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Barbie July 18, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen In a recent article by The New Yorker , Greta Gerwig stated that “her ambition is to be not the biggest woman director but a big studio director. And Barbie is a piece of I.P. that resonated with her.” Sure, the arthouse crowd could cry foul at losing one of their most longstanding patrons, with Gerwig being most known through the mid-2000s to late 2010s as an entrenched member of the mumblecore movement, where young adults vented about their first-world problems (that’s the crass way of defining the genre). From Martin Scorsese to Christopher Nolan, plenty of major filmmakers have started small and then jumped aboard the volatile cruise ship that is the studio system. They’re legends to the public because they can seamlessly find the most comfortable middle ground between art and entertainment. The loss within the independent crowd from Gerwig’s departure is a noble sacrifice, as having her at the helm of tentpole productions is of benefit to the greater good of cinema. Barbie may not find that exact sweet spot like the instant classic blockbusters, but it has just as much of a brain as it does have good ol’ fashioned summer movie season fun, solidifying itself as an achievement of this season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBk4NYhWNMM Just as she does in our childlike imaginations, Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives in a perfect dream world where the sun shines every day, and everyone gets along. The Barbies inhabit and govern the land in perfect harmony, with the Kens (Ryan Gosling being Robbie’s "... and Ken" ) always competing for the attention and affection of their female counterparts. Every day is the same day, that is, until Robbie’s Barbie, known as Sterotypical Barbie because of her absolute perfection, starts having thoughts about death and existentialism. This rift is due to a downward mood in the girl who owns Stereotypical Barbie in the real world, as the doll reflects the emotions of the person who plays with her. So Barbie must venture out into our imperfect world, towing Ken along with her. The overall uniqueness of Barbie is no small feat, but it’s also not something that should be viewed as that big of a surprise, especially to those who have paid attention to Gerwig’s tenure as a director. Both the lived-in intimacy of Lady Bird and the modern buoyancy of Little Women are evident here. It’s so apparent how a product so steeped in corporate greed, like Barbie, could have been a cynical cash grab. Gerwig avoids (most of) those pitfalls, infusing this fish-out-of-water story with reflective takes on feminism, gender roles, and self-worth. There’s the million-dollar question surrounding the whole story: Barbie is perfect so that she can inspire little girls to be perfect at any job they want. But is selling perfection only setting kids up for failure, as we all learn that no one is perfect? The answers Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach (also her husband) give are nothing you haven’t heard before. But just as Triangle of Sadness and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery didn’t have the most original things to say about the ultra-rich last year, the obvious things they were saying have never been said more funnily. Gerwig and Baumbach deliver nonstop laughs with their script, dishing up just as hearty spoonfuls of social commentary. Gosling walks away with the most laughs, as his dim-witted charm and good looks make him the personification of a lost puppy. His role is a purely comedic one, with Robbie commandingly doing the tougher task of balancing the humor and central themes of the movie. She walks and talks like a dream doll, but also finds something deep within the core of her plastic shell. The rest of the large ensemble cast is there for support, with some getting better treatment than others (Kate McKinnon often steals the show as Weird Barbie, but Will Ferrell gets little to do as the Mattel CEO). If 2003’s The Cat in the Hat is the worst case for this sort of candy-coated production, then Barbie is one of the best-case scenarios. Gerwig has kept her directorial winning streak intact and further pushes her status as one of this generation’s leading voices. I’ve got some simple free advice for all the studio heads been facing big blockbuster bombs this summer: invest in Greta Gerwig. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Barbie 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

Us March 28, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen When you hear the name Jordan Peele these days, you instinctively think of his 2017 breakout hit Get Out . Through impeccable directing and writing, Peele created a pop culture moment around a film that was able to be entertaining and thought-provoking. It was so good that the only real critique people had was that it really wasn’t that scary. Us is Peele’s response to that critique as he delivers an out-and-out horror film that is still able to make you think while it scares the pants off you. In 1986, a young girl named Adelaide wandered into a hall of mirrors and encountered what seemed to be an evil version of herself. Never really convinced of what she had seen, the little girl turned mute and for years wasn’t able to express herself. Now, thirty years later, Adelaide and her husband Gabe take their children, Zora and Jason, to that same beach where the incident happened. Adelaide tries to keep calm for her family, but the thought of that childhood moment keeps lingering in her. Unfortunately, only a day into the vacation, that evil doppelganger returns to get its revenge, and this time it has an identical family all armed with scissors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNCmb-4oXJA With his second directorial gig, Jordan Peele proves that Get Out was not a one-hit wonder and that he is a fully accomplished director. While still delivering the scares, he takes the home-invasion thriller genre and gives it a much larger scope. This feat is accomplished through his expert use of camerawork, which is used to push the narrative as much as possible. A mixture of long takes and pan shots is used to keep the story moving and give off a constant feeling of suspense. When opting for quicker shots during bursts of violence, Peele incorporates well-timed cuts that perfectly match the tone of the scene. As noted in Get Out , Peele knows how to use music as a storytelling tool. That skill is put on full display here as he combines usual horror music with modern pop hits such as “I Got 5 On It” and NWA’s “F--- Tha Police”. Every music choice here is just right and heightens the power of each scene. *It is quite hard to critique certain story elements as they would reveal essential spoilers that would ruin the viewing experience. In service of this, I will be quite vague when it comes to specific details.* As a whole, Us is a bit of a step back for Peele. His script is filled with questions referring to themes of classism in America and the duality of man. Little answers are given for these big questions, seemingly on purpose, in an effort to let the imagination of the viewer run wild. Unfortunately, while I do respect Peele’s honorable intent, I feel that he has set his sights too high and isn’t able to come full circle on his ideas. A few plot holes pop up from time to time, most notably during the third act when Peele decides to exposition dump in one short sequence. Little payoff was given for important questions that had been building since the beginning, leaving me with an unsatisfying feeling. Coupling this misstep with the ambiguous ending quickly makes the narrative lose its luster. Many of the questions I had came more from the film’s faults rather than its merits. Lupita Nyong’o is absolutely perfect in her dual roles. Her performance as the conflicted heroine of Adelaide is top-notch. Equally great, if not better, is her turn as the doppelganger Red, where she is downright terrifying as she moves around the screen with menacing precision. Winston Duke is great as Gabe, who offers some comedic relief from time to time. Duke ingeniously uses his physicality for both roles as he loafs around to make his human character seem like a teddy bear and stands tall and bulky for his fearful doppelganger. Both the child performances by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex deserve applause. They don’t fall into the usual trap of overacting and are able to make the audience genuinely care for them. The rest of the cast, consisting of Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker, are fine in their own right but hold nothing compared to the main troupe While it could be considered slightly inferior to his previous film, Peele’s Us is still leagues ahead of the usual movies that fall under the horror genre. Best seen going in as blind as possible, this film will have you captivated during its two-hour runtime, along with the subsequent days proceeding. Universal Pictures will release Us 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

The Lost Bus October 3, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen A sad truth came to light the other day when I was having dinner with a friend. I was recounting my recent trip to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), divulging the good, the bad, and the ugly. I eventually got to the part of my schedule that included The Lost Bus , which I described as the new Matthew McConaughey film about the California wildfires. "Which one?" my friend asked, a question that immediately contextualized the climate situation we're increasingly facing. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, nine of the ten largest wildfires in California history have occurred within the last ten years. As I'm writing this review on September 24th, three new wildfires have been reported in the state. The most destructive and deadliest wildfire in California history was the 2018 Camp Fire. This is where The Lost Bus gets its story from, beginning one day earlier on November 07, 2018. McConaughey plays Kevin McKay, a down-on-his-luck school bus driver in the town of Paradise. He's been divorced from his wife for a few years, his teenage son doesn't like him, his mom requires increased medical care, and he just had to put his dog down due to old age. He's begging for extra shifts at work to help with financial problems. The roads can be windy as he takes the kids to and from school, and his bus is in dire need of maintenance. In short, everything is already hanging on by a thread. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSDHjkuwaic A faulty utility tower sets off a spark among some brush. A passerby on the highway calls in the small fire, and the trucks are on their way. By the time they get there, the dry conditions and gusty winds have already made this nuisance into a problem. From there, the area of danger keeps getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger. The situation eventually got so bad that the strategy shifted from fighting the fire to saving lives, as doing both became mutually exclusive. By the end, eighty-five were killed, and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Co-writer/director Paul Greengrass is the perfect person to helm this harrowing story on a macroeconomic level, having previously explored the matter-of-fact horrors of modern history with United 93 , Captain Phillips , and 22 July . Multiple scenes are dedicated to the logistics of fighting a fire of this size. How big is the area of containment right now, and where will it be in a few hours? When should the public be alerted, and what roads need to be cleared for a safe evacuation? How many trucks need to be requested as backup from the neighboring districts? The list goes on and on, and the time crunch gets progressively more severe. It's propulsively taut, with a no-nonsense lesson about how these situations have been dangerously exacerbated by a lack of accountability and preparation by our country's leaders and corporations. Once the microscope is zoomed in on Kevin, things get a lot more Hollywood-ized. Greengrass and co-writer Brad Ingelsby hammer home Kevin's status as an underdog and reluctant hero. He's just trying to get back home as the alerts start going out, and is the only bus within the vicinity of an elementary school with a class of twenty-two children whose parents couldn't pick them up. America Ferrera plays their teacher, essentially herding cats as everyone starts to sense that things are about to get much worse. The bus plows through smoke and debris as the rendezvous point constantly changes, with communication getting increasingly difficult. Greengrass overplays his hand during these moments. The camera snakes through a very digital fire, treating it like the shark from Jaws on its way to eat the children. All of them are just statistics for the plot, blankly reacting in fear to what's going on around them. McConaughey and Ferrera do decent work as their characters trade stories about their hopes and dreams. It's the same beats we've seen in every inspirational story "based on true events," ending on a small note of positivity about overcoming this tragedy. A decision was probably made at the pre-production stage to commit more to that angle than the docudrama about how hope is getting thinner by the day. I'd say they made the wrong choice, as Mother Nature continually proves that we're well past the point of wrapping these horrors with neat little bows. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple Original Films will release The Lost Bus in select theaters on September 19th, followed by its streaming premiere on October 03rd. 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

Freud's Last Session December 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen September 03, 1939, was an unlikely day that featured an unlikely meeting between two unlikely intellectual leaders. Dr. Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins), famed psychoanalyst living out his sickly final days in London, is greeted at his door by C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode), Christian literary scholar and eventual author of The Chronicles of Narnia . The topic at hand is the existence of God, with the Austrian a staunch denier and the Brit a firm believer. The weight of that subject is paralleled with the events of the day: Nazi Germany has just invaded Poland, and the British government is declaring war. It only took twenty years for “the war to end all wars” to be usurped by an even bigger global conflict. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPJM9lEMyV4 Adapted from Mark St. Germain’s 2009 off-Broadway play of the same name, Freud’s Last Session opens up the action from within the confines of Freud’s study. Director Matthew Brown ( The Man Who Knew Infinity) , who also co-wrote the screenplay with St. Germain, has these two titans interacting with average Londoners as the panic of Nazi bombings starts to set in. It’s in a cramped bomb shelter that inklings of Lewis’ PTSD from World War I start to bubble up to the surface. But rather than allow Goode and Hopkins to tell their own character’s backstories, Brown rashly splices in flashbacks to their youths. None of them match the energy of the central duo, nor do they communicate anything interesting, both narratively and visually. Take, for instance, the perfunctory scene where Freud, as a child, is scolded by his father to “never pray for him,” or a scene where Lewis, as a child, sees God through the beauty of nature. Never would I think historical figures such as these would have the same broad origin stories as superheroes. There’s also the inclusion of a subplot involving Freud’s daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries), who would go on to become a highly respected child analyst in her own right. Sigmund’s inoperable jaw cancer causes him unbearable pain and bleeding from the mouth, which often causes him to lash out in anger. Despite the pleas of her partner, Dorothy (Jodi Balfour), whom Sigmund disapproves of on the grounds of lesbianism being a symptom of a bad relationship with one’s father, Anna stays devoted to her father. Fries is steadfast in her role, but she’s left on an island by Brown, only interacting with Hopkins and Goode briefly in the first act before being shunted off on a B-story. Hopkins and Goode make good (sorry, I couldn’t help myself with that pun) on the material, which is surprisingly more muted than one would expect a debate about God would be. Both of them are polite in their stances, obviously reverential of the work the other has done. The early stages take the form of a drawn-out fencing match where one person takes a slight jab, analyzes the opponent’s reaction, and then retreats. Hopkins (who played Lewis in the 1993 film Shadowlands ) is experiencing one of the high points of his career with roles in The Two Popes , HBO’s Westworld , The Father , and Armageddon Time . He’s exceptionally playful with his dialogue here, always prepped with an answer even when he knows he’s wrong. Goode never wavers in the face of confrontation, keeping his guard up through his charming wit and intelligence. The final, and fatal, blow to the movie comes in the postscript, which reveals that this meeting may never have happened. Its inclusion isn’t meant to be a plot twist, as the play is very forward with this information and labels itself as a possible work of fiction. But in a film such as this that has lacked so much energy and memorability, it evokes the same feeling as a college professor who has given a tiring lecture and ends it by saying none of it will be on the test. It’s hard to care when you’re told you don’t have to. Sony Pictures Classics will release Freud's Last Session in select theaters on December 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

We Live in Time September 8, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark Emotional cinema has become a form that isn’t discussed enough. Movies in this body, like 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars and 2016’s Manchester by the Sea , are defined by how sad their story is, and it can either make or break the movie. Audiences usually talk about how much they cried while watching a film of that scale. A movie in this subcategory often finds itself in conversations as a potential awards season contender. This subject has been the big selling point of John Crowley’s latest romantic dramedy, We Live in Time . He and the marketing team have been playing big into this being a potential Oscar contender and one helluva tear-jerker. Crowley enlists the help of Oscar nominees Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh to bring We Live in Time to life. Both can do no wrong with the material and are often cute together. In fact, the movie overall seems good on paper. After awkwardly meeting in a car accident, Tobias and Almut (Garfield and Pugh, respectively) fall in love and start a life together. Despite never being married, they share a three-year-old daughter and live a quiet life in the UK countryside. Suddenly, Almut is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and the two learn how to live their lives to the fullest, given the circumstances. It’s a straightforward plot, but its big twist is that it’s told nonlinearly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH02yagHaNw There’s no harm or foul in a synopsis like this, but the movie offensively tries to play itself as a tear-jerker with humorous moments. There’s a moment when Almut and Tobias are trying to tell their daughter about Almut’s diagnosis, and a magician attempts to perform a trick for them. Almut and Tobias try to ask him to leave, but he refuses until Tobias raises his voice. While Crowley intended for moments like this to bring some lightheartedness to the movie, it felt forced. The only occasion this wasn’t the case was when Almut gave birth to their daughter, and everything unfolded, resulting in baffling hilarity. Both Garfield and Pugh can bring humor into any scene, and it works, but in the case of this movie, it feels wrong for them. They’re not responsible, however, as Nick Payne’s script and Crowley’s direction call for this, and it feels out of place. Garfield and Pugh have won audiences over in their years of being in the spotlight individually. Their chemistry was a big thing to anticipate for fans going into this movie, as their behind-the-scenes photos together looked nothing but adorable. Although it didn’t speculate on dating rumors like Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney did for Anyone But You , it sure did get people talking. The trailer also hyped it up vastly with how enigmatic and hearty they were. The result of all this? They were simply fine together. They knew how to play off each other and bring tonal balance to whatever was happening on screen, but they weren’t anything irresistible compared to a couple like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Most audiences, especially die-hard fans of the two, will go wild for them being together on screen and eat up every second of each scene. I just won’t be counted in that statistic. We Live in Time is a sour melodrama trying to pawn itself off as a dramedy. Failing to strike every chord that comes with a supposed tear-jerker film, it’s without a doubt one of the biggest letdowns of the year. To think that it came from the director who made Brooklyn , a movie that knew exactly how to balance drama and humor, shocks me that that method didn’t apply here. Call it a fall from grace or a one-hit wonder, but John Crowley couldn’t redeem himself here. Garfield and Pugh try to pick up the slack for him, and although their efforts are close to courageous, they aren’t enough to get the movie back on its feet. A misfire for A24 and everyone involved, We Live in Time will likely live to see itself as a failed Oscar bait movie whose relevance will be…let’s say, on borrowed time. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release We Live in Time in select theaters on October 11th, followed by a nationwide expansion 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

Golda August 22, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Author’s Note: This review may not contain a 100% factual retelling of the Yom Kippur War. The summarization of this conflict is based on the events shown within the film. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Helen Mirren) walks into her war room smoking a cigarette, likely her twelfth of the day. The generals are already seated, a small sign of disrespect that none of the previous male leaders had to endure. But this is not a time to dottle on manners, as Israel is under attack on two fronts: in the northern Golan Heights by Syria and the west Sinai Peninsula by Egypt. This would be the fourth war between the Arabs and the Israelis, with the first three ending with a swift Israeli victory. But this time is different, as the element of surprise is on the side of the Arabs. Meir now has the fate of the country on her shoulders, with total collapse imminent if she doesn’t act precisely and decisively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unW5w6JCEb8 Meir sits in meetings every day, hearing either depressing or conflicting reports (often both). Some of her generals press her to counterattack the Arab forces, and some plead to hang back in defense and hope that the Americans will bring them enough supplies to hold out. There’s also the constant clacking of the stenographer's keys, regular cancer treatments, and the knowledge that Israel is increasingly becoming a land of widows and orphans by the day. Golda is as much a biopic about Meir as Lincoln is for Abraham Lincoln and Darkest Hour is for Winston Churchill. Nicholas Martin’s ( Florence Foster Jenkins ) script uses the nineteen-day crisis as an examination tool for Meir’s character. Those coming in without previous knowledge of the conflict will find themselves lost. A few shoddy visual recreations of the battlefields are used to help illustrate, but the majority of the action is heard through the radio chatter and backdoor channels. There’s also the unnecessary framing device of Meir testifying before the 1974 Agranat Commission that bookends the events of the film. Mostly, it feels like a selfish opportunity for the filmmakers to prop Mirren’s performance up. Mirren, who might have been a lock for an Oscar nomination in a different era, brings Meir back from the dead. The pounds of makeup on her face and the frayed wig are a minor distraction during the early stages. A cigarette is always in her hand, a tool to punctuate every line reading or drag on a moment of silence. It’s baity work, but extremely entertaining. Her scenes with the U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber) are the highlights, with the actors finally being allowed to have a little fun with the rigid material. An expository sizzle reel opens the film, providing a twenty-five-year history of the various Middle Eastern conflicts through newspaper headlines. Golda has about the same amount of depth throughout its next 100 minutes, with brief flashes here and there to keep things interesting. Mirren is a performer who deserves a part like this, but she also deserves a better film around her. Bleecker Street will release Golda in select theaters on August 25th. 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

Alita: Battle Angel February 18, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the twenty-third century, a colossal war known as “The Fall” took place and wiped out a majority of the people and resources on Earth. The only two places that remain are the poverty-stricken wasteland of Iron City and the luxurious sky city of Zalem. Now in the year 2563, Dr. Dyson Ido scouts through the scraps and finds a broken female cyborg that appears to be a relic from the Great War. After her body and human brain are repaired, she wakes up and is named Alita, the same name as the doctor’s deceased daughter. Not remembering her past, Alita sets out to discover her past and the purpose that she serves in this divided time. Her journey takes her through the streets of Iron City as she interacts with a mix of both humans and robots, each fighting to survive in the tough world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7pYhpJaJW8 After years of lying dormant, Robert Rodriguez was appointed to direct this adaptation of the first four manga books in the “Alita” series. Best known for making fast and cheap films focused more on action than story, right away it becomes clear that Rodriguez was the wrong man for the job. Needlessly setting the pace to maximum overdrive and never looking back, Rodriguez blitzes past all the background information and shoves the audience straight into the narrative. Important questions are never answered or given a passing thought, as the film either expects the audience to already know all the answers or to just not care enough to bother asking. Along with the fast-paced story comes some rapid action set pieces that share the same miserable fate. Keeping track of what is going on becomes a chore as the characters whisk around the screen with their superhuman abilities. Anyone wishing to see this in 3D should pack some ibuprofen. Despite being written by the usually brilliant James Cameron, the screenplay is filled with some of the most atrocious dialogue of the modern era. Cameron’s ham-fisted approach towards the themes of humanity and morals is so predictable and cheesy that it sparks a feeling of nausea every time a character opens their mouth. Even weaker than the dialogue is the overall plot, which is absolutely incoherent with no rhyme or reason for anything. Even when Cameron tries to explain anything, he lazily falls into drab expository dialogue that creates more questions than it gives answers. Alita: Battle Angel boasts a solid cast on paper, but the script fails to develop any of its characters in a meaningful way. Arcs and clear motivations are nonexistent as characters do whatever the script needs them to do, even if it makes no sense. Quite possibly the worst part of the script and film as a whole is the downright insulting cliffhanger ending. After answering zero questions and setting up nothing interesting, the film dares to stare right at the audience and tell them that all will be revealed once they come back and pay more money. Fairing just a smidge better than other departments, the acting is still subpar across the board, which comes as a bit of a surprise considering the supporting roles are filled by three Oscar winners. Playing the titular character is Rosa Salazar, who does an alright job. She does pretty well at blending her human emotions and robotic body into a believable character, but she tends to overact during the most important scenes. Keean Johnson plays Hugo, a motorcycle-riding drifter who gets romantically involved with Alita. Johnson is mostly just a pretty boy and is never able to make his character even tolerable enough to care about. Jennifer Connelly is very cold and stilted as Chiren, the ex-wife of Ido. Not speaking above a monotone, Connelly tries to make her character mysterious but ends up being boring and uninteresting. Both Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali are below average in their supporting roles as Ido and Vector, respectively. Each one doesn’t really seem to care and just kind of passes through each scene with little energy. With Robert Rodriguez, James Cameron, and a $200 million production budget, Alita: Battle Angel proves yet again that money can’t buy quality and that even the best talent in the industry can still make a truly awful film. 20th Century Fox will release Alita: Battle Angel 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

Hunt November 27, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Certain things within our mortal world have been proven to be impossible. You can’t travel faster than the speed of light, nor can you read someone’s mind (all the mutants reading this must feel so smug). There are also the less fun things humans can’t do, such as achieving world peace or not paying taxes. And now I think I’ve stumbled upon a new scientific impossibility: Understanding the plot of Hunt on a first watch. As the directorial debut of newly minted Emmy winner and Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, Hunt is the most serious adaptation of Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy . The Cold War still rages on, with Russia and the United States shifting their political war out of Vietnam and over to Korea. The wounds of the Korean War still sting thirty years later, with both North and South battling each other in a war of paranoia and information. There’s a rumor going around that there is a North Korean mole, codenamed Donglim, within the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). This mole has leaked the plans for several past failed operations and may have access to the itinerary and security details for the president’s upcoming trip around Asia. In order to get to the bottom of this mess, the newly appointed director covertly orders the chiefs of the foreign and domestic security units to investigate the other by any means necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJUOIKg4Bic Foreign Unit chief Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Domestic Uni chief Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) have had their differences in the past, such as when Jung-do killed a suspect who had kidnapped Pyong-ho during an assassination attempt on the president. Each of them has a slight suspicion about the other’s loyalty, and this “no red tape” opportunity is just what they need to dig deep and uncover every dirty secret. Unless you have an eidetic memory or a Ph.D. in contemporary Korean history (two things I definitely don't have), making sense of Hunt in the moment is an impossibly difficult mental exercise. As many of us did with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet a few years back, you have to accept the convoluted nature of the whole thing. Double crosses become triple crosses, which then become quadruple crosses, which then become quintuple crosses (I’m not even joking with this). And deciphering the script, co-written by Jo Seung-Hee and Jung-jae, may not be worth the effort, as nearly every plot beat follows the standard spy thriller rulebook. Hunt can’t use the same “don't try to understand it, just feel it” excuse as Tenet , as there isn’t any emotional pull to feel (not that Tenet had a heart either). Fortunately, Jung-jae fills those emotional and logical gaps with enough bullets and bombs to equip a small army. Taking influence from Michael Mann (specifically the street shootout from Heat ) and his fellow countryman Park Chan-wook, Jung-jae plunges into the action set pieces headfirst with handheld camerawork and propulsive editing. There is not a single dull moment within this spider web, with the characters getting increasingly woven together to chaotic results. If you thought the intricately layered works of John le Carré ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager ) weren’t complex enough or didn’t have nearly enough frenzied shootouts, then Lee Jung-jae has something for you in Hunt . He treats his debut as if it's the bus in Speed , never letting it go under 55 mph in fear that the nitrate itself will instantaneously combust. Your two options are to accept that situation and ride this bus all the way to its fiery conclusion or jump off this speeding hunk of metal. You’re going to get hurt either way; it’s just up to you if you want it to be a good or bad type of pain. Magnolia Pictures will release Hunt in select theaters on December 02nd. 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

Argylle January 31, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and behold one of the unexplained mysteries of the universe! What I present to you on the screen is a cat. But it’s also not a cat. It walks like a cat, talks like a cat, and has the overall presence of a cat. And yet, any time you look into its eyes, you are unable to detect any semblance of a soul. How can this be, you ask? The foremost scientists of our time have been unable to determine that answer, nor have they been able to ascertain an answer for why it exists. Did the producers of Argylle not think that cats already exist, and can be trained? Did they recently watch Tom Hooper’s Cats and think that they could go even further down the uncanny valley? Or are they modern Robin Hoods and decided to waste millions of dollars of Apple’s money on something so monumentally stupid? I leave all these questions up to you, ladies and gentlemen. But be warned, the journey to acquire the knowledge that you seek will not be as fun as the marketing would have you believe. A fully CGI cat is only one of several frustrating peculiarities within the freak show brought to us by the “twisted mind” of Matthew Vaughn. At this point, I’d suggest replacing “twisted” with “childish” or “immature.” “Edgy” would also be a good substitute, but only in the context of a twelve-year-old who thinks of themselves as edgy when they tell their first joke that involves swearing or sex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mgu9mNZ8Hk “Original,” however, is a word I would not use for Vaughn or Argylle , no matter how much they try (and let me tell you, they try A LOT ) to make you think they’re one step ahead. In an opening almost ripped straight from Austin Powers in Goldmember (we’re really stealing from the cream of the crop here); we see Henry Cavill sporting one of the most hideous hairstyles in modern cinema, right up there with Taylor Lautner’s flowing locks from Twilight and Nicolas Cage’s from Con Air . He’s on the trail of Lagrange (Dua Lipa), but his role gets flipped to prey once she catches him in a trap. With the help of his two sidekicks (John Cena, Ariana DeBose), Argylle escapes and gets one step closer to solving the ultimate conspiracy. But scratch all that, as Agent Argylle is only a story within a story. The topmost layer has Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), the author of Argylle’s adventures, a series in a long line of successful spy novels. For some reason, almost everything that Elly writes comes true, leading to her life being in danger once a rogue spy syndicate decides to silence her. The only source of help to keep Elly safe and find out the full truth is a good spy named Aidan (Sam Rockwell), who claims to know more than he lets on. It’s not that the plot of Argylle is confusing; it’s more that it never registers as interesting or sensical. There are a lot of moving pieces, but the thread that connects them all is embarrassingly thin. Before you have time to raise your hand and question why anything is happening, writer Jason Fuchs takes a hard pivot for another “out of this world” twist. The unpredictability of everything becomes tiringly predictable, and even more annoying. What’s also predictable is Vaughn’s staging of the action, which contains no fewer than five set pieces queued to clichéd 60s tunes. To give him credit, one of those scenes contains some nice visual flourishes and choreography. But the rest are bogged down by either horrendous CGI or excessive editing. I’m sure with $100+ million at his disposal, there wasn’t much from Vaughn’s imagination that couldn’t be filmed. But the real question was if he should, not if he could. And the vast majority of this shouldn't have left the brainstorming session. Apple Original Films and Universal Pictures will release Argylle in theaters nationwide on February 02nd. 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

Fingernails October 31, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen How far would you go to prove your love to someone? Would you move across the country? Would you undergo a career change? Would you rip off your fingernail to undergo a love test? If you answered yes to any of these questions, most importantly the final one, then you would be right at home in Christos Nikou’s Fingernails . In the Greek writer/director’s vision of the near future, there is such a device that can scientifically prove whether two people are in love. All it takes is for each person to rip off one of their fingernails and place it into the machine. Within a few minutes, you’re provided with an undeniable answer. What you and your partner do after that is entirely up to you. Most people who fail the test break up, causing divorce rates to momentarily skyrocket before reaching record lows. Anyone who passes the test is left with a sense of security, although that sense of risk that keeps a relationship from flatlining has now been eliminated. Unemployed teacher Anna (Jessie Buckley) is in the latter camp. She and her longtime boyfriend Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) passed the test a few years ago. He’s content with the coasting they’ve been doing since then, but she’s beginning to have doubts. What’s the point of being proven compatible if nothing else is going to come from it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY-by4qPQpE That kind of questioning is one of the many ways you can poke holes in Nikou’s concept of modern love. A couple’s love for each other is never constant, so should we be putting value in a machine that can only judge based on a fixed moment in time? What about open relationships? Same-sex relationships? It’s best not to ask too many questions, as Nikou and co-writers Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis (the latter also co-writing Nikou’s 2020 feature debut Apples ) have little interest in answering them. Taking all of this at face value would be an acceptable proposition except for the fact that there isn’t much to discover on the surface. Nikou served as the assistant director to Yorgos Lanthimos on Dogtooth, and the influences are quite obvious. This transition to the English language takes an almost identical comically dry approach to The Lobster , sans the deadpan dialogue and threat of being turned into an animal if you don’t fall in love. What’s meant to replace that lack of originality is an edge, which is sorely lacking here. Many of Nikou’s ideas are left half-baked, with a lot of time and space budgeted for rote revelations we see from a mile away. What Nikou has shown a knack for is his ability to create a world that’s both detached and identical to our own. The all-knowing machine is a glorified microwave, put together and painted as if it were a prop for a high school stage play. A drab autumnal color palette envelopes everything, a visual metaphor for how love has lost its luster. One could question why Jeremy Allen White - a hot commodity after the success of The Bear - would sign onto the role of Ryan, a perennial wet blanket who makes it all too easy for us to root for Anna and her coworker Amir (Riz Ahmed) to get together. Buckley and Ahmed are charming, exchanging glances as their feelings for each other slowly develop. There’s also the likable presence of Luke Wilson as the inventor of the machine and Anna Murphy as Amir’s girlfriend. Fingernails is a pole vaulter who has an incredible walk-up, but somehow always seems to hit the bar. Nikou is finding his craft as an auteur, with this film proving that he can semi-successfully adapt his vision to a larger canvas. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm. This review was originally published from the international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple Original Films will release Fingernails in select theaters on October 27th, followed by its streaming premiere on November 03rd 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

Marty Supreme December 1, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Congratulations should go to Timothée Chalamet for finding a sports movie that he can believably headline. It’s seemingly a rite of passage for any leading star in Hollywood, spanning all the way from Harold Lloyd in The Freshman to Sydney Sweeney in Christy . With his toothpick frame and pale complexion, it should have been impossible to slot Chalamet to the forefront of a sport. Hell, I’m not even sure he could have passed for golf, at least not in the current post-Tiger Woods/sports medicine era. But here we are, and he’s found his niche in table tennis (also known as ping-pong), a sport whose largest cinematic footprint is through Dan Fogler competing in a Mortal Kombat-esque tournament staged by Christopher Walken in the gross-out parody Balls of Fury . Chalamet has been telling the press he’s prepared for this role for over six years, bringing a table tennis table to the deserts of Jordan while shooting the Dune movies, and the streets of New Jersey while conjuring the spirit of Bob Dylan for A Complete Unknown . It’s a similar awards-bait storyline to that of Bradley Cooper’s tenacity to become a conductor in Maestro , or Austin Butler mastering the mannerisms of The King of Rock and Roll in Elvis . The dedication to the craft behind the scenes has become as compelling as what is actually projected onto the screen. Luckily, Chalamet’s money is where his mouth is. The kineticism and composure he displays during those scenes of athleticism are thrilling to watch, with director Josh Safdie serving (pun intended) him well. The camera darts back and forth like a pair of eyes from the spectators, the players flailing around the room as they try to smack a little white ball across a glorified dining room table. Their physical skills may be the biggest reason why we watch, but there’s also the thrill of witnessing a person displaying their rawest selves to the world, all for our entertainment. Years of hard work have led to this moment, with every piece of sweat being a declaration of determination, and every point marking an inch closer to glory. Loosely inspired by the life of Marty Reisman, Marty Mauser (Chalamet) is one of the best table tennis players in the world circa 1952. It’s a fact he’ll let everyone know, his mouth moving as fast as his backhand volleys. The game of table tennis had little respect in the United States at this time, an unsurprising fact considering the longstanding dominance of baseball, and the continued rise in popularity of football and basketball. But it fills stadiums overseas, and Marty is in the unique position to become the face of the game. He’s got that X Factor, a player you love to hate, and hate to love. He is to table tennis what John McEnroe was to tennis. In a post-WWII landscape entrenched in American exceptionalism, he was more than happy to wave his superiority in the face of his competitors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9gSuKaKcqM There are only two sequences of the game being played throughout the 150-minute film, each serving as a bookend. It’s fitting, as while being a great player is what precedes Marty’s name in the papers, it’s probably only the fifth most potent quality of him as a person. When we’re introduced, he’s a shoe salesman at his uncle’s store. He thinks it’s beneath him, something for people who have no purpose in the rest of their lives. And yet, he seems right at home, a master storyteller who was born to twist his words to get him whatever he needs at any moment. He’s like Artificial Intelligence: a speculative asset claiming to be full of untapped potential. And because he relentlessly hypes himself up, people have no other choice but to buy in. Everyone except Marty knows that his bubble will pop, so the trick is to get in and get out before that happens. Safdie has become a master of depicting addiction, the agony and ecstasy of gambling everything for the chance to win anything. This is the kind of movie that is as exhausting as it is exhilarating. You let out a huge sigh of relief once the credits begin, as you’re now free of the vice grip… although Safdie doesn’t even let that be a moment of respite with a certain audio choice. Between Connie Nikas in Good Time and Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems , this is familiar territory for Safdie at this point. But can you ever fault Martin Scorsese for making another gangster film, or Wes Anderson for making another twee comedy? When you’re the best at something, you have an obligation to deliver it. The chaos is controlled at every turn, the tracks of this rollercoaster pushing the cart at the right speeds at the right time. In one moment, Marty is riding high at The Ritz London, ordering copious amounts of room service and swooning after the once-famous movie star Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). The next moment, he’s plunging down the fire escape of his mother’s dingy New York apartment, hiding in a dumpster to avoid the cops chasing him for stealing from the safe in the shoe store. It reminded me a lot of Damien Chazelle’s 2022 film Babylon , the story of Hollywood’s tumultuous transition from silent films to talkies. Engulfed in all the orgastic excess was a story filled with dreamers trying to meddle with their reality. Was all this indulgence going to make a difference in the present, and would anyone in the future even know of their existence? Babylon only had one scene where Tobey Maguire exposes the depths of hell that our world keeps hidden. Marty Supreme has about five scenes with that same energy, your eyes widening each time as the stakes get higher and the morals get lower. Composer Daniel Lopatin delivers an electric, Tangerine Dream-esque score, propulsively pushing the characters and the audience to the next scene. Darius Khondji’s 35mm cinematography and Jack Fisk’s sets are reminiscent of The Godfather Part II , a comparison I don’t make lightly. Warm tones are matched with striking darkness, the screen flickering from the spinning celluloid. New York City is bustling, with fruit and shoe shine stands around every corner. On those streets are some eclectic characters, each of them begging you to ask casting director Jennifer Venditti and Safdie how they found them. Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary comes from reality television, Tyler the Creator comes from the rap stage, George Gervin comes from the basketball court, and Abel Ferrara comes from the director’s chair of his own film sets. There’s also Luke Manley as the portly Deon, Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman as Uncle Murray, and Ted Williams as Ted. The two women in Marty’s life are both actors: Kay on the stage and Rachel (Odessa A'zion) in the streets. Everyone is faking it until they make it, although it doesn’t seem like they’ll ever realize when it’s time to stop. The one thing I wanted from Marty Supreme was for it to never end. The two and a half hours both do and don’t fly by. You feel every minute of it, yet I was never thinking about when this would be over. It’s what I love about long movies, as there’s a certain amount of belief and ambition a filmmaker must have in themselves to warrant trapping an audience for that long. An even more extended runtime would probably put people in the hospital from stress/anxiety. Still, it would have been well worth it for those who survived. A24 will release Marty Supreme in theaters nationwide on December 25th. 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 Banshees of Inisherin September 12, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen Fear not, all you haters of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (of which there are a lot more of you than I originally thought), writer/director Martin McDonagh has left the United States and is going back to Ireland for his newest film, The Banshees of Inisherin . And that’s not even the best part, which is that he’s reteaming with his In Bruges duo of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Actually, that’s not the best part either. The best part is that this new dark comedy is hands-down the funniest film of the year and the finest work by McDonagh as both a writer and a director. Every afternoon when the hour hand hits two o’clock on the dot, the good-souled, yet a little dim, Pádraic (Farrell) leaves his cozy dairy farm to meet up with his best friend Colm (Gleeson), the more reserved and intellectually inclined one of the pair, down at the local pub. Colm has been tirelessly working on a new piece of music for his fiddle, one that he hopes will have him remembered long after he’s left this world. But on one fateful day, those formalities are interrupted by Colm’s sudden need to end their relationship. “I just don’t like you anymore” is what he gives as a reason, something Pádraic can’t comprehend. And to prove that he’s absolutely serious, Colm promises to cut off one of his fingers each time Pádraic attempts to speak to him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRu3zLOJN2c Will Colm actually go through with his threat? How can this friendship go on for decades ad then suddenly be declared over? And how will Pádraic respond after being dumped so brutally? McDonagh answers these questions with devilish honesty by giving you the results you expect, but not in the way you expect them to happen. He infuses a dark undercurrent into nearly every scene, with side-splitting banter leading to some brutal anecdotes on human relationships. As was alluded to in the plot description, Colm’s threat about his fingers leads to some squirm-inducing laughter down the road. That mixture of dark and light on the page is also evident in the direction. There’s some sumptuous cinematography (provided by go-to MCU DP Ben Davis, finally breaking free from CG-infested photography) of the titular island, with the green rolling hills cascading into the roaring sea. But not far on the other side of the water is the raging Irish Civil War, where friends turned on each other in a bloody conflict that didn’t accomplish much of anything. Sound familiar? Trying to keep the peace between the two warring (or “rowing” as it's said in the film) friends is Pádraic’s sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon, often stealing the show with her warmth), who seems to be the only sensible one who longs to be free from the doldrums of this community. Her task is made even more difficult with the presence of the town chaos agent, Dominic (Barry Keoghan, continuing his streak of playing freaky weirdos), who makes Pádraic look like Plato. With equally stunning turns in The Batman , After Yang , and Thirteen Lives , 2022 seems to be the year of Colin Farrell. For years, his good looks have come with a monkey paw curse, as he was forced to star as boring leading men in cookie-cutter blockbusters (see The Recruit and S.W.A.T. ) Fortunately, a few directors, such as Yorgos Lanthimos and McDonagh, have been able to work his charm into something a little more unique. Farrell’s innocence as Pádraic is often heartbreaking as he deals with emotional torture. And even after fourteen years apart, his chemistry with Gleeson has never been better. Equally hilarious as it is disturbing, The Banshees of Inisherin finds Martin McDonagh, as well as his troupe of actors, in top form. There’s nothing quite like it, and it serves as another reminder that we should all be a little kinder to one another. This review was originally published from the North American premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release The Banshees of Inisherin in select theaters on October 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