Tag Archives: Movie Reviews

Train Dreams Review

Train Dreams

  • Director: Clint Bentley
  • Writer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
  • Starring: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, Kerry Condon, Clifton Collins Jr., Will Patton

Grade: A

In the entire history of the universe, since matter was first created, the time which humans have occupied on Earth has been microscopic. And the average life span of an average human fractures that already tiny number into an even smaller percentage. In other words, the modern world which you or I are seeing and experiencing is just a small bit of what’s come before and what will come after. This is, ostensibly, a review of Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams, the best film of the year, but because it’s a film that spoke to me on a deeper, more human level than any film in a long time, I feel it warrants a more philosophical and personal discussion.

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Ballad of a Small Player Review

Ballad of a Small Player

  • Director: Edward Berger
  • Writer: Rowan Joffe
  • Starring: Collin Farrell, Fala Chen, Tilda Swinton, Deanie Yip Tak-Han, Alex Jennings, Jason Tobin, Adrienne Lau

Grade: C+

Every gambler knows that, sooner or later, no matter how hot their streak becomes, they’ll eventually go bust; the only variable is how much it’ll hurt when it happens. After making an international splash in 2022, director Edward Berger’s new film Ballad of a Small Player isn’t a spectacular bust, but is a relative disappointment compared to his recent output. Though it’s easy to see why Berger was drawn to making the film, the end result is a worn-out character piece full of wasted potential.

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Blue Moon Review

Blue Moon

  • Director: Richard Linklater
  • Writer: Robert Kaplow
  • Starring: Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale, Margaret Qualley, Jonah Lees, Simon Delaney

Grade: B

Richard Linklater’s long and illustrious career has taken him across genres, decades, countries, and styles to make one of the most varied filmographies since his rise on the indie scene in the 1990s. For his latest, Blue Moon – the first of his two films to be released in 2025 – Linklater reunites with his most constant collaborator, Ethan Hawke, to produce a new spin on the biopic. I had written in my review of Linklater’s last film that he’s always been interested in exploring the private persona versus public, and while this certainly applies here, he’s perhaps just as fascinated with the passage of time and how it can distort those same perceptions.

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Frankenstein Review

Frankenstein

  • Director: Guillermo del Toro
  • Writer: Guillermo del Toro
  • Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance

Grade: B-

Netflix has multiple auteur-driven films set to release throughout the rest of the year. From Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly to Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and even the Sundance breakout Train Dreams, the streaming studio has numerous films gunning for Oscar nominations. Arguably the biggest contender is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a $120 million spectacle that adapts one of the most foundational horror novels of all time.

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Queens of the Dead Review

Queens of the Dead

  • Director: Tina Romero
  • Writer: Tina Romero, Erin Judge
  • Starring: Katy O’Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Nina West, Margaret Cho, Tómas Matos, Riki Lindhome

Grade: C

Films made by children of beloved filmmakers can run the gamut in quality and style. From critical failures like Ishana Shyamalan’s The Watchers or Oscar darlings like Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, it is almost impossible to tell how well films from nepo babies will turn out. Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead is the latest debut from a child of an iconic filmmaker —in this case, horror director George A. Romero. Seeing Tina Romero take on the horror subgenre that cemented her father as an all-time horror director could lead to deadly consequences if it turned out poorly, but luckily, her film takes a unique spin on the zombie flick, making for an entertaining experience from start to finish.

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It Was Just an Accident Review

It Was Just an Accident

  • Director: Jafar Panahi
  • Writer: Jafar Panahi
  • Starring: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Grade: A-

Getting any film made, even under the best of circumstances, is a small kind of miracle. For auteur Jafar Panahi, getting a film made under the Iranian regime is another kind of miracle entirely – not to mention an active act of resistance. Panahi has faced difficulties making films before (his last film, No Bears, was made while he was under house arrest). But It Was Just an Accident is as openly critical towards his government as possible, and presents a moral and existential quandary that anyone can relate to when living under fear.

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After the Hunt Review

After the Hunt

  • Director: Luca Guadanigno
  • Writer: Nora Garrett
  • Starring: Julia Roberts, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ayo Edibiri, Andrew Garfield, Chloë Sevigny

Grade: C

Luca Guadagnino has been a hard-working director for the past couple years. Having three films released within two years of each other, he is putting out films at a rate unlike most filmmakers working today. His latest, After the Hunt, sees what is possibly his biggest and most ambitious film yet, unabashedly delving into modern-day topics with honesty that many filmmakers have yet to do.

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Good Fortune Review

Good Fortune

  • Director: Aziz Ansari
  • Writer: Aziz Ansari
  • Starring: Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, Stephen McKinley Henderson

Grade: B-

Actors becoming directors has become a more common trend in recent years. With Scarlett Johansson’s debut film, Eleanor the Great, releasing only a couple weeks ago, and Bradley Cooper set to release his third feature, Is This Thing On?, in December, actors have been inspired by their on-set experience to direct their own movies. Aziz Ansari is the latest actor-turned-director with his film Good Fortune, an absurd comedy that nails the current state of America.

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Rental Family Review

Rental Family

  • Director: Hikari
  • Writer: Hikari, Stephen Blahut
  • Starring: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Akira Emoto, Shino Shinozaki

Grade: B

There are over 300 companies today throughout Japan employing actors, not for film or television roles, but as ordinary people helping other ordinary people to get through the day. Rental Family explores the almost too bizarre to be true phenomenon and the emotional toll it takes from both sides. It’s a slam-dunk premise for a weepy dramedy, but director Hikari’s film is too unfocused to be as resonant as intended.

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A House of Dynamite Review

A House of Dynamite

  • Director: Kathryn Bigelow
  • Writer: Noah Oppenheim
  • Starring: Idris Elba, Rebecca Fergason, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Kaitlyn Dever

Grade: B

Since beginning her career as an action director, Kathryn Bigelow has garnered considerable acclaim with recent films that delve into more dramatic territory. Since becoming the first woman ever to win the Best Director award at the Academy Awards for The Hurt Locker, she has become a filmmaker whose films are on the Oscars’ radar. Seven years after her last feature film, Detroit, her upcoming movie, A House of Dynamite, appears to be her next film aiming for Oscar nominations, and focuses on the dangers of nuclear weapons in a fast-paced and digestible manner.

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