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Movie Reviews

No Other Choice Review

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No Other Choice

  • Director: Park Chan-wook
  • Writer: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Lee Ja-hye, Don McKellar
  • Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, Kimm Woo-seung

Grade: B

With his latest creation No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook takes his turn to adapt Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 horror novel The Ax. It is the second film adaptation of that source material, following The Axe, a film by director Costa-Gavras that was released 20 years ago. This interpretation follows Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), an everyday Korean family man who has lost his longtime job with a paper-making company due to an American takeover.  He identifies a new path for himself, and resorts to dangerous lengths to eliminate his competition in hopes of securing his family’s future. The story of a man turning to crime to better his life is a story we’ve probably all encountered in film before, so many of the story beats may be familiar to fans who enjoy a good thriller. As with most of his films, though, Park takes an eclectic approach to genre here—mixing dark comedy, horror, and satirical elements to give the film a unique flavor. There’s enough of that flair infused here to keep the film feeling fresh and interesting.

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Movie Reviews

Hamnet Review

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Hamnet

  • Director: Chloé Zhao
  • Writer: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
  • Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe, Joe Alwyn

Grade: A-

Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel Hamnet took a new approach to exploring the world of Shakespeare. Instead of focusing solely on the Bard of Avon himself, O’Farrell shone a light on his family—namely, his wife Agnes and his youngest son, Hamnet. The book explores the grief that befalls Hamnet’s family when he dies suddenly during a plague, and how that experience led to the crafting of one of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays, Hamlet. In the film adaptation, Academy Award winning director Chloé Zhao employs her signature naturalistic brand of filmmaking to add even more emotional depth to this fictional tale grounded in the history of one of our greatest storytellers. The film is an excellent complement to the book, staying faithful to the roots but branching out on its own artistically.

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Movie Reviews

Zootopia 2 Review

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Zootopia 2

  • Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
  • Writer: Jared Bush
  • Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson

Grade: B+

Zootopia was easily one of Disney’s biggest hits of the 2010s. Grossing over a billion dollars at the box office and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature over critically acclaimed films such as Moana and Kubo and the Two Strings (with both earning more Oscar nominations than Zootopia), it’s hard to find a bigger success than the 2016 Disney crime film. Because of that, Zootopia 2 had a lot of pressure on it to succeed, but somehow, the film manages to live up to expectations.

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Movie Reviews

Eternity Review

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Eternity

  • Director: David Freyne
  • Writer: David Freyne, Pat Cunnane
  • Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, John Early, Olga Merediz

Grade: B

In recent years, romance films have failed to receive theatrical releases. Unless it’s an adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel like Regretting You or It Ends with Us, the film will more than likely be released straight to a streaming service. A24 is looking to change that this year, with the recent release of Materialists as well as the upcoming film Eternity, a romance story following a heated love triangle between Miles Teller, Callum Turner and Elizabeth Olsen. 

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Movie Reviews

Frankenstein Review

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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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Movie Reviews

Queens of the Dead Review

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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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Movie Reviews

After the Hunt Review

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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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Film Festivals, Movie Reviews

Good Fortune Review

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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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Movie Reviews

A House of Dynamite Review

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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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Movie Reviews

Eleanor the Great Review

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Eleanor the Great

  • Director: Scarlett Johansson
  • Writer: Tory Kamen
  • Starring: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar

Grade: B-

As an actress, Scarlett Johansson has proven to be a visionary in film throughout the past couple of decades. With roles in movies like Marriage Story and Her, she has shown herself to push film to emotional heights that not many other actors could achieve, so it is no surprise that she has finally taken on the role of director in her debut, Eleanor the Great. 

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