The Mastermind October 23, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen “For us to live any other way was nuts. To us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills, were dead. I mean, they were suckers… If we wanted something, we just took it.” Above almost any other line in his nearly sixty-year career, this one from GoodFellas , spoken as narration from Henry Hill to the audience, is the one that solidified director Martin Scorsese’s unparalleled ability to understand a way of life, specifically that of organized crime. It’s what made people incorrectly assume that he glorifies that lifestyle, with its “live fast, die young” mentality full of excess and greed. Deep down inside all of us is probably a juvenile desire to be free of all the rules and restrictions that we’ve placed on ourselves. But whether it's morals or laws, we keep the course and tough it out. It’s why we’re jealous of criminals, as they get to live the lives we can’t… except for the parts about getting caught, killed, or ruining the lives of everyone who’s become entangled with such schemes. Writer/director Kelly Reichardt is the type of filmmaker who loves to grasp onto those exceptions, twisting them into revelations that deconstruct what we’ve long assumed. Meek’s Cutoff is a female-centered western, Night Moves is an ecothriller stripped of a fast pace and righteous protagonists, and Showing Up displayed the untold pains that must be endured to create art, all without much expectation for reward. Inside all of these films are characters who want to escape their current situations, caught in a cycle of pre-established norms that prevent them from being their best selves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWokrf6yeEU James Blaine “JB” Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is one of those characters, a failed architect who can’t bring himself to trudge through the basic life he’s built for himself. He has two boys with his wife, Terri (Alana Haim), and eats dinner with his disapproving parents (Bill Camp and Hope Davis) each week. It’s all so boring, except for the moments he spends at the local art museum. Rob Mazurek’s upbeat, jazzy score illustrates the gears turning in JB’s brain, the sleeping guard, and disregard for any other security measures convincing him that he can easily become Henry Hill and take whatever he wants. He concocts a plan to steal four valuable paintings, carefully recruiting his team and giving them instructions on how the heist will go. It’ll be so easy, with no one getting in the way or caring about what’s being taken. JB certainly didn’t account for the “if it sounds too good to be true” part of the equation, which is how the whole thing falls apart and sends his life into a tailspin. It probably would have taken three “and then what?” questions from an outside party to see the many gaps in this master plan. To both Scorsese and Reichrdt, this examination of the Dunning-Kruger effect revolves around misplaced entitlement. In Scorsese’s eyes, it’s a tragic rise and fall from grace, littered with highs that convince the characters to withstand the lows. In Reichardt’s, the whole thing is just plain pathetic. The simplest description for the logic behind this criminal act is that a privileged man would rather steal from the public than do any amount of hard work for himself and his family. Reichardt twists this knife even deeper by setting the story in 1970, the shadow of the Vietnam War looming large. The theme of choice is frequently touched upon. Some people, mostly the underprivileged, don’t have a choice about being drafted to serve in this unjust war. Others are choosing to protest, with flyers posted on every corner and demonstrations being broadcast each night on television. JB makes a snide remark about draft dodgers harboring in Canada, as if he shouldn’t have to stoop that low in his current on-the-run predicament. And yet it seems all these people chose to do something with their lives, or made the most of their inability to do so. JB chose to make things worse, and everyone else has to pay a price. O’Connor’s incredible performance makes JB’s overall shittiness palatable. We don’t want him to fail, although everyone would probably be better off once he is caught. It’s the other half of the coin to his work in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery , with his portrayal of preacher Jud Duplentis being about finding a higher purpose after being lost in the wilderness. In GoodFellas , Henry states that “your murderers come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who've cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you're at your weakest and most in need of their help.” JB is one of those murderers, killing the image of the American dream at a time when it was most vulnerable, all with a smile and a masked spirit of innocence. Mubi will release The Mastermind in select theaters on October 17th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Idea of You April 30, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Speaking to Vogue in 2020, the author of the 2017 book The Idea of You, Robinne Lee, stated that the protagonist of her novel, Hayes Campbell, was partly inspired by Harry Styles circa his days as part of One Direction. This came as a semi-confirmation to the biggest fan theory about the novel, as the similarities between the character and Styles (British, boy band, tattoos, young age, Coachella, etc.) were too eerie to ignore. It’s a good thing that Lee got ahead of the discourse when she did, as the visual incarnation of Hayes Campbell within director Michael Showalter’s film adaptation of her novel is far too compelling evidence to further ignore. Playing this universe’s version of Harry Styles is Nicholas Galitzine, moving up the book club heartthrob ladder after starring as Prince Henry in last year’s Prime Video release of Red, White & Royal Blue . Here he’s paired up with Anne Hathaway as Solène, a newly single mother nearing forty, trying her best to quell the impending midlife crisis. She has a sixteen-year-old daughter, Izzy, a successful small-town art gallery, and a good group of friends. When her ex-husband bails at the last minute on taking Izzy and her friends to Coachella, Solène is the one to pick up the slack. Stuck in the middle of the desert surrounded by people less than half her age, she quickly finds the nearest spot that offers peace. But what she thinks is a VIP bathroom is actually the private one of Hayes Campbell, lead singer of the worldwide sensation boy band August Moon. This meet-cute ignites some serious sparks, with the pair slowly realizing that they do share some good chemistry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8i6PB0gGOA “Is this twenty-four-year-old kid flirting with me?” asks Solène in her head. It’s certainly a change of pace for her, and a bit nice to be on the other end of the stick as the cause for her divorce was that her ex-husband left her for a younger woman. But how will a relationship work between someone who never got to be a free adult and someone who has only known total freedom? Showalter and co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt (co-writer/star of the early aughts indie sensation Kissing Jessica Stein ) probe the early romantic stages with a charming gracefulness, allowing the actors to work at their highest potential. Hathaway delivers one of her best performances, playing someone who has it all put together while simultaneously jumping off the deep end. She and Galitzine have a witty banter between them, making this romance both somewhat believable and relatable. It also doesn’t hurt that Showalter films the beautiful pair in some gorgeous locations, such as Spanish beaches and the rain-swept streets of Paris. The second and third acts are when the film starts to flirt with some of its deeper themes, such as the price of fame and society’s value (or lack thereof) on women’s happiness. Contrary to hundreds of years of oppression, Solène chooses to live a bit vicariously and not have her well-being tied to her obligations. The online discourse around the pair’s romance is startling, to say the least, but there are quite a few stretches in logic in just how much the world at large gets swept up in this relationship. There’s also the predictability that comes with the will-they-won’t-they portion of the story. The more free-flowing style of the earlier portions is swapped for more stodgy conversations circling the question of how others will perceive the two together. There are moments when the material is on the cusp of a breakthrough, but the well-worn trappings of the genre and the need to be a crowd pleaser (even though there will be no in-person crowds to please due to the film’s Prime Video release) keep everything within a tidy box. There are many worse versions of The Idea of You in so many other multiverses, one of which likely has Styles playing Hayes Campbell in a much more winking fashion. We only need to look back on the one-two combo of My Policeman and Don’t Worry Darling to predict the outcome of that. The more adult version that we have in our universe gets the job done, becoming a respectable template of how to successfully do these book club adaptations. Amazon MGM Studios will release The Idea of You on its streaming service on May 02nd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Biggest Flops in TIFF History September 2, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen Every September, the city of Toronto becomes a hub of cinematic celebration as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) rolls out the red carpet for a myriad of films from around the world. A prestigious event that has launched countless Oscar campaigns and propelled numerous films into the limelight, TIFF is a cinematic playground where dreams are realized and reputations are solidified. However, amidst the glamour and fervor, there exists a lesser-explored facet of the festival – a realm of disappointment and missed opportunities. In this list, I’ll delve beyond the flashing cameras and standing ovations to shed light on the movies that, for various reasons, failed to strike the right chord with audiences and critics alike. The rules for this list are simple: The film must have had its world premiere at the festival The film must have had a certain amount of buzz around it. If a movie fails and no one was anticipating it, then it’s not really a bomb. The film must have massively underperformed on expectations, both critically and financially The Fifth Estate (2013) Benedict Cumberbatch was on the rise in the early 2010s with roles in War Horse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , and the television series Sherlock . 2013 was bound to be his breakout year as he had FIVE films set to be released that year: Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County , and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . Three of those would play at that year’s TIFF, with The Fifth Estate opening the festival. The bright lights didn’t serve it well, as Bill Condon’s take on Julian Assage and WikiLeaks was met with mixed-negative reviews on account of its by-the-numbers storytelling and refusal to take a stance on the issue. 12 Years a Slave lit up the room a few days later, as did Ron Howard’s Rush , starring Cumberbatch’s The Fifth Estate co-star Daniel Brühl. Everyone was able to move on quickly, with the film grossing less than $3 million at the US box office a month later. Men, Women, and Children (2014) Jason Reitman was the most in-demand young director in Hollywood after the one-two punch of Juno and Up in the Air . Things went south rather quickly once he decided to make a movie about the perils of social media. Time Out ’s Joshua Rothkopf called it “the first Reitman film to make the 36-year-old director seem about 400 years old.” An outstanding cast consisting of Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, and Timothée Chalamet was wasted in an out-of-touch and preachy story. The savage reviews killed the already minuscule audience interest in the film, with its $300,000 haul being one of the lowest ever for a film opening in >600 theaters. The Cobbler (2014) One TIFF, two Adam Sandler movies! It’s hard to criticize his choices (at least on paper), as both his 2014 films came from directors with a certain amount of pedigree. The latter was helmed by Tom McCarthy, who hadn’t missed yet between The Station Agent, The Visitor , and Win Win . Nothing worked this time around, with the terrible plotting and creepy undertones stripping the film of having the whimsical tone it wanted. It took the title of Sandler’s biggest bomb away from Men, Women, and Children when it was released six months later, only grossing a mere $24,000 on its opening weekend. A film failing that epically would have killed 99% of directors' careers. But somehow Tom McCarthy would pivot and return to TIFF in 2015 with Spotlight , finishing in the runners-up position for the People’s Choice Award and ultimately winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Kings (2017) Turkish writer/director Deniz Gamze Ergüven spent four years developing her script centering on the 1992 Los Angeles riots. She was finally able to get the film made a decade later once her debut feature Mustang was nominated for Best International Feature. She would experience a sophomore slump with her English-language debut, with critics finding the film messy and underdeveloped. Even with the star power of Halle Berry and Daniel Craig, the film wouldn’t be released until the next spring to no fanfare. Life Itself (2018) Amazon Studios was riding high off the awards success of Manchester by the Sea in early 2017 and wanted to continue in that sphere. Seeing the success of This Is Us on NBC, they snatched up writer/director Dan Fogelman’s next film for $10 million in late 2017. They remained confident when deciding to launch it at TIFF, premiering it at both Roy Thomsen Hall and the Elgin Theatre. All those rose-tinted hopes and dreams came crashing down once people saw the finished product. The overwrought and convoluted soap opera incited more ironic laughter than tears within the audience. The film debuted in theaters two weeks later, where it became the second-lowest opening ever in >2500 theaters with only $2 million. The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2018) French Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan had already won the Jury Prize and Grand Prix at Cannes, as well as the César award for Best Director before he turned 30. The problem with that much success at such a young age is that you can go only down from there. Such was the case for his English-language debut about a famous actor having a correspondence with a young fan. The film spent almost two years in post-production, causing Dolan to miss the Cannes deadline. He chose to debut at TIFF instead, where he was met with the worst reviews of his career. The rumors of the film being trimmed down from a four-hour cut seemed to be true as entire characters and storylines were excised, lending to a rushed and underdeveloped plot about celebrity culture. It sat on a shelf for another year before limping into theaters in December 2019. Lucy in the Sky (2019) TIFF has a habit of showing their hands based on how they schedule their world premieres, with the better ones earlier in the festival and the not-so-good ones near the end when most of the press has left. Noah Hawley’s directorial debut, loosely inspired by the life of NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak, found itself in the latter camp, scheduled for a final Thursday night premiere. Whatever press was still left probably wished they had already left, as Hawley’s pretentious directorial choices and Natalie Portman’s wonky Texas accent were nails on a chalkboard. Distributor Fox Searchlight had other priorities at that TIFF with Jojo Rabbit and was still transitioning out of the Disney buyout of 21st Century Fox. Lucy in the Sky was released in theaters a few weeks later, grossing an abysmal $300,000 against a $25 million budget. Coincidentally (or maybe not), Hawley’s planned Star Trek film was canceled a few months later. The Goldfinch (2019) Amazon didn’t let the failure of Life Itself deter them from returning to TIFF the next year. This time they partnered with Warner Bros. on distribution and picked a safer project by adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Donna Tartt. With Brooklyn director John Crowley at the helm, Roger Deakins as DP, and an all-star cast, it seemed this would be the streamer’s return to the awards race. But the film ended up having a worse death than its predecessor. Early test screenings were disastrous, prompting the studio to lower the marketing budget. Despite that, they still took it to TIFF, where the reviews matched their expectations. A $2.6 million opening the following weekend led to losses of over $50 million when all was said and done. To add insult to injury, Tartt was so infuriated by the adaptation that she fired her agent for allowing it to happen and has rejected any talk of her work being adapted again. Dear Evan Hansen (2021) After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 edition of the festival to be a mix of drive-in and digital screenings, TIFF needed to put on a grand show to welcome everyone back to “normalcy” in 2021. Universal was more than willing to have Dear Evan Hansen be the opening night act on account of director Steven Chbosky delivering festival favorite The Perks of Being a Wallflower years earlier. But anyone who watched the trailers for the film in the summer knew that this project was doomed from the start. The 27-year-old Ben Platt was already too old for the part and enough discourse over the material’s attitude towards mental health had circulated online. Neither critics nor audiences were satisfied, leading to poor reviews and a lackluster box office gross. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Sentimental Value November 7, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen You will not find a more emotionally intelligent film this year than Sentimental Value . Writer/director Jocahim Trier's follow-up to his decade-defining film The Worst Person in the World produces each tear, gasp, and laugh at exactly the right moment. Yet, it's never manipulative, always proudly wearing its heart on its sleeve. By the time the credits start rolling, you’ll have been on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself. That's a lot of praise right off the bat, so let's back up to the very beginning. An unseen narrator, voiced by Bente Børsum, welcomes us to a house in Oslo. Both the walls and the family inside are fracturing, with two sisters caught in the middle of their parents' rapidly impending divorce. The oldest, Nora, wonders if the house feels happiness as children run through the halls, and pain as doors are slammed, and objects are broken. Those squeaks and creaks become powerfully identifiable, becoming long-term storage for memories created within these confines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKbcKQN5Yrw Decades pass, and the matriarch of the family has died. This leaves the house to an adult Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas). Neither of them wants to live there, so they must reconcile with letting go of a piece of their past. Their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) reappears in their lives, looking to make amends. His version of an olive branch is to offer Nora, now a successful actress on the stage, the lead role in the new film he will direct. She doesn't contemplate saying yes, flatly refusing to enter into a situation where he has power over her. So the part is handed to an American star named Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who makes a strong impression on Gustav after praising his early films at a career retrospective. Trier and co-writer Eskil Vogt's script does an excellent job at examining the past, present, and future dynamics of this quartet. Gustav's film is very much based on his upbringing with his mother in that same house during World War II. She eventually committed suicide, something that Gustav has never been able to explain. Some of those feelings have been passed along to Nora, who constantly flips out before each performance and emotionally shuts down in her apartment. And when Rachel cuts and dyes her hair to look exactly like Nora, it's clear that Gustav sees those similarities as well. Comparisons to Ingmar Bergman's long-held fascination with identity are fully warranted. Even with all these serious themes, this is not a dour film. It's actually quite funny, with plenty of jabs at these characters and the industries they have planted themselves in. Gustav hasn't made anything of worth in almost twenty years, which is why, despite his fervent attitude of still being a serious auteur, he must beg Netflix to finance the film. He buys his eight-year-old grandson DVDs of Irreversible and The Piano Teacher for his birthday, telling him that those two films will teach him all that he needs to know about women. Trier maintains this balance with the help of editor Olivier Bugge Coutté, flawlessly buoying between the light and the dark. Each of the four actors is an absolute delight to watch, with Oscar nominations surely deserved. Returning as Trier's lead after The Worst Person in the World , Reinsve continues her rise to becoming the best actress working today, combining tactility and grace with unparalleled ease. Skarsgård always keeps his prickly son-of-a-bitch character on the right side of our feelings, slowly revealing the pain behind his attitude. Fanning's role could have easily been a caricature, a selfish American looking to use this family's pain for her own professional gain. But that's far from the truth, as she also has feelings of regret and personal expectations that she wants to live up to. I'm saving the best for last, which is Lilleas as the daughter/sister who is caught in the middle of all of this, and who must reconcile her present motherhood with her family's history. Without making a single direct piece of commentary, Sentimental Value may be the best case study on why AI can't be the driving force of a film. Despite all of her good intentions and training, Rachel isn't the right person for the part in Gustav's film because she hasn't experienced the emotions that the role entails. The same logic applies to Trier and his film, as something this rich could only be created by someone who has experienced the agony and ecstasy of life. Neon will release Sentimental Value in select theaters on November 07th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24 Dispatch #4 September 17, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark All of the films were screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Click here for additional full reviews and dispatches. Select films below will receive separate full-length reviews at a later date, most likely in connection to their public releases. Anora Sean Baker’s Palme d'Or-winning film is just as colorful as Gerry Marshall’s Pretty Woman but contains the chaotic nature of a Safdie brothers movie. Anora never falters with these features, but a prolonged finale diminishes it. Mikey Madison gives a solidifying performance as the titular character. She’s been on a slow rise to stardom since 2019, but thanks to Anora , she’s finally reached the top of the mountain. The supporting cast consists mainly of Russian actors, but they complement her well, especially Mark Eidelstein as Anora’s love interest, Vanya. What makes Anora work well is how dreamy the tone is in the first act, eventually taking a more mature turn when Vanya’s family gets involved in their marriage. This turn is also where Baker owns up to the Safdie’s style, and the dialogue becomes rapid-fire with lots of overlapping and shouting. Some viewers may find it off-putting, but it works here. If anything, Anora will continue to be in the mouths of moviegoers this awards season, as it rightfully should. (4/5) Megalopolis One of the most talked-about movies of the summer, Megalopolis sees Francis Ford Coppola in the director’s chair for the first time in over 10 years. The drama circling around the film’s distribution doesn’t do justice as to how insane this movie is. Megalopolis is an ambitious movie that sees Coppola going all in and all out. The special effects either looked amazing or awful and the writing is unhinged and incoherent. Yet somehow, the cast plays along with it and doesn’t seem to question Coppola’s methods and intentions. Everyone in the cast seems to go through the motions with their roles with the exception of Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza who are in a different stratosphere than the rest of the movie. Their turns fit the crazy nature of the film, but LaBeouf in particular felt annoying for the sake of being annoying. If Megalopolis is looking to make any statement, it’s that Coppola knows his craft but is nearing the end of his legendary career. (2.5/5) Oh, Canada Paul Schrader’s latest film starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi sees him at a crossroads. His most notable works have been as a collaborator with Martin Scorsese, but in the last six years, he’s had a resurgence as a director. Unfortunately, Oh, Canada doesn’t bring anything promising or unique to the forefront. Gere and Elordi play Canadian-American writer Leonard as he becomes the subject of a documentary about how he fled the US in the midst of the Vietnam War draft. Simply put, Oh, Canada was a bland movie that saw Schrader and his leading men failing to do something special. The movie is intriguing on paper, but the execution of it makes it look like a monstrosity. There’s also a subplot where Leonard has declining memory making him an unreliable narrator. These factors unfortunately make Oh, Canada a disappointing movie overall and effort from Schrader. (2/5) The Substance The body horror satire that took Cannes by storm this past May, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is an experience unlike any other. The body horror subgenre has seen very little time in the spotlight in recent years, but Fargeat’s looking to bring it back as it features an impressive display of makeup that no one has seen from a horror film in who knows how long. The leading trio of Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid are all fantastic and own up to the satirical aspects of the movie. The only thing weighing down The Substance was the ending as it took its sweet time getting to the finish line and overstaying its 140-minute runtime. Nevertheless, The Substance was still a good time and a nice surprise for me! (4/5) You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

2022 Losers January 2, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen Now that the winners of 2022 have been crowned, it’s time to shift our focus to the bottom of the ladder. These are the ones that will probably look back at their output with disdain, and, hopefully, will use it as motivation to do better in the future. Like the winner's list, some tough decisions had to be made for the finalists here, so your preference might not be found here. Remember, this is all good fun, so don’t take it personally. DCEU DC fans have always thought it was the DCEU vs. MCU, but this year proved that it was never really a competition, because at least Marvel has consistency when it comes to delivering on what's promised and pleasing the fans. Black Adam was a box office disappointment, made all the more embarrassing by Dwayne Johnson’s insistence otherwise. Henry Cavill announced his return as Superman, filmed a post-credit scene for Black Adam , and then was let go only a month later. Adding insult to injury was Matt Reeves’ The Batman , which, like Joker , showed that DC characters can be used to make great movies if the right people are put in the driver’s seat. Maybe James Gunn and Peter Safran can right the ship? Warner Bros. Discovery Let’s take it one step further than just DC and examine the bigger fish. Along with having to plan out a painstaking rebuild process for their superhero franchises, Warner Bros. also has the Fantastic Beasts franchise in crisis mode and had to endure the entire Don’t Worry Darling tabloid mess. They also pissed off a swarm of creators and fans by shelving completed projects and removing content from HBO Max as part of their costly merger with Discovery. Harry Styles Of course, Styles’ music career may have continued to flourish in 2022, but we’re focusing solely on his work in movies. Both Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman didn’t live up to the weight of expectations, with Styles’ acting being mostly described as wooden and amateurish. I wonder if Kevin Feige is starting to worry about how he’s going to be utilized in the MCU going forward? Christian Bale On paper, Christian Bale’s actions of reuniting with David O. Russell and joining the MCU don’t seem all that bad. But in reality, both moves came nowhere close to reaching their potential. Amsterdam was a critical and financial disaster, and Thor: Love and Thunder didn’t give him the villain spotlight that he deserved. Bale would reteam with director Scott Cooper for the third time in The Pale Blue Eye , but Netflix’s muted release of the film kept its impact to a minimum. Oscar Movies at the Box Office Unless you were a superhero or horror movie, chances are you didn’t make much of a dent at the box office. Unfortunately, the films geared more toward the awards race don’t fall into those two categories. She Said posted one of the worst opening weekends ever for a movie in wide release, and James Gray’s Armageddon Time could only muster $1 million domestically despite strong reviews and a starry cast. Steven Spielberg, the most financially successful director of all time, could only attract $8 million for one of the best-reviewed films of the year, The Fabelmans . You could claim The Banshees of Inisherin as a success with $20 million worldwide, but Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri made over $150 million just five years ago, so there’s only so much positivity that can be spun. Liam Neeson Another year, another serving of forgettable action movies by Liam Neeson. Maybe the success of the Taken franchise was a mistake, as it has pigeon-holed Neeson into these generic “tough guy” roles. Blacklight and Memory proved to be nothing more than Redbox quality, and they also didn’t make much money at the box office either. Neeson didn’t have much success on the prestige side of the spectrum either, as his reunion with writer/director Neil Jordan in Marlowe was greeted with tepid reviews after its extremely muted premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Kevin Hart Hart may have attracted large viewership with his two Netflix movies The Man from Toronto and Me Time , but that doesn’t mean anybody who watched them actually enjoyed themselves. Both films were met with overwhelmingly negative critical reactions and didn’t help Hart expand his range as an actor or comedian. With Adam Sandler gaining positive notices for Hustle and returning to the Safdies for a future Netflix film, it seems that Hart has been kicked down to the bottom level of the Netflix content creation factory. Judd Apatow Speaking of Netflix and career low points, writer/director Judd Apatow released his worst movie to date in The Bubble . As a needlessly long two-hour movie that felt like four hours, this Netflix “comedy” took a group of talented actors and forced them to work way below their pedigree. Apatow also didn’t do well in his producing role for Billy Eichner’s Bros , with that movie (undeservedly) failing to register at the box office. Disney Animated Movies It was a pretty crummy year all-around for the Mouse House, but there was nowhere it hurt more than in their animation department. After the two most recent Toy Story movies grossed over $1 billion each, Lightyear cratered to just over $200 million. Strange World will be an even costlier mistake, with losses expected to rise above $150 million. And their most critically acclaimed film of the year, Turning Red , was shuttered off to Disney+, angering many of the creatives over at Pixar. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Magic Mike's Last Dance February 10, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are two camps of viewers who have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the trilogy finale, that is, Magic Mike’s Last Dance . The first are those responsible for the $40 million opening weekend haul for the original and accounted for 96% of the opening weekend ticket sales for the sequel: women. It’s not hard to see why the audience demographics broke down the way that they did, but it could also be a symptom of a more noticeable trend of movies being less “sexy” these days . The second group is far smaller and less enthusiastic, which is the cinephiles who are interested in seeing what’s next for Steven Soderbergh, who returns to the director’s chair after taking a backseat to his frequent collaborator Gregory Jacobs for the sequel. The Oscar-winning director has always been hard to label as an “auteur” on account of his chameleonic nature, not just in genres but also in mediums and filming techniques (shooting Unsane and High Flying Bird on an iPhone before it was cool). He’s now directed more films than he did before announcing his retirement in 2013, providing high-quality content to streamers like Netflix and HBO Max with Let Them All Talk, No Sudden Move , and Kimi . Both of these groups likely won’t be fully satisfied with Magic Mike’s Last Dance , ending this unlikely franchise on a whimper instead of the sensual bang it deserved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBIGdw-BRxw Now almost forty (although you’d hardly be able to tell as Tatum looks nearly the same as he did in the 2012 original), former male stripper Mike Lane is in Miami trying to make ends meet while bartending. His compadres from the first two films are (sadly) gone, leaving Mike to walk down this lonely road by himself. That is, until he meets the extremely wealthy and also equally lonely Max (Salma Hayek Pinault), who coaxes Mike into giving her one last private dance. Mike’s dance (shot and edited with pinpoint precision by Soderbergh under his usual Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard pseudonyms, respectively) unlocks something deep within Max, prompting her to invest in his talents by taking him to London to revive a stodgy play that’s been overplayed at the theater she owns. Just as he’s done with every entry, Tatum’s business partner, Reid Carolin, writes the script, instilling it with the usual big themes about having a purpose in life and how people react to the adult entertainment business. Carolin’s even added narration here about the psychological influences of dance, which sounds just fine as long as you cover your ears. Soderbergh seems to be more interested in the ideas than the physical acts themselves, as evidenced by his two chapters being much less fun than Jacob’s middle child. The dance sequences are, of course, competently shot and stitched together, but are weighted down by what they’re supposed to mean on a thematic level. There’s less of a free spirit to them, keeping the true carnal passion just under the point where it’s too uncomfortable to watch with your parents. While the rest of the bros are sorely missed, Hayek makes a nice fold against Mike. Her confidence is mesmerizing, and so is the way she looks, attracting all the eyes in the room with her clothes and gravitas. The relationship between her and Tatum doesn’t hold up the eye test, though, as the romantic sparks fizzle rather than fly. Their creative relationship is solid, with Soderbergh constructing some snazzy Ocean’s Eleven recruitment montages as they gather their troupe of dancers. Last Dance takes a mature approach to ending this story, which would be admirable if it didn’t sacrifice so much of the fun of its predecessors. What was originally mostly just Step Up for adults has been overthought and underserved, stripping (pun intended) almost all of the guilt and pleasure out of the term “guilty pleasure.” Warner Bros. Pictures will release Magic Mike's Last Dance in theaters nationwide on February 10th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Women Talking October 30, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave? These are the three options presented to the women of a modern-day Mennonite colony. Many of them have been drugged and raped for years by their male counterparts, who insist upon their innocence and place the blame on devilish spirits and “wild female imagination.” After a few of the men are caught, they are taken to a nearby police station. The rest of the men are on their way to post bail, leaving the women enough time to debate their options. The pros and cons of each choice are listed. The proponent of doing nothing is Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand, also a producer), an elderly woman who heeds the men’s warning that any woman who does not forgive their attacker will not be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Salome (Claire Foy) fervently opposes this option. She’s on the side of staying and fighting, which she has already illustrated by injuring one of the perpetrators with a scythe. The rest of the women are more inclined to leave, even though none of them know how to read or write, nor know anything of the world outside their farmstead. Taking the minutes of the meeting is August (Ben Whishaw), a recent college graduate who has returned to the colony after his family was previously excommunicated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0mFhMqDCE Women Talking definitely lives up to its name. Writer/director Sarah Polley, her first narrative feature since 2011’s Take This Waltz , stages much of the film inside a hayloft with the hodgepodge of women. Their debate rages on endlessly, taking the form of an Aaron Sorkin production as each character/actress gets their own Oscar clip monologue. Some make fine work of their moment (the ever-underappreciated Judith Ivey), and some take it a little too far (Claire Foy), but there are no weak links within this sizable, yet intimate cast. The central pair of Rooney Mara and Whishaw are the clear standouts, with their repressed feelings for each other slowly unraveling over the course of the film. Major Oscar campaigns should be in order. There are also excellent performances from the younger actresses, with their characters representing the straightforward ethical approach of right vs. wrong. Much of the debate is philosophical in nature, with questions about how and why all of this was allowed to happen in the first place, and what can truly be done to solve it, if that’s even possible. Will running away actually make a difference? The men surely won’t be able to survive on their own, so will leaving them be an indirect method of murder? What is to be done about the innocent male children? Should they be punished simply because they are male? A second watch will surely be on the table, as a lot of subtle details fly under the radar because of the rapid-fire arguments. To combat the inherent staginess of the material (which is still quite present, in both good ways and bad), Polley incorporates some flash cutting to the aftermath of the abuse, while still never showing the attacks themselves. It often provides a needed breather from the extended takes centered around the main topic. And one couldn’t leave without mentioning the ultra-desaturated cinematography, a far cry from the brightly colorful work that Polley and DP Luc Montpellier have put out in the past. Should it have been used in the first place? Probably not. It’s incredibly jarring initially, but it becomes more natural as the morally gray narrative unwinds. Sarah Polley has returned to feature filmmaking with a weighty and timely narrative that begs for deep discussion afterward. Its tackling of the material may not always be perfect, but, just like the women at the center of this story, it has its heart and mind always in the right place. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2022 Twin Cities Film Fest. United Artists Releasing will release Women Talking in select theaters on December 23rd. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Woman in Cabin 10 October 10, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Keira Knightley stars in The Woman in Cabin 10 , not to be confused with Emily Blunt in The Girl on the Train , Amy Adams in The Woman in the Window , Danielle Deadwyler in The Woman in the Yard , or Kristen Bell in The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window . It might be a worrying sign that studios are still producing entries into this female-driven modern Rear Window subgenre, even after it has reached the point of self-parody. The Woman in Cabin 10 isn't here to be a change of pace, or even to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. That would require it to be positively memorable, which it most certainly isn't. Apart from the occasional statements of red, much of this whodunnit mystery is enveloped in a sea of sleek grey. It's meant to represent the cold indifference that has permeated the modern world, of which investigative reporter Laura Blacklock (Knightley) knows all too well. Her latest piece about Kurdish female freedom fighters caused her source to be drowned in retaliation, and her uncovering of a misappropriation of funds at a well-known NGO didn't make a dent in the headlines. An opportunity for a change of pace comes her way in the form of an invitation to attend the sailing of billionaire Richard Bullmer's (Guy Pearce) mega yacht in remembrance of his wife Anne, who is nearing the end of her terminal cancer diagnosis. The journey will be attended by a group of wealthy elites, and end with a gala celebration where everyone will make exorbitant pledges to Anne's foundation. It's charity filtered through the biggest egos on the planet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QbfJzTPY4w This scenario means that The Woman in Cabin 10 is another movie where the normal main character arrives at a swanky destination under routine pretenses, only to learn that not everything is what it seems. You've probably seen this trope played out multiple times before over the last few years in stuff like Opus , Shell, Blink Twice , The Menu , etc. This movie even has a similar scene where Laura must swap out her shoes to comply with the dress code, and is notified that cell phone services are restricted while on board. This takes place in the third scene, and, if you've seen any of the films already mentioned in this review, you can very accurately guess where the rest of this story is going to go. The ensemble of guests is rich assholes, although they're all extremely generic and uninteresting. Hannah Waddingham is an art dealer, Daniel Ings is an alpha bro, Kaya Scodelario is his fake influencer girlfriend, and Paul Kaye is a vague drug-addled rockstar. Honestly, it doesn't matter, as their entire personalities are devoted to shaming Laura for ruining their weekend when she claims to have witnessed the woman in Cabin 10 being thrown overboard. However, the ship's captain insists that the room was never occupied, and no one else on board has been reported missing. Laura knows what she saw, and only has a few days to prove it before these people disembark and return to their consequence-free empires. "Tell the truth" is a phrase repeatedly used, with writers Simon Stone, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse rallying the everyman against the elites who believe that their wealth and power place them above the law. It's a mission statement inundated with modern culture (I'll spare you from another list of movies that have already done this), almost as if it's become gauche for a movie to simply be a piece of entertainment. The Woman in Cabin 10 is too shallow and ludicrous to be taken seriously, and too dull to have fun with. The less said about the ending, the better, in which the film thinks that all wrongs have been righted (hint: they most certainly haven't). The boat at least looks pretty, giving me another small nudge to finally book that Scandinavian cruise I've always wanted to go on. And Knightley is a very capable lead, effortlessly making the material seem much more elevated than it really is. Her presence has been sorely missed on the silver screen, with only two other films - Boston Strangler and Silent Night - to her name in the last five years. Someone needs to come along with a script worthy of her talents, because we're currently letting one of our best actors languish in mediocrity. Netflix will release The Woman in Cabin 10 on its streaming service on October 10th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24 Dispatch #3 September 16, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen All of the films were screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Click here for additional full reviews and dispatches. Select films below will receive separate full-length reviews at a later date, most likely in connection to their public releases. April Georgian writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili made a splash with her sophomore feature, netting the Special Jury Prize from the Isabelle Huppert-led jury at this year’s Venice Film Festival. She taps into the haunted stillness of Béla Tarr and Michael Haneke, mixing abstract visuals with real-life horrors. Its treatment of the central conflict surrounding abortion in a rural village will test your patience and comprehension, with the reward being much worth the effort. (4/5) On Swift Horses With a cast comprised of no less than Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva, and Sasha Calle, On Swift Horses already had a lot going for it before the cameras were even rolling. Unfortunately, nothing else materialized once things got off the ground, with the lyricism of Shannon Pufahl’s novel being lost in Daniel Minahan’s competently flat direction and Bryce Kass’ screenplay. It’s fun to see the cast interact with each other, mostly because of the guilty pleasure of having them mix and match as bedding partners (poor Will Poulter is the only one who doesn’t get to have any fun). But we’re always seeing the actors, not the characters. (2.5/5) Relay Save for some extremely embarrassing moments of dialogue (most of which are housed within the first few minutes), David MacKenzie’s first feature film since The Outlaw King is a kinetic piece of work. It’s an unambitious and entertaining corporate espionage thriller, with Riz Ahmed starring as a broker who acts as the middleman between corporations and whistleblowers. Lily James becomes one of those whistleblowers in need of help, with Sam Worthington leading a team looking to silence her. The first line of dialogue from Ahmed doesn’t come until the midpoint, a challenge that he and MacKenzie pass with flying colors. The late-night score by Tony Doogan provides a smoky cool atmosphere. Saying that a film should go to streaming is usually a derogatory statement, but this one would certainly uplift a genre that streaming has repeatedly tried and failed to serve. (4/5) The Fire Inside Rachel Morrison, acclaimed cinematographer of Black Panther and Mudbound , crafts a solid directorial debut with this biopic on famed Olympic champion boxer Claressa 'T-Rex' Shields. Greatly aided by a script by Barry Jenkins, Morrison unearths the triumphant and tragic story of Shields’ upbringing in Flint, Michigan, and how her life remained constant despite achieving so much. The visual and structural similarities to other boxing films, specifically the Creed films, cannot be ignored. That’s not a bad thing on its own, more of a quibble considering what could have been accomplished. Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry have a wonderful relationship together as the athlete and the coach, respectively. A solid crowd-pleaser for the holiday season. (3.5/5) More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Invite June 25, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Across the entire timeline of cinematic history, has there ever been one instance where a dinner party has gone exactly as planned? Along with the guests, the hosts always seem to also invite trouble, with unexpected consequences often being served just before dessert. Murder became the guest of honor in Gosford Park , the titular "bio-exorcist" possesses everyone and forces them to dance to "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" in Beetlejuice , and two friends hide a dead body in a trunk in the middle of the room as part of a sadistic game in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope . At the end of the night, no one is going home talking about how great the food and wine were. That theme of misfortune continues in 2026 with The Invite . The strained hosts are Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde), a couple who seem to have been unhappily married for far more years than they were happily married. He's a languishing band teacher at a not-so-nice academy he has to ride his bike to, and she's always between jobs, filling her days constantly redecorating their San Francisco home, which they can only afford because they inherited it from Joe's parents. Their daughter is the only thing that's keeping them together, with unhappiness and resentment permeating the air at all times. Living right above them are Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), a couple of perpetual annoyances due to the rather loud way they express their love for each other every night. But they seem cool, and Angela is desperate to make some friends, so she invites them downstairs for a dinner party, which more or less acts as a test to see if her and Joe's relationship is so strained that they can't even pretend to be a couple anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ19I9q_hOQ Adapted from the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, The Invite is pitched through a prism of manic anxiety, with rapid-fire dialogue often overlapping with the heavy strings provided by composer Devonté Hynes. The initial bickering between Joe and Angela increases in tempo as they race against the clock to get ready. While still being hilarious on its own terms, it's a relatable window into a decaying relationship verging on incurable. Between this film, his compelling dramatic turn in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans , and his multi-hyphenate work on his television show The Studio , Rogen has reached a peak in his career. Playing the miserable straight man, he's the Richard Burton to Wilde's Elizabeth Taylor in this inspired take on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . But Burton was never allowed to be this funny, with Rogen delivering so many side-splitting one-liners that comment on the avalanche of bad circumstances throughout the night. Considering the minuscule cast and setting, one could play armchair therapist and analyze this as a sort of tactical retreat for Wilde as a filmmaker after her sophomore effort, Don't Worry Darling , where the tabloid antics garnered infinitely more attention than the middling film did by itself. Thankfully, this is just a step in a different direction rather than going backwards. Her skills both in front and behind the camera are still solidly illustrated. Her character twists herself into mental pretzels the whole night, all of it captured on 35mm, reminiscent of a home movie. Cruz and Norton get to have a ball of a time watching as their hosts drag themselves into hell. Digging through their stuff and waxing poetic about his career as a firefighter, Norton is fully loosened up, almost parodying his frequent high-strung roles. Cruz's alluring openness, as well as her occupation as a psychotherapist, is what drives the film's third-act pivot. An ulterior motive is revealed by the guests as to why they accepted the invitation, a revelation that provides a whole new level of context for the cover image of this review. It's that reveal that opens the human elements within this tragicomedy of manners. In all of us is a desire to be desired, a yearning that proves our self-worth. Validation is a potent drug, one that can't be administered by yourself. Wilde doesn't handle these later dramatic scenes with as much skill as the earlier comedic ones, but the hard work she and the writers put into these characters still makes it land with a bit of a punch. In a summer blockbuster season ruled by giant tenpoles overfilled with noise and visual effects, this is a smart and funny party you'll want to attend. A24 will release The Invite in select theaters on June 26th, followed by a nationwide expansion on July 10th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Eternity November 24, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Eternity puts a whole new spin on the phrase “Till death do us part.” Like a Pixar movie for adults, the first stage of the afterlife has been literalized as a train junction. The souls of the recently deceased are brought into the hub and are given one week to decide where they would like to spend eternity. Booths line up the halls, each stationed by a tenacious salesperson to persuade souls to come to their unique eternity. One booth is selling Smoker’s World, where everyone is allowed to smoke at all times, and with none of the health risks! Another booth brags about Capitalist World, where you can endure as a hedonistic Wall Street tycoon. Through the combination of endless options and the threat of eternal permanence, people show their true selves when they enter the afterlife. In the mortal world, restrictions such as geography, financial situations, and societal morals made the hard choices for us. Now the guardrails have been lifted, and it’s time to get serious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXTps1REHU Larry and Joan were one of those couples that could only be separated by death. After sixty years of marriage, they both parted within the span of a week. He accidentally choked on a pretzel at their gender reveal party for their impending grandchild, and she had terminal cancer. It’s not a competition, but I’d say one of them will have a more respectable story to share in the afterlife. When arriving at the junction, your physical form reverts back to when you were happiest, which is where Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen come into play. But before they can choose a world, a chaos agent arrives in the form of the irresistibly handsome Callum Turner. He plays Luke, Joan’s first husband, who died in the Korean War. Death parted them, and now the afterlife has brought them back together. He’s been waiting at the junction ever since, and now Joan must choose between a renewed life with him or sticking with Larry. There isn’t a rule that says Joan has to choose between either of them, but it would be a little awkward for all three to live in the same eternity (although this situation would make them perfect for Soap Opera World). It wouldn’t really matter if there were a hard rule about this sort of thing, as director David Freyne and co-writer Patrick Cunnane keep everything a little vague for its own good. Beach World seemingly only has beaches, and Mountain World seemingly only has mountains. But what about Smoker’s World, or Queer World? Is smoking or being queer the only thing you’re allowed to do there? Nudist World seems pretty normal (sans clothes, of course), and I’d assume a nudist beach would be a popular attraction. The salespeople for each of these worlds talk bout quotas, and unpopular worlds are shut down. If someone developed Everything World, then they’d probably dominate the market share. Right now, I’d pick Golf World, as that’s probably the best chance I have of ever getting a hole-in-one. It’s not like these gaps are game-breaking. But it was a worrying sign that they were at the top of my mind throughout most of the runtime, instead of the emotional stakes at play. Despite the otherworldly concept, the plot is tied down to our world’s concepts of a love triangle. That means that one side gets the leg up on the other for some time, only for a shocking revelation to tip the scales in the other direction. Freyne’s pacing doesn’t help the matter, with the 112-minute runtime feeling significantly longer than it actually is. Miles Teller delivers the best performance, channeling the personality of a senior citizen in the body of a young adult. He’s a bit curmudgeonly and always had a bit of resentment over being jokingly referred to as “Joan’s second choice,” but he has a heart of gold and proves that she made the right choice. He also makes the hilarious discovery that his new body allows him to bend over and do squats, something that the mortal world barred him from doing. Olsen and Turner are fine, constantly outshone by Teller and the comedic pair of Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early as the deceased trio’s Afterlife Coordinators. Two hours was more than enough time to spend with all these people, much less an eternity. A24 will release Eternity in theaters nationwide on November 26th. More Reviews Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen