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15 Jan

What Killers of the Flower Moon Leaves Out from the True Story of the Osage Nation

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Killers of the Flower Moon sees director Martin Scorsese tell the story of a series of murders that plagued the Osage Nation in the 1920s. Based on the David Gran book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is more than just one of the best movies of 2023. It’s a sweeping epic about the United States’ history of corruption that also manages to tell the story of a truly doomed “romance” while shining a light on events that had previously either been ignored or widely misrepresented. Yet despite the movie’s good intentions and nearly three and a…

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13 Jan

James Bond Opening Sequences Ranked from Worst to Best

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The James Bond franchise revolutionized action cinema in the 1960s when it started with 1962’s Dr. No and stands to this day as one of the longest-running film series in history. From almost the very beginning, Bond movies strive to draw in their audiences with high-octane prologues that run before lush and stylishly rendered title sequences. These pre-title action scenes not only set the tone for the movie right out the gate but, in several instances, are the best sequences within their respective films. This pre-title sequence tradition began with the franchise’s second movie, 1963’s From Russia with Love. Believe…

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13 Jan

The Grim Meaning of That Killers of the Flower Moon Ending Cameo

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This article contains Killers of the Flower Moon spoilers. Few filmmakers in the annals of cinema have earned the right to take a bow like Martin Scorsese. For nearly 60 years, the maverick storyteller has pushed the limits of his art form and found new ways to leave an indelible mark on the audiences who still show up. So for more than a handful of critics who clapped at my screening when the maestro materialized at the end of Killers of the Flower Moon, it must have seemed like a well-earned mic drop; a chance for Scorsese to take visible…

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12 Jan

Lift: Jean Reno Is Living His Best Life in Netflix Italian Job Ripoff

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Twenty years after remaking The Italian Job as a slice of pleasant (if disposable) studio gloss, F. Gary Gray has gone ahead and remade it again for the age of Netflix streaming content. Which might be a nicer way of saying the streaming service’s new weekend release of Lift is another harmless, unthreatening time-filler intended to be watched with a second screen in your hand or folded laundry in your lap. Once again revolving around an affable assemblage of movie stars (Kevin Hart subbing in for Mark Wahlberg as the miscast straight man) and character actors who compose a crew…

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12 Jan

Poor Things’ Ending Joke Is Even Darker Than You Think

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This article contains Poor Things spoilers. It is probably the happiest Bella Baxter has ever been, and it’s certainly the most euphoric we’ve seen a Yorgos Lanthimos movie get. Hidden away in a shabby laboratory, scalpel in hand and trusted partner (if not great lover) by her side, Bella is doing what she realizes she always wanted to do: play God by way of vivisection. Somehow Bella’s epiphany is both macabrely funny and unexpectedly sweet. In the penultimate sequence of Lanthimos’ Poor Things, the Emma Stone heroine has found the purpose and fulfillment she always strived for during her brief…

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12 Jan

Lost Dune II Script Promised a Way More David Lynch Experience

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Like the piscine Guild Navigator who gets wheeled out in a tank at the start of the movie, David Lynch‘s adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel Dune is neither fish nor fowl. Lynch gets to play with some rather dense world-building, but Herbert’s critique of charismatic leaders gets pushed to the side while the demands of ’80s sci-fi fantasy don’t allow the director to create what would later become his signature dream states. As a result, Lynch’s Dune pleased no one, least of all Lynch himself. And while the film has its fans, especially in light of Denis Villeneuve‘s more…

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12 Jan

The Most Underrated Movie Gems of 2023

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It’s that time of year where critics, film buffs, and awards prognosticators come together and search for a consensus on what were “the best films” from the previous year. It’s already begun with the Golden Globes this past weekend and the Critics Choice Awards coming in the next. Perhaps more than most years, the frontrunners for “the best picture” prizes are obvious too. That is all well and good, but sometimes attempting to find a consensus (or at least a horse race winner) deprives us from acknowledging our true favorites; films that you or I might have loved and are…

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11 Jan

28 Years Later Is a Chance to Finally Deliver on That Huge 28 Weeks Later Cliffhanger

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It’s one of the biggest cliffhangers in modern horror movie history. After another disaster in the streets of London, a second outbreak that has extinguished all hope of re-establishing society in the UK, the Rage Virus has finally found its way to mainland Europe. We watch as infected rush through the streets of Paris, a bloodthirsty horde charging toward the Eiffel Tower. It’s clear that this is only the beginning, that infections in France will lead to outbreaks all over the continent and beyond, like a domino effect. The world is certainly doomed this time. That was the ending to…

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11 Jan

Robert Downey Jr. and Christopher Nolan Share Laugh Over Brutal Marvel Joke

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe may have changed the film industry forever, but the film industry’s feelings toward Marvel have not changed much at all, as judged from the guffaws that occurred Tuesday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards. The event, which was created 14 years ago to hand out lifetime achievement Oscars to honorees who wouldn’t be played off the stage by an orchestra (or shown at all during the live Oscars telecast), honored legends in the business like Mel Brooks and Angela Bassett. However, the latter’s award arguably felt like an apology after…

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11 Jan

The New Star Trek “Origin” Movie Is Taking the Franchise in the Wrong Direction

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As Star Trek fans, we may quibble about certain aspects of the franchise. We all have our opinions about the best captain or the general ethos of the show. But we can all agree on one thing: Star Trek is about boldly going where no one has gone before. It’s right there at the start of the show! And yet, for whatever reason, Trek producers seem obsessed with going backwards, excavating the years before the adventures of Kirk and Spock on The Original Series. First we got Star Trek: Enterprise in 2001, then the J.J. Abrams reboot in 2009, then…

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11 Jan

Mean Girls Review: Musical Remake Mostly Avoids Going in the Burn Book

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We don’t really need a reboot of Mean Girls, or indeed a film adaptation of the stage musical. But there you go, we are where we are. And that’s 2024, 20 years after the release of the seminal high school movie starring Lindsay Lohan which was based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. Fashions have changed, social media is now ubiquitous, but teenage girls are still cliquey and judgey so the story hasn’t required a massive update. Perhaps that’s to its detriment, because this movie, directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., is really…

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11 Jan

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Is Even Better After Baldur’s Gate 3

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This article contains mild spoilers for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Between Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Baldur’s Gate 3, fans of the popular tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) Dungeons & Dragons had a lot going for them in 2023. Both have a lot to offer longtime fans, and prove that the game can transcend mediums and still be thoroughly enjoyable. But what’s even more compelling about the love that Honor Among Thieves and Baldur’s Gate 3 have received is the fact that they’ve brought so many newcomers into the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Even if you…

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10 Jan

Society of the Snow’s Ghostly Narration Changes the Meaning of the True Story

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This article contains major Society of the Snow spoilers. It’s the twist that makes or breaks Society of the Snow for viewers. Like the famous Hollywood version of this true story of survival in the face of unimaginable catastrophe, Society of the Snow is narrated by a fictionalized version of one of the young men who endured it. The real-life Numa Turcatti boarded Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 on Oct. 13, 1972; he would survive a nightmarish plane crash that left him and members of the Old Christians Rugby Club stranded at the top of the world; and he would…

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10 Jan

The X-Men Most in Need of MCU Redemption

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Way back in 2000, audiences watching X-Men gave a knowing chuckle when a leather-clad Cyclops asked Wolverine, “What would you prefer, yellow spandex?” At the time, even those of us who love the Canucklehead’s traditional duds understood the point. In a world where Superman’s blue and red suit disappeared from screens in 1987 and only Batman’s nipple-y but dark suits remained, the lavish X-Men costumes of the comics wouldn’t fly with general audiences.  For all the successes across the 13 films in the Fox X-Men franchise, concessions to a general audience not inundated with superheroes meant that the studio felt…

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09 Jan

The Mandalorian & Grogu Will Test Whether People Still Care About Star Wars Movies

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Not so long ago and in a galaxy that looks remarkably like our own, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opened in cinemas and went on to gross $1.1 billion. While a remarkable drop down from The Last Jedi only two years earlier—and a more alarming 50 percent below 2015’s The Force Awakens—a billion dollars is still a billion dollars. Which is to say it’s strange that we have gone five years and counting without another Star Wars movie getting ready for its big screen close-up. That’s changing this New Year with the announcement that not only is there going…

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09 Jan

Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, and the Directors Who Almost Made Star Wars Movies

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While the 2020s have been a verifiable graveyard for potential Star Wars films that never made it beyond the development stage, directors passing through without seeing their ideas come to fruition isn’t exactly a new phenomenon over at Lucasfilm.  Even before Disney took the reins of the studio, the galaxy far, far away saw a wide variety of potential directors enter its orbit over the years. From Return of the Jedi to the present day, there are quite a few well-known directors who came close to making their mark on this universe but for one reason or other never actually…

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08 Jan

Star Trek: Picard Sequel Movie Update Should Worry Next Generation Fans

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This Star Trek: Picard article contains spoilers. Do you remember how great it felt when Jean-Luc Picard stepped onto the bridge of the restored USS Enterprise-D, with all the members of his senior staff around him and ready for one last adventure? Remember how much better that was than watching Icheb from Voyager get mutilated or watching Picard ride dune buggies in Star Trek: Nemesis? Patrick Stewart does not. In a recent interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stewart talked about an upcoming Star Trek movie centered on at least part of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.…

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08 Jan

Movie Bathtub Scenes Almost as Gross as Saltburn’s

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Love it, hate it, or love to hate it, Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn has left an impression on viewers. With its acerbic (and maybe muddled) allegory about social and economic class in the UK, the movie is a big twisty swing from the writer-director of Promising Young Woman. It also features star Barry Keoghan going there. In some scenes, there constitutes prancing around a luxurious manor in his birthday suit, galloping as free and liberated as a baby elephant charging a watering hole. In others, there consists of the literal water (and other fluids therein) pooling around the hole of a…

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07 Jan

Netflix’s Top 10 Movies Reveal Who Won the Streaming Wars

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For loyal Netflix users who have been booting up the Big N since before Blockbuster went the way of the Dodo, it must feel like deja vu. If you go to your streaming app right now in the U.S., the available movie selection is still dominated by Netflix originals that the algorithm desperately wants you to be aware of. Maestro; Society of the Snow; maybe the new Dan Levy project, Good Grief. However, if you scroll past those—or look simply at the top 10 movies on the app at the moment—you see a more striking story being told. The Equalizer 3;…

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06 Jan

Society of the Snow vs. Alive: What Are the Differences Between Andes Plane Crash Movies?

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This article contains Society of the Snow spoilers. Newly arrived on Netflix after a brief theatrical run, is director and co-writer J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow. The film recounts the tragic, but incredible, story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed on a remote mountain in the Andes during a routine flight between Uruguay and Chile. The flight was carrying a total of 45 passengers and crew, including the members of Uruguay’s Old Christians rugby club, plus assorted family and friends. Some 16 people died either in the crash or its initial aftermath while 13 more perished during…

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