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Mother, Couch July 3, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen “It was all very simple; they were looking for a dresser. Blood wouldn’t spill till later.” These words scrawl across an almost Toy Story -esque cloudy background before the camera pans down to your typical furniture store. It’s a foreboding string of words, one that prompts several questions. What’s the significance of the dresser? Why is blood going to be spilled at a furniture store? Whose blood is it going to be? Writer/director Niclas Larsson wants you to hang on to these questions for dear life throughout his oddball feature debut, one that packs quite a sizable cast consisting of Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Lara Flynn Boyle, F. Murray Abraham, and Ellen Burstyn. Instead of doing as Larsson says, we’re often left scratching our heads and asking, “What’s going on?” and “Who cares?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znu2_4vAD4s But it is not all lies that Larsson peddles, as there is truth in his first introductory sentence. Things did start very simply, with David (McGregor) and Gruffudd (Ifans) helping their mother (Burstyn) shop for a specific dresser in a now-closing furniture store. David is on the clock as he’s supposed to be helping set up his daughter’s birthday party. And yet this dresser can’t be found, and neither can his mother in this maze of a store. He wants to cut his losses and just leave, but she says she’s not getting up from the couch she’s plopping herself down on. After a few seconds of silence, David starts to realize that she’s deadly serious. Minutes of coaxing turn into hours, in which each passing moment becomes increasingly unhinged. While hidden from the internet and any of the press materials, an exclamation point is added to the title when it flashes on the screen after the opening credits. In addition to being part of the confusion about the punctuation surrounding the title (I’ve seen a clean split between Mother Couch and Mother, Couch ), that extra element at the end creates an undeniable link to Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! . Both films hid their true meanings behind metaphors and stand-ins, only for all to be revealed through an extended sequence of batshit insanity. Aronofsky’s work may have been extremely on-the-nose and pointed towards an easy target, but it did always contain a certain level of excitement on both a literal and figurative level. No such thrills exist in Larsson’s film, with endless visual teasing and dialogue exchanges that dance around the central mystery, quickly overstaying their welcome. Everyone other than David seems to have a grasp on what’s truly going on, almost as if this is all some elaborate social experiment. The physical space certainly makes it feel that way; the confoundingly laid-out hallways and storage rooms create a maze for these helpless mice to traverse through. If the cast were just as unsure about the material as we are, they hide it well behind their solid performances. McGregor gets to let loose as he has over the past few years on television ( Fargo , Halston ), keeping hold of his Scottish accent and running around like a chicken with its head cut off as Christopher Bear’s Punch-Drunk Love -styled score ratchets up the tension. Taylor Russell’s character seems to only speak in double entendre, and F. Murray Abraham is diabolical as the twin store owners. All of it’s interesting on paper, with only a very small amount of it translating to the screen. Larsson may have had a lot of confidence in what he was doing, but I’m pretty sure he’s the only one who will get anything out of this. Film Movement will release Mother, Couch in select theaters on July 05th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

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 The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Megalopolis May 30, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Megalopolis is the most fascinating film I’ve ever watched, a glorious triumph of the creative spirit and a catastrophic failure in the execution of it. It’s a Jenga tower forty years in the making, each block brimming with an idea that’s been born, reshaped, killed, and reborn several times over to the tune of $120 million of its creator’s personal fortune. Make no mistake, there is not a minute where this tower isn’t dangerously teetering or in complete free fall. But how glorious it is to watch it all crash to the ground! That same verve for the fate of the film itself can be applied to writer/director/producer Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the Roman Empire, which has found a new life in an America lost in time and space. This retro-future New York is decorated head to toe in Roman regalia, with Madison Square Garden transformed into a coliseum and everyone flashing their favorite togas and olive branch crowns. But the skyline (a hideous amalgamation of matte paintings and the digital backdrop technology pioneered by The Mandalorian ) is still littered with the skyscrapers of the past, and Cadillac Escalades remain the vehicle of choice. How and why the world got to this point is not fully explained, nor is it even that important. What is important is what it all represents… which is also often a mystery. For Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver), this version of New York is all wrong. His mantra is shaped by the words of Kylo Ren from The Last Jedi : “You’re still holding on! Let go!” His dream project is the titular city of Megalopolis, a utopian urban space to be built upon the crumbling infrastructure of the old world. His designs are fueled through Megalon, a new element he has created that functions similarly to Wakanda’s Vibranium. It’s stronger than any metal, heals wounds, and plugs whatever holes the plot deems necessary to fill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq6mvHZU0fc Considering Coppola conceived this project in the late ‘70s and actively started developing it in the ‘80s, a tumultuous period that saw him reach his creative apex with Apocalypse Now and financial ruin with One from the Heart , it’s not hard to visualize the director creating Catalina as his stand-in, Megalopolis as American Zoetrope, and New Rome as the studio system at the tail end of the New Hollywood movement. Coppola has always had a disdain for the corporatization of filmmaking, and so does Catalina for how Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) perpetually puts a stop to his plans. Cicero decries Catalina’s vision as merely idealistic daydreaming, badmouthing his name in the media, and passing legislation to maintain the old ways of thinking, including plans for a casino that will most certainly funnel all its profits to its already rich benefactors. Caught in the middle of these two warring titans is Cicero’s devoted daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), who quickly becomes a star-crossed lover of Catalina. To give Coppola the highest amount of credit, his ideas of a new way of thinking are not limited solely to the pages of his script. Megalopolis is not a movie that can be defined by normal filmmaking grammar, which allows it to maintain a rambunctious energy that is just as infectious as it is sickening. Frames crash into one another in triptych fashion, the camera feverishly swirls around as it captures the debauchery, and the music can never decide if it's backing up an opera or a circus. To break the mold of reality and fiction even further, Coppola integrates a live element into the film as a man walks toward the screen and interacts with Catalina in real time, asking him questions and receiving answers. The merit of that moment and its viability once the film reaches a wide release remain a mystery, but its sheer existence is what pushes the giddy “what the fuck am I watching?” energy of the whole thing to an entirely new level. But even if the studios are meant to be the ultimate bad guys in this fable, Coppola’s mishandling of his production inadvertently makes a case for their existence. We may decry their reckless spending and inability to take risks, but there’s no denying that any studio could have spent $120 million more efficiently than it has here. The sets and costumes look hideously gawdy, with the actors populating them speaking in unintelligible Shakespearean dialects. The cinematography is reminiscent of a perfume ad, the backdrops always in a magic hour mode and overstuffed with more visual effects than George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels. That badness does become part of the charm at a certain point, an almost inadvertent way for the director of The Godfather trilogy to tear down your preconceptions of what a master filmmaker concocts once the guardrails have been fully removed. Almost all of the actors are just as off the chain as Coppola, with Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf matching the chaos to perfection. She plays Wow Platinum, a TV personality who enacts a gold-digging strategy to marry Catalina’s decrepit banker uncle Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), and he plays Crassus’s degenerate cross-dressing grandson who tries to steal the empire through Trumpian tactics. Everyone else, most notably Dustin Hoffman and Talia Shire, can barely figure out where they are and what they’re doing, leaving the whole ensemble feeling like a mishmash of high school theater kids yearning for an adult to tell them what to do. Going into Megalopolis determined to make heads or tails of whether it was worth all the time, energy, and resources isn’t the correct attitude. Just as Coppola’s past risk-taking endeavors have furthered the evolution of cinema long after their initial birth, so might this maddening behemoth in the decades that follow. Do I want its influence to reach beyond this moment and shape the future? I don’t know, but I’m absolutely ecstatic that the question has been raised in such a memorable way. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Lionsgate will release Megalopolis in theaters nationwide on September 27th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bugonia October 29, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Oh, when will they ever learn? It's a question that director Yorgos Lanthimos continually asks of his characters, and, by extension, the human species as a whole. His distinctly macabre filmography is filled with disturbing tales of morality, each finding ways to twist the knife on our preconceived notions. The off-kilter performances and absurd concepts—such as being turned into an animal if you don't find a companion in The Lobster , or Barry Keoghan omnisciently terrorizing Colin Farrell's family in The Killing of a Sacred Deer —are never so disconnected from reality that they can be excused as pure fantasy. It's just another way of looking at things; once you take a step back, the error of our own ways is exposed in a deservedly uncomfortable light. Depending on your relationship with Lanthimos, you may either cheer or jeer at the fact that Bugonia is his most straightforward film to date… although you have to understand that we're very much grading on a curve. The weirder and more hostile the better, I say as one of the few fans of last year's mean-spirited Kinds of Kindness . Much of that might have to do with screenwriter Will Tracy subbing out the black heart of Efthimis Filippou and the sardonic wit of Tony McNamara for something a little more directly addressed to our modern times. The first half of the famous lyric to the leading question of this review is “Where have all the flowers gone?” For Teddy (Jesse Plemons), they’ve all but disappeared, both literally and figuratively. Living in his dilapidated bee farmhouse with his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), the pair have fallen on hard times over the years through family tragedies. Part of that responsibility falls upon the local biochemical company, which has poisoned the local bee population and put Teddy’s mom (Alicia Silverstone) into a coma after a failed trial of an opioid drug. Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is the CEO of the company, and is the type of boss to passive-aggressively claim that employees can go home whenever they want and that diversity is what makes us special… so long as it all leads to a healthier bottom line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd_5HcTujfc Teddy wonders how humanity can be so cruel to one another, how he and Don can have so little, while the Michelles of the world can exact their will without consequence. At least in bee colonies, the worker bees have a sense of purpose for their queen, and everything in nature is perfectly balanced. Teddy’s narration mentions that there’s no sex when bees pollinate, so no one gets hurt. The odd unprovoked specificity of that line, along with a local police officer’s (Stavros Halkias) persistent apologizing for vague acts he inflicted on Teddy many years ago, hints at the darkness lying at the forefront of Teddy’s heart. Working from that mixture of long-buried PTSD and an avalanche of interest conspiracy theories, Teddy concludes that Michelle must be an alien from the Andromedan galaxy, sent to Earth to push the human species deeper into the mud. He and Don kidnap and hold her in their basement, waiting for the lunar eclipse in four days so that she can call her mothership and they can negotiate a truce between the two species. Of course, Michelle isn’t on that same wavelength, especially when she wakes up and discovers that all her hair has been shaved off (Teddy claims that Andromedans use their hair as tracking devices). Stone, working with Lanthimos on their fourth consecutive feature, is more than up to the task of working within a limited setting. In contrast to the revolving door of elaborately lush sets of Poor Things , most of the runtime in Bugonia is devoted to her being chained to a bed in a dingy farm cellar. She’s like a boxer, studying her opponent over several rounds, eventually using their weapons against them. Teddy’s biggest weapon is his confidence in his findings and his initial absolute refusal to be dissuaded by Michelle’s pleas of how ludicrous this all sounds. Without being overly specific to demographics, Lanthimos and Tracy highlight the societal divides we face based on our inability to close our mouths and open our ears. Every contradiction is a personal attack and an opportunity to dig your heels in even more. It should be noted that Ari Aster is a producer on this project, with his film this year as a writer/director, Eddington (also starring Stone), tackling these same topics through a much more confrontational lens. Lanthimos hasn’t lost his confrontational attitude towards his audience, dialing up the tension through Jerskin Fendrix’s bombastic score and some harshly precise editing. This chamber piece eventually becomes a torture chamber as DP Robbie Ryan goes back and forth between keeping a distance from the squirming and pushing it right in front of our faces. Despite being small-scale, this is still a gloriously cinematic project, one that stretches its dollars to their fullest potential. A few dips into Teddy’s nightmarish past are rendered in washed-out black-and-white, almost out of a gothic tragedy. This is a two-hander with an unfortunate third wheel in Don, who is neurodivergent and forcefully taken along on Teddy’s crazy train. He perfectly fits the mold of the innocent lackey to the evil boss, someone who is eventually made to realize the error of their ways by the compassion of the hero. That obviousness is evident from start to finish, covering this story in a layer of predictability. Some acts of cruelty come off as cheap provocation, something that Lanthimos has skillfully been able to circumvent throughout his career. Oh, when will they ever learn? According to Bugonia , it seems that we’re well aware of the problem, but lack the will to fight for the cure. Indifference is a much more pathetic reason for our downfall than ignorance, although it does have an ironic ring to it. Focus Features will release Bugonia in select theaters on October 24th, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 31st. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Good Liar November 21, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen London octogenarian Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) is a career con man, swindling those less fortunate enough to fall into one of his schemes. One day, as part of an online dating scam he occasionally pulls, he meets Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren), a recent widower who turns out to be worth nearly three million pounds. Roy’s plan is simple. He’ll get in close to Betty and gain her trust. Eventually, he’ll set the trap, and she’ll fall right in. He’ll take her money and disappear forever to repeat the cycle all over again with someone else. Unfortunately for him, this job isn’t as simple as he initially thought. Dark secrets start to reveal themselves, leading to a game of cat and mouse where the role of the cat and the mouse intermittently change between the pair. No longer is Roy playing for money, he’s now playing for his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKzFGpPHhw Director Bill Condon weaves this thriller with confidence from beginning to end. That confidence does not make him faultless, but it does give the film an extra bit of gravitas that puts it above the usual crowd. The beginning contains a much lighter tone as it introduces our two main characters. But like all good thrillers, the niceties of the two are just a facade to deflect from the tension swelling underneath. Over time, the dark material begins to bubble to the surface, eventually bursting out in a climactic fashion. All good classic mystery films have a score that complements the director’s work. Luckily for Condon, composer Carter Burwell delivers a dignified set of strings. In the moments where Condon over- or undersells the material, Burwell’s score is right there to pick up the slack. And in those moments where Condon gets it just right, the music is also right there with him to elevate what’s on-screen. An adaptation of Nicholas Searle’s novel of the same name, the screenplay for The Good Liar by Jeffrey Hatcher can be appropriately labeled as B-level Hitchcockian. With a title like The Good Liar , you can expect a few twists and turns along the way, albeit here they are a little too overt and easy to see. But even though you know a twist is coming, the real mystery is finding out what it is. Admittedly, some of the twists are impossible to predict due to a lack of setup or are oftentimes so ludicrous that they defy any realistic expectations. Fortunately, Hatcher embraces that feeling of throwing care into the wind. He revels in the somewhat trashy storytelling and only tries to make the material more entertaining than believable. It’s not perfect, but it makes for a much more enjoyable watch once you come to terms with the outlandishness of what’s going on By far the biggest attraction for the film is its two main stars, each having a ball in their juicy roles. For an eighty-year-old, Sir Ian McKellen possesses the physicality of someone a little over half his age. His movements, especially within his face, do more to speak for his character than the dialogue. Just by watching you learn more about his character and become increasingly attracted to him. Equally as great as McKellen is Dame Helen Mirren. She’s made it a thing recently to be in more showy roles that demonstrate her skill. So far, that strategy has been a good thing because her immense talent has sold many roles that would have been wasted by lesser actresses. Here you can see the delight in Mirren’s delivery as she chews the scene. Her sparring sessions with McKellen are by far the best moments of the film. You know those novels you find in the airport that are a bit dumb and only bought for some time-wasting entertainment? Well, The Good Liar is exactly that for movies. It may be a bit preposterously muddled to pull off its ambitions and isn’t as good as some other films of the same genre, but what it does have are suspenseful thrills led by two legendary actors giving great performances. So even if this airport novel is the ultimately inferior option, it does its job just well enough to leave you satisfied. Warner Bros. Pictures will release The Good Liar in theaters nationwide on November 15th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Sonic the Hedgehog February 20, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s been almost a year now since we were exposed to the horror that came with the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog . The blue furball we loved as a kid was turned into a monster with human teeth, small eyes, and freakishly long legs. After the overwhelmingly negative reactions, Paramount Pictures announced they would be delaying the movie and taking time to redesign Sonic to better fit his classic video game look. Now in February 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog has been released with improved visual effects. The story takes place in the small town of Green Hills, Montana. Sonic is living his best life there as he causes mischief for the residents and partakes in other fun activities. On one night, Sonic’s actions get the better of him, and he attracts the attention of the US Government, who hire the insane Dr. Robotnik to track him down. Needing to go on the run, Sonic recruits the help of local police officer Tom Wachowski. The two set out on the road, getting into hijinks along the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szby7ZHLnkA Directed by Jeff Fowler, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t have enough originality to warrant its existence as a movie. The structure of the story is eerily similar to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as an alien creature gets stuck on our planet and must rely on an unassuming human to help him return to his homeworld. The only difference here is that after the initial setup, the story turns into a bit of a buddy road trip movie. But the road trip structure here also apes other computer-effect character movies such as Looney Tunes: Back in Action and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle . Fowler does impress slightly as two moments pop up that make for great fun, which are the moments where time slows down to account for Sonic’s super speed. It’s a nice comedic bit that shows off Sonic’s powers, even if it plays almost shot-for-shot the same as Quicksilver’s scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past . It’s also important to point out that the decision by Paramount to redesign Sonic turned out to be the right move. The new look is very well done and is more appropriate to the character. While also being a ripoff of E.T., the script for Sonic the Hedgehog also takes a few too many ideas from the playbook of other kids' movies, most notably the self-referential humor found in The Lego Movie and its sequel. But while the Lego movies were able to catch lightning in a bottle, Sonic's attempt is impeded by a less-than-talented committee of writers. The producers must have needed money to fund the character redesign, as it seems they sold off some of their jokes to corporate entities. Many recurring gags surround Amazon, Uber, Zillow, and Olive Garden. None of these jokes land and only get more shallow as the movie goes on. There are also quite a few pandering pop-culture references to the likes of Keanu Reeves and the floss dance. Yes, Sonic flosses in this movie not once, but on two separate occasions. Ben Schwartz voices the titular blue speedster. For better and worse, Schwartz is the definitive voice of the character, supplying a sly, sarcastic tone. He can be quite grating at times, but it’s also not entirely his fault due to the poor material he’s been given. James Marsden as Tom Wachowski fares the best out of the human characters. His performance consists solely of him reacting to his furry sidekick’s antics. You can tell that Marsden isn’t interacting with a real object, making for some awkward scenes. Lastly, generational talent Jim Carrey plays the oddball villain, Dr. Robotnik. Carrey falls into his usual schtick of thinking that high energy equals great comedy. He’s begging you to like him as he bounces around in a similar fashion to his earlier roles. Sonic the Hedgehog is about as bad as I was led to believe, but not as bad as I feared it would be. What’s ironic is that the best part of the movie, the visual effects, used to be the worst part. If only Paramount had decided to redesign the whole movie and turn it into something worthwhile instead of this needless cash grab. Paramount Pictures will release Sonic the Hedgehog in theaters nationwide on February 14th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Fair Play February 2, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Netflix must have had big Promising Young Woman prospects when spending a festival-record $20 million on writer/director Chloe Domont's debut feature, Fair Play . Fennell's 2020 Oscar-winning film has laid the path for similarly biting films to gain recognition, and Domont follows close to that model with her thrilling examination of gender politics and relationships within the corporate world. But while Fair Play is quite provocative with its mixture of sex and violence, much of it comes to its detriment when the credibility of its authenticity comes into question during the third-act climax. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) are the usual extremely motivated Wall Street up-and-comers that you've come to expect. Along with their undying motivation for their careers, they also can't take a break from each other. Their physical passion is unmatched, evidenced by an impromptu hookup in the bathroom at Luke's brother's wedding, which Luke wildly takes as an opportunity to propose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vICUPlr3EEI Despite now proving their undying love for each other in private, they must keep their relationship a secret in public, as they both work for the same high-stakes hedge fund where office romance is strictly forbidden. The couple makes it work most of the time, professionally speaking to each other and only passing glances when no one is looking. But all bets are off when a senior employee is fired, and his position is up for grabs. The pair must juggle their ambitions with their loyalty to each other, along with keeping their indiscretions under the rug. Domont depicts the world of high finance as a pressure cooker that melts even the brightest people down into monsters. If Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (smartly) glorified the life of wheeling and dealing, Fair Play offers a sobering reality. A glaring Eddie Marsan sits in his corner office, ready to berate his employees at any moment. The underlings are constantly pitted against each other, with loyalty disintegrated whenever the slightest hint of upward mobility comes into play. Emily and Luke initially try their best to sidestep the rat race, with each offering the usual "may the best man win" rhetoric. But when Luke makes that statement, he means it literally, as it slowly starts to dawn on Emily that he sees a significant difference between them based on their gender. Ehrenreich brings that toxic alpha-male energy to Luke. He's someone who says all the right things to your face (usually laced with an unhealthy amount of curse words), but you know he doesn't believe any of it. This is a world where men usually get what they want, and their inflated egos come crashing down when they’re "unfairly" passed over. Domont doesn’t portray Emily as a saintly female in a sea of testosterone, with Dynevor, already a Netflix star through Bridgerton , packing a hard edge in her performance. There are no heroes in this story, only those who get their hands dirty and those who get them dirtier. The carnal influence of Adrian Lyne (who marked any unceremonious return last year with Deep Water ) is apparent, with Domont blending the dour and gleeful to semi-positive results. There's a hearty (and unhealthy) amount of excitement you get out of people taking down one another, even if the reasoning behind all of it is morally corrupt. Things do come off the rails alarmingly quickly during the climax when the theatricality of the situation greatly overpowers the reality. The messaging is obvious in volume, but a bit murky in tone, leaving things not as nicely wrapped as the presentation would signal. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Netflix will release Fair Play in select theaters on September 29th, followed by its streaming premiere on October 13th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The 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 The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Avengers: Endgame May 2, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen It’s taken eleven years and twenty-two films, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally reached its long-awaited bittersweet conclusion. Thanos has snapped his fingers, and half of all life on Earth is gone. With the few remaining heroes left, the Avengers embark on a revenge quest against the villain who has stolen their friends and loved ones. But just like all plans, this one doesn’t go right, and the team must now band together for one showdown to save the universe and set things right once and for all. *Forewarning, this review may be a bit shallow at times and free of specific details for the sake of not wanting to give away spoilers. So please give me the benefit of the doubt as I try to be careful with my words. After four outings, brothers Anthony and Joe Russo have firmly planted their position as the MCU’s best directors. Whether it be during somber conversations between characters or in the Lord of the Rings style final battle, the amount of detail and effort that goes into each frame is unparalleled by any other blockbuster. Regular Marvel cinematographer Trent Opaloch’s compositional lighting and camera movement are simply outstanding and keep the film running on all cylinders throughout its three-hour runtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c Also keeping the energy high is the lightning pace that brothers infuse into the film’s second and third acts. They may miss the mark a bit during the first hour, but they more than make up for it in the latter two-thirds as they deliver some of the most entertaining material put to screen. Lastly, aiding the brothers is a sweeping score by the always underappreciated Alan Silvestri. His music is swiftly able to go from epic to intimate in the blink of an eye and is a key driver behind many of the overwhelming emotions felt. Co-written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Avengers: Endgame may mark the first film in the franchise to look back on the past as opposed to solely setting up the future. The specific medium it uses to reminisce may not be the most logical or neat, but the end product is a string of touching moments that pleasantly reward fans who have stuck around all these years. After some time away from each other during Phase Three, the main core of the Avengers is finally back together, albeit under less than ideal circumstances. This initial, tighter cast allows the main troupe to get their time to shine in what could be a few send-off performances. Things start to get messy when the entire roster is put back together. Some characters get the shorter end of the stick in terms of screentime, but I don’t know how it could all be properly done unless this movie were another six hours longer (which I would still approve of). Marvel films have been built since day one on their ability to blend comedy with high emotional stakes. The stakes have never been higher here, and the same can go for the number of quippy jokes. The quality of the humor is surprisingly high throughout, but the sheer amount of one-liners during what should be tense moments verges on borderline overkill. With its bafflingly long cast list, Endgame boasts quite a few key acting highlights. The co-leads of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans shine brighter than they ever have before. They’ve gotten better with each performance and leave it all on the screen as they share immense chemistry and everyone around them. Josh Brolin is still great as Thanos. While he doesn’t reach the high bar he set for himself in Infinity War , he still delivers another powerful performance that towers over all the other Marvel villains. Both Karen Gillan and Paul Rudd surprisingly stand out as Nebula and Ant-Man, respectively. They each have a more grounded personal story that offers a stark contrast to the epic main narrative. I realize I’m leaving a lot of great performances on the cutting room floor, but it would take a novel to talk about them all. Basically, everyone either did well or was just alright. Nobody was outright bad. Arguably the biggest pop culture moment of all time, Avengers: Endgame is a film that arrived with an infinite amount of expectations and meets every one of them. Within its 181-minute runtime, you’ll laugh, you’ll more than likely cry (I did), and most importantly, be amazed at how a legendary never-ending franchise can reach such a satisfying conclusion that both respects the past and gives confidence for the future. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will release Avengers: Endgame in theaters nationwide on April 26th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Afire August 2, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen With international films receiving more attention than ever, American audiences are becoming increasingly aware of the auteurs of global cinema, many of whom have gone unappreciated for decades. Michael Haneke, Bong Joon-ho, Paweł Pawlikowski, Thomas Vinterberg, and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi are just a few of the names that have become prevalent within the North American cinephile lexicon over the past decade. But one name that has always seemed to elude the bright lights of Western media is German filmmaker Christian Petzold. This streak of unappreciation has become part of his narrative in the United States, with The New York Times running a piece on how he “may be the best German filmmaker you’ve never heard of.” As one of the leading figures in the Berlin School movement within German independent cinema, Petzold’s films often explore themes of identity, displacement, and the impact of German national history on personal lives. He’s been a staple of his native Berlin International Film Festival, winning awards for best director in 2012 for Barbara and the FIPRESCI Prize in 2020 for Undine . His latest feature, Afire , played at the festival, winning the Silver Bear grand jury prize. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzdO_J10kEg While on the surface it may seem that Afire has less to do with Germany’s past compared to Petzold’s earlier works of Phoenix or Transit , it still finds a way to interweave the ramifications of National Socialism on German culture, specifically its works of literature and poetry. The story begins with Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel) on their way to Felix’s summer house to work on their artistic endeavors. Leon is an author who’s been published once before and is struggling to put the finishing touches on his follow-up manuscript. Felix is a photographer trying to assemble a portfolio to submit to an art school. However, the promise of solitude is interrupted by the introduction of additional parties: Nadja (Paula Beer) and Devid (Enno Trebs). It turns out Felix’s mom double-booked the house for the weekend, much to Leon’s displeasure as he endlessly lectures about the importance of his writing and process. But there’s also one other thing, which is the raging forest fires going on not too far away. The evening sky is red (hence the German title translating to “Red Sky”), and the warning signs are everywhere, yet these characters deny the danger and press on. Petzold took inspiration from Anton Chekhov for this summer story. Besides Leon and Felix, all of these people are new to each other, prompting discovery and conflict around certain behaviors and actions. But Petzold never finds something unique to say in this story, mostly due to the characters lacking enough interest to make up for their unlikability. Leon continually bemoans his past and present, eventually learning the predictable lesson of self-humility. Still, the performances are quite nice, especially Paula Beer, whose red dress symbolizes her radiance. She’s the sunshine that breaks through Leon’s dark clouds. It’s a slight shame that Petzold rarely lets her blossom out of that subservient role. There’s a great fire going on within the story, but nothing seems to crackle off the screen. Sideshow will release Afire in select theaters on July 14th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF24 Dispatch #1 September 14, 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. Better Man If you squint hard enough into this picture, you can identity the gimmick that director Michael Gracey and Robbie Williams were going for with a biopic on the pop star’s life. And if you can’t make it out, I’ll just spoil it for you (don’t worry, there’s no way Paramount will be able to avoid this revelation once they start marketing it): Williams is played by a CGI monkey using the same technology as the modern Planet of the Apes films. It’s a motif that never distracts from the proceeding action, yet never gets above its surface-level message (He feels different! Do you get it?!?). It’s also the only differentiating factor the film has from every other musical biopic. Gracey recaptures the physical magic of the set pieces from The Greatest Showman , inserting a peppy step into this 131-minute checklist. (3/5) Hard Truths Hard Truths may be Mike Leigh’s return to his trademarked genre of kitchen sink drama, but doesn’t mark his return to the levels that he was regularly clearing. There’s an honesty to this story of a London family dealing with pent-up anger and resentment, with Marianne Jean-Baptiste (reuniting with Leigh for the first time since Secrets & Lies) delivering a powerhouse performance filled with creatively side-splitting insults and pathos. But its message is also a double-edged sword, as it’s also overly familiar to audiences since the conclusion of the pandemic. Even in well-worn genres, such as period pieces and domestic dramas, Leigh has always found a way to provide his own stamp. The only time he starts to unlock a new angle for this story is right as it’s about to end, which is too little, too late. (3/5) I'm Still Here Not to be confused with the Casey Affleck-directed “documentary” on Joaquin Phoenix, Walter Salles examines his crumbling native Brazil, both on the macroeconomic level and within the microcosm of a family. Fernanda Torres, daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, who reunites here with Salles with a small supporting role after 1998’s Central Station , delivers an award-worthy performance as the matriarch of a family caught in the vice that is Brazil’s brutalist regime circa 1971. Salles finds the heart and soul of this family and their house, with love found in every nook and cranny. True heartbreak is felt once everything begins to decay, with the family being left to pick up the pieces and slowly glue them back together in the years to come. (4/5) The Return Director Uberto Pasolini delivers an extremely classical piece of filmmaking, which is both a blessing and a curse. The old-school feel of the production provides an inherent sense of sweep, while the chintzy technicals keep everything outside of believability. Of course, myths aren’t supposed to be real, but this retelling of Odysseus lacks the stamina needed to be special. The two leads, Ralph Fiennes as the title character and Juliette Binoche as Queen Penelope, are unexpectedly fantastic, retaining that romantic touch they shared decades ago in The English Patient . They are stranded, both literally and metaphorically, on an island as the supporting cast ranges from mediocre to embarrassing. Pasolini stated that very few filmmakers have attempted to adapt Homer’s works because it would be impossible to surpass a story with thousands of years of importance placed upon it. It was brave of him to take the leap, but he would have been better off hedging heeding his own warning. (3/5) More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A Hero July 16, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen Without much fanfare, Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi has become one of the most consistent filmmakers of the new millennium. His work has earned him prestigious premieres at film festivals, two Academy Awards for Best International Feature (2011’s A Separation and 2016’s The Salesman ), and the opportunity to work with some of the biggest international stars. Premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (which usually serves as his launching pad) is his newest film, A Hero . Set within modern Iran, A Hero follows the life of Rahim, who is currently on a two-day parole from his prison sentence, which he is serving because of his inability to pay off a debt to a local lender. When Rahim and his girlfriend find a bag of gold coins at a bus stop, they decide to pawn them off to help pay the debt. Unfortunately, the exchange rate for the coins isn’t ideal, so they decide to do the right thing and return them to the owner. A woman comes forward to reclaim her lost property, which turns Rahim into a local celebrity for his generosity. But after some digging, hidden details start to come to the surface. Rahim’s story is put under a microscope, with many suspecting there’s more than meets the eye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAJ6_lmr_HQ Barring his 2018 feature Everybody Knows , Farhadi has concentrated his storytelling on his home country of Iran. He has a fascination with showcasing the modern problems that its citizens often deal with, a monumentally difficult task considering the strict censorship the government puts on its artists. Despite the government initially banning him from making the film, Farhadi was able to explore the modern fallacies of divorce and gender in A Separation . A Hero taps into that same vein as Farhadi spins a web of moral and ethical quandaries so dense that it would give the world’s leading philosophers a headache. Often compared to the great Alfred Hitchcock for his knack for suspenseful drama, Farhadi structures his film with a rapid pace, both in terms of setting and plot progression. Taking place entirely throughout Rahim’s two-day parole, the film covers a lot of material in a short amount of time. And this material isn’t clean and dry stuff, as much of it contains complicated details and extensive critical thinking without the guarantee of a satisfying answer. Unlike Hitchcock, Farhadi is quite invisible in his direction. Like the master that he is (which isn’t to say Hitchcock isn’t a master), Farhadi is always present, but never visible. There isn’t anything showy about his work as the story and actors carry the film from beginning to end. His reluctance to overtly showcase his prowess to the audience is a sign of a director confident in his abilities and the crew that he has assembled. A Hero is still filled with a few directorial flourishes, such as a perfectly framed shot here and there, with the final shot rivaling his best visual work. Where Farhadi flexes his muscles is in the jam-packed script. Like Aaron Sorkin’s work in The Social Network , there are mountains upon mountains of dialogue, all going by in the blink of an eye. This is both a blessing and a curse to the film, as it produces a rapidly evolving plot that keeps you guessing, but also overloads itself and spreads its message too thin over too many topics. The ideas of The Good Samaritan and the troubling machinations of the court of public opinion are topics rife with debate that Farhadi is expertly able to dissect, but just not at the same time. At the center of the film is Amir Jadidi as Rahim, who, like all Farhadi performers, is a captivating lead. Despite his myriad of problems, Rahim always carries around a dogged smile on his face and a sliver of optimism in his mind. You’re attracted to him as a character because of this and feel betrayed by him once more light is shed on the truth. While he may not be working at the absolute height of his power, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero is still a feature by a master storyteller doing what he does best. There’s a lot to learn and digest, with some of the material being quite rough around the edges. Few filmmakers are as gifted as Farhadi at showing the complicated nature of everyday life. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Amazon Studios will release A Hero in select theaters on January 07th, followed by its streaming premiere on January 21st. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen