The path from documentarian to fiction filmmaker isn’t as smooth as one thinks (see, as a recent example, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Nyad), but Daniel Roher makes it look easy with the incredibly controlled Tuner. From winning an Academy Award in 2023 for his portrait of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny to making a documentary that attempts to
Read MoreJohn Carney can’t necessarily be described as “one-trick pony,” even if he makes virtually the same film over and over again. The Irish filmmaker has carved a niche in music-driven dramedies ever since 2007’s Once. That niche became mainstream following his best film, Sing Street, which is widely regarded as one of 2016’s best. If you think he’s run out of
Read MoreIt would be fair to say that the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) hasn’t had a particularly great run ever since the release of Ruben Fleischer’s Venom. Apart from those trilogy’s box-office successes, each live-action installment (the Spider-Verse films are innocent) was critically and commercially reviled and became the subject of ironic memes rather than actual fan engagement. J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter might have killed
Read MoreIt would be futile for me to give you a succinct plot summary of Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. The movie is the rapper-turned-filmmaker’s sophomore effort in the world of cinema following Sorry to Bother You and, most recently, a digression inside the world of television with the limited series I’m a Virgo. It would also be futile for me to
Read MoreFour years after the release of Beast, it might be logical for Icelandic genre filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur to eventually direct a film with the title Apex in it. That said, no apex predators are found in this two-hander survival thriller between a hunter and the hunted. Such a simple premise as the one found in Kormákur’s latest should exalt tangible thrills,
Read MoreIf you were disappointed by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, look no further than Exit 8, a video game adaptation that actively respects fans of the original source material. Writer/director Genki Kawamura develops a visual language that’s very much in line with the atmospheric experience of playing Kotake Create’s mind-bending walking simulator. In fact, Kawamura is more concerned with the atmospheric
Read MoreIt is extremely difficult to talk about Kristoffer Borgli’s latest movie, The Drama, without mentioning the big twist that looms large regarding Charlie (Robert Pattinson) and Emma’s (Zendaya) union. What starts as a carefree, dynamic romantic comedy morphs into something else entirely… fifteen minutes after an opening montage that distills a picture-perfect marriage proposal between Charlie and Emma. The former is
Read MoreThose who expected another Raw or Titane may be disappointed while watching Julia Ducournau’s latest movie, Alpha. This film takes a more subdued approach than the character-centric insanity pieces that immediately propelled the French filmmaker to critical acclaim. With only three features under her belt, Ducournau has already established herself as one of the most compelling genre artists working today. Especially
Read MoreFor a long time, I’ve asked myself the following question: Have I aged out of Pixar, or has Pixar lost its magic? With Daniel Chong’s Hoppers, we finally have an answer to this question. It was the latter. In a post-Incredibles 2 era, only Turning Red felt like the masterpieces the animation studio consistently released and pushed the medium forward in
Read MoreI was fully expecting to hate Patrick Hughes’ War Machine while watching it. Another Netflix piece of content that essentially amalgamates known films into one another and tries to pass it off as an “original film”? What could go wrong? For the first twenty minutes or so, a compact montage that distills the backstory of Staff Sergeant 81 (Alan Ritchson) as
Read MoreMany might not know that John Patton Ford’s latest film, How to Make a Killing, is loosely based on Robert Hamer’s 1949 classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. The 1949 film was adapted from Roy Horniman’s Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal. If you’ve seen Hamer’s film, chances are you’ve seen Patton Ford’s reinterpretation. It sadly doesn’t do much to
Read MoreNirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is Matt Johnson’s continuation of the television series of the same name, which follows the fictitious antics of Johnson and his best friend Jay McCarrol as they attempt (and fail) to book a show at The Rivoli, as if the Toronto-based café was as complex to book as Madison Square Garden. Before propelling into the
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