One of the best films of the year, unquestionably, is the new thought-provoking star-studded drama, Nine Days. Will (Winston Duke) is a recruiter for the special gift of life, and now he must find a soul (Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, Zazie Beetz, and more) to fill the newest vacant slot. He tests the candidates in … Continue reading Interview: Nine Days Screenwriter/Director Edson Oda
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Film Review: Masquerade
★★★ Judging by the name Masquerade in the title and the general logline, I didn’t think I would be too far off from my general assumptions. I thought I was about to watch a fun and thrilling horror movie about masked invaders intruding on a big masquerade party. Instead, the film portrays a horror-movie-obsessed young … Continue reading Film Review: Masquerade
Film Review: The Exchange
★★★ The Exchange leans much harder into the comedy than the drama, but that doesn’t stop it from occasionally delving into deeper issues, particularly prejudices based on skin color and the difficulties of being a foreigner. Set in Hobart Ontario “Godforsaken Canada” in 1986, a town whose mascot is a white squirrel of all things, … Continue reading Film Review: The Exchange
Film Review: Ride the Eagle
★★★★ If Jake Johnson smoking weed and playing with his dog in the woods sounds like your idea of a good time, boy have I got a surprise for you! Ride the Eagle, which Johnson also co-wrote and co-produced with director Trent O’Connell, is a note-perfect dramedy that, for me, doubles as perfect catharsis. Having … Continue reading Film Review: Ride the Eagle
Film Review: Stillwater
★★★★ (Written by Allison Brown) Stillwater, a town in Oklahoma, serves as the locale of origin, as well as a key device in the climax, for this aptly titled movie from Focus Features. Written and directed by Tom McCarthy, the film offers up Bill Baker (Matt Damon) as an all-American, southern caricature (fitted with the … Continue reading Film Review: Stillwater
Cannes 2021: Bloody Oranges
Bloody Oranges is a strange and convoluted disaster that haphazardly sketches out multiple threads without tying them together. The French film from director Jean-Christophe Meurisse is fast-moving and dialogue-heavy. The tone, more confused than assured, is too chaotic and nonsensical to work. I think people will be surprised at not only the blatant disregard to … Continue reading Cannes 2021: Bloody Oranges
Cannes 2021: Bergman Island
★★★ Bergman Island features a movie-within-a-movie and makes a fatal error: the fake film is way more interesting than Bergman Island itself. This makes the whole affair feel incredibly uneven. It had me wishing that either the real life and script worlds were reversed, or that it was simply a straightforward portrayal of one or … Continue reading Cannes 2021: Bergman Island
Cannes 2021: Annette
★★★ The award for weirdest musical of the year goes to… Annette! Opening with a message imploring the audience to “keep silent and hold your breath till the end of the show”, Annette then busts out into a full-on throwback musical number entitled “May We Start.” That this sequence is the high point of the … Continue reading Cannes 2021: Annette
Film Review: The Last Letter From Your Lover
★★★ As soon as Netflix’s new romance, The Last Letter From Your Lover, begins with a pretentious Ernest Hemmingway quote, a red flag is raised. From here, things only get worse, as director Augustine Frizzell attempts to cross-stitch two different time periods as if crafting Netflix’s version of The Notebook. The biggest issue is that … Continue reading Film Review: The Last Letter From Your Lover
Film Review: Old
★★★★ Love him or hate him, M. Night Shyamalan is one of the signature filmmaking voices of our time. With his newest movie, Old, Shyamalan returns to the feel of his older films like Signs, while carving out an exciting and original niche in the thriller genre. Working with perhaps the largest cast he has … Continue reading Film Review: Old