Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

• Director: Zack Snyder
• Writers: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Shay Hatten
• Starring: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Honsou, Charlie Hunnam, Michiel Huisman, Ed Skrein, Bae Doona, Ray Fisher, Cleopatra Coleman

Grade: D-

Zack Snyder’s most basic impulses as a filmmaker seem to revolve around one guiding principle: make the coolest-looking image at any given moment. This is part of what makes him a filmmaker that audiences flock towards (and that’s all I’ll say about his fans in this review). But it’s what makes him so often frustrating, because his instinct for visual flair comes at the expense of thought-provoking storytelling. Though the bulk of Snyder’s films come as comic book and graphic novel adaptations, could he fare any better when making a wholly original work with the backing of Netflix?

The Iron Claw

• Director: Sean Durkin
• Writer: Sean Durkin
• Starring: Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany, Maura Tierney

Grade: B+

It’s human nature, when in the aftermath of an unexpected, tragic event, to ask ‘could this have been prevented?’ It’s a kind of coping mechanism to try to make sense of the unimaginable, a way to find some peace of mind when answers may not be readily available. Biopics tend to attempt to find their own answers, whether by re-contextualizing the facts, or unveiling what was previously forgotten.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

• Director: Sam Fell
• Writers: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
• Starring: Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson

Grade: B

Nostalgia can be a deadly weapon. More often than not, our fondness for the pop culture of yesteryear can propel us to tack on an unecessary coda to what was already a perfectly fine artistic statement, whether it be a prequel, sequel, or spin-off. Though there are, of course, exceptions to this rule, like last year’s Top Gun: Maverick. I have tremendous nostalgia for 2000’s Chicken Run, as the VHS was on constant rotation on family road trips, so I greeted the news of a sequel, coming 23 years later and dropping on Netflix on December 15, with reserved skepticism.

The Boy and the Heron

• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
• Japanese Voice Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Yoshino Kimura, Ko Shibasaki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Jun Kunimura
• English Voice Cast: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista

Grade: A

Over the course of his 40+ year career, animation master and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has made some of the most transcendent films ever made, animated or otherwise. They’re films like My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away that have crossed oceans and cultures to remind audiences of what storytelling can be. They’re films that casual movie fans and diehard cinephiles alike can enjoy, and they provide a much-needed rebuke to the often predictable storytelling mechanisms of Western animation. His latest, and possibly last film, The Boy and the Heron, feels like the film that he’s been building towards his entire life, a culmination of a lifetime’s philosophy in a beautifully rendered package.

Eileen

• Director: William Oldroyd
• Writer: Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel
• Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Wigham, Marin Ireland

Grade: B

Eileen lives in a beige world. When she’s not staring out the window of the drab prison office where she’s employed as an office drone, curiously transfixed by the new inmate who murdered his father, or taking care of her alcoholic WWII vet father, she’s practically drowning in the grays and browns and mustard yellows of her 1960s seaside New England town. So when a pop of color arrives in the form of a noticeably red sedan that pulls into the prison parking lot, she’s instantly curious. But when she sees that the driver of the sedan is blonde bombshell Dr. Rebecca St. John, the prison’s new psychologist, she becomes so transfixed that she may never be the same.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

• Director: Francis Lawrence
• Writer: Michael Lesslie, Michael Arndt
• Starring: Tom Blythe, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera

Grade: B+

The Hunger Games franchise was a major part of my childhood. I sat in the theater opening weekend for every film in the now decade-spanning series, from the very first The Hunger Games in 2012 to Mockingjay – Part 2 in 2015. It was my gateway into franchise films, and I enjoy each movie in this series in its own way. That said, I was not excited to see The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. 

Next Goal Wins

• Director: Taika Waititi
• Writer: Taika Waititi, Iain Morris
• Starring: Michael Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss, Kaimana, Chris Alonso, Rhys Darby, Will Arnett, Taika Waititi

Grade: B

Next Goal Wins is the latest polarizing film from writer and director Taika Waititi. It stars Michael Fassbender, Elizabeth Moss, Kaimana and, as is often the case, Waititi himself. The film follows Thomas Rongen (Fassbender), a down-on-his-luck soccer coach, who takes a job to coach the American Samoa soccer team, the lowest-ranked team in the FIFA world rankings. 

May December

• Director: Todd Haynes
• Writer: Samy Burch
• Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton

Grade: A-

In a year when films have explored difficult subject matter like Native American genocide (Killers of the Flower Moon), artistic fortitude (Asteroid City), and tangled romance (Past Lives), May December may be the most complex of them all. It’s a film that deals with topics like identity, our American fascination with scandal, and personal authenticity – all while being one of the darkest comedies of the year.

The Marvels

• Director: Nia DaCosta
• Writer: Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik
• Starring: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Lashana Lynch, Samuel L. Jackson

Grade: D

It’s far from a secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2023 is a rudderless ship, veering from film to film with no real greater sense of purpose, and coasting on the goodwill it built up in its first 10 years of box office dominance – even with the critical and financial success of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. A great number of think pieces have already been written about the mess that Kevin Feige is dealing with, and a great deal more will surely be written as long as Marvel continues to churn out content without any palpable quality control. So going in to The Marvels, even the most die-hard MCU fans would be forgiven for lowering their expectations. Even considering the moderately positive reactions to Captain Marvel from 2019, which survived a wave of misogynistic trolling to gross a billion dollars in receipts, The Marvels perhaps represents the worst instincts of the MCU, and perhaps could solidify the final nail in the superhero coffin.