I know, another Toy Story sequel? Are they ever going to stop making these? This is a valid question, given how many agree that Toy Story 3 ended the franchise perfectly and offered thoughtful conclusions for the toys many of us grew up repeatedly watching on VHS until the tape wore out. Toy Story 4, while enjoyable, existed only to print money, and many
Read MoreFor some reason, modern audiences are having nostalgia for the Scary Movie franchise. The once-shepherded-by-the-Wayans-Brothers spoof series that parodied contemporary horror cinema had a cult following in the years after its successful release, but none of them were any good. The only ones that were watchable, Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, had David Zucker’s involvement, one of the masters of
Read MoreThe 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
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