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Get Out September 21, 2017 By: Button Hunter Friesen By creating Get Out , director Jordan Peele has created the perfect recipe for a great sleeper hit for moviegoers tired of the usual January to February duds. Start with a great psychological horror thriller, add a little bit of comedy, a dash of social commentary, and top it off with a healthy amount of gore. Then combine this perfect recipe with a breakout lead performance from Daniel Kaluuya as Chris and a hilarious supporting performance by Lil Rel Howery as Chris’s best friend. Peele gives the world its first glimpse of his immense skill as a director. He guides the audience through a film that keeps you guessing after every twist and turn. The story of Get Out starts familiar enough for everybody who has been in a serious relationship. Chris and Rose (Allison Williams) have been together for six months and are going away for the weekend to meet Rose’s parents. Chris is cautious about the idea of going since he is black and Rose is white, but she doesn’t see it as a big deal. Eventually, Chris gets the idea that something about the family and house is not right. From here, the story starts to speed up, taking twists and turns to keep the audience guessing as to what is really going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ This is the part that Peele, also the writer, handles the best. He makes a new psychological horror film where you don’t know how it will end until it does. There is also the bonus of raunchy comedy mixed throughout, most of which comes from Howery’s character, who is almost too proud of his job as a TSA agent. Peele’s experience as a comedy writer/actor on his hit partner sketch show Key and Peele allows him to handle the horror comedy element with ease. Every scare is effective, and every humorous moment is truly funny, and both make the film even more enjoyable Peele describes this movie as a “social horror,” and you can tell why he describes it that way. The whole way through the film, every confrontational or shocking moment is connected to racial differences between Chris and his hosts. When I heard this, I was skeptical of how that element would fit in with horror and comedy. Luckily for me and the audience, the moments that send a message are like small jabs to make you think and aren’t ham-fisted at you the entire time. And what is a horror movie without some gore to make the squeamish look away for a couple of seconds? The film holds back with extreme violence until the end and then lets it all loose with a fifteen-minute sequence that delivers on everything and more that the audience was expecting throughout the beginning and middle build-up phases. Driving this movie along just as well as the writing and directing is the terrific lead performance of Kaluuya as Chris. We’ve seen a small dose of his talent in a supporting role in the critically acclaimed 2015 film Sicario . In his first leading role, he is required to play all types of emotions and tackles each one with the skill of a veteran actor who has been working for decades. The camera is pressed up right next to him several times throughout the film, allowing the audience to see every detail and emotion. By doing this flawlessly, we are immediately connected to Chris as a character because we are going through this experience just as blind as he is. We are just as confused and uneasy about the situation, and hope he gets out of this safely. For every horror protagonist in need of help, there is a best friend on the outside who will stop at nothing to see them safe again. Lil Rel Howery as Chris’s best friend Rod will definitely go down as one of the best supporting performances of the year. He is the only character carrying the comedy element of the film, but he doesn’t need any help since he steals practically every scene. At the end of it all, Jordan Peele, as the director of his own brainchild, is the primary reason this movie works so well. He puts a lot of confidence in his cast, positioning the camera for multiple close-ups during the most important scenes, the biggest example would be the poster shot of Chris with tears down his face. Peele also infuses symbolism into multiple shots through the movement of the camera and the colors being presented, giving slight hints to the audience. Finally, he allows the film to flow together well and not feel disjointed between the multiple boxes this movie tries to check. The comedy and horror remain interluded the entire time, which raises the quality of each by playing off the other. Get Out is one of the best and most important films of the year, which can both entertain and teach us about present-day issues. It should be on everyone’s radar. By the end of the year, I expect to see it on many critics' and fans' lists as the most entertaining and liked film of 2017. Universal Pictures will release Get Out in theaters nationwide on February 24th. 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

Immaculate March 27, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark In recent years, Hollywood has found a knack for releasing random religion-themed horror films that either get overlooked or flop altogether. This was evidenced when I saw Neon’s latest fright fest, Immaculate , and got a trailer for the upcoming 20th Century Studios horror film The First Omen . Director Michael Mohan and screenwriter Andrew Lobel craft a twist on the Rosemary’s Baby narrative with one of the hottest actresses working today, Sydney Sweeney. The movie looked like an intense, bloody horror show from the trailers. Ultimately, it’s a boring film that restrains itself from being the scariest thing to come out of 2024. After her parish shuts down in her hometown, American nun Cecilia (Sweeney) is assigned to a convent in rural Italy. As she settles in, she miraculously becomes pregnant and is proclaimed the next Virgin Mary. However, the more her pregnancy progresses, the more Cecilia learns of the convent’s darkest secrets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewxS9Z-XXYo Although the synopsis seems too familiar, Immaculate initially appears to have the intention of breaking that formulaic mold through some solid cinematography and the casting of such a modern-day actress in Sweeney. But between Will Bates’ stock score and repetitious cycle of loud jumps scares and gotchas, this just feels like another entry in the already watered-down The Nun franchise. Sweeney is on a fascinating streak right now as Immaculate comes nearly one month after the disastrous Madame Web , which in turn came out a month and a half after the box office hit Anyone But You . Both of those opposites (as well as this project, which she produced) came after years of her presence on HBO with Sharp Objects , The White Lotus , and the controversial drama Euphoria . Her performance here might not break any new ground, but it does check off the box of being a solo leading lady who can sell a project on a concept and her acting abilities. She has a scream near the end where she’s caked in blood that echoes the signature outbursts from Janet Leigh in Psycho and Jenna Ortega in X . Aside from Sweeney, the cast isn’t very noteworthy, with everyone playing cookie-cutter horror characters. You’ve got the strict mother superior nun, the freaky priest who tries to defuse the situation but doesn’t help, the rebellious friend, and the one nun who thinks she’s better than everyone else. The only one that comes close to breaking out is Benedetta Porcaroli as Sister Gwen, the rebellious nun. When she and Cecilia are talking to each other and making humor out of whatever they’re doing, it’s cute, but it feels forced. If Immaculate is going to accomplish anything, it’s likely just that it’s a horror movie starring Sydney Sweeney and nothing else. There’s a moment where the nuns have a ceremony for Cecilia after the word of her pregnancy gets out. Cecilia is dressed in a lavish blue and yellow dress with a gold crown and see-through veil, metaphorically spotlighting her as the Virgin Mary. Everyone else is smiling and bowing their heads to her, reflecting how numerous viewers see Sweeney today. Then, in an instance, there’s a close-up of Cecilia shedding a tear, a callback to a certain shot of Sweeney in the second season of Euphoria . Are we as a society beginning to worship her as royalty this fast in her short career? Only time will tell, but I can guarantee people won’t look back at Immaculate as the primary reason for her ascendency. Neon will release Immaculate in theaters nationwide on March 22nd. 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

Bob Marley: One Love February 13, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen So formulaic that it might as well be taught in math class, Bob Marley: One Love is just another entry in a long line of music biopics that merely exist to pump up the brand image of its icon. It’s what the haters of Maestro thought they were watching, all of them unable to perceive the amount of soul poured into that story by an artist working at the height of his powers. One Love takes away the brush and replaces it with the creaky gears of a machine whose only purpose is to deliver the most palatable retelling possible, as if coloring outside the lines would combust the film stock it was printed on. The conventional postscript text isn’t enough from a screenplay credited to four writers (Terence Winter, Frank E. Flower, Zach Baylin, and director Reinaldo Marcus Green), as a copious amount of prescript set the stage for the political landscape of 1970s Jamaica. The Caribbean island nation is in a state of turmoil, with the threat of violence forcing everyone to look over their shoulder. Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) positions himself at the center of this conflict by staging a peace concert. Before he can sing a note, an assassination attempt results in him and his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) being hit by a bullet. Despite his carefree attitude and unwillingness to accept defeat, Marley realizes this stroke of death is a sign that cannot be ignored. He jets off to England to record his next album, “Exodus,” which will become one of the most successful ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajw425Kuvtw Green has a “look but don't touch” attitude towards the events of this three-year framework. Almost everything of note is visited but never explored in an interesting way. No amount of ambiguity or complexity is created, with Marley being an almost mystical Christ-like figure floating through a world of pain. He says that “you can’t separate the message from the music,” but his message never seems to be more than just a simple blanket statement for peace. Characters only speak in plotlines, all of them entirely forgettable save for the two leads. In a commendable move, almost all of the dialogue is delivered through authentic Jamaican accents. It may put more strain on the viewer to grasp each word, but it lends the extra ounces of credibility this product sorely needed. Ben-Adir and Lynch disappear into their roles, extending their acting chops beyond just simple mimicry. Their performances are hints of why Paramount was allegedly planning for an awards-qualifying release before punting into the doldrums of February. But those performances are all for naught once the music starts going. The concert scenes are obviously lip-synced, each one more rigid than the last. Cinematographer Robert Elswit struggles to create the illusion of thousands of screaming fans, nor do he and Green capture the uniqueness of reggae. A few flashbacks are splashed throughout to help explain Marley’s fascination with the music and Rastafarianism, but they end up being cheap crutches that only elongate the “feels one hour longer than it is” 104-minute runtime. You need to ask yourself two questions after you’ve watched a biopic. Could I have gotten the same information just by reading the Wikipedia page? A “no” is the ideal answer, but a “yes” isn’t cause for automatic failure. If this is just a Wikipedia entry, was the presentation of the information at least entertaining? One Love is a capital Y-E-S and N-O to those questions, respectively, which begs the question of what was the point of any of this. Millions of dollars and years of work amounted to less than what I could get for free in just a couple of minutes. Paramount Pictures will release Bob Marley: One Love 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

Passages August 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Passages opens with Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German filmmaker living in Paris, working on the set of his next film. It’s immediately apparent that he’s a control freak… and an asshole. He’s critical of everything that’s going on, from the position of his actor’s arms as he walks down the stairs to the amount of wine in an extra’s glass. He probably thinks of himself as Stanley Kubrick, except there isn’t enough brilliance to make up for the callousness. That attitude on the set doesn’t take a break once he goes home to his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw). The couple goes to the film’s wrap party at a dance club. Being the more introverted one, Martin goes home early, leaving Tomas to his own devices. He crosses paths with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) on the dance floor, and the two eventually go home together to have sex. Rebuking the natural secrecy of an affair in an effort to quench his desire for control, Tomas tells Martin all about it the next morning. Tomas wants the best of both worlds: to be in a steady marriage with Martin and to have an exciting new fling with a woman. These three characters are now intertwined, yet it’s obvious that only one of them is pulling the strings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Kr38lovJc Similar to his 2014 film Love is Strange , writer/director Ira Sachs (co-writing with his regular partner Mauricio Zacharias) delves into the thorniness of longstanding relationships and how there isn’t a clear-cut way to get through it. Tomas thinks he can get what he wants, yet it seems he actually doesn’t know what he wants in the first place. He says “I love you” and engages in sex when it works for him, and never seems to have the ability or desire to understand the other party in that transaction. One of the main problems of the film is that it spends too much time spinning its wheels around this toxic trio. It eventually gets tiring to watch Tomas act selfishly and be begrudgingly forgiven by Martin or Agathe. Sure, that cycle may be a portal to connect with the victims, but it’s also not something wholly original. It’s not a coincidence that the best scene of the film is near the end, where Martin and Agathe finally break the circle and sit down to talk directly. Whishaw and Exarchopoulos are both calm and collected throughout much of the film. They each are trying to convince themselves that this new reality can work, but it’s clear no one is coming out better than they used to be. And even in his cruelty, Rogowski is captivating, showing just enough promise to illustrate why he would be accepted into someone else’s life. Filled with as much explicit sex (although striking it with an NC-17 rating was a displeasing illustration of how the MPAA views homosexuality) as it has insight into complicated relationships, Passages is another worthwhile effort from the dependable Ira Sachs. It’s a ménage à trois for the modern age, mixing confrontation and carnality to perceptive results. Mubi will release Passages in select theaters on August 04th. 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 Simple Favor October 1, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen Stephanie Smothers is a young woman who absolutely loves her job as a single mother to her son. Her life consists of caring for him, volunteering at school, and running a popular parenting vlog. At school, she meets Emily Nelson, the mother of her son’s best friend. Emily works a high-end job in the city and is powerful, mysterious, and glamorous, all the things Stephanie isn’t. The two of them quickly become best friends, or so Stephanie thinks. One day, she gets a call from Emily, asking for “a simple favor”. The favor quickly gets out of hand, flipping Stephanie's clean life upside down. A twisted game starts to take shape, one that threatens to uncover layers of hidden secrets and dark desires. A Simple Favor comes as the first drama for director Paul Feig, who’s best known for comedies such as Spy and Ghostbusters . Feig directs the first act impeccably. He sets up the plot with confidence by introducing us to the main characters. We are given their personalities and background, but not in their entirety. Some details are left out intentionally in order to build suspense, which works very well at keeping us on the edge of our seats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAqMlh0b2HU Unfortunately, the next two acts don’t work as well. Feig starts to lose control over his film, and things get messy. The pacing slows way down, and important plot points are thrown at us left and right until we can’t keep things straight. The film doesn’t want to be taken too seriously as it mixes elements of both drama and comedy. The only problem is that the flipping between tones doesn’t feel as natural as it should. The third act especially suffers from this as we don’t know what to be feeling when the climax arrives. Adapted from the 2017 novel of the same name, the writing for A Simple Favor fares just as well as the directing. The first act introduces a strong premise with interesting characters. The conversations between Stephanie and Emily are whip-smart as each character tries to understand the other. The next two acts aren’t able to sustain the same level of mystery as the first. Things start to get a little too preposterous too quickly. The characters lose their edge and become carbon copies of what we’ve seen before in previous films. There is also an overabundance of clichés in the latter half of the film that undermines all the good material that had been set up in the beginning. None of them will be listed for the sake of spoilers. It’s just very underwhelming because each one has been done before and comes off as predictable and disappointing. Anna Kendrick does pretty solid work as Stephanie Smothers. She plays the young mom type quite well and provides a lot of great material for the comedic tone. The one struggle she has is when the film starts to get darker, as she’s just not entirely believable as a character with a bad side. Blake Lively, sharing the same fate as Kendrick, plays Emily Nelson. Lively excels early on as her confidence brings an aura of mystery to her character. By the end, however, she loses what made her so good, and her performance becomes more one-note. Fresh off his breakout role as Nick Young in Crazy Rich Asians , Henry Golding stars as Sean Townsend, Emily’s husband. Golding brings the same charm from his previous role but with more edge to it. He fares alright but constantly gets overshadowed by the two leading ladies. A Simple Favor can be loosely branded as a campier and lower-quality version of Gone Girl . It boasts one of the best opening acts of the year, but also some of the biggest mistakes that lead to a lot of missed potential. Overall, A Simple Favor is an average film that serves up enough mystery and thrills to warrant a viewing. Lionsgate will release A Simple Favor in theaters nationwide on September 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

Anora June 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Love him or hate him (I’m curious if there’s anyone out there who hates him), you’ve got to admit that Sean Baker knows how to open a movie. The catchy rhythms of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” jolt Red Rocket ’s Mikey Saber awake on his long-haul bus trip from LA to the middle of nowhere in Texas. The lyrics of “You’re probably going to start a fight / I know this can’t be right / Hey baby, come on.” reverberate throughout Mikey’s subsequent actions. But as much as you despise what he’s doing - just like the song - you can’t help but tap along with him. Baker’s newest work, Anora , takes an almost identical strategy. The high-energy beat of Take That’s “ Greatest Day (Remix) ” blasts from the theater speakers as Baker’s signature red-colored cursive opening studio logos bleed across the black screen. The words “Today this could be, the greatest day of our lives,” take over as we fade in on a sex worker giving a lap dance to a very enthusiastic customer. The camera glides from right to left, revealing an assembly line of workers and their male patrons. Everyone is living in euphoria at this moment, the world melting away with each strut of their bodies. I’m pretty sure Greta Gerwig’s Cannes jury only needed these initial thirty seconds to declare this their Palme d’Or winner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HxTmV5i7c For our titular Anora (Mikey Madison), or Ani, as she likes to be called, her night is only just beginning. As the only dancer in her club who can understand Russian on account of her family’s Uzbek background, Ani gets assigned to be the personal escort for a high-rolling Russian fuckboy looking to blow his oligarch father’s money on as many girls and drugs as he can. His name is Ivan/Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), and he speaks in respectably broken English, dons a haircut and skinny frame akin to Timothée Chalamet, and is obviously a rich kid who’s been handed everything on a silver platter all his life. But he pays handsomely and treats Ani with respect, so how can she say no? Things escalate from there, including a New Year’s Eve party at Vanya’s luxurious beachfront mansion and a week-long escapade at the swankiest spots in Las Vegas. Baker’s documentarian aesthetics keep this Pretty Woman- esque tale of young love grounded within reality. The club Ani works at is dingy and run by a pretty scummy group of older guys. And Vanya is no Richard Gere, acting more like a bratty child than the respectable man he’s been sent to America to become. But like any night of ecstasy, the sobering reality of the morning sun eventually sets in. A hasty marriage between Ani and Vanya at one of those seedy Las Vegas chapels brings out the wrath of Vanya’s neglectful parents, who sic their hired goons/caretakers to have the couple’s marriage annulled. They say you truly get to know someone during a moment of weakness, and Ani learns a lot about Vanya once the music stops. A series of misadventures ensues over several hours, more than enough to fill the 139-minute runtime, but not enough to make it wholly justifiable. It’s hard for a comedy, even a truly laugh-out-loud one such as this, to be great when 25% of its runtime could have been trimmed. Madison is always in her element as she follows Baker’s on-the-ground improvisational rhetoric. She delivers a true movie star performance, a quality Baker always seems to find in his often unknown (or underseen) stars. That level of showmanship goes a long way to carry the zaniness. The entire product reminded me of Triangle of Sadness , another Palme d’Or winner that often overstayed its welcome. But both that film and Anora always stand out from the rest of the pack and send you on a high note, which can never go unappreciated. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release Anora in select theaters on October 18th. 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

Oppenheimer July 19, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Last week, in preparation for Oppenheimer , I ranked all of the films within Christopher Nolan’s filmography . As per usual, The Dark Knight reigned supreme, followed by The Prestige and Dunkirk . Now, after watching Oppenheimer , I feel that I prematurely released that list, as now the best entry of his entire career has been left off it. I admit, I am still a bit overstimulated as I type this out a mere hour after the credits “written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan” flashed upon the screen. But with each passing second since then, I have become more and more convinced that I’ve seen something extraordinary. Quantum mechanics is full of paradoxes and puzzles that continue to elude the best and brightest of mankind. It’s one of the main reasons it beckoned to J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a man who never met a challenge he couldn’t overcome with his mind. The boundlessness of theoretical physics was where he made his name, his brain wandering into the stars and unlocking the secrets of the universe. The paradoxical nature of his work also bled into his personality. He was precise and exacting within the lab, but a naive socializer and an unhealthy womanizer. “Brilliance makes up for a lot of that” is his excuse for why he continues to climb within the scientific community and was recruited to head the Manhattan Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK6ldnjE3Y0 Nolan cited Oliver Stone’s 1991 masterpiece JFK as one of his main inspirations when adapting this material. He drops you into the middle of the action from frame one and keeps you there. Separate timelines begin to form, each folding into the others with increasing frequency. There’s the future besmirching of Oppenheimer’s legacy; the prideful past where we see his rise; and the roaring present where he must develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis. Similar to Dunkirk , Nolan, and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema define these periods through the imagery. Whether it’s in bright color or stark black-and-white, what you’re seeing is always a work of beauty. Never has IMAX been used to capture the small moments with as much gravitas as the climactic detonation. And never has Nolan commanded the pacing of his films as much as he does here. Time passes more quickly or slowly depending on when the narrative takes place, with editor Jennifer Lame crafting those drastic differences into an intellectual exercise. It can become quite challenging (to near impossible) to cling to all the details. But this is not like Tenet , which ditched its audience because of its incomprehensibility. This is more like a Wes Anderson film, where there’s just too much going on within the frame and on the page to be fully comprehended in real-time. Kenneth Branagh plays Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who gives a sturdy piece of advice to Oppenheimer early in his career: “It’s not important that you can read music, only that you can hear it.” Even if I couldn’t read all that was being presented right in front of me, I could definitely feel it. Ludwig Göransson’s tremendous score does a lot to convey the spectacle and terror within these moments of history. There are palpable feelings of anxiety and suspense, despite already knowing the outcome. You feel both a sense of patriotism in seeing this American achievement, and also a deep sense of guilt as a weapon without a defense was unleashed upon an untrustworthy world. There are just as many stars in this movie as there are in the sky. Robert Downey Jr. takes the reins in most of the later scenes as Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss. It’s the best work he’s done in years as he engages in a game of palace intrigue within a congressional hearing. There’s also Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Benny Safdie, and Jason Clarke standing out in decently sized supporting roles. And also Casey Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, and Gary Oldman in extended cameos. Of course, the bulk of the praise should go to Cillian Murphy as the titular character, who capitalizes on the opportunity to be at the forefront of a Nolan film rather than on its sidelines, which he’s done honorably on five previous occasions. There’s always a blankly haunted look in his eyes as if he’s both an all-seeing prophet and a blind fool. Oppenheimer is as entertaining as it is enlightening, emboldened by Nolan’s unparalleled vision and craftsmanship. It’s possibly his magnum opus, grabbing hold of history with fiery conviction, never letting you go until you’ve experienced all that cinema has to offer. Universal Pictures will release Oppenheimer in theaters nationwide on July 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

The Phoenician Scheme May 28, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen For his review of the 2005 Steven Spielberg film, Munich , film critic for The New York Times , A.O. Scott, began with the title: “An Action Film About the Need to Talk.” It’s a succinct way to describe the main theme of Spielberg’s underseen docudrama masterpiece that recounts Israeli operatives hunting down the people responsible for the Black September capture and massacre of their athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Were the retaliation measures justifiable, or were they just blind vengeance? And even if they could be justified, wouldn’t the cycle of violence just be perpetuated by the other side until they each go blind? Although it substitutes slapstick and levity for the blood and bullets of Spielberg’s film, Wes Anderson’s newest work, The Phoenician Scheme , goes about those ideas in a pretty identical manner. And although the lack of dialogue between the warring factions was part of the problem in Munich , too much talking on the part of this film’s main character, Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), sets everything in motion here. Middle school history students would describe him as a “robber baron” or a “tycoon” on account of his shrewd business practices. Famines? He’s started them. Slavery? He’s indulged in it. Hand grenades? He has enough lying around that he offers them to all guests like cookies. Fiddling with deals and going back on his word is largely why he’s amassed his fortune, and probably why so many attempts have been made on his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuMnPl2WI4 That’s exactly where we meet Korda in this story: surviving his sixth recorded airplane crash. At some point, the house is going to win, which is why he’s made the precautionary move to have his estranged novitiate daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), returned home so that she can assume possession of his estate should the unthinkable happen. But before he can defy his enemies by retiring, he must tighten the final screws on a massive infrastructure project in the fictional Middle Eastern territory of Phoenicia that will bring him and several future generations enough passive income to stay atop the throne. On this journey, we stop to meet each of the members who comprise this wall-to-wall A-list cast. Many of them have previously featured in Anderson’s films, such as Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston returning from their live-action debut in Asteroid City to play American train tycoon brothers who prefer to settle disputes over a game of H-O-R-S-E. I will jump the gun here and say that the scene where they challenge Zsa-zsa and the prince of Phoenicia (Riz Ahmed) to said game might be the funniest moment Anderson has ever created. There are also multi-film veterans like Mathieu Amalric (coincidentally, also in Munich) , Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Rupert Friend. “The story of a family and a family business” is the plot summary provided. It’s apt, as a full explanation of all the machinations that go on here would require many more paragraphs. I was never quite sure who everyone was, why they were important, and what needed to happen between them for the conflict to be resolved. But I also don’t think Anderson wants us to pay that much attention to the nitty-gritty details. I suppose you could if you really wanted to, as there’s plenty of information doled out through the trademarked sumptuous production. What’s really important here is not the 5 Ws, but the 1 H. Spurred on by a combination of Liesl’s objections to his malpractices and the gradual melting of his cold, Grinch-like heart, Zsa-zsa begins to see the error of his ways. “Let’s communicate,” is a punchline he says in each encounter, all caused by everyone’s instinctual failure to bring their best intentions to the table. In a time when the terms “trade war” and “tariffs” have become shorthand for an outdated and backward way of conducting business, here’s a story that preaches the value of being simultaneously kind and successful. Del Toro is quite excellent, making Zsa-zsa a thornily interesting character. There are a lot of laughs to be had from his line deliveries, and his command of the scenery Anderson places him in. Except for cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman, who’s been discreetly replaced by the equally fantastic Bruno Delbonnel, all the usual craftspeople align the credits. Anderson continues to prove that he has total dominion over a world that only he can create and perfect. So many have tried and failed to replicate, but there can only be one. Anderson is a lot like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At this point, you’re either in or you’re out. I’m so deep in the bag that it might as well be the one from Mary Poppins . I’ve seen a lot of films, and the majority of them all follow the same pattern. Anderson’s films certainly aren’t an exception, but there is always something magical about their sameness. And like Nicole Kidman always says: We come to this place [the cinema] for magic . Focus Features will release The Phoenician Scheme in limited theaters on May 30th, followed by a nationwide expansion on June 6th. 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

Memoria July 15, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen The work of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (try saying that five times fast) has never fully been able to register with audiences outside of the festival circuit. He has amassed universal critical acclaim since he graced the Cannes Riviera in 2004 with Tropical Malady . He creates gaps between his feature films by creating several short films, some of which eventually spawned into feature-length films, such as the 2009 short A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, becoming the 2010 Palme d’Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives . Now in 2021, Weerasethakul is stepping outside of his native Thailand for Memoria (translated from the Latin word “memory”), which prompted another return to Cannes, this time netting him the Jury Prize. The first English-language film for Weerasethakul, Memoria, is set in Colombia, following Tilda Swinton from destination to destination. The film opens with a surprising jumpscare illustrating our main character’s problem, which is that she often hears a loud crashing noise that seems to be confined entirely within her head. This noise confounds her, leading to an investigation into what exactly it is and why it is happening, which puts her in contact with a sound engineering student, a morgue doctor, and a strange fisherman offering profound insights on memory and identity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDU6B93ltds Those familiar with the work of Weerasethakul will know that the plot is not the driving force behind the ultimate narrative. Instead, the visuals and sound work do the bulk of the heavy lifting. Within Memoria , dialogue is seldom found for long stretches at a time, leaving the viewer to look at the screen like one would look at a painting, soaking in as much information as possible. This restriction of information will irritate those looking for answers to the questions the film raises, which Weerasethakul doesn’t have any intention of addressing. The Cannes World Premiere garnered nearly fifty walkouts from disgruntled viewers, and several nodding heads from the slow pacing that were often reawakened by the mysterious crashing noise, which shook the theatre. Swinton acts less like a character and more like a wandering observer. Never shot in closeup and always present in the world around her, she moves from place to place, learning new information about her condition, all without much dialogue from her end. The first half of the film is where Swinton does most of her traveling, which keeps the film moving at a steady, yet still slow, pace. Much of the “action” within these journeys would be considered filler in most mainstream projects, such as Swinton waiting patiently for the sound engineer to finish his work before addressing her, or an unbroken take consisting solely of car alarms going off. The last hour of the film is where some will applaud, and others will boo (just as they did at the world premiere). Swinton’s final journey takes her to a remote village housing a fisherman who claims to remember everything about his life. The two of them engage in an extended conversation that explores the strange connection they share. To an extent, the conversation acts as a vessel for Weerasethakul to talk to his audience about his ideas about cinema and life. It’s a bold move by a director not known for boldness, and it reshapes the way you look at the world at its best, and teeters on self-aggrandizing at its worst. Weerasethakul ties his thesis up in a perfect bow with an ultimate answer that is fittingly incomprehensible and produces several more questions. Memoria is a work for the cinephiles who need an escape from the noise of the modern world. It’s wildly beautiful and imaginative, all while challenging your patience and viewpoints. Go in with an open mind, and you find yourself enlightened. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release Memoria in select theaters on December 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

Alien: Romulus August 14, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen With each passing year, the meeting scene from The Matrix Resurrections gets more and more prescient. Focus group research, marketing trends, brand imaging, and keyword association are the tools of the trade nowadays, especially when you’re working with a franchise as long in the tooth as Alien . It’s not hard to imagine what was yuppied around the 20th Century corporate office when devising the concept for Romulus , which essentially serves as a grab bag of all the recognizable (and liked) aspects of the previous movies. It had to have a Xenomorph skulking around the pitch-black corridors of a steel-trap spaceship. It had to have a face hugger, which would eventually lead to someone’s chest bursting open. While people weren’t generally fans of Prometheus or Alien: Covenant , they did enjoy Michael Fassbender’s portrayal of a calculating android companion, so that also has to be an element. There also needs to be a woman in a tank top running around with a gun, and a bunch of crew members that become more expendable as the movie goes on. However enthusiastically co-writer/director Fede Álvarez goes about ticking off all these boxes on his studio-mandated to-do list, there is always the feeling that he’s bowling with the bumpers on. It’s hard to truly appreciate a strike (or, in this case, a modest spare) when the risk of rolling a gutter ball was never there to begin with. But after quite a few missteps in the nearly forty years since the original Alien and Aliens , the thought of “playing it safe” should come as no surprise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzY2r2JXsDM There are also no surprises in the methodology Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues employ to move our central characters into the claustrophobic spaceship housing the most terrifying life form in the universe. Five young individuals have been born and raised in a mining colony, none of them ever laying eyes on the sun. Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson) have been continually denied permission to leave the planet on account of corporate greed and malfeasance. When a deserted station is found floating right above their heads by some of her fellow poverty-stricken friends, Rain reluctantly sees it as the escape opportunity she’s always been denied. From there, we discover that this station was not abandoned willingly, but taken over by force by an unknown killing machine. Production designer Naaman Marshall does an excellent job of recreating the cold interior through practical means, complete with enough tech to identify the extraterrestrial foe, but never enough to put it down for good. The leisurely pacing of the initial half instantly ramps up once blood and guts start spilling, with Álvarez leaning on his visceral skills from his 2013 Evil Dead remake to make you squirm in your seat. Bones crunch loudly as limbs become unattached, and creaks and groans occupy every corner of the ship as the aliens lurk around waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The thought of this original being planned for a Hulu release is almost as sickening, as no home could compare to the sensory-deprived fear you get from the cinema. For both good and bad reasons, “for the fans” would be the correct way to define the energy that Álvarez instills within every moment. Homages, callbacks, and blatant winks occupy much of the foreground and background, creating an unavoidable stench of desperation as the studio hopes your Pavlovian responses kick in at the sight of franchise favorites. A certain famous phrase is reintroduced for climactic effect, although the context of the moment instills more groans than cheers. The young cast hold their own against the decades-old trapping they’re up against. Spaeny has become one of the most dependable young actresses working today, with her work in Civil War marking quite the impressive double bill this year. While androids don’t figuratively possess a soul, Jonsson brilliantly finds the compassion necessary for Andy. He is, without a doubt, the highlight of the film, fully living up to the robotic work that Ian Holm and Michael Fassbender previously did within the franchise. Romulus doesn’t have the benefit of being ambitious, which is why it can count itself lucky for executing well on its surface-level objectives. Ridley Scott’s last two ventures into this universe may have been better for its overall health, but this provides the much-needed steroid for it to continue at all. 20th Century Studios will release Alien: Romulus in theaters nationwide on August 16th. 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

Bad Times at the El Royale October 25, 2018 By: Button Hunter Friesen A priest, a singer, a vacuum salesman, and a drifter walk into a hotel. They all have a story and need a room for a specific reason, but only one of them is telling the truth. Each one is untrusting of the other and plans out how to survive the night as a severe storm moves in. Then enters a crazy cult leader who wants to exact revenge on the one who wronged him. With five seedy characters and a suspicious bellhop, a one-night stay at the El Royale may come with a fatal price. Bad Times is directed by Drew Goddard, who previously directed and wrote the comedy/horror The Cabin in the Woods and wrote the screenplay for The Martian. Goddard does well at directing this film. He does make some mistakes from time to time, but they aren’t too severe. The first of his mistakes comes from the pacing and overall length of the film. The 141-minute runtime is weird, as the film felt like it could easily have been cut to two hours or justifiably stretched to three hours. This is due to some areas of the story being dragged on more than needed to be, and some areas not getting as much attention. The first act of the film slowly builds up each separate character with their backstory and motives. Then the second wizzes by, and the third needlessly slows everything back down again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7wzBVARwaU Goddard does do good work with the camera as he gives the film a dark washed overtone to match the 60s era feel. He also uses a wide array of camera techniques to tell the layered story. Some scenes are played out multiple times from different angles to convey each character's viewpoint. There is also a hefty amount of symbolism and thematic imagery within each frame that pushes the narrative along without the use of words. One scene that really stands out is a seven-minute tracking shot where the camera follows one character as they go room by room and spy on the others. It’s a suspenseful sequence that gives a good amount of insight into each character in a short span of time. Along with directing, Goddard also serves as the sole writer for the original story. He divides the film into chapters based on the room a certain character is staying in. The technique works well to distribute time to develop each character. Not everyone gets equal time, but everyone gets enough to make them important to the overall narrative. The intersection of many different characters’ stories leads to the script being filled with lots of fun twists and surprises that continually come out of nowhere. Some of them are predictable once revealed, but many aren’t and keep you on the edge of your seat. There are some plot holes and untidy loose ends that are quite obvious near the end. However, they really don't harm the quality of the story and are more of an afterthought. Bad Times boasts a sizeable and star-studded cast. Most of the actors fare well, with some doing better than others. Jeff Bridges does pretty well as the elderly priest looking for a little vacation. Bridges is able to make his character believably evil as well as have a sympathetic heart. It’s not his best work, but nowhere near his worst. Cynthia Erivo is the best out of the cast as she plays the singer making her way to a gig in Reno. She provides her own voice to the role and confidently takes charge of each scene. Dakota Johnson and Jon Hamm kind of just skate through and don’t provide any real defining moments. They’re not bad, but it feels like anyone could have filled the roles. Lastly, Chris Hemsworth does good work as the Jesus-like cult leader who likes to preach with his shirt open. Hemsworth brings both his comedic and dramatic skills together and creates an uneasy character that keeps the suspense high throughout. Bad Times at the El Royale is a fun thriller that tells a complex story enjoyably. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but minor mistakes aren’t enough to ruin the overall product. In a fall season full of heavy films trying to send a message, it feels good to have a film that only wants its audience to sit down and have a good time. 20th Century Fox will release Bad Times at the El Royale in theaters nationwide on October 12th. 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

Uncharted February 21, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen In terms of adapting a video game to film, Uncharted should have been the easiest one yet. The cinematic sequences are all there, from the plane ejection and sinking cruise ship in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception , to the train sequence in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves . These levels contained some of the most impressive moments in video game history, with the sound and visuals delivering enough excitement to please even the most adventurous of spirits. Even though it seemed like a slam dunk on paper, publisher Sony struggled for years to get a film adaptation off the ground. They tried to get the ball rolling in 2008, only a year after the first game in the series was released. Things stagnated for a while until The Fighter and American Hustle writer/director David O. Russell was announced to be helming the project in 2010. In hindsight, Russell was an odd choice, and both parties were better off going their separate ways. Little did Sony know that Russell would only be the first of six directors to be attached to the project before leaving shortly after. Eventually, in 2017, Tom Holland was announced for the lead role of Nathan Drake, with Mark Wahlberg, the original choice for Nathan back in the Russell days, playing his older partner, Sully. Zombieland and Venom director Ruben Fleischer came aboard, and the film was finally completed after a decade of turmoil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHp3MbsCbMg And yet after all this time, I still would much rather play the Uncharted games a second time than watch the Uncharted movie again. Working as a mix-and-match of different story elements within the game series, Uncharted starts with the street-smart orphan Nathan Drake working at a bar. There, he meets Sully, who offers to make Nathan his partner in a search for lost Spanish pirate gold worth nearly $5 billion. Also on the hunt for the treasure is Santiago Moncada, an heir to the family that funded the pirates’ expedition, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. From there, the two parties bounce off each other in their hunt, which takes them from New York to Barcelona to the Philippines. Except it’s obvious that much of this movie never took place in any of those locations, with dubious green screening utilized as a cheap shortcut. The Uncharted games were often seen as the video game equivalent of the Indiana Jones series, with the bonus that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was a great fourth entry, while Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gets worse the more that hindsight allows. Both those series made great use of locations, taking the audience around the world on death-defying journeys. 2022’s Uncharted doesn’t have that authentic feeling of adventure, as everything is kept bottled up. The characters in the film are in disbelief at what’s happening, but we, as the audience, feel none of that. It’s all weightless and formulaic, plodding from one beat to the next. What saves Uncharted from being a total trainwreck is the relative likability of its cast. No one can argue that Tom Holland has been one of, if not the best, portrayals of Spider-Man. But the jury is still out on whether he can carry a film outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s had little success over the years, shedding his boyish looks in streaming titles such as The Devil All the Time or Cherry . Even if that same boyishness makes Holland a bit of a miscast, his charm and banterous chemistry with Wahlberg keep the film light on its toes. As far as video game adaptations go, Uncharted is one of the better ones if the bar it has to jump over is generously low. It makes for a slightly amusing two hours, with nothing exceptional to make it stick once the credits roll. If you have more time to spare, I’d recommend playing the games. But if you only have two hours, you could do worse than seeing this. Sony Pictures Releasing will release Uncharted in theaters nationwide on February 18th. 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