by Rebecca Shinn
There is nothing like enjoying a cozy night of holiday movies with someone you cherish. During the lockdown, it is a very welcome choice indeed. Staying in and having a safe but entertaining time is all the more important nowadays. We will give you a list of the most loved holiday movies so you won't run out of great options to watch.
Read Moreby Lafronda Stumn
As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
Read MoreBack in May, I joined Mike Crowley’s You’ll Probably Agree podcast with Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and Pat McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com in discussing the state of movie theaters knee deep during this pandemic. Things looked brighter then. Now, six months later, with a spiking virus, streaming business moves, and conpanies closing or circling bankrupcies? Not so much. The four of us took to Mike’s YouTube channel recently to ponder the uncertain future. Enjoy this spirited conversation! I’m sure we’ll be doing it again soon.
Read MoreMuch to her flexible power for sardonic comedy or reckless abandon, actress Aubrey Plaza has a look. It’s not entirely a scowl. It’s not entirely a cynical grin. Deeming it a case of “resting bitch face” would be a dismissal to grander notions going on behind those eyes and curved lips. No, it’s more than that. It feels like all of the possible come-hither coyness mixed with all of the possible perilous threat her presence can express. She’s a puzzle, and it’s quite alright to love that about her.
Read MoreWhat folks are going to find with the escalating thriller Wander is a screwy little movie saved by committed performances. The trouble comes when the committed performance comes from the character that should be (and ends up) committed in the clinical sense. Be ready to question everything in Wander because the audience lens and main character is a rooting-tooting conspiracy theorist, yarn-and-tape boards with newspaper clippings and all, who makes his scratch as a private investigator. The unreliable narrator energy is strong, but that’s the entertainment when you make it to the finish.
Read MoreThis look and moment, which gets reminisced later as part of wedding vows, is the beginning of a very light and lovely shared journey in All My Life. From this opener onward, the two stars have each other, and us, hooked. Based on a touching true story of temporary time impeding on a forever kind of love, this approachable and endearing romance stockpiles the smiles to brighten all the trials and tribulations that follow.
Read Moreby Lewis Robinson
As the pandemic has absolutely ravaged the movie industry, leaving it in tatters. It is now up to us, the consumers and movie-goers, to create a similarly satisfying experience in our homes. Even if the theaters were still open, it would arguably be grossly irresponsible to ignore the dangers of the pandemic and potentially spreading it around; alas, we are left to our own devices. With theater chains like Regal Cinemas and AMC closing down their theaters across the country, and in some cases for good, it seems to be the end of an era. No longer will we be able to enjoy a delicious batch of fresh movie popcorn. No longer can watch plots unfold with unexpected twists and turns on enormous screens providing a crystal clear picture quality with audio so clear and so loud that it would shake the very foundation of the seats in which we sat
Read Moreby Jennifer Holland
When it comes to deciding the final cut of the movie, directors are rarely the ones to make the call: it’s generally the producers that get this privilege. The reason behind this is that the ones who support the production financially usually have a better understanding of what the audience might like or dislike to see. Still, a professional who directs a movie often gets to make their own version of the film—the famous “director’s cut”—a version often longer than the one released to the general audience. Step inside your movie cave and get ready for a few surprises: here are the 5 movies which directors’ cuts you shouldn’t miss.
Read MoreThere’s another great line in Luxor that says this is “a place that whispers to you if you listen.” It’s an effect threaded into the soundscape of the film by sound designer Frédéric Le Louet (The Informer) wafting in and out of the score from documentary composer Nascuy Linares (Embrace of the Serpent). The tourists around Hana hear tales of reincarnation and the passionate myths of polytheistic demigods. Whether she believes them or not does not compare to where her conflicted self esteem hangs precariously during this short holiday.
Read MoreSports fans like to say “game recognizes game” when youngblood contemporaries hat-tip the greats in their presence or those that came before them. Thanks to The Social Network ten years ago diving into the not-so-nice history of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, David Fincher knows this Welles-Mankiewicz territory all too well. He put a bullseye on an emerging institution and enlisted the wily Aaron Sorkin to help him light the fuse. The masterful director returns with a stylish tribute to courage that came before him. He gets it. Call Mank “balls recognizing balls.”
Read MoreThat said, this odyssey has highs and lows for Fern living among the saguaros, grasslands, or rocks across the American West. No matter how much she has learned to take care of herself, painful solitude creeps in. Self-reliance only fulfills so much enterprising spirit. Courage can only stave off so many endangering risks faced by a woman her age alone. In many ways, Chloe Zhao’s film, her follow-up to The Rider before going Marvel with The Eternals, has the same range of stamina and lethargy. Unvarnished prestige too has its limits.
Read MoreWith rock-heavy undertones replaced by the dramatic struggles of silence, Sound of Metal can personify every one of those questions. This labor-of-love and festival darling debuts in limited release and Amazon Prime on December 4th. Led by a sensational, internalized performance from Riz Ahmed, read here, see on the screen, and hear anyway you can how this stands as one of the best films of the year.
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