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15 Jul

Tom Hardy’s Batman Villain Bane Is More Relevant Today Than 10 Years Ago

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No one expected it to be Bane. In retrospect that is a bit odd since, generally speaking, when most comic book nerds think of the villains who pose the greatest threat to Batman, Bane always rounds out the top five or 10 by virtue of being the one baddie to “Break the Bat.” Yet after Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight thrillingly ended on the noble rush of Bruce Wayne riding into the night, accepting he was not the hero Gotham needed, no fan (nor apparently many Warners executives) anticipated the villain of Nolan’s inevitable sequel to be Bane, the beefy…

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15 Jul

Meet the New MCU Characters in Phase 4

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This article contains major MCU spoilers, up to and including Thor: Love and Thunder Ooh, the MCU is a lot, isn’t it? It was always a lot, but now it’s a LOT lot. With the ongoing rollout of Phase 4, fans don’t just have a handful of blockbuster films to keep up with every year; there are now multiple TV shows streaming on Disney+ that introduce important new characters and corners of the Marvel Universe that interconnect with those aforementioned big budget theatrical releases. It’s been a gamble for Marvel Studios, who first properly tested audience reactions with the release…

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15 Jul

Persuasion Review: Does Jane Austen Need to Be a Messy Millennial Woman on Netflix?

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Bridgerton has been a roaring success for Netflix with its period setting, literary heritage, and “color conscious” casting. Not to mention its liberal approach to sex that the show is celebrated for (especially in season one). So it’s not especially surprising that the streamer might decide to take one of the less frequently adapted Jane Austen novels, Persuasion, hire an attractive cast, sex it up a bit, and add in a carriage load of Fleabag snark to the mix. Winner, winner, lavish seven course dinner, as a member of the Ton would almost certainly never say. Unfortunately in this case,…

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14 Jul

What Ethan Hawke Discovered About Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward for New HBO Doc

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Ethan Hawke was born in 1970, barely a year after Paul Newman received his fifth Oscar nomination, this one for producing Rachel, Rachel (1968). That film was the first passion project in which Newman directed his wife, muse, and lifelong partner, Joanne Woodward. It would not be the last. They would go on to collaborate again as director and star, and sometimes as co-leads, three more times before Hawke entered the industry. And by the time Hawke was himself getting his start as a teenager in movies like Explorers (1985) and Dead Poets Society (1989), Newman was still racking up…

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13 Jul

The Best A24 Movies Streaming on Plex in July

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Temperatures are heating up in July, and so is the content on Plex! July kicks off Plex’s new collection, The Cinephiles — A24 on Plex. Each month, thought-provoking, genre-bending, and boundary-pushing films from the production house and distributor A24 will hit Plex TV for streaming! Plex offers a one-stop-shop streaming service offering 50,000+ free titles and 200+ of free-to-stream live TV channels, from the biggest names in entertainment, including Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, Legendary, AMC, A+E, Crackle, and Reuters. Plex is always overflowing with thousands of new and old familiar favorites on its platform…

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13 Jul

Karl Urban Becomes Marvel’s Star Mutant in Wolverine Deepfake

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Ever since X-Men veteran Hugh Jackman put away his claws after 2017’s Logan, Marvel fans have been very busy debating who should replace the Australian actor as Wolverine in an MCU reboot. Many names have been thrown around over the years, including Daniel Radcliffe, Pablo Schreiber, Keanu Reeves, Gael Garcia Bernal (who’s actually been cast as a different Marvel character), and The Boys scene-stealer Anthony Starr. But it’s another The Boys star who’s long been at the top of the fan cast list: New Zealand actor Karl Urban. It’s easy to see why. Even before the Amazon Prime comic book…

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13 Jul

The Chris Hemsworth Action Movie You Missed Becomes a Netflix Hit

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It’s getting easier to predict which movies will become seemingly out-of-nowhere successes on Netflix. While on the television side of the spectrum, flashy new series or returning hits routinely become the top streaming shows, the calculus doesn’t always add up the same way for the streamer’s film library. For instance, this week one of the top film on Netflix was 2018’s 12 Strong, a Chris Hemsworth-led war film set in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. When the film was released, it received middling reviews from critics and an unspectacular $70 million at the box office, about half of…

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13 Jul

What’s Next For Millie Bobby Brown After Stranger Things Season 4?

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Eighteen years old. At the age a lot of young people would currently be looking ahead to a summer of watching Netflix, Millie Bobby Brown is Netflix. She’s not only the superpowered lead in Stranger Things – which still has its fifth and final season to film – but also set to be the star of multiple upcoming movies on the streaming service. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Louis Vuitton house ambassador (sounds Hogwarts-y), the founder of a vegan beauty brand, owner of PCMA Productions and the star of her directorial debut – a short film in which she leaps about…

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12 Jul

Will Natalie Portman Return to the MCU After Thor: Love and Thunder?

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This post contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder Whatever your feelings about Thor: Love and Thunder, no one can deny that Natalie Portman’s performance as Dr. Jane Foster aka the Mighty Thor lights up the screen like a flash of lightning. After an absence of nine years, Portman returns to the MCU with an energy and lightness not always seen by the cerebral actor. With a meaty role that lets her play both the cancer-stricken Foster and the Mjolnir-wielding Mighty Thor, Portman goes all-in with the performance, adding vibrancy to a movie that sometimes feels like a retread of its…

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11 Jul

Marvel VFX Artists Air Their Grievances About “Boring” and “Badly Managed” MCU

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For all the dominance it enjoys in the cultural consciousness, there’s one frequent criticism that the Marvel Cinematic Universe cannot seem to overcome: these movies tend to be pretty ugly. Sure, there are outliers, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or Thor: Ragnarok, but too often, fans find themselves loving the movies despite their washed-out color palettes and unconvincing CGI. Even when directly copying an image from the comics that inspired it, such as Bruce Banner falling into the Sanctum Santorum in Avengers: Infinity War, the movies fail to capture the power conjured by the original artists. Turns out, fans aren’t the…

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11 Jul

Star Wars Finally Solves Big Darth Vader Cliffhanger From Return of the Jedi

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Return of the Jedi may have concluded George Lucas’ Original Trilogy in 1983, but that’s not stopped Star Wars from continuing to dig into the trilogy’s mysteries in the decades since its debut. Take the current slate of post-Return of the Jedi live-action series making their way onto Disney+, for example. The Mandalorian generally explores the power vacuum in the Outer Rim left in the wake of the fall of the Empire, and The Book of Boba Fett tackles that even more directly on Tatooine. Both shows also continue the story of newly-christened Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker after defeating the…

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11 Jul

Boo, Bitch Is 2022’s Mean Girls if One of Them Was Dead

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Contains spoilers for Boo, Bitch With great power comes great responsibility. And that’s if you’re Spider-Man. But arguably it’s even more true if you’re a popular high school senior with the power to destroy a reputation with a fart, and make a prom king with… well, kind of, the power of that same fart. But more on that later. Lana Condor (To All The Boys series) stars as high school senior Erika Vu, who due to some casual cruelty from her own personal equivalent of Rachel McAdams’ Regina George from Mean Girls, has spent the last four years being invisible…

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11 Jul

Grease 2: A Cult Classic That’s Way Cooler Than The Original

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When I was in high school there was an unspoken rule that said you were either a superfan of The Cure or The Smiths, but not both. Looking back now, this is an invented rivalry, as both groups cover much of the same artistic ground and appeal to like-minded fans. I’ve been thinking about this theory a lot lately, because it really showcases the sort of things that feel of world-shattering importance when you are a teenager. And while I squandered much of my misspent youth dancing in my bedroom to both “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This…

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11 Jul

Thor 5: Best Theories and Predictions for His Next Marvel Movie

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This article contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers Thor: Love and Thunder concluded in the way that all fans of the God of Thunder would have hoped for, with the familiar words ‘Thor will return.’ There was always some speculation that this could be Chris Hemsworth’s last outing as Thor, but it’s clear that either Thor 5 or some kind of spin-off story is in store for the Asgardian warrior.  What could that story involve, though? While it’s easy to speculate about all the directions a potential sequel could go in based on the comic books, Thor: Love and Thunder…

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10 Jul

Thor: Love and Thunder Box Office Gives Marvel Vindication (Again)

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If one looked at box office numbers alone, it’d be easy to recognize that Marvel Studios remains the surest bet in Hollywood—and one exhibitors remain reliant on in the fight to drive up foot traffic throughout the year. However, there have been some grumblings as of late about the direction (or perceived lack thereof) that the Disney production company has been headed in during “Phase 4.” Even so, Thor: Love and Thunder appears likely to moot that conversation, at least for a time. While the new fourthquel’s reception during its opening weekend may not silence those criticisms forever, its healthy…

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10 Jul

Thor Must Abandon Comedy After Love and Thunder

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This article contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder. Back in my days as a metal and hard rock journalist, and when dinosaurs ruled the earth, a lot of bands would trot out a variation of this mantra when they had a new album on the horizon: “The heavier parts are really heavy, and the melodic parts are much more melodic.” That was an immediate red flag, of course. It meant that the band was still allowed to write and record some heavy material, but the record label was also pressuring them to include more power ballads and radio-friendly tunes…

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09 Jul

Chelsea Hotel Documentary Captures an Urban Horror Story

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Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Belgian filmmakers Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt’s documentary, Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel, is a deeply moving spiritual deconstruction of a cultural landmark. The directors trust the viewer to know the history going in, allowing Dreaming Walls to capture the mood of the Chelsea.  New York City’s Hotel Chelsea opened on 23rd St. in 1884. Its 12 stories of brick housed some of the greatest names across all the arts. Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain were among the earliest check-ins. Madonna planned her global domination, and later shot photographs for her book, Sex,…

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09 Jul

In Thor: Love and Thunder Marvel Finally Does Right By Jane Foster

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The following contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers. Thor: Love and Thunder is a movie that serves many masters. Part philosophical treatise on gods and belief, part bittersweet reflection on regret and making up for lost time, and part himbo road trip adventure complete with giant screaming goats, it’s a movie whose separate pieces don’t always mesh that well with one another but that somehow still ends up being more entertaining than it has any right to be.  And a big part of the reason for that is the long-awaited return of Natalie Portman as Dr. Jane Foster, a character…

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09 Jul

The Big Thor: Love and Thunder Cameos

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This article contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers. While 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok had a moderate (and amusing) number of cameos, Thor: Love and Thunder really ups the ante in terms of surprise walk-ons. Some of the unexpected appearances in this movie are from Marvel first-timers while others are from characters who previously showed up in either Ragnarok or those other movies about the God of Thunder that we don’t like to talk about anymore. Well, at least Thor: The Dark World—the first Thor is still pretty good if you ask us!) There are also a handful of cameos from real-life…

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09 Jul

The Many Faces of Face/Off: How The Classic Almost Didn’t Star Nicolas Cage

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The 1990s was a decade packed full of brilliant action movies but few, if any, reached the delirious heights of 1997’s Face/Off. Built around an absurd yet ingenious premise involving a cop switching faces with a comatosed master criminal in order to find and defuse a bomb, only for said bad guy to then awaken and return the favor, it featured a director and pair of A-list stars at the peak of their career powers. Nicolas Cage had just won an Oscar in 1995 for his breakout performance in Leaving Las Vegas, following that up with two star-making turns in…

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