Share: With a premise that shares more in common with an erotic thriller from the 90s than your average sports movie, it’s all the more impressive that Luca Guadagnino’s tennis-centered sensual drama is not only endlessly entertaining but among the best releases of an already impressive early 2024. Where “Challengers” succeeds most is in its overall execution. While the story and characters are certainly strong enough to maintain a compelling, if not slightly soapy narrative, the key lies in how these elements are brought to …
Dev Patel fights tooth and nail in bloody brilliant directorial debut
Share: After sitting on Netflix’s shelf for years before producer Jordan Peele took it off their hands and brought the film to the big screen, “Monkey Man” finds Dev Patel rising to the top as an unlikely action hero who holds his own against the “John Wick” franchise. Patel, who broke through at 18 when he starred in Best Picture winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” serves as writer-director-star of “Monkey Man,” a far cry from the dramas he’s known for. In his stark departure, he punches against …
‘May December’ mystifies the melodrama in one of the year’s best movies
Share: Before cancel culture had its torches and pitchforks out for anyone at the center of controversy, there were scandals. Fueled by tabloids and morbid curiosities, nothing made national news quite like an appalling figure that raised uncomfortable questions about what it means to be human. “May December,” the new film directed by Todd Haynes, seeks to scrutinize scandal for all its melodramatic, unholy glory through a pitch-perfect script by Samy Burch. Led by career-best performances from Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, “May December” initially …
CinemaSin’s sinful manipulation of film Twitter
Share: While YouTube has always been a safe haven for opinionated content and critique, channels like “CinemaSins” or “Channel Awesome” have departed from their sarcastic movie critique with a dash of assholery to instead become nothing more than an echo chamber for the most baseless complaints you’ve ever seen. This has had disastrous effects on film Twitter and made any chance for genuine critique drowned out by voices spewing nonsense. “CinemaSins” has been around since late 2012 and has used its sins system to talk …
Everybody scream! ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ returns for 30th anniversary
Share: T’was a long time ago, longer now than it seems, in a place that you’ve probably seen on your screens. This year, Tim Burton’s iconic and dreary “The Nightmare Before Christmas” turns 30 years old. But if even after all this time you still haven’t seen it, I’d say it’s time you get to it. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” originated as a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he worked as an animator for Disney. While it was far away from the fleshed-out …
‘Era’s Tour’ captures the intimate concert experience on the big screen
Share: It’s March of 2023, and life is not great. A slew of personal issues and the fact that I had missed out on tickets to Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated “Eras Tour” had me feeling really bummed. But one day while out with my family I heard the magic words that every Swiftie wanted to hear, “Congratulations! You got tickets to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour!” To say I was ecstatic wouldn’t properly convey everything running through my head. Fast forward to Aug 4, and …
‘Talk to Me’ will grab you and won’t let go
Share: “Talk to Me” is Australian twin brothers’ Danny and Michael Philippou’s first feature film. The brothers have a Youtube channel, RackaRacka, where they revealed that their movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and A24 picked up their film for distribution. Filled with plenty of disturbing scenes that’ll leave you uneasy the whole way through, “Talk to Me” provides a new take on the overused Ouija board cliche with the main characters instead using a haunted hand to get in touch with the other …
‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ break out of their shells in ‘Mutant Mayhem’
Share: Following the recent live action film adaptations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP that were a critical disaster for fans and critics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out of hibernation for the release of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” Fans of the franchise are more than satisfied with the recent release of the animated film that is a refreshing take on the universally loved turtles. As everyone knows, the film’s plot consists of a genetic enhancer, known as ooze, falling down the …
Ghostface revitalizes the slasher sub-genre in ‘Scream VI’
Share: Despite being far and away from the sleepy California town of Woodsboro, the Ghostface killer is back in action in “Scream VI”, and this time, he isn’t playing around. To put it simply, this movie kicks ass. It has something for everyone from the die-hard “Scream” fans to the people just trying to see a sweet horror flick. From the character work to the setting and the kills, everything is put together masterfully. This film picks up, timely, a year after the events of …
‘She Said’: An inspirational film on the story that spurred the #MeToo movement
Share: A single tweet by actor Rose McGowan from 2016, and an article nine months later, written by two New York Times writers, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, about Harvey Weinstein’s history of abuse would launch a gigantic movement, changing the world forever. This story would be recounted in a book written by the pair, and would inform the movie “She Said,” released on November 18, 2022. In the movie the journalist, Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey were played by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan. …