Joining 2021’s Luca and forgotten old classics like The Fox and the Hound, Elio carves a formative path with a more careful attitude for youths to observe and absorb that could not be more essential and relevant, especially with pre-teen boys. This is one for them, and the effort is welcome.
Read MoreMaybe the animated one was training wheels for the day this human-rich one could be made with advanced technology. The inevitable comparisons will be divisive for some and a coin toss of preference for others. Either way, both movies are solid enough to stoke that fiery and spirit-stirring excitement for audiences new or old. Let’s show our own mercy and have both.
Read MoreFor a stretch of Materialists, confidence is rattled, the hope of love is lost, and any rom-com gamemanship ends, as a more necessary, heavy, and therapeutic arc takes over. Admittedly and appreciably, for as bracingly honest as this swerve is in Materialist to emphasize the aforementioned risks that embody the reality of dating for many people—luxury level or otherwise, it is such a downer of a turn that it threatens to mar the good graces established by that opening scene’s instinctual simplicity of a shared flower.
Read MoreIn the central performance of Thirsty, Jamie Neumann lays this character bare. In each scene representing a defining choice—whether it’s a buoyant stump moment impressing the gathered public or a privately tormented decision—the actress shows emotional mettle that is tangible, mature, and impressive. Harsher truths and consequences rightfully burn here.
Read MoreLarger than that, though, what transpires bends time and expands on previously unseen lore for the franchise, revealing borderline revisionist prophecies to the history and purpose of the whole shebang and saga. They mark a progression that promises to continue in Dan Trachtenberg’s next live-action film, Predator: Badlands, coming this November. Love them or hate them, the implications made by Dan and company are awesome and huge, and precisely the mature and heady injection this franchise sorely needed
Read MoreOne could go on and on, playing out those hypothetical scenarios and more after the movie. If you can reach this plane of empathetic understanding through the abnormal twists and turns of The Life of Chuck, you have found yourself one marvelous movie. If you can’t, or swaying between bliss and death makes you cynical or uncomfortable, you might be a little dead inside. That’ll be on you and not Mike Flanagan.
Read MoreAmid all the pressures she puts on herself to be a responsible mom, flexing artistic muscles and sparking the creative synapses of music creates a new balance in Nora’s life. It’s safe to say every parent watching Nora needs to carve out some self-care time in their schedules to do their own just-for-you enrichment activity, whatever it may be.
Read MorePutting those stars together with that concept surely has to generate some sizzle with the history and mythology crowds, right? Well, with all pun intended, leave it to Apple and professional retreading screenwriter James Vanderbilt (currently stewarding Netflix’s Murder Mystery series and the legacy sequel vapors of the Scream franchise) to go back to a fading Hollywood well, leap in, and find it dry.
Read MoreThe Kiss (Kysset), the most recent film from Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August, a two-time Palme d’Or recipient, has finally arrived in limited theaters for North American audiences. Set during the onset of World War I in August’s native country of Denmark, The Kiss is adapted from novelist Stefan Zweig’s 1939 book Beware of Pity. Thematically, that titular emotion of pity from the source material courses through this film’s every vein.
Read MoreFrom “living manifestation of destiny” to “mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of chaos,” the pedestal positioning of Ethan Hunt—and therefore Tom Cruise—playing him has only gotten taller and taller, much like the heights the actor scales with his stunts. Here, at the announced finishing chapter of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning of the now-iconic character enduring nearly thirty years in our cinematic lives, we’ve witnessed the progression of him as a top spy with more lives than a litter of cats to something far more starry and radiant.
Read MoreYet, all the while, we find ourselves pining to spend more time with the venerable ladies in Nonnas. They deserve a happy ending as much as Joe, and both history and the movie grant them a lovely one. With a marinade of humor and a dash of spiritual Catholic contrition, Chbosky and Maccie find the meaningful meat behind the fluff for a welcome crowd pleaser. Come hungry and leave full, with Billy Joel appropriately sending you out.
Read MoreThere’s a compelling playfulness in The Trouble with Jessica where viewers’ rooting interests are worked like a seesaw. At certain junctures, we question who the true victim or victims are. We might even want our present party to get away with this dangerous little ruse. By the same token, other revelations tilt us to want to see their noses rubbed in shamefulness, guilt, and remorse. Like any sure-handed cinematic riddle, Matt Winn keeps pushing the teeter-totter at the right times, dropping question marks all the way until the end.
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