As a Canadian, I live close enough to the United States that I feel somewhat invested in what happens there, given how similar our cultures are. But I also don’t feel the sort of dread that would come with something like this happening in my backyard. I’m able to dissociate and view a theoretical conflict from a remove. Maybe that’s why American reactions to Civil War are as polarized as the events in the movie itself.
Read MoreThe fact that I still had a good time in the newest movie based on the tabletop game - without much of the context - suggests that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves succeeds on its own merits. It doesn’t require total immersion in the lore, and that’s more than you can say about a lot of geeky series these days.
Read MoreWhat Ruben desperately wants is a fix to his hearing loss - not unlike the other kind of fix he used to depend on. The grief he feels for the life he’s lost comes in waves. But in an echo of his past efforts to get clean, Ruben gradually adjusts to the strictures of the program and makes new friends. Unfortunately, he also offsets his progress…
Read MoreAs good as the cast and the script are - setting aside how you feel about Oldman, 62, playing a 43-year-old - the setting and Fincher’s self-indulgent flourishes still make me hesitate before recommending it to everyone. If you’re a ride-or-die Fincher fan, or a committed listener of a film history podcast like You Must Remember This, climb aboard.
Read MoreThankfully, there’s no hammer-over-the-head moment that blasts what the four buddies have done, but their overindulgence does extract a fairly heavy cost. Credit goes to Vinterberg, who finds the right balance in showing how drinking can reduce barriers and bring people together, but also how much destruction it can cause.
Read MoreEven though John and Willis have a big cathartic fight that leads to an emotional embrace, it doesn’t feel like there’s a higher level of understanding between the two characters to be attained. Mortensen the director is reaching for this one moment where a strained father-son relationship could be understood, but that moment never quite comes.
Read MoreThere are various moments throughout the film where I was left scratching my head, to the point where I wasn’t quite sure how to tie everything together for this review. But I kept coming back to these five main points where the film either missed the mark or left me absolutely bewildered.
Read MoreSome credit has to be given to the filmmakers for the constraints they worked under: tight spaces, entry-level equipment, stringent health and safety protocols. But most of the stories still feel overly rushed, with unconvincing characters and scenarios that don’t rise beyond what’s been posted on platforms like TikTok or Twitter during this time.
Read MoreDirector Massoud Bakhshi felt it necessary to introduce several twists to the story, and it’s debatable if it added any more tension or identity to the characters. Did we really need further explanation why Mona had such a vested interest in her father’s empire? Did we really need that twist to further root for Maryam?
Read MoreIt’s clear that Fong is unhappy with Edward, and Edward is similarly unmotivated in making any changes to their lives, but there’s little recourse either way because they have little financial and political means to drastically change their futures. Rather than watching the characters meander around the streets of Hong Kong, Edward and Fong’s cramped apartment forces them to confront their problems.
Read MoreIt’s the movie’s sound design and editing that makes you take notice; to try to replicate how autistic people process the world, amplifying and fixating on certain details, the filmmakers use extreme close-ups and precise, overwhelming sound mixing. The real experience of autism may well remain beyond what movies can convey, but this is the closest I’ve seen any project come.
Read MoreGarrett’s troubles increase with the arrival of two enemies: the Japanese air force, and a thoroughly supernatural addition, a gremlin. Yes, perhaps I forgot to mention: Shadow in the Cloud is also a creature feature. In an homage to the 1963 Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, starring William Shatner, Garrett is plagued by a bat/monkey-like creature that’s trying to tear the plane apart in mid-air.
Read MoreLike either of the two previous movies, the more you think about the details of the time travel, the less sense it makes. This is, after all, the series where characters randomly exclaim “Station!” as a catchphrase, an incredibly dense in-joke from a deleted chunk of the second movie’s screenplay. Somehow, the movie doesn’t need a trim, rules-bound universe - it gets by on sight gags and performances alone.
Read MoreEnvisioned as a haunted house psychological thriller-horror — and those elements are certainly quite good, there just isn’t enough of it — no character embodies the main antagonist. The idea that mutants are a danger to themselves and society is interpreted literally in this film. X-Men is supposed to be a reflection of what it’s to be like an outsider, but when the film traps all five mutants in one location without outside contact, they aren’t given a chance to show why they’re ostracized.
Read MoreWith Tenet, Nolan presents his most brain-liquifying examination of time yet, “inversion”. In his earlier movies, Nolan’s playing around with time was wild but still largely comprehensible on first viewing. In the nested dream worlds of Inception, it’s easy to grasp how time slows down the deeper in the dream you travel. But in Tenet, the physics are so surreal we might as well be sipping coffee in the Black Lodge on Twin Peaks.
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