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The Good Liar November 21, 2019 By: Button Hunter Friesen London octogenarian Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) is a career con man, swindling those less fortunate enough to fall into one of his schemes. One day, as part of an online dating scam he occasionally pulls, he meets Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren), a recent widower who turns out to be worth nearly three million pounds. Roy’s plan is simple. He’ll get in close to Betty and gain her trust. Eventually, he’ll set the trap and she’ll fall right in. He’ll take her money and disappear forever to repeat the cycle all over again with someone else. Unfortunately for him, this job isn’t as simple as initially thought. Dark secrets start to reveal themselves, leading to a game of cat and mouse where the role of the cat and the mouse intermittently change between the pair. No longer is Roy playing for money, he’s now playing for his life. Director Bill Condon weaves this thriller with confidence from beginning to end. That confidence does not make him faultless, but it does give the film an extra bit of gravitas that puts it above the usual crowd. The beginning contains a much lighter tone as it introduces our two main characters. But like all good thrillers, the niceties of the two are just a facade to deflect from the tension swelling underneath. Over time the dark material begins to bubble to the surface, eventually bursting out in a climatic fashion. All good classic mystery films have a score that compliments the director’s work. Luckily for Condon, composer Carter Burwell delivers a dignified set of strings. In the moments where Condon over or undersells the material, Burwell’s score is right there to pick up the slack. And in those moments where Condon gets it just right, the music is also right there with him to elevate what’s on-screen. An adaptation of Nicholas Searle’s novel of the same name, the screenplay for The Good Liar by Jeffrey Hatcher can be appropriately labeled as B-level Hitchcockian. With a title like The Good Liar , you can expect a few twists and turns along the way, albeit here they are a little too overt and easy to see. But even though you know a twist is coming, the real mystery is finding out what it is. Admittedly, some of the twists are impossible to predict due to a lack of setup or are oftentimes so ludicrous that they defy any realistic expectations. Fortunately, Hatcher embraces that feeling of throwing care into the wind. He revels in the somewhat trashy storytelling and only tries to make the material more entertaining than believable. It’s not perfect, but it makes for a much more enjoyable watch once you come to terms with the outlandishness of what’s going on By far the biggest attraction for the film is its two main stars, each having a ball in their juicy roles. For eighty years old, Sir Ian McKellen possesses the physicality of someone a little over half his age. His movements, especially within his face, do more to speak for his character than the dialogue. Just by watching you learn more about his character and become increasingly attracted to him. Equally as great as McKellen is Dame Helen Mirren. She’s made it a thing recently to be in more showy roles that demonstrate her skill. So far that strategy has been a good thing because her immense talent has sold many roles that would have been wasted by lesser actresses. Here you can see the delight in Mirren’s delivery as she chews the scene. Her sparring sessions with McKellen are by far the best moments of the film. You know those novels you find in the airport that are a bit dumb and only bought for some time-wasting entertainment? Well, The Good Liar is exactly that for movies. It may be a bit preposterously muddled to pull off its ambitions and isn’t as good as some other films of the same genre, but what it does have are suspenseful thrills led by two legendary actors giving great performances. So even if this airport novel is the ultimately inferior option, it does its job just well enough to leave you satisfied. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A Thousand and One March 30, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Through the grainy filter capturing the hustle and bustle of the streets of Harlem, writer/director A.V. Rockwell, making her feature directorial debut, showcases her skillfulness at creating a lived-in setting for her story. Initially set in the mid-1990s, you see people with beepers, boom boxes, gold chains, and ripped jeans. The World Trade Centers are still standing, signaling how different of an era this was. But not everything has changed since then, with the aggressive “anti-crime” (a code word for racial profiling) politics of former mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg being a consistent threat over the decades. People get stopped for random frisks, neighborhoods become gentrified, and the police presence is always felt. Inez (singer Teyana Taylor) is one of those people living on the fringes of this world. She just got back from an extended stay at Rikers Prison and is in the process of figuring out how to move on. One of the first people she sees from across the street is her sort-of young son, Terry (it’s complicated), who’s been shuffling around foster homes since she left. Inez is a child of the foster care system as well, and she’s a lot of herself within Terry. She knows that he’ll end up just like her if he continues to be stuck on this path. To break the chain, Inez illegally “kidnaps” Terry from his foster home and moves him uptown, giving him a new name, Daryl, and a fake birth certificate in the process. Years eventually go by, with Inez and Terry making the most out of their makeshift situation. But Inez knows this lie will come crashing down once someone starts to wiggle that bottom block. Similar to how she creates the world around her characters, Rockwell has the world push back against them. Inez is always having to fight for what she has, whether it's the landlord’s shady attempts at getting her to leave so he can flip the building or being unable to support herself through a job she cares about like hairstyling. Years and years of that wear on her, with Taylor being a great illustrator of this. Those hardships burrow into Terry as well, with Rockwell taking the Moonlight approach of having three different actors (Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross) play the boy between the ages of six and seventeen. The choice may not work as well compared to what Barry Jenkins did for his Best Picture-winning film, but all three performers here find a connective thread that they weave together. While the influence of Moonlight becomes more heavily evident as A Thousand and One marches on with its slightly overextended 116-minute runtime, none of it feels like a secondhand imitation. Eric K. Yue’s beautiful cinematography and Gary Gunn’s fluttery score give warmth in the most tender moments. The coldness is always present as well, being an aching reminder of how close to the edge these characters live. A Thousand and One tells a story of the past and the future, with each character having to reckon with where they stand in their timeline. Rockwell has delivered an impressive debut, worthy of the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize awarded to her at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Between her career behind the camera and Taylor’s in front of it, there’s an immense amount of talent on the rise. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Heads of State June 27, 2025 By: Button Hunter Friesen Heads of State doesn’t take the positions of the president of the United States or the prime minister of the United Kingdom very seriously, which, considering the current and recent real-life figures who have held those positions, is mostly a replication of how the world currently sees them. US President Will Derringer (John Cena) ascended to the Oval Office through the box office. Modeled after Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was the lead of the ultra-violent, gun-toting action franchise Water Cobra . Those good looks, millions of dollars, and a legion of fans made up for the lack of political experience, which is why he approaches his role as commander in chief like he were in a movie, making brazen speeches that are meant to inspire his constituents and instill fear in his enemies. In contrast to the fresh-faced Derringer, Prime Minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) has been in office for over six years, having spent a few more decades in the lower-level political trenches. He’s all business and no thrills. Every speech is picked over with a fine-tooth comb, every decision is backed with mountains of intelligence, and there’s absolutely no room for sensationalism. By the laws of movies and magnets, we know that these two opposites will eventually attract. The catalyst for their bonding comes when both are on Air Force One. Aided by an unknown traitor on the inside, terrorists shoot down the plane. Everyone on board, including the leaders, is presumed dead. They miraculously survive and now have to work together in order to return to their positions of power and stop these terrorist killers. While watching this, I was repeatedly reminded of the mostly forgotten 1996 comedy My Fellow Americans . In that movie, Jack Lemmon and James Garner play former presidents who hate each other. The current president is Dan Aykroyd, who frames them for a kickback scandal (remember when that actually meant something?!?). Enemies must now become friends, but not without hurling insults and committing slapstick harm to each other. Heads of State is pretty much a remake, even down to the gag about leaping from a moving train. Anything not lifted straight from that movie is plucked from somewhere else. The separating factor is supposed to be the action, a bylaw now for every streaming comedy. But it’s as weightless as the opening scene food fight in a Spanish village. Director Ilya Naishuller doesn’t bring the same kineticism from Hardcore Henry or Nobody , and everything is drenched in cheap special effects. There are flashes of nifty camerawork, most notably in the brief appearance of Jack Quaid as a covert agent who is eager to protect his leaders against hordes of villains. Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paddy Considine, Carla Gugino, and Stephen Root comprise the rest of the cast, each of them going through the motions. Cena and Elba have decent chemistry, with this being a reunion from their bitter rivalry in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad . In a charged political climate such as this, there’s some merit to being able to laugh at and with political satire, even if it’s not that good. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

May December May 25, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen May December had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Netflix will release it in theaters on November 17, followed by its streaming premiere on December 01. Director Todd Haynes’ approach to the material within May December becomes clear immediately. The opening credits arrive accompanied by Michel Legrand's hyper-stylized theme from The Go-Between , harkening back to the pulpy works of Brian De Palma and Old Hollywood melodrama. It’s an immediate disarmament, signaling a lighter attitude toward this true-ish tabloid story of an affair between a thirty-something housewife and her thirteen-year-old co-worker. How could someone find the humor in this situation, you ask? A brief tour of Haynes’ filmography illustrates a filmmaker who has always been fascinated with infiltrating mainstream material with independent ideas. Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There turned the musician biopic on its head, Far from Heaven used Douglas Sirk pastiche to approach 1950s racism, and Carol tells the age-old tale of forbidden love, this time with a queer angle. Even Haynes’ most mainstream film, the legal thriller Dark Waters , subtlely undermines genre clichés with impeccable mise-en-scene. May December is his most playful exercise in tone and expectations, delivering something that is both mature and overtly theatrical. The illegal affair is only the preface to the main story. Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) Atherton-Yoo are still together twenty years after their scandalous romance shocked the world. They live in a Georgia suburban home paid for by their tabloid cover photos. Their youngest children are about to graduate high school, making Joe an empty-nest parent before he’s even the age Gracie was when they met. Despite their attempts to lead a quiet life, the couple is always reminded of how they’re perceived in the public eye, whether it be the infrequent anonymous hatemail or the arrival of actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who’s playing Gracie in a new Lifetime original movie about the romance and is staying with the family to do research. Gracie hopes that the film and Elizabeth’s performance will help reshape the public’s perception of how she and Joe came to be. Elizabeth totally agrees and presents herself as an ally to the couple, at least on the surface. There’s something off about how Elizabeth injects herself into the couple’s lives. She’s inferred to be on a downward trajectory in her career, so maybe the juicy material will put her back in the headlines? Haynes and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt - stepping in for Ed Lachmann, as he was off shooting Pablo Larraín’s El Conde in Chile - always have Elizabeth standing a bit off-center, usually obscured by an object or observed through a mirror. Reflections in both its literal and figurative form are the key to Samy Burch’s screenplay (touched up by Haynes). Gracie, Joe, and Elizabeth all have ideas about what they want out of this, but none of them truly know if they’re willing to mine deep inside of them to get it. There’s an artifice to every interaction, with the truth lurking around the corner. Some of these conversations, filled with jagged edges and heightened stylizations, lean a little too close to slapstick, undermining a bit of the emotional resonance. But those interspersed moments of whimsy are also the best parts as they turn up the heat on the oftentimes room-temperature plot developments. The actors are all game for their roles. Moore and Portman have delicious chemistry in their scenes together, with it never being totally established who is observing and manipulating the other. It’s catty as hell, with Haynes never allowing it to be misogynistic. Charles Melton joins Austin Butler as a CW television veteran who has quickly climbed the Hollywood ladder. It's obvious he’s never fully processed his robbed childhood, leaving him still a kid in an adult body. There’s enough camp within May December that smores might as well be served alongside it. It’s morally ambiguous in its message, but never in its approach. At the very least, the high-drama of it all will allow a new generation of Netflix watchers to be introduced to Haynes’ filmography. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Mother, Couch July 3, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen “It was all very simple, they were looking for a dresser. Blood wouldn’t spill till later.” These words scrawl across an almost Toy Story -esque cloudy background before the camera pans down to your typical furniture store. It’s a foreboding string of words, one that prompts several questions. What’s the significance of the dresser? Why is blood going to be spilled at a furniture store? Who’s blood is it going to be? Writer/director Niclas Larsson wants you to hang on to these questions for dear life throughout his oddball feature debut, one that packs quite a sizable cast consisting of Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Lara Flynn Boyle, F. Murray Abraham, and Ellen Burstyn. Instead of doing as Larsson says, we’re often left scratching our heads and asking “What’s going on?” and “Who cares?” But it is not all lies that Larsson peddles, as there is truth in his first introductory sentence. Things did start very simply, with David (McGregor) and Gruffudd (Ifans) helping their mother (Burstyn) shop for a specific dresser in a now-closing furniture store. David is on the clock as he’s supposed to be helping set up his daughter’s birthday party. And yet this dresser can’t be found, and neither can his mother in this maze of a store. He wants to cut his losses and just leave, but she says she’s not getting up from the couch she’s plopping herself down on. After a few seconds of silence, David starts to realize that she’s deadly serious. Minutes of coaxing turn into hours, in which each passing moment becomes increasingly unhinged. While hidden from the internet and any of the press materials, an exclamation point is added to the title when it flashes on the screen after the opening credits. In addition to being part of the confusion about the punctuation surrounding the title (I’ve seen a clean split between Mother Couch and Mother, Couch ), that extra element at the end creates an undeniable link to Darren Aronofky’s Mother! . Both films hid their true meanings behind metaphors and stand-ins, only for all to be revealed through an extended sequence of batshit insanity. Aronofsky’s work may have been extremely on-the-nose and pointed towards an easy target, but it did always contain a certain level of excitement on both a literal and figurative level. No such thrills exist in Larsson’s film, with endless visual teasing and dialogue exchanges that dance around the central mystery quickly overstaying their welcome. Everyone other than David seems to have a grasp on what’s truly going on, almost as if this is all some elaborate social experiment. The physical space certainly makes it feel that way; the confoundingly laid-out hallways and storage rooms create a maze for these helpless mice to traverse through. If the cast were just as unsure about the material as we are, they hide it well behind their solid performances. McGregor gets to let loose like he has over the past few years on television ( Fargo , Halston ), keeping hold of his Scottish accent and running around like a chicken with its head cut off as Christopher Bear’s Punch-Drunk Love -styled score ratchets up the tension. Taylor Russell’s character seems to only speak in double entendre, and F. Murray Abraham is diabolical plays the twin store owners. All of it’s interesting on paper, with only a very small amount of it translating to the screen. Larsson may have had a lot of confidence in what he was doing, but I’m pretty sure he’s the only one who will get anything out of this. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Hunt November 27, 2022 By: Button Hunter Friesen There are certain things within our mortal world that have been proven to be impossible. You can’t travel faster than the speed of light, nor can you read someone’s mind (all the mutants reading this must feel so smug). There are also the less fun things humans can’t do, such as achieving world peace or not paying taxes. And now I think I’ve stumbled upon a new scientific impossibility: Understanding the plot of Hunt on a first watch. As the directorial debut of newly minted Emmy winner and Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, Hunt is the most serious adaptation of Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy . The Cold War still rages on, with Russia and the United States shifting their political war out of Vietnam and over to Korea. The wounds of the Korean War still sting thirty years later, with both North and South battling each other in a war of paranoia and information. There’s a rumor going around that there is a North Korean mole, codenamed Donglim, within the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). This mole has leaked the plans for several failed past operations and may have access to the itinerary and security details for the president’s upcoming trip around Asia. In order to get to the bottom of this mess, the newly appointed director covertly orders the chiefs of the foreign and domestic security units to investigate the other by any means necessary. Foreign Unit chief Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Domestic Uni chief Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung) have had their differences in the past, such as when Jung-do killed a suspect who had kidnapped Pyong-ho during an assassination attempt on the president. Each of them has a slight suspicion over the other’s loyalty, and this “no red tape” opportunity is just what they need to dig deep and uncover every dirty secret. Unless you have an eidetic memory or a Ph.D. in contemporary Korean history (two things I definitely don't have), making sense of Hunt in the moment is an impossibly difficult mental exercise. As many of us did with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet a few years back, you have to accept the convoluted nature of the whole thing. Double crosses become triple crosses, which then become quadruple crosses, which then become quintuple crosses (I’m not even joking with this). And deciphering the script, co-written by Jo Seung-Hee and Jung-jae, may not be worth the effort, as nearly every plot beat follows the standard spy thriller rulebook. Hunt can’t use the same “don't try to understand it, just feel it” excuse as Tenet , as there isn’t any emotional pull to feel (not that Tenet had a heart either). Fortunately, Jung-jae fills those emotional and logical gaps with enough bullets and bombs to equip a small army. Taking influence from Michael Mann (specifically the street shootout from Heat ) and his fellow countrymen Park Chan-wook, Jung-jae plunges into the action set pieces headfirst with handheld camerawork and propulsive editing. There is not a single dull moment within this spider web, with the characters getting increasingly woven together to chaotic results. If you thought the intricately layered works of John le Carré ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Night Manager ) weren’t complex enough or didn’t have nearly enough frenzied shootouts, then Lee Jung-jae has something for you in Hunt . He treats his debut as if it's the bus in Speed , never letting it go under 55 mph in fear that the nitrate itself will instantaneously combust. Your two options are to accept that situation and ride this bus all the way to its fiery conclusion, or jump off this speeding hunk of metal. You’re going to get hurt either way, it’s just up to you if you want it to be a good or bad type of pain. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Queer September 10, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen Queer had its North American Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on November 27. Desperation and desire go hand-in-hand within Luca Guadagnino’s Queer , an adaptation of the legendary William S. Burroughs’ early short novel. These are qualities that the famed workaholic Italian director has found a knack for expressing, doing so in opposing fashions this year with the stylishly Hollywood-y Challengers and this magnetically opaque hedonistic journey. Everything is presented in its most sensual form through Guadagnino’s eyes and ears, with the destination this time being Mexico in the 1950s. World War II is over and those returning from Europe and the Pacific are looking for a little rest and relaxation. The American public still (and will continue to for decades) looks upon homosexuality as a disease, forcibly creating the neighboring southern country as a haven filled with life’s great pleasures. The streetlights cast beams of heaven down upon the men and women of the night, the bars are always open, and everyone’s thirst is perpetually unquenchable. But Guadagnino and production designer Stefano Baisi don’t stop there, replacing establishing shots with dreamy illustrations filled with miniatures and backdrops that seem much larger and more expressive than they ever could have been. This version of Mexico isn’t being viewed through an objective lens, it’s someone’s reconstruction of a long memory. That memory belongs to William Lee (Daniel Craig), one of those GIs who left America once he got off his Navy boat and never looked back. Donning a sharp outfit and an even sharper tongue, his days consist of bar trips, flirtations with the boys passing through, and consuming what drugs and alcohol he can get his hands on. It’s a fast and cheap lifestyle, one that comes to a halt once he lays eyes on fellow American Gene (Drew Starkey). The youngster arrives on the scene in slow motion and is engulfed by the blaring words of Nirvana’s Come As You Are . You can feel the temperature rising in the room rising just as much as it is within William’s loins, with this introduction being just the first of many moments where the anachronistic soundtrack and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s camera concoct some of the most potently erotic sequences put to celluloid. That dichotomy between the audio and the visuals translates to William and Gene’s relationship, with the former trying to play younger and the latter containing much more maturity than his fresh face lets on. They have a unique honesty with each other, which Guadagnino transfers to the bedroom with as much raw authenticity as he had with Call Me by Your Name and last year’s All of Us Strangers . Craig is at his most appealingly charming here, mixing the sexual power of James Bond and the eccentricities of Benoit Blanc. He sees what he is through the mirror that is Starkey’s performance, the enigmaticness of Gene being his most appealing and perplexing quality. Burroughs’ novel was published in its unfinished form, something that Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes emulate within their project, even down to the literal runtime, which has been the subject of much scrutiny as it kept getting whittled down since its announcement. A question came to Guadagino during the North American premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival asking if the initial three-hour cut would ever see the light of day. The director shyly laughed and said that this was the film that he made, the hesitation in his voice almost signaling that he has as much desire to share his undiluted version as much as audiences want to consume it. The current 135-minute version is a shaggy mini-beast, hypnotically blending reality and dreams as it traverses from the urban hustle to the isolated jungles. Comparisons to Bardo may be appropriate in terms of trying to understand the imagery and intention behind each scene. There are moments when everything is frustratingly translucent, just escaping your grasp no matter how hard you try to grab ahold of it. But even in its haziness, there’s an alluring power that prevents your ignorance from clouding the enjoyment. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Brutalist September 7, 2024 By: Button Hunter Friesen The Brutalist had its North American Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on December 20. The more that The Brutalist progresses along its 215-minute track, the more it becomes evident that co-writer/director Brady Corbet sees himself in his protagonist, László Toth (Adrien Brody), the overlooked genius who seeks to reform modern architecture away from its ugly preconceptions and must put himself through the wringer to prove the doubters. A later scene sees Toth introducing the design for his wildly ambitious project, a sort of shrine to a capitalist’s deceased mother. It’s going to house a worship center, gymnasium, library, auditorium, and several pathways lined with marble and concrete. There’s never been anything like it, which is why, while curious and attracted to the ambition, the investors are trepidatious about its feasibility. One could imagine Corbet employing the persuasiveness of Toth’s design and vision in the pitch meetings for the film as a whole. With a runtime eclipsing that of any American feature in decades, photography in VistaVision that is projected in some combination of 70mm (Note: The projection I saw at the press and industry screening at the Toronto International Film Festival was in 35mm), an overture, an intermission, and an epilogue, nothing about The Brutalist screams commerciality. But like Toth and his monument, every dollar that Corbet’s behemoth sacrifices at the box office will be used to better the art form. The only currency that matters in cinema is the experience you carry with you long after the viewing. Such a grandiose production must also house a grandiose story, with Corbet and his often co-writer and partner Mona Fastvold saddling themselves with nothing less than weaving a rich tapestry of the modern American experience. In a nearly identical vein to what has made Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films filled with eternal beauty, Corbet identifies that the truest Americans were those carried by steamship through Ellis Island. Toth snakes his way through the bowels of the ship, the foreboding score and canted angle of the Statue of Liberty signifying the joys and dangers of what’s to come in his new life. Loneliness is his most potent quality, as his wife (Felicity Jones) and niece (Raffey Cassidy) are still trapped in post-WWII Eastern Europe. The American Dream is more about the freedom to assimilate than the freedom to be yourself, which is why Toth’s successful Philadpehian cousin (Alessandro Nivola) has westernized his last name to Miller, married a Catholic girl, and reluctantly talks about their upbringing in the Old World. Toth can’t blend in so easily, with his features (an in-joke is made about Toth’s nose being broken) and accent too recognizable. Collaboration, conflict, and compromise are the tools to his success, each made all the more possible with the financial backing of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). It doesn’t matter if his interest in Toth’s work is genuine or just a temporary distraction to amuse himself with. His money is very real , and so are his ambitions for Toth. He parades him around his socialite friends at his swanky gatherings, using Toth’s struggles as conversation starters. With his previous two features, Corbet has trained his sights on the costs of being someone and creating something. While the deal Toth makes is not as literally Faustian as it is in Vox Lux , he does have to tear pieces of himself away for the project. Brody is tremendous, reaching a new dramatic height after years of only gaining notice within the whimsically stacked casts of Wes Anderson. The comparisons to his work in The Pianist , both in terms of what’s on the screen and how it be rewarded, are appropriate. He buries himself within his work, with his creation destined to become his salvation. What Corbet is crafting is just as alluring, with Lol Crawley’s cinematography ranging from hauntingly claustrophobic to sweepingly beautiful. Even in the gloomy Pennsylvania countryside, a place where the frost tinges the corners of the frame, he and production designer Judy Becker make those slabs of steel and concrete pour out with Toth’s soul. With the added time, each scene flows with more freedom and weight, all of them simultaneously epic and intimate as the camera glacially passes through the years. This is a full-course cinema meal, requiring an afternoon to consume and much longer to digest. It’s easy to savor every moment of it in real-time because of its boundless beauty, and just as easy over time thanks to its long lingering themes on the ideals that modern America convinced itself it was built upon. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Asteroid City June 12, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Asteroid City had its World Premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on June 13. By far the strangest movie in his eclectic filmography, Asteroid City is Wes Anderson’s return to America in over a decade, having spent time in fictional Eastern Europe for The Grand Budapest Hotel , Japan for Isle of Dogs , and well… France for The French Dispatch . The fanciful writer/director takes us into the scenic deserts of the 1950s American southwest, specifically the titular sleepy tourist town that serves as the meeting point for all of the eccentric characters. The half-built town, complete with the stereotypical bar-stool diner and motel, is the destination for those attending the annual Junior Stargazer / Space Cadet convention. It’s a place where the best, brightest, and most awkward kids in America show off their new inventions, including a jetpack, raygun, and overhead projector for the moon, which, in one of many hilarious throwaway lines, is said to have huge potential in the future of interstellar advertising. Arriving in a putter under the beaming sun is Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer with a genius son and young triplet girls. This event is only a brief stop on his way to see his father-in-law (Tom Hanks, proving as always to be a wonderful addition to any cast), who’s the only other person that knows of Augie’s wife’s recent demise. Also in attendance is a group of other precocious children and their host of parents (Scarlett Johannson, Liev Schreiber, Steve Park, Hope Davis, etc.) Eventually, this event designed to look up at the stars comes in contact with something from there, which reshapes how our characters interact with each other and themselves. As I said in the opening sentence, this is Anderson’s weirdest movie to date, always keeping your eyebrow in a raised position. To avoid spoiling events beyond what is shown in the trailer, I’ll only mention that Anderson’s screenplay (written in conjunction with his usual partner Roman Coppola) emulates a certain Christopher Nolan movie that has to do with dreams. How else are you going to be able to fit in all the names within this all-star cast, including regular players Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum? The term “this is the most Wes Anderson movie Wes Anderon has ever made” has been used to describe nearly every new entry in his filmography. That cycle doesn’t stop with Asteroid City , as the traits you’ve come to love (or hate) are all here: symmetrical framing, varying aspect ratios, color and black & white cinematography, and steady camera movements. Anderson’s usual designer Adam Stockhausen once again creates a doll-house world filled with too many sights and sounds to be absorbed in one viewing. Sure, there may now be umpteen TikTok and A.I. generated videos replicating Anderon’s distinct style, but all of them contain just the window dressing of a Wes Anderson movie, and not the emotion. Just as his box of tricks has constantly evolved, so has Anderson’s ability to find the heart in his richly defined characters. While on their methodically placed tracks, each character veers off in different directions, exploring the fear of death, finding connections in a barren land, cutting through the messiness of life, and paying homage to those kitschy B-movies you grew up watching late at night on the public access channel. At this point in his filmography, you’ve probably made up your mind about Wes Anderson. I’m somewhat of an apologist, with those instantly recognizable production qualities and whimsical tones being music to my ears (and eyes). Asteroid City is another healthy dose of what I’m come to love, with the bonus of seeing an auteur continue to find new ways to channel what they do best. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 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 Reynold’s 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. 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 there’s no problem in the MCU that 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 stops 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 neverending 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! More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

We Live in Time September 8, 2024 By: Button Tyler Banark We Live in Time had its World Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. A24 will release it in theaters on October 11. 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 becomes 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. 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 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 there the two were. The end 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 each and 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. You can follow Tyler and hear more of his thoughts on Twitter , Instagram , and Letterboxd . More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Dumb Money September 9, 2023 By: Button Hunter Friesen Dumb Money had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures will release it in limited theaters on September 15, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 06. The Big Short , Vice , and Don’t Look Up writer/director Adam McKay has been accused by his detractors of thinking his audience is stupid, talking down to them through flashy celebrity cameos and on-the-nose dialogue. It’s not an incorrect opinion, but McKay has still always provided a compelling argument within his theses, with The Big Short offering a sobering retelling of the housing crisis. Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money , premiering at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, REALLY wants to be The Big Short for Gen-Z, taking down the 1%ers who run Wall Street and rig it against the little guy. But this David vs. Goliath story doesn’t have the necessary charm or smarts to be as deadly as it thinks it is. “Hold the line!,” “Diamond hands!,” “Apes together strong,” and “I just like the stock,” were phrases that became popularized during the pandemic as the GameStop short squeeze rocked not just the financial industry, but the psyche of the American public. It all started on r/wallstreetbets, an internet forum famous for its memes and overly passionate members. Their prophet was Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a mild-mannered Massachusetts financial advisor who goes by “Roaring Kitty” because of his penchant use of cats in his live streams. He’s bullish on the GameStop (GME) stock, thinking that’s it undervalued and that all the hedge fund managers are fools to be in a short position. He seems crazy, but he has the numbers and quirkiness to attract other followers, including debt-ridden nurse Jenny (America Ferrera), GameStop employee Marcus (Anthony Ramos), and college students Riri (Myha'la Herrold) and Harmony (Talia Ryder). “If he’s in, I’m in” is what they all say, creating a surge in the stock price as more and more people jump on. Most of these traders were referred to as “dumb money” by the hedge funds and media. They’re just retail traders who always think they can beat the market but end up giving their money away to the big fish. Writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, adapting the novel “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, have compassion for these small fries. They’ve all been pushed down their whole lives, and the time is now to stand together. Unfortunately, none of these characters are that compelling outside of Keith, which largely stems from Dano’s charismatic commitment to playing the intellectual fool. They end up being a generic group, with little to separate themselves. The same goes for the villainous billionaires played by Seth Roge, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Nick Offerman. They’re caricatures of unearned wealth, another in a quickly tiring line found in Triangle of Sadness and Glass Onion last year. Gillespie continues his high-energy antics from I, Tonya (also premiering in Toronto in 2017) and Cruella , zipping the editing around this overstuffed cast. It keeps the film on its toes and the 100-minute runtime breezy, but it also keeps the details to a minimum. The exact (or even simplified) machinations of the short squeeze are given little attention, replaced by bright lights and a flurry of newsreel clips. Just like the memes that inspired the movement, Dumb Money is fun in the moment, but has little to no substance underneath the surface. If you’re looking for entertainment, you get just enough of it to make this worthwhile. If you’re looking to be educated on this event, I’d recommend literally anything else. More Reviews Wicked: For Good November 19, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Rental Family September 7, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Jay Kelly November 20, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Train Dreams November 21, 2025 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen