[the following review is spoiler-free] For the past few weeks, one title has been downright inescapable in public life. From bus benches to billboards to blimps, the bright orange advertisements of A24 and Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme have decorated cities across America, making sure absolutely nobody forgot that Timotheé Chalamet was leading a new project and that it was coming out on Christmas Day. So far it seems like all of this extremely heavy marketing has been money w

[The following review contains spoilers] Director, Tatsuya Yoshihara’s Chainsaw Man: The Movie—Reze Arc ripped its way into theaters this November to near-universal acclaim. This highly anticipated film, based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s groundbreaking manga and MAPPA studio's 2022 anime adaptation, more than delivers on its promise of emotional intensity and narrative depth. Packing an entire story arc into a tight hour and forty minutes, the movie is anything but rushed. Its pa

[the following review is spoiler-free] The saying “never bet against James Cameron” has become even more popularized over the last few years since The Way of Water ’s release. The “Avatar has no cultural impact” people certainly lost the war with that film since it still grossed well over 2 billion dollars. I fully went into Fire and Ash  with the expectation that was set up by the filmmakers that this was going to be a bold, emotional, and often challenging new direction.

One of the breakout hits of this year’s Cannes Film Festival came from Harris Dickinson, star of the Palme d’Or winning Triangle of Sadness . After a strong run of starring roles in The Iron Claw and Babygirl , Dickinson made his directorial debut, this past May with Urchin . But is this the start of a promising directing career, or just another example of a Hollywood actor believing they can do everything? Urchin is a slice-of-life drama about Michael (Frank Dillane), a you

Back in 2019, legendary filmmaker, Martin Scorsese came under public fire for his disdain of modern blockbuster movies, specifically those from Marvel studios. He critiqued them by likening them to "theme park rides" rather than genuine cinema. Millions were outraged at these claims, but as the years go on, I find myself reluctantly agreeing more and more with Scorsese's personal gripes. Speaking of blockbusters, this past weekend saw the release of Blumhouse's newest horror

[the following review is spoiler-free] If you are a parent to any young children, there's a good chance you've been dragged to your local movie theater this past week to see Disney's newest feature: Zootopia 2 . And if you're someone who stays up to date with the film world, you're probably aware of the fact that the movie has already grossed half a billion dollars in less than a week, making it on track to be one of the highest grossing films of all time. Putting other titl

There’s been quite a bit of warranted chatter about whether the 2020's have contributed a net positive or a net negative to the film industry. We could probably have that conversation all day until the end of time, and still never find a concrete answer. But, there does seem to be at least one unifying truth to the positive side: the Brendan Fraser renaissance. Since his powerhouse, Oscar-winning performance in the Darren Aronofsky's The Whale , he has been full speed ahead o

I know that some people have their personal gripes with the current era of filmmakers and stars making slightly self-indulgent meditation films on their collective careers, but I’ve found nearly all of them so far to be my cup of tea. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s taken Noah Baumbach this long to jump on the train. He’s no stranger to making movies that help him reckon with his past and legacy, however with Jay Kelly , starring the very similar sounding name of George Clooney,

Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless , the film credited for kicking off the French New Wave, is one of the most legendary cyphers in film history, credited mostly to its paradoxical legibility. Here is a film that’s been picked apart and theorized to death and back in an attempt to understand its allure, yet it seems to wear itself inside out. Everything Breathless is doing is loud and obvious, intentionally blown up to gigantic proportions by Godard. The technique, the influences,

[the following review is spoiler-free] Back in 2003, the world was rocked by a new Broadway musical based on The Wizard of Oz . Stephen Schwartz's Wicked might not have won the Tony that year, but it has been playing on the great white way for over two decades and remains an American cultural mainstay. After years of painstaking development, the highly anticipated film adaptation was released last Thanksgiving. Wicked: Part 1 covered the musical's first act, becoming both

One of the most talked-about films at this year's Cannes Film Festival was Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love . It marked the return of one of the industry's most beloved female directors, telling a story that only a woman could. Audiences throughout the festival raved about the raw, emotional script and the lead performances by Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. The film was soon purchased by distributor, Mubi for $24 million. Expectations were ramping up fast, and they were th

On May 16th, 2024, at the Cannes Film Festival, audiences waited with baited breath for the premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's epic sci-fi feature: Megalopolis . A film that had been in production for nearly half a century, Megalopolis was one of the most ambitious cinematic projects of all time and marked the return of arguably the most revered director in the world. With a generation-spanning, star-studded cast, a gargantuan budget, and a script forty years in the making,

[the following review is spoiler-free] My relationship with Edgar Wright has unfortunately soured just a tad in recent years. I grew up on the first two films in the famous Cornetto Trilogy, and when Baby Driver  came out it was the coolest movie of all time as far as my 14 year old self was concerned. However, upon revisiting his filmography these past few weeks, my most general complaint that I can lodge towards his work is that it often seems like he loves his favorite m

For the past decade, A24 has made a name for itself as a studio that takes risks, celebrates creativity, and produces some of the best original scripts out there. This past year has done nothing to disprove that reputation, with great films like Materialists, Bring Her Back, Friendship, and many more hitting theaters. Among this slate was the TIFF and Chicago Film Festival darling, David Freyne's Eternity , a fantasy romcom about the afterlife, sure to make you cry from bot

I don’t have any stakes in the game when it comes to the Predator  franchise. I went through a bit of an Alien phase as a kid, but aside from that my investment in this now almost fully integrated series is next to none. I enjoyed Prey quite a bit, as it actually felt like a new idea, and I didn’t see Killer of Killers , so needless to say I don’t really care about Predator. So when I went to my early screening of Predator: Badlands last night that was packed with influencers

There is a part of me that is ashamed to admit that The Mastermind  was my introduction to Kelly Reichardt. Her past couple of films just happened to be released at inopportune times for me, I missed out on seeing them, and they’ve fallen to the wayside. Fom what I’ve heard about her style, her films sound exactly like my cup of tea, and when it comes to The Mastermind , I thought the same thing was in store. A deconstruction of the heist film starring Josh O’Connor in a 1970

Adapting the life of a real person for the screen is no easy feat, especially when your subject is living legend, Bruce Springsteen. But this was the tall order given to director, Scott Cooper for the new biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White. Needless to say expectations were astronomically high for the cast and crew of this film, but in the end, is the new Bruce Springsteen biopic anything to write home about? Bruce Springsteen is a fi

I can totally understand why someone may at first glance brush off Luca Guadagnino's After The Hunt,  or even find it insufferable. From the moment the trailer dropped, it was rife with odd camera angles, actors reading pretentious dialogue, and a literal ticking clock of a score that feels like it should be in the new Blumhouse horror flick. Considering that I saw the film much later than everybody else did, I was fully expecting to be just as, if not more annoyed by the who

[the following review is spoiler-free] For the past nearly two decades, Aziz Ansari has been a prominent figure in TV, Film, and stand-up comedy. From Parks and Recreation to Master of None , Ansari has proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of acting and writing, but this month he expanded his resume by releasing his feature directorial debut, Good Fortune , which he also wrote and produced. Starring Seth Rogan and Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, and Sandra

One of the best things about the Chicago International Film Festival, aside from the fact that it’s essentially held in my backyard, is that it more often than not has a lineup that overlaps heavily with TIFF. It gives me a really great security blanket to prioritize some of the films that couldn’t squeeze into my Toronto schedule. One of the biggest misses for me this year at TIFF was Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams . This film without a doubt takes my top choice of films I saw