a pretentious Laurence Olivier type who plays Tony the Tiger is often a riot. McCarthy and Schumer are pretty much going through the motions, which still makes for a few decent bits. It’s all a farce that makes for an inoffensive 90 minutes on Netflix. Watch it, or don’t. I don’t think Seinfeld himself really cares, and I don’t think anyone else will either. It’s definitely the lesser of two evils when compared to the forced reverence we’ve been experiencing in this ever-growing subgenre. 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

Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 Preview October 18, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen As autumn paints the Minnesota landscape with fiery hues, it's time once again to immerse ourselves in the world of storytelling through film. The Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 seeks to showcase both established and emerging talent in the world of cinema. Here are six films in this year's lineup that have me the most intrigued. Note: Alexander Payne's The Holdovers and Christos Nikou's Fingernails are also part of the official selection. Because I saw both of these films at TIFF, they will not be included in this list. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (10/21) A decades-spanning exploration of a woman's life in Mississippi and an ode to the generations of people, places, and ineffable moments that shape us. The film world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will also screen at the New York Film Festival. A24 will release the film in theaters beginning November 03. All of Us Strangers (10/21) A screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbor as he then discovers his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before. Written for the screen and directed by Andrew Haigh ( 45 Years ). Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy. The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and will also screen at the New York Film Festival, London Film Festival, and Chicago Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in theaters beginning December 22. The Taste of Things (10/22) It tells the story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet she has been working for over the last 20 years. Director Trân Anh Hùng won the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film was also recently selected to represent France in the international feature film race at this year’s Oscar ceremony. An IFC release. Foe (10/23) Hen and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior's family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Directed by Garth Davis ( Lion ). Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre. Amazon Studios will release the film in theaters beginning October 06. The Teacher's Lounge (10/25) When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. It later won four awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Lead Actress) at the German Film Awards. It will represent Germany in the international feature film race at this year’s Oscar ceremony. American Fiction (10/28) Author Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is peeved because his latest offering hasn't caught fire with publishers, while a tome called We's Lives in Da Ghetto by Sintara Golden hits the bestseller lists, leaving Monk seething. Cord Jefferson's directorial debut had its world premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, winning the coveted People's Choice Award. Jefferson adapted the story from the novel by Percival Everett. Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Issa Rae star. Downtown Owl (10/28) Based on the novel by Chuck Klosterman and partially filmed in the Twin Cities area, Downtown Owl is a sparkle-dark Reagan Era comedy set in the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota in the leading days up to the region's blizzard in Minnesota's century. Directed by Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe. Written for the screen by Hamish Linklater. Starring Lily Rabe, Vanessa Hudgens, Ed Harris, Finn Wittrock, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Henry Golding. 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

Shazam: Fury of the Gods March 19, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen With all the recent news about the future potential for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new and revitalized DCU, it almost seems pointless to spend time, money, and energy on a grandfathered-in property from the old guard like Shazam: Fury of the Gods . It is an increasingly bad product of the modern studio landscape that giant blockbusters such as this can be rendered irrelevant by politics even before they’ve come out. We don’t have to look that much deeper within Warner Bros. to find the indefinitely-shelved Batgirl as a much harsher example. But then again, it’s hard for me to feel sympathy for Fury of the Gods (and the entire old DCU regime) when it doesn’t provide any compelling reasons for its own existence. It’s an ultra-corporate tentpole telling a been-there-done-that story, with the only thing it excels at doing is being annoying. Where the first Shazam was lighter on its feet and told a pretty straightforward story, Fury of the Gods muddies the waters as we dig deeper into the mediocre lore of the titular character. The three sisters of Atlas: Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) have come to our mortal realm to claim their father’s staff, which can give and take the god-like powers from any person. Shazam (who doesn’t go by that name for “hilarious” reasons) and his superhuman foster family are their natural obstacles, although they have in-house troubles of their own as each member wants something a little different. Shazam doesn’t really know his place as a superhero, with Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) being overconfident with his abilities. The rest of the family fulfills their single character trait, so 75% of their interactions go exactly as expected. Shazam’s identity crisis extends to the movie at large, as the edges of personality from the first film have been sanded off in favor of much more generic plotting and action. The stakes are again centered around the world being destroyed, with a MacGuffin about an item with limitless power. It even creates a sky beam (sort of), something we definitely haven’t gotten tired of! There’s also still the problem of Zachary Levi and Asher Angel being the same character, despite the former having too much personality and the latter not enough. Director David F. Sandberg and writers Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan seemed to have sided with Levi, with Angel reduced to a much smaller supporting role. Grazer is grating as well as he overdoes everything. But there is talent evident within him, which he showed tremendously with Luca Gudagnino’s We Are Who We Are , so I still look forward to what he can do outside of franchises. It’s hilarious that Dwayne Johnson didn’t want anything to do with Shazam when he was building his Black Adam movie, despite the two characters having a decades-long relationship in the comics. Now with both Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods being beacons of generic studio fodder, it seems only right for the two of them to finally get together and make something that finally kills the DCU. I wouldn’t mind if their power were also strong enough to suspend the MCU for a while, because the slope toward the gutter is getting increasingly slippier with each new entry. 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

TIFF25 Preview September 2, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen In the realm of cinema, nothing is quite as exciting as a film festival. It’s a place where a buffet of high-quality entertainment is laid out, each piece begging for your attention. Titles can range from micro-budgeted indies to major studio blockbusters, all of them using the festival as a launching pad for future box office and awards success. Of the ten films nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year at last year’s Academy Awards, seven premiered at a major film festival. That includes the winner, Anora , which began its victory path at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Festivals reach their peak influence from late August through mid-September, when the trifecta of the Venice International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) overlaps on top of each other. This condensed timeline spurs fierce competition amongst the trio for the right to host screenings of select films. Some titles will play at all three festivals, some at two, and some at just one. All of this is done intentionally by the filmmakers and distributors, with each festival offering its own pros and cons. Venice is more accepting of rigorous arthouse and international films, Telluride creates a laid-back and exclusive environment, and Toronto is one of the largest publicly attended festivals in the world. TIFF has always been my favorite festival thanks to its long-held tradition of being the “festival of festivals,” collecting a mixture of the best films from all the other festivals (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Telluride, etc.), along with a swath of juicy world premieres. This year’s lineup flaunts 209 feature films screening over ten days across the festival’s many splashy venues. I’ll attempt to watch forty of those films, an improvement over last year’s tally of thirty-seven. This will require mental toughness to comprehend viewing up to five films per day, a stretching program for my stiff legs and neck (some TIFF venues have very uncomfortable seats), and a willingness to take a risk on some under-the-radar gems. The first day will feature four Cannes stand-outs: Sentimental Value , Nouvelle Vague , Sound of Falling , and the Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident. I wasn’t able to attend Cannes this year, my first absence since I started going in 2021. Luckily, TIFF always welcomes the top players from there, which means I can partially replicate that experience, minus the pristine beaches and beautiful weather on the French Riviera. The second day presents new works from two of my favorite filmmakers. The first is The Wizard of the Kremlin by French writer/director Olivier Assayas. Paul Dano stars as Vadim Baranov, a filmmaker who became an advisor to Vladimir Putin as he rose to power in post-Soviet Russia. Jude Law portrays Putin, with Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright, and Tom Sturridge rounding out the cast. Next will be No Other Choice from Park Chan-wook, whose two previous features, The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave , are some of my all-time favorites. This new film is a dark satire about a chronically unemployed man who decides that the best path to getting a job is to kill all the other applicants. Saturday night will have the marquee event, which is the world premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery , the third installment in the whodunnit series starring Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc. Earlier in the day will be a 70mm presentation of The Testament of Ann Lee , a musical about the founder of the Shaker movement starring Amanda Seyfried as the titular character. Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, the team behind last year’s The Brutalist , co-wrote the film, with Fastvold taking her turn in the director’s chair. Other big titles across the weekend include The Lost Bus , starring Matthew McConaughey as a bus driver during the 2018 wildfires in California; Rental Family , a dramedy starring Brendan Fraser as a professional surrogate for a Japanese family; Good Fortune , Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut; Hamnet , Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the acclaimed novel with Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his grieving wife Agnes; and Nuremberg , a courtroom drama centered around the trials of the Nazi high command in the wake of World War II. Dwayne Johnson will turn up the lights as he’ll present the North American premiere of The Smashing Machine , the life story of MMA and UFC fighter Mark Kerr. But the fun doesn’t slow down as the festival heads into its second half. Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker most in love with monsters, is finally getting the chance to adapt the story of the most famous one of all. He and Netflix will debut the epically mounted Frankenstein , starring Oscar Isaac as the mad scientist and Jacob Elordi as the born-again creature. The steamer also brings over Ballad of a Small Player , directed by All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave helmer Edward Berger. Colin Farrell plays a travelling gambler in over his head as Tilda Swinton tracks him down to Macau. From there, the schedule gets a bit more fluid. There’ll still be plenty of screening opportunities for stuff like The Christophers , Fuze , Sacrifice , A Private Life , Scarlet , Roofman , Easy’s Waltz , and Eternity , as well as other titles not on my watchlist that receive great buzz. Respectively, The Beast and April were my favorite films of the 2023 and 2024 editions of the festival. Both were seen mostly on a whim in the festival’s waning days, proving that the best films are often hidden in plain sight. I could spend several more paragraphs describing the rest of the films I’m seeing and why I’m excited about them. That risks this article getting repetitive, and there will be plenty of time devoted to all those films in my recap article. For now, you can take a look at the full slate of festival titles at the TIFF website. I’ll be publishing full reviews for select titles, with a few of them likely to become some of my favorites of the year. 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

Nouvelle Vague October 31, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Nouvelle Vague had its Canadian Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on October 31, followed by its streaming premiere on November 14. “Each film is made up of five different films: The film you write, the film you cast, the film you shoot, the film you edit, and the film you release.” That’s a line from Nouvelle Vague , spoken to Jean-Luc Godard as he’s about to begin production on his debut feature film, Breathless . Little did anyone know that it would become the apex not only of the French New Wave (for which this film takes its title), but also a pinnacle moment in the evolution of cinema. Sixty-five years later, director Richard Linklater, completing the back half of his 2025 double play after Blue Moon , is here to tell us all about. The film they wrote is a simple one. “All you need to make a film is a girl and a gun,” is Jean-Luc’s strategy for getting the necessary financing. He’s written a scenario with New Wave superstars and fellow Cahiers du Cinéma critics Claude Chabrol ( Le Beau Serge ) and François Truffaut ( The 400 Blows) , a fast-paced story of a crook and a girl on the run. Writers Holly Gent, Laetitia Masson, Vincent Palmo Jr., and Michèle Pétin find humor in the criminal behavior that is required to get a film off the ground. Jean-Luc evades securing permits, giving story details to his crew, and never keeps a regular working schedule. It’s all a mystery, maintain the magic that is needed to make a work of art. The film they cast was full of unknowns, except for the American expatriot Jean Seberg. Linklater applies the same logic, with Zoey Deutch, reuniting with the director after Everybody Wants Some!! , playing the Iowa-born star. She’s attracted to Godard’s whirlwind methods, mostly because they heavily clash with her recent work with the ultra-regimented Otto Preminger. Guillaume Marbeck marks one of the best feature acting debuts as Godard. He’s a dead ringer, complete with sunglasses that never come off and a partially receding hairline. There’s mischief in his (covered) eyes, and a sense of genius that persuades people to withstand his aloofness. A special shoutout should be given to Benjamin Clery as Jean-Luc’s assistant, Pierre Rissient, the comedic standout of the film. The film they shot was in French, with a 4:3 aspect ratio and high-contrast black-and-white. It was a fast and cheap solution, keeping the production light on its feet and giving the story a down-and-dirty aesthetic. David Chambille’s cinematography here is a near-perfect recreation, even down to the cigarette burn cue marks and slightly faded subtitles that also appear to introduce the dozens of famous historical faces. It’s boxy, yet vibrant, with an amateur quality that can only be made by someone who clearly understands what they’re doing. The sound pops, all of it recorded in post-production. The film they edited gave it the smoky, cool tone it’s most known for. Jump cuts excised all the “boring” bits, leaving only the portions that we need in order to want to know more. Linklater could have leaned on that technique more, as a substantial chunk of the film is spent on meticulously detailing the daily production process for the film. The majority of the days in the twenty-three-day shoot meld together, leaving an impression that we’re running around in a revolving door. The film they released was in theaters, catching on like wildfire as a new generation of cinephiles gravitated towards its hip aesthetics and ideas. This film will not share that strategy or result, with its placement on Netflix isolating the experience. For as much fun as I had with the movie itself, an equal amount came from the collective awe-inspiring giddiness that spread throughout the room. We were all sharing the same projector light, the same sound system, and the same sequence of events. And there’s nothing as artistically pure as that. 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