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Knock at the Cabin February 1, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Knock at the Cabin is so good that it makes M. Night Shyamalan’s previous film, Old , just that more fascinating in retrospect. The lack of terrible line readings and quality acting within Cabin seems to validate the conspiracy theory (which a few critics and audience members embraced from the start) that the alien-like awkwardness within Old was intentional, almost like Shyamalan was playing a joke on all of us. But that theory would also have to extend to the terribleness within Lady in the Water, The Happening , and The Last Airbender , which becomes too far-fetched to be fully believed. Cabin finds the believers pitted against the non-believers. But this isn’t a debate over the typical beliefs surrounding religion, politics, or sexual orientation. No, this is about whether you believe that the world is about to be consumed by an apocalypse of biblical proportions and that the only way to stop it is to sacrifice a family member. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wiBHEACNHs Leading the group of believers is Dave Bautista’s Leonard, a gentle giant who fully understands the impossible situation that he is thrusting upon the family of parents Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff), and daughter Wen (Kristen Cui). Along with Leonard are three other believers, all of whom have shared the same catastrophic visions, including tsunami waves as tall as skyscrapers and the sky being shrouded in permanent darkness. Of course, Andrew and Eric don’t take the situation too lightly and think that these people are part of a crazed cult, prompting the believers to stage an impromptu home invasion to get the necessary sacrificial lamb. Shyamalan’s film follows a long line of entries within the specific “what would you do?” horror-thriller subgenre. How much evidence would you need to contemplate killing one of your family members to save the world? It’s a question the director constantly keeps at the forefront of his screenplay, co-written with the duo of Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman from the book by Paul Tremblay. The tension is palpable as the “intruders” say all the right things and act with sympathetic politeness, making it impossible to fully write them off as the lunatics they’re initially perceived as. It is a shame that - for a story with the central theme about beliefs - Shyamalan can’t fully trust his audience to believe everything that they’re seeing. An overuse of flashbacks in an attempt to rationalize character actions in the present comes off as a bit shallow and reductive. It’s a clear example of the faulty “rubber ducky” reasoning invented by Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet, where a character will behave a certain way based solely on some past event, shredding any amount of nuance in favor of formulaic storytelling. Thankfully, Shyamalan has recruited some fine actors to sell the unbelievable nature of the premise and characters. Bautista has made a lot of headlines about being taken seriously as an actor, and this performance decently proves that he’s putting his money where his mouth is. His hulking physicality instinctually inspires fear, but his soft-spoken demeanor contrasts that with interesting results. Groff and Aldridge have a good give-and-take connection, pretty much making the flashbacks even more redundant as a way to explain their relationship. Special praise should also be placed upon Herdís Stefánsdóttir’s jittery score, which takes until near the third act to fully come into its own and do much of the heavy lifting for selling suspense. And while it pales in comparison to his work with Robert Eggers, Jarin Blaschke’s (working with Lowell A. Meyer) claustrophobic camerawork works well with Shyamalan’s trademarked twisty movements. Although Shyamalan will likely never return to the heights of his early days, works like Knock at the Cabin are proof that he still deserves a place within the theatrical landscape, especially as the horror/thriller genres continue to increase their importance in putting butts in seats. He even gets to deliver his signature twist, which is simply that he has made a good film that works well because of his traits as a filmmaker. Universal Pictures will release Knock at the Cabin in theaters nationwide on February 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

The Upside January 31, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen In the film industry, January is usually the month when big studios dump films that they have lost confidence in. A large majority of these films come and go without anyone noticing they even exist. One of the biggest films of this January is The Upside , which tells the unlikely true story of a wealthy quadriplegic hiring an ex-con to be his caregiver. Starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart, this film isn’t as bad as its release date would suggest, but it also isn’t anything special enough to justify your attention or hard-earned money. Directed by Hollywood workman Neil Burger, The Upside is both structured and shot in the typical fashion that one would come to expect from studio comedies. Everything feels like it was assembled from a template and has been done dozens of times before by more competent directors. Burger middlingly works with the more emotional aspects of the film as any moment of dramatic tension can be seen coming from miles away and follows the usual cues of the genre. Even the tonal shifts become quite predictable and create an endless cycle of half-hearted storytelling. While it may have been unintentional, the one thing that Burger does well at is letting the actors do what they do best. Hart and Cranston take over every scene they appear together in and use their chemistry to distract from many of the film’s faults. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWw7rCHcduQ Being as this is a remake of the 2011 French film The Intouchables , the story very much follows closely with the source material. The biggest thing that the script lacks compared to the original is a sense of emotional weight between the main characters. This problem mainly stems from a thin plot with lofty intentions that only offers tepid results. The writers try to tackle the racial and economic divide between the main characters, but end up putting in so little effort that it feels disjointed and a waste of time. Insightful commentary is tossed aside for one-liners and sly remarks that end up feeling overly safe and tedious. Despite being over two hours long, the film continually runs into the problem of having too little to work with, especially from the two weak subplots: one being Hart trying to reconnect with his son, and the other with Cranston battling his limitations to find love. Both the side stories felt quite empty and gave each actor little to work with. This resulted in a muddied overall narrative that fought and tore itself down rather than building to something meaningful. Probably the biggest saving grace for the film (and the only reason anyone would watch it) is the performances of the two leading actors. Kevin Hart does what he does best as Dell and shows that he is still a master of comedy, whether it be physical or through his fast-paced banter. Even though the script is mostly to blame, Hart does struggle with the dramatic parts that require him to slow down and break away from his usual tricks. Acting as the dry humor to Hart’s energy is Bryan Cranston as the extremely wealthy and depressed quadriplegic, Phillip. While he does serve up some funny remarks from time to time, Cranston more or less just goes through the motions and knows that he is above a project of this quality. Lastly, Nicole Kidman intermittently shows up as Phillip’s executive assistant, Yvonne. Kidman really feels out of place as her skills go unused on a character whose only purpose is to be a disapproving foil to Hart’s shenanigans. Except for Kevin Hart or Bryan Cranston, there really isn’t much in this film to make things interesting. Some comedic elements incite some chuckles, but more often than not, a feeling of emptiness will lie dormant in your head. Best described as a filler movie to waste some time, The Upside is something you’ll watch and most likely forget about twenty-four hours later. STXfilms will release The Upside in theaters nationwide on January 11th. 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

Tár October 8, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen “Lydia Tár is many things,” exclaims New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (playing himself in one of many ways writer/director Todd Field grounds this purely fictional story within our reality) as he introduces the titular composer for an interview as part of a cultural festival. Listing off her various achievements, which include being the first person to lead each of the Big Five symphony orchestras and one of the few to reach EGOT status, Gopnik labels Tár as a revolutionary within the classical composing world, a sentiment the audience - likely filled with rich patrons of the arts - reflects as they hang on to her every word. In the hands of lesser filmmakers and leading stars, this opening 10-15 minute scene, which merely consists of a Q&A about Lydia’s position on some issues within the industry, would seem pedantic and expository as we’re meant to quickly understand why people would fall head over heels for the genius of this fictional character. But when you cast Cate Blanchett, who’s incapable of delivering a bad scene, let alone a bad performance, that task becomes as easy as breathing. And when you combine her with Todd Field, returning to the silver screen for the first time in sixteen years, that breath is one of the freshest ones you’ll take this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na6gA1RehsU From that scene, which brilliantly gives us the nudge needed to descend further into the rabbit hole that is this character’s psyche, Field takes us on a fascinating journey through the unraveling life of Lydia Tár. She has a personal assistant named Francesca (Noémie Merlant, one half of Portrait of a Lady on Fire ) who is by her at every stop, most notably a seminar at Juilliard where Lydia gets into an argument (all done in one long continuous take, one of many scenes that flow uneasily in real-time) with a student about how today’s generation has to separate the art from the artist and that “if you want to dance the mask, you must service the composer.” The controversy that emerges from that is only the tip of the iceberg for Tár. Along with unceremoniously pushing out her assistant composer and a burgeoning predator/prey dynamic with her lead cellist, there are also legal threats after Lydia’s former protégé committed suicide, with possible motives linked back to her. For all you completionists who demand films answer the questions they raise, both literally and metaphorically, TÁR will seem like an exercise in futility. Because if there’s one thing Field learned as the protégé of Stanley Kubrick (for which Field played the piano playing character Nick Nightingale in the master’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut ) aside from impeccably precise visuals and dread-filled drip editing (supplied here by Florian Hoffmeister and Monika Willi, respectively), it’s the ability to make the unsatisfying loose ends of a story seem so naturally satisfying. There are no easy answers within Field’s film as he meticulously studies his central character, for whom he shares no predisposed love or hatred. It’s for the audience to decide if Lydia’s fate, which is sealed with a visual setup and punchline so hilarious that it might as well have been ghost-directed by Mel Brooks, matches her “crimes.” Any post-screening conversation surrounding it will no doubt be as intellectually stimulating as the film itself. As our guide during that examination, Blanchett reaches another echelon in a career that has only marked. One could not be ridiculed for mistaking Lydia Tár as a real person, as the details and nuances Blanchett infuses the character with are ones usually found within Oscar-bait biopics, which she’s already conquered with The Aviator, Elizabeth (the less said about its sequel the better), and I’m Not There . Surrounding her is an impressive European supporting cast of Nina Hoss, Mark Strong, and Sophie Kauer. If TÁR is meant to mark the second coming of Todd Field’s career, then we should all be in for a lengthy treat for the mind, body, and soul. But if this was only a brief blip and we’re subjected to another sixteen-year absence, then I at least know what my most anticipated film of 2038 will be. Focus Features will release Tár in select theaters on October 07th, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 28th. 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 Exorcist: Believer October 4, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Urination, the c-word, “help me” etched on skin, spitting blood, demonic voices. These are the trademarks of William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist , adapted to the screen by The French Connection director William Friedkin just two years later. The reader’s worst fears from the pages of the novel were turned into ungodly imagery; many of these moments are even more terrifying now than they were fifty years ago. David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer has all those same beats, many of them shot-for-shot. But just like how a joke is never as funny the second time, those images seem tamely pedestrian this go around. It’s the curse of the legacy sequel, or “requel,” where the iconic moments of the original material are treated like scripture. They have to be “honored” by being trotted out the same way you’ve seen them before, as if doing anything different would cause hell on Earth. But things become less iconic the more you see them, especially when they’re cheaply remade without heart and soul, lessening what made the whole thing special, to begin with. It’s a creatively bankrupt process, but very few franchises that have done so are literally bankrupt. The Jurassic World trilogy may have never come within a mile of the playful virtuosity of Spielberg’s original, but they made just as much money. There’s also the Halloween (also revived by David Gordon Green) and Scream franchises, both churning out more dough than they know what to do with. There’s no doubt The Exorcist: Believer will follow suit money-wise, but I seriously question whether anyone will have any connection to this movie, even a day after they’ve seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIxpPMyGcpU Unsurprisingly, the story opens in a foreign land outside of America, this time being Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his extremely pregnant wife quickly find themselves caught in the middle of the infamous 2010 earthquake. A fatal injury to the mother means only the unborn baby can survive. Thirteen years later, Victor is an overprotective single dad to his daughter, Angela. One day, he lets his guard down and allows Angela to hang out after school with her friend Katherine. Instead of doing homework like they told their parents, the pair goes into the deep dark woods and performs a seance. It’s all done with childlike curiosity, but the results are sinister as the girls stay missing for three days, mysteriously reappearing with no memory and different personalities. The central mystery of the middle act is all about finding out what happened to the girls and what needs to be done about it. Except it’s not a mystery, as we all knew how this story would go before we even sat down, making those middle 40 minutes a tedious bore. Things only get moderately interesting once the series original Ellen Burstyn comes back into the picture as Chris MacNeil. She delivers an “I’m just here for the money” performance, which can’t be blamed considering Green and co-writers Peter Sattler, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems can’t find much of any reason for her to be here besides replicating exactly (it’s literally the same demon) what she did a half-century ago. The child performances from Lidya Jewett and Olivia O'Neill are quite incredible. They have a handle on the range needed, delivering both innocence and perversity. Odom Jr. is a capable lead, and Ann Dowd might as well be playing her character from Ari Aster’s Hereditary . The rest of the supporting characters are blandly drawn and forgettable. For all the scares he tries to conjure up on the screen, the most frightening thing Green does here is take another beloved horror franchise and turn it into a lesser version of itself. I’m not sure where they’re going to go with the two planned sequels. That would be cause for excitement most of the time, but I’ve lost all faith considering the lazy path they took here when total freedom was available. Universal Pictures will release The Exorcist: Believer in theaters nationwide on October 06th. 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 Gentlemen January 30, 2020 By: Button Hunter Friesen Like Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, and Michael Bay, you can tell when a film is made by Guy Ritchie just by watching a few minutes of it. The British director has carried a sense of hyper-stylization through each of his films, most notably in crime comedies that began with the one-two punch of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch . Now, after a few big studio duds ( King Arthur , Aladdin ), Ritchie has come home to his roots with The Gentlemen . Growing tired of the marijuana business and fearing for the security of his future, Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) decides he wants to sell his lucrative empire. Luckily for him, a rich American buyer is willing to fork over a pretty penny. Unluckily for Mickey, though, his life of crime has made him a few enemies who would like nothing more than to see him ruined. With his enemies fast approaching on all sides, Mickey will now have to get his hands dirtier than ever if he ever wants to have a chance to clean them off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B0RpUGss2c The Gentlemen is business as usual for Ritchie as he dives right back into the street crime genre he made his name in. What may seem overindulgent to others is only conventional to Ritchie, as he uses all the flashy tactics in the book. Even the opening credits - which contain numerous minor spoilers for some odd reason - remind one of a Bond film. After that, we are led on an endless parade of rapid editing, exaggerated characters, and many other stylish facets. It’s a bombardment of the senses, but one that never becomes overbearing. However, like all Ritchie films, The Gentlemen ends up leaning too hard on style over substance, which is saying a lot because there is a lot of substance here. Some directorial choices seem to be made only for vanity, such as one bit where a character drones on about the magic of classic cinema. I was reminded of the great Jurassic Park quote, which I am paraphrasing: [Ritchie]... was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, he didn’t stop to think if he should. Such is the case in Ritchie’s previous crime films; there are plots within plots, and those plots have plots on top of them. In this film, the narrative revolves around a discussion between two characters as one tells the other about the events that have unfolded. These events are new to us but have already happened within the timeframe of the film. What we get is a sort of comedic murder mystery where each event is changed and then rechanged again based upon a certain character’s perspective on what happened. This framing device makes the movie an interesting puzzle, albeit a needlessly convoluted one. Specific details sometimes get lost in the shuffle, only to come back again to confuse us more. Just like the directing, this problem seems to stem from Ritchie’s insistence on overdoing things. It’s quantity over quality, as too many things are thrown into the script without much regard for clarity or purpose. Since his Oscar win in 2014, Matthew McConaughey has had a hard time picking projects that use his acting strengths, and that also turns out to be good. Thankfully, Mr “Alright, alright, alright” chose wisely here as Ritchie uses his captivating screen presence in some impressive monologues. Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant play the two characters having a banterous discussion about the film’s events. Grant easily takes the top spot between the two as he seems to thoroughly enjoy his character's eccentric quirks. Rounding out the cast are Jeremy Strong, Henry Golding, and, most notably, Colin Farrell as the boxing coach simply named “Coach”. Even though Mickey is the main character, Coach is the one you’ll remember the most after. It can be easy to forget sometimes that movies are allowed to be solely entertaining popcorn flicks. This rings truer during awards season when every film is trying to take a stand on something and fighting to make a mark on our culture. Of course, you still would like that popcorn flick to be well-made. Being as how January is usually a dumping ground for maligned films, you could do a lot worse than this enjoyable romp. STXfilms will release The Gentlemen in theaters nationwide on January 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

Deadpool & Wolverine July 23, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Deadpool & Wolverine may be the most Marvel thing Marvel has ever produced, which is saying a lot considering they have a whole character who carries that moniker. And considering just how long and intensive this machine has been going, that’s also a statement you already know how to interpret for yourself. This isn’t going to win over any outsiders, nor does it serve as the self-dubbed “Marvel Jesus” that will offer a hearty course correction that the passengers on this increasingly derailing train so desperately need. But even if it can’t turn water into wine, it can easily turn two hours into a solidly entertaining time, something that has become a valuable currency at this stage in the game. Director Shawn Levy, the biggest rival to Hugh Jackman and Mint Mobile for the role of Ryan Reynolds ’ best friend, takes a page out of his namesake brother Sean Baker’s playbook for how to energetically open a movie about a motor-mouthed scumbag. NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” kicks us into music video mode as Deadpool spills more literal blood in thirty seconds than the MCU has done in its past thirty features. It’s a cheap trick akin to using “I Need a Hero” during a training montage, but clichés are only born because they work, and the sight of dismembered limbs and the Merc with a Mouth sensually dancing did put a somewhat sadistic smile on my face. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_1biulkYk That grin stayed in a fixed position throughout the next two hours, although my eyebrows were raised a few times, the majority occurring during the timey wimey exposition dumps where the two seasons of Loki become a prerequisite. Just as the MCU is in critical condition, so is Deadpool’s timeline after the death of Logan in his 2017 titular movie. He was one of those figures whose universe lives and dies with them, so his departure gives the TVA the authority to speed up the deterioration process by pruning it off the tree of time. But for what the multiverse takes away, it also gives back in the form of countless iterations of our favorite heroes. Wade thinks that any Wolverine can fill the shoes of his Logan, which he unintentionally puts to the test when he pulls the worst one from another universe. Hugh Jackman reprising his most famous character after beautifully concluding that chapter in his career sounds sacrilegious by itself, but it’s less offensive once you start factoring in that Wolverine has only ever been the lead of large ensembles or solo features. It’s refreshing to see him equally billed with someone so different, and the real-life friendship of Jackman and Reynolds adds that extra bit of oomph to the expletive-laden one-liners. Another treat comes from the comic-accurate yellow jumpsuit that he gets to don. It also wouldn’t be too far-fetched to theorize that a few dump trucks of money helped sway Jackman’s decision to return. It’s money well spent, which can’t be said for the other hundreds of millions that went into securing such scenic locations as a drab wasteland, a nondescript forest, and your usual New York subway station. You can feel the layers of irony coming together as this initially scrappy franchise has become the megaton freighter it points and laughs at. A Honda Odyssey serves as an equally deflating vehicle of choice, although it gets a few bonus points for serving as the setting for an amusing action setpiece. Just as no problem in the MCU can’t be solved with cash and gratuitous quips, there’s also no moment that can’t be an opportunity to crack open the vault and play with the toys. The writers have read all the Reddit threads and think pieces, watched all the hours-long YouTube rants, and listened to all the podcasts about the state of comic-book movies. But more importantly, they saw how successful Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were at creating viral moments through cameos and winks. No movie has been higher on its own supply than this one, with nearly a dozen slow-motion reveals and pauses for applause that will be immediately spoiled after the Thursday afternoon previews. It also means that the actual supporting characters like Emma Corrin’s villainous Cassandra Nova and Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Paradox are continually sidestepped in favor of further digs at Fox. Fan service can only take you so far, which is why Deadpool & Wolverine stop plenty short of being the MCU’s redeemer. There was a clear opportunity for this to be much more than just the thirty-fourth entry in this universe: a true game-changer that recontextualizes the past, revamps the present, and paves a new road for the future. Oh well, fun is fun, and this is summer after all, so it’s best not to overthink things. That’s the biggest benefit of this never-ending story, as all our hopes and fears can be punted onto the next chapter. Good luck, Captain America: Brave New World ! You’re going to need it! Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will release Deadpool & Wolverine in theaters nationwide on July 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

Blue Beetle August 18, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Blue Beetle is the best DCEU film in years. But that’s not much of a statement, as it would take a monumental amount of skill to make something lesser than Black Adam , Shazam: Fury of the Gods , or The Flash . It's like a student got three straight F's on their exams and then got a C-, or Shaquille O’Neal finally making a free throw. The act itself isn’t noteworthy, but the context makes it a landmark moment. There’s also not much fun to be had with Blue Beetle ’s competence, as every story element and character decision is pulled directly from the “How to Make a Superhero Origin Story For Dummies” textbook. Take a shot each time a sentence in the subsequent paragraph reminds you of another superhero film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS3_72Gb-bI Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is just a kid from Palmera City who’s the pride and joy of his immigrant family. He’s returning home after obtaining his college degree, but family hardships prevent him from unlocking his true destiny. He and his wisecracking sister (Belissa Escobedo) take jobs as part of a mansion cleaning staff. There he crosses paths with Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine), the niece of tech billionaire Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon). Jenny asks him to hide something called The Scarab, which quickly decides to attach itself to Jaime, making him a world-killing supersoldier (he’s DC’s Iron Man, to put it bluntly). He didn’t choose to have these powers, but he’ll need to learn to put them to good use as people like Victoria want to use them to take over the world. Blue Beetle wears its heart on its sleeve when it comes to the family dynamic within the cast. For the most part, it greatly succeeds in establishing that special bond. Jaime’s uncle Rudy (George Lopez, doing a pretty good job spinning gold out of the lead he’s given) is the “Mexican Doc Brown,” and he always fears that the government is tracking them. But it’s not like the Reyes family would just lie down and take it, as Nana (Adriana Barraza) has a secret revolutionary past, a joke that tries to go on longer than its shelf life. This is a tight-knit group, providing both the most emotional and entertaining moments of the film. Unfortunately, writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer put all his skill points in that area. Besides the family, there’s not much of any reason to care about what’s going on. There’s very little introduction or explanation of what The Scarab actually is, why it chose Jaime, and what Victoria’s evil plan is supposed to accomplish. Although I’m sure the answers to these questions would have been just as clichéd as everything else, I still would have appreciated the courtesy of having them addressed. Director Ángel Manuel Soto doesn’t do much to make up for those problems with the action. It’s the usual “overpowered hero takes out tons of goons before fighting the final boss, who has the same powers they have” that we’ve come to expect (again, the comparisons to Iron Man are uncanny). At least Tony Stark felt like a person in a suit, unlike the poorly rendered CGI creation that Maridueña just ADRs over. The Cobra Kai has the charm and looks to be a superhero, but those seem to be his only assets. It’s hard to nail down where Blue Beetle lands in this whole DC shakeup, not only because of the wishy-washy answers from head honcho James Gunn but also because it feels so much like a product of the old regime. If it’s meant to cap off this decade-long run that started with Man of Steel , I guess we could have gone out with something worse. If this is the start of something new, then there’s not much to get excited about. Same shit, different day. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Blue Beetle in theaters nationwide on August 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

Back to Black May 16, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We begin near the end of the icon’s journey, only to flash back to where it all began. The icon has a strained relationship with their family, immediately giving them unresolved trauma. But they have a special talent and someone in their family (most likely a grandparent) acts as their motivational coach. They suddenly hit it big, but are blindsided by the pressures of fame and the need to conform. They fall in love with an outsider, which, coupled with the growing stress, leads them to drugs and alcohol. Everyone says they need help while the excuses keep piling up, eventually ending in a burnout that crowns the tabloids. After some soul-searching, they find themselves back at the top, performing one of their iconic songs. It ends back where we started, with the untimely death being revealed during the postscript, along with all their other achievements. It would be damn near impossible for you to guess what single movie I was describing. Even if you narrowed it down to just the past five years, you’d still have to decide between Elvis , Bohemian Rhapsody , Respect , I Wanna Dance with Somebody , and Bob Marley: One Love . The musician biopic subgenre has become such a cliché at this point that there’s even a sub-subgenre for parodies like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story . But even those are starting to feel a little stale, as the jokes don’t have the same punch when you can see them coming from a mile away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYzIOBwyhIU Writer Matt Greenhalgh would have only needed to add a few jokes to his Back to Black script to make it into one of those parodies. All the other tropes are already there, so why not make this a comedy? It’s surely not a compelling drama, nor a “definitive” retelling of Amy Winehouse’s life. Everything has been scrubbed with disinfectant several times over, leaving behind a product so basic that you’d barely get the impression that this person was special at all. The one laughable thing is Greenhalgh’s treatment of Winehouse, with his pen always pushing her further down the gutter. Between the alcohol, the ever-growing lineup of drugs, and discussions of self-harm, there’s nothing that Amy isn’t doing to destroy herself. Greenhalgh’s claim that all this self-destruction was predominantly spurred by Amy’s inability to have a child is both borderline insulting and too neat. There’s also the unintentional running joke of Amy saying that she needs to stay true to herself while also perfectly following the rags-to-riches template. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has previously shown an interest in musicians, helming the 2009 John Lennon origin story Nowhere Boy . The strategy doesn’t seem to have changed in the decade-plus since, with the beats being produced in a forgettably competent manner. The staging of Winehouse’s performances is quite nice, with star Marisa Abela doing a fine impression both physically and vocally. Less than stellar is Jack O'Connell as her sleazy on-again, off-again husband, and the relative sidelining of Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville. Getting anything out of Back to Black will be a tall order for any viewer, regardless of your familiarity with Winehouse’s life and music. There’s also the unavoidable presence of the Oscar-winning 2015 documentary Amy , which covers more material with more depth in just as much time. But as long as Winehouse's songs see a bump on Spotify, then the producers will be happy. And we all know that’s what really matters in this landscape. Focus Features will release Back to Black in theaters nationwide on May 17th. 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

BlackBerry April 24, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Out of all the “corporate biopics” that were on the docket for 2023, none piqued my interest more than BlackBerry . The allure of the story came solely from the predictability of the outcome, as everyone knows Nike made billions off the Air Jordan brand and that Tetris would become one of the world's most popular video game franchises. But do people really know what happened to BlackBerry, the phone that one executive referred to as “CrackBerry” due to its dominant popularity within the business landscape? I’m guessing they don’t, as a little-known product called the iPhone consumed all the attention at that transitional moment. But before we get ahead of ourselves with all that doom and gloom, let's jump back to the hopeful beginnings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXL_HDzBQsM The year is 1992. Mike Lazarides (Jay Baruchel) and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson, also serving as co-writer and director) have just founded Research in Motion in Ontario and are going around to investors pitching their idea for a revolutionary new phone that is capable of being an all-in-one business machine. While their idea is brilliant, the duo has little to no business acumen, which is illustrated by the laissez-faire way they approach their equally bright workers. Luckily, one of their “so bad it’s good” business pitches catches the attention of the power-hungry Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), who sees the potential for this product. He jumps ship in exchange for becoming co-CEO with Lazarides, making them the new Jobs and Wozniak. Success comes quickly in the form of market domination and billions of dollars in market capitalization. But the fall came quicker when the actual Steve Jobs came out with a phone that had a keyboard on the screen (“Who would want that!?” yells Lazarides during the Apple announcement). The rest, as they say, is history. Of course, you could just read the Wikipedia article on BlackBerry to get all of that information. But Johnson is a smart enough writer and director, invoking a seriocomic sensibility at every turn. The camera is handheld and observational, with zooms similar to The Office and Succession . You laugh along with these misfits as they race to their doom, but you also never look down upon them. Their brilliance is always on display, even if Jay McCarrol’s electronic score (borrowing heavily from The Social Network ) does most of the heavy lifting as tech-heavy terms like “network interface” and “carrier capacity” are thrown around to land credibility. Baruchel’s Lazarides is a charisma void. He’s someone who would say thank you after being told to fuck off, which happens more than a few times as Balsillie’s ambition starts outgrowing his capabilities. Howerton is brilliantly cast, as he essentially plays his character of Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia , just with a quite obvious bald cap. And then there’s also Johnson as the man-child of the group, who always sees work as an opportunity to have fun. But his idea of fun is not just about slacking off; it’s about creating a family ecosystem that produces new ideas through support and nurturing, something a lot of other tech companies miserably tried to emulate through bureaucracy. Time has not been an ally for the BlackBerry phone, but I believe it will be for this movie. While the other movies in this growing subgenre built themselves largely around the iconography of the brand, Johnson always has his sights set on the people behind the machine, which is what makes this specific story that much more compelling and rewatchable. This review was originally published from a screening at the 2023 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. IFC will release BlackBerry in select theaters on May 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

Road House March 20, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Remaking Road House for modern times doesn't sound like a good idea on paper, with immediate expectations slotting it next to the other misplaced-in-time remakes of Ghost in the Shell and Baywatch . There wasn’t exactly a compelling story to the 1989 original, just Patrick Swayze delivering cans of whoop ass on greasy goons with his black belt in karate. And for a film that made less money than you would think, its cultural footprint has persevered throughout the decades thanks to the funny title, cheesy concept, and, for kids closer to my generation, the frequent Family Guy parodies . Even with the setting being transplanted to the modern day, Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) is still a man stuck in the past. He has no phone, a clunker of a car, and simply drifts from town to town, scraping by through low-end cage fights. For him, it’s harder to fight the rage inside than any opponent. He’s calm and composed, but there’s always a twinge of insanity ready to let loose. “You don’t want to know me,” and “I’m not afraid of him, I’m afraid of what I’ll do,” he says a few times, with brief snapshots of his UFC past (all shot at an actual UFC event) explaining how he fell so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZsLudtfjI Like the idea of remaking the film itself, the casting of Gyllenhaal to take over from Swayze is an odd choice. He’s an actor not exactly known for being relaxed, as evidenced by his previous work in Okja , Nightcrawler , and Velvet Buzzsaw . It’s perhaps a case of the chicken or the egg, with Gyllenhaal being a great piece of casting for this newer take on the character, or his involvement changing the tone. Either way, it works out, with Gyllenhaal’s grounded approach never taking away from the fun. Plus, he’s already had fighting experience with Southpaw , so the producers probably saved a nice chunk of change on training costs. Dalton is hired by Frankie (Jessica Williams) to be the bouncer/enforcer of her family bar called The Road House, just one of several hit-or-miss attempts at some tongue-in-cheek humor by writers Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. It’s located on a beautiful beach in Florida, with the only problem being the infestation of bikers and road ragers. It’s nothing Dalton can’t handle, with his laissez-faire attitude towards kicking the crap out of someone, almost making it more disrespectful. None of these guys was worth his time, which leads him up the food chain toward the head of the richest crime family in the area, Ben Brandt (Billy Magnussen). He’s got some dastardly plan and needs the bar taken out of commission by any means necessary, including kidnapping, murder, and explosions. The further the plot progresses, the less fun Road House becomes. It’s a bit of a bummer that the first fight, where Dalton dismantles five bikers singlehandedly, is by far the film’s best set piece. Even if they are cartoonishly punchable, there is plenty of guilty pleasure in seeing some hooligans get their comeuppance. However, you can’t exactly fill a two-hour movie with your hero facing no resistance, so former UFC champion Conor McGregor has to be introduced as a bruising wildcard. McGregor won’t find himself with a lucrative acting career like former fighters Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista, but he fills his wildcard role enough here to be entertaining. Helming this bare-knuckle brawler is director Doug Liman, who helped revolutionize the action genre in the 2000s with The Bourne Identity and gave Tom Cruise another action vehicle outside of his usual Mission: Impossible films with Edge of Tomorrow . All that prowess quickly goes out the window the longer the fight scenes drag on, with questionable visual effects and camera movements overselling the brutality and undercutting the choreography. Once gasoline explosions and boat jousting get involved, things quickly go all the way overboard. Still, for as many faults as are glaringly apparent, there’s nothing offensive about Road House . I guess that’s what you get when you do a remake of a movie that wasn’t that good to begin with and have it released exclusively on Prime Video. Amazon MGM Studios will release Road House on its streaming service on March 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

Highest 2 Lowest August 15, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Matter cannot be created or destroyed. To receive something, you must be willing to give something up. For record mogul David King (Denzel Washington), a man dubbed to have “the best ears in the business” and a trophy cabinet filled with dozens of Grammys, receiving his golden nest egg after decades of work building an empire may come at the cost of his legacy. The offer from a private equity firm will ensure long-term financial resources for the label, but will also squeeze out every last drop of respectability. That push-and-pull is the most interesting aspect of director Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest , which also happens to involve a central plot about David’s son being kidnapped and held for ransom. Going the same route that Steven Spielberg ventured with his 2021 version of West Side Story , Lee and screenwriter Alan Fox side-step Akira Kurosawa’s legendary 1963 film High and Low to instead readapt the source material that was Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom . It’s a wise move considering that Lee’s previous interaction with a celebrated piece of Asian cinema was his 2013 direct remake of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 South Korean film Oldboy , which ended up being a spectacular failure. The setting has returned home to New York City, a place that only Martin Scorsese could potentially rival Lee as its most loyal cinematic artist. “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” booms as the camera glides across the aerial skyline of the concrete jungle that is our nation’s biggest and most culturally influential city. The opening credits are tinted with the orange and blue color scheme of the New York Knicks. Yankees fans openly yell expletives defaming Boston, and the city’s Puerto Rican population comes alive for a performance by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. King stands upon his Olympic penthouse balcony overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge when he gets an anonymous call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son, Trey (Aubrey Joseph). The $17.5 million ransom would eat up all the liquidity King needs to execute a secret plan to buy enough shares to stave off the sale of his company. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh8yqcozfn8 “There’s more to life than making money,” is something that King says early in the film when his business partner begs him to accept the sale offer. He bemoans that the latter word in the term “show business” has grown exponentially more powerful. One can feel Lee and Washington, marking their fifth collaboration in a partnership spanning over thirty years, personally decrying where the film industry is headed. Tweets about box office results, online debates about profitability, and articles about who’s making the most money illustrate that people are following dollar signs more than the art. And yet, the money always seems to be the most important thing to King in this situation of life and death. In the same sentence where he asks the police how they’ll bring Trey home, he also asks how he’ll get his money back. All money ain’t good money, and this specific bag of money sets off a chain reaction of mayhem. Lee steers a lean and mean machine during the film’s later stretches as King is on the hunt for the perpetrator. The hour it takes to get to that point is much creakier. Lee’s penchant for a big score backfires as Howard Drossin’s intrusive instruments pull away our ears. Fox’s script is littered with rote dialogue, leaving performers like Ilfenesh Hadera as King’s wife to be nothing more than a mouthpiece for the plot. And Matthew Libatique’s digital cinematography (likely done as a business decision due to Apple TV+ housing the film after a brief theatrical run) doesn’t contain any of Lee’s trademark vibrant textures. Washington is still our greatest living actor, endlessly entertaining with a performance that contains the might of King Lear and the lyricism of NLE Choppa. He’s a master of controlling the chaos, something that King reckons with as his usual tight grip is rapidly loosened by external forces. Washington goes toe-to-toe with A$AP Rocky in a battle of bars, the pair each showing a new side to themselves. There’s also Jeffrey Wright nicely balancing weariness and wit as King’s right-hand man, Paul, who’s grateful that he’s been given a second chance after his imprisonment. To have followers, you have to be a leader. Lee is a leader, still doing what he loves through methods only he could pull off, which is what art is all about. He’s still got plenty left in the tank, even as he comes to a point where time comes at a premium price. I’ll follow him up to the highest mountain, and down to the lowest valley. A24 and Apple Original Films will release Highest 2 Lowest in theaters nationwide on August 15th, followed by its streaming premiere on September 05th. More Reviews The Super Mario Galaxy Movie March 31, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Drama April 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Project Hail Mary March 10, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice March 25, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Zack Snyder's Justice League March 25, 2021 By: Button Hunter Friesen What was once an internet pipedream has become a reality. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is finally here in all its bombastic glory. This specific version of Justice League was never meant to happen, and neither was the 2017 theatrically released version. Snyder’s original vision was for this movie to be the third part in his DCEU series, directly following Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice . Snyder left the film in post-production after a devastating family tragedy. Distributor Warner Brothers - not wholly satisfied with the path Snyder was taking - brought in The Avengers director, Joss Whedon, to retool the film into a more light-hearted affair. What was released in theatres contained very little of Snyder’s material and was widely disregarded as a disjointed and forgettable mess. The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement was born immediately, with hundreds of thousands of irate fans demanding that Snyder’s original version be restored. After years of campaigning, Snyder and his fans have been treated with a golden opportunity that looks to right the wrongs of the past. The general plot found within Snyder’s version is nearly identical to the one in the Whedon cut. The evil Steppenwolf, a loyal follower of Darkseid, has come to Earth to claim three mother boxes that wield unlimited power to conquer worlds. Honoring his promise after Superman’s death, Batman assembles a team of superheroes to stop Steppenwolf and unite the planet to defend itself from threats beyond the stars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui37YKQ9AC4 Snyder adopts the Seven Samurai approach to his story as the first half takes an individual look at the members of the team. They each get backstories in varying degrees of quality, with some being more embarrassing than others. The Flash’s introduction will act as a litmus test of your acceptance of Snyder’s excessiveness. Above all else, this version of Justice League is an infinitely more cohesive and enjoyable experience compared to its predecessor. It’s also fun to ponder and discuss with others, unlike the migraines I get every time I think of the Whedon cut. The film looks and feels like a single production, and not a Frankenstein-like mashup of competing ideologies. Gone are all Whedon-directed scenes, and the color saturation levels have been reset to Snyder’s usual palette. The intricacies of the story have been completely retooled, giving characters such as Cyborg and The Flash more characterization and things to do. Superman no longer has his infamous CGI baby mouth. Steppenwolf is less embarrassing as he is visually reworked and supplied with a proper backstory and motivation. Tom Holkenborg’s score and Fabian Wagner’s cinematography are also allowed to flourish on an unparalleled epic scale. Now, these improvements are not to say this is a perfect movie. Stripping away the benefit of comparison, Snyder’s film carries many of the foundational problems that have plagued both of his previous DC films. The newly revised script provides the 5 Ws (and one H) for each story thread, filling in the gaping plot holes present in the Whedon cut. The problem is that a few of these storylines aren’t necessary or that interesting, to begin with. And the writing is still filled with cringeworthy exposition with attempts at humor that don't mesh well with the self-serious tone. Snyder’s insistence on using a 4:3 aspect ratio - more commonly seen in arthouse films - seems to be a decision based more on him being seen as a bona fide auteur rather than just improving the picture quality. At 242 minutes long (yes, that’s four hours), the film requires a gigantic investment from the viewer that isn't fully warranted. Scenes are stretched to the nth degree by incessant slo-mo, and a few deleted scenes that should have been left on the cutting room floor have found their way back here. The nearly thirty-minute epilogue is entirely spent on setting up sequels that are unlikely to ever be made. Its inclusion feels like an attempt by Snyder to rally his troops once again to demand that the story be told his way. No matter how much it drags the story down and erases a lot of the goodwill built up to that point, Snyder’s ideas are much better than anything else being offered at the moment. Even though a much tighter and free-flowing three-hour cut could have been released, there is a complete singular vision here, one that Snyder has carried throughout his DC films. His vision may not always succeed, but it is something to be championed. With many blockbuster films leaning ultra-safe to guarantee box office returns, Snyder’s no-holds-barred style is the answer to Martin Scorsese’s comment on comic book films lacking an authorial voice. For better and for worse, a filmmaker was the driving force for a major franchise, which is more than one can say about the corporate machine attitude over at Marvel. An experience that may never be replicated again, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a mythologically epic film that delivers more than anyone could have imagined. It may not always work, but it sure does pack the punch that fans deserve. If you have the mental and physical ability to invest four hours into this monumental project, I recommend you do so. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max on March 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