★★★★ I can hear the Oscars introduction already: a cheesy misadventure featuring accidental deaths, sex-positive messages of female empowerment, and steel legs that ricochet bullets—this is Mafia Mamma. All joking aside, while Mafia Mamma will not win any awards, this comedy is worth its weight in severed fingers for the amount of fun I had … Continue reading Film Review: Mafia Mamma
Film Review: How to Blow Up a Pipeline
★★ Heist films and television are some of my favorites to watch, mainly because if genuinely well-executed, they are pulse-pounding and suspenseful. Peak television has gifted viewers with enthralling heists as featured in hits Breaking Bad, Animal Kingdom, and Mr. Robot, whilst cinematically, modern-day gems that include American Animals, Inception, and Baby Driver subvert expectations … Continue reading Film Review: How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Film Review: Boston Strangler
★★★ Who doesn’t love a good true crime story? Writer/director Matt Ruskin certainly adheres to the formula in Boston Strangler, based on the true proceedings. More than anything else, this thrilling drama exposes the truth behind the phantom specter that haunted the streets of Massachusetts as the body count of murdered women continued to rise. … Continue reading Film Review: Boston Strangler
Film Review: Sharper
★★★★ There has been no shortage of excellent thrillers in recent years, so each time a new one is releasing, it is almost like being a kid in a candy store with too many options. How can one filter out the rotted garbage from the premium goods? Certainly, any film boasting an ensemble cast this … Continue reading Film Review: Sharper
TV Review: Hunters – Season 2
Far back in the bowels of 2020, the first season of Hunters emerged from virtually out of nowhere. Amazon Prime’s crowning action/thriller/drama, the series depicted a sort of “what if” scenario involving hunting down Nazis, and the rise of a so-called Fourth Reich. In August of that same year, the show was renewed for a … Continue reading TV Review: Hunters – Season 2
Film Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
★★★★★ Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is a standout amongst the rest of his filmography. An easily franchise-able murder-mystery in the style of Agatha Christie and the old-school whodunnit, Knives Out is unique in that it can carry over Daniel Craig’s bumbling genius of a detective Benoit Blanc into any given scenario. This time around, gone … Continue reading Film Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Film Review: Enola Holmes 2
★★★★ 2020’s Enola Holmes holds a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons. My late mother recommended it to me several times over—though I did not get to view it for the first time until after her passing in November, I fell in love with its depiction of a young investigator living … Continue reading Film Review: Enola Holmes 2
Film Review: The Good Nurse
★★★ Based on a true story, The Good Nurse serves as an acting masterclass from two Oscar-winners in Jessica Chastain (It Chapter Two, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). While the film’s mystery elements work pretty well, the choreographing of each aspect … Continue reading Film Review: The Good Nurse
TIFF 2022: Holy Spider
★★ (Written by Sean Boelman, disappointment media) Swedish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s last film, Border, was released to great acclaim, so his newest movie, Holy Spider was one of the most anticipated films of Cannes when it debuted earlier this year. However, this uneven procedural thriller doesn’t live up to expectations, becoming one of the biggest … Continue reading TIFF 2022: Holy Spider
Film Review: See How They Run
★★★★ If Wes Anderson helmed a throwback murder mystery whodunnit, it would probably look something like Tom George’s wickedly fun See How They Run. Like the best in the genre, it features a soaring ensemble cast that savagely devours even the smallest line of dialogue to cast villainous, shadowy doubt on their established characters. In … Continue reading Film Review: See How They Run