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Blonde September 28, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Maybe we as a society have been too harsh on Netflix? Sure, they spend an exorbitant amount of money on cinematic trash that they’ll claim broke viewership records, yet will never make a cultural impact (*cough* Red Notice & The Gray Man *cough*). And yes, they may have created a culture that’s more focused on constant consumption than finely tuned tasting. But while all of that was (and still is) true, they’ve also financed some of the finest works from our best filmmakers. They stepped in and supplied Martin Scorsese with $150 million to bring The Irishman to life, and also gave Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma a much grander life than any arthouse film has ever had before. They also ushered in the grand return of Jane Campion to the feature film landscape with The Power of the Dog , which was undeservedly robbed of a Best Picture win by their rival Apple TV+’s CODA . And with Andrew Dominik’s Blonde , the paradoxical streamer has added another feather to their cap. To be fair to Dominik, he did have to fight Netflix tooth and nail to release his cut of the film, which runs at a hefty 166 minutes and is saddled with the infamous NC-17 rating. One can’t wholly blame the distributor for trying to demand cuts to make the film a bit more “mainstream,” while at the same time ridiculing them for not fully understanding who they were getting into bed with. “Mainstream” never has, nor will it ever be, a word used to describe Dominik’s filmography. This is the man who brought us not one, but two, films starring Brad Pitt at the height of his stardom that bombed at the box office. That’s not to say the films deserved it though. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Killing Them Softly are both modern masterpieces that use their big-name stars for much more than good looks. The same goes for Blonde , which luckily won’t have to deal with the unneeded baggage of box office returns. Dominik uses star Ana de Armas to perfection, making her first solo leading role a mesmerizing experience. Telling the story of Marilyn Monroe, or Norma Jeane as that was her real name, Blonde has much more in common with David Lynch’s Inland Empire than it does with any biopic. A line by Monroe about one of her movies may as well have been planted by Dominik to describe his film: “You never know when the dream ends and the nightmare begins.” Working as a fever dream, Blonde interweaves between reality and fiction as it tracks Marilyn’s troubled upbringing to her untimely death. None of it happens in chronological (or just plain logical) order, with Dominik throwing the viewer, as well as Marilyn, through the wringer of her memories. The frames endlessly jump around as well, from a boxed-in sharp black-and-white that would even make Pawel Pawlikowski blush, to vivid widescreen technicolor. Through this, Dominik traps you in Marilyn’s world, never knowing what the next moment will bring, always looking ahead with a sense of unease. As Monroe, de Armas finds that vulnerability that made her such an enigma of a public figure. How could such a beautiful and tempting bombshell be so broken? It’s a physically and emotionally demanding role, with de Armas going for broke with unnerving fearlessness. If not for the film itself being so off-putting, Netflix should make a serious push for her in this year’s Oscar race. Of course, some viewers (mostly the ones that stumble upon this because they press play on whatever filled the home screen on Netflix) will cry foul at the liberties Dominik has taken with Monroe’s story. One enemy he’ll surely have is Oliver Stone, who presumably will take great umbrage at the film’s vitriolic portrayal of President Kennedy. But is Dominik’s film, and by extension the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, any more or less “true” than other biopics such as this year’s Elvis or Bohemian Rhapsody , which also took great creative liberties with a person’s life? Blonde does better than those films because even with inaccuracies towards details, it delivers a cinematic experience that relates us more to the figure than we did before pressing play. Just as The Northman did for Robert Eggers, Blonde illustrates why Andrew Dominik deserves all the money and creative freedom that any studio can afford. Fortunately for him (and us), Netflix indulged in his fantasies, allowing for a nightmarish and surreal experience that highlights the beautiful tragedy that was the life of Norma Jeane. 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

2025 Golden Globe Awards Nomination Predictions December 7, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Buoyed by interesting nominees and big-name winners, last year's Golden Globe Awards was a major success in the rebirth process for the once-disgraced awards body. The group formerly known as the HFPA will be looking to keep that ball rolling this year, although they'll have a tougher time finding the same level of notoriety amongst the contenders. This year's crop is much more independent-focused than in years past, which could lend the Globes more influence in this chaotic Oscar race. With nominations set to be announced on Monday morning, here are my predictions on what names will be called in each category, complete with a full breakdown detailing the seemingly endless combinations. Best Motion Picture - Drama Conclave The Brutalist Dune: Part Two Nickel Boys Sing Sing A Complete Unknown Last year's nomination in this category for The Zone of Interest lends strength to the equally challenging and universally acclaimed Nickel Boys . Something like A Complete Unknown would have been a slam dunk under the previous Globes regime, which makes it a little vulnerable to being subbed out for more esoteric titles like Queer and Babygirl . Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy Anora Emilia Pérez Wicked A Real Pain Challengers The Substance The top three films are virtually guaranteed to receive Best Picture nominations at the Oscars, and A Real Pain has continually risen in its stock. That leaves Challengers , The Substance , Saturday Night , and Hit Man as the four likeliest titles jockeying for the final two slots. Challengers and The Substance have been two of the buzziest and most acclaimed films of the year, so it would be surprising for them to be left out. Best Director Sean Baker (Anora) Jaques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) Edward Berger (Conclave) Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two) Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) The Directors branch at the Academy tends to favor more arthouse sensibilities as opposed to the Globes, which is why it wouldn't be a surprise for an Oscar contender such as RaMell Ross ( Nickel Boys ) snubbed for someone like Ridley Scott ( Gladiator II ). The Globes have also been kinder to female contenders, giving nominations to Maggie Gyllenhaal ( The Lost Daughter ) and Celine Song ( Past Lives ) when the Oscars didn't. Coralie Fargeat will be that nominee this year, with Denis Villeneuve representing the blockbusters. Best Screenplay Conclave Anora A Real Pain The Brutalist Sing Sing Emilia Pérez The funneling of both original and adapted screenplays into one category makes it impossible to have confident predictions. Deserving contenders will be left off this list come nomination morning, and there's rarely a correlating factor that gives us a clue about what this group likes. The best strategy is to replicate the nominees from the Best Director category, and then swap out 1-2 based on how writerly they are. The narratives behind Dune: Part Two and The Substance have been very director-focused, which is why bigger writing contenders like A Real Pain and Sing Sing will likely slide in. Best Lead Actor - Drama Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) Daniel Craig (Queer) Jharrel Jerome (Unstoppable) It's pretty much all chalk within this category, with my currently predicted five for Best Lead Actor at the Oscars being represented here. It's already hard enough to fill out five slots, so adding another one doesn't help the guessing game. Sebastian Stan is hurt by the poison that surrounds The Apprentice , and Paul Mescal didn't have that many positive notices for Gladiator II . I'm going to reach a little bit and give the edge to Jharrel Jerome for Unstoppable , a very physical performance from a crowd-pleasing film that has been campaigning nonstop since its TIFF premiere. Best Lead Actress - Drama Nicole Kidman (Babygirl) Angelina Jolie (Maria) Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths) Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun) Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) Kate Winslet (Lee) This category is surprisingly thinner among Oscar contenders than in most years, which is a testament to the increased competition within the Comedy/Musical category. Last year's nomination for Alma Pöysti showed that the Globes will consider a foreign-language performance that isn't firmly in the Oscar race like Sandra Hüller was, which bodes well for Fernanda Torres in I'm Still Here . I can't decide between Tilda Swinton or Julianne Moore for The Room Next Door , so I'll leave both of them out. Kate Winslet in Lee would have been a lock years ago, and I think there's still enough of that voting body left for her to nab the final slot. Best Lead Actor - Musical or Comedy Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain) Glen Powell (Hit Man) Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) Sebastian Stan (A Different Man) Hugh Grant (Heretic) Jesse Plemons (Kinds of Kindness) Jesse Eisenberg and Glen Powell sit comfortably at the top competing to win the trophy. Michael Keaton as the uber-successful and iconic character in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a safe bet, as does Hugh Grant in Heretic and Sebastian Stan in A Different Man after idiosyncratic nominees like Joaquin Phoenix ( Beau Is Afraid ) and Nicolas Cage ( Dream Scenario ) last year. That vibe leads me to pick Cannes Best Actor winner Jesse Plemons ( Kinds of Kindness ) for the final slot over more conventional contenders like Gabriel LaBelle ( Saturday Night ) and Ryan Reynolds ( Deadpool & Wolverine ). Best Lead Actress - Musical or Comedy Mikey Madison (Anora) Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Demi Moore (The Substance) Zendaya (Challengers) June Squibb (Thelma) This is pretty much a repeat of the Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical category, sans A Real Pain for obvious reasons. I've got June Squibb nabbing that last slot in a surprise upset over eight-time nominee (and two-time winner) Amy Adams. It's not the smartest move on paper, but the buzz for Nightbitch and Adams' performance has been nonexistent, at least in comparison to her previous work. That might not matter for someone so beloved as her, but I think Squibb is much more deserved and makes for a better narrative. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) Denzel Washington (Gladiator II) Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) Stanley Tucci (Conclave) Yura Borisov (Anora) Two of the best narratives this year have been the rise of previously unknown performers Clarence Maclin and Yura Borisov. Maclin has been firmly in the Oscar conversation for months, while Borisov has seen a quick rise over the past few weeks. That might be too short of a window to get him in here, especially with an established player like Edward Norton ( A Complete Unknown ) right on his tail. Best Supporting Actress Zoë Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) Ariana Grande (Wicked) Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) Margaret Qualley (The Substance) Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys) I'm feeling pretty confident in the first five slots. The final slot could easily go to Selena Gomez for Emilia Pérez . She's been loved by the television side of this group, being nominated for the previous two seasons of Only Murders In The Building , which will likely continue with the fourth season. There's the possibility of Saoirse Ronan fulfilling the promise of a double nomination morning with Blitz , although that film has faltered at every step so far. I have confidence behind my choice for Nickel Boys in Best Motion Picture - Drama, so I'll reverse engineer my way into predicting Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Best Foreign Language Film Emilia Pérez (France) All We Imagine as Light (India) The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran) I'm Still Here (Brazil) The Girl with the Needle (Denmark) The Count of Monte Cristo (France) The Globes have far fewer restrictions on this category as opposed to the Oscars, which is why we could get two nominees from France despite Emilia Pérez being the official submission. There's bound to be an outlier choice within the final two slots, so I'm hoping my roll of the dice will generate at least one correct guess. Best Animated Feature Film The Wild Robot Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Flow Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Moana 2 I'm going with the currently predicted lineup at the Oscars, with Moana 2 following the same trajectory as Wish last year of being a namecheck nominee. The former has slightly better reviews and a vastly better box performance than the latter, so that's a good enough reason to crawl in. Best Original Score Conclave The Brutalist Dune: Part Two Emilia Pérez Challengers The Wild Robot This category is stacked with heavy hitters across the Drama and Comedy/Musical categories. The outlier amongst the group is The Wild Robot , which shouldn't have any problems considering the Globes nominated two animated films ( Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron ) in this category last year. Best Original Song El Mal (Emilia Pérez) Mi Camino (Emilia Pérez) Kiss the Sky (The Wild Robot) I Always Wanted a Brother (Mufasa: The Lion King) Piece by Piece (Piece by Piece) Never Too Late (Elton John) I'd consider it a success if I get 3/6 correct in this category. Some wild picks were made last year with "Peaches" and “Addicted to Romance," both of which featured big stars behind their campaigns. I'm going to run with that theme in my nominees this year, predicting people such as Elton John, Pharrell, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. They'll be joined by two of the popular numbers from Emilia Pérez . Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Inside Out 2 Deadpool & Wolverine Wicked Dune: Part Two Moana 2 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Despicable Me 4 It Ends with Us Introduced as the "Barbenheimer" last year, this category serves as a last resort for the Globes to feature movies that the casual audience will recognize. That means I'm working my way down the domestic box office charts, including the films that got at least decent reviews. I don't have much respect for this category, so I won't have any pride in how many I get right or wrong. 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

A Real Pain October 24, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen A Real Pain screened at the 2024 Twin Cities Film Fest. Searchlight Pictures will release it in theaters on November 01. Without having seen Jesse Eisenberg’s freshman feature as a writer/director, When You Finish Saving the World , I can already tell you that his sophomore work, A Real Pain , is a major improvement. You can just feel the extra confidence that Eisenberg has in every facet of his production, so much so that he even allowed himself the time and space to be in front of the camera this time around, sharing it with Kieran Culkin to create a wonderful buddy dramedy. Joan Didion said it best when she told her readers: “I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.” Although I’m fairly confident that Benji (Culkin) has never come across these words, it’s the mantra he lives by. “You meet the craziest people here,” he says as he explains to his cousin David (Eisenberg) why he arrived at the airport several hours earlier than he needed to. This was all while David frantically left several voicemails to him worrying about every detail about their flight and trip to Poland to discover exactly where their Holocaust-surviving grandmother came from. They’re yin and yang, although the poles they inhabit aren’t as separated as you would believe. In actuality, when we first see Benji, he’s sitting alone in the airport with a dead look on his face. It’s only when David’s right in from him that he sports his trademarked charismatic humor. That cycle repeats again and again throughout their trip, with Benji lighting up the room every time he interacts with the few other people accompanying them on the tour. David just kind of floats on by, exchanging pleasantries all while keeping to himself. For the most part, that opening shot in the airport is the only time we ever see Benji alone. For as much as this is a two-handed film (a major reason why Culkin running in the Best Supporting Actor category at this year’s Oscars is grounds for fraud), everything comes from David's perspective. Small details come to light, such as Benji having a much deeper relationship with their grandmother realized, and the fact that despite the two of them essentially being joined at the hip as kids, this is the first time they’ve interacted in months. Each discovery brings a new meaning to the smiles and nonchalance of Benji, who we incrementally see as a person of great contrasts. As a writer, Eisenberg displays a deft touch in balancing the highs and lows of this journey. At its heart, this trip across the world is about reconciliation and grief, reaching its peak when, while smoking weed on the roof of their hotel, the cousins have nothing left to talk about except the elephant in the room. They’ve each grown up in different directions, running away from their problems and themselves. But this is also a very funny movie filled with American tourist antics and one-liners. One would think that it would be near impossible for both Culkin and the audience to shed the image of Roman Roy so quickly after the conclusion of Succession . While Roman and Benji are cut from a similar cloth, Culkin does so much to keep this character honest and alive. It’s impossible to always love someone who operates at the heights that Benji does, never holding back his opinions and perpetually occupying the center stage. Even in its most loathsome moments, you still deeply care for him. Eisenberg also finds ways to break free from his straight-laced archetype, most notably during an extended monologue once Benji leaves the room. The country of Poland and the overall Jewish experience become supporting characters in their own right. Eisenberg examines the past and present by showcasing how locations around the country have changed in the several decades since WWII, many of them drastically homogenized to try and make people forget. A walk through a well-preserved concentration camp is done with relative silence, with the stakes of this trip staring right back at Benji and David. They can do nothing but stare back, opening themselves up to pain, both in its most unpleasant and cathartic form. By the time the ninety minutes are up, A Real Pain has taken you 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

El Conde September 6, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Whether it’s Jackie Kennedy regaining her composure and building her husband’s legacy after his assassination, Diana Spencer trying to survive a haunted house and its demonic inhabitants over a holiday weekend, or Pablo Neruda being hunted down like a dog, Chilean director Pablo Larraín has repeatedly brought his own unique vision to the biopic genre. His protagonists are not 100% mimicries of their real-life counterparts (that’s not to discredit the outstanding performances of Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart), instead, they’re distillations of their spirit and persona, allowing room for interpretation and speculation. It’s what makes them feel so real, as they’re not tied to the track of traditional biopic storytelling. El Conde (translating to “The Count”) is Larraín’s most radical form of interpretation as it theorizes that the person with the darkest heart in all of Chilean history, dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell), actually was a creature of the night. More accurately: a vampire. He was born to unknown parents during the French Revolution, witnessing the beheading of Marie Antoinette and even stealing her disconnected head and keeping it as a trophy all these centuries later. Over time he traveled around the world and rose through the ranks, landing in Chile (“a country without a king” says the mysteriously contemptuous narrator) and enacting a coup d’état. He was eventually thrown out of power, forcing him to fake his death, which sees just as many people salute his casket as those who spit on it. Now he’s a literal walking corpse living in a rickety old compound, one where the wind is always howling and his only company is his idiotic children, bored wife, and loyal butler, all of whom wait impatiently for him to die and bequeath them their inheritance. Larraín takes the metaphorical violence within Jackie and Spencer and turns it into literal violence in El Conde . As all vampires must do, Pinochet feeds on the living, following a regiment that involves slicing victims’ throats, ripping open their ribcages, and plucking out their still-beating hearts. And then he places those hearts in a blender and drinks every last drop. Still keeping a modicum of a metaphor, these victims are usually the working-class people of Chile, those unlucky enough to be in the path of the charging bull of history. These acts of brutality have an unsubtle and morbid humor to them, with the joke eventually running just as thin as the premise. Beating that dead horse is the introduction of an outsider to the family, a nun (Paula Luchsinger, sporting a haircut and eyes that make her a dead ringer for Maria Falconetti from The Passion of Joan of Arc ) who intends to be a catalyst for the familial backstabbing and drive a literal stake through the heart of the beast. She talks to each of the adult children as if they were toddlers, speaking down to the audience as she recounts the horrible acts the family has committed, including nothing short of murder and corruption. It borderlines on pandering like Adam McKay on his worst day, and becomes quickly redundant as Pinochet literally sucks the blood out of the country. Cinematographer Edward Lachman, a frequent collaborator with Todd Haynes, breathes the necessary life into the film by draining it of its color. The monochrome black-and-white cast big shadows, with the blood of the innocent painting around those dark corners. A baroque score ties the final knot in the film’s impressive gothic details. This could be considered Larraín’s most impressive production. El Conde doesn’t have as much bite as its fangs might suggest, but Larraín packs just enough passion and wit into his material to make it pop. He’s just announced his biopic trilogy capper, Maria , starring Angelina Jolie as the famed opera singer Maria Callas. I look forward to seeing the possibility of the heightened nature of this satire melding with his previous work. 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

25 Most Anticipated Films of 2025 January 27, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen The book of 2024 has been closed, and the first few pages for 2025 have already been written. But there’s still so much blank space left to discover, and lots of potential storylines to fill it. For the first time in half a decade, there isn’t an industry-altering pandemic or strike to disrupt the normal flow of business. With that comes a vast amount of optimism. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's lay down some ground rules. First, there must be some sort of verifiable evidence that a film is going to be released this year. It either must be in production, post-production, completed, or even mentioned in a reputable article that it’s on its way. I also won’t count any films that I’ve already seen, such as April and Eden , both of which I caught at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. But enough of all that, let’s commence the fun. Here are twenty-five of my most anticipated movies of 2025! Honorable Mentions A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir. Kogonada) Árva (dir. László Nemes) Eddington (dir. Ari Aster) F1 (dir. Joseph Kosinski) Jupiter (dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev) Mother Brother Sister Mother (dir. Jim Jarmusch) The Bride (dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal) The Drama (dir. Kristofer Borgli) The Rivals of the Amziah King (dir. Andrew Patterson) The Silent Friend (dir. Ildiko Enyedi) 25. The Smashing Machine A24 has already excelled at the wrestling/fighting genre once with The Iron Claw , so it stands to reason that they should be able to do it again with The Smashing Machine . Dwayne Johnson has finally found a quality filmmaker in the form of Benny Safdie, flying solo for the first time since his split with Josh (also at A24 this year with Marty Supreme ). The sky is the limit for what the director and star can achieve with this endeavor, with Emily Blunt helping out in her first post- Oppenheimer role. 24. Hand of Dante With a cast composed of Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, Gal Gadot, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, and Martin Scorsese, Julian Schnabel’s crime drama will surely grab headlines wherever it debuts. Given that the former painter-turned-director has mostly had his sights set on stories within the artistic world, the antithetical nature of this project pleasantly raises my eyebrow. 23. Alpha Now that Coralie Fargeat just stormed Cannes with The Substance , the ball is back in Titane writer/director Julia Ducournau's court to unleash a tale of biological horror. Neon is once again backing her, with Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani starring. The rumored plot follows a teenager who is mistreated by classmates once they believe she carries an infectious disease. As with Titane and Raw , that information will likely be just the tip of the iceberg. 22. Die, My Love It's been seven years since Lynne Ramsay last graced the silver screen with You Were Never Really Here . That length of absence isn't unusual for her, which makes the prospect of potentially having two new films from her in 2025 all the more tantalizing. Die, My Love stars Jennifer Lawrence as a mother struggling to keep her sanity, and Polaris has real-life married couple Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara in a story about an ice photographer coming face-to-face with the devil. Given that the former project recently released images and specific plot details, it stands to reason that it'll be due this year and the latter will stay on the shelf for just a bit longer. 21. Mother Mary Working across several genres and production scales, writer/director David Lowery has yet to miss. His latest will follow a relationship between a fictional musician (Anne Hathaway) and a famous fashion designer (Micaela Coel). Described as an "epic pop melodrama" with original songs by Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX, this sounds like the project that could bring Hathaway back to her peak and harness the untapped potential Coel illustrated in I May Destroy You . 20. Caught Stealing As much as the internet didn't want it to be true, The Whale was a massive success for director Darren Aronofsky. Now he's out of that drabby apartment living room and into the underbelly of New York City for his new film. Austin Butler is the man who must navigate those streets after he gets himself mixed up with a whole host of seedy characters. 19. Hope South Korean auteur Na Hong-jin hasn't been seen since he unleashed the horrifying The Wailing back in 2016. He's supposedly back with the first part of a new trilogy about a small village being invaded by aliens. Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender are a piece of this still secret puzzle that supposedly has a budget that could be the highest in the country's history. 18. Highest 2 Lowest Spike Lee is already 0/1 on English-language remakes of famous Asian films, his version of Oldboy was so terrible that 99% of filmmakers would steer very clear of that territory ever again. But Lee isn't like anybody else, and he's enlisted his most trusted accomplice, Denzel Washington, to pull off this remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller. A24 and Apple TV+ are backing the project, a partnership that worked well when Joel Coen made his remake of The Tragedy of Macbeth in 2021. 17. Young Mother The brothers of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have been one of Belgium's finest exports for the past forty years. Their trademarked slices of social realism have netted them two Palme d'Ors and several other prizes at their beloved Cannes Film Festival. They'll likely be back again on the French Riviera with a story about five migrant mothers who must band together to build a better life for their children. 16. Sentimental Value The Norwegian band that brought you 2021's The Worst Person in the World is back together! Joachim Trier is in the director's chair, Eskil Vogt is in the writer's room with him, and Renate Reinsve is in front of the camera. Brought into the fold is Stellen Skarsgård as Reinsve's film director father, who offers her the lead role in his next film. Neon preemptively acquired North American rights to the project, signaling confidence in its worldwide prospects. 15. Frankenstein It makes sense that 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's recruited an A-list cast (Oscar Isaac as the mad doctor, Jacob Elordi as the monster) and crew to back up his vision, which Netflix is sparing no expense to bring to life. Expect this to be their big Oscar player going into the next awards season. 14. Marty Supreme Even with only one Safdie brother at the helm, A24 had enough confidence in this project to make it their biggest production to date (budget of $70-90 million) and give it a prime Christmas day release. Star Timothée Chalamet has dominated the holidays over the past two years with Wonka and A Complete Unknown , respectively. He'll have a stacked cast and an exciting writer/director to back him up for the threepeat. 13. Havoc Writer/director Gareth Evans is the mastermind behind the two The Raid films, both of which have a legitimate claim to be the best action movie of the past decade. Shot in 2021 and supposedly set to come this year, his latest action feature stars Tom Hardy as a “bruised detective who must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician's estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.” Evans’ latest film was 2018’s Apostle from Netflix, and he’ll team up with the streamer again for distribution. 12. After the Hunt As cinema's premier workaholic, Luca Guadagnino doesn't know when to stop. Julia Roberts will lead first-time writer Nora Garrett's fiery script as a college professor who must handle an accusation made by one of her students (Ayo Edebiri) against a colleague (Andrew Garfield). Expect plenty of twists and turns in this timely tale of power. 11. Wake Up Dead Man With both Knives Out and Glass Onion premiering on the first Saturday of the Toronto International Film Festival, we can confidently pencil in September 06 as the date that Rian Johnson will unveil the conclusion to his whodunnit trilogy. He outdid himself with the sequel, so we're in for something truly special as he goes for broke with a stacked supporting cast around Daniel Craig. 10. Nouvelle Vague / Blue Moon While several international filmmakers have transferred to the English language, few Westerners trek in the opposite direction. Richard Linklater will be doing just that with his French-language production centered around the creation of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless , one of the most influential films ever made. Linklater will be staying in the performing art world with his other film in the pipeline, which tells the story of how Lorenz Hart created and opened the famous play "Oklahoma!" Frequent collaborator Ethan Hawke will play Hart, with Andrew Scott as his famous creative partner Oscar Hammerstein II. 9. The Ballad of a Small Player For someone who seemed to appear out of nowhere with All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave , director Edward Berger has quickly strung together two of the finest films of the past few years. He's returning to Netflix to retain that hot streak, casting Colin Farrell, one of the hottest (both literally and figuratively) actors working today. Farrell will play a high-stakes gambler who must flee to Macau after he gets in over his head. With Conclave editor Nick Emerson and All Quiet on the Western Front cinematographer James Friend as part of the crew, the cards are looking well stacked for this project. 8. Jay Kelly True fans of Adam Sandler know that his most impressive performance to date was not in Punch-Drunk Love or Uncut Gems but in Noah Baumbach's 2017 film The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) . The actor and director have reunited for a "funny and emotional coming-of-age story about adults." Emily Mortimer co-wrote the screenplay with Baumbach and appears in the cast, which boasts no less than George Clooney, Laura Dern, Jim Broadbent, Billy Crudup, Greta Gerwig, and Isla Fisher. 7. Untitled Kathyrn Bigelow White House Thriller It's been eight years since Kathryn Bigelow made a feature film, the financial failure of Detroit being the main cause. Before that, she was the preeminent filmmaker for dissecting American foreign policy, netting acclaim and awards for The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty . Netflix has brought her back to the spotlight with a real-time thriller about how the White House responds to a ballistic missile threat. Jackie writer Noah Oppenheim wrote the script, with Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Clarke, and Greta Lee lining up the cast list. 6. Bugonia Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos have forged one of the most prosperous actor-director pairings with their three feature films of The Favourite , Poor Things , and Kinds of Kindness . As expected, they're reuniting again, this time bringing previous Lanthimos collaborators Jesse Plemons and Alicia Silverstone back into the fold for an English-language adaptation of the popular South Korean film Save the Green Planet . Succession and The Menu writer Will Tracy penned the script, which will combine well with Lanthimos’ bitingly deadpan satirism. 5. Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Film With a rumored budget of somewhere between $140 and $175 million, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest venture will drastically be the biggest tableau he's worked on. But those large sacks of money haven't prevented PTA from shrouding himself in his trademark levels of secrecy. All we know is that Leonardo DiCaprio leads a starry ensemble. Everything else, including the title to the premise, is a complete mystery. You know you're a master filmmaker when you can give your audience nothing and still have them lining up around the block months in advance. 4. Black Bag It wouldn't be a normal year in the movie world without another Steven Soderbergh offering. 2025 is an extra special year in that we get a double serving, the first being the theatrical release of Presence , which debuted back at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The latter entry will be an espionage thriller starring two of my favorite actors (Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett) as a married spy couple who must figure out if the other has double-crossed them. It'll mark the third collaboration between Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp, who previously wrote Kimi and Presence . 3. No Other Choice 2022's Decision to Leave was one of director Park Chan-wook's most commercially successful films. It was also a critical success, nabbing him the coveted Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He'll likely return to that festival this year for his fifth appearance in competition with a Korean adaptation of the 1997 horror thriller novel The Ax . Lee Byung-hun will star as an unemployed man who, in an act of desperation, starts to kill all the other applicants for the new job he needs. 2. The Way of the Wind Now making its sixth consecutive appearance on this list, I've run out of different ways to describe my excitement for this film. They shot this movie in 2019, for Christ’s sake! I'm just going to get back to praying that my patience will be rewarded 1. The Phoenician Scheme Wes Anderson's latest production was initially announced as a smaller-scale dark espionage tale centered on a father-daughter relationship. But it seems the whimsical auteur couldn't help himself, with the bulk of his A-list troupe of actors being revealed as part of the full cast once filming finished. With T he French Dispatch being my favorite film ever, The Grand Budapest Hotel not far behind, and Asteroid City being one of the best films of 2023, I'm obviously a fan of Anderson working with a large ensemble. Whatever the size and scale will ultimately be, I'll be seated with a beaming smile. 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

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

I, Tonya March 7, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Margot Robbie has had a pretty big climb to fame in the past few years. She kicked off her Hollywood career in 2013 with The Wolf of Wall Street , then made a splashy cameo in Adam McKay’s 2015 hit The Big Short . She then achieved A-list status in 2016 with Suicide Squad and The Legend of Tarzan . Now in 2017, she’s hitting the awards circuit with I, Tonya , in which she plays the infamous figure skater Tonya Harding. Her performance is the highlight of the film, which is a semi-autobiographical story about one of America’s most beloved and most hated athletes. The film opens with interviews from Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), and her mother LaVona Golden (Allison Janney). The interviews are taking place about a decade after the “incident” and are intended as a way for each of the characters to tell their version of what happened. In between the interviews we are treated to the story of how Tonya grew up as a redneck figure skater in Oregon. We witness her rough upbringing at the hands of her mother and how it affected her skating. After that, we see her meteoric rise to superstardom, all of which is constantly in jeopardy because of her rocky relationship with her simpleton of a husband, Jeff. And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the Nancy Kerrigan incident. We watch it go down, the due process immediately after, and how Tonya got caught up in a mess of stupidity. What I can say is that this film doesn’t do anything wrong, it just does everything adequately or well. The handling of the story through interviews and flashbacks does well at establishing the chaos and insanity since each character gives conflicting reports as to what actually happened. The film also uses the fourth wall to have Tonya interact with the audience and extend the autobiographical nature of the story. However, the interviews lose steam about halfway through and are left dormant until the very end. It felt weird since they were heavily used in the beginning and are made to seem like the central medium for telling the story. Director Craig Gillespie uses stylish editing and camera tricks to keep the story flowing at a quick and breezy pace. Some scenes are oversaturated with them, but overall the tricks serve their purpose well. The behind-the-scenes work does a nice job of establishing a feel for the 80s and 90s. The hairstyles and fashion are timely and will make anyone who lived in that period feel nostalgic. Last and most importantly, the performances carry this film all the way to the very end. Margot Robbie is astonishing as Tonya. She has the perfect mix of looks, personality, and skill to pull off the role. She plays Harding perfectly at every point in her career, especially at the lowest. Allison Janney is also great as Tonya’s cold and unloving mother, LaVona. Janney goes full-out in makeup and chain-smoking, giving an authentic portrayal of a mother that will never be satisfied with her children. Sebastian Stan gives a good, but not great performance as Jeff. He does his best to make Jeff his own, but unfortunately gets overshadowed by Robbie and Janney. On a positive note, Stan shows off a wide range of emotions as Jeff slowly turns from a dumb nice guy to a violent madman. I, Tonya delivers an entertaining and original way to tell a story that is well-known by almost everybody alive. While it’s a good film caught in a time of great films, Robbie and Janney give career-defining performances that make this film deserving of your time. 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

Sharper February 9, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka pray that you haven't done two things before you watch their new film Sharper on Apple TV+. The first is that you snubbed the marketing team and didn't watch the trailer, as it immediately spoils the film’s chronological order, deflating almost all of the tension that the writing duo and director Benjamin Caron have tried to instill. The second thing is that you’ve never watched a movie with a twist (sorry Shyamalan), as experiencing just one in your lifetime will over-prepare you for what happens here. "If you're going to steal, steal a lot," says billionaire Richard Hobbes (John Lithgow) to Max (Sebastian Stan) after he tries to shake him down for a mere $1,000 through a fake police bust. Little does Richard know that Max has been taking his advice the whole time, as this charade was only one step in a larger plan to swindle unfathomable amounts of money. Part of the act is Madeline (Julianne Moore) cosplaying as Max's doting mother and a new romantic partner for Richard. Also in the mix is Richard's only son, the book-loving and hopeless romantic Tom (Justice Smith), and too-good-to-be-true new girl Sandra (Brianna Middleton), who's been brought into the fold and taught every trick of the trade by Max. Nothing is what it seems to be on the surface with these five characters, with double, triple, and quadruple-crosses being a personal and professional hazard. Sharper may mark the feature directorial debut of Caron, but he's been a veteran of the stage by helming several Shakespeare projects for Kenneth Branagh's theater company and received two Emmy nominations for his directorial work on The Crown . Star Wars fans also appreciate him for his handling of the season finale of Andor last year. Because of this resume, it's no surprise that Sharper often packs the emotional punch of a stage production and looks as pristine as a prestige drama. A Quiet Place cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen shoots in crisp low-lighting, with Caron intimately blocking the actors within the luxurious sets as if he was still with Branagh's company. As shown in the opening title card, the term sharper is defined as "a cheat, one who lives by his/her wits." It is perpetually bizarre that these characters seem to have world-class offensive skills with their wits, but are horrendous at defense, allowing themselves to be caught off guard despite us, the audience, being able to spot everything from a mile away. Coincidences and instances of exclaiming "Oh come on!" run rampant, almost as if Gatewood and Tanaka kept writing themselves into a corner and were too far in to start again from scratch. The transparency of the twists doesn't do favors for the nonlinear structure, broken down into chapters told from a new perspective. Much of the whole puzzle has already been revealed by the final chapter, making it pretty easy to guess what the complete picture will be. Still, the actors are having fun with the chewy material. Between last year's Pam & Tommy and Fresh , Stan continues his streak of trashy scumbags. Moore, continuing her relationship with Apple after the quickly forgotten Lisey's Story television adaptation, gets to play both confident and vulnerable, which she unsurprisingly does with ease. But the real standout has to be Smith, delivering his best performance to date. Granted, the bar for that has been set quite low due to his work on the Jurassic World sequels and Detective Pikachu , but I also can't fully blame him for having to deal with the awful material provided to him. If you're a person who doesn't like for a movie (or its characters) to be smarter than you, then Sharper will be right up your alley. It’s mindless fun delivered with some class, occasionally teetering towards parody due to its overly serious ambitions. 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

MSPIFF43 - Dispatch #2 April 25, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The 43rd Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) is currently going on from April 11-25, with over 200 films screened. Here are some quick-bite reviews of a few of the films I have watched, with more to come soon. The Convert Lee Tamahori’s lush period piece comes from good intentions, but falters under the weight of clichés and ho-hum filmmaking. Set within Tamahori’s native New Zealand during the first wave of British colonialism around the 1830s, the film follows lay preacher Thomas Munro (Guy Pearce) as he witnesses the brutal treatment of the local Maori tribe at the hands of its Western settlers. He develops a special connection with Rangimai, daughter of the chief of the tribe that leases its land to the British, and who’s currently fighting a war against an ultra-aggressive tribe. Comparisons to Dances with Wolves , The Last Samurai , and The New World will be inevitable, especially with Pearce - noble as he is - fitting the “white savior” trope to a tee. Tamahori gives considerable time to the Mahori characters, but he tries to have his cake and eat it too as the central throughline sees Munro’s pleas for peace ending in an inevitable bloody battle. Even more tonally baffling is the semi-uplifting ending, totally contradicted by the historical events that would soon follow. (3/5) Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World The only thing longer than the title and runtime of Radu Jude’s newest social satire is the list of ideas it's brimming with. (Mostly) taking place over a single day, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World endlessly lobs grenades toward present-day Romanian life, ranging from government corruption to a generation growing up on Andrew Tate rhetoric. All of these ideas are communicated through Angela (Ilinca Manolache), an overworked production assistant who shleps around Bucharest to audition candidates to appear in a worker safety PSA. The 163-minute runtime doesn’t necessarily fly by, with Jude knowing no bounds with how he crafts his epic tale, always looking to break free from the preconceptions of the form. This includes multiple extended cutaways to scenes within the 1982 Romanian film Angela Goes On , harsh black-and-white photography, a 20-ish minute scene taking place within a single static shot, and a cameo from infamous bad boy director Uwe Boll about how the haters can go fuck themselves. You truly never know what’s going to happen next, or how much you should be laughing at the stark realities of these people’s lives. (3.5/5) Wildcat There’s a moment in Ethan Hawke’s biography of Flannery O’Connor where a character has a hallucination where Jesus gives them the choice to be reborn as white trash or an [n-word]. I didn’t have a problem with this scene on any religious or moral grounds, but it was just one of a handful where I had to ask what Hawke thought he was accomplishing. There’s an admirable quality to him not taking the traditional biopic route, but it’s not like going down this road was any more successful. There’s a dreary beauty to 1950s New York City and rural Georgia akin to Inside Llewyn Davis , with O’Connor (played by Maya Hawke) writing increasingly dark and depressing stories that bristle with conservative society. Hawke and co-writer Shelby Gaines mix reality and fiction through Flannery’s short stories, with the cast (Laura Linney, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio) playing multiple differing roles. Aside from the poor performances and tacky makeup/costumes, the pretentiousness in the presentation comes across as amateurish. Still, there’s something about Hawke’s approach to the artistic process that drew me in. Granted, it was mostly due to my morbid curiosity about what batshit method he would try next. But there’s a heart and soul here in the right place, and it’s better to appreciate the strikeout if the batter went down swinging. (2.5/5) In Our Day South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo has become legendary for his critical consistency while remaining as productive as ever. He’s been described as the “Korean Woody Allen,” churning out at least one to two new features per year that tend to pick up various pieces of hardware at major festivals (most likely the Berlin International Film Festival). In Our Day marks his 30th feature, with himself fulfilling the roles of writer, director, producer, cinematographer, composer, and editor. Two seemingly unrelated tales are told across the brisk 83-minute runtime: an actress returning from abroad stays with her friend and her cat, and an aging poet is interviewed by an aspiring student. In typical Hong fashion, each scene is comprised of a single take, with the actors nonchalantly trading semi-mundane dialogue. And like a Woody Allen film, you’re either a fan of the style, or you’re not. I found myself leaning more towards the latter camp, with nearly every conversation going in one ear and out the other. I’ve often warmly embraced films “where nothing happens,” but this one is almost too lowkey for its own good. (3/5) 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

Longlegs July 12, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) reads a letter at her desk that’s been mysteriously put there without her knowledge. The door to her kitchen is open, with the flickers of light from the porch lights interrupted by a figure passing them. Or were those gaps of light just pieces of our imagination, a symptom of the descent into madness that this story requires? Whether it's from a door, window, or any four-sided structure, every frame is a gateway to hell in Longlegs . They often tend to be a frame within a frame, as writer/director Ozgood Perkins’ camera claustrophobically narrows in on its target, forcing you to project your worst fears onto the tightly restrained information it drips. It’s no surprise that every shot is perfectly composed, each dim corner beckoning you to peel it back, if you dare. Despite a semi-limited sample size of a filmography, Perkins has displayed a mastery of his craft from the director’s chair, holding his audience captive through slow-burn tension (most audiences would rather use the word “tedious”) and dazzling imagery. One of the minor unfortunate side effects of the pandemic was Perkins’ “Better Than It Had Any Right To Be” Gretel & Hansel failing to find another life in everyone’s homes after it floundered in theaters. Something that is surprising is that all those shots come from first-time feature cinematographer Andres Arochi. The framing is always spot-on, obscuring just enough of Nicolas Cage’s titular character for us to beg for more. Old-school polaroids and grain are the methods of choice when Perkins and Arochi display the gruesomeness that’s going on in this story. Many of these scenes have been sporadically used throughout the viral marketing campaign, which, fortunately, hasn’t diluted their effectiveness in the final product. A 911 call where a father breathes heavily while cryptically explaining how he’ll kill his family sent long-lasting shivers down my spine. The decomposed bodies of other families forced all popcorn munching in my audience to immediately stop. The prime suspect in all this suburban death goes by Longlegs, a ghostly pale freak who loves to leave behind coded messages that spread his Satanic gospel and taunt the ever-frustrated law enforcement. Harker’s procedural work to catch him mixes a blend of Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs , both aspects kept tightly in check as each clue gradually reveals how the puzzle pieces fit together. That is until Perkins decides to hurriedly finish it all for us near the end through an expositional monologue. This is a story where the natural dissatisfaction of the loose ends is actually what’s so satisfying about it. Tying everything up with a nice ribbon feels more like a move by Perkins to win back the mainstream crowd after his previous features got battered by CinemaScore. Monroe is sensational in her lead role. She communicates the insular nature of her character flawlessly, keeping us both on the inside and outside. Perkins sets up her unclear psychic premonitions early on, her first vision identifying the house of a serial killer despite no other evidence. While that trait goes largely undeveloped from there, Monroe keeps the mind games going as she gets closer to the man who mentally torments her. Cage is an odd presence for this movie, his star power being too powerful to be effectively shrouded for so long, and his trademarked Cage-isms, including spontaneous singing and screaming, provoking laughter rather than menace. It’s still one of his better modern performances and continues his run of being interestingly employed by genre filmmakers ( Pig, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent , Dream Scenario ). There are a lot of similarities, both technically and thematically, between Perkins’ film and The Black Phone from a few years back. The promise of the happy nuclear family of the mid-20th century was not all it was cracked up to be, with evil lurking within the voids. Both may not have been great enough to wholly grip you as much as they intend to, but there’s definitely enough going on to burrow in your head and go home with you. 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

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

Presence September 6, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Presence had its International Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Neon will release it in theaters on January 24, 2025. To label Presence as a horror film feels a bit misleading, as is the indication of quality with the flag for the film’s January release having already been firmly planted by distributor Neon. The scares are never in your face, although the camera (also helmed by Soderbergh under his now-famous pseudonym Peter Andrews) does get quite close to the actors. That’s because the camera is a character, not just in the metaphorical sense, but in the literal sense that the camera acts as the first-person perspective for a character. This character can’t be seen or heard by anyone else in the cast, as they are a ghost roaming the halls and rooms within an upscale house residing in a suburban neighborhood. The story is told entirely from their perspective, a silent protagonist who observes everything, yet (mostly) takes no action. This bold experiment is another in a long line of Soderbergh’s forays into altering the perception of what stories should be told in this age of digital cinema. iPhones were used as cameras for his one-two-punch of Unsane and High Flying Bird , and Mosaic allowed the audience to experience the mystery through an app. But while those projects were meant to radicalize the process of making films, Presence opts to change what’s right in front of your eyes. There’s a Michael Haneke-esque feeling of tension and voyeurism to every scene, each unfolding in a single take and being broken up with cuts to black. Some of the characters can feel that they are being watched, while others are totally oblivious to it. The most sensitive is teenaged Chloe (Callina Liang), the youngest in the newly moved-in family. She’s dealing with the trauma of recently losing two of her friends, both of them dying under mysterious circumstances. Her feelings of unease are only exasperated by the happenings around the house, such as doors creaking shut and objects suddenly falling off shelves. The rest of the unit is either in some stage of denial or acceptance of what’s going on around them. None of them know the 5 Ws and H for this entity, but they all realize deep down that something is happening. The initial buildup to the mystery is where Soderbergh and veteran screenwriter David Koepp (also the writer for Soderbergh’s Kimi and upcoming Black Bag ) flex their creative muscles to their fullest potential. As the homeward-bound camera weaves its way around, we gather snippets of the dynamics between the family. Mom (Lucy Liu) is controlling and pushy, obviously showing greater favor to the oldest son (Eddy Maday), while the dad (Chris Sullivan) tries to keep the peace. Secrets and subplots start interweaving from there, with mundane lines of dialogue from one scene acting as the hidden puzzle piece to unlock something later. Even at 85 minutes, nothing about Presence can be described as brisk, with the latter half of the film not following through with as much vigor as the setups would promise. A few reveals and twists are not as satisfying as they should be, with a little bit of a “Is that it?” energy permeating the entire experience as you walk out of the theater. The actors are all fine, especially Liang and Sullivan, with their characters sharing a deeper bond, and the technical experiment is perpetually interesting. This is more than a VR experience, although it could be a more than worthwhile starting point for something of that caliber in the future. 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