Search Results

Bones and All November 13, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen At this point, I have to ask, “What can’t Luca Guadagnino do?” For as much his signature brand of visual poetry seems to stay consistent throughout his films, the genres he chooses to instill them upon cannot be more wildly different. 2009’s I Am Love had Tilda Swinton speak Italian with a Russian accent in a story of romantic affairs. Swinton stayed with him for his next film, A Bigger Splash , except this time her character, a rock star on vacation, doesn’t speak in order to save her vocal cords. The nastiness of that film would not be found in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name , with a vulnerable star-making performance by Timothée Chalamet grabbing headlines and awards attention. But then not even a year later came a wild pivot in the form of his (excellent) remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, Suspiria. Adding an extra hour to the runtime, Guadagnino’s take on the material was both depressingly realistic and batshit crazy, stripping the original of its distinct color palette while still maintaining its own sense of beauty. And now, after a brief detour into television with his 8-part HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are , Guadagnino seems to have finally found a project that takes elements from each of his past works and combines them into something extraordinarily original. Maren (Taylor Russell) has a problem. Apart from living on the fringes of Reagan-era American society, she also has an uncontrollable tendency to consume human flesh. She’s a full-blooded cannibal down to her DNA, thanks in part to her mother’s genes. She tries her best to suppress these urges, but every once in a while they get unleashed, leading someone to get hurt and Maren and her dad to skip town. After years of this tortuous cycle, Maren’s father decides that enough is enough, leaving her to fend for herself. He leaves behind her birth certificate, a clue she uses to track down her long-lost mother in order to understand this affliction. On the road, she comes across an assortment of crazy creatures, the first being Sully (Mark Rylance), a fellow “Eater” who talks to himself in the third person and drifts across the country fulfilling his thirst. A strange, yet also oddly educational, experience with him pushes Maren further down her path. She bumps into another Eater named Lee (Timothée Chalamet) who seems to be living by himself just as she is. From there, the two disillusioned youths trek across middle America, finding out more about themselves and their place in all this mess. Adapting Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 book of the same name, Guadagnino and writer David Kajganich drip feed information about the condition of Eaters. The first half hour, with much playing out during Maren’s encounter with Sully, dedicates itself to understanding the physical and mental pain of needing to consume human flesh. How can a person live with themselves knowing that they’ll always have an unsatisfying hunger, and the only way to temporarily cure it is to eat another human being? It’s a dangerous question, one that doesn’t have a perfect answer that keeps everyone from getting hurt. Lee thinks he has it figured out, so as long as he doesn’t think deeply about the repercussions of his actions. Chalamet’s performance is the serious version of his from Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up , going mostly with the flow as he accepts his fate. Rylance, on the other hand, might as well still be playing his character from Don’t Look Up , with his awkwardly creepy demeanor and southern cadence hinting at the anguish he’s been through. Russell, who burst onto the scene with Trey Edward Shults’ 2017 family drama Waves , finds the perfect balance between youthful naivety and real-world ruggedness. And then there’s also the brief Call Me By Your Name reunion as Michael Stuhlbarg wreaks havoc on your nerves as a redneck Eater that may or may not have a taste for his own kind. Even with all the gruesome body horror, Guadagnino fills this story with rich emotional resonance. At the center of it all is a love story between two young adults who must come to terms with who they are individually and together. It just so happens that the film with the biggest heart this year also contains several sequences of actual human hearts being devoured. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Love Hurts February 6, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Ostensibly, Love Hurts is an original movie. It’s neither a remake nor a reboot, or based on some existing source material. For that fact alone, it deserves some credit, as does Universal Studios for backing and distributing a film that gives the fifty-three-year-old Ke Huy Quan his first chance to be at the top of the call sheet in his forty-year career. But that’s where the positive remarks end for Love Hurts . All of its “original” ideas have been seen time and time again, all of its well-marketed stunts have been executed better by other action properties, and all of its holiday-related sentimentality is so undercooked that it might as well be served to the vultures. Love does hurt, but so does having to sit through a movie that you know won’t do anything more than be a void for your precious time. Love Hurts is still at least inoffensively entertaining, mostly from the effortless charm that Ke Huy Quan had kept from the world for nearly two decades before he returned in Everything Everywhere All at Once . He campaigned nonstop for almost twelve months between the film’s world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and the 2023 Academy Awards, culminating in his victory in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Every single one of the hundreds of interviews and speeches he conducted felt genuine, a rare feat in the increasingly politicized and performative game that is awards season. Quan’s enthusiasm for having a leading role is completely infectious, giving his character an immediately rootable spirit. He plays Marvin Gable, a Milwaukee realtor who always sees the bright side and greets every day with a smile. But while there is authenticity behind his demeanor, it's also a coping mechanism to cover his shady past as an assassin for his crime-lord brother. It’s a life he’s left behind, although it doesn’t seem like he tried very hard as he still lives in the same town and took a very public job that has his face plastered on every bus station bench. I guess Clark Kent’s strategy of simply putting on glasses to hide his identity is more scientific than I thought. But even if Marvin’s brother is egregiously oblivious, his former “lover” Rose (Ariana DeBose) isn’t. She’s supposed to be dead, at least in the legal sense after Marvin betrayed his brother’s orders and let her flee instead of being executed. Now she’s back to get revenge on Marvin’s brother’s syndicate and break Marvin out of the dull existence that she thinks is a lie. I use “lover” in quotes because Quan and DeBose have zero romantic chemistry together. The twenty-year age difference doesn’t help, nor the fact that Marvin’s constant annoyance at Rose’s chaotic nature never once hints at a past infatuation. It’s never a good sign when a climactic kiss makes an audience wince instead of swoon. The film marks the directorial debut of Jonathan Eusebio, a veteran fight and stunt coordinator with a long list of credits that include a smattering of MCU titles, the John Wick franchise, and The Matrix Resurrections. The choreography is expectedly up to par, with 87North Productions and John Wick head honcho David Leitch serving as producer. But Eusebio’s camerawork and editing don’t reach the heights of his boss, the punches and kicks never landing with enough force to garner a physical reaction. Even with a runtime of a mere 83 minutes, much of Love Hurts still feels like weightless padding to justify the feature-length treatment. If they stripped this down to its essentials, then maybe it could have been a half-decent short film, or, heaven forbid, Quibi original. I still doubt it, but at least everyone would have saved themselves the few precious dollars we need to save in order to buy eggs. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore April 18, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Fantastic Beasts series has hardly lived up to its description. The first entry assured us that the franchise wouldn’t be fantastic. The Crimes of Grindelwald assured us that the franchise would be cluttered. And now, The Secrets of Dumbledore has assured us of the thing we feared most, which is that this franchise is uninteresting. It’s been over ten years since the Harry Potter series concluded with the spectacular Deathly Hallows Part 2 . With so many franchises failing to stick the landing, or even get off the ground, it seems like a minor miracle that all eight Harry Potter films were able to stand alone while also serving as pieces to a grand puzzle. Those days are now a distant memory, with the only thing left for Potterheads to do is endlessly tinker with the online sorting hat so that they can get into their favorite house. But why has this once-promising franchise run itself into the ground so quickly? In case you forgot, there are supposed to be two more films. The thought of that no longer fills me with wonder, only dread. There are multiple reasons why things have fallen apart, from J.K. Rowling’s increased transphobia to Johnny Depp’s public image tarnishment. But while those things are important, my prognosis for this ailment is that it's good old-fashioned staleness. We’re now at the eleventh entry in the Wizarding World series with the same story seemingly being told over and over again. Much worse, it’s being told by the same people in the same manner. In the early days of Harry Potter, the director’s chair was constantly being shuffled around and filled with unique talents. Each film, while having intensive connective tissue, had flourishes of a signature style by those leading them. Home Alone director Chris Columbus shepherded Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets . Alfonso Cuarón was able to ease into the darker themes with Prisoner of Azkaban , and Mike Newell was able to layer up the human drama in Goblet of Fire . All that stopped once David Yates was appointed to Order of the Phoenix , and has subsequently directed every entry since. It’s not that Yates is a bad director, far from that actually as he has made some of the strongest entries in the original series. It’s more that his time has been up for a while now. The same goes for screenwriter Steve Kloves, who’s written the majority of the films. It feels like Warner Brothers are testing the definition of insanity as they keep hiring the same people to do the same thing, and somehow expect different results. There’s a reason I just spent half this review talking about everything surrounding this movie instead of what’s inside the actual movie. That’s because there isn’t much of anything inside this movie. And if there was anything in there, it evaporated from my memory the second it entered. There’s magic MacGuffins, the debate between how the wizarding world and muggle world can interact, and fan service moments to make you remember better days. It’s just gears churning a money machine now, which, based on the box office forecasts, will likely start to grind to a halt. The central characters of Newt Scamander and co. have failed to be interesting, a sentiment that the filmmakers feel as the franchise has steadily shifted away from them. The franchise is in full prequel mode as Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s blood feud has taken center stage. Their fleeting romance has as well unless you live in China or any other anti-gay country, where Warner Brothers have cut most of the content relating to that. You can’t be a multi-billion dollar company without bowing to the smell of money, even if it goes against everything you claim to stand for. The Wizarding World franchise has slowly sunken down to the masses after being on the hilltop for so long. It may not be as tainted as fellow bottom dwellers Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers , but there’s no sense of passion or excitement left. It’s going to take a whole lot of magic to get this beast to be fantastic again. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

No Time to Die October 11, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Since his first cinematic appearance in 1962, James Bond has done a lot of things. He’s been reincarnated five times, traveled around the globe (including space), and saved the world more times than it deserves. But the one thing that James Bond has never done is venture inward. For one of the first times in the franchise, the emotional beats are what pump the blood within the film’s heart. The theme of finality rings loudly, as No Time to Die marks the twenty-fifth entry in the long-running series, as well as the fifth and final part of the Daniel Craig era. In a move that has become routine by now, Bond has left active service. This time it wasn’t because of being presumed dead (even though that is true here), but because of his love of Madeleine Swann, a daughter of SPECTRE. Their attempt at a normal life goes about as expected, with bad guys ruining their Italian honeymoon. This, along with a deadly theft of a weaponized virus in the heart of London, brings James back into the fold for one last mission. Not one for nostalgia, MI6 moved on from Bond and promoted a new 007 named Nomi, who embodies the new school of espionage. Along with M, Q, Moneypenny, and Tanner, it’s time once again for the forces of good to vanquish evil. The Craig era marked the MCU-ification (a term that shouldn’t be taken as derogatory) of the Bond franchise, as it turned against the standalone nature of the previous entries and started to treat subsequent films as true sequels. The events of Casino Royale fed directly into Quantum of Solace . And when that movie failed, Skyfall acted as a soft reboot, later filtering into Spectre . No Time to Die pulls double duties by playing as a direct sequel to Spectre , but also the final bow on the whole modern Bond era. Despite the interconnectedness, long-time writers Neil Purvis and Robert Wade don’t want to be restricted by franchise ties. There has never been a need to see a previous movie to comprehend the next one, with only tried and true franchise elements such as Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE providing an integral throughline. The duo always seems to be stuck in the past with their scripts, mining the same bits, such as shaken not stirred martinis, Aston Martin cars, and megalomaniac villains hellbent on world domination. The blame for the forgettable plot – borderline incoherent at times – should rest on their shoulders. Lacking the personal connection of Christoph Walz’s Blofeld and Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva, Rami Malek’s Lyutsifer Safin is a second-rate Bond villain. The casting choice itself is a no-brainer, as Malek has a heavy natural supply of VE (Villain Energy). Safin seems to be a character lifted from a Shakespearean play, as he often poetically monologues into the middle-distance. There’s unintentional ironic humor to Safin’s plan of decimating the world’s population through a virus, as it requires much more effort than what COVID-19 has been able to do. It’s co-writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga (first American Bond director) and Fleabag scribe Phoebe Waller-Bridge that want to take the franchise in a newer direction. There’s an element of fun introduced that has been missing from the Craig films. Doing well to supply that is Ana de Armas, who does too well with too little screen time in a Knives Out reunion. There’s also the pairing of Bond with Nomi, played terrifically by Lashana Lynch, and who is much more than the alleged SJW-takeover that some want you to believe. With their record-breaking budgets, the Bond films have always had nice toys to play with. They just needed the right person to harness their potential. Fukunaga breaks the stoic shackles set by Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes, returning Craig back to the kinetic destruction wonderfully employed in Casino Royale . There’s a particular long-take stairwell scene, similar to the one Fukunaga used in True Detective , that perfectly illustrates Bond’s otherworldly combat skills. And there’s the shoutout in Cuba, which plays more like a dance as Bond and Nomi attempt to retrieve a precious item. It’s a testament to Craig that he’s been able to keep up with the physical requirements of the role, especially with the battle scars he’s accumulated over the years. But he also reaches new heights emotionally, with his Bond being the most vulnerable, both literally and metaphorically. He shares more than an animalistic sexual relationship with his Bond girls. There’s something palpable under the surface, keeping you invested beyond just the setpieces. With a lot of time (163 minutes in fact) to end, No Time to Die says goodbye to the actor who ushered in a new era for James Bond. Thankfully, it does it with a sly wink and a nod to what could be in store for this long-weathered franchise. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Challengers April 12, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen If there’s one thing that Luca Guadagnino understands about sports, it’s the sex appeal. Muscles are perpetually firm and clenched, sweat hangs on the brow and slips off perfectly chiseled jaws, and outbursts of enthusiasm share the same primal feelings from the bedroom. It’s something that Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) alludes to early in Challengers , calling tennis “a relationship.” There are moments in a match where the competitors aren’t on Earth anymore, rather, they’re on another plane of existence fully intertwined. Of course, Guadagino finding the eroticism in something shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with his filmography. This is the same man who looked at a peach and knew just what to do with it in Call Me By Your Name , and also found a tender way to express the intersection between pleasure and violence in his (vastly superior) remake of Suspiria and Bones and All . There’s always a beautiful balance between every emotion within his films, pulling you in deep while also keeping you guessing at what’s going to happen next. Challengers follows that same strategy, with Guadagnino veering his sights away from the arthouse and into the multiplex with his most commercial project yet. But fear not any of you who think he’s “going Hollywood,” as there are still several moments where his poetic past merges with the visual panache that a studio allows. Take for instance the pivotal tennis match between Tashi’s husband Art (Mike Faist) and her former boyfriend/his former best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor). The camera takes the form of all shapes and sizes, morphing seamlessly between the first-person viewpoints of the competitors, the tennis ball, and the spectators. Then the camera will swirl and burrow itself underneath the surface to give a worm’s eye view (I guess that’s the best way to describe it) of the action. It’s all so relentless and highly energizing, effortlessly capturing the kinetic rhythm of the match. But how did we get to this match of former friends and lovers now turned enemies? It all began a little over thirteen years ago when Art and Patrick were dominating the doubles junior circuit in their senior year of high school. After one of the victories, they decide to hang back and watch the next match, which just so happens to feature Tashi Duncan, the most talked-about phenom on the scene. “It wasn’t even tennis, it was a completely different sport,” says Art, with both him and Patrick awestruck by her magnetism on and off the court. A litany of poke-and-jab flirtations continues throughout the night, capping with the beginning of a years-long ménage à trois. Through a series of tragedies and screw-ups, Tashi prematurely retires from tennis and takes up the position of Art’s coach and wife. Patrick goes his separate way on the professional tour, sporadically coming back into the fold to remind everyone of the good ol’ days. “When we were teenagers” is a line said by each of them to excuse the past, but none of them seem to be over it. One of the wonderful things about Justin Kuritzkes’ script (his feature debut!) is its ability to keep things fresh while dizzyingly spinning in circles. Much of that comes from the complex structure of the proceedings, almost emulating a Christopher Nolan-esque style by jumping back and forth within the thirteen years. One moment you’re on the court during the pivotal match, the next you’re in the Stanford dormitory, being given a clue to a payoff later down the road. There are no lines or roles for supporting players, just the central trio, meaning there’s a limited amount of combinations for character interactions. There’s a snapping bite to much of the dialogue, which doesn’t try to emulate the pace of Aaron Sorkin's dialogue, but instead lets a moment hang between words. But when things do get rapid, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ incredible rave-like score is right there to push things over the edge. Not that there was much debate beforehand, but between Dune: Part Two and this, Zendaya has reached the level of a certified movie star. The confident vulnerability of Chani extends here, being combined with a physically athletic swagger. She’s a chess master forced to play with her hands tied behind her back, but that challenge only emboldens her flare. Faist steps into a role all fans of Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of West Side Story dreamt of. He and O’Connor certainly level up with their work here, with a special mention also going to casting director Francine Maisler for recruiting performers who can seamlessly switch between the ages of 18-34. And Gudagnino certainly knows what people want to see with these actors on the court, incorporating almost as much slow-motion as Zack Snyder, something that I didn’t think was possible. In his ironically typical fashion, Guadagnino will quickly pivot from Challengers over to an adaptation of William S. Burroughs Queer , telling the story of an insecure and haunted gay former GI played by Daniel Craig. Consistency in subject matter and filmmaking techniques may not be in Gudagnino’s wheelhouse, but the outcomes always turn out the same: excellent. 2024 will surely be his year, and we’re all going to have a fun time basking in it. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

The Wonder November 4, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen One could be forgiven for believing that they are watching the wrong film based on the first image within Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder . “We are nothing without stories, so we invite you to believe in this one,” narrates a mysterious whispery voice as we open with a shot of a modern soundstage, a far cry from the mid-19th century Irish countryside where the film takes place. But just as you're about to reach for your remote and back out to the main menu of Netflix, the camera pans to the right, revealing Florence Pugh’s character of widowed English nurse Elizabeth Wright as she’s making her voyage on a boat. And with that simple trick, Lelio has placed us within the shoes (or more accurately, muddy boots) of his main character, as we are reminded that movies, while made through proven science and craftsmanship, are most alluring when they make us suspend our disbelief. Wright’s journey takes her to a small village in Ireland, a place where religion and science often occupy the same spaces. She’s been summoned by a committee of the town’s highest-ranking elders, including a priest and a doctor (Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones, respectively), to investigate an unexplainable phenomenon. 11-year-old Anna O’Donnell has gone without food for the past four months, surviving purely on “manna from heaven.” The child has been labeled a miracle by the townsfolk and receives visitors and press coverage from all over the land. Of course, this prolonged fast defies the laws of human anatomy, which is why the committee has summoned Wright and a nun, so that they may watch her all day and night and determine if the child truly is a blessing from above. Wright fills the role of the skeptic, never once believing (there’s that word again) that Anna and her family are telling the truth. She’s experienced enough despair in her life - including losing her child and husband, and serving during the bloodiest parts of the Crimean War - to doubt the existence, let alone the goodwill, of God. She observes Anna as she goes through her daily routine, one of constant prayer and giving and receiving love within her family, waiting for someone to crack under the pressure and reveal the whole thing as a sham. But Elizabeth’s beliefs begin to waver as the days drudge on and Anna continues to thrive without food, creating a constant battle between the known and the unknown. Centering his filmography around the themes of personal identity ( Disobedience, Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman) , Lelio has often found silence to be the best judge of character. Adapting the novel by Emma Donoghue ( Room ), many of the pivotal scenes are pushed further based on observational glances. Pugh returns (not that she was gone that long) from her movie star escapades in Black Widow and Don’t Worry Darling to deliver a shimmeringly haunting performance. She may look and dress the part of Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women , but her demeanor couldn't be any more different as she brings a steely no-nonsense energy. Matthew Herbert’s off-kilter score, with its liberal use of percussion and non-period instruments, keeps you entranced toward the mystery, even if the material itself may not always be that consistently interesting. Things pick up steam near the end when the building blocks begin to tumble and desperate choices are made. The means to get there may not have been the most well-executed, but the outcome does provide a nice return on the initial investment. Through fine work from every facet of its production, The Wonder accomplishes what it sets out to do, telling a story I wholeheartedly believed. Much of what you take away from the film will be under the surface, possibly testing your ideals about the unexplainable within your own life. More Reviews A Minecraft Movie April 2, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Freaky Tales March 31, 2025 By: Tyler Banark The Friend March 28, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen William Tell September 5, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Spoiler Alert December 2, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen While it usually goes without saying, I feel I’m obliged to mention that this review is spoiler-free. I guess it doesn’t really matter since this film adaptation of the novel Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies kind of spells everything out within its title. The meta-ness of that title brings up a philosophical question: If a movie is incredibly predictable, but the creatives recognize and address it, is it then still predictable? For many years, the answer to that question would likely be a “no.” But with the overall rise in meta humor in nearly every genre (comic-book: Deadpool ; comedy: This Is The End ; horror: The Cabin in the Woods ), the pendulum has swung back the other way, making the unpredictable totally predictable. Spoiler Alert sits somewhere in the middle of this problem, as it presents a highly personal true story in such a conventional way that - even for all its positives - makes for an incredibly forgettable watch. It’s also a little surprising that this film is not a dime-a-dozen release by a streaming service as television plays such a large part in the life of its main character, Michael Ausiello, who currently serves as the editor-in-chief of his website, TVLine. Instead, it finds its way into theaters through Focus Features, where it will likely fall in line with the rest of the adult-skewing victims of this new box office landscape. Michael, played here by The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons in another attempt at meta-humor, has always used television as a safe space for his emotional traumas. Every day as a child, he and his mother would settle on the couch and catch up on soap operas. It eventually became the way he realized he was gay and offered escapism while his mother fought, and lost to, cancer. So, when Michael’s long-time partner Kit (I’m skipping a lot of plot here, but there’s only so much margin space, and the story of them meeting is very by-the-numbers) is diagnosed with the deadly illness, the heartaches of the past meet the reality of the present. To further emphasize the importance of television in Michael’s life even more, director Michael Showalter ( The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye ) stages several fake 80s sitcom moments, complete with overacting and canned laughter. These moments sort of serve as flashbacks to Michael’s past, with the bad memories portrayed through the rose-colored glasses of network television. It’s a jarring concept, one that never meshes well with the dramatic material that comes with a cancer drama. The same can be said for Michael’s narration, which is addressed to Kit in the afterlife and often butts in at the worst possible moments. Parsons is a weird movie star, mostly because he has a sort of “supporting actor that steals the show” energy, which was fully evidenced over the twelve seasons of The Big Bang Theory . He can’t totally shake that persona, with some moments of sincerity coming across as stilted. He and Ben Aldridge as Kit do make a nice pair, with Sally Field as Kit’s mother being a welcome addition in the couple times she pops up. Calling Spoiler Alert the more dramatic (and slightly inferior) version of Billy Eichner’s Bros is a little reductive, but it isn’t untrue. On both the comedic and dramatic fronts, everything within Showalter’s film has an aura of “been there, done that,” keeping it out of my memory bank for more than an hour after finishing it. I remember a lot of worse films than Spoiler Alert , but I also remember a lot of better ones too. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Awards Update: Fall Festival Winners & Losers September 28, 2024 By: Hunter Friesen Welcome to an ongoing series where I cover the 2024/2025 awards season. On a regular basis, I will update my Oscar predictions, taking into account the new information that has been received since the last update. Full predictions in every category can be found on the Home and Awards page. “Frenzied” and “chaotic” would be the words most apt to describe the two weeks where the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival crash into each other. Reactions pour in, standing ovations are timed, and prizes are bestowed upon a select few. It’s one of the most fun stretches of the year as a cinephile and an awards junkie, a time when you can eat your fill of quality cinema and confirm/deny your early Oscar predictions. Because there’s so much to talk about and so little margin space to fit it all in, let’s split everyone off into two groups: Winners and Losers. Of course, all of this is relative, and anything could happen in the six months we have left in the season. Starting with the winners, more specifically the actual winners, we’ve got Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door nabbing the Golden Lion in Venice, a victory I learned about as I exited from the press screening of the film at TIFF underwhelmed. But the Isballe Huppert-led jury saw something different, which I don’t think many other people will agree with so enthusiastically. This is not a top-tier work by the famed Spanish filmmaker, with the lead performances by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore being the only viable awards chances. They’re both being submitted as lead actresses by distributor Sony Picture Classics, which is the morally correct move. But that category has found itself quite stacked in the past few weeks, and SPC already has Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun to campaign. We can scratch The Life of Chuck , this year’s TIFF People’s Choice winner, off the prediction charts. It’s just been picked up by Neon with a planned Summer 2025 release. That also means we’ll have to wait and see if the film can repeat what the last twelve winners of that award did and be nominated for Best Picture. Could we get two People’s Choice winners nominated at the 2026 ceremony? The two runners-up at TIFF, Emilia Pérez and Anora , both solidified themselves as top-tier contenders. They both received swaths of attention at Telluride and TIFF, showing that they can perform just as well at public festivals as they did at a high-brow competition like Cannes. I expect them to dominate the above-the-line categories, with Emilia Pérez nabbing a handful of craft nominations for its outstanding musical numbers. However, there was no bigger winner these past few weeks than Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist , which nabbed its director the Silver Lion for Best Director. It was by far the best thing I saw at TIFF, a sentiment that many critics agreed with. It’s amazing that something made so cheaply (under $10 million) feels so similar to the epic Hollywood productions of the past. How A24 will be able to maintain that desire and enthusiasm until the release date announced on December 20th will be a question, but they certainly have something special on their hands that people are hungry for. I mentioned in my last update that I would put it in several categories if the reviews were kind, and now that promise comes true. Other small winners would be Babygirl and Hard Truths , both of which gained great reviews for their lead actresses Nicole Kidman and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, respectively. Conclave and The Piano Lesson would also fall into this category, although some of the early predictions for Stanley Tucci and Samuel L. Jackson turned out to be wishful thinking. Regardless, both of those adaptations received strong enough reviews and public sentiment that they should find themselves in more than one category. There’s also September 5 , which was picked up by Paramount and received strong reviews despite its under-the-radar status. Sitting in the loser territory (only slightly) is Luca Guadagnino’s Queer . Reviews were fine, but the passion is definitely lacking, which is something this very challenging (no pun intended) movie needs. It’ll likely only have an awards presence through Daniel Craig’s performance. Also a small loser is Pablo Larraín’s Maria . Angelina Jolie will almost certainly be nominated, but I’m thinking Larraín and Netflix are striving for a bit more considering this is supposed to be his final entry in his biopic trilogy. And then there’s Nightbitch , a movie that is much more subdued and normal than its title and trailer led us to believe. Of course, we can’t end this article without mentioning the dud that was Joker: Folie à Deux . This sequel could have never repeated the overwhelming success of the first film, but the mediocre reviews, bad press, and low box office projections suggest that it will be a mighty challenge to muster any awards attention. It’ll probably still get some craft nominations, just nothing substantial. Now it’s on to the regional festivals (NYFF, AFI, Middleburg, Chicago, etc.), where most of these winners (and some of the losers) parade themselves around to gain national support. It’s a lot like the election primaries, so we’ll need to have our ears to the ground and listen for which ones are gaining traction when even more eyes are placed upon them. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name

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 Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 2: Hollywood Makes a Splash Overseas April 5, 2023 By: Hunter Friesen As one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, the Cannes Film Festival always attracts the attention of cinephiles and industry professionals alike. Each year, the festival presents a diverse lineup of films that represent the best of international cinema, including both established and emerging filmmakers. With the 76th edition of the festival set to take place in May, film enthusiasts around the world are eagerly anticipating the announcement of the official selection on April 13th. While the festival organizers keep their cards close to their chest, there are already some strong players emerging as likely contenders for the coveted Cannes spotlights. In this four-part series, I’ll take a closer look at some of the films that are generating buzz and predict which ones are likely to make it to the Croisette this year. Each part will represent a category of films, which are: The Festival Masters Hollywood Makes a Splash The Festival Mainstays The Irregulars and Up-and-Comers This second part encompasses the biggest fish in the pond, which are the Hollywood blockbusters from the major studios. Cannes may be a Mecca for international cinema, but that doesn’t mean they exclude the big boys. The festival thrives on star power, and nothing rolls out the red carpet more than a blockbuster with lots of names attached to it. Both Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis started their journeys on the Croisette, as well as Mad Max: Fury Road and The Da Vinci Code in the years prior. Let’s take a look at which big tent poles might debut in the Palais. Which of these films are you most interested in? I'll be keeping you all posted on my adventures and sharing my thoughts on the films that I see. Stay tuned for more updates! Asteroid City With Asteroid City a certainty to debut on the French Riviera, Cannes now replaces Berlin as the film festival to debut the most Anderson films. Moonrise Kingdom opened the festival in 2012, and The French Dispatch sat on a shelf throughout the pandemic to ensure it debuted at the 2021 edition. Cannes thrives on star power to fill its historic red carpet, and Anderson’s films have plenty to spare. His newest cast will feature no less than Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, and Jeffrey Wright. May December A rumor has been slowly spreading over the past few years that Todd Haynes’ Carol was a near lock to win the Palme d’Or in 2015, but was snubbed at the last minute by jury member Xavier Dolan. The film had to settle for a joint Best Actress prize for Rooney Mara. His newest film finished production in November, reuniting him with Julianne Moore, and bringing Natalie Portman back into the fold. Poor Things Coming off the blazing Oscar success of The Favourite , all eyes are on what Yorgos Lanthimos will do next. He’s keeping his partnership with leading lady Emma Stone and screenwriter Tony McNamara for Poor Things , which will be set in Victorian England and about a mad scientist who brings a woman back to life. Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, and Margaret Qualley mix into the supporting cast. Lanthimos’ unique arthouse sensibilities have matched well with Cannes in the past, with Dogtooth, The Lobster , and The Killing of a Sacred Deer , all winning various prizes. Now that Oscar buzz follows Lanthimos wherever he goes, Searchlight Pictures will have to make a decision of sending the film to a festival with an already established fandom for Lanthimos or wait and debut it in the fall with the rest of the Oscar bunch. Killers of the Flower Moon With extensive reshoots and release date delays, Martin Scorsese’s epic western has become one of his longest projects to get to audiences. Rumors started to swirl late last year that the film was eyeing a premiere on the Riviera, followed by a fall festival tour. With CODA becoming the first streaming film to win Best Picture, Apple will do everything in its power to repeat that success. The Little Mermaid The timing lines up perfectly for Disney to use the festival as a launching pad for the international release of their newest live-action remake. The film packs plenty of buzzy names such as Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy and an acclaimed director in Rob Marshall. Hitman 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 to tide us over. Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell, a frequent collaborator of Linklater’s, co-wrote the screenplay with him for this story of a hitman who turns the tables on those who hire him. It’s been twenty years since Linklater last competed on the Croisette (2005’s Fast Food Nation ), so it might be time for him to be brought back into the fold. Oppenheimer Very few filmmakers carry as much name value as Christopher Nolan, who will be potentially delivering a more stripped-down story about the trials and tribulations of the titular father of the atomic bomb. Nolan has never shown one of his films at Cannes, but he did introduce his 70mm restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey before it was pushed into theaters. If Nolan does decide to bring his material this time, then a glitzy out-of-competition premiere would be the most likely route taken. The Bikeriders Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Jodie Comer, Norman Reedus, and Boyd Holbrook star as members of a Midwestern motorcycle club in writer/director Jeff Nichols’ return to feature filmmaking after a brief hiatus. Nichols served on the jury last year and brought both Mud and Loving to the Croisette. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Cannes thrives on a small batch of Hollywood blockbusters looking to make a splashy international premiere, as evidenced by Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis grabbing headlines last year. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull debuted at the festival back in 2008, so there is precedent for the famed archaeologist to stop by. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

May December May 25, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen May December had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on November 17, followed by its streaming premiere on December 01. Director Todd Haynes’ approach to the material within May December becomes clear immediately. The opening credits arrive accompanied by Michel Legrand's hyper-stylized theme from The Go-Between , harkening back to the pulpy works of Brian De Palma and Old Hollywood melodrama. It’s an immediate disarmament, signaling a lighter attitude toward this true-ish tabloid story of an affair between a thirty-something housewife and her thirteen-year-old co-worker. How could someone find the humor in this situation, you ask? A brief tour of Haynes’ filmography illustrates a filmmaker who has always been fascinated with infiltrating mainstream material with independent ideas. Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There turned the musician biopic on its head, Far from Heaven used Douglas Sirk pastiche to approach 1950s racism, and Carol tells the age-old tale of forbidden love, this time with a queer angle. Even Haynes’ most mainstream film, the legal thriller Dark Waters , subtlely undermines genre clichés with impeccable mise-en-scene. May December is his most playful exercise in tone and expectations, delivering something that is both mature and overtly theatrical. The illegal affair is only the preface to the main story. Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) Atherton-Yoo are still together twenty years after their scandalous romance shocked the world. They live in a Georgia suburban home paid for by their tabloid cover photos. Their youngest children are about to graduate high school, making Joe an empty-nest parent before he’s even the age Gracie was when they met. Despite their attempts to lead a quiet life, the couple is always reminded of how they’re perceived in the public eye, whether it be the infrequent anonymous hatemail or the arrival of actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who’s playing Gracie in a new Lifetime original movie about the romance and is staying with the family to do research. Gracie hopes that the film and Elizabeth’s performance will help reshape the public’s perception of how she and Joe came to be. Elizabeth totally agrees and presents herself as an ally to the couple, at least on the surface. There’s something off about how Elizabeth injects herself into the couple’s lives. She’s inferred to be on a downward trajectory in her career, so maybe the juicy material will put her back in the headlines? Haynes and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt - stepping in for Ed Lachmann, as he was off shooting Pablo Larraín’s El Conde in Chile - always have Elizabeth standing a bit off-center, usually obscured by an object or observed through a mirror. Reflections in both its literal and figurative form are the key to Samy Burch’s screenplay (touched up by Haynes). Gracie, Joe, and Elizabeth all have ideas about what they want out of this, but none of them truly know if they’re willing to mine deep inside of them to get it. There’s an artifice to every interaction, with the truth lurking around the corner. Some of these conversations, filled with jagged edges and heightened stylizations, lean a little too close to slapstick, undermining a bit of the emotional resonance. But those interspersed moments of whimsy are also the best parts as they turn up the heat on the oftentimes room-temperature plot developments. The actors are all game for their roles. Moore and Portman have delicious chemistry in their scenes together, with it never being totally established who is observing and manipulating the other. It’s catty as hell, with Haynes never allowing it to be misogynistic. Charles Melton joins Austin Butler as a CW television veteran who has quickly climbed the Hollywood ladder. It's obvious he’s never fully processed his robbed childhood, leaving him still a kid in an adult body. There’s enough camp within May December that smores might as well be served alongside it. It’s morally ambiguous in its message, but never in its approach. At the very least, the high-drama of it all will allow a new generation of Netflix watchers to be introduced to Haynes’ filmography. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name

Hunt November 27, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are certain things within our mortal world that have been proven to be impossible. You can’t travel faster than the speed of light, nor can you read someone’s mind (all the mutants reading this must feel so smug). There are also the less fun things humans can’t do, such as achieving world peace or not paying taxes. And now I think I’ve stumbled upon a new scientific impossibility: Understanding the plot of Hunt on a first watch. As the directorial debut of newly minted Emmy winner and Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, Hunt is the most serious adaptation of Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy . The Cold War still rages on, with Russia and the United States shifting their political war out of Vietnam and over to Korea. The wounds of the Korean War still sting thirty years later, with both North and South battling each other in a war of paranoia and information. There’s a rumor going around that there is a North Korean mole, codenamed Donglim, within the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). This mole has leaked the plans for several failed past operations and may have access to the itinerary and security details for the president’s upcoming trip around Asia. In order to get to the bottom of this mess, the newly appointed director covertly orders the chiefs of the foreign and domestic security units to investigate the other by any means necessary. Foreign Unit chief Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Domestic Uni chief Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) have had their differences in the past, such as when Jung-do killed a suspect who had kidnapped Pyong-ho during an assassination attempt on the president. Each of them has a slight suspicion over the other’s loyalty, and this “no red tape” opportunity is just what they need to dig deep and uncover every dirty secret. Unless you have an eidetic memory or a Ph.D. in contemporary Korean history (two things I definitely don't have), making sense of Hunt in the moment is an impossibly difficult mental exercise. As many of us did with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet a few years back, you have to accept the convoluted nature of the whole thing. Double crosses become triple crosses, which then become quadruple crosses, which then become quintuple crosses (I’m not even joking with this). And deciphering the script, co-written by Jo Seung-Hee and Jung-jae, may not be worth the effort, as nearly every plot beat follows the standard spy thriller rulebook. Hunt can’t use the same “don't try to understand it, just feel it” excuse as Tenet , as there isn’t any emotional pull to feel (not that Tenet had a heart either). Fortunately, Jung-jae fills those emotional and logical gaps with enough bullets and bombs to equip a small army. Taking influence from Michael Mann (specifically the street shootout from Heat ) and his fellow countrymen Park Chan-wook, Jung-jae plunges into the action set pieces headfirst with handheld camerawork and propulsive editing. There is not a single dull moment within this spider web, with the characters getting increasingly woven together to chaotic results. If you thought the intricately layered works of John le Carré ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager ) weren’t complex enough or didn’t have nearly enough frenzied shootouts, then Lee Jung-jae has something for you in Hunt . He treats his debut as if it's the bus in Speed , never letting it go under 55 mph in fear that the nitrate itself will instantaneously combust. Your two options are to accept that situation and ride this bus all the way to its fiery conclusion, or jump off this speeding hunk of metal. You’re going to get hurt either way, it’s just up to you if you want it to be a good or bad type of pain. More Reviews Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Author Name