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2025 Oscar Nominations - Winners & Losers January 23, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Today was Christmas morning for Oscar lovers around the world. After months of anticipation, the nominees in each category were unveiled. It was an eventful morning, with plenty of surprise inclusions and omissions. Now that the dust has settled (for now), let's break down who the big winners and losers were. Winner: I'm Still Here Sony Pictures Classics strikes again! The distributor best known for securing come-from-behind acting nominations did exactly that and then some today with the Brazilian film I'm Still Here . Fernanda Torres secured that last slot in Best Lead Actress, repeating what her mother Fernanda Montenegro did with director Walter Salles almost thirty years ago. But the real shocker was the film getting into Best Picture, knocking out more expected nominees like Sing Sing and A Real Pain . Loser: Sing Sing Speaking of Sing Sing , this A24 acquisition was once pegged to be a serious contender to win Best Picture. Now it finds itself totally out of the race, only netting nominations for lead actor Colman Domingo, its adapted screenplay, and an original song. The ten total nominations for The Brutalist still give A24 a lot to cheer about, but the serious underperformance by Sing Sing both at the box office and at the major awards, should make them sit down and rethink their strategy. Winner: The Apprentice It's been a long and tumultuous road for the Donald Trump "biopic" ever since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. But all that work turned out to be worth it, with both stars Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan netting acting nominations. Stan's came as a bigger surprise considering he was possibly facing vote splitting from his equally lauded performance in the A24 dark comedy A Different Man , for which he recently received a Golden Globe award. Loser: Luca Guadagnino It was a tough morning for the workaholic Italian director as both of his 2024 director efforts - Challengers and Queer - were totally blanked. Granted, neither was expected to net many mentions, but the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score and song from Challengers and Daniel Craig's lead performance from Queer were seen as totally gettable. Neither came to fruition, extending Guadagnino's Oscar slump since he broke out with Call Me By Your Name . Winner: A Complete Unknown The guild dominance of Searchlight's Bob Dylan biopic continued this morning. Both Monica Barbaro and director James Mangold were able to translate their surprise SAG and DGA nominations, respectively. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet expectedly got in, with the slew of craft nominations bolstering his case to be a serious contender to win his first acting trophy. Loser: Edward Berger What more does Edward Berger need to do to get some respect around here? His past two films All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave netted a combined seventeen nominations, but his name was left off the list for Best Achievement in Directing both times. The film's last-minute surge could explain his absence from All Quiet on the Western Front . But there's no reasoning behind today's snub, especially when he received nominations from all major precursors (Golgden Globe, Critics Choice, BAFTA, DGA) Winner: Robert Eggers The filmmaker who's been known to be "too cool" for the Academy finally made his way into the club in a big way. Piggybacking off the $150 million it made at the box office so far, Nosferatu netted four total nominations: Costume Design, Production Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Cinematography. It now seems like a no-brainer decision that he and Focus Features have already announced their next project together, a supposed werewolf film dated for December 2026. Loser: Paramount Ridley Scott's sequel to his own Best Picture-winning film had a lot of Oscars in its sights when it premiered just before the Thanksgiving holiday. But so-so critical reactions and box office dollars eventually whittled down those prospects to a single category: Best Achievement in Costume Design. And after threatening to break into the Best Picture category all season, September 5 just couldn't get over the line, netting a lone nomination in Best Original Screenplay. Winner: Emilia Pérez Twitter's favorite punching bag this awards season just keeps winning. A total of thirteen nominations were bestowed upon Jacques Audiard's film, smashing the record for the most nominations received by a non-English language film. It also carried Netflix to sixteen total nominations, the best of any distributor. With all of their other projects falling by the wayside ( Maria , The Piano Lesson ), the streamer is going to throw everything and the kitchen sink in an effort to break their Best Picture curse. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen

1967: A Dramatic Shift in American Film March 29, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen The year 1967 can be regarded as one of the most pivotal years in cinema history. It was a transitional year where the conventional and unconventional came crashing together for the first time on such a large scale. Using David Newman and Robert Benton’s article “The New Sentimentality” (1964), we can categorize the conventional and unconventional into two distinct categories: Old Sentimentality (conventional) and New Sentimentality (unconventional). These two categories were not just found in film, they were also found in nearly every aspect of American culture. Each version of sentimentality garnered financial and critical success in 1967. No two movies were more opposed that year in style, viewpoint, and audience than Mike Nichols’ The Graduate and Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . Also, no two actors better represented their respective sentimentality better than Dustin Hoffman and Sidney Poitier. In this essay, I’ll explain why and how 1967 was such a cinematic turning point that shifted the paradigm of power away from Hollywood conventionalism and towards a new era of auteur cinema. I’ll also look at how both Poitier and Hoffman were shaped by their generation and how their respective careers were forever changed in 1967. To show the difference between Old and New sentimentality, we must define what exactly they are. In simplistic terms, Old Sentimentality represents conventionalism and past values. The values this movement revered were about the good old days of ruggedness, strong moral character, and banding together. These ideas were born out of the nation’s unity and recovery from World War II and were prevalent throughout the next few decades. Figures such as Dwight Eisenhower, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda embodied this type of thinking, and films such as The Ox-Bow Incident, High Noon, and The Best Years of Our Lives were most popular. New Sentimentality began making a presence around the start of the 1960s. It was less about thinking as a group and more about thinking and acting for oneself. New Sentimentality pushed the idea of being self-indulgent, getting carried away, looking inward, and being authentic. John F. Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and Elvis Presley were the purveyors of this thinking, which could be found in films such as Bonnie and Clyde (screenplay by Newman and Benton) and Easy Rider . In 1967, producer and director Stanley Kramer released Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . It was an all-star vehicle for him filled with the biggest stars of the past few decades in Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Sidney Poitier was cast as the figure who’s coming to dinner, John Prentice. The plot is fairly straightforward as Prentice and his new fiancé, Christina, intend to get married. John is a respected medical doctor who has accomplished everything under the sun. Their engagement is under a deadline as he must fly to Europe that night. Christina’s parents, played by Tracy and Hepburn, are taken aback at the reality of their daughter marrying a black man, even though they raised her with a liberal mindset. Stanley Kramer was a director known for incorporating social commentary into his films. He previously had great success with The Defiant Ones and Judgement at Nuremberg . Even though his social messaging would make one think that he was a part of the younger outspoken generation, Kramer geared his films toward the older generation of moviegoers, the ones that would better respond to conventionalism and star power. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is part of an era in Hollywood where films about race were becoming more popular but weren’t purely benevolent in the way they handled the topic. Instead of utilizing themes like life under Jim Crow, black activism, or black community culture, a lot of films before the Hollywood New Age illustrated that racism was wrong through a white character's conversion from racial prejudice to tolerance. The prototypical movie of this thinking, In the Heat of the Night (also starring Sidney Poitier), won Best Picture that year. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , the racism obstacle is solved by the white parents' eventual acceptance of John marrying their daughter. In his book "Genre and Hollywood," author Steve Neale (1988) breaks this style down even further by explaining that “dramatic conflict [in racism films] was to be structured around two opposing poles clearly representing good and evil, with a readily identifiable hero and villain”. This idea of opposing forces is seen in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner as the prejudiced maid and the nosy Tillie act as the villains for the heroic Draytons to vanquish. Black characters rarely saw themselves as the heroes of their own story. They were either relegated to being the villain or to serve the heroic white characters. This role came to be known as the “noble negro”, a role that Sidney Poitier would play throughout the majority of his career. In her YouTube video Why The Help ?, Isabel Custodio (2020) describes this role as having “its own predictably recurrent tropes. These characters had impossibly noble traits seemingly honed to mollify white audiences. They were slow to anger, had no sexual impulses, and often sacrificed themselves for white co-stars.” Black audiences at the time often found Poitier's characters disingenuous. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , they thought it was ludicrous that Poitier played a world-renowned doctor who acts more holy than Jesus. Why give the parents a pat on the back for accepting a virtually perfect man? Kramer, on the other hand, believed that was the point. By making Prentice so perfect, only his skin color could be the barrier to marriage. Kramer’s viewpoint worked for his audience and the Oscars, as the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn) and Best Original Screenplay. 1967 marked the peak of Poitier’s career. His successes in previous films had typecast him as the “noble negro”, a role the younger generation didn’t accept. Now that his career is over, it is ironic to say that Poitier’s appeal was to the generation of people that had been holding him back all those years, and not to the people who were looking to create change within the nation and Hollywood system. As Poitier’s career was about to fall, the career of Dustin Hoffman was about to take off like a rocket. 1967 saw the release of The Graduate , directed by Mike Nichols, who was making his follow up to the critically acclaimed Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . That film put Nichols on the map with its groundbreaking vulgarity and sexual innuendos, with the latter carrying forward into his next film. The Graduate centers around Benjamin Braddock, who has just graduated college and doesn’t know what to do with his life. He finds himself in an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s business partner. This sexually charged relationship goes on for quite some time until Benjamin catches feelings for Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine. A beacon of New Sentimentality, The Graduate spoke to a generation through its unmatched authenticity. Dustin Hoffman had no screen presence before being cast. He had no major previous roles and did not possess the classic movie star looks such as the blonde hair of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, or the towering charisma of Warren Beatty. Hoffman was of Jewish descent, which could be easily discerned from his looks, making him even more of an outsider to his contemporaries. Nichols saw something in Hoffman, an opportunity to use his “flaws'' to tell a story to a younger audience growing tired of Hollywood perfectionism. Film critic Roger Ebert (1967) described Hoffman’s performance as “painfully awkward and ethical that we are forced to admit we would act pretty much as he does, even in his most extreme moments." Hoffman’s awkward and anxious performance is filled with the traits of New Sentimentality. The idea of people having inward problems, sleeping around with others, and being wounded were ideas becoming more and more part of the national psyche, especially to young adults. Newman and Benton stressed that New Sentimentality had to do with you and you alone. “Personal interest is the abiding motivation and... your primary objective is to make your life fit your style.” The idea of personal interest and selfishness comes to its apex at the end when both Elaine and Ben run off together, though they have no idea what they are going to do now that they’re gone. Unlike Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Nichols (and screenwriters Buck Henry and Calder Willingham) doesn't craft the story around the message. It’s the inverse, as the message comes from the story. Ebert noticed this subversive social messaging in his review, saying, “[the film] is inspired by the free spirit which the young British and French New Wave directors have brought into their movies. It is funny, not because of sight gags and punch lines and other tired rubbish, but because it has a point of view. That is to say, it is against something.” With The Graduate , the audience is the one deciding the message for themselves, instead of it being intentionally swayed towards one side like Kramer did (even if he had good intentions). The Graduate’s methods proved highly successful, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1967 (beating out second-place Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner ) and garnering seven Academy Award nominations, winning for Nichol’s direction. The film also inspired a generation of filmmakers to craft stories for a new generation of moviegoers. Films such as American Graffiti, Harold and Maude , and the filmography of Woody Allen took a more liberal policy towards sex and personal relationships. Dustin Hoffman’s career exploded following 1967. He continued with down and dirty roles in films such as Midnight Cowboy, Straw Dogs, and Lenny . His imperfections won him a passionate following of fans that saw themselves through him. He reached his peak in 1979 with his Oscar-winning role in Kramer vs. Kramer and stayed at the top of his game for nearly a quarter-century with acclaim in later roles in Death of a Salesman, Rain Man, and Tootsie . 1967 was the transition point of two eras in American cinema. It was the beginning of the end for Hollywood conventionalism and the beginning of the rise of auteur-driven filmmaking. Looking through the lens of Old and New Sentimentality, one can see why and how this specific period marked that shift and how it enforced lasting consequences on how filmmakers see their audience and how audiences see themselves on the screen. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Greatest Irish Filmmakers March 17, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen Happy St. Patrick’s Day! If we’re going by the past few years worth of Oscar nominations, it would seem that the Irish film industry is going through a renaissance period. The dark humor and rough political history of the land lend well to complex films, most recently seen in The Banshees of Inisherin and Belfast . Along with celebrating those films, I want to take a look at some of the top filmmakers to hail from the “Old Country.” Because of the close geographical proximity and political intertwining, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to distinguish someone as either Irish or English. Of course, there’s no law against being both, but I’d like my list to be narrowed down to only filmmakers who identify as Irish and mostly create Irish films. This excludes people such as Kenneth Branagh and John Boorman, as they tend to be more British with their identity and work. Fear not though, as there are still several venerable names that will be featured here, with all of them building up a distinct filmography ripe for discovery. Neil Jordan Jordan has long been fascinated by unconventional sexual relationships, which makes sense when you consider that The Crying Game was his big breakout, netting him an Oscar for his screenplay. Jordan has split his time between his homeland and Hollywood over the decades, with Interview with a Vampire, Michael Collins, The End of the Affair , and Breakfast on Pluto being some of his more popular works. He’s also helped launch the careers of several famous Irish actors such as Stephen Rea, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Colin Farrell, and Saoirse Ronan. Martin McDonagh McDonagh has become the central representative for Irish cinema through his absurdist black comedies, with almost all of them containing acts of savage violence. Yet there’s always a little bit of humanity that gleams through the bloodshed. Colin Farrell has been his most loyal compatriot, appearing in In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths , and The Banshees of Inisherin . McDonagh has also successfully transferred his style to America, directing Oscar-winning performances from Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell (also in Seven Psychopaths ) in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri . Although he does technically have an Oscar for his 2006 short film Six Shooter , the world still awaits McDonagh to climb the Dolby Theatre steps for one of his feature films. Jim Sheridan Only a select few directors have had the pleasure of working with Daniel Day-Lewis on multiple occasions, with Sheridan being the only one to work with him on three films. Their first collaboration was for Sheridan’s directorial debut My Left Foot , which netted both of them Oscar nominations, with Day-Lewis winning for his lead performance. After a brief intermission with The Field , which got Richard Harris an Oscar nomination, the pair would reunite for In the Name of the Father and The Boxer . Sheridan would amass another surprise Oscar hit a few years later, with his warm immigrant tale within In America receiving double acting nominations along with a nod for his screenplay. Lenny Abrahamson Abrahamson was originally going to have a career in philosophy, but he abandoned his doctorate studies to pursue a career in filmmaking. While his parents may have been initially disappointed in him, the decision proved to be the right one, as he was the recipient of the award for Best Director at the Irish Film and Television Awards for his debut feature, Adam and Paul . He’s won the award another four times since, most recently for Room , for which he also received a surprise Oscar nomination. His work on the small screen has been just as fruitful, with 2020’s Normal People containing two breakout performances in Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Terry George George started out as the writing partner with Jim Sheridan, sharing credit on the screenplays for In the Name of the Father and The Boxer . Sheridan would even co-write the screenplay for George’s directorial debut, Some Mother’s Son , starring Helen Mirren. He would make a splash on his first solo endeavor, 2004’s Hotel Rwanda , chronicling the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo would be nominated for their performances, along with George’s script. George would also lend his talents to HBO, working on prestige dramas such as In Treatment and Luck . John Carney Nobody loves folk music more than John Carney. He entered the scene with Once in 2007, a love story about two struggling musicians in Dublin. While a tiny production, the film was able to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly.” 2013’s Begin Again shifted that story to American, with Keira Knightly playing a singer and Mark Ruffalo as a down-on-his-luck record executive. Another Oscar nomination would be earned for the song “Lost Stars.” He moved back to Dublin for Sing Street in 2016, which rode the indie circuit to enthuse reviews for its youthful exuberance. Now the two lands have come together for his latest film, where American Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars alongside Eve Hewson in a Dublin-set story about a mother and musician coming together through song. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it received strong reviews. Apple is set to release it sometime this year. John Crowley Crowley assembled an all-star cast consisting of Cillian Murphy, Kelly Macdonald, and Colin Farrell, for his debut feature film Intermission . The grungy aesthetics of that Dublin-set story would be translated into his next feature Boy A , which announced the talents of Andrew Garfield to the world. Saoirse Ronan would be the next young actor to work with Crowley, with Brooklyn netting her an Oscar nomination along with one for Best Picture. Unfortunately, Crowley wouldn’t reach the next level with The Goldfinch , but I’m hoping it’ll only be a brief stumble followed by a confident rebound. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

25 Most Anticipated Films of 2024 January 15, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Here we are at the top of the year with nothing to do but look ahead to what awaits us. As always, there’s so much on paper that looks appetizing, with just as many more still unknown. Some of the movies on this list should have come out last, and some of these still might not come out until 2025. The double WGA-SAG strikes have put a dent in the normal flow of business, with the only remedy being time. Everything is a guessing game, a fun one nonetheless. This takes us to the first ground rule for this list, which is that 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. We also won’t count films that have already been seen in public, whether that’s at festivals or theatrical releases in other territories. Join me as I delve into the most anticipated movies of 2024, each poised to leave an indelible mark on the cinematic landscape. Get ready to navigate the sea of upcoming releases that promise to redefine the art of storytelling and captivate audiences worldwide. Honorable Mentions C’est Pas Moi (dir. Leos Carax) Juror #2 (dir. Clint Eastwood) In the Hands of Dante (dir. Julian Schnabel) Civil War (dir. Alex Garland) Wolfs (dir. Jon Watts) Emanuelle (dir. Audrey Diwan) 24. Rebel Ridge Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier reteams with Netflix for another tense and violent thriller. Aaron Pierre ( Foe ), Don Johnson, James Badge Dale, and James Cromwell lead the cast in this small-town conspiracy actioner that follows an ex-marine taking on a group of dirty cops. Saulnier’s last film was Hold the Dark in 2018, with his earlier films, Blue Ruin and Green Room , netting him some serious acclaim. Expect this to hit the fall festivals. 23. The Shrouds Even at the age of 80, David Cronenberg hasn’t lost an ounce of energy. He’s recently finished production on his follow-up to 2022’s Crimes of the Future , with the most likely landing spot being this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Diane Kruger will feature in three roles, with Vincent Cassel starring as a wealthy widower who builds a machine to connect with the dead. 22. The Rivals of Amziah King Writer/director Andrew Patterson made one of the best directorial debuts of the past few years with 2020’s The Vast of Night . He’s both writing and directing his follow-up, which is a crime thriller starring Matthew McConaughey as the titular character. The plot is still under wraps, with filming finishing last year in Oklahoma. Kurt Russell and Rob Morgan also star. 21. Voyagers Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones reteam after Under the Banner of Heaven for this biopic directed by Sebastián Lelio ( A Fantastic Woman, Gloria Bell ). Garfield will play Carl Sagan, with Edgar-Jones as Cosmos filmmaker Ann Druyan. Before the pair married, they worked together on The Golden Record, the ultimate message of humanity to extraterrestrial life for the 1977 NASA interstellar probe. 20. Here Robert Zemeckis is in desperate need of a hit, and this reteaming with Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, as well as writer Eric Roth, seems to be his best chance yet. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, this ambitious yet intimate drama “covers the events of a single room and its inhabitants spanning from the past well into the future.” And it wouldn’t be a Zemeckis film without some sort of technical wizardry, with generative A.I. providing face swap and de-aging technology for the actors. 19. Horizon: An American Saga Kevin Costner is going the Matrix and Rebel Moon route by releasing both parts of his Western epic within the same summer. Costner co-writes, produces, directs, and stars, with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, and many more rounding the sizable cast. It’s been 20 years since Costner last directed (2003’s Open Range ), so here’s hoping he’s still got the magic from Dances with Wolves in him. 18. Eden Ron Howard has assembled one of his finest casts yet for this sprawling story of several people leaving society to converge on the Galapagos Islands. Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, and Felix Kammerer comprise the group, with Tetris writer Noah Pink penning the script. Distribution is still up for grabs, with the best possible scenario being that it doesn’t go to Amazon after they executed an insulting release for his excellent Thirteen Lives just a few years ago. 17. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga My faith in George Miller is enough to overcome the lackluster trailer for this Mad Max prequel. The 77-year-old Australian director is fearless when it comes to the desert, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth venturing out with him. The film will likely repeat the path of the 2015 film, bowing at Cannes before making a scene in theaters. 16. Gladiator 2 Ridley Scott is on a bit of a period-piece hot streak (I guess it depends on who you ask) between The Last Duel , House of Gucci , and Napoleon . He’s previously done the sequels for the Alien and The Silence of the Lambs franchises, and now he’s returning to one of his most famous properties: Gladiator . Paul Mescal plays the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, with Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal lending their movie star names to the cast. 15. Untitled Mike Leigh Film After his last two films were period pieces ( Mr. Turner and Peterloo ), famed British director Mike Leigh is “returning to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.” The film was originally set to film in 2020 before being delayed by the pandemic, finally starting and wrapping this past summer. Leigh has been a Cannes staple over the past several decades, so expect him to try and make a grand return to the Croisette. 14. 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. 13. Mother Mary As one of the first films to secure a production waiver during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, David Lowery’s Mother Mary should be all set to bow this year. Anne Hathaway stars as a musician as we follow her relationship with a fashion designer, played by Michaela Coel. Hunter Schafer also stars in this A24 epic pop melodrama, with an original score and songs by Daniel Hart and Charli XCX. 12. Maria Pablo Larraín concludes his biopic trilogy consisting of Jackie and Spencer by moving further east to Paris, specifically in the 1970s. Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas, one of the world’s greatest opera singers, during her final days in The City of Light. Spencer scribe Steven Knight returns to pen the script, and El Conde cinematographer Ed Lachman will stay behind the camera. 11. Mickey 17 Not much explanation is needed for the reason behind the hype for Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite . The South Korean writer/director has been patient ever since hoisting the Academy Award for Best Picture, finally returning to Hollywood for an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel. Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, and Naomi Ackie are the on-screen talent; with Jung Jae-il (composer), Darius Khondji (cinematographer), and Jinmo Yang (editor) headlining the crew. 10. The Order Assassin’s Creed aside, Australian director Justin Kurzel has crafted one of the most underrated filmographies of the past fifteen years. His striking visuals and bold direction lifted both Macbeth and Nitram into my Top 10 of their respective years, and that grittiness will only continue with his newest film. Nicholas Hoult plays an FBI agent tracking down a group of domestic terrorists robbing banks in the Pacific Northwest who are led by Jude Law. Kurzel has bowed his films at both Cannes and TIFF in the past, so a glitzy premiere at either location seems to be in the cards. 9. Nosferatu Between his first three features, Robert Eggers has proved himself to be a master of gothic horror, so it makes sense for him to tackle one of the most famous gothic characters in cinema history. A great cast comprised of Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe has already featured in some kick-ass first-look images. With a planned Christmas Day release, here’s hoping for this to become the feel-bad movie of the holidays. 8. Dune: Part Two While I respected and appreciated the first part more than I actually liked it, there’s never a moment where I’m not excited about a new Denis Villeneuve film. It also doesn’t hurt to have new cast additions in Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken. Will this be the conclusion of Paul’s story, or be the second chapter in a trilogy? Either way, there’s so much to look forward to here. 7. Blitz After detours into television ( Small Axe ) and documentaries ( Occupied City ), director Steve McQueen is returning to feature filmmaking with a drama set during The Blitz bombing campaign of London in early WWII. Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Stephen Graham lead the ensemble cast. Cannes boss Thierry Frémaux presumably let it slip last year that the film was going to premiere at the 2024 edition of the festival, along with the fact that Apple will be making it their top awards priority. 6. Conclave I only need to read the logline to know that this film will be right up my alley: “It follows Cardinal Lomeli as he oversees the group of Cardinals responsible for selecting a new Church leader while trying to uncover a secret from the late Pontiff.” Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rosellini pack the cast, with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger at the helm, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy scribe Peter Straughan writing the screenplay. 5. The Brutalist Brady Corbet made one of the most divisive films of 2018 with Vox Lux , which turned out to be one of my favorite films of that year. His next feature has been stuck in development limbo for years, finally breaking last year with a cast led by Adrien Brody as an architect who moves to America after WWII to rebuild his life and career. Felicity Jones plays his wife, with Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, and Raffey Cassidy also part of the cast. Based on Corbet’s previous works, there will definitely be more under the surface that won’t be revealed until the projectors start churning. 4. Joker: Folie à Deux In a similar vein to Dune , the original Joker wasn’t one of my most beloved films of 2019. And yet; bringing back Joaquin Phoenix while adding Lady Gaga, and crafting this sequel in the form of a Liza Minnelli musical is too irresistible to ignore. While the majority of comic-book movies are cookie-cutter and forgettable, here’s something that sounds like it’s going to challenge its audience. 3. The Way of the Wind Terrence Malicks’s upcoming film about the life of Jesus Christ makes its fourth consecutive appearance on this list (They shot this movie in 2019!). And to be honest, I’d say it’s more likely than not that it’ll be here again next year. Religion has always played a large role in Malick’s filmography, so the prospect of him going straight to the source will make for an unforgettable spiritual experience. 2. Megalopolis Sure, Francis Ford Coppola hasn’t made a decent movie in over 25 years. But when you’re the director of The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation , and Apocalypse Now , you get a free pass for life. He’s poured over $100 million of his own money into his likely final film, with a script he’s been trying to film for almost four years. Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito, and Shia LaBeouf lead the cast. Driver supposedly plays the lead, an architect looking to rebuild New York City after a disaster. For better or for worse, this will be an experiment that any self-proclaimed cinephile has to witness. 1. Kinds of Kindness Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone aren’t letting the success of Poor Things slow down their collaborative process one bit, with the pair having already shot their third feature together this past year. Poor Things cast members Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley star alongside Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Hong Chau, and more. Lanthimos co-wrote the screenplay with his usual partner Efthimis Filippou, their first collaboration since The Killing of a Sacred Deer . Three separate stories will be told, with the cast playing different characters in each one. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

25 Most Anticipated Films of 2022 January 31, 2022 By: Hunter Friesen The last two articles I have written have been about reminiscing over the good and bad in 2021. Even with its ups and downs, 2021 could be labeled a good year for film. At the very least, it was better than 2020, even though that’s not much of a comparison. But with a new year should come a forward-thinking mindset that looks ahead to new possibilities. With its mixture of exciting new projects from both new and established talent, 2022 has the power to be even better than 2021. To get you all excited as much as I am, this article will detail twenty-five (I wanted to add fifty more, but space wouldn’t allow it) of my most anticipated films expected to be released sometime this year. Films will be listed in alphabetical order, with known release dates and distribution strategies (i.e. streaming or not) provided. Asteroid City Wes Anderson returns with Asteroid City , said to be set during an astronomy convention, with Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, and Jeff Goldblum being a few names within the starry cast. Avatar 2 (December 16) James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time. Babylon (December 25) La La Land writer/director Damien Chazelle’s period drama about Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound films. Starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. Bullet Train (July 15) Five assassins aboard a fast-moving bullet train find out their missions have something in common. From Deadpool 2 director David Leitch. Canterbury Glass (November 04) Writer/director David O. Russell returns with a stacked cast, including Christian Bale and Margot Robbie, for a story about a doctor and lawyer who swindle their way to a fortune. Disappointment Blvd. Hereditary and Midsommar writer/director Ari Aster’s “nightmare comedy” on the life of a successful entrepreneur, starring Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role. Don't Worry Darling (September 23) Florence Pugh stars as a 1950’s housewife living with her husband (Harry Styles) in a utopian experimental community. She begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets. Elvis (June 24) The legendary rock star gets the biopic treatment by Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann. Newcomer Austin Butler stars as The King, while Tom Hanks plays his manager. Emancipation (Apple TV+) Will Smith plays a runaway slave who has to make the treacherous journey from the Louisiana swamps to the free North. Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV+) Martin Scorsese’s true-crime western surrounding the mysterious murders of the Osage tribe in the 1920s. Jesse Plemons, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro star. Knives Out 2 (Netflix) Detective Benoit Blanc must solve another mystery, this time with an entirely new assortment of nefarious characters. Next Goal Wins Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Ragnarok writer/director Taika Waititi tells the true story of the American Samoa soccer team, who suffered the worst loss in World Cup history, losing to Australia 31-0 in 2001. Nope (July 22) Get Out and Us writer/director Jordan Peele’s mysterious new social horror film starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun. Poor Things Weirdo writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos tells the story of Belle Baxter, a Victorian woman who is brought back to life by an eccentric scientist. Emma Stone stars as Ms. Baxter, with Willem Dafoe as the brilliant madman. See How They Run Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are detectives solving a murder mystery where actors performing in a murder mystery are being offed one by one. Spaceman (Netflix) Adam Sandler looks to maintain his dramatic streak by starring as the first Czech astronaut. Carey Mulligan and Paul Dano also star. The Batman (March 04) Robert Pattinson dons the cape and cowl in Matt Reeves’ new take on the early days of the Dark Knight. The Fabelmans Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiography is based on his own childhood. The Gray Man (Netflix) Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans star as dueling spies in this action-thriller from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo. The Killer (Netflix) David Fincher ( The Social Network, Gone Girl ) directs Michael Fassbender as an assassin who slowly begins to lose his mind. The Northman (April 22) The Lighthouse writer/director Robert Eggers’ action-filled Viking epic is about a prince’s quest to avenge his father's murder. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (April 22) Nicolas Cage goes full meta as he plays himself, playing the part of a CIA informant as he meets his biggest fan, who happens to be a drug kingpin. The Way of the Wind Revered auteur Terrence Malick retells several episodes in the life of Jesus Christ. The Whale Brendan Fraser stars as a severely obese father who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter. Darren Aronofsky ( Black Swan ) directs this dramedy. White Noise (Netflix) Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig reteam with writer/director Noah Baumbach for the offbeat story of a professor pioneering the field of Hitler studies. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Cannes 2025 Lineup Predictions April 3, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Film festivals are a lot like whack-a-mole. When one ends, the anticipation for the next begins. Sundance always kicks things off in January high up in the mountains of Utah, followed then by Berlin Film Festival in February, and SXSW in March. Now all eyes turn to the most prestigious festival of them all: Cannes. Cannes' influence on the awards season has grown exponentially over the past decade. Their Official Competition has fielded two best picture winners in Parasite and Anora ; as well as nominees like Triangle of Sadness , Anatomy of a Fall , The Zone of Interest , The Substance , and Emilia Pérez . This expansion has gone hand-in-hand with the international growth of the Academy, with these new members being more accepting of the highbrow work that Cannes has always prided itself on. With that kind of increased attention comes a greater desire for filmmakers and studios to birth their new works on the Croisette. Delegate General Thierry Fremaux will have to navigate a minefield to select the twenty-ish films that comprise this year's Official Competition. There will be no shortage of mainstays looking to get their customary slot, as well as several newcomers looking to make a splash on the world's biggest stage. The festival will announce its full lineup on April 10. Until then, I'll take a deep dive into the field and predict which ones are likely to be given the honor of climbing the coveted red steps this year. THE HEADLINERS 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 new 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. Die, My Love Not many filmmakers have a stronger bond with Cannes than Lynne Ramsay. The Scottish-born director has debuted each of her four feature films at the festival, as well as her early shorts. She'll be breaking her eight-year absence with a story about a mother struggling to keep her sanity. Jennifer Lawrence will star as the mother, with Robert Pattinson as her partner. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother When thinking of established American directors to make Cannes their home, you’d tend to think of the Coens and Wes Anderson. But it’s actually Jim Jarmusch that deserves to be at (or at least near) the top of that list as he’s premiered eleven feature films on the Croisette since 1984. His highest point was 2005’s Broken Flowers , which took home the Grand Prix. He began shooting his new film in the fall and late winter of 2023, recruiting the likes of Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, and Vicky Krieps. 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 reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller. A24 and Apple TV+ are backing the project, with all parties interested in making a big splash before this hits theaters in the summer. No Other Choice 2022's Decision to Leave was one of director Park Chan-wook's most successful films, nabbing him the coveted Best Director prize at the festival. He'll likely return 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. 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 their hunger to nab their sixth consecutive Palme d'Or. The Phoenician Scheme Cannes thrives on star power to fill its historic red carpet, and Wes Anderson always has enough to go around. His newest cast will feature no less than Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, and Benicio del Toro in a comedic espionage thriller. Focus Features just dated the film for a theatrical release beginning on May 30, all but confirming a return to the Croisette. The Secret Agent The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho has quietly delivered some of the best-reviewed titles in each of the years he's been at Cannes. His last appearance in the Official Competition was in 2019 with Bacurau , which tied for the Jury Prize with Les Misérables . His latest project will be set in 1977, following a man who is on the run from a violent past. Walter Salles' I'm Still Here just put Brazil on the map at Venice last year with a similar story, will Filho do the same at Cannes this year? The Young Mother's Home If I were a gambling man, I would bet my entire life savings on the fact that the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will premiere their latest film at Cannes. The duo have debuted their previous ten films on the Croisette dating back to 1996, with 1999’s Rosetta and 2005’s L’enfant both winning the Palme d’Or. They’ve also won the Best Screenplay ( Lorna’s Silence ) and Best Director awards ( Young Ahmed ), as well as the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury on three separate occasions. Their newest feature will tell the story of five young mothers striving for a better life for themselves and their children. Production began last fall, giving the brothers plenty of time to prepare for a record-breaking Palme d’Or run. THE LOYALISTS An Affair Arnaud Desplechin has made nearly a dozen appearances at the festival between the main competition and the sidebars. While his last few films have been disappointments, last year's Filmlovers! was met with great acclaim, renewing his standing invitation. He's got François Civil starring as a virtuoso pianist living an impossible love story. Eagles of the Republic Like much of the Western world, Cannes still remains slow to appreciate projects that originate from Africa. The Egyptian-born Tarik Saleh won the Best Screenplay prize at the 2022 edition of the festival with Cairo Conspiracy , the second film in his Cairo trilogy that will be concluded with this year's Eagles of the Republic . It follows an actor who is pressured to star in a film commissioned by the highest authorities. Nouvelle Vague While we’ll have to wait almost another two decades for Richard Linklater’s ambitious adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along , the famed Texan filmmaker has something up his sleeve that will be irresistible to the Cannes brass. He'll be making his French-language debut with his retelling of the production of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless , complete with appearances by all the famous French New Wave figures that aided in solidifying the status that Cannes has within the industry. It’s been twenty years since Linklater last competed on the Riviera (2005’s Fast Food Nation ), so it's time for him to be brought back into the fold. Rosebush Pruning Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz has appeared in the competition lineup for the previous two editions of the festival with Firebrand and Motel Destino . The relatively muted reception to those films follows a similar trajectory throughout the rest of his Cannes career, placing a little bit of doubt on his usual standing invitation. But he's assembled his starriest cast yet in his new film, enlisting Elle Fanning, Pamela Anderson, Callum Turner, Tracy Letts, Jamie Bell, and Riley Keough in a story about a family all suffering with genetic illnesses on their estate. If this is Aïnouz's last chance to make an impression, he's at least taking the no guts, no glory approach. Silent Friend Hungarian writer/director Ildikó Enyedi did herself no favors by making her Official Competition debut with 2021's The Story of My Wife , her weakest film. However, the casting of the legendary Tony Leung in the lead role of her new project could more than well make up for that fault. The interesting concept also helps, with Leung playing an old tree observing life as he stands in the middle of a botanical garden. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele The Russian-born Kirill Serebrennikov has debuted his previous four features at Cannes, most recently last year with his English-language debut Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie . He shot his newest film before that one premiered, a retelling of notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during his fugitive years in South America. August Diehl, everyone's favorite actor for playing Nazis, will play the doctor. The Mastermind Showing Up received the most attention and praise of writer/director Kelly Reichardt's career when it premiered on the final day of the 2022 edition of the festival. It only makes sense for all parties to continue the relationship, especially with her new project being a crime thriller starring Josh O'Connor as an art thief. Reichardt has often been the unsung hero of independent cinema, so it's about time she received some laurels on a big stage. Vie Privée Writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski has been a staple of the sidebars, competing in Critics’ Week, Un Certain Regard, and Directors’ Fortnight. Will this be the time she finally graduates to the main competition? She's got none other than Jodie Foster leading her next film as a psychiatrist who mounts a private investigation after she believes that one of her patients has been murdered. Virginie Efira and Mathieu Amalric are also part of the cast. Yes! Success has followed Nadav Lapid wherever he goes as of late. He won the Golden Bear at Berlin for Synonyms in 2019, and then the Jury Prize at Cannes for Ahed's Knee in 2021. While it's definitely a coincidence, Lapid seems to be taking inspiration from Jim Carrey's 2008 Yes Man for his next feature, which will also be about a man who can only answer "yes" to every question asked to him. The Israeli Film Fund gave it backing last year, and it was pitched at the Cannes Investor Circle, so Lapid has always been interacting on the Croisette with this project. THE UP-AND-COMERS / QUESTION MARKS Eddington After three much-discussed features with A24, Ari Aster has shed his newcomer status and become one of the leading figures of American independent cinema. His new film is certainly a step up, with a cast comprised of Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. If any audience is going to be receptive to Aster's craziness on the first go-around, it would be Cannes. Miroirs No. 3 Along with Hong Sang-soo, German writer/director Christian Petzold is one of the most consistent headlining figures of the Berlin Film Festival. However, he was notably absent from this year's lineup, likely due to the time constraint caused by his newest film beginning production in the fall. The question is now if he'll wait a whole year to finally claim the elusive Golden Bear, or pivot to another major European festival. Cannes would be happy to have Petzold's, especially since it marks another reteaming of the director with the luminous Paula Beer. Orphan László Nemes began his career in 2015 at the top of the mountain. His film Son of Saul won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and then the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (now named Best International Feature). He debuted his follow-up, Sunset , in 2018 at Venice to less acclaim and attention. He'll be staying in his native Hungary for his third feature, centering on a young boy who must confront the truth about his father after he turns out to be alive after being presumed dead. Nemes' usual collaborators co-writer Clara Royer and cinematographer Mátyás Erdely are back as well. Resurrection Chinese mainland director Bi Gan was the talk of the town in 2018 when he debuted Long Day's Journey Into Night , complete with the one-hour-long single take, as part of the Un Certain Regard section. Production on his next project, a sci-fi detective story, has been in production for quite some time, supposedly being finished late last year. Multiple producers from all over the world have boarded the project over the past few months, signaling a lot of confidence in what Gan has created. Stitches Angelina Jolie looks to be staying in Paris for one more film. This time she'll be playing an American filmmaker arriving to cover the famed Fashion Week, facing challenges and self-discovery. Cannes veteran Alice Winocour wrote and directed the feature, with her previous effort being the well-reviewed Revoir Paris in 2022. The History of Sound Reports were published last summer that director Oliver Hermanus' new film wouldn't be ready in time for the fall festivals. It would instead use the extra time it had bought to fine-tune and wait for a potential premiere at Cannes. With rising superstars Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal headlining, that bet may pay off quite well. Even if it doesn't appear at Cannes, expect it to be a heavy hitter at Venice, where Hermanus took Living back in 2022. The Love That Remains Hlynur Pálmason's Godland made quite the splash in the Un Certain Regard section in 2022, eventually being shortlisted as Iceland's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. He shot his new film under-the-radar in Iceland last year, which will tell the story of a family as the parents navigate a separation amidst the changing seasons. The film has already been shopped around at the Berlin Film Market for worldwide distribution, signaling that it's ready to go. The big question that remains is if he'll graduate to the Official Competition, or remain in the sidebars. The Wave Cannes got more than they bargained for with Emilia Pérez last year. Would they be willing to program another Spanish-language musical so quickly, this time from renowned filmmaker Sebastián Lelio? His story takes place in his native Chile, centering on a student who gets involved in a feminist movement at her university. Cannes remains one of the few festivals Lelio hasn't made an impression at (his 2009 film Navidad premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section to tepid reviews), giving him all the more reason to represent South American cinema on the world's biggest stage. The Way of the Wind There’s no way to figure out when a Terrence Malick film will be released. All you can do is wait and pray. Malick premiered his last movie, A Hidden Life , at Cannes in 2019, and he also won the Palme d’Or for his magnum opus The Tree Of Life in 2011. He once again has saddled himself with another weighty topic, as The Way Of The Wind will tell several episodes of the life of Jesus Christ, led by a cast of Mark Rylance, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, and Matthias Schoenaerts. Several of Malick’s films have been delayed for years as he endlessly tinkers in the editing room, so there’s no telling when this film will be seen. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24: Tyler's Time at the Festival September 23, 2024 By: Tyler Banark For the third consecutive year, I attended the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). My first two years were filled with joy, friendships, and little sleep. To the surprise of no one, I got that again, and a little more. I intended to see 27 movies in the span of 9 days. Although I fell slightly short of my goal, as I saw 25 in that same amount of time, TIFF was still a blast, and having a press pass to help with certain films was helpful. I saw screenings from every corner of the festival, from the world premieres showcased in the Princess of Wales Theatre and Roy Thomson Hall to the many compact auditoriums of the Scotiabank Theatre and TIFF Lightbox. I aimed to see various movies, not just the ones with big-name titles and star-studded casts. Here are my thoughts on everything I saw at the 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. I kicked the festival off with a press screening of Bird , starring Barry Keoghan. One of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival, Bird , contains a good start that unravels into some weird moments in the second half. Keoghan gives the second-best performance of his career (behind Saltburn ) while supporting star Franz Rogowski and newcomer Nykiya Adams compliment him. However, the use of Lo-Fi music was a bit off-putting, and the film's intentions didn't add up. Fast forward hours later, I attended the opening night of Midnight Madness with a screening of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance . As a movie I had strong feelings that I was going to hate, The Substance surprisingly worked for me. Not only does the leading trio of Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid work wonders, but the movie also makes a powerful argument for women's beauty standards in today's society. It also helps that I saw it with a Midnight Madness crowd, one of the best crowds you could experience while seeing a movie at TIFF. On my first Friday, I started with Joshua Oppenheimer's narrative debut, The End . A sci-fi drama that also functions as a musical, it was an okay start to the day that was quickly forgotten. At least Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon gave noteworthy (no pun intended) solo numbers, and George MacKay had a pleasant tenor voice. That night, I had a double feature of world premieres in Mike Flanagan's The Life of Chuck and John Crowley's We Live in Time . Although The Life of Chuck worked for many TIFF-goers to the point where it won the People's Choice Award, it was slightly underwhelming for me. I personally thought the movie was very schmaltzy to the point where Flanagan was doing his impression of Steven Spielberg. For We Live in Time , I was not a fan of even though I love both the stars: Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. It is a very sappy movie that, without a doubt, was one of TIFF's biggest letdowns this year. I finally got my first dose of solid cinema in Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, Anora . Although I wasn’t a fan of The Florida Project , Anora worked for me as it contained a strong lead performance in Mikey Madison and a whirlwind of a script reminisced of the Safdie brothers’ Good Time and Uncut Gems . The euphoria I felt with that movie ended when I followed it up with Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl . A film with a heart and lead performance in the right place, The Last Showgirl didn’t have much going for it other than acting as a hopeful career resurgence for Pamela Anderson. Luckily, my neutrality washed away with Ron Howard’s Eden . Dubbed his darkest movie to date, Eden sees a strong cast bringing out the worst in humanity in a true story thriller about a group of Germans living on a South American isle. Ana de Armas became the talk of the town here as her role paints her in a villainous light that we haven’t seen before. Capping off the opening weekend were a couple of religion-infused thrillers in Edward Berger’s drama Conclave , followed by the Canadian premiere of Justin Kurzel’s action piece The Order , and the world premiere of A24’s new horror flick Heretic . Conclave was a rich drama featuring a solid cast led by Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, and Stanley Tucci. The Order dethroned Anora as the best of the fest up until that point, as Kurzel made a gritty action thriller that met my expectations to a tee. Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult led the movie with two mesmerizing performances that shouldn’t go unnoticed by moviegoers. Not only were the action and the acting the prominent points on display in The Order , but the subject matter focusing on a neo-nazi militant group that ran rampant in the Pacific Northwest made the movie more eye-opening. Heretic failed to keep the streak going, as it was an okay horror flick that featured a chilling Hugh Grant turn. It did showcase how much of a double-edged sword religion can be, but it doesn’t break the mold of other A24 horror outings. As the latter half of the festival continued, my thoughts on the other movies I saw were vast and ever-changing. I got some awful outings in Relay , Queer , Nightbitch , and Oh, Canada , where the most vital thing they had going for them was the people working on them. Just because the cast and crew were of respected talent didn’t mean they were the saving graces. Lily James and Amy Adams played sour characters and gave unamusing turns in Relay and Nightbitch , respectively. Daniel Craig provides a good performance as an eccentric traveler in Queer , an otherwise dull film. My disappointment for it was immeasurable as Luca Guadagnino had this as his follow-up to Challengers , which is my favorite movie of the year thus far. Meanwhile, Oh, Canada sees Paul Schrader craft a drama about a man recalling his flees from the US to Canada during the Vietnam War as an unreliable narrator. Films like Megalopolis and On Swift Horses fell towards the middle of the rating scale. Although vastly different, both had strong talent, like the aforementioned movies, but they were closer to being my cup of tea. Experiencing Megalopolis in and of itself was a fever dream, with an interview scene being precisely what I imagined it to be and performances that were all over the place in the best and worst ways imaginable. As for On Swift Horses , the cast of Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Will Poulter, and Diego Calva do what they can with a story that has no substance. A step above these two were The Assessment , Harbin , and Friendship , three more drastically different movies that worked slightly for me but weren’t enough to blow me away. Then there were the movies that worked for me: Saturday Night , Babygirl , The Piano Lesson , The Brutalist , and The Wild Robot . Saturday Night was the best of TIFF 2024 with its star-studded cast that fit into their roles like a glove, layered with impeccable writing from Gil Kenan and director Jason Reitman. The energy was in the air at the TIFF premiere, and the audience ate it up. Babygirl and The Brutalist were also conversation starters at the fest as they were hot off successful world premieres at the Venice Film Festival and were immediately picked up by A24. I intend to see them again once they roll out in theaters because they demand the audience's attention and will get even more people talking about them. The Piano Lesson was a drama that had no business suddenly turning into a horror film in its climax, yet it worked masterfully. Lastly, The Wild Robot will be a major animated film this awards season. Those nine days were a whirlwind for me, but it was the best kind. While I may have recovered my brain, eyes, and circadian rhythm from the ever-changing week, the movies and memories I made at TIFF 2024 will stick with me for a long time. The filmmakers who brought something to the Toronto table this year cooked a divine feast, and I honestly wished it didn’t end. If good things lasted forever, they wouldn’t be as precious. So thank you Toronto for another wonderful year, and I look forward to returning very soon! FULL RANKING 1. Saturday Night(4.5/5) 2. The Order (4.5/5) 3. Anora (4/5) 4. The Wild Robot (4/5) 5. The Substance (4/5) 6. Eden (4/5) 7. The Piano Lesson (4/5) 8. Babygirl (4/5) 9. The Brutalist (3.5/5) 10. Conclave (3.5/5) 11. Bird (3.5/5) 12. Friendship (3/5) 13. The Assessment (3/5) 14. The Life of Chuck (3/5) 15. Harbin (3/5) 16. The Last Showgirl (2.5/5) 17. Megalopolis (2.5/5) 18. Heretic (2.5/5) 19. The End (2.5/5) 20. On Swift Horses (2.5/5) 21. We Live in Time (2/5) 22. Relay (2/5) 23. Oh Canada (2/5) 24. Nightbitch (1.5/5) 25. Queer (1.5/5) You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Awards Update: Chucking At The Wall And Seeing What Sticks May 11, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Welcome to an ongoing series where I cover the 2024/2025 awards season. On a regular basis, I will update my Oscar predictions, taking into account the new information that has been received since the last update. Full predictions in every category can be found on the Home and Awards page. Christopher Nolan’s ascendancy to Oscar glory with Oppenheimer might have only happened two months ago, but that doesn’t mean the awards train has stopped altogether. As the old saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. Of course, there is such a thing as opening the door too early, but there’s also a great deal of fun to be had at this time of the year when almost anything is possible. The final few months of any awards season can start to feel repetitive, with the same group of nominees and winners appearing at every successive awards show. And now the puzzle pieces are completely scattered, leaving their final configuration up to anyone’s imagination. Who could have predicted the resurgence of CODA in 2021, or the meteoric sustainability of Everything Everywhere All at Once the following year? How many of us truly thought at this point last year that the famously anti-audience Jonathan Glazer would become such a stalwart contender with The Zone of Interest ? Speaking of The Zone of Interest , its birthplace, the Cannes Film Festival, is just around the corner. Historically located on the French Riviera, the festival’s Oscar influence has greatly expanded over the years, with notable premieres including Cold War , Parasite , Another Round * , Drive My Car , Triangle of Sadness , and Anatomy of a Fall . It’s no surprise that the world’s most prominent international film festival has courted increased favor from the ever-growingly diverse AMPAS voting body. So, what’s on the horizon at this year’s edition? Hot off his very successful Poor Things , Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe for Kinds of Kindness , an anthology film rumored to return to the Greek director’s darker roots. While I don’t think the film will reach the heavyweight status of The Favourite and Poor Things , the Academy’s overwhelming passion for Lanthimos’ work signals a willingness to weather the weirdness. I have my eye on Dafoe and Hong Chau getting some overdue narrative buzz. Also overdue are Paul Schrader, Uma Thurman, and Richard Gere, who have Oh, Canada . There’s also David Cronenberg with The Shrouds , which is said to be his most personal work yet. On the international front is Paolo Sorrentino with the stunningly black-and-white Parthenope , Jacques Audiard with the Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana-led Emilia Perez , and Jia Zhangke’s cryptically long-gestating Caught by the Tides . Almost all of our recent international Best Director nominees have come from Cannes, so it stands to reason that someone in this competition lineup will pop. 2024 is the year of question marks, and no bigger question at Cannes is Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis . Early buzz from industry screenings tells the tale of an enormous film too unusual for the Oscars, so Coppola will need to lean on the critics (and festival jury) to put some wind back in his sails. I’m skeptical about any above-the-line nominations, but could maybe see some movement in the craft categories. Of course, the question of which distributor takes its domestic rights is almost as important as its overall reception. Sticking with the theme of questions, we have a lot of those once we veer our sights later into the year. Warner Bros. has a trio of sequels to huge Oscar hits in Dune: Part Two , Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (premiering out-of-competition at Cannes), and Joker: Folie à Deux . Dune: Part Two seems safe to repeat or improve on its previous iteration’s nomination tally on account of its improved critical and commercial success. I have a little more confidence in Todd Phillips to capture lighting in a bottle again, mostly due to his sequel seemingly pushing itself (and the comic-book genre) in a different direction. The trailer also displayed some immaculate craftsmanship, giving strength to a potential Best Picture repeat. Since the expansion of the Best Picture category to a locked ten system, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever remains the only film to receive more than three overall nominations and not be nominated for Best Picture. Another Oscar-hungry sequel is Gladiator II . Ridley Scott has been hot and cold (mostly cold) with awards since the turn of the century, but the prestige and hype surrounding this project might inspire a decent haul of craft nominations. Other substantial below-the-line players include Wicked , Twisters , and Nosferatu . Looking further into the above-the-line categories, the potentially biggest player is Steve McQueen’s Blitz about the London bombings during World War II. McQueen may have already claimed Best Picture with 12 Years a Slave , but he didn’t receive Best Director. He’s got Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Stephen Graham leading his cast. Focus Features has its own historical prestige project in Conclave , directed by Edward Berger ( All Quiet on the Western Front ) and starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, and Stanley Tucci. Despite being a legend in the industry, Fiennes hasn’t been nominated in over twenty-five years, a fact that I think will play very well into his Lead Actor campaign. My biggest no guts, no glory predictions this year revolve around Mike Leigh and his film Hard Truths . It didn’t show up on the Cannes lineup, signaling a debut in the fall. Leigh has seven career nominations to his name, and he’s reuniting with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Other competitors in the Lead Actress category will likely be Angelina Jolie for Pablo Larraín’s Maria and Jessica Lange in the film adaption of Long Day’s Journey Into Night . Being that it’s only May, I expect almost half of my initial predictions to be wrong. That’s just the way the game is played. Luckily, I’ll be in Cannes in a few weeks to check out the contenders premiering there, and then be in the thick of the summer blockbuster season. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen

Top 10 Films of 2024 December 28, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen In my Best of 2023 list, I described my choices as "predictable," taking both a positive and negative stance on that scenario. Anyone who knows me wouldn't be surprised that historical dramas by Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, a David Fincher hitman thriller, and a Wes Anderson comedy would end up being some of my favorites of the year. 2024 ended up being very different, with many of the titles on this list coming clear out of left field. Could that be a sign that the usual heavy hitters are on their way down, or that last year's SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes have walloped the industry with more than just a temporary blow? Perhaps. But it could also mean that there are so many of those medium and small films out there, many ready to change your life if you just give them a chance. The only currency that matters in cinema is the experience you have in your seat and in the time that follows. All ten of the films featured in this list (and the extra ten honorable mentions) are boundlessly wealthy in that department, which is why I'm so excited to talk about them one more time before the book is closed. Honorable Mentions: A Complete Unknown , Dune: Part Two , I'm Still Here, Kinds of Kindness , Nickel Boys , Nosferatu , Saturday Night , September 5, The Apprentice , The Order 10. Maria Pablo Larraín concludes his biopic trilogy not with a story about a figure at the end of an era, but at the end of their life. This Maria Callas-led capper is further separated from the previous two efforts, the frenzied claustrophobia substituted with something more hauntingly elegiac, with Ed Lachmann's warm cinematographer and Guy Hendrix Dyas' sumptuous production design proving that pretty surroundings don't equal a pretty life. Angelina Jolie reminds us of her immense screen presence and poise as a performer, guiding us through Callas' tumultuous past and present. Full Review 9. The Substance If there’s one thing writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s sophomore feature hates more than attached limbs and unspilled blood, it’s subtlety. She knows that if you’re not going to be first or the most insightful, then you might as well make damn sure you’re going to the most audaciously unforgettable. With Julia Ducournau and Fargeat rising through the ranks of international cinema, the no-holds-barred corner that they occupy is looking like a mighty fine place to camp out for a while. Full Review 8. We Live in Time Featuring two of the most charming performances of the year by Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, We Live in Time is the kind of heart-tugging romantic drama that they don't make anymore. Cutting back and forth in time, screenwriter Nick Payne pieces together the story of a relationship, the trials and tribulations that drive humans to seek companionship with each other. Director John Crowley, excellently rebounding from The Goldfinch , makes sure none of this seems corny or overblown, applying a deft touch that authentically incites tears of laughter and sadness. 7. Emilia Pérez To try and categorize the filmography of French maestro Jacques Audiard into one box would be an act of futility, a sentiment that extends to his newest Mexican-set film. Is it a musical? Is it a crime thriller? Is it a life-affirming melodrama? It’s all and none of those things, harnessing the unique power of each genre to create a film bursting with bombast. Karla Sofía Gascón is a true discovery in the titular role, as are the musical talents of Zoe Saldaña that are rarely able to be shown outside of her CGI-heavy work. Full Review 6. Evil Does Not Exist Arthouse superstar Ryûsuke Hamaguchi makes his most outspoken work with Evil Does Not Exist . The relative leanness of Drive My Car has been dialed down to a quiet tranquility. Those who embrace the molasses will find themselves powerfully transported, a task that becomes much simpler with the aid of Eiko Ishibashi’s magnificent score. Despite being clear in his message, Hamaguchi never eviscerates the villains of this story, delivering an ecological parable that intricately paints in shades of grey. 5. The Girl with the Needle An ultra-grim fairy tale comes to life in writer/director Magnus von Horn’s loose retelling of Denmark’s most heinous and prolific serial killer. The depressing gloom of post-WWI Copenhagen is lensed in claustrophobic black-and-white, and the dread drip-fed through abstract visuals and a deeply haunting score. Vic Carmen Stone and Trine Dyrholm are standouts in their lead roles, guiding not just through this literal story, but also the universal lesson of the nightmares women have endured throughout history. 4. The End Even in the darkest depths of the Earth at the end of humanity, you can still find a reason to sing and dance. Co-writer/director Joshua Oppenheimer, famed for his one-two documentary punch of The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence , makes sure his fiction feature debut is as bold and audacious as one would expect. The Golden Age influences of Jacques Demy and Vincent Minnelli supply the bravura, the cast's confidence more important than their physical abilities. This is an absurdist concept with humorous moments, but it’s also so sincere that you can’t simply excuse it as another "eat the rich" story. These are rich characters, both emotionally and financially, with their inner delusions offering a complex lesson on how we handle the horrors that are right in front of us. Full Review 3. Conclave For someone who seemed to appear out of nowhere with All Quiet on the Western Front , director Edward Berger has quickly strung together two of the finest films of the past few years. Conclave is a soap opera with as much page-turning substance as it has a prestige-like style, with Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan keeping the balance between thrills and social critique just as pristine as it was in Robert Harris’ novel. Longstanding acting royalty fills the cast, each of them maintaining a quiet dignity as a web of lies and deceit begins to unspool right in front of them. Full Review 2. The Brutalist The Brutalist is a full-course cinema meal, requiring an afternoon to consume and much longer to digest. It’s easy to savor every moment of it in real-time because of its boundless beauty, and just as easy over time thanks to its long lingering themes on the ideals that modern America convinced itself it was built upon. With a record-breaking runtime of 215 minutes (including an intermission!), each scene flows with more freedom and weight, all of them simultaneously epic and intimate as the camera glacially passes through the years. With three features to his name as a director, Brady Corbet has become one of the most formidable artists of his generation, challenging his audience to see the darkness that our world invites. Full Review 1. The Beast First watched in September 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival (and rewatched in April of this year as part of the film's US release), Bertrand Bonello's sci-fi epic was the clear wire-to-wire winner of the year. Bonello displays a mastery of tone and vision across his 146-minute adaptation of Henry James' genre-defying novella. There’s passion, fear, humor, drama, and everything in between as Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play characters in three different periods - 1910, 2014, 2044 - as they navigate the unknowable connection they feel for each other. It's a greatly demanding work exploring the fear of opening oneself up to risk and the unknown, something that modern audiences have continually proven to be less adept at overcoming. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Final 2026 Academy Award Predictions March 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Starting with the Cannes Film Festival in May, the film awards season is finally coming to a close with the Academy Awards. It’s been an exciting season, with every contender and pretender experiencing their own rollercoaster of emotions. For some, it’s been a steady climb of positivity, while for others, the fall came much sooner than expected. Even though the Oscars are the last and most significant ceremony, it’s not the only awards show in town — collectively known as “precursors.” Several critics' groups and guilds present their awards between December and March, with the winners often strongly predicting the Oscar outcome. Major precursor awards include the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Critics’ Choice, British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), and the Producers Guild of America (PGA). Using a mix of this season’s precursor results and nearly a century of voter patterns, I’ve made my predictions for who will win in each of the twenty-four Oscar categories, along with analysis for all above-the-line categories. I hope this helps you win your Oscar pool and brag to your friends and family. Best Picture One Battle After Another Sinners Hamnet Sentimental Value Marty Supreme Frankenstein Bugonia The Secret Agent Train Dreams F1: The Movie Despite a record-breaking sixteen nominations for Sinners , which led many of us to assume that this would be a two-horse race between that and One Battle After Another , only one of those horses has been consistently winning throughout this season. The latter film has gone on an unprecedented winning streak throughout the precursors, picking up the top prize at the Golden Globes (Best Musical or Comedy), Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, PGA, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, and the Gotham Awards. Sinners won the best ensemble prize from the Screen Actors Guild, a prize that correlates well with Best Picture. But when comparing that prize against One Battle After Another ’s haul, this doesn’t seem like a fair fight. Best Director Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) Ryan Coogler (Sinners) Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value) Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) Even if the battle (pun intended) seemed slightly open between One Battle After Another and Sinners , this is a category where there was never any doubt. Paul Thomas Anderson has won the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, DGA, and BAFTA awards, fully sealing up his Oscar chances. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, this will be a nice moment for one of America’s greatest modern filmmakers to receive his flowers finally. Best Original Screenplay Sinners Sentimental Value Marty Supreme Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident It’s been fun this season to watch the two titans of One Battle After Another and Sinners dominate their respective screenplay categories. The former won at the only head-to-head matchup at the Golden Globes, which does not separate its screenplay prize. Other than that, Sinners has won the Critics’ Choice, WGA, and BAFTA prizes. While the WGA prize comes with a bit of an asterisk from the weaker competition due to guild restrictions, its win at BAFTA was mighty impressive since it beat the theoretical runner-up, Sentimental Value , which seemed more likely to win closer to its home turf. Best Adapted Screenplay One Battle After Another Hamnet Train Dreams Bugonia Frankenstein To put things in perspective, Paul Thomas Anderson has won the Best Adapted Screenplay prize from forty-five critics/guild organizations throughout this entire awards season. The film with the second most wins is Pillion … with two. And that film isn’t even nominated for the Oscar! There’s no reason to have a shred of doubt over PTA continuing that trajectory to the Oscars. Best Casting Sinners One Battle After Another Marty Supreme Hamnet The Secret Agent As this is the first year for this category, we don’t have any precedent to assume the tendencies of voters and the influence of precursor awards. The nominees were selected by the Casting Directors Branch, which went pretty basic, with only Best Picture nominees. If we extend that logic to the entire Academy membership when it comes time to vote for the winners, the eventual winner will likely be Sinners or One Battle After Another . The former won the prize from the Casting Society of America, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics’ Choice, and boasts the legendary status of casting director Francine Maisler. Best Lead Actor Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) After presumably coming in second place last year to Adrian Brody ( The Brutalist ), Timothée Chalamet seemed primed to ascend the coveted steps to victory. He won the Golden Globe (Musical or Comedy) and Critics’ Choice, cementing himself as the clear favorite. Since then, he’s been stumbling, losing to Robert Aramayo at BAFTA and Michael B. Jordan at SAG. Theoretically, Chalamet still has the objective edge. But his loss of momentum is coinciding with Sinners ’ rise across several categories, which is why I’m going a bit out on a limb with Jordan. Best Lead Actress Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You) Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) Emme Stone (Bugonia) Jessie Buckley has undergone one of the most dominant runs this decade for an actor. Along with a few dozen critics’ prizes, she also picked up the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and SAG prizes. There’s no way she loses the Oscar after that. Best Supporting Actor Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) Delroy Lindo (Sinners) Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another) After nearly a decade of this category being plagued by unambiguous sweepers, it’s nice to witness some chaos. Jacob Elordi kicked off the revolving door by unexpectedly winning the Critics’ Choice. That was then followed by Stellan Skarsgård winning at the Golden Globes, and Sean Penn at BAFTA and SAG. There’s even still the wild card of Delroy Lindo, who was not even nominated at any of the precursors. After all those absences, his unlikely inclusion here signals that the Oscar voters really like him. With Penn taking the two biggest prizes, it seems like he’s got the advantage. Best Supporting Actress Amy Madigan (Weapons) Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value) Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value) For several months on paper, the lack of stiff competition made it seem like Ariana Grande would steamroll her way to a victory of Wicked: For Good . The winds started to change once Amy Madigan picked up Critics’ Choice and Teyana Taylor won the Golden Globe. Things were then blown wide open once Grande was snubbed entirely, with further chaos occurring once Wunmi Mosaku won the BAFTA. Now that Madigan won at SAG during the final stretch of the Oscar voting window, she might be the ultimate victor. This is still a very close race to call. Best Cinematography One Battle After Another Train Dreams Sinners Marty Supreme Frankenstein Ever since Ryan Coogler collaborated with Kodak to publish a YouTube video explaining the different aspect ratios of Sinners , it seemed like that film had this Oscar in the bag. And yet, those fortunes never materialized amongst the industry awards, with One Battle After Another unexpectedly running away with awards from the British Society of Cinematographers, BAFTA, and American Society of Cinematographers. Best Film Editing One Battle After Another F1: The Movie Sinners Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Even at a length of 161-minutes, One Battle After Another flies by with its flawless breakneck pacing. That sentiment awarded it the Best Film Editing prize at BAFTA and the American Cinema Editors Awards (Comedy), a precursor combination that has flawlessly led to Oscar victory. Best Original Score Sinners One Battle After Another Frankenstein Hamnet Bugonia Is Ludwig Göransson about to become the new John Williams? The jury is still out if he’ll be able to match the sheer number of nominations. But it’s certainly looking like he’ll be able to match the tally of wins. He’s won the Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Grammy for his original score for Sinners . That will definitely translate to the Oscars, where it will mark his third victory in seven years. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, I fully expect him to be back at or near this same position next year with The Odyssey . Best Original Song “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters) “I Lied to You” (Sinners) “Train Dreams” (Train Dreams) “Dear Me” (Diane Warren: Relentless) “Sweet Dreams of Joy” (Viva Verdi!) With 1.5 billion streams on Spotify, “Golden” is the kind of chart-topping song that could not be muscled out of the top position of this category. It’s a similar trajectory to recent winners like “Shallow” and “Skyfall,” which harnessed their cultural popularity as an asset to Oscar glory. Wins at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, and Grammys further secured its victory potential. Best Sound F1: The Movie Sinners Sirât One Battle After Another Frankenstein When in doubt, it’s always wise to pick the loudest film and/or the film that intertwines its soundwork with its narrative. The consolidation of Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing into a single category has also implicitly suggested that the predicted winner must also be a Best Picture nominee. That disqualifies Sirât , a shame because it features some ingenious audio moments. F1: The Movie is by far the loudest film of the Best Picture nominees, and fits the action genre mold of previous winners like Ford v Ferrari , Top Gun: Maverick , and the two Dune films. Best Production Design Frankenstein Sinners Marty Supreme Hamnet One Battle After Another Similar to Best Costume Design, this category is all about capturing a period in time ( All Quiet on the Western Front , Mank , Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ) or creating a fictional world ( Dune: Part One , Mad Max: Fury Road , Poor Things , Wicked ). Frankenstein melds both of those qualities in lavish style, with gigantic, sumptuous sets that are always highlighted by Guillermo del Toro’s constantly roaming camera. It won at Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, the Set Decorators Society of America (Fantasy or Science Fiction Film), and the Art Directors Guild Award (Period Film). Best Costume Design Frankenstein Sinners Hamnet Marty Supreme Avatar: Fire and Ash To win this category, you must be a film with period costumes, specifically dresses. It’s what recent winners like Wicked , Cruella , Poor Things , and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom all have in common. Of this year’s crop of nominees, Frankenstein is the closest comparison. It won this prize at the Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and the Costume Designers Guild Awards (Excellence in Period Film). Best Makeup & Hairstyling Frankenstein Sinners The Smashing Machine Kokuho The Ugly Stepsister The key to this category is to have a transformative performance as a leading contender in one of the acting races. Recent winners that exemplify this strategy include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom , The Eyes of Tammy Faye , The Whale , Poor Things , and The Substance . Frankenstein fits that bill this year, with Jacob Elordi fully plastered in makeup as the mad scientist’s famous undead creation. The film won this award at the Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and Best Special Make-Up Prosthetics at the Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild’s awards. Best Visual Effects Avatar: Fire and Ash F1: The Movie Sinners The Lost Bus Jurassic World: Rebirth What other purpose is there for the Avatar films besides grossing billions of dollars and winning this category? I’m so sure of this prediction that I’m already rubberstamping Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 for this win in their respective years. Best Animated Feature KPop Demon Hunters Zootopia 2 Arco Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Elio This category has seen some tight races over the past few years, with The Boy and the Heron and Flow upsetting predicted favorites Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Wild Robot , respectively. That’s unlikely to happen this year as KPop Demon Hunters has steamrolled the competition with its culture-defining popularity. Further bolstering its chances is the high likelihood that “Golden” will win the Oscar for Best Original Song. Best International Feature Sentimental Value (Norway) The Secret Agent (Brazil) It Was Just an Accident (France) Sirât (Spain) The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) Sentimental Value maxed out its nomination haul on Oscar nomination morning, getting in at every above-the-line category it was eligible for. That also includes Best Film Editing, another strong indication of the film’s strength across several branches. It also swept the European Film Awards and won Best Film Not in the English Language at the BAFTAs, where it received an equally high number of nominations. The Secret Agent is no slouch either, winning this category at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice. That Best Picture nomination was not guaranteed on Oscar nomination like Sentimental Value was, hinting that there’s enough passion to make it competitive against the odds. Not that it’s causation, but a country hasn’t won this category in consecutive years since Denmark did in 1987 and 1988 with Babette’s Feast and Pelle the Conqueror , respectively. I’m Still Here won this award last year when it statistically shouldn’t have, so I wouldn’t fully count out Brazil to pull off another upset. Best Documentary Feature The Perfect Neighbor The Alabama Solution Mr. Nobody Against Putin Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks There’s one film each year whose biggest fight is to push past this branch’s biases and simply get nominated. Once that’s accomplished, the win is almost a formality. My Octopus Teacher and Summer of Soul are recent examples of this route. The Perfect Neighbor will likely replicate it, with its popularity extending to the culture at large thanks to its release on Netflix and poignant topic. There are never any sure things with this category, so a surprise winner is a very real possibility. Best Animated Short Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls Best Documentary Short Film : All the Empty Rooms Best Live-Action Short Film : Two People Exchanging Saliva More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen

The American New Wave of 1970s Hollywood May 4, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many American filmmakers sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema. For the past several decades, American films were built upon prestige and spectacle, drawing millions to see wondrous images and famous faces on a gigantic screen. Largely influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, a new batch of American filmmakers created a movement called the “American New Wave” or “New Hollywood.” This movement defied the nostalgic standards of yesteryear and created a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. With the meteoric rise of television and inflated production costs, studios were in a state of financial ruin when this movement was beginning to form. Coupled with the disbanding of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1967, these filmmakers had a golden opportunity of artistic freedom and expression. Two of the most prominent filmmakers in New Hollywood were the Italian-American duo of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. They modeled their filmmaking process around the auteur theory and did whatever they could to break and reshape the rules of Hollywood. The two films that broke new ground were Coppola’s The Godfather in 1972 and Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1976. These two films challenged Old Hollywood storytelling through their use of social messaging, complicated central characters, and attitudes towards on-screen violence. The incorporation of social messaging within movies had been around for some time in Old Hollywood, but it was often lightened for audiences. Stanley Kramer spoke about societal issues in many of his films, such as The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner . Despite being released right around the time of the counterculture movement of the 1960s, these films were geared towards older generations of moviegoers, the ones that would better respond to conventionalism and star power. While he revered Kramer, Martin Scorsese didn’t follow in his footsteps when it came to telling his story. Taxi Driver is set in the authentic 1970s version of New York City, filled with pimps, prostitutes, drugs, and murder. In a voiceover, the central character, a lonely taxi driver named Travis Bickle, describes his nightly routine: “Each night, when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the c** off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.” Travis is just a cab driver, and only about three feet separate him from his passengers. And yet, somehow semen and blood end up on his seats. Our imaginations can only run wild with the disgusting things he witnesses every night. Seeing these horrific events nightly slowly pushes Travis to his breaking point, which he was already a bit too close to due to the undiagnosed PTSD he carries with him since his discharge from the Vietnam War. He has no contempt for his fellow man and only sees them as the worst versions of themselves. In one of his monologues, Travis describes the cities residents as ”animals coming out at night – whores, skunk p*****s, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday, a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” This quote shows the mental downfall of Travis and how he decides to take matters into his own hands. Scorsese, and screenwriter Paul Schrader, give the audience an honest and unsensitized depiction of what New York City is like. Gone are the days of the glimmering bustle of New York in films such as Guys and Dolls and Breakfast at Tiffany’s . Taxi Driver, along with other New Hollywood films like Midnight Cowboy and The French Connection showed New York as a cesspool of crime and villainy that no decent person should visit, let alone live in. Also set in New York City, albeit a few decades earlier, was Coppola’s The Godfather . Adapted from the novel by Mario Puzo, Coppola steeps his film into the rich Italian immigrant culture, one filled with hardships and stresses the importance of family. Vito Corleone is a character that is given immense psychological development. Many of his actions are done to protect his family and strengthen his relationships with the other crime families. He still can be considered a villain, as he orders men to be killed and works in illegal enterprises. With Brando’s method acting, Vito was an unprecedented authentic depiction of Italian-Americans, distancing the image away from the Tommy Gun swinging depictions in earlier films such as The Public Enemy and Scarface . There could also be an argument made that Coppola’s new image became a harmful stereotype, as The Godfather became immensely influential in how Italian-Americans were portrayed in future films. Similar to Vito, it’s difficult to place the character of Travis Bickle on the spectrum of hero and villain. He takes a complicated journey from an outcast to a killer, with almost everything being under the surface. Scorsese and Schrader avoid what director Sidney Lumet called “the rubber-ducky moment,” a phrase that stemmed from the television specials of the 1950s where characters and their motivations could be easily explained. For example, a person’s rubber ducky was stolen as a child and that’s why they became a deranged killer. Lumet criticized this moment for being too simple and preposterous, as nobody’s personality and persona could come from just one experience. Scorsese and Schrader never simplify Travis as a character. Film essayist Matt Zoller Seitz (2016) noticed the initial complexity by writing: “There is nothing spontaneous or natural about this man. He’s deeply damaged, maybe by the war, maybe by his childhood; we don’t know exactly what his problem is, and ultimately it doesn’t matter.” We never truly know what Travis problems are, and we never know exactly what is going on inside his mind. Based on his monologues previously mentioned, we can only imagine what Travis sees and thinks about. Even if we don’t always know everything that’s happening internally, Scorsese does give us glimpses from time to time. The famous mirror scene is an example of Scorsese using his directorial toolkit to illustrate Travis, but not explain him. Using disjunctive editing, a radical departure from classic storytelling, and a technique reminiscent of the French New Wave, Scorsese breaks up the flow of the scene, separating the viewer from Travis. Travis practices confronting someone with a gun, pointing it at his reflection, and uttering incomplete sentences. In his article, "The Last Temptation of Travis Bickle," author Andre Caron (1997) described this technique as a “sudden distancing process in order to separate the viewer from Travis.” The only conversation Travis can hold throughout the film is with himself, and even that is just fragments of threats and taunts. With the cut-up editing, the viewer is disoriented and begins to mirror the paranoia that Travis has in his head. In the mob genre, there are no two more complicated characters than Vito and Michael Corleone. Before them, the genre was populated with more stereotypical and one-dimensional representations by the likes of James Cagney and Paul Muni. Vito Corleone was an immigrant of the United States looking to make a name for himself and secure a future for his family. He doesn’t see the mafia as a glorious lifestyle. He doesn’t want his youngest son, Michael, to be involved in the family business. Michael initially doesn’t play a part in the family and has no intention to do so. At the beginning of the film, he describes his father’s actions to his girlfriend as “that’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.” Throughout the film, Michael becomes more and more embroiled in his family affairs. After his father is gunned down in the street, he takes it upon himself to enact revenge on those responsible. The restaurant scene is the moment that marks Michael’s transition from innocent war-hero to mafia murderer. Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey in a restaurant. Like Scorsese does in his mirror scene, Coppola uses character-driven editing to not explain Michael, but to give us bits and pieces of his thoughts. As the two men try to excuse their actions, Coppola cuts to a close-up of Michael as he stares at his opponents. He has a personal grievance with the men and a sense of duty to his family, but he still doesn’t know if should go through with the action. The sound of a corkscrew and wine bottle being opened add to the tension bubbling in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjyB2MpxBU Michael’s head. After some short conversation, Coppola recommits to the close-up of Michael, now slowly zooming in and overtaking the dialogue with the sound of an oncoming train. At this moment, Michael makes up his mind and commits to the deed, pulling out a gun and killing both men. With the power of sound effects, dialogue, and editing, Coppola doesn’t fall into the easy rubber-ducky trap, as he instead slowly exhibits Michael’s transition and demands the audience to feel the pathos behind his actions. Finally, both Taxi Driver and The Godfather feature moments of extreme on-screen violence, often committed by the main characters. They are both unflinching in execution and don’t shy away from the horrors. In Taxi Driver , Travis acquires his weapons through an illegal dealer. He buys more guns than a person could need, including many that are much more powerful than he requires. To him, the ends justify the means. Being a vigilante and having illegal access to firearms doesn’t mean anything if he has good intentions. While there can be an argument for that mode of thinking, Travis also doesn’t seem to care about the consequences of his actions, so long as they are deemed bad in his eyes. After a few outbursts here and there, the film culminates in a shootout at a brothel. Scorsese lingers on the scene with slow pans to show the aftermath but also uses quick edits when guns are being fired. The scene is brutal, with an extreme focus on the physical damage being done to bodies, and the mental damage being done to Iris, who witnesses the whole thing. Unexpectedly, the media portrays Travis as a hero who took matters into his own hands and saved a girl from prostitution. As the viewer, we know that Travis isn’t a prototypical hero and his actions aren’t ones to admire. This cycle of violence and interpretation goes back to the social messaging Scorsese and Schrader instill into the film. There is a disconnect between the true story and the one printed. Who is to blame for this disconnect, the readers of the paper, or the publications glorifying the disturbing act? The answer is both. The audience (the viewers included) crave violence with a morbid attraction. The media lives to meet that demand, writing stories depicting heroes and villains. Scorsese and Schrader emphasize that violence is inherently evil and that it doesn’t solve the worst problems in the world. No character’s situation is improved after the events in the film, as Travis feels empowered to commit more acts and Iris is forever scarred, both physically and mentally. The Godfather came a few years before Taxi Driver when auteurs were experimenting with the relationship both Hollywood and audiences had with violence. Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, and Straw Dogs broke into the mainstream, with their heavy use of screen violence being one of the central elements of their success. The violence within The Godfather does not sensationalize the crime lifestyle. Each death is stripped of stylization, often being shown in gruesome fashion. For example, the garrote scene has Luca Brasi’s eyes popping out of his head, and Sonny’s ambush leaves him in a bloody mess. Finally, the ending follows the massacre of several high-ranking mob bosses, including one being shot in the eye and another being gunned down in bed. None of this violence is played to be heroic or produce good consequences, similar to Taxi Driver and the films mentioned before. Taking a page out of their European contemporaries and defying the methods of their Hollywood elders, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese became two of the most respected filmmakers of the New Hollywood movement. Because of their attitudes towards violence, character development, and social messaging, the pair revolutionized the role that a director played in the filmmaking process and the connection audiences had with cinema. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Movies That Made More Money Than You Think August 7, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen In the modern world of cinema, the power of recognizable brands often sets the stage for box office success. However, now and then, something unique emerges that not only captivates audiences worldwide but also defies all expectations by amassing colossal profits beyond anyone's wildest imagination. These are the movies that made way more money than they were supposed to, shattering records and redefining the very essence of success in the film industry. One ground rule is that each selection for this list was released in 1990 or afterward. This is approximately the time the modern box office landscape was born, with multiplexes overtaking the long-standing mom & pop movie theaters. It’s also hard to compare and analyze box office performances from several decades ago, as it wasn’t uncommon for a movie to be in theaters for months on end. Both Gone with the Wind and The Sound of Music were in theaters for over four years upon their initial release, which certainly gave them an advantage towards becoming two of the highest-grossing films ever. Several metrics were also used to make these selections, such as the amount of money the movie made, how much it was expected to make based on projections and the performance of similar movies, and its overall cultural relevance (or lack thereof). From underdog productions battling against all odds to star-driven blockbusters soaring to unprecedented heights, each film on this list has a unique tale to tell. Ghost (1990) ($500 million) 1990 was the year of surprise hits. Pretty Woman, Home Alone , and Dances with Wolves all hugely outgrossed expectations. But the best of the bunch was Ghost , a bit of female counterprogramming from Paramount against the boy-friendly summer titles of Die Hard 2 and Back to the Future III . Mixing steamy romance, crime drama thrills, the supernatural, and comedy, the film was the prototypical four-quadrant release. Its PG-13 rating wasn’t too risque for conservative viewers, while still pushing the envelope enough to entice teenagers. It opened #2 at the box office in July just behind the second weekend of Die Hard 2 . It would remain in either of those top two spots for the following nine weeks and would retain the same theater count (1700) until November. It had the third-highest domestic gross ever (behind E.T. and Star Wars ) before Home Alone dethroned it that holiday season. It’s a simply astounding feat for a film that has never inspired sequels, spin-offs, or even merchandise sales (at least not yet). What Women Want (2000) ($375 million) It’s hard to envision it now, but Mel Gibson was, for a brief moment, a romantic leading heartthrob. The $34.4 million opening weekend for Nancy Meyers’ film was the highest ever in December at that time and even bested Gibson’s action-oriented films like Ransom and the Lethal Weapon franchise. An EW poll found that nearly half the audience saw the movie for Gibson, who would receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (losing to George Clooney for O Brother, Where Art Thou? ). The film ended with $180 both domestically and internationally, claiming the fourth best worldwide cume of 2000. Meet the Fockers (2004) ($525 million) Gone are the days of star-driven studio comedies being at the top of the box office charts. Meet the Fockers earned the highest-ever Christmas Day gross at $19.5 million in 2004, even beating the previous’s year champion, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . The character of Greg Focker was almost as lucrative as Harry Potter and Peter Parker that year, with the comedy sequel finishing its box office run with over half a billion dollars. It was Robert De Niro’s highest-grossing film for fifteen years until it was beaten by Joker in 2019. The Da Vinci Code (2006) ($760 million) While many films on this list accumulated their huge grosses due to good reviews and word of mouth, neither of those was the case for The Da Vinci Code . The film boasts a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and was the recipient of several rounds of booing during its premiere as the opening film of that year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film was also banned in several countries such as parts of India, Egypt, and China (after it had played for a few weeks), and was boycotted by several religious groups. None of those factors stopped audiences from flocking to the film that summer. It amassed a near-record worldwide total of $224 million on its opening weekend, thanks in part to the immense popularity of the novel and the star power of Tom Hanks. Over 70% of its $750 million total gross would come from international territories, with a similar breakdown occurring for the film’s two disappointing sequels: Angels & Demons ($500 million total) and Inferno ($220 million total). 2012 (2009) ($770 million) Sure, disaster movies are pretty dependable at the box office because of their simplistic storytelling and bang-for-your-buck visuals. But does it make much sense that one of the most forgettable entries in that subgenre, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 , is also one of the most successful? 2012 was boosted by a viral marketing campaign that latched onto the urban legend of the world ending in the year 2012. Comcast even blocked out a ten-minute chunk of time on nearly every genre to show a clip of the film. Even with a less-than-ideal leading man in John Cusack, the film accumulated almost $800 million worldwide. Almost 80% of those dollars came from overseas, as the film was the first $700+ million grosser to make less than $200 million stateside. True Grit (2010) ($250 million) It only took twelve days for this Western remake to become the highest-grossing film within the Coen brothers’ filmography. The strong critical reactions and awards buzz helped the movie double its opening weekend projections, pulling in over $25 million during the holiday weekend. There was also the advantage of the Coens dialing down their eccentricities for this film, delivering a more conventional crowdpleaser that had a more long-lasting theatrical appeal. It ended up being one of the highest-grossing Westerns ever, finishing with $171 million domestically and $81 internationally. That holiday window happened to be the coronation of star Jeff Bridges, who also appeared in the chart-topping TRON: Legacy . Black Swan (2010) ($330 million) While it is nice to see Oppenheimer and Barbie sparking a renewed conversation about the merits of “original” programming at the box office, it is still a little disheartening to see that this same conversation was taking place over a decade ago thanks to Black Swan . Strong interest in Darren Aronosky’s film started from the viral marketing campaign, which didn’t commence until just a few weeks before the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The buzz out of the fall festivals matched the enthusiasm online, something relatively unheard of for an arthouse movie. Along with the strong critical remarks it received, especially for Natalie Portman’s lead performance, one of the biggest benefits of the movie was that it was somehow able to appeal to nearly every demographic. Arthouse cinephiles were excited about a new Aronofsky film, dance and theater fans got a unique reimagining of Swan Lake , and horror junkies were treated to a dark psychological tale of obsession. The film would gross over $100 million domestically, all before it even had been released internationally, with many of those dates pushed up to capitalize on the demand. In the end, it grossed $330 million worldwide on a $13 million budget, placing it as the second biggest sleeper hit of 2010. What was #1 you ask? The King's Speech (2010) ($480 million) Everything Everywhere All at Once ’s worldwide gross of $140 million puts it near the top half of Best Picture winners in the modern era. But that total doesn’t even match the domestic cume of The King’s Speech , which only accounted for a little less than a third of the film’s global take of almost $500 million. Tom Hooper’s film is the second-highest-grossing Best Picture winner of the 21st century, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (which stands so far ahead with over $1 billion). Between claiming the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, having the highest per-theater-average opening weekend of the year ($350,000), and receiving a yearly best of twelve Oscar nominations, success followed The King’s Speech everywhere it went. It was hailed as one of the most successful British independent films ever only after a month of release, overcoming the controversial R-rating it received. The film also made over half its money after the Oscar nominations were announced, with the compelling exploration of friendship and resilience resonating deeply with viewers. American Sniper (2014) ($550 million) If asked to guess which film conquered the North American box office in 2014 most people would defer to a franchise film such as Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 , or Captain America: The Winter Soldier . Those would all be good guesses (they each placed within the top five), but sitting on the throne was 84-year-old Clint Eastwood with American Sniper . Showing the power of appealing to middle America and controversy about its messaging, American Sniper grossed $90 million in its opening weekend, more than double what it projected to do. The A+ CinemaScore and awards attention kept it at the top of the box office for the next six weeks, where it would end with over $350 million domestically and $550 worldwide. It still stands as the highest-grossing war film ever (not accounting for inflation) and is only behind The Passion of the Christ and Deadpool as the highest-grossing R-rated film in North America. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen